Deuce Ladder rules

These rules govern play in {{LADDER_NAME}}, run by {{ORGANIZER_NAME}} on Deuce Ladder.

Where these rules are silent on a point of tennis, the ITF Rules of Tennis apply.

Where these rules and a club regulation conflict, the club regulation applies at that club's courts, and the organizer records the difference on the ladder page.

A ladder may be open or restricted to a defined group. Restrictions are stated on the ladder page before you join, never after.

Players under 18 may join where the organizer has turned that on. Signup then requires a guardian's email, contact runs through the in-app match thread, and no phone number is shown to anyone. See the privacy notice.

One account per person. You may hold a rung in more than one ladder, and one rung per ladder.

Playing under someone else's account, or entering a result for someone else's match, is a conduct breach under section 17.

Between seasons an organizer may change any setting in section 19. During a season a change is allowed only where it touches no open challenge or played match, is announced before it takes effect, and is written to the public activity log. Three settings freeze the moment a season starts: challenge range, the movement model, and the playoff minimum. Those three determine who could have climbed and who qualifies. An open-ended ladder under rule 16.1.2 has no between-seasons, so the in-season restriction applies at all times and the three frozen settings may be changed only at a counter reset under rule 16.11.

A ladder may be created anywhere in the world. Deuce does not limit ladders to one country, and no ladder is refused on the ground of where it plays.

Every ladder states a geographic scope, published as {{LADDER_SCOPE}} on the ladder page. The scope may be a single club, several clubs, a city, a district or area within a city, a region, a state, or a country. The organizer picks the level that matches the group they actually have.

Scope describes where the ladder is meant to reach. On its own it does not decide who may join: eligibility is set under rule 1.4, and a ladder with a city scope may still be open to a player who lives outside the city.

A wide scope changes nothing in the rest of these rules. Players still choose the venue between them under rule 8.1, and travel is a scheduling conflict like any other under rule 6.4.

You join from a ladder's public page. No application queue and no organizer approval, unless the ladder is restricted under rule 1.4.

At signup you provide a level: NTRP, UTR, WTN, LTA, ITN, a national ranking, a club level, or a short self-assessment. See the conversion table for how these line up.

Deuce places you on a rung inside a level band. That placement is an estimate, not a verdict; rule 5.4 exists so you can correct it on court.

A player joining mid-season is placed at or below the band midpoint, and never above an active player who has already played that season.

An organizer may adjust a placement or band. Every adjustment is written to the public activity log with the organizer's name and the stated reason.

You may tell the organizer your placement is wrong at any time. Being placed wrong carries no penalty.

The ranked entity is the pair. Both players register, the pair holds one rung, and pairs are fixed for the season. Rotating partners is not available at launch.

A level band holds players of roughly one standard, for example {{LEVEL_BAND}}. Most ladders run two or three.

Standings are kept per band.

Challenges are made inside your band. Cross-band challenges are off by default; where enabled they may only go upward, into the bottom {{CROSS_BAND_DEPTH}} rungs of the band above.

Finishing in the top {{PROMOTION_COUNT}} rungs of a band earns an offer of promotion for next season. It is an offer, not an instruction.

You may request a move to a different band between seasons for any reason.

A pair is placed on the stronger partner's level, and rule 5.4 belongs to the pair.

You may not challenge downward. A higher-ranked player cannot compel a lower-ranked player to defend.

Range is measured from your rung when the challenge is sent, not when the match is played.

Once per season, your first challenge may reach any rung in your own band and no further, ignoring rule 5.1. It expires {{FIRST_CHALLENGE_EXPIRY}} days after you join or the season opens, whichever is later. No organizer can switch it off.

You may have {{MAX_OPEN_CHALLENGES}} challenges open at once, counting sent and received. Default two.

A player at the open-challenge limit cannot be challenged again until one resolves.

A player who has declared an absence cannot be challenged, and is marked absent in the standings.

