Ratings

PickleFriend tracks skill with an Elo rating that updates from your actual game scores. Set seed ratings by hand if you know them, or skip that and let the numbers build from results.

Availability: Setting ratings by hand and using them to balance mixes is free. Letting ratings build automatically from recorded game scores is part of score tracking — a Pro feature (Pro and Club, with a 10-day free trial).

What the rating reacts to

• The score, not just the result. Margin of victory matters — a close win moves ratings less than a blowout.
• Placement period. Your first several games move your rating faster, so a new player lands near their true level instead of grinding up from a flat start.
• Doubles math. Rating changes are split between partners by their relative levels.
• Organizer settings. You can tune the rating scale, how hard ratings swing, and optional win bonuses.
• Inactivity decay — time away lowers your visible rating while preserving your real one. It's an ordinary group rating setting, so you can switch it on for any group, not just ladders. See Inactivity decay.

Unrated players

A player with no rating yet isn't a zero. "No rating" is its own state, and it stays that way until they've played enough to establish one — ratings don't start moving until games are recorded.

In this section

• How Elo ratings work — the math behind the scores: how margin of victory, partner levels, and rating gaps shape each move.
• Team ratings — how rating works when the fixed partnership, not the individual, is the rated entity.
• Placement games — why your first few games count for more.
• The public ratings page — what your shareable board shows and how to read it.
• Manual rating adjustments — seeding a rating, and nudging a player's number by hand when you need to.