SmasHaven Rating — FAQ

How the number moves

Your SmasHaven Rating is a single number that summarises how strong a player you are — compared to the people you actually play against. It goes up when you win against tougher opponents, up less (or sometimes not at all) when you beat weaker ones, and down when you lose. This page explains the exact logic so nothing feels arbitrary.

1. The one-line summary

2. What does my number mean?

Every player starts at 1200. The number is relative, not absolute — there's no maximum, no minimum, no "pro threshold." What matters is the gap between two players' ratings.

• Two players at the same rating are expected to split matches 50/50 over time.
• A 100-point gap means the higher player is expected to win roughly 64% of the time.
• A 200-point gap means roughly 76%.
• A 400-point gap means ~91% — the lower player is a clear underdog.

Ranks you see next to your number (#12, #3) are positions on the leaderboard — the global one by default, and a per-group one once you've played in a group meetup.

3. Levels 1 through 10

Alongside the rating number, the Profile card shows a friendly Level badge from 1 to 10. Same player, same rating, simpler story — useful when someone asks "so how good are you, out of ten?"

Levels are computed from the rating via fixed bands. New players start at Level 4 (the same 1200 Elo default), leaving room to grow. The thresholds are deterministic, so the same rating always maps to the same level across the app, share cards, and the leaderboard.

The bands do create cliff effects at boundaries — a player at 1499 shows as Level 5 and one at 1500 shows as Level 6, even though they're separated by a single point. That's the tradeoff for having a predictable, stable label. The number under the badge is always the honest one.

4. How much does it move per match?

Every match applies the same formula:

delta = K × (actual − expected)
expected = 1 / (1 + 10^((opp_rating − your_rating) / 400))
actual   = 1 if you won, 0 if you lost

K is how much one match can swing things. We use:

• K = 32 for your first 30 logged matches. The rating moves fast so you settle near your real level quickly.
• K = 16 from match 31 onwards. Ratings of established players move slower so one weird night doesn't wreck weeks of history.

Result: an established player beating an equally-rated opponent gains about 8 points. A beginner doing the same thing gains about 16. A big upset (lower-rated player winning) can swing 25–30 points. A heavy favourite losing can lose the same amount.

5. Why does a win sometimes barely change my rating?

Because expected already accounted for it. If you're rated 400 points higher than your opponent, you were expected to win ~91% of the time. Actually winning is only 9% of surprise — so your rating moves by about K × 0.09 ≈ 1.4 points (≈ 3 as a beginner). Losing that match would cost you the full K × 0.91 ≈ 15–29 points, which is why people higher up the ladder tend to play careful doubles at community nights.

6. Why does the rating move faster when I'm new?

Because we know the least about where you actually belong. A brand-new player's 1200 is a placeholder, not an opinion — the faster K pushes you toward reality match by match. After 30 matches we drop K so your number behaves more like a career rating than a hot streak.

7. Singles vs doubles

Singles: the formula above, straight. Your rating against your opponent's rating.

Doubles: we compute the expected score from team average ratings, then apply the resulting delta to every player on each side — each player using their own K. It's slightly lossy (it can't tell whether you or your partner carried the match) but it matches the feel players expect for casual doubles. Team averages are recomputed per match.

8. Per-group ratings

If the match happened at a group meetup (a meetup tagged with a group id), two ratings move:

• Your global SmasHaven Rating, shown at the top of your profile.
• A separate per-group rating for that specific group. Each group's ladder is independent — the Sunday Social club's rankings aren't polluted by your Tuesday league results.

On your profile you'll see chips for each group you have a rating in (e.g. BABBC 1240 · 8W-3L). The Leaderboard button lets you toggle between the global ladder and any group ladder you're part of.

9. What moves the rating — and what doesn't

Moves the rating:

• A match you log (or a match someone else logs where you're a player).
• A match played at a group meetup also moves your rating for that group.

Does NOT move the rating:

• Joining or leaving a meetup.
• Rating a court, coach, or shop.
• Posting in the forum.
• Changing your role, level, or handedness on your profile.
• Matches someone attempts to log that include a player who wasn't actually at the meetup — the anti-fraud check rejects them.
• Time — ratings never decay with inactivity. An inactive player's last rating stays frozen until they play again.

10. Can I reset it? Can I hide it?

Reset: not self-serve today. If you have a genuine reason (big injury, long layoff, wrong results logged), email [email protected] and we'll look at it. We don't casually zero ratings — the point of the number is that it reflects history.

Hide: the entire rating subsystem is gated by a feature flag — we can disable the card, the Log Match button, and the leaderboard for your account or for everyone at any time. But the number itself is public to other users on the leaderboard by design; if you don't want to be on it, don't log matches.

11. Common questions

My opponent and I logged the same match — does it count twice?

It counts once. The server deduplicates by match id; both parties see the same outcome. If you disagree on the result, whoever logged first wins — work it out between you and re-log if needed.

I won but my rating went down. Bug?

Almost certainly not. Check whether the match was logged as you winning or losing (Log Match → I Won / I Lost). If the logged outcome was a loss you see the loser's delta. If you genuinely won and the log is wrong, re-log it or email support.

My group rating is higher than my global rating. How?

Because within your group you've been playing people whose group-specific ratings are lower than their global ratings (or vice versa). Each ladder runs independently, so the numbers won't line up.

Does SmasHaven Rating predict tournament results?

Roughly, yes, but it reflects the population you've actually played, not the population of a tournament field. A player with a 1400 rating from recreational nights may be an average seed at a regional tournament where everyone's at 1600+. It's a community tool, not a ranking authority.

Why 1200? Why 400? Why K=32 / K=16?

1200 is the FIDE chess default — a convention that goes back decades, nothing magic. 400 in the denominator makes a 200-point gap translate to ~76% win probability, which matches what most players intuitively call "a bit stronger." K=32/16 mirrors the FIDE and USCF thresholds for new vs established players.