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Frequently asked questions

The short version. Event-lifecycle detail lives on the rules page; what happens to your data is in the privacy policy.

Playing

What am I actually doing?

Entering a tournament and putting a probability on each of its real-world events. You are not picking winners — you are saying how likely each outcome is, and the scoring marks how well calibrated those numbers turn out to be.

How long does a tournament run?

About four weeks, with events resolving across it. A tournament's own standings and THE CALL do not carry into the next one. What does carry is your track record and the standings — each tournament's Best predictor / Most winnings, and the daily, monthly and yearly boards — which rank every call that resolved in that window.

When do my predictions lock?

Per event, just before that event's resolution window opens — never all at once for the whole tournament. Until an event locks you can move its probability as often as you like, and only the last value counts. Different events lock on different days.

Where do I read about an event?

On Scroll, each story opens on a swipeable headline rail (photo, publisher, an AI summary of that article, Read the story, and a signed-in Ask this story field), then THE CALL ON THIS STORY — the question, the slider, and an Events row of every live tournament that wording sits on — then a FOR / AGAINST argument card. You never leave the feed.

Can I see what everyone else said?

On Scroll and on your tournament slate, once you release the slider, a histogram animates in under the slider. Until a question has a thousand calls, those bars are a shape drawn from a pinned public-market price, labelled as a citation of that market — not a count of players. After that they are an anonymous histogram of everyone else, the one live peek at the field, and they do not name anyone. Your first release stays on the card as First; later moves show as Now. After you lock yours in, friends who have called that event pin as named avatars on the same bar. A Friends toggle on Scroll walks you through every live question they have already called (their number still waits until you save). Everywhere else waits until the event locks: the field's average and the named distribution stay hidden, otherwise the first few numbers would anchor everybody else's. Once an event locks, the field's average appears on the tournament slate.

Can I join a tournament after it has started?

You can enter and forecast every event that has not locked yet. But if any event has already resolved before you join, you cannot be fairly ranked against people who answered it, so you appear in the standings as incomplete and unranked for that tournament. Fixing that properly — crediting missed events at the field's average score — is designed and not yet built. Until then, joining before the first resolution is the way to be ranked.

What happens if I leave sliders untouched?

They submit at 50%, which scores 75 points either way — the fence. Nothing is skipped and nothing is scored as zero; you just get the flat outcome. The app warns you once before locking in a slate with untouched sliders.

Scoring

How does scoring work?

Each event pays 100 × (1 − (p − o)²), where p is your probability and o is the outcome (1 for YES, 0 for NO). This is the Brier score, expressed as points. Called 100% and right: 100 points. Called 100% and wrong: 0. A hedged 50%: 75 points, whatever happens. Your tournament total is the sum across every event, with THE CALL counted twice.

So is it better to hedge?

Only when you are genuinely unsure. The scoring is proper, which is a mathematical property meaning your expected points are highest when you report exactly what you believe. Shading a 90% belief down to 70% to feel safe costs you points on average, and so does inflating a 60% belief to 90%. There is no clever strategy hiding behind the honest number.

Do all events count the same?

Yes — equal weight, with the single exception of THE CALL, which counts double. Hard events are not worth more than easy ones, because the points already handle it: nobody gains much on a question the whole field gets right.

Do I get points for disagreeing with the crowd?

No, and that is deliberate. A contrarian bonus of the obvious kind turns out to change nothing: adding a term for how far you sat from the field is the same ranking as leaving it out, because everyone's crowd term is identical and it cancels. Being different from the field only pays when being different is also being right — which the plain score already rewards.

How are ties broken?

They are not. Two players on the same total share a rank, and the next rank down skips accordingly. Scores are carried to one decimal place in the standings.

What are the daily, monthly and yearly standings?

A second ranking, sitting on top of the topical tournaments rather than replacing them. Standings sums the Brier points of every event you called that resolved that Sydney calendar day, month or year. Missing an event is just a skipped score — you are not marked incomplete. THE CALL doubles on Most winnings only when that event itself resolved in the window; Best predictor ignores THE CALL. There is no separate slate and nothing extra to enter: every call you already make counts. The Tournaments tab on the same page ranks each topical tournament the same two ways.

What is Best predictor vs Most winnings?

Every tournament — and the daily, monthly and yearly boards — has two rankings. Best predictor is pure accuracy: Brier points with THE CALL stripped out. Most winnings is the same points with THE CALL counted twice, which is the ranking a prize pool would split. Winnings are shown as points; there is no cash on the board. Incomplete slates stay unranked on both.

THE CALL

What is THE CALL?

You designate exactly one event as your CALL. That event scores double. From the tournament page it is a radio when you first submit a full slate; from Scroll it is the first event you save, which also enters you into that tournament. It is mandatory — a slate always has one — and it locks with that first save.

Which event should I Call?

