# Skill Rating
A player's **Skill Rating**, visible on the [account page](https://www.hangmanclash.com/account), is a measure of the player's skill relative to other players. This works very similarly to [chess ratings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_rating_system).
In general, when two players play a match, the winner's score goes up and the loser's score goes down. The amount that these two numbers move is weighted by each player's prior skill rating. This means that if a player with a skill rating of 100 beats a player with a skill rating of 1000, the skill ratings of each players will move much more than if their skill rating difference was lower.
Skill Ratings fuel multiple systems. Firstly, skill ratings are necessary for fair matches. Instead of pairing top players with new players, we pair them with other top players. This is only possible when skill ratings exist.
Additionally, skill ratings impact leaderboard payout. Since leaderboards are bucketed by skill, the highest rated leaderboards will pay out more than the lowest. This is both to incentivize skilled play, and also to resist botting.
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