Tier League (Set Partners) Walkthrough

Run a full Tier League (Set Partners) season in Good Game Sports—from creating the event through weekly play, promotion and relegation, and the season championship race.

What is Tier League (Set Partners)?

Tier League (Set Partners) is a multi-week league format built around skill tiers with weekly promotion and relegation. Exactly 15 teams split into three tiers of five: Gold (top), Silver (middle), and Bronze (bottom). Teams register as fixed pairs and keep the same partner for the whole league. In the format dropdown, choose Tier League (Set Partners).

Each week, every team plays a full round robin inside its own tier—four matches, one against each of the other teams in the tier. After the week’s matches are in, the host advances the week: top finishers move up a tier, bottom finishers move down, and a fresh round robin is generated for the new tiers. Teams also earn season points from where they finish in their tier each week. Those points accumulate across the league to crown an overall season champion, independent of which tier a team sits in at the end.

Key characteristics:

• 15 teams, registered as fixed pairs (set partners stay together the entire league)

• Three tiers—Gold, Silver, Bronze—of five teams each

• Each week is a fresh round robin inside each tier (4 matches per team; standard scoring is one game to 15, win by 2)

• Weekly standings reset every week—wins, losses, and point differential start fresh; only season points carry over

• Promotion and relegation each week—the host picks 1 up / 1 down or 2 up / 2 down when advancing

• Season points accumulate across all weeks to decide the overall season champion

• Runs 6 weeks by default; the host can add or remove play dates to lengthen or shorten the season—there is no separate finalize step

This format works well for recurring club nights and leagues where teams play others at their own level each week, with a path to climb or drop tiers and a season-long championship to play for.

The event page shows two tabs: MATCHES and STANDINGS. There is no bracket tab for this format.

Step 1: Create the event

You have two paths to create a Tier League event.

Option A: Create from CourtReserve

If your club uses CourtReserve for registrations, create the event from there so player signups stay synced automatically.

Prerequisites:

• Club owner access in Good Game Sports

• CourtReserve admin access

• CourtReserve plan with API access (Scale or Enterprise)

If CourtReserve is not connected yet, connect CourtReserve first.

1. From the Good Game Sports dashboard, go to Manage Club

2. Open CourtReserve Events

3. Find your event in the list (events sync from 2 days past to 100 days future)

4. Click + Create Event on GGS next to your event

5. In the Create GGS Event dialog:

   • Event Type: Choose League (Tier League is built for recurring weekly play)

   • Type: Choose Doubles (teams register as pairs)

   • Format: Select Tier League (Set Partners)

6. Click Create Event

The event is now linked to CourtReserve. Team registrations sync automatically. For more detail, see Create a GGS event from a CourtReserve event.

Option B: Create directly in Good Game Sports

If you do not use CourtReserve or prefer manual player management:

1. From the dashboard, click + Create Event

2. Fill in event details (name, dates, location)

3. Set Format to Tier League (Set Partners)

4. Choose Doubles (teams register as pairs)

5. Click Create Event

For general setup help, see Creating an Event in GGS.

Step 2: Add or sync teams

Tier League needs exactly 15 teams—30 players paired into fixed partnerships. Every player must be paired with their partner before you generate the league.

If using CourtReserve

Teams sync automatically from CourtReserve registrations. To refresh manually:

1. Go to your event

2. Open the Players tab

3. Use the sync control to pull the latest registrations

For detailed syncing steps, see Sync players into an event.

If not using CourtReserve

1. Go to your event

2. Open the Players tab

3. Use + Add Players to add teams manually, or import from a spreadsheet

4. If you add players individually, use the pencil icon next to each player to set their partner

Once your 15 teams are in place, seed the tiers and create the first week’s matches.

1. Go to the MATCHES tab

2. Tap Generate League (Week 1)

3. Confirm: seed the 15 teams into the Gold, Silver, and Bronze tiers and create Week 1’s round robin

The app splits your 15 teams into three tiers of five—the top five seeds go to Gold, the next five to Silver, and the last five to Bronze—and generates each tier’s full round robin (30 matches total across the three tiers). It also lays the league out as one round per week (Week 1 through Week 6 by default), each with its own date spaced seven days apart.

