Although the ranking system in TOT is bad, I want to take a moment to post some ideas here that show some of the problems that it has.

@RCubed1967 has supplied plenty of data regarding the TOT ranking system and what they consider to be "series." They are right to think about the game in these terms.

I have my own data regarding my play and it is pictured below.



This data seems to be from only around August 1st, 2023, but is sufficient for the narrative that I want to lay out.

You see, I can't get to the top of the leaderboard. And no, that's not a complaint, because I still have room to improve.

There is a theoretical maximum of how much any player, even some kind of super computer, can win though. I'm not there, I'm not at that point, but the point exists.

I have played TOT about 18 hours or so the last few days in the ranked mode. As you see, I win about 80% of my games in ranked.

Or we could say that I lose 1 out of 5 games.

This amount of winning is not sufficient to climb.

Losing only 1 out of 10 may start to get close to the threshold that is needed to climb the ladder.

The reason why is simple. I very rarely win more than 50 points for my games and I lose 150 points for my losses the vast majority of the time.

This system is self reinforcing.

Players on the leaderboard are PUNISHED for risking their score further. So good players, at a certain point, don't have much to gain and just stop participating.

That means that other players below them, players who might take 150 points from them, now have less opponents to take score from.

I don't even get 150 points WON from the currently 2nd rank player.

The fact that I cannot even find them or the 1st rank player in the game enough to play them means that I have to rely on the aforementioned players who give me very few points, but take many points from me. Reminder, that's the case no matter how many times I've proven my skills against them in a "series" or how fortunate they may happen to have gotten in the game or 2 that they did win.

Again, this shouldn't be read as a complaint post. I recognize that I have further skills to hone that may assist me in getting that 85% or 90% win rate on the ranked lader that I need.

That said, the system pushed high level players away from playing.

Likewise, this system has discouraged very bright players from putting more of their time into TOT.

A good number of familiar faces have opted to just not take TOT that seriously or walk away altogether.

Oh well.