How movement works in Ladder League
Movement is what turns last week's results into next week's courts. It runs when you generate the next round, not when you enter scores.
Nothing moves until something is scored
If no match in a round has been scored, nobody moves. Generating the next round simply carries the current ladder forward.
This is deliberate. Without it, an unplayed round would apply a swap to a field of 0–0 records and shuffle people for no reason. It also means the "next round" preview of an unplayed round looks identical to the current one — that is correct, not a bug.
The order things happen in
When you generate the next round, the app works through these in sequence. Knowing the order explains almost every surprising result:
Rank each court by that week's results.
Apply the up/down swap between courts — top finishers move up, bottom finishers move down.
Weave in the absent. Players who did not play hold their existing ladder slot; the players who did play are woven around them, and the whole ladder is renumbered 1..N.
Apply the absence penalty — repeatedly absent players drop down the woven order. See The absence penalty in Ladder League.
Overlay any admin pins — hand-placed players are locked to their chosen rank and everyone else weaves around them.
Results first, then absences, then your manual overrides. A pin always wins, because it is applied last.
How many move
The movement setting controls how many go up and down between courts each week. The default is 2.
Raise it for a more volatile ladder where a good week moves you a long way; lower it to 1 for a league that settles into a stable order.
Absent players hold their slot
Someone who misses a week does not lose their position through movement. Their ladder rank is frozen and the players who played move around them.
The only thing that pushes an absent player down is the absence penalty, and only from their second missed day onward.
Scoring type changes movement
Your division's scoring mode decides what movement counts:
Match wins (default) — movement follows matches won.
Individual games — movement follows games (sets) won.
Under individual games, a match recorded without per-game scores contributes nothing to movement. If you enter only an overall result and no game-by-game breakdown, that match will not move anyone. The standings tally behaves the same way, so the two stay consistent — but a week scored the wrong way can look like movement is broken.
If your league uses individual games, make sure scores are entered game by game.
Filler games do not count
In Switch Ladder play, filler games exist to fill a court rather than to decide anything. A filler side's result is excluded from movement, so it cannot push anyone up or down.