Rules and rating

One number carries your standing, and it does not simply count wins. It reads the share of points you took and compares that to the share your rating predicted.

A match: Best of 3
Games 1 & 2: First to 5
Game 3: Win by 2 (cap 10)
Opening serve: Higher Elo
Placement: 15 games

Matchplay rules

Every rated match must follow these core table rules to ensure consistent, fair competition:

Format & table flow

Best of 3: A match is won by the first player to take two games.
Target score: Games 1 and 2 are first to 5 (a 5–4 score finishes the game). Game 3 is first to 5 and win by two, up to a maximum of 10 (at 10, first to 10 wins immediately, e.g. 10–9).
Switch sides: Players switch sides of the table between every game.
No intermissions: A match must be played straight through in a single sitting to count. Walk-offs or interrupted matches are voided or abandoned.
No match limits: There is no cap on the number of matches or games a player may play in a day or week.

Service & putting the ball in play

Opening serve: The player with the higher Elo rating gets the opening serve of Game 1.
After a goal: The player who was just scored upon puts the next ball into play.
Figure touch required: The ball must touch at least one figure (man) before entering the goal to count. Direct drops into the goal are dead balls and must be re-served.

Dead balls & out of bounds

Dead ball / 10-second rule: If the ball stops completely out of reach of any player figure, or remains stationary anywhere on the table for more than 10 seconds, play stops. The player who was scored on last puts it back into play.
Out of bounds: If the ball leaves the playfield (flies off the table or strikes the top rails/lighting), play stops. The player who was scored on last puts it back into play.

Fair play & table fouls

No spinning: A 360-degree rotation of the rod before or after striking the ball without continuous hand control is illegal.
No shaking or lifting the table: Shaking, lifting, or slamming the table or rods against bumpers to displace a ball or disrupt a shot is a foul.
Rebound goals count: A ball that enters the goal and bounces back out onto the table counts as a goal. Play stops immediately and the point is scored.

How the rating moves

Every game is rated on the share of points you took, not simply on whether you won. Beat the share your rating predicted and you go up. Fall short of it and you go down.

Which means a 4–5 loss to the top of the chart is often worth more than a 5–0 win over the bottom of it. Three consequences follow, and all three are intended:

A player who loses a close game can still gain rating.
A heavy favourite who wins narrowly can still lose rating.
It stays exactly zero-sum. Whatever one player gains, the other loses — nothing enters or leaves the league's total.

Margin of victory is already inside that share. There is no separate bonus for running up a score, and adding one would count the same thing twice.

Why two players in one game can move by different amounts

The multiplier that turns a prediction into points is worked out per player, per game. It reads that player's own placement status, the week of the season, and a dampener above 2000. It is normal for the two players in a single game to be on different multipliers.

Placement

Your first 15 career games are placement games. The rating swings roughly twice as hard during them, so it can find your level quickly instead of grinding there over a season. Players still in placement are marked as such on the standings.

The season

The season runs in three phases, and the current phase is General Play.

General play. Open season. Anyone may play anyone, and every game feeds the rating.
Mid-season structured play. The field splits into thirds by current rating. Each player must play at least one match against someone from each tier they are not in.
Postseason bracket. Single elimination, seeded by final rating at the cutoff — best seed against worst, working inward, March Madness style.