How Pecking Order works
Play one game each round with a new partner. After every round the whole field is re-ranked by record and re-cut into courts of four, so winning pulls you onto a tougher court and losing drops you onto an easier one. The games get closer as the session goes on.
The first round
The first round is seeded, because there are no results to sort on yet. You choose how when you generate it: by DUPR, by anchor rating, or at random.
The top four seeds start on the top court, the next four on the second court, and so on down.
Every round after that
This is the mechanic the format is named for. The app re-ranks every player in the event by their record so far, then cuts that single list into courts of four in order.
Ranked | Next round's court |
|---|---|
1st to 4th | Top court |
5th to 8th | Second court |
9th to 12th | Third court |
Because the ranking is rebuilt from scratch each round, there is no gradual climb. Win two on the bottom court and you can jump several courts at once. Lose on the top court and you can fall just as far.
How players are ranked
Players are ordered by win percentage — games won divided by games played.
When two players are level, the app breaks the tie in this order:
Average point differential, so winning by wide margins ranks you above someone with the same record who scraped through.
The court you played on last round, so the player who earned their record against tougher opponents ranks above the one who did not.
Who partners whom
Once your court of four is set, the strongest player is paired with the weakest and the middle two play together. That makes the closest game the four of you can produce.
The one exception is repetition: if that pairing would put you with the same partner you just had, the app picks the next-closest split instead, so you keep meeting new people.
Player and court counts
Pecking Order runs with any number of players from four up. It does not need a multiple of four and it does not need a fixed number of rounds — you can stop after any completed round and the standings are valid.
Each round the field is trimmed to whole courts of four, and to the number of courts you have. Anyone left over sits that round out.
Sitting out never costs you ground. Standings use win percentage, so a round you did not play is simply not counted rather than scored as a loss.
Who sits out
Two options control this, and you can change them between rounds.
Setting | Who sits |
|---|---|
Rotation | Whoever has sat out fewest times so far, so byes spread evenly across the field |
Position | The players at the bottom of the current ranking |
Rotation is the default, and it is the right choice for most social sessions — it stops the same lower-ranked players being benched round after round. Position suits a session where the point is to keep the strongest games on court.
Nobody who sat out last round is asked to sit out again while someone else is equally rested.
How it differs from the ladder formats
Pecking Order is listed with the ladder formats and feels similar on court, but the movement rule is different.
Ladder formats | Pecking Order | |
|---|---|---|
Movement | Up or down one court from where you were | Straight to wherever your record places you |
Based on | Your last result | Your record across the whole event |
A great round | Moves you up one court | Can move you up several |