Group Settings reference
Every setting in the Group Settings modal — ratings, game defaults, launcher config, policy, and sub-organizers — explained with its range and effect.
Open Group Settings from the dashboard sidebar to tune the active group — its rating engine, score-entry defaults, mixer algorithm pin, and public policy text. Settings save only to the active group, so switch groups first if you're not working in the right one.
Five tabs. Ladder groups gain a Ladder tab covering promotion counts and spare rules; it stays hidden on non-ladder groups.
Ratings tab
Rating Decay
| Control | Range / options | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Enable rating decay | toggle | off |
| Decay rate per period | 0.5 % – 10 % | 2 % |
| Exponential growth | toggle | on (when decay enabled) |
Decay gradually reduces a player's visible rating when they stop playing. The decay rate is the percentage dropped per period (weekly for standard groups; per-cycle for ladders — see Inactivity decay). With Exponential growth on, each consecutive inactive period doubles the rate; off, the same flat percentage applies every period.
Hidden MMR restores instantly when a player returns — only the display rating is affected during the inactive stretch.
Group Timezone
Sets the timezone used for date display and session boundaries across this group's events and schedule. The selector covers US & Canada, Europe, Asia & Pacific, and UTC. Choose the timezone where your games actually take place; a mismatch shifts session-boundary displays by the UTC offset of the event's location.
Public Visibility
Toggle Enable public ratings page to give your group a shareable link where players can view the standings. Once on, a read-only URL appears beneath the toggle. Leave it off to keep ratings private to you and your sub-organizers.
Team Rating Mode
Available on all groups, but mainly relevant for fixed-partner (team) setups:
| Option | Effect |
|---|---|
| Individual ratings (weighted average) | Mixing and standings use each player's individual Elo |
| Team entity ratings | Mixing and standings use the team's own Elo, tracked separately |
Both individual and team ratings are calculated at all times; this setting controls which drives mixing and the standings display.
Rating Calculation
These controls shape the Elo engine for this group. The defaults suit most recreational groups — adjust only when you have a specific reason.
| Control | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default rating | 500 – 3000 | 1500 | Starting rating for unrated players and teams in calculations |
| Scale | 0.01 – 10000 | 400 | Spread of the Elo curve — higher = more volatile per game |
| Base K-Factor | 8 – 80 | 60 | How many points move per game at most; auto-adjusted for win bonus and doubles |
| Player placement games | 1 – 20 | 8 | Games before a player sheds the "U" (unrated) prefix |
| Pool placement games | 10 – 100 | 48 | Total group games before pool-wide ratings stabilize (2× K applies during this window) |
| Highest player responsibility | 30 % – 70 % | 35 % | Weight toward the higher-rated player when computing team strength (50 % = fully equal) |
| Win bonus | 0 – 0.75 | 0 | 0 = only score margin matters; higher values weight winning itself more heavily |
| Protect winner rating (experimental) | toggle | off | Winners never lose rating points regardless of margin |
Placement games work at two levels. Player placement tracks an individual — after that many games the "U" prefix disappears and the rating is considered established. Pool placement tracks the whole group — the first N group-wide games run at double K so ratings spread from the shared default quickly; after that, standard K takes over.
Two presets sit at the bottom of the Ratings tab: Reset to Defaults restores every Ratings setting to the factory values shown above, and Fixed Partner Preset loads a configuration tuned for fixed-partner (doubles team) groups.
Game Defaults tab
These values pre-populate whenever a score is entered for this group — on the organizer's score modal, on player phones via the remote score link, and in headless mode. Players can change them per-game; this just sets the starting point.
Scoring Rules
| Setting | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Rally scoring | off | Every serve scores a point (not just the server's) |
| Win by two | off | A game must be won by at least 2 points |
| Target score | 7 – 25, default 11 | Score a team must reach to win |
Time Settings
Typical game duration (10 – 60 min, default 25 min) is the expected length of a close competitive game. It feeds into schedule estimates and timed-game calculations — it does not cap how long a game can actually run.
Launcher Settings
Pinning a mixer algorithm configuration here makes every launch from the dashboard or an event page start from these settings instead of whatever was last used on the device.
Use these settings on every launch — toggle on to activate the pin. Off, the mixer launches with per-device remembered settings as usual.
Import preset code — paste a code copied from the mixer's Custom Presets ("Copy" action inside the mixer) to load a saved algorithm config into the group-level pin without dialing in each slider manually.
Below those two controls, the full mixer algorithm controls render — the same sliders, toggles, and selects available inside the mixer itself. Adjust them here to define the group's canonical config.
Policy tab
A free-text field (up to 200,000 characters) for anything you want every player to see: code of conduct, payment terms, weather-cancellation rules, or a full league handbook. Line breaks are preserved as typed; plain text only (HTML is escaped).
Save a policy and two surfaces show it automatically — a Policy tab on the group's public ratings page, and a League Policy button on each event page. Leave the field blank to hide both.
For ladders, the policy is shared across every division; saving it from any division's settings updates the same value for the whole ladder.
Ladder tab
These settings shape how competition and movement work across divisions. The tab is hidden on non-ladder groups.
Ladder Configuration
| Setting | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Individual / Team | Set at creation, cannot change | Whether standings track players or fixed-partner teams |
| Promote / Relegate N | 1 – 20 | 2 | Top N move up, bottom N move down each cycle |
| Min Games for Eligibility | 0+ | 3 | A player must have at least this many games in the current cycle to be eligible for promotion or relegation |
Mode is locked after the ladder is created.
Auto-Invite Scope
Controls which divisions receive automatic invites when a ladder event is published. Auto-invite to lower divisions simultaneously sends invites to a player's official division and all lower divisions at once; Auto-invite to higher divisions simultaneously does the same for all higher divisions. See Auto-invite for how windows and scopes work in practice.
Spare-Up Promotion
What happens to a spare player who plays in a higher division:
| Option | Effect |
|---|---|
| Never (default) | Sparing never changes official division — only standard cycle promotion moves anyone up |
| Defer | A spare who plays well in a higher division is promoted when the next cycle runs (one division per cycle) |
| Instant | A player officially moves to the higher division on their very first game there; their lower-tier row deactivates |
Never is the default for new ladders. Defer protects against a single casual spare game flipping someone's division permanently. Instant suits ladders where you want standings to reflect actual play as it happens.
Spare-Down Demotion
What happens to a player who spares (plays as a fill-in) in a division below their official home:
| Option | Effect |
|---|---|
| Protected (default) | A last-place finish while sparing down cannot demote the player below where they are sparing |
| Relegate at cycle | A bottom-of-the-table finish while sparing down can drop the player one division at cycle time |
Sub-Organizers tab
Sub-organizers share management access to this group — they can manage players, run mixers, enter scores, and manage events. Only the group owner can add or remove sub-organizers from the list.
To add one, enter their email address and press Add. The account must already exist. Remove a sub-organizer using the remove action next to their name.
What's next
- Creating and switching groups — how groups are organized and where the settings link lives.
- Players — add, import, and manage the roster for the active group.
- How Elo ratings work — deeper explanation of K-factor, scale, and what the numbers mean.
- Placement games — the "U" prefix and the pool-wide stabilization window.
- What is a ladder league? — start here before touching the Ladder tab.