Anther's Ladder Rules

By lewdcario on September 7, 2015 Updated September 18, 2022

1,316 views

Anther's Ladder Rules

Basic Guidelines

All users are responsible for checking the rules in their own time, as they are always subject to change without notice.
All services are provided as is, and are subject to change.
All users must be 13 or older. Users found to be breaking this rule will be banned.
No piracy discussion or links to sites that advocate piracy. No exceptions will be made.
Cheating and lying to bypass the established rules of play is prohibited. Getting caught cheating or lying about the outcome of matches during ranked games will receive a punishment equal to the offence. Helping people boost through the ranks, playing off site outside of our format and purposefully sandbagging in ranked matches are examples of cheating.
Be respectful of all users on the site. Inappropriate conduct such as flaming, harassing and demoralizing language is not tolerated. Users breaking this rule will find their privileges revoked, such as display names.
No linking of explicit content such as borderline nudity, suggestive themes, pornography and gore.
Moderators are here to keep the peace and impeding their ability to do so through harassment or otherwise will result in punishment. Privately contact a moderator concerning an issue you have with the site.
Inappropriate names including (but not limited to): sexual, drug, explicit, or racial language are not allowed. Should your account name violate these conditions, it may be changed for you at any time and without warning. This rule also applies to subscribers' display names.
Unless given permission by the other party, posting private or match chat logs is not allowed.
Alternate accounts are prohibited. Such accounts are subject to being banned and will result in an infraction assigned. Ask an admin for a rename if that is what you are looking for. You can also rename your account from your profile page.
Bans are per household, so if you have family members that abuse the site, the household will be limited to one account.
Using accounts that are otherwise not considered to be your own, such as that of a friend's, is strictly prohibited. Users who are in violation of this rule will find that both accounts will be temporarily suspended.
Advertisement on a regular basis is not allowed.
Spamming is prohibited. Posting the same message in chat that another user posted, posting links when the previous one is still on the screen, malicious links (screamers, phishing, etc.) and anything that disrupts chat flow is considered spam.

A more detailed explanation on the rules and expected behavior are explained below.

General Code of Conduct

Let’s be honest, Smash Brothers has evolved into something beyond a regular party game. The are strong competitive communities across all Smash games. There will be cursing, arguing, and salt in the public and private chatrooms, and that’s okay. However, there are limits.

Spam will not be tolerated. Spamming up the main chat with repeated messages over and over again, random links, advertisement and other forms of spam will not be tolerated. If you’re uncertain if a link/message is spam, please contact a moderator.

The rules are in place to keep a harmony among the site's users. Each individual situation will be viewed within its own bubble, but previous rulings may be held against you. A user’s prior actions and reputation can affect any punishments leveraged for damaging behavior.

Subscribing to the site does not give any special immunity for breaking the rules. A subscribed user is like any other free user when it comes to disputes and rules, and are subject to escalating account restrictions for repeated failure to follow the rules all the same.

No alternate or impersonator accounts. Accounts created to impersonate other individuals or entities are not permitted.

Individuals are prohibited from holding more than one account without express, advance permission from the staff. Alternate accounts may be banned without warning. Any infractions that are issued to alternate accounts may be reissued to the corresponding primary account, in addition to other punishments. All suspensions are binding until expiration or removal upon appeal.

Any attempt to circumvent a site-wide or chat suspension by using other accounts, identities, personalities, or presence on another user's account will also result in suspension. Suspension evasion will not only increase the length of suspension, but may lead to an indefinite suspension.

Latency / Lag Issues

Latency is a factor in Online Smash; it’s unavoidable, but that doesn’t make the game any less competitive. People played competitively on Brawl Wifi, and better players still usually won even on (at minimum) 12 buffer of latency on console wifi. The site’s goal is to foster a community for both serious and non-serious play. Complaining about latency and the emulator isn’t going to fix anything. Legitimate bugs, workarounds and other issues should be reported, but just complaining that online Smash sucks doesn’t create a good environment.

