How rankings work
Rankings worth defending
An honest ranking system designed for casual groups — not pro tours. Here's exactly how Who Play turns your Tuesday futsal into a real season.
Who Play uses an ELO rating system adapted for amateur multi-sport groups. Each player starts at 1500, and the rating shifts after every recorded game based on the result and the strength of the opposing team. The base K-factor is 32, with monthly season-archive bonuses for top finishers, MVP-of-the-month and attendance streaks — then standings reset cleanly for the next month.
What is an ELO ranking?
ELO is a rating system originally designed for chess. Each player has a single number that goes up when they win and down when they lose. The size of the change depends on how mismatched the two sides were: beating a much stronger opponent gives a bigger jump than beating a weaker one. It's the standard way to rank players whose schedules don't line up — exactly the case for casual sports.
How does ELO work for amateur sports specifically?
Who Play uses a per-group, per-sport ELO with a base K-factor of 32. Every game runs the standard ELO update for each player on the winning team versus each player on the losing team. We average team ratings to compute the expected result. Draws move both sides toward the average. The system stays simple — no hidden multipliers, no "reputation" scores.
What's the K-factor and why 32?
The K-factor is the maximum number of points an ELO update can move a player. Higher K means rankings react faster but feel more volatile; lower K means rankings are smoother but slow to update. K=32 is the sweet spot for casual groups that play 1–4 times a week — enough movement to make each game meaningful, smooth enough that one bad night doesn't tank you.
Why does Who Play give bonuses at month-end?
Pure ELO doesn't reward attendance or being voted MVP. Casual groups care about both. So at the end of the season we archive the standings and apply small bonuses: a few points for being voted MVP, a few for high attendance, a few for tournament wins. Then the new month starts clean. Bonuses are intentionally small — they reward consistency, they don't override actual results.
How are teams balanced from the rankings?
When you tap Balance Teams, Who Play sorts the confirmed players by ELO and assigns them to teams to minimise the difference between team-total ratings. For 2v2 padel, that's a single pair-vs-pair split; for futsal or soccer, it's a multi-way split. You can always override picks manually before the game starts.
What happens at the end of the month?
Standings are archived as a snapshot — visible in the group's history — and the live leaderboard reverts to the carry-over rating with the bonuses applied. The monthly recap card is generated automatically and ready to share to WhatsApp or Instagram Stories.
What if my group plays more than one sport?
Each sport has its own ELO. A player with a 1700 padel rating who joins a futsal night starts that sport at the default 1200 and builds it independently. Profiles surface per-sport rankings so you can see exactly where each player sits in each sport.
How do guest players affect the rankings?
Guests get an ELO too — they're full citizens of the leaderboard from day one. If they later create an account and claim their guest profile, the history follows them with no rating reset. This avoids the "sandbagging via friend" problem common in other apps.
Rankings worth defending
An honest ranking system designed for casual groups — not pro tours. Here's exactly how Who Play turns your Tuesday futsal into a real season.
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