docs: scope casual and ranked matchmaking as a 1.0 launch blocker

Queued matchmaking had never been considered anywhere in the planning
docs - not as planned work, and not even on the explicitly-deferred
list. It is a launch requirement, so record the design before code.

Add docs/MATCHMAKING.md covering the model change (community-server ->
per-match allocation), the decision to use Steam for identity and a
project-owned backend for queue/rating/allocation, what the existing
server already provides (--max-matches=1 is the allocation primitive,
ServerConfig, the roster, MatchState), the casual/ranked ruleset split,
and the open questions - rating algorithm, team-to-individual rating,
and the server cost that allocated matches reintroduce.

Ranked is hard-blocked on Phase 7 Steam auth tickets: slot reclaim is
keyed by display name today, and a rating on a spoofable identity is
worse than no rating.

Add Phase 8 to multiplayer-next.md, and correct README/CLAUDE.md/
TECH_STACK.md, which asserted no backend exists or is planned - true
before this was scoped, wrong now.

docs/MATCHMAKING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,141 @@
+# Matchmaking — casual and ranked queues
+
+Design scope for online casual and ranked play. This is a **1.0 launch
+blocker**, not a post-launch addition.
+
+Nothing described here is implemented yet. This doc exists to record the
+decisions and the reasoning before code is written; per-task implementation
+evidence belongs in `multiplayer-todo.md` once work starts, and the live
+checklist lives in [`multiplayer-next.md`](../multiplayer-next.md).
+
+## The model change
+
+The multiplayer that exists today is a **community-server** model. A
+dedicated server runs forever: it waits for `--min-players` by roster,
+counts down `--start-countdown`, loads the next arena from the rotation,
+plays a match, returns to the lobby, and repeats (`server_match_loop.gd`).
+Players reach it by direct IP, and after Phase 7 by a Steam server browser.
+The server is the durable thing and players come and go around it.
+
+Queued matchmaking inverts that. Players are the durable thing: they enter a
+queue, a matchmaker groups them by rating and region, and a **server is
+allocated for that one match** and torn down afterwards. Both models can
+coexist — community servers via the browser, queues via the matchmaker — and
+they should, because the server browser is already most of the way to done.
+
+## Hard prerequisite: verified identity
+
+Ranked cannot ship before Phase 7's Steam auth tickets.
+
+Slot reclaim is currently keyed by **display name** (see
+`--slot-reservation-seconds`, and the known-issues list in
+`multiplayer-next.md`). A rating attached to a spoofable identity is worse
+than no rating at all: it is trivially farmed, and it invites players to
+invest in a ladder that cannot be defended. "Ranked is critical" therefore
+*raises* the priority of Steam identity rather than routing around it.
+
+Casual queueing has a weaker requirement — it still needs stable identity for
+abandon penalties and ban enforcement, but the cost of a compromise is lower.
+
+## Architecture
+
+Decided: **Steam for identity, a project-owned backend for everything else.**
+
+This reverses the "no backend" position stated in
+[`TECH_STACK.md`](TECH_STACK.md) and `README.md`, which described the state
+of the project before matchmaking was scoped. The dedicated server remains a
+Godot export; the new service is separate from it.
+
+The alternative — Steam-native matchmaking (lobbies plus Leaderboards or User
+Stats as the rating store) — was rejected on two grounds. Steam lobby
+matchmaking has no real concept of a skill distribution to match against, and
+Leaderboards are a display surface rather than a rating store with the
+transactional guarantees a ladder needs. It would also permanently bind the
+game to Steam, foreclosing other platforms.
+
+### Components
+
+| Component | Runs where | Responsibility |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| Steam auth ticket validation | backend | Turn a client-supplied ticket into a verified SteamID via the Steamworks Web API. The only trusted source of identity. |
+| Queue / matchmaker | backend | Hold queued players per playlist and region; form matches on rating proximity with a widening tolerance over wait time. |
+| Rating store | backend (DB) | Per-identity, per-playlist rating and match history. Written only by the backend, never by a game client. |
+| Server allocator | backend | Start a dedicated-server instance per formed match, hand its address to the matched clients, reclaim it on exit. |
+| Dedicated server | Godot export | Unchanged simulation. Gains a mode where the roster is *assigned* rather than open, and reports a result at the end. |
+| Game client | Godot | Queue UI, estimated wait, accept/decline, connect-on-assignment, post-match rating delta. |
+
+### What already exists and gets reused
+
+The server side needs less new work than it looks:
+
+- **`--max-matches=1`** already makes the server drain and `exit(0)` after a
+  single match. That is precisely the lifecycle a per-match allocator wants;
+  it was built for CI, and it generalises for free.
+- **`ServerConfig`** is a single-source-of-truth flag table with strict
+  validation — new allocation flags are declared in one place and are
+  automatically parsed, type-checked, config-file-backed and documented.
+- **`--min-players` / `--start-countdown` / `--slot-reservation-seconds`**
+  are the match-formation primitives, and they already count *roster*
+  members rather than raw peers.
+- **`MatchNet`'s roster** already survives the lobby→match transition, which
+  is the structure an assigned roster slots into.
+- **`MatchState`** already has a legal-transition table with wire-stable
+  integer values, so new lifecycle states append cleanly.
+
+### What is genuinely new
+
+- The backend service itself (process, deploy, DB, ops) — nothing like it
+  exists in this repo today.
+- Server-authoritative **match results**: the dedicated server must report
+  the outcome to the backend over a channel a client cannot forge. This is
+  the first non-ENet/SDR network path in the project (see TECH_STACK's "no
+  HTTP layer" note, which this supersedes).
+- An **assigned-roster** server mode: only the matched SteamIDs may take a
+  slot, replacing the current first-come model.
+- Client-side queue UI and the accept/decline flow.
+
+## Casual vs ranked
+
+They are different playlists, not a difficulty toggle, and their rules
+diverge in ways that affect the server:
+
+| | Casual | Ranked |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| Rating | Hidden, used only for matching | Visible, with tiers |
+| Backfill on disconnect | Yes — keep the match playable | No — the match is rating-bearing and must not change shape mid-way |
+| Bots filling empty slots | Acceptable (`--fill-bots` exists) | Never |
+| Abandon penalty | Light (short queue cooldown) | Real (rating loss, escalating cooldown) |
+| Arena selection | Full rotation | Restricted set, so a variant nobody has practised can't decide a ladder match |
+| Party / premade | Unrestricted | Constrained by size and rating spread |
+
+Note the arena constraint interacts with an existing rule: elevated-goal
+variants are Free-Play-only until a checkpoint trained on
+`training_elevated.tscn` is promoted (`arena_registry.gd`). Ranked's arena
+set should be drawn from `"random": true` arenas only.
+
+## Open questions
+
+- **Rating algorithm.** Glicko-2 is the default recommendation over plain
+  Elo: it models rating *uncertainty*, which matters enormously for a small
+  launch population where most players have few games. Not yet decided.
+- **Team rating from individual ratings.** How a 3v3 match's outcome
+  distributes across six players is a separate design problem from the
+  rating system itself.
+- **Server cost.** Allocated servers cost real money per match, unlike
+  community servers that players host themselves. `README.md`'s original
+  note about a subscription to fund servers is suddenly load-bearing again.
+  Population size and match length set the bill; this needs a number before
+  launch, not after.
+- **Region / ping policy.** How much rating tolerance to trade for latency,
+  and whether cross-region is ever allowed at low population.
+- **Placement matches** and whether ranked has a soft reset per season.
+- **Backend language and hosting.** Not chosen. It does *not* have to be C#
+  despite the original README framing — that framing was aspirational and
+  predates every real decision in this project.
+
+## Explicitly out of scope
+
+Tournaments, in-game leaderboards beyond a personal rank display,
+cross-platform play with non-Steam identity providers, and spectator/observer
+tooling for ranked matches. None are precluded by this design; none are
+launch scope.