The one you are most confident about. Doubling an event doubles both the upside and the downside, so the expected value of a Call rises the further your probability sits from 50% — and it does not depend at all on what anyone else said. If you were told THE CALL is where you go contrarian, that is wrong, and we would rather say so than let you lose points to it.

Can I change it?

Not once your slate is submitted. The one exception: if the event you Called is voided while it is still open, you re-designate it among the events that are still open. If it is voided after locking, re-picking is closed and your CALL bonus instead pays your own average score across the tournament, which neither rewards nor punishes you for the void.

How events resolve

Who decides the outcome?

The source named in the event before it opened, read against the threshold written in the same place. Every resolution is published in the tournament's resolution log with its timestamp, the source, and the reading. Full lifecycle on the rules page.

Are you part of Kalshi or Polymarket?

No. Leaderboard is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a partner of Kalshi or Polymarket. Those names appear only as citations of a public market we may pin as a source. We do not operate an exchange, take or match orders, or send you there to trade. When we pin a public market, the card cites it as a source. We score our own game.

What if the result is ambiguous?

The event is voided, with a written reason, and scores for nobody. Voiding is the escape hatch and not the plan — the real defence is writing questions precise enough that ambiguity cannot arise. An outcome being surprising, unpopular, or bad for the standings is never grounds.

What if I think a resolution is wrong?

There is a 48-hour dispute window after each resolution; affected standings are marked provisional while a dispute is open. Write to theworldleaderboard@gmail.com with the event and what the source says. After the window closes the resolution is final, and later revisions by the source do not reopen it.

What if an event just does not resolve in time?

It can be extended once, never past the tournament's final resolution date. At that date, questions that can be read as date-bounded ("will X happen by 30 September?") resolve NO; anything that cannot be read that way is voided.

Groups and friends

How do I play against my friends?

Create a group and Invite friends from the group page (or from Friends) — they land on the board without a code. You can still share the invite link for anyone not on Leaderboard yet. A group ranks its members against each other inside any tournament you have both entered — it is a filtered view of the same standings, not a separate contest with separate scoring. Pairwise friends are separate: add someone from Friends (or from a comment) and, after you both call an event, you see each other's probability — still hidden from the field until lock — on the question page and as avatars on the Scroll bar. From Friends you can also their stories lead your scroll, and open their profile to see likes, live calls, and stats. Their percent on a live call still waits until you have called the same event.

Can we put money on it?

No. Groups have no stakes and there is no way to add any. Running a private cash pool through the site is specifically out of scope and always will be.

Who can see my results?

Anyone. Standings, your display name, your points, your track record and the ring around your photo (how many calls you have made, and how accurate they have been once they resolve) are public; that is the product. Your profile is at /me and anyone can open it from a name on standings. Optional Substack, Linktree, and website links you add on Account are public there too. Your individual probabilities stay hidden from the field until the event they belong to locks. Accepted friends are the exception: once they have called the same event, they can see your number — and on your profile they can see which stories you liked and which you have called.

What is progression?

Your rank around the profile photo. Shape starts as a circle, then a spiked circle, a hexagon, a rounded triangle, a spiked hexagon — more calls, a bigger outline. Colour is average accuracy after events resolve — grey until three have settled. The ladders, and where you sit on them, are on the progression page. It is computed from predictions already on the account; nothing extra is stored.

Account, email and data

Do I need an account?

To browse, read events, and look at standings, no. To submit a slate, join a group, or comment, yes — a score has to belong to someone. Sign-in is by Google or by an emailed link; there is no password to choose or forget.

Can I change my display name?

Yes, on your account page, at any time. It is the name that appears in standings and beside your comments, so it changes everywhere at once — including on results from tournaments already finished.

What emails will I get?

Only ones about your own events: an event you forecast has resolved, been corrected, or been voided, and the occasional notice that a voided CALL needs re-picking. No marketing. You can switch them off on your account page and still get sign-in links, which are not optional because they are how you get in.

Can I delete my account?

Yes, from your account page, immediately and without asking anyone. It erases your predictions, entries, group memberships and comment text, and removes you from every standing. It cannot be undone. You can download a copy of everything first from the same page. Details in the privacy policy.

Money

Is it free?

Yes. Every tournament is free to enter. There is nothing to buy, no paid tier, and no way to spend money that improves your position. That is true of Leaderboard as it stands today — it is an early product, and paid formats are intended later. If one arrives it gets its own terms and its own announcement, and it will not be applied to a tournament you already entered.

Is this gambling?

No. There is no stake, no wager, no odds, no payout tied to an outcome, and nothing to cash out. You are being scored on accuracy, not paid on a result.

What are the rewards you keep mentioning?

Rewards after resolution are intended and their form is not settled yet, so the honest answer is that we have not decided. What we can say is that the scoring does not change for them, and that any tournament you have already entered stays on the terms you entered it under.

Something not answered here? Write to theworldleaderboard@gmail.com.