Those who had the opportunity, like myself, to see PGTour site and ladder system had no little doubt that it would succeed beyond everybody’s expectation. Now what was once a prediction is a reality. Eight thousand plus members in one week and already 17034 matches played.
One can not argue success, and any success in the competitive gaming realm in our community benefits all of us. Now everyone has yet another venue where online honest competition can be held and where you can measure your own skill against the very best. Between PGTour and neo-gamei, and BWscanner use in Battle.net, honest competitive gaming is at least now a reality.
How do you measure success in a ladder? Activity and activity! So far within one week of being online PGTour has had 8700 new members in one week, a constant average of around 150 people online gaming at any given momment, around 200 tournaments and already 17034 matches played.
Here is the current top 11. Why eleven and not ten you may ask? Well that is a pure personal bias.
sataNik[pG] is a personal favorite. Go! Go! sataNik[pG] ela malaka!| Position | Nation and Name | Elo | Stats | |
| #1 |  88)BlackJack | 1603 | 26-6-0 81.25% | |
| #2 |  Fk.Timothy | 1588 | 29-12-1 69.05% | |
| #3 |  HellGhost[pG] | 1555 | 18-0-0 100% | |
| #4 |  LG)iloveyois | 1536 | 49-25-0 66.22% | |
| #5 | LJT | 1531 | 24-6-0 80% | |
| #6 |  MisOdrOne | 1517 | 20-1-0 95.24% | |
| #7 |  airwalk | 1512 | 36-12-1 73.47% | |
| #8 | Microsoft | 1510 | 23-4-0 85.19% | |
| #9 |  Everlast | 1494 | 30-5-1 83.33% | |
| #10 |  ZelotITO | 1491 | 33-11-1 73.33% | |
| #11 | sataNik[pG] | 1490 | 60-42-0 58.82% |
You can check the whole list at » PGTour Ladder 1v1 Standing
I love the fact that they have a well kept ELO system rank. This is much like the one used in FIDE for Chess competitions. A higher ELO means that you get rewarded many points if you play against much better players than you if you win, and almost no points if you win against someone with much less skill than you. It is a little more complex than this but you get the picture. The rank is set according to your ELO, much the same way as it is done in Chess in the USA and many other nations. You can read more details in the » PGTour Ladder Rating System section. They also have an ever growing 2v2 ladder standing.
In the meanwhile, Battle.net Broodwar ladder lies idle and is a mere abuser's paradise, nothing more than a broken promise made to all of us when we bought the game. I am a Blizzard fan, I can not deny it but it hurts me when I see that our Gods have forsaken us and are indeed imperfect.
That is why it is so encouraging to see mortals picking up the slack. I can only applaud the efforts of the people that host and organize servers such as PGTour and neo-Gamei.
Hail PGTour!
Links
PGTour.net - Best Broodwar Ladder