A challenge is a match request with a deadline attached, not a request for permission.

Either partner may send or answer a challenge for the pair. Rule 5.5 counts against the pair.

Three responses exist: accept, decline for a stated reason, or no response.

The play window under section 7 opens immediately.

A decline requires a reason from a fixed list: injury, travel, an absence about to be declared, or a court or scheduling conflict. A scheduling conflict must cover the whole play window, not the two evenings that suited the challenger. A decline does not count against rule 5.5 for either player and may be re-sent after {{DECLINE_COOLDOWN}} days.

You may decline {{MAX_DECLINES}} challenges per season. Beyond that a decline is treated as no response under rule 6.6.

If the window expires with nothing said, the challenger is awarded a walkover under section 14 and takes the rung. No player reports it and no organizer decides it.

Both players are reminded at the halfway point and again with {{RESPONSE_REMINDER_HOURS}} hours left.

A challenge to an absent player, or one at the open-challenge limit, is blocked at sending.

Once accepted, both players have ten days to play. Default ten.

Both players are equally responsible for arranging the match. There is no home player.

Each player must offer at least {{MIN_OFFERED_SLOTS}} distinct slots inside the window, at least one on a weekend or outside standard working hours, posted in the match thread.

Slots must be posted within {{SLOT_OFFER_DEADLINE}} days of acceptance. Three slots offered on the final evening do not count as slots offered, and rule 7.4.1 applies to whoever posted late.

If the play window expires unplayed, the result is decided in this order:

Rule 7.4.3 is deliberate: a match two people honestly could not arrange should punish neither of them, and should not be recorded as tennis that happened.

Weather, court closure, or injury during warm-up suspends the window for {{WEATHER_EXTENSION}} days, claimable once per match in the thread before the original deadline.

A match abandoned part way through stands as a retirement result if a set was completed. Otherwise rule 7.6 applies and it is rescheduled.

Players choose the venue. Deuce does not assign courts or require its own booking system.

Court fees are split evenly unless the two of you agree otherwise before you play.

The player who was challenged brings the balls. New or near new.

The default format is {{MATCH_FORMAT_DEFAULT}}. Both players may agree on another from rule 8.5, in the thread, before play.

Absent agreement, the ladder default applies. Saying nothing is agreement with the default.

A best of three tiebreak sets match can outlast its court booking. At a set apiece, the two players may agree on court to play a match tiebreak to ten in place of the third set. The scoreline records exactly what happened: 6-4 3-6 10-7 is a valid result for this format when both players agreed to the swap. One player cannot impose it.

Accepted formats. There are six, and only these six:

No-ad is a scoring option inside a format, not a format of its own. The same goes for a deciding-point rule. Either may be agreed on top of any format in rule 8.5.

A format not on that list cannot be recorded: the scoreline would fail validation under the scoring rules.

Matches are self-officiated. Each player calls their own lines. There is no umpire and no appeal on a line call.

A match played outside the challenge system does not count toward the standings.

Doubles uses the same six formats, agreed the same way. Each side calls its own lines.

The winner submits the score, expected within {{SCORE_SUBMIT_WINDOW}} hours of the match.

The loser confirms or disputes it.

If the loser does neither, the score auto-confirms after {{SCORE_CONFIRM_WINDOW}} days. Silence cannot hold up anyone's rung.

If the winner does not submit, the loser can, and the winner then holds the confirmation clock.

Only valid tennis scorelines are accepted. One impossible under the agreed format is rejected at entry, not flagged later.

A disputed score goes to the organizer under section 18. Both players see the dispute and the resolution.

Submitting a score for a match that was not played, or one both players know to be wrong, is a conduct breach under rule 17.4 carrying the penalty in rule 17.5.

Full detail on points, rung movement and verification is on the scoring page.

The default movement model is a positional swap. Challenger wins, the two exchange rungs. Challenged player wins, nothing moves.