Lag spikes can happen during matches, unfortunately. During ranked matches, players should attempt to wait out small lag spikes unless currently in a combo. If the match becomes unplayable past a point, an arbitrator will determine who, if anyone, wins or loses. Proof must be present.
Anything 12 buffer or over, or cannot usually maintain 60 fps at any buffer should be considered unplayable.
1. Users should do a button/lag check in a stage before deciding whether a particular latency is playable. If the match is already played and then a dispute is filed, the dispute will be ignored.
2. Screenshots of the ping should be used during a dispute that does arise over lag playability.

Chat Behaviour

The Chat Rules (located on the bottom left of the main chat window) go into more depth about what are and are not appropriate topics for discussion as well as the repercussions for ignoring particular rules.

“Salt”

On day one when Sakurai created the smash universe, he said, “Let there be salt.” Some players get saltier than others, but salt happens. Whether from a lag-spike, a taunt, mistakes, or RNG, some users will get frustrated occasionally. Salt is just general bitching, blaming lag, cursing, and is generally accepted in the community. While it can be annoying for a lot of users, it’s something that’s inevitable in a competitive game. Salt is totally accepted among the smash community...

The problem is when salt turns into personal attacks on the other player. That will not be tolerated. Know the difference between being salty and harassing other players. Any user feeling that they’ve been harassed should immediately report the user for moderation, and the conversation will be reviewed. Anonymity will be kept whenever possible.

Salt is...

Complaining about the game.
Complaining about lag.
Complaining about spammy attacks.
Whining about a character being OP.
Saying that you’re going to quit smash forever and then five minutes later asking to play again.
Restarting matches early.

The following topics are beyond the limitations of salt…

Repeatedly harassing a user for how they play.
Negative/inflammatory comments about any users race, sex, sexual orientation or anything else.
A tirade that lasts for days. It will get old.
Anything that a moderator deems inappropriate.

Usually if salt gets out of hand, a moderator will step in and warn. If it continues, mutes and bans will be handed out.

Bans, Mutes and Ignores

If a user says something that is damaging, the moderators have the power to mute that user from speaking in any public chat. User can also be banned from the site entirely if they refuse to follow proper etiquette. Users that do not get along with certain other users can add them to the ignore list. That will help with dealing with minor problems and bad blood. Evading mutes or ignores by logging into alternate accounts, or "letting" someone else use the computer in the same household are grounds for being suspended or banned from the site.

Friendlies

Friendlies are a way of playing for experience and learning. Setting up a friendly match and following the rules help a user get acclimated with the system and with the general flow of matches so that they’re better prepared for ranked matches. As such, always be extra courteous and forgiving, especially to new players.

Insulting a player's skill is never okay, but it’s especially frowned upon in friendlies. On the other hand, criticism, especially constructive is fine as long as the user is open to it. If they do not want criticism, then don’t give it, simple as that.

When in a match, please be timely and communicate as necessary.

Ranked Matches

When playing a ranked match, users are playing for glory. The stakes are higher, the salt is flowing, and people will generally play a lot harder. As such, the rules must be extremely clear. These rules should be considered guidelines, and any effort to circumvent playability will be considered breaking a rule, regardless of whether it was directly listed below or not.

If the most common ruleset used in competitive play is different from the one listed here, assume that this one is outdated, and use the newer one.

Stage Rules

First round’s stage will be chosen by striking the available starter stages in the presented order. Then each player will place their picks on characters. The opponent cannot see which character was picked until they have selected theirs.
All further rounds follow slightly different rules. Winner of the previous round will be able to strike stage(s) from the pool of available stages for each game. Loser will then pick any stage they want of the remaining legal stages. Followed by that, previous winner can change character, loser sees their pick and then can choose any character they want. This process is repeated until someone wins the set.

Responses and Communication

All responses should be as timely as possible. This means that if you are able to report, please do so with all deliberate speed without causing unnecessary delays. If a user waits more than 10 minutes after a match to report who won/lost, then you are free to dispute and the situation will be reviewed.
If a user must leave/pause, they must communicate what is going on to the other player. Just a simple warning can prevent needless disputes! Leaving is typically considered a loss. Imagine being in a tournament and having to leave in the middle of a match, you would not be granted a win or a cancel!
When not in the match, users should be aware of messages in the match chat room. Some players may also try to communicate through the dolphin client's chat room.
Being rude, harassing, or any type of treatment that can be considered a violation of any aforementioned rule can be reason to settle a dispute against you.

