How Crazy 8's works
Eight players form a group and stay together for the whole day, playing on two courts. Win and you keep your partner; lose and you swap. Between days, players move between groups on performance.
The shape of a day
A group of 8 occupies two courts — four players on each.
Every round produces four winners and four losers. The winners go to one court, the losers to the other, and the pairings adjust:
Winners keep their partner and stay together
Losers swap partners with each other
So a winning pair keeps riding; a losing pair is broken up and recombined. Over a day this sorts the group without anyone leaving it.
Groups are fixed for the day
The eight players you start with are the eight you finish with. Nobody moves between groups mid-day — the sorting happens within your group, on the two courts.
Movement between groups happens between days, based on how the group performed.
Round 1 is seeded
The first round is built from seeds rather than results. Players are seeded 1 to 8 within their group, and paired:
Court | Pairing |
|---|---|
Court A | Seeds 1 & 8 vs 2 & 7 |
Court B | Seeds 3 & 6 vs 4 & 5 |
Strongest with weakest, so the opening round is as balanced as the group allows.
From round 2 onward it is winners-stay and losers-swap.
Nine-player groups
A group can hold 9 — eight active plus one sitting out, rotating.
The extra seed goes to the lowest-rated groups rather than the top, so the strongest group stays a clean 8 where possible.
Between rounds the bye passes to one of the losers, preferring whoever has sat out least. So the ninth player is not parked; they cycle through as rounds go on.
Only one extra player per group is supported. A group is 8 or 9 — never 10.
Between days
Performance across the day decides who moves up to a stronger group and who moves down, so the groups reshuffle for the next session.
Within a day the group is stable; between days the ladder moves.