No player other than the two involved changes rung. Players between them are unaffected.

A ladder may instead run on points, at the organizer's choice; rung order then follows total points and the scoring page sets the values.

A walkover moves rungs exactly as a played win does.

A retirement is a win for the player still standing and moves rungs normally.

A voided match under rule 7.4.3 moves nothing.

You may declare an absence for any reason and do not have to say what it is.

During an absence you keep your rung, cannot be challenged, and decay does not run.

An absence must be declared before it starts and cannot be backdated. Declaring one after a response window expires does not undo the walkover under rule 6.6, and after a play window closes it does not undo rule 7.4.

A single absence may run up to {{ABSENCE_MAX_DAYS}} days; total absence across a season may not exceed {{ABSENCE_TOTAL_DAYS}}.

An absence declared while a challenge is open does not cancel it. Resolve it, or decline under rule 6.4 with absence as the reason.

You may end an absence early and return to your held rung immediately.

Absence is the third option, and it exists because the other two are stalling and quitting.

An absence declared by either partner puts the pair absent. Rule 11.4 applies to the pair once, not to each player.

Go {{DECAY_PERIOD}} days without a played match and your rung starts to decay.

Decay drops you {{DECAY_RUNGS}} rungs per {{DECAY_INTERVAL}} days. Each player passed moves up one. Nobody else moves.

Decay applies to every player on the same schedule, including the organizer and the player on rung 1.

Decay pauses during a declared absence.

Decay stops the moment a match is played, and does not reverse: the rungs went to people who were on court.

Decay never removes you from the ladder. A player who decays to the bottom stays there and can still challenge.

Sending a challenge does not stop decay. Only a played match does.

Decay is impersonal on purpose. Nobody has to report a quiet player.

Decay applies to the pair in a doubles ladder. One doubles match stops it.

After playing an opponent you may not challenge them again for {{REMATCH_COOLDOWN}} days.

The cooldown applies in both directions and covers the pair of players, not the challenger.

Playing another opponent in the meantime does not shorten it.

A walkover starts the cooldown as a played match does.

A voided match under rule 7.4.3 does not.

The cooldown stops two players trading wins to lift each other past the rest of the band, and applies to everyone equally whatever their intentions.

The cooldown runs between two pairs. Pairs are fixed for the season, so swapping a partner is not a way around it.

A walkover is a match awarded because the opponent did not play it: no response under rule 6.6, no slots under 7.4.1, refusal without alternatives under 7.4.2, or withdrawal with a challenge open.

A forfeit is a match given up rather than played, after accepting. Recorded as a loss, and the opponent takes the rung.

A walkover moves rungs and appears in the standings as a played match does, but does not count as a played match for playoff qualification. See rule 16.5.

Walkovers given and received are displayed separately under rule 4.5.

A player who gives {{MAX_WALKOVERS}} walkovers in a season is set to inactive and must be reinstated by the organizer. They are warned after each walkover given, and again when one more will do it.

Receiving a walkover does not force you to take the rung. Turning it down is recorded and changes nothing else.

You may withdraw from a ladder at any time.

Withdrawing with a challenge open awards a walkover to the other player under rule 14.1.

On withdrawal every player below moves up one rung. Results already played stand.

Rejoining in the same season puts you back under rule 2.4, at or below the band midpoint. Withdrawal is not a way to reset a bad run.

An organizer may remove a player for a conduct breach under section 17, for failing an eligibility restriction under rule 1.4, or at the player's request. Every removal is logged publicly with a stated reason.

A removed player may appeal to Deuce at hello@deuceladder.com within 14 days; Deuce replies within five business days. Deuce reviews process, not tennis: whether the stated reason matches the rule cited, and whether the player was told.

If either partner withdraws, the pair withdraws and rule 15.3 applies to its rung. The remaining player enters again with a new partner next season.

