Getting started with Cream of the Crop

Everyone on a court partners everyone else on it once, then the whole field regroups by where each player finished: court winners fill Court 1 first (spilling onto the next court when there are more winners than seats), then the runners-up, and so on. It runs with any number of players from 4 up.

Start with How Cream of the Crop works.

Lifecycle

1. Create the event as a League or Single Day Event. See Create a Cream of the Crop event.

2. Add players individually. There are no partners to record.

3. Review Cream of the Crop Settings: which court size plays on top, matches per partner, game scoring and the Absence Penalty.

4. Generate round 1. Place players at random, by DUPR rating, by another division's standings, or by how they finished in an earlier event at your club, and move them before play starts if you want. See Generate rounds in Cream of the Crop.

5. Score the whole round, then generate the next one with Top Performers → Top Courts. The field regroups by finishing place.

Repeat step 5 each round, or turn on auto-generation so each round builds itself once the last one is scored.

Good to know before you start

• Any count from 4 players works. Courts are usually 4s, with 5s for the extras. Six or seven players make one court, and if you have fewer courts than the field needs, courts grow to 6 or more. See Player counts for Cream of the Crop.

• Every court plays at once. With courts set on the division, the app never builds more courts than you have, and uses bigger courts instead.

• Finishing place comes first. Every court winner ranks above every runner-up, whatever court they won.

• Win percentage, then average point differential decide places on a court and break ties between courts.

• Only the last round counts. A strong round moves you straight up.

• Missing a week keeps your place. In leagues, the Absence Penalty drops a player 2 places for each missed game day after their first.

• The standings sort doesn't change courts. It only orders the standings table.

How it compares

Where to go next

• Player counts for Cream of the Crop

• Troubleshoot Cream of the Crop

• Editing groups in Ladder formats

• How Standings Are Calculated