Challenges

Challenges let players bypass the matchmaking queue and fight a specific opponent directly. Same format rules, same clause validation, same arenas — just without the wait.

Challenge Flow

Here’s what happens from challenge to battle:

1. Send — Player A runs /ranked challenge <player> <ladder>.
2. Invite GUI — Player B sees a 3-row GUI with the challenger’s info, plus Accept and Decline buttons.
3. Accept or Decline — Player B clicks Accept (or runs /ranked accept), or declines (click Decline or /ranked deny).
4. Arena assignment — An available arena is allocated. If none are free, the match enters the arena waiting queue.
5. Team preview — If the format has teamPreview = true, both players see each other’s teams and select leads.
6. Battle — Players teleport to the arena and the Cobblemon battle begins.

Note

Challenges still validate teams against the ladder’s format clauses. If Player A’s team doesn’t pass validation for the selected ladder, the challenge won’t send.

Commands

Command	What it does
/ranked challenge <player> <ladder>	Send a challenge to another player on a specific ladder.
/ranked accept	Accept an incoming challenge.
/ranked deny	Decline an incoming challenge.
/ranked togglechallenges	Toggle whether you receive challenges.

All challenge commands require the frontier.user permission (default: all players).

The Invite GUI

When a challenge arrives, the target player sees a 3-row chest GUI:

• Row 1 — Challenger info: player head, ladder name, format details.
• Row 2 — Action buttons: Accept (green) and Decline (red).
• Row 3 — Additional context or padding.

Players can also accept/decline via commands without opening the GUI.

Decline Cooldown

Declining a challenge applies a cooldown before the same challenger can send another one. This prevents spam.

The cooldown duration is controlled by declineCooldownSeconds in config.conf:

match {
    declineQueueCooldownSeconds = 30
}

Default is 30 seconds.

Toggling Challenges

Don’t want to receive challenges at all? Toggle them off:

/ranked togglechallenges

When challenges are toggled off, other players trying to challenge you will see a message that you’re not accepting challenges. Run the command again to re-enable.

Challenge Sounds

Frontier plays sound cues at each stage of the challenge flow. These are configured in the sounds.challenge block of config.conf:

sounds {
    challenge {
        received = "minecraft:entity.experience_orb.pickup"
        accepted = "minecraft:block.note_block.chime"
        declined = "minecraft:block.note_block.bass"
    }
}

Event	Default Sound	When it plays
received	Experience orb pickup	Target player receives a challenge.
accepted	Note block chime	Challenge is accepted (plays for both players).
declined	Note block bass	Challenge is declined (plays for the challenger).

Challenges vs. Queue Matches

Challenges work almost identically to queue matches, with two differences:

1. No rating expansion — you pick your opponent directly, so matchmaking logic doesn’t apply.
2. No anti-boost tracking — repeated challenges against the same player won’t reduce your rating gains on the ladder. This keeps friendly rematches from penalizing either player.

Everything else — format validation, arena system, turn timers, replays, rating changes — is the same.

Tip

Challenges are great for tournament brackets, friendly rematches, and testing teams against a specific opponent. Since anti-boost doesn’t apply, players can challenge the same person repeatedly without worrying about diminished rating changes.