Fakeout has a ladder. Five tiers — Steel, Platinum, Diamond, Master, and a fixed-slot Grandmaster — sitting on a real skill rating, the same μ/σ family that runs matchmaking in half the industry.
Ranked matches are eight humans, always. No bots, ever — a rating earned against a bot filling in for a missing eighth would be a lie, and the queue would rather make you wait than make one up. You queue from inside a casual match and keep playing until eight compatible players have gathered; the server moves everyone into the ranked room the moment it forms.
The matcher only builds fair lobbies: it searches within ±150 rating of you and widens slowly as you wait, hard-capped at ±400 — a Steel player never sees a Grandmaster, in either direction. Ranked runs a seven-minute clock with mercy at a five-goal lead: a competitive match gets more room to be won, and more separation before it ends early.
Ranked unlocks once you have an account and 50 casual matches on the books. That is deliberate — placements should measure your play, not your first hour of learning the movement.