Chess. A game about strategy and "guesswork(used veeerryyy lightly)." Now, you have chess where you have 20 pieces(joints) and all those pieces work in both subtle and significant ways with each other, and not even the best players know entirely how to utilize them. Likewise to chess, a lot of the match depends on thinking at the very least into the next turn. If you play following your ghost you'll only go so far. In chess, you don't even have the luxury of a ghost to tell you what to do and guide your every move. It's entirely "guesswork" and strategy. That's what turn based games are, and I would LOVE to see the look on Garry Kasparov's face when you tell him that chess is akin to rock-paper-scissors. This "it's not competitive" thing sounds like an argument based entirely on salt.

I'm not saying ToriBash is as advanced as chess, but they're obviously similar in the sense that they are turn based and that advanced play hinges on the idea that you can predict what your opponent will do (or, in the case of chess, stay one step ahead of them). I'm sure most people, though, are too focused on obtaining mastery of movements of their joints to realize that there is an entirely different aspect to gameplay, whether you like it or not.

Is it safe to say the thread is officially derailed now? I think the people who've commented have pretty much said the ranks aren't really working and we're in dire need of an update. Competition in this game works on a small scale and in controlled environments, but so much can (and has) gone wrong with the ranking system that I think a lot of people have lost hope.