// HEAD TO HEAD
Ranked Battles
A ranked battle is two central bankers, the same conditions, and one question: whose policy held up better. One player posts a challenge, another accepts it, and the system settles the result automatically.
The Full Flow
Both players lock a controller and a liquidity budget without seeing the other's choices. Once both sides are locked, the same generated conditions test each of them, and the higher score wins.
Posting a Challenge
When you post, you set the terms of the battle:
| Choice | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | How demanding the generated conditions are, and the duration of the run. |
| Wager | The Gold each side stakes. The winner takes the pot. |
| Liquidity budget | The reserves you commit. Stays private until settlement. |
| Controller | Your Kp, Ki, and rate bounds. Stays private until settlement. |
Your difficulty and wager are public so an opponent knows what they are accepting. Your liquidity and controller are yours alone until the battle is over.
You can keep a small number of challenges open at once. If you are at the limit, the app will tell you and point you to your open challenges so you can cancel one or wait for it to be accepted.
Accepting a Challenge
When you accept, you see the public side of the challenge:
- Who posted it
- Difficulty and run duration
- Wager
- The allowed liquidity range for that difficulty
- When it expires
You then lock your own liquidity budget and controller. You are responding to the same conditions the poster will face, but you choose your plan blind to theirs.
Settlement and the Review
Once both sides are locked the battle settles on its own. The review then opens with the full picture:
- The winner and both total scores
- The four scoring pillars for each side
- A liquidity comparison
- The wager outcome and the contribution to the season jackpot
- Rating movement, when the battle counted toward rating
When a Battle Moves Rating
Most ranked battles move your rating, but not all do. The system applies fairness and activity checks before a result counts toward the competitive Ladder. After a battle settles, the review tells you plainly whether it affected your rating. If it did not, the reason is shown.
This keeps the Ladder a reflection of genuine, active competition rather than something that can be gamed.
A bigger wager grows the pot, not your rating change. Rating moves on how well you played the run, not how much Gold was on the line.
Next: the mechanics behind a good result, starting with Controller Basics and Liquidity.