How Cream of the Crop works
Play a short round robin in a group of four, then everyone regroups by where they finished. All the winners play each other next round, all the runners-up play each other, and so on — so the strong rise and the field sorts itself.
A round
Your group of four plays three matches — enough that you partner each of the other three players exactly once. Everyone gets the same three partners and the same three opponents, so the finishing order inside the group is a fair reflection of that round.
At the end you are ranked 1st to 4th within your group.
The regrouping
This is the mechanic the format is named for.
After the round, the app takes everyone who finished 1st across all groups and puts them together. All the 2nd-place finishers form the next group, all the 3rd-place finishers the one after, and so on.
Finished | Next round's group |
|---|---|
1st in your group | With all the other 1st-place finishers |
2nd | With all the other 2nd-place finishers |
3rd | With all the other 3rd-place finishers |
4th | With all the other 4th-place finishers |
Win your group consistently and you rise into a group entirely made of other winners. That is the "cream" rising.
Ties across groups
When several players finished at the same rank, they are ordered by point differential — the biggest margin goes into the higher group.
So finishing 1st by a wide margin puts you above someone who also finished 1st but scraped it.
Not a court ladder
Cream of the Crop is often grouped with the ladder formats, but it does not work like one:
Ladder formats | Cream of the Crop | |
|---|---|---|
Movement | Up or down one court at a time | Regroup with everyone at your finishing position |
Based on | Winning or losing a match | Where you finished a whole round |
A bad round | Costs you a court | Drops you into the group of others who also had a bad round |
There is no gradual climb. Each round completely reshuffles the field by result.