A ladder that keeps itself up to date
Everyone can see where they stand, anyone can challenge the people just above them, and a result moves both players straight away. Three things that are almost never true at once on a spreadsheet, because they all wait on one person finding time.
A win takes their place
Before
- 3Fernandes
- 4Martina
- 5De Windt
- 6Girigori
- 7Leito
After
- 3Fernandes
- 4Girigori
- 5De Windt
- 6Martina
- 7Leito
Girigori, 6th, challenges Martina two places above and wins, so the two swap. Nobody in between is disturbed, which is what makes a ladder readable at a glance and a league a spreadsheet.
The rules a challenge follows
These are the defaults. Every one of them is the club’s to change before the season starts — see below.
- You challenge upward, two places
- Far enough that the ladder moves, near enough that it stays a ladder. Clubs that have always run three or five set it to three or five.
- A challenge cannot be refused
- Once it is made you are both committed. The alternative — challenges that can be declined — turns a ladder into a negotiation.
- Three days to play it
- If the match never happens, nobody moves and nobody is punished. The organiser can see that it lapsed, and the challenger may challenge again at once.
- One match at a time
- Nobody can be committed to two matches at once, in either direction. This is enforced by the database rather than by anyone remembering, so the ladder cannot end up in a state that has to be untangled by hand.
- The winner reports the score
- It applies immediately. If it is wrong, an organiser corrects it and the ladder recalculates from where it is now, keeping everything that happened in between.
The two screens a player uses
← Ladder
Choose an opponent
You are 7th. You may challenge up to 2 places above you.
A challenge cannot be refused, and the match must be played within 3 days. Neither of you can start another match until this one is done.
You are 7th, so 5 and 6 are the two you may challenge. De Windt is one of them and is already in a match, so tonight there is one name to pick. Everyone further up is listed too, greyed, with the reason — a player who cannot be challenged is never simply missing from the list.
← Ladder
Enter the result
You challenged Girigori
It updates the ladder straight away. If something is wrong afterwards, ask the organiser to correct it.
One score, entered by the winner. The ladder has already moved by the time you put the phone away.
The club sets its own rules
Play does not have opinions about how your ladder has always run. Before the first match, an organiser sets the challenge range, how long a match has to be played, the format — a pro set to eight, best of three to six, tiebreak or no tiebreak, golden point or advantage — what a walkover counts as, where a late joiner starts, and how many matches must pass before a rematch. Once the first challenge is made they are fixed for the season, so every result means the same thing as the one before it.
What a player gives up, and what they do not
- A phone number appears only while you have a match on
- When the match is over it disappears again. No shared contact list, no group with everybody’s number in it.
- You can say when you cannot play
- A standing note — never Sunday mornings — and the dates you are away. Whoever you are arranging with sees it; nobody else does.
- Under-16s need a parent’s consent
- Recorded by the organiser before the player is admitted, rather than assumed.
- You can close your account whenever you like
- Contact details are erased on the spot rather than at the end of a retention period. Past results stay under the name they were played under, because they are part of other people’s records too.
The full detail is in the privacy notice, which is written to be read rather than to be survived.
Where it is today
Singles ladders work end to end. These are the next things, said out loud because a ladder runs for a season and finding out in month two is worse than being told in week one.
- Padel and doubles
- Designed, not yet built. A pair will hold a rung the way one player does now, under a team name of its own.
- Arranging the match inside Play
- Today you get the number and agree it between you, then set the time and the court in the app. Next, Play proposes times you are both free and confirms them, so a match is arranged without leaving it.
- Being told, rather than checking
- A challenge, an agreed time and a deadline running out should reach you. Today you see them when you open Play.
- Both players confirming a result
- The winner reports and it applies at once, with organiser correction as the remedy. Clubs that would rather both players agreed first will be able to choose that.
- A parent’s view
- For under-16s, so the adult who consented can see the competitions their child is in and help arrange the matches.
Play does not book courts, take payments, or run knockout draws, and there is no plan for it to. It runs the ladder.
Do this first
Play is built for a phone at the side of a court, and it belongs on the home screen like any other app — no app store, no download. On an iPhone, add it from the main page rather than from any other, because an iPhone remembers whichever page you were on.
Joining a competition needs the link its organiser sent you. Back to Play.