docs/TECH_STACK.md

@@ -176,10 +176,21 @@ Python, no .NET, no network." Keeping the shipped game GDScript-only (no
 
 ## What's deliberately absent
 
-- **No C# or .NET runtime anywhere in the shipped game or server**, despite
-  early project framing (see `README.md`'s history) once describing a
-  "C# backend" — that was never built and is not the current plan.
+- **No C# or .NET runtime anywhere in the shipped game or server.** The
+  "C# backend" in `README.md`'s early framing was never built. A backend
+  service *is* now planned for matchmaking (see below), but nothing has
+  chosen C# for it — that framing predates every real decision here.
 - **No HTTP/WebSocket/gRPC layer** for multiplayer — ENet/Steam SDR over UDP
-  only, via Godot's own `MultiplayerAPI`.
+  only, via Godot's own `MultiplayerAPI`. Matchmaking will add the project's
+  first non-UDP network path, for backend traffic only; the simulation stays
+  on ENet/SDR.
 - **No ONNX or other ML runtime in the shipped game** — see "AI opponents"
   above.
+
+## Planned, not yet built
+
+- **A matchmaking backend service** — Steam auth ticket validation, casual
+  and ranked queues, a rating store, and per-match dedicated-server
+  allocation. Language and hosting are undecided. This is a 1.0 launch
+  blocker and the single largest departure from "one Godot project, no
+  backend". See [`MATCHMAKING.md`](MATCHMAKING.md).