Win/Loss Tally Rules — How to Play and Keep Score

Overview

This is the simplest mode in the app and probably the most used one. A group on holiday plays twenty games of table tennis, six frames of pool and a kubb match in the garden, and nobody remembers by Thursday who is actually ahead. One tap per completed game gives a wins, losses and draws record, a points table and a current streak.

Setup

Add everyone who is playing, including people who will only join for some games. Decide how many wins take the match, or set that number high and use the sheet as a running tally for the whole week. Choose whether draws are possible before you start, since it changes what a tap records.

How to play

Play a game. Tap the winner. The app writes a win for them and a loss for everyone else who took part in that game, and moves on. If draws are allowed, the tie option records a draw for both sides instead. Players who sat out a game are left blank and their record is unaffected.

Scoring

Each completed game is one row. The winner scores the points-for-a-win value, by default 1. A loser scores the points-for-a-loss value, by default 0. When draws are allowed, both sides score the points-for-a-draw value, by default 0.5, so two draws are worth exactly one win.

A player's total is wins times the win value, plus draws times the draw value, plus losses times the loss value. Blank rows are skipped entirely, so someone who joined on day three is not punished for the games before they arrived. Because of that, the table should show played, won, drawn and lost alongside the points, otherwise a player with a perfect record from two games looks worse than someone with ten wins from twenty.

A streak counts consecutive wins ending at the most recent game that player took part in. Any loss resets it to zero, and a draw ends it too.

Ending the game

The match ends when a player reaches the required number of wins, at which point remaining games are unnecessary. With the target set high, or with a reset period