The absence penalty in Ladder League
A player who keeps missing weeks slowly drops down the ladder, so regulars are not stuck below someone who has not played in a month. By default the first missed game day is free and each missed day after that drops the player 2 ladder spots. You can change both numbers, or turn the penalty off, for each division.
This applies to both Ladder League variants (individual and teams) and is on by default. Cream of the Crop leagues use the same default rule, and there you can only switch it on or off (in Cream of the Crop Settings).
The rules
Each Ladder League division has three settings under Absence Penalty:
Free missed days: how many game days a player (or team) can miss before the penalty starts. Default 1, from 0 to 10. Set it to 0 to penalize every missed day.
Drop per missed day after that: how far each further missed day drops them. Default 2, from 1 to 20.
Spots or Courts: whether that drop is counted in ladder spots or in whole courts. Default Spots.
With the defaults, missing one week costs nothing. Missing a second costs 2 spots. A third costs another 2.
When the drop is counted in courts, an absent player moves down that many courts and keeps their place on the court. A court is measured on the courts played that day, so exactly where they land next round depends on who shows up.
Change the rule or turn it off
You need to be a host of the event. Some leagues would rather hold everyone's position regardless of attendance, a social league where people drop in and out for instance. With the penalty off, absent players hold their slot and only results move anyone.
In the Host Dashboard, open Settings and tap Event Settings.
Tap Ladder League Configuration and pick the division if the event has more than one.
Use the Absence Penalty switch to turn it on or off.
With it on, set Free missed days, Drop per missed day after that, and Spots or Courts.
Tap Save Configuration.
What counts as a missed day
Opting out counts as a miss, even if you opted out well in advance. So does not showing up.
A bye does not count. If you opted in and the app sat you out that week, that is not an absence.
Nights before you joined do not count. A player added mid-season is only charged for game days they were on the ladder for.
A game day with several rounds counts as one missed day.
What it does not do
It does not compound. The drop is applied once, on the round that completes that missed day, and carried forward. It is not re-applied every later week, which would snowball someone out of the league after a couple of misses.
Penalties don't cancel each other out. When several players are penalized in the same week, each still drops its full amount past the players who turned up. Players further down than that stay below them.
How it interacts with movement
The penalty is applied after the week's up/down movement, as a shift on the resulting order. Players who were present are placed by their results first, then the absentees are shifted down past them. It lands as soon as the first score of that game day is entered.
Players you placed by hand (marked Held at this spot in the standings) are placed after the penalty, so a held player stays where you put them.