# Challenges

Challenges are the core of Poolaris. Read along to explore how challenging, accepting, and scoring works in our system for both regular ranked matches and seasonal matches.

The player sending a challenge is called a Challenger
The player receiving said challenge is the Competitor

# Ranked Challenge

8-Ball Race to 3 is the default
/challenge opponent: User
optional → game: 8 | 9 | 10 race: 3 | 4 | 5

# Sending a challenge

Use the command above to bring up the challenge confirmation that also shows you the rating of your opponent. You'll have 10 seconds to confirm or deny your intentions of challenging this player.

Once you press ✔, Poolaris will start the match and send a scoring embed to the challenges channel and update the confirmation embed with a button to jump to it.

# Scoring the Match

The match is in play once the Competitor accepts the challenge by clicking the Accept button beneath the challenge request embed. Only the competitor is allowed to use those two buttons.

The embed now presents a refreshed scoring card that only the Challenger and Competitor can interact with to enter the match results.

# How scoring works

Each player sees their own dropdown labeled How many games did you win?. Choose the number of racks you claimed; every option from 0 up to the race target is available so shutouts are painless to log.

Continuing the 10-Ball, Race to 5 example, if Other Dhruv won 0 games and Dhruv won 4, Other Dhruv selects 0 in their dropdown while Dhruv selects 4. Once both selections are submitted, Poolaris locks in the scores and advances the match.

The match only completes when exactly one player selects the race target value. Poolaris prevents invalid combinations and keeps the dropdown active until a valid winner is chosen.

# Results

After both players have scored, the embed in challenges will update to point to the results in the matches channel.

In the matches channel, you'll see a public summary of the match you just completed with information about the winner, game, and rating changes.

This match will also be added to both your and your competitor's profile.

# Seasonal Ranked Challenge

/season challenge opponent: User

Seasonal ranked challenges always affect your Global Rating as well.

These challenges are very similar to ranked matches because /season challenge walks you through the same confirmation flow and scoring dropdowns. The only difference is visible in match results.

A second set of rating changes below the match results are only for the currently active season within a guild. And since it has its own set of ratings, the changes are different.