How court movement works in Ladder formats
Court movement determines where players or teams go after each ladder round. The movement rule depends on the ladder format you chose.
Up and Down the River
Winners move up one court and losers move down one court. A winner already on Court 1 stays there. A loser already on the bottom court stays there.
For the full rules, including how the bye group is handled, see How movement works in Up and Down the River.
Ladder League
Ladder League does not use simple winner-up, loser-down movement. Each court plays a full round robin, and movement is driven by where you finish in it rather than by a single win or loss. The number of players moving between courts each round is configurable — 1 or 2.
It also maintains a persistent division-wide ladder rank and an absence penalty, neither of which the other formats have. See How movement works in Ladder League.
Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty uses more dramatic movement. Winners move up one court. Losers on Court 1 fall all the way to the bottom court. Losers on any other court stay where they are rather than moving down.
Cream of the Crop
Cream of the Crop uses progression by finishing position instead of court-by-court movement. After each round everyone regroups — all the 1st-place finishers together, all the 2nd-place finishers together, and so on.
See How Cream of the Crop works.
Crazy 8's
Crazy 8's does not move players between courts at all during a day. Groups of eight stay together and results change your partner rather than your court; movement between groups happens between days.
See How Crazy 8's works.
When the next week's court appears
After a round completes, standings park on the upcoming week and show each player's projected ladder order. The court number is hidden until you generate that week's matches — while the week is still upcoming, opt-ins are in flux, so the court a player would land on is only a projection, not a commitment. Once you generate the round, the courts appear.
To set the order before you generate, see Adjust the ladder by hand.
How byes are handled
When player counts are uneven, some formats show byes at the bottom of the matches view. Up and Down the River, Humpty Dumpty, and Cream of the Crop can show bye players. Ladder League does not use a separate bye group — its courts flex between 4 and 6 players instead.
For the formats that do, you can choose how byes are assigned. See Bye Mode for Ladder Leagues.
To understand how round results affect rankings, see How Standings Are Calculated.