Tiers seed from your existing team order. To control who starts in which tier, arrange teams before generation, or edit tier assignments afterward before any scores are entered (see Step 6).

After a successful generate, you see confirmation that tiers and Week 1 were generated.

Step 4: Enter scores for the week

As the week’s matches are played, enter scores on the MATCHES tab.

1. Tap a match card to open score entry

2. Enter the score

3. Tap Submit Score

Each team plays four matches for the week—one against each other team in its tier. Standard scoring for this format is one game to 15, win by 2.

Weekly standings update automatically as scores come in. Within each tier, teams rank by:

1. Match record (wins)

2. Head-to-head among tied teams

3. Point differential (points for minus points against)

Weekly standings are per week only. Every week is its own round robin, so records reset each week. Only season points carry forward.

Step 5: Advance to the next week (promotion and relegation)

When a week’s play is done, advance it to apply promotion and relegation and build the next week.

1. On the MATCHES tab, tap the generate control—now labeled Advance to Week N (for example, Advance to Week 2)

2. If any matches are still unscored, the app warns you before you continue. You can still advance: standings and promotion/relegation lock in from the scores entered so far, and unscored matches count as no result

3. In the Promotion & Relegation — this week dialog, choose how many teams move:

   • 1 up / 1 down (default) — the tier winner moves up and the last-place team moves down

   • 2 up / 2 down — the top two move up and the bottom two move down (more movement)

4. Confirm

The app locks in that week’s standings, promotes and relegates teams, awards season points, and generates the next week’s round robin for the newly arranged tiers. Gold cannot promote above itself. Bronze cannot relegate below itself.

On the final scheduled week there is no next week to build. Advancing it (or completing it) finalizes season points for that week. There is no separate finalize step. To play more weeks, add a play date so another week can be generated.

Step 6: Adjust tiers manually

You can rearrange which teams sit in Gold, Silver, and Bronze before a week has scores—for example, after treating Week 1 as a trial seed, then re-seeding before Week 2 play starts.

Tier edits are allowed only when the current week already has matches and none of those matches have scores yet.

• If the week has no matches yet: Generate this week’s matches before editing tiers.

• If any match in the week has a score: Tiers can’t be edited once this week’s matches have scores. Clear the scores first.

When you save tier changes, the app updates assignments and regenerates that week’s round robin. You see confirmation that tiers were updated and this week’s matches were regenerated.

If you need to clear scored matches first, confirm Clear scores and regenerate? with Clear and regenerate. Cleared scores cannot be recovered.

Step 7: Track season standings and the champion

Open the STANDINGS tab to follow the season-long race. Season Standings lists every team in one leaderboard with their current Tier badge and SP (Season Points).

Season standings sort by season points (highest first), then by team name. The overall season champion is the team with the most season points at the end—not necessarily the team sitting in Gold in the final week.

If standings are empty, the app shows that no standings are available yet and to check back once matches have started.

Season points by finish each week

When a week advances, each team earns season points from finish place inside its tier:

Points from every advanced week add up. Season points are recomputed from scratch on each advance, so re-running an advance does not double-count.

Hosts can override a team’s total in Edit Season Points. Enter the new Season points total (cannot be negative). Future weeks keep adding points on top of that total.

Season length and play dates

A new Tier League starts with 6 weeks. Week dates are spaced seven days apart from the division start date (or today if no start date is set).

Add play dates to lengthen the season, or remove them to shorten it. After the last scheduled week is complete, there is no further Advance to Week N control until another week exists on the schedule. There is no separate end-of-season finalize action beyond completing the last week’s points.

Common issues

What's next

• Ladder formats overview — compare Tier League with other ladder-style formats

• Creating an Event in GGS — general event setup

• Create a GGS event from a CourtReserve event — CourtReserve-linked creation

• Sync players into an event — keep registrations current

• How Standings Are Calculated — standings rules across formats