King of the Ladder Documentation

King of the Ladder

King of the Ladder, also known as KOTL, is a competitive Minecraft minigame where players climb a ladder tower, reach the pressure plate at the top, claim the crown, and knock challengers back down. Every successful crown claim adds to the player’s total and arena score. The goal is to become king as many times as possible while keeping other players away from the top.

Built for server owners who want a continuous arena competition, KOTL includes an in-game setup menu, automatic area entry and exit detection, scoreboards, boss bars, king cooldowns, per-arena records, statistics, PlaceholderAPI placeholders, and a developer API for custom integrations.

Get Started

Getting Started Install KOTL and get your server ready for gameplay in minutes.

Arena Setup Create and configure a complete King of the Ladder arena.

Gameplay Overview Learn how area entry, crown claims, combat, deaths, and records work.

Features

These pages explain the important gameplay systems from a server owner perspective.

King Mechanics How the king plate, repeated claims, cooldowns, knockback, and fireworks work.

Arena Detection & Player State How players enter and leave areas and how inventories, effects, combat, and damage are handled.

Statistics & Records How global scores, arena scores, kills, deaths, tours, records, and leaderboards are stored.

Commands

All KOTL commands are grouped by purpose to keep server management clean and intuitive.

Player Commands Commands used to view help and inspect online or offline player statistics.

Arena Commands Commands used to create, edit, list, and delete arenas.

Admin Commands Administrative commands for stopping games, kicking players, and reloading settings.

Debug Commands Advanced commands for MiniMessage testing and event timing reports.

Configuration Files

KOTL offers detailed configuration through multiple files, allowing full control over gameplay, storage, visuals, messages, and menus.

config.yml Core gameplay, storage, chat, commands, cooldowns, and arena detection.

messages.yml All chat messages, setup feedback, command help, and cooldown text.

scoreboard.yml The in-arena scoreboard title, lines, and runtime placeholders.

bossbar.yml The gameplay boss bar text, color, overlay, and global file toggle.

items.yml The game area selection tool used during arena setup.

mysql.yml External database connection and statistics table settings.

GUI Menus Customize the arena setup and player statistics interfaces.

Other Files Automatically managed arena and local statistics data.

Placeholders

KOTL provides built-in placeholders and full PlaceholderAPI support for global, arena, player, statistic, and leaderboard data.

General Placeholders Server totals, live arena data, player state, and statistics.

Leaderboard Placeholders Ranked global statistics and per-arena crown scores.

Developer API

Explore the lifecycle events and integration points exposed by KOTL.

Player Events Arena entry, arena exit, crown claim, and statistic change events.

Game Events The game event base and post-cleanup game stop event.

Miscellaneous

FAQ Common questions, requirements, setup problems, and troubleshooting information.

Source Code Explore the codebase, report issues, or contribute on GitHub.