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Rules

Read these rules carefully and in full before joining the Ladder.

Joining the Ladder

• Anyone can join, at any time. The only limitation is that any player in the Ladder should be able to play regularly. Playing at home is allowed.
• You can join the Ladder on its site, danceladder.tdb.fi.
• If a player doesn't have an official ranking (as given by Suomen Tanssipelaajat ry), she/he should give an estimate of her/his skills on the Discussion Forum (tanssipelit.fi/palsta) or via IRC (#tanssipelit on the QuakeNet server is a good place) before joining the Ladder.
• The requirements for different ranks can be found in Finnish on tanssipelit.fi/luokitus. Here is a brief summary of the requirements for some ranks in English:
  • B1: Passes level 10 songs and gets Hard stars (96%).
  • B2: Passes level 11 songs and gets Expert stars (96%).
  • A1: Passes all level 11 songs and a few level 12 songs and gets Expert two stars (98%).
  • A2: Passes almost all level 12 songs and gets Expert three stars (99%).
  • S1: Passes all level 12 songs and all easier songs and gets 10-block three stars (99%).
  • S2: Passes level 13 songs and all level 12 and easier songs, gets Hard quad stars (100%) or almost-quads, gets 9-block 99.5% scores, 10-block 99% scores, 11-block 98% scores and a 12-block star (96%).
  • S3: Passes level 14 songs and all level 13 and easier songs, gets Expert quad stars (100%) or almost-quads, gets 10-block 99.5% scores, 11-block 99% scores, 12-block 98% scores and a 13-block star (96%).
• The default play style is Single Bar, and the default game is In The Groove. The default song packs are ITG 1, ITG 2 and ITG Rebirth. Any challenge may be played no-bar.

Challenging a player

• You can challenge any player, no matter her or his position in the Ladder, as long as that player doesn't have an open challenge at that moment.
• The challenging is done on the Danceladder site. The challenger chooses two songs and their difficulty levels and the playing mode (no-bar, double, PUMP etc.).
• The challenged player has a week to accept the challenge. When accepting, she/he, too, chooses two songs and their difficulty levels. You can choose the same songs as your opponent, if you like.
• The system also assigns two random songs to each challenge. The difficulty level for these songs is somewhere in between the levels for the player-chosen songs. The randomly assigned songs can not be the same as any of the songs chosen by the players.
• The players have a week (starting from the day the challenge was accepted) to play the songs and upload the scores. An extension can be granted, if both players agree to it. The maximum length of the extension is one week.

Challenge play

• You can freely practice the songs in your challenge.
• In each challenge, all six songs are played.
• Recalculating the song scores isn't allowed, i.e. the song scores are submitted as is.
• Players must take pictures of their scores, even if the match is played live.
• If one of the players fails a song, she/he loses that song. If both fail the same song, the player with the higher score wins.
• Use of any modifier which the arcade disqualifies, or which changes the steps in any way, is forbidden. The Hide Background modifier is an exception to this rule, and is allowed.

After playing

• After playing all the songs in a match, each player announces her/his scores on the Danceladder site. Players also upload the screenshots of their scores at this time.
• After both players have submitted their scores, the system calculates the winner and the players' points are increased or decreased according to the Elo rating system in use.

Clarifications

• You can't challenge a player who's already taking part in another challenge.
• A player who has previously been challenged and whose challenge has just ended, can't be challenged in the 24 hours following the completion of her/his previous challenge. The challenger does not have a grace period of this kind.
• After you've played a challenge against someone, you have to wait a week before challenging that particular player again.
• Challenge deadlines are always at midnight. The grace periods are exactly 24 hours long.
• Challenges immediately end when both players have uploaded all scores, so a challenge can be shorter than a week if both players submit their scores early.
• If a player receives a challenge with custom songs or difficulty levels that are outside her/his normal realm, or play styles she/he hasn't agreed to, she/he can decline the challenge without being penalized. Only In The Groove 1+2+Rebirth Single Bar challenges have to be accepted by all players.
• When challenging a player, you can't choose songs that you've chosen in your previous ten challenges.
• If a player doesn't respond to a (legit) challenge, he loses the equivalent to her/his k-value in points. The challenger's points don't change.
• If a challenge ends, and neither one of the players has submitted scores, both players lose the equivalent of their k-value in points.
• If you forfeit a challenge, each score you haven't yet submitted counts as a win for your opponent, even if she/he hasn't played that song.
• If you don't submit scores before the allotted time for your challenge runs out, the missing scores count as wins for your opponent.
• After not having completed three challenges, you will be removed from the Ladder. The following actions count as 'not completing a challenge': not responding to a challenge or not submitting your scores in time.
• You may not post old scores. All scores have to be played after the challenge has been accepted (not made!).
• Breaking the rules will result in removal from the Ladder.

The Elo ranking system

• A difference of 400 points means that the higher ranked player is ten times more likely to win the challenge than the lower ranked player.
• Each player gets starting points, which are equal to the mean points of the players with the same rank at that time.
• The k-value varies between 5 and 25, and is affected by both a player's current points and the number of challenges she/he has played.
• The outcome of each challenge is calculated by counting the songs each player has won. Each win is worth 1 point and a tie equals 0.5 points for both players.

Song difficulty level limits

• The minimum and maximum song difficulty of each challenge is determined by the rank of the players involved. If both players have an official rank (given by Suomen Tanssipelaajat ry), the challenge follows the limits of the lower ranked player (example: if a B1-ranked player battles an A1-ranked player, the minimum difficulty for each song is 7 and the maximum difficulty is 10). If only one of the players has an official rank, the limits of that rank are applied. If neither player has an official rank, the challenge has no limits.
• The difficulty levels are listed on this page.
• Challenges that aren't In The Groove Single Bar can have custom song difficulty levels.