Create your first ladder league

Availability: Ladder leagues are part of Pro and up. On the free or Lite plan, the Create Ladder window offers the free option described under A lighter alternative at the end of this page: a regular group mixed with the Ladder preset.

One thing to understand first: each division rates on its own scale

Every division you create gets its own isolated rating pool. A player's rating in Div B tells you where they stand among Div B players. It is not on the same scale as Div A, and it never carries over between divisions. If the same person plays in two divisions, they hold two separate ratings, one per division.

Two reasons:

• Ratings settle faster. A rating sharpens by comparing you against the people you actually play. Inside a division everyone plays everyone at a comparable level, so each result is informative and the numbers settle quickly.
• Standings mean something. A single ladder-wide number would be distorted by tiers that rarely intermix. "Mid-pack in Div B" and "mid-pack in Div A" aren't the same thing, so putting them on one scale makes both less accurate.

When a player moves divisions they get a fresh start rating appropriate to the new division. For the full model, see Divisions and tiers.

Open Groups from your dashboard and click Create Ladder League. The modal walks you through every setting. What each one does:

1. Name and mode

Ladder Name is the name of the ladder as a whole, the umbrella over all your divisions. "Tuesday Night Ladder" or "Club Championship" are the kind of thing players will recognize. You can rename it later from group settings.

Mode is the most consequential choice you'll make here:

• Individual: each person has their own rating and moves between divisions alone. Partnerships rotate every session. Best for open clubs and drop-in groups.
• Team (Fixed Partners): a specific pair is the rated unit. "Alice & Bob" has one rating, separate from any other Alice pairing.

This shapes how ratings are stored, how movement works, and how the mixer runs. See Individual vs team mode before deciding, especially if you're unsure. The mode can't be changed after the ladder is created.

2. Division structure

Number of Divisions (2–10, default 2) sets how many tiers you start with: A at the top, then B, C, and so on. You can add more later. Starting with more than you need leaves some empty, so most new ladders do fine with 2–3. Remember: each division keeps its own rating pool (see above), so every division you add is another separate ratings scale.

Promote / Relegate N controls how many players move at each cycle. The top N from each lower division are promoted; the bottom N from each upper division are relegated. Default is 2. Adjust based on how often you play; a very active group can handle a higher number because ratings stabilize quickly.

3. Eligibility

Min Games for Eligibility (default 3) sets a floor: players below that game count in the current cycle window are excluded from promotion and relegation, so brand-new players don't move before they've settled. Set it to 0 to skip the gate.

Include inactive in relegation (on by default) means players who haven't played at all since the last cycle can still be relegated. This discourages no-shows: staying away to protect your position won't work. The flip-side option, Include inactive in promotion, is off by default, because promotion is tied to active play, so a player with no games since the last cycle is not moved up.

4. Auto-invite scope

These two checkboxes control which divisions a player is automatically invited to when you use scheduled events.

Auto-invite to lower divisions simultaneously: a player in Div A also gets an invite to Div B (and further down). Turn it on when you want higher-tier players to fill gaps in weaker divisions.

Auto-invite to higher divisions simultaneously: a player in Div B also gets a Div A invite. Use it to let strong players test themselves a tier up.

Neither is on by default. You can adjust these later in ladder settings. See Spares for the full picture on cross-division play.

5. Spare promotion and protection

When a player fills in for a session in a division that isn't their home tier, two settings control what happens:

Spare-up promotion (2 options):

Option	What it does
Never (default)	Sparing up never affects which division you belong to. Movement only happens through standard cycle runs.
Defer	A player who spares up and performs well is promoted at the next cycle.

Either way, recording a score never moves anyone on the spot. Promotion only happens when a cycle runs (or when you move a player manually).

Spare-down demotion (2 options):

Option	What it does
Protected (default)	A player filling in a lower division can't be relegated by that division's cycle result.
Relegate at cycle	A bottom-of-table finish while sparing down can drop the player a division when the cycle runs.

Most leagues leave both at the defaults (Never / Protected). Adjust once you've seen how spares behave in your group.

6. Rating decay

Enable rating decay between cycles (on by default) applies a rating reduction to inactive players each cycle. Only the rating shown in standings drops; the real rating is untouched. Active players sit above inactive ones in the standings, so the ladder doesn't freeze around people who've stopped coming.

Per-cycle decay rate (default 1%) is the base percentage applied each cycle a player misses. Leave it at 1 to start; you can tune it from the group's Ratings settings later.

Decay curve: Exponential (default) applies the base rate to the first missed cycle, then doubles the increment each subsequent cycle of inactivity, so a long absence accumulates faster than a single missed cycle. Linear applies the same flat rate every cycle.

After you create

Clicking Create Ladder sets up the ladder and all its divisions in one step. Go into each division and add your players to their starting tiers. If you use scheduled play, create your first event through the scheduler. Run a few sessions and record scores so ratings have time to build, then trigger a cycle from the ladder dashboard when you're ready for promotion and relegation.

The ladder dashboard shows standings for each division side-by-side. You can move players manually at any time, regardless of where the cycle would have placed them.

Not sure you want divisions yet? A lighter alternative

You can get a ladder-like feel without creating a ladder league at all: run a normal rated group and apply the mixer's Rating Isolation or Ladder preset. Similar-rated players land on the same courts, so a rough court ladder forms on its own, and as scores come in players drift up or down court by court. Everyone shares one rating pool, so there are no divisions, no promotion/relegation cycles, and none of the multiple-pool bookkeeping described above. It's a good way to feel out ladder competition before committing to a full ladder league.

That drift comes from recorded scores. Score entry is included free for every account's first month. After that, recording scores needs Pro, and on the free or Lite plan ratings change only when you edit them on the Players page.

What's next

• What is a ladder league?: the big-picture overview if you want to understand the model first.
• Individual vs team mode: deeper coverage of the mode decision and what it changes.
• Promotion and relegation: how cycles work and how to run them.
• Spares: full detail on cross-division fill-ins and the spare promotion settings above.
• Inactivity decay: how the decay schedule works and when it runs.