This ladder runs {{SEASON_DATES}}. Every ladder runs in one of two modes, chosen before it opens and published on the ladder page.

A season of a set number of weeks with a published close date. The allowed lengths are 6, 8, 10 and 12 weeks, and no season may run longer than 12 weeks, which is the three month ceiling. Rules 16.2 through 16.9 apply.

No close date. The ladder runs until the organizer closes it under rule 16.12, {{SEASON_DATES}} reads as an open date with no end, and rules 16.10 and 16.11 apply in place of 16.2 through 16.9.

Challenges may be sent up to {{CHALLENGE_CUTOFF}} days before close, so every accepted challenge has a full play window inside the season.

Final standings are the standings at close with every pending result resolved. Ties are separated by the published five-step tiebreaker on the scoring page, applied automatically. Nobody decides a tie by judgment.

A player needs {{MIN_MATCHES_PLAYOFF}} played matches to qualify for the playoff, whatever rung they finish on.

Walkovers received do not count toward that minimum. A player cannot qualify on other people's silence.

If a qualifying rung is held by a player short of the minimum, the place passes down to the next eligible player, and the player who fell short keeps their finishing rung in the standings.

Playoff size is {{PLAYOFF_SIZE}} players per band, seeded by final rung.

Playoff matches are single elimination, played to {{PLAYOFF_FORMAT}}, inside {{PLAYOFF_WINDOW}} days of close. Sections 6, 7 and 9 apply, with the play window shortened to {{PLAYOFF_PLAY_WINDOW}} days.

Rungs carry over between seasons at the organizer's choice: full reset, or seeded by final standings, published before the season starts.

An open-ended ladder has no close, no final standings and no playoff. The standings are live and are the result at any moment you look at them. There is no challenge cutoff, because there is nothing to run out of.

Every rule that counts per season still counts on an open-ended ladder, over a counting period of {{COUNTER_PERIOD}} days measured from the day the ladder opened. Default 90 days. At each reset the unrestricted first challenge under rule 5.4 is granted again, and the counters in rules 6.5, 11.4 and 14.5 return to zero. Rungs are never reset: an open-ended ladder does not start over.

An organizer may close an open-ended ladder, or convert it to fixed seasons, by announcing a close date at least 30 days ahead in the activity log. The standings at that date are final and rule 16.3 applies to them. No open-ended ladder ends without that notice.

Call your own lines honestly and give your opponent the benefit of a ball you did not clearly see out.

Show up on time at the court you agreed. If something changes, say so in the thread as soon as you know.

Keep messages civil. Abuse, harassment or discriminatory language is grounds for immediate removal under rule 15.5.

Do not submit a score for a match that was not played, or one both players know to be wrong. Agreeing a result before you walk on court is the same breach as inventing one afterward.

The penalty for falsifying a score is published, and this is it. A first confirmed case voids the result, restores both pre-match rungs, and leaves a permanent marker on the match record visible to that ladder. A second removes the player for the rest of the season and ends their playoff eligibility. It is written into the terms as well, which binds Deuce to it as tightly as any player.

Sending challenges you do not intend to play, to appear active, is a breach. Rule 12.7 makes it pointless as well.

Report a conduct problem to {{ORGANIZER_NAME}} first. If the problem is the organizer, report it to Deuce at hello@deuceladder.com.

A score may be disputed within {{DISPUTE_WINDOW}} hours of submission, before auto-confirm.

A dispute pauses the auto-confirm clock. Both players give their version once, in the thread.

The organizer resolves it: confirm either version, void the match under rule 7.4.3, or order a replay inside {{REPLAY_WINDOW}} days.

Resolutions are recorded in the public activity log with the rule cited.

A rules dispute that is not about a score goes to the organizer with the rule number attached.

Deuce does not adjudicate tennis. Deuce reviews whether the process in these rules was followed. Email hello@deuceladder.com or use the contact page.

There is no appeal on a line call. See rule 8.7.