How Rivals works

Most places you play a game online, winning gets you a number that goes up. Rivals is a ladder built the same way, except the games are played for real money and the climb is the point. Ten divisions, one fixed stake in each, Elite at the top, and a season that clears the board every month so nobody sits up there forever.

You do not choose your opponent and you do not choose your stake. You say which games you are willing to play, we pair you with somebody at your division who said the same, and your division decides what the game costs.

If you have never played a game for money before, here is the whole idea in a sentence: both players put up the same amount, that money is set aside while you play, and the winner takes it. Nothing is left to chance. There are no dice and no shuffled cards in any of our games, so whoever plays better wins.

Rivals and the lobby are different doors

There are two ways to play for a stake here, and it is worth knowing which one you are in.

The lobby is a noticeboard. You create a game, you choose the stake yourself, and your game sits there until somebody accepts it. You can see every open game before you join one. If you want to play a particular person, you send them a private link and nobody else can take it. Nothing about the lobby is ranked: you play, you win or lose the stake, and that is the end of it.

Rivals is a queue. You do not post anything and you do not wait to be chosen. You press one button, we find you an opponent, and the board opens. The stake is whatever your division charges. Every Rivals game moves you up or down the ladder, and the ladder is the whole reason to play it.

Underneath, a Rivals game is an ordinary wagered match. Same stakes held aside, same fee, same refund on a draw, same clocks. What Rivals adds is who you get matched with, and what the result means afterward.

The ten divisions, and Elite

Everybody starts in Division 10 and climbs toward Division 1. Above Division 1 sits Elite, which you can only reach by climbing the whole way.

Each division charges its own stake for every game, and it is fixed. You never type a number.

• Division 10 · 5 USDC a game
• Division 9 · 10 USDC a game
• Division 8 · 15 USDC a game
• Division 7 · 20 USDC a game
• Division 6 · 30 USDC a game
• Division 5 · 40 USDC a game
• Division 4 · 60 USDC a game
• Division 3 · 80 USDC a game
• Division 2 · 100 USDC a game
• Division 1 · 150 USDC a game
• Elite · 500 USDC a game

The steps are gentle at the bottom on purpose. You can play, win, and climb a division or two without ever putting up more than a few dollars, and the larger games are something you arrive at rather than something you can walk straight into.

How you move

Each of the ten divisions has ten stages. You start a division on stage 1 and climb toward stage 10.

A win moves you up a stage. Pass the top stage and you are promoted: you land on stage 1 of the division above, and your games now cost that division's stake.

A loss moves you down a stage. Fall below stage 1 and you are relegated to the top stage of the division below. Division 10 stage 1 is the floor, and you cannot fall off it.

A draw moves you nowhere. Your stake comes back in full and your position is exactly where it was.

The rules that matter

Streaks. Win two games in a row and you are on a streak. From the second win onward, every win moves you two stages instead of one. A draw or a loss ends it and you start counting again. A streak carries through a promotion, so a good run can take you a long way in an evening.

Checkpoints. Stages 1 and 5 of every division are checkpoints, and they hold you up. Lose while you are standing on one and you stay where you are instead of sliding back. Each checkpoint absorbs three losses per season, and the number remaining is written on the screen, so you always know how much cushion you have. When it runs out that checkpoint breaks for the rest of the season and losses fall through it normally.

Promotion pays XP. The first time you reach a division in a season, you earn a bonus. You earn it once per division per season, and it grows as you climb.

• Reach Division 9 · 25 XP
• Reach Division 8 · 50 XP
• Reach Division 7 · 75 XP
• Reach Division 6 · 100 XP
• Reach Division 5 · 150 XP
• Reach Division 4 · 200 XP
• Reach Division 3 · 300 XP
• Reach Division 2 · 450 XP
• Reach Division 1 · 600 XP
• Reach Elite · 1000 XP

That is on top of the XP every wagered game earns you anyway, win, lose or draw. XP is a score, not money. It ranks you on the leaderboard and it breaks ties in tournaments.

What a climb actually looks like

Say you start where everybody starts: Division 10, stage 1, playing for 5 USDC a game.

You win your first game and move to stage 2. You win the next one, which is a second win in a row, so the streak begins and that win moves you two stages, to stage 4. Win again and you are on stage 6, again and you are on stage 8, again and you are past the top: promoted to Division 9, stage 1, and 25 XP for getting there. Your games now cost 10 USDC.

Then you lose one. You are standing on stage 1, which is a checkpoint, so you stay on stage 1 and that checkpoint has two absorbs left instead of three. Your streak is over. Win the next and you are on stage 2 again, with everything still to play for.

Elite

Elite sits above Division 1, and getting there means climbing all ten divisions inside a single season. It works differently from the rest of the ladder.

There are no stages in Elite and no relegation. Once you arrive, your place is yours until the season ends, whatever happens in the games you play there. Every game is 500 USDC, the largest stake on the ladder by a distance, and reaching Elite for the first time in a season pays 1000 XP.

When the season turns over, Elite resets like everything else. It is something you earn again, not a title you keep.

Seasons

A season is a calendar month. When it ends, everybody restarts two divisions below where they finished: a player who ended in Division 4 begins the new season in Division 6, a player who ended in Elite begins in Division 2, and nobody starts below Division 10. Checkpoints refill, streaks clear, and the promotion bonuses can be earned again.

A good month means something, and then it has to be repeated. Nothing here is a permanent position.

Finding a game

Tick the games you are willing to play. All ten are ticked to begin with, and we remember what you chose last time, so if you only ever play chess you only have to say so once.

Press Find a match and you go into the queue. We look for somebody else waiting at your division whose list overlaps yours, then pick one of the shared games at random from the overlap. Neither of you chooses the game, and neither of you chooses the other.

If nobody is about after a minute, we widen the search by one division either side. A game between two divisions is played at the lower of the two stakes, so you are never charged more than your own division asks of you. Each player's ladder still moves by their own position.

The page tells you how many people are online and how many are waiting. Those are the real numbers. We do not pad them, and you will never be matched against a computer pretending to be a person.

How a match works

Both players put up the same stake, and both stakes are set aside at the moment you are paired. The winner takes 90% of the pot and we keep 10% as our fee. If the game is a draw, both players get their stake back in full and we take nothing at all.

Each player has ten minutes on the clock for the whole game, and your clock only runs while it is your turn. Run out of time and you lose, whatever the board looks like. Who moves first is a coin flip, decided when you are paired, so neither player can arrange to go first.

When something goes wrong

Nothing leaves your balance until you are paired. Sitting in the queue costs nothing, and if you leave the queue you have been charged nothing at all.

If you close the board, the game is still yours. Come back to Rivals and there is a card waiting to take you straight to it. Your clock is still running while it is your turn, so do not wander off for long, but a game is not lost simply because you closed a tab.

If you resign, you lose the stake. Resigning is a loss like any other, and it moves you down the ladder like any other.

Draws cost nobody anything. Both stakes come back in full, we take no fee, and neither player moves.

Try it

If you have never played for a stake before, start in practice. It is free: pick a bot on easy, medium or hard, or send a friend a link. Nothing is staked and nothing is recorded, so you can learn a game properly before any money is involved.

When you are ready, everybody begins in the same place. Division 10, stage 1, 5 USDC a game. Win once and you have moved.