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Arena

Matchmaking process

The matchmaking depends on players' multiplayer ratings, Arena filters, current waiting times and their preferences regarding the Arena bot. Players may edit their filters by entering the Arena queue of their choice, while the bot and the matchmaking speed can be configured by clicking on the "Preferences" button.

When a player queues in Tuning Limit Arena and/or No Limit Arena, and another players queues in featured rulesets in Custom Arena, then both players may be matched with each other. In that case, each player plays for their respective rating of interest. However, when the rating recalculation occurs, the featured ruleset's rating is updated for both players.

In Tuning Limit Arena and No Limit Arena, when the rating deviation is above some threshold then the player is asked to play one or more placement matches versus the bot. These placement matches are mandatory until the rating deviation is small enough.

Round rules

When playing Custom games, the room creator decides the rules as they wish. However, in an Arena or Tournament round, such rules are already decided in advance. For Tournament rounds, refer to the corresponding Tournament page to check them. For official rulesets, check the corresponding Wiki page.

If Pick and Ban is enabled, then players are given three choices of rulesets (possibly not distinct). The highest rated player bans one ruleset, then the lowest rated player picks one ruleset among the remaining two. If both players have the same rating, then the order is arbitrary. As of now, only Tuning Limit Arena and No Limit Arena have it enabled, it is also possible to turn it on in custom rooms as well as tournaments.

The goal is to knock out your opponent as much as possible (possibly until some fixed limit). Your opponent is knocked out when there isn't enough space for the next block to spawn at the top of the grid. Then, handicap lines on the opponent's side disappear (possibly not completely, depending on their stack's height) and the round continues. If one of the players reaches the KO limit (assuming there is one), then the round ends. If the time limit is reached (assuming there is one), then the round ends (no hurry-up or tie-break). If a player tops out despite having no handicap lines to cope with, then the round ends and this player loses.

The winner of a round is the player who got the biggest number of KOs. The round ends earlier if the KO difference if big enough: let k be the KO difference and t the number of seconds remaining, the round ends if the leading player places a block while the following condition is satisfied: k > Math.ceil(t/10). If the players are tied in KOs at the end of time limit (if there is one), then the round goes into extra time: let t the initial duration of the round (in seconds), then 4 solid, unclearable lines will spawn right at the end of that time limit, then every t/4 seconds, with a maximum of 16 solid lines. The round ends when one of the players take the lead.

Note that, in order for a game to end the leading player should place a block (unless the opponent tops out, or the non-zero KO limit is reached). This is to avoid player stall and provide more interesting game endings.

Rankings

First of all, only Arena and Tournament rounds do have an influence on the multiplayer ratings. Note that, Tournament rounds do not make the ratings update automatically: for now, at the end of every Tournament the ratings are recalculated to take this Tournament matches into account.

Games played in the "No Limit" and "Tuning Limit" arenas also count towards the featured ruleset that was played. The opposite is not true.

Only users with a validated Worldwide Combos account may appear in the rankings. People with a rating that equals 0 (which is the initial rating for every new player) do not appear no matter what (but still get ratings). For every arena or featured/custom ruleset there is a different rating.

Ratings as of now are computed based on the GLICKO system. However, the rounds' result, RES are not necessarily 0 or 1 and are computed as follows.

Let's assume that player 1 wins with KO1 KOs, while player 2 had KO2 KOs:

• if the round lasts less than 125% of the base duration, then RES = 0.7 + 0.3 * min(log(1+KO1-KO2)/log(8), 1);
• else if the round lasts less than 150% of the base duration, then RES = 0.5 + 0.2 * (KO1-KO2);
• else if the round lasts less than 175% of the base duration, then RES = 0.5 + 0.12 * (KO1-KO2);
• else RES = 0.5 + 0.04 * (KO1-KO2);

If player 2 wins, just replace RES with 1-RES.

To avoid rating changes that are too large, the maximal absolute rating change is capped at the rating deviation value at the beginning of the round.

With these formulas, it is theoretically possible that the winner loses rating, and that the loser wins rating. However, the minimal rating change for the winner is 0 no matter what.

In official rulesets, one or several rating decays occur every week and is unavoidable. In Tournament open phases, rating decay does not occur at the moment.

Survivor

Normal Survivor

Survivor is a singleplayer mode that consists in avoiding to top out as long as possible. Handicap lines spawn from the bottom, and the time interval between two consecutive handicap lines decreases with time. When a new player signs up, only Normal Survivor is available, and Elite Survivor (see below) is unlocked after reaching 4 minutes in that Normal Survivor.

In Normal Survivor, there is one handicap line that spawns at the very beginning of a game. Now let's say that n lines already spawned. The waiting time before the next handicap line is approximately Math.log(40) / Math.log(4 + .4*Math.pow(n, 0.6)) seconds.

There are two types of Normal Survivor: one uses handicap with holes while the other one uses handicap with bombs.

Advanced Survivor

Advanced Survivor is unlocked when reaching 4 minutes in Normal Survivor mode. This mode is very similar to the previous one; yet, the pace is much faster, and it was meant to be for fast players, for whom the Normal Survivor's speed might be a little bit boring in the beginning.

In Advanced Survivor, there are two handicap lines that spawn at the very beginning of a game. Now let's say that n lines already spawned. The waiting time before the next handicap line is approximately (Math.log(40) / Math.log(4 + .4*Math.pow(n-1, 0.6))) * 0.75; seconds.

There are two types of Advanced Survivor: one uses handicap with holes while the other one uses handicap with bombs. Each of these two are unlocked separately when you reach 4 minutes in the corresponding Normal Survivor mode.

Elite Survivor

Elite Survivor is unlocked when reaching 4 minutes in Advanced Survivor mode. This mode is very similar to the previous one; yet, the pace is much faster, and it was meant to be for fast players, for whom the Advanced Survivor's speed might be a little bit boring in the beginning.

In Elite Survivor, there are three handicap lines that spawn at the very beginning of a game. Now let's say that n lines already spawned. The waiting time before the next handicap line is approximately (Math.log(40) / Math.log(4 + .4*Math.pow(n-2, 0.6))) * 0.6; seconds.

There are two types of Elite Survivor: one uses handicap with holes while the other one uses handicap with bombs. Each of these two are unlocked separately when you reach 4 minutes in the corresponding Advanced Survivor mode.

Sprint

Sprint is a singleplayer mode that consists in clear some amount of lines as fast as possible. The challenge is completed when the lines count target is reached, and the elapsed time is the number of milliseconds between the start of the game and the moment when the last block was placed. If the player tops out, then the challenge is failed, and the game's replay is not saved.

In this particular mode, some of the bags cannot appear in the first bag: while the first block is either an S-block or a Z-block, or the first block is an O-block and the second one is either an S-block or a Z-block, the upcoming blocks are generated once again.

Gravity

Gravity is a singleplayer mode that consists in clearing as many lines as possible. The challenge is completed when the player tops out.

In this particular mode, the gravity setting does not match the usually expected setting: its value in milliseconds is 4000/(1 + .4*Math.floor(score/10)*Math.floor(score/10)) where score is the current number of lines cleared.

It is possible to start at a given level. In that case, the speed on the earlier levels is the same as on that level.

Warm-up

Warm-up mode is a singleplayer mode with no particular goal: there is no time limit, no KO limit, and there are no handicap lines. There is no countdown before the game starts. If the player tops out, then the field is completely cleared, and the player can start playing again from scratch. There are no saved replays in this mode.