Computer Issues

If a particular computer cannot play a stage and they did not strike/ban it, then they must forfeit the round. This is done to ensure equality between all users; just because someone cannot run a particular stage does not mean they get a free ban.
Desyncs can happen in very specific situations, but should be rare. If a desync occurs, users should suicide to the approximate stocks of before the desync.
If a user repeatedly desyncs with multiple users, they may have to forfeit matches that they desync in. Fake desyncs will result in punishment up to permanent bans.
Desyncs based on extra cheats/guides being enabled during ranked matches can be detected and can result in permanent bans. Please follow the rules for each game.
If a crash or disconnect occurs and you wish to cancel the ranked match because of it, legitimate proof in the form of a video recording must be provided to a moderator or in a dispute message. If you do not wish to cancel or cannot provide ample proof, the match must continue. Should you choose to continue the match, you and your opponent should try to replicate the situation before the crash/disconnect, with the same number of stocks. If your opponent is unwilling to restart the game with the correct number of stocks, this is legitimate grounds to dispute a match.
Please note: If you attempt to cancel a ranked match because of a crash/disconnect but do not provide any form of proof, the dispute will be settled in favour of your opponent.

Pausing mid-match

Users that accidentally pause at any point in the match must suicide the current stock before engaging the other player further. Any amount of pause, no matter whether it was less than a second or five seconds, should be considered a violation of the rule.
If a user pauses for more than 20 seconds without prior notice, they can be forced to forfeit the round. If a user must pause for more than 20 seconds, they must notify their opponent.
If a user’s opponent pauses, the user should make sure to watch the chat room for an explanation. If the opponent does not return in a reasonable amount of time, the user may then dispute the match.
Users forced to pause for a short period of time who did give an explanation, yet were forced to forfeit the entire match can file a complaint for the match to be annulled. The chat and timestamps will then be reviewed.
Pausing during extremely bad lag-spikes is a gray area. Some users play through it, other users back off and wait for the lag to pass. There is no accepted ruling on this currently. If a user feels their pause is justified, video evidence should be supplied.
Pausing is considered a violation of the aforementioned rules in all cases except when the victor has been decided, ergo, at the last stock (this includes Star-KOs).
Pausing while your character is respawning or dying in an errant manner is distracting and can result in your opponent making mistake. This will require you to suicide your new stock also.

Cheating

Attempting to cheat the system by playing against the same person over and over again, or using multiple accounts will result in all accounts being suspended.
Players cannot play against others that live in the same household.
No ranking on multiple accounts. Doing so will result in your account being suspended from ranked games, regardless of your intentions.
Boosting other players through the ranks, whether done by alternate accounts or not is strictly prohibited. Any illegitimate wins shall result in the immediate disqualification for the season's prizes, along with a suspension from ranked matches.
There is no such thing as as deleting an account and moving to a new account; it is still considered a violation of the rules.
You cannot cancel a match based on your opponent’s character choice or play style. Doing so results in the set being forfeited.
Purposefully and falsely accusing someone of cheating without appropriate evidence when they are innocent is just as bad as cheating, and the offender will be punished in accordance to the accusation they made.
All matches must be completed through the site's matchmaking system.
1. Users that do not select the character they have chosen on the site, or the proper stage must immediately quit out and set up the game properly. Failure to do so will result in disqualification and possible bans.
Super Smash Bros. is a complicated game with a lot of different moves and options. People have accused ledgehoggers of cheating in the past. Every move in the game is legal unless it purposefully causes the game to malfunction.

