How it plays
What players can do, and the rules behind it.
On this page
Ladders
A ladder is a game mode with its own kit and rules, defined in one file under ladders/. Twenty-four ship with the plugin:
archer, axe, battlerush, bedwars, boxing, bridges, builduhc, crystal, debuff, fireball, gapple, mace, mlgrush, netherite_op, nodebuff, pearlfight, sg, skywars, soup, spear, spleef, sumo, tntsumo, vanilla.
Each ladder has a type that decides how the match plays:
| Type | Play style |
|---|---|
BASIC, BUILD | Standard kit fights, with or without block placing. |
SUMO, TNT_SUMO, BOXING | Knock-off and hit-counting modes. |
PEARL_FIGHT, FIREBALL_FIGHT, MLG_RUSH | Item-driven modes. |
SPLEEF, SKYWARS, BEDWARS, BRIDGES, BATTLE_RUSH | Objective and map modes. |
A ladder file sets whether it is enabled and ranked, whether players can edit the kit, the hit delay, rounds, start countdown, ender pearl cooldown, knockback profile, maximum duration, which match types it allows, and the ELO tag thresholds. See Configuration.
Queues
/unrankedand/rankedopen a ladder selector. WithQUEUE.COMBINEDon, one item serves both and players switch modes inside the menu.- The selector can group ladders into categories and offers a quick match button.
- A queue times out after
MAX-QUEUE-TIMEseconds (300 by default). - Unranked searches inside the player own division first, then widens, and lets players bring a custom kit.
- Players can skip one another with
/ignorequeue.
Ranked, ELO and divisions
- ELO is tracked per ladder. New players start at 500. A win or loss changes it by a number between 5 and 12, with a K-factor of 32.
- Matchmaking starts with a narrow ELO range and widens by 20 every 5 seconds the player waits.
- Ping limit. Players above 300 ms cannot join the ranked queue.
- Divisions are named tiers tied to ELO, listed in
divisions.yml. Players are told when they move up or down. Ranked play needs at leastSILVER2by default. - Daily limits. Groups set how many unranked and ranked matches a player may play per day. Staff can reset or add to them.
- Tags.
/tagsshows a player per-ladder ELO tag, such as Ht3 or Lt1, from the thresholds in each ladder.
Duels
/duel <player>challenges someone, and/accepttakes it. Requests expire after 60 seconds.- With
SWORD-TO-DUELon, hitting a player with an unranked sword sends a request. - Players with the right permissions can pick the arena and the number of rounds, from 1 to 10.
Parties
Players group up with /party. A party can play party FFA, team battle (split teams), or party versus party. Parties can be public and broadcast themselves, have a size limit, their own chat, and end their match when disbanded if END-MATCH-ON-DISBAND is on.
FFA arenas
An FFA arena is a drop-in free-for-all. Options such as health reset on kill, arrow hit health display, ender pearl bar, destroyable blocks and TNT are set under FFA in config.yml, and rollback restores the arena afterwards. Players join with /ffa.
Events
| Event | Idea |
|---|---|
LMS | Last man standing. |
OITC | One in the chamber. |
TNTTAG | Pass the TNT. |
BRACKETS | One-on-one elimination brackets. |
SUMO | Elimination sumo. |
SPLEGG | Break the floor with eggs. |
JUGGERNAUT | One strong player against the rest. |
Staff host events with /event and the alphapractice.event.host permission. EVENT.AUTO-EVENTS lets the plugin start events itself, and EVENT.MULTIPLE allows several at once.
Spectating and training
/spectatewatches a match, with a menu, a random match option and a vanish toggle for staff.- Players can disable spectators in their own matches in
/settings. /trainopens training arenas where players practice a ladder alone.