Player counts and byes in Pecking Order
Pecking Order runs with any number of players from four up. There is no multiple to hit and no fixed round count — whatever turns up, the app builds the round and rotates the surplus through byes.
How the field is set each round
Two limits decide how many players are on court:
The field is trimmed to a whole number of courts of four. Fourteen players means twelve play and two sit.
It is then capped by the number of courts you have. Twenty players on three courts means twelve play and eight sit.
The lower of the two wins. Everyone else takes a bye that round.
Players | Courts | Result |
|---|---|---|
16 | 4 or more | All 16 play, no byes |
14 | 4 or more | 12 play, 2 sit |
20 | 3 | 12 play, 8 sit |
5 | 1 or more | 4 play, 1 sits |
The minimum is four
Below four players a round cannot be built, and generating tells you how many more you need. Four is a single court.
Byes never cost you ground
Standings use win percentage — games won divided by games played. A round you sat out is not counted at all, so it cannot drag your record down. A player who has played six games and won four ranks level with a player who has played three and won two.
Choosing who sits out
You pick this when you generate a round, and you can change it between rounds.
Setting | Who sits |
|---|---|
Rotation | Whoever has sat out fewest times so far |
Position | The players at the bottom of the current ranking |
Rotation is the default for this format, and it is the right choice for a social session — it spreads byes across the whole field instead of repeatedly benching the same lower-ranked players.
Position keeps the strongest available players on court. On a night with far more players than courts it will sit the same people out round after round, so use it only when that is what you want.
How rotation picks
Rotation counts how many byes each player has already taken and sits the least-rested first. Anyone who sat out the previous round goes to the back of the queue, so byes do not land on the same player twice running while someone equally rested is available.
Between players with identical bye counts the choice is random. That means regenerating the same round can produce a different set of byes — the counts stay even either way.
League weeks with changing numbers
Because there is no valid-count rule, a league week generates whatever the opt-in total is. Eighteen players one week and 23 the next both work; only the number of byes changes.
Bye history carries across the season, so a player who sat out twice in early weeks is protected later. Players who join mid-season are not charged for the weeks before they arrived.