Troubleshoot Humpty Dumpty

A player lost and stayed on the same court.

Cause: That is the format. In Humpty Dumpty a loss on any court except the top costs you nothing but the chance to climb. You hold your place.

Fix: Nothing to fix. If you want losers to drop a court, use Up and Down the River instead: same shape, but a loss moves you down.

Someone on Court 1 is now on the last court.

Cause: They lost on the top court. That is the great fall, and it is the defining rule of the format: the only place a loss is expensive.

Fix: Working as intended. If it feels too punishing, running fewer courts softens it: falling from Court 1 to Court 3 is a smaller setback than falling to Court 8.

When the player count doesn't divide by 4 and Bye Mode is By Position, the top-court losers go into the bye group and sit out the next round instead of dropping to the bottom court. The players coming off the bye take their places on the bottom court. With one player on bye, only one of the two top-court losers sits out (picked at random) and the other drops to the bottom court.

Fix: Working as intended. To share sitting out across everyone instead, choose Rotation in Bye Mode the next time you generate. See Byes in ladder formats.

The same players sit on Court 1 week after week.

Cause: Winners on the top court stay there, and only a loss dislodges them. If your strongest players keep winning, they keep their place.

Fix: Expected, but check how you seeded round 1. By DUPR Rating puts the strongest players on Court 1 immediately. Random mixes things up and gives the top court more turnover early.

Most players have climbed and the lower courts are thin.

Cause: This is part of the format. A loss in the middle does not cost you a court, so over time players climb and only the top-court fall sends anyone back down.

Fix: Nothing is broken. If you want a ladder that spreads players out more evenly, use Up and Down the River or Ladder League. Both move losers down.

If a match has no score when you generate the next round, the app picks a winner for that court itself, and players move on that result.

Fix: Go to the new round, open the Admin menu and tap Clear Round. Then enter the real scores for the previous round and generate again.

The bye group looks like it is not rotating.

Cause: Bye Mode is set to By Position, which sends the top-court losers to the bye group each round. A group that keeps losing narrowly on Court 1 can sit out often.

Fix: Choose Rotation in Bye Mode when you next generate (or By Rotation in the auto-generation settings). Whoever has sat out the fewest rounds sits out next, and rounds a player missed for any reason count toward that total. See Byes in ladder formats.

One group is short.

Cause: That is the bye group. Courts need four players, so any remainder after dividing the opted-in players by 4 sits out.

Fix: Nothing to fix. Adjust the roster if you would rather nobody sat out, or accept the bye.

People on the roster were not scheduled.

Cause: Each round uses only the players opted in for that date. Other players are added only when fewer than four have opted in.

Fix: Check opt-in status for that date, set it, and regenerate. See League opt-in.

Tapping Clear Round shows Auto-Generation Active.

Cause: Auto-generation is on.

Fix: In the Admin menu, tap Stop Auto-Generation, clear the round, then turn auto-generation back on. See Auto-generation in Ladder formats.