How the leaderboard works
Every point behind the 1,198 listed servers is explained below. No secret algorithms, and no way to buy a score.
Server score
Votes first, then what the server did over the last days. Every part is listed here with its ceiling — there is no other hidden variable.
People who voted this month 100 pts / person
Active Competition
This is the decisive part. A person's first vote for the server since the month began brings it 100 pts; each further vote of the same person in that month adds 20 pts. Thirty people who vote once weigh more than one fan who votes thirty days in a row. On the 1st of each month the count starts again from zero, so any new server has a real chance to lead if its community backs it.
That one vote is worth at least as much as everything a server can earn without votes (100 pts).
A vote cast by the server's owner, or from a network the owner uses, is kept and counts in the all-time total, but not in the month's.
All-Time Votes Max 100 pts
All-Time Prestige
Old votes stay recorded for good and add one point each, up to 100 pts. They settle a tie between servers; they are never a head start that a new server cannot catch.
Activity Up to 60 pts
Real people, against its own game
How many people the server really had, on average, over the last 7 days — compared with the other servers of its own game. The most active server of a game takes every point, the one in the middle takes half. So a full Counter-Strike 1.6 server is worth as much as a full FiveM one, and one good hour no longer moves the ranking: every hour of those days counts.
A real community sleeps: its server empties at night and fills in the evening. When a server shows almost the same number day and night — its night level stays above 50% of its peak — the part that never moves is counted less and less, and from 90% not at all. A number that does not move does not show people.
Not counted either: the bots a server declares, and the hours in which it reports more players than it has slots. The average is taken over at least 72 hours, so a newly listed server grows into its place.
Stability Max 20 pts
Scans answered
The share of our scans the server answered over the last 7 days — not whether it happens to be online this minute. Answering every scan brings 20 pts; below 80% it brings none.
A server that does not answer earns no activity and no stability points until it answers again. After 24 hours of silence it leaves the ranking; its votes wait for it.
Favorites Max 10 pts
Kept close
One point for each account that keeps the server among its favorites, up to 10 pts.
Reviews Max 10 pts
What players say
Once a server has 5 published reviews, its rating adds up to 10 pts: nothing below 3, all of them at 5. Until then the rating is shown on the server's page but does not enter the score.
When two servers have the same score, the one with more people who voted this month comes first, then the one that answered more of our scans, then the one better placed among the servers of its game, then the one listed earlier.
The top, broken down point by point
Not a simulation — the actual servers at the top of the leaderboard right now, with their score split into the parts above.
Voting rules
Votes decide the top, which makes them the most tempting target for cheating. Here are the exact limits in place.
You can vote for the same server once every 24 hours. The cooldown applies to both your account and your IP address — logging out resets nothing.
How many different servers you can vote for in 24h depends on your account level. The more active you are on the platform, the more often your vote counts.
On the 1st of the month, at 00:05, the monthly vote counter resets to zero for all servers and the leaderboard starts over.
A vote cast by the server's owner, or from a network the owner uses, is kept and counts in the all-time total, but not in the month's.
Monthly season
The three approved, claimed servers that the most people voted for in the month receive 500, 250 and 100 credits. The podium is decided by the people who vote — never by a draw. A person counts once a month, however often they vote, and a server needs at least 10 of them to take a prize. One prize per owner.
Daily votes per level
You earn XP by using the platform. Each level raises your daily vote limit.
| Level | XP required | Votes / 24h | |
|---|---|---|---|
Rookie
|
0 | 1 |
|
Beginner
|
500 | 2 |
|
Explorer
|
1,500 | 3 |
|
Skilled
|
3,500 | 4 |
|
Veteran
|
7,500 | 5 |
|
Expert
|
15,000 | 6 |
|
Master
|
30,000 | 7 |
|
Grandmaster
|
60,000 | 8 |
|
Legend
|
120,000 | 9 |
|
Scope Master
|
250,000 | 10 |
|
Premium adds votes on top of the level limit: Premium +3, VIP +6, Elite +12.
Promotion and the leaderboard
Some servers are shown above the lists. Each of those places carries a label, and none of them changes a score.
The score cannot be bought
Promotion never adds a point: a server's score is the sum of the four factors above and nothing else.
Promoted places
- Promoted servers are shown in a strip above the list — on the first page, in the list of servers and on a game's page. The places are few; they are taken with credits earned on the site, or given by the site's team. A promoted server keeps its place in the list too, except on its game's page, where it is shown in the strip instead.
- A bump puts a server first in the "Recently bumped" strip of its game, where it stays until others are bumped over it.
- A highlight frames a server where it already stands in the lists, without moving it.
Visibility you earn
These places are free and cannot be bought, with credits or with anything else.
- New on GTScope. A server that its owner has just listed is shown among the new servers of its game and on the first page for 7 days. Every new server gets this, once.
- Rising this week. On each game's page: the servers whose distinct voters of the last seven days grew the most against their own weekly average of the four weeks before. A server is measured against itself, so a small one has the same chance as a large one. It needs at least 5 voters in the week; its owner's own votes are not counted.
Reviews
Votes show how mobilized a community is. Reviews show what the server is actually like.
What gets rated
Each criterion receives a score from 1 to 5. The average is weighted — not all questions carry the same weight.
We know who actually played there
We scan the servers every 5 minutes and record the hours played by each player. If your account name shows up in that server's statistics, your review gets a green badge with your hours and appears first in the list.
Pros and cons, separately
Besides the scores, you write what you like and what you do not, as lists. It is easier to read than a paragraph and it forces you to be specific — “the admins respond fast” says more than “good server”.
One review per person
One single review per server per account, editable at any time. The owner cannot rate their own server. Abusive reviews are hidden by moderators.
Why a single 5★ does not push a server to the top
If we compared servers by their raw average, anyone with a single 5-star review would look perfect. So the rating used for comparisons is pulled towards the platform average, the more strongly the fewer reviews the server has. As real reviews add up, the effect fades on its own and the rating becomes the true one.
The average displayed on the server page stays the honest one, untouched. The adjustment only matters when we compare servers against each other.
Reviews enter the leaderboard score — carefully. A server needs 5 published reviews before its rating counts, and from there it adds at most 10 pts: a small part next to the votes, so a handful of reviews cannot buy a place.
Player leaderboard
On every server we keep track of who plays, how long they play and how much they frag.
How the rating is calculated
The time spent on the server weighs more than frags — it is a leaderboard of the community, not just of those with good aim.
Regular: if you show up on the server in at least 12 different scans, you get the house regular badge.
Identification is done by name: the server protocol does not give us a unique ID, so the same name on the same server means the same player.
The tiers
They are awarded by percentile, relative to the other players on the same server — so a tier means the same thing on a 20-player server and on a 2000-player one.
Diamond
Platinum
Gold
Silver
Bronze
How fresh it is: every scan, once in 5 minutes, works out the score of the server it scanned. The measurements behind it — people over the days, scans answered, people who voted — are taken again every 15 minutes.