Stalling

The act of stalling, or intentionally making the game unplayable, is banned and at the discretion of the TO. Stalling tactics include but are not limited to becoming invisible, infinites, chain grabs, or uninterruptible moves past 300%; or abusing a position in which your opponent can never reach you. Any action that can prevent the game from continuing (i.e., pausing, freeze glitches, disappearing characters, game reset, etc.) will result in forfeiture of that match for the offending player. You are responsible for knowing your own character, and must be wary about accidentally triggering these effects.

Sudden Death

Sudden Death is never to be played. In the case of a time out, the winner is chosen by whoever had the most stocks, followed by whoever had the lowest percent. If completely tied, the match will be settled with a 1 stock match with a 3 minute timer. In the event where a Sudden Death is initiated, then the victory goes to the initiator (this includes through a Bowsercide or Ganon’s Flame Choke).

Timeouts / Ties

The winner of a match that goes to time (time out) will be determined by stocks and then percentage. When the timer hits 0:00, the player with the higher stock count is the winner. If both players are tied in stocks, the player with the lower percentage is the winner. In the event of a percentage tie, or a match in which both players lost their last stock simultaneously, a 1 stock tiebreaker will be played with a 3:00 time limit. The result of the game’s built-in Sudden Death does not count towards the set count.

Game-specific rules

The rules for Super Smash Bros. Melee can be found here.

Specific rules for each of the Smash games may be listed here in the future.

Disputes

Moderators have the ability to make judgement calls on disputes. Disputes are filed in a queue for moderators to review. Please be respectful of the decisions moderators have to make under pressure. If you have an issue, privately contact the moderator and discuss the problem. Should a moderator decide that, for any reason, the way in which you conducted yourself during and/or after the match was harmful in any way, the dispute may be settled against you regardless of the match results.

Note: Once a match has been disputed you are free to leave the lobby at any time. You don’t have to wait until your dispute has been resolved before finding another match.

Submitting Proof

Sometimes the chat logs will be more than enough proof to indict a user. Be sure to log your complaint right after the incident in question, do not wait until after the fact. This section pertains to regular reports as well as disputes.

Submitting false or untruthful evidence will lead to temporary account suspension.
Video evidence is the absolute best form of proof when showing potential cheating in game. It is also not required for submitting a dispute because it does require a stronger CPU.
Video quality will not be a big deal; as long as moderators can see what’s going on, that will be enough. Camcorder pointed at the computer screen will work for those with weaker computers!
1. Users should not use Dolphin’s AVI dump feature. It is slow, buggy, and will bog down the best of computers.

Valid Reasons to Dispute

You may dispute a match if any of the aforementioned rules of ranked matches were broken by your opponent without good reason. Some things are far harder to prove than others so providing as much proof as possible in every situation will ensure the dispute is handled as fairly and accurately as possible. Please also be aware of what is stated in the Lag / Latency Issues section of the rules.

You cannot submit a valid dispute based upon:

You did not like your opponent’s choice of character
You lost the match and don’t want to take the loss
Your opponent switched between Zelda and Sheik
You did not like your opponent’s playstyle
You decided the match was too laggy after the first game (unless both players agreed)

Tournament Matches

Tournaments will follow the same rules as Ranked Matches with the following changes

Time is of the essence during a tournament. Users should always be aware of the tournament organizers and respond promptly. Failure to do so can result in loss of round or even disqualification from the tournament.
Tournament organizers can remove anyone they deem to be disrupting the tournament.
Users may be requested to allow streamers to spectate their matches for the tournament stream.
Latency/Lag may not be optimal when playing people across the country. Users should try to be fair and understand the circumstances and play their best regardless of the conditions.
Complaints about playability should be brought up to the tournament organizer before a match has been completed.
Users who have internet/computer issues during a tournament may be disqualified from the tournament.

Challenges

Challenges are a useful feature when looking for matches. There’s nothing wrong with challenging a user available to play. But, users should not harass other users over declining/ignoring challenges. Actions such as that will be treated like any other form of harassment. If you can’t find a match through challenges, just opening up a regular ranked match is fine.

Money Matches

The site does not support or condone money matches and they are against the rules due to issues caused by engaging in them. Moderators will not force players to pay after a money match, but people found to be scamming other users may face serious account restrictions.