Round Ahead
Round Ahead mixes the next round early with your usual mixer settings, and starts each game as soon as its four players are free. How far ahead to plan, and what it gains for fixed partners and social nights.
Round Ahead mixes whole rounds exactly as your mixer normally does, with your preset, your partner links and your sit-out rules. The difference is timing: the next round is mixed before this one ends, and each of its games starts as soon as its court and its four players are free. Nobody waits for the slowest court.
Games are called in a fair order: the four players with the fewest games so far go first. Your panel shows each court's round and an Up next list (the big screen and the TV show each court's round only, to keep room for the courts). A player who is next sees "You're up next" on their phone, with who they are waiting for.
It is the recommended mode for fixed partners, and for social nights on fewer than 6 courts.
How far ahead to plan
Plan ahead sets how many rounds are mixed in advance: 1 (recommended), 3 or 5. Planning further lets a free court find a ready game more often, but the games are matched from older information.
16 fixed-partner teams on 8 courts
| Rounds | Plan 1 round | Plan 3 rounds | Plan 5 rounds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games per team | 4.1 | 4.9 | 4.9 | 5.0 |
| Rematches per night | 0 | 0 | 0.08 | 0.36 |
At exact fit (twice as many teams as courts), planning 5 rounds ahead adds about 3% more games, and opponents end up further apart: 15 to 17% of games are more than 4 ladder places apart, against 9 to 13% when planning 1 round. Teams can also drift two games apart. With spare teams, depth changes nothing: there is always a ready game, and the courts are the limit. That is why 1 round is recommended.
Fixed partners: what you gain
A fixed team no longer waits for the slowest game, and a team that sits out no longer waits twice. Games per team, 90-minute night, 8 courts:
| Teams on 8 courts | Rounds | Round Ahead |
|---|---|---|
| 16 teams (everyone plays) | 4.1 | 4.9 |
| 20 teams | 3.3 | 4.5 |
| 24 teams | 2.7 | 3.9 |
The cost is small: the average rating gap between opponents goes from 0.23 to 0.26 with 16 teams, and there are no rematches. The longest wait for one team can grow (20 minutes instead of 17) while the average wait halves (3.5 minutes instead of 7.5).
Changing partners
- Social mix: Round Ahead adds up to about 17% more games than rounds, and it never costs variety or evenness: everyone stays within one game of each other, and repeats are as rare as in rounds. The gain is largest when players sit out each round, and close to nothing when every player is on court. See the table in Choosing a mode.
- Level mix: with 32 players on 8 courts, 4.7 games per player instead of 4.2, with courts as close in level as rounds. Pods keep levels tighter.
Roster changes
- A late arrival joins the newest round that has not started yet.
- A player who leaves or sits out: the games they were in are mixed again around them. Games already on court play on.
How we measured: 200 simulated nights per row (100 to 300 for the older fixed-partner rows), 90 minutes of play, games to 11 lasting about 15 minutes, 1 minute between games. Fixed teams were rated 3.0 to 4.5, 0.1 apart. Only the 1-round plan was simulated for changing partners.