How Cream of the Crop works

Everyone on a court partners everyone else on it once, then the whole field is regrouped by where each player finished. The court winners go first next round, filling Court 1, then the runners-up, and so on, so the strongest players rise to the top courts fast.

A round

Each court plays every partnership on it, so every player partners each court-mate once. A court of 6 or 7 needs one extra game in which one pair partners again; that pair's result doesn't count in the standings. How many games a round takes depends on how many players are on the court:

Most rounds use courts of 4, with courts of 5 taking any extra players. Courts of 6 or 7 only appear when you have more players than your courts can hold in 4s and 5s. See Player counts for Cream of the Crop.

If you set 2 Matches per Partner in the division settings, each court plays its whole schedule twice.

Finishing places on a court

At the end of the round, players on each court are placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on by win percentage, then average point differential (points won minus points lost, per game).

We use percentages and averages rather than totals because a court of 5 plays more games than a court of 4. Totals would reward the extra games, not better play.

The regrouping

The next round is built from finishing places, not from courts. Every player who won their court is ranked first, then every runner-up, then every 3rd place, and so on. That ranked list is then cut from the top into courts.

With 16 players on four courts of 4, that gives the classic result: the four court winners play Court 1, the four runners-up play Court 2, and so on. Winning the bottom court puts you on Court 1 next round.

When places are tied across courts

Players who finished in the same place are ordered by win percentage, then average point differential, then which court they played on (a higher court ranks above a lower one). Winning your court by a wide margin puts you above someone who also won theirs but scraped it.

When the places don't fill courts evenly

The courts are cut from the ranked list, so a place can spill onto the next court. With 20 players on five courts of 4, there are five court winners for four seats on Court 1. The winner with the weakest record starts Court 2, still above every runner-up.

On a court of 5, the player who finishes 5th ranks below every 4th place in the field.

Missed rounds and new players

A player who misses a round keeps the place they finished in the last round they played. A Court 1 winner who sits out a week comes back ranked with that week's court winners, not on the bottom court.

In leagues, the Absence Penalty applies on top of that, the same way it does in the weekly ladder formats. It is on by default:

• A player's first missed game day of the season is free.

• Each missed game day after that drops them 2 places.

• A bye (opted in, but not scheduled) never counts as a miss.

• Game days before a player's first round don't count, so a player who joins mid-season still gets their free miss.

You can turn it off in Cream of the Crop Settings. A player who has never played a round starts on the bottom court.

Standings

Cream of the Crop standings sort by win percentage, then average point differential, then point differential, across the whole event. Courts are formed differently, by finishing place in the last round, so the standings table won't always match the court order. Choose By Record for the whole event or Per Round to see each round's courts.

Changing the standings sort changes how the table is ordered. It does not change who plays on which court. See How Standings Are Calculated.

Not a court ladder

Cream of the Crop is often grouped with the ladder formats, but it moves players differently:

There is no gradual climb. Each round reshuffles the whole field by result, so one good round puts you straight back up.

Related

• Create a Cream of the Crop event

• Generate rounds in Cream of the Crop

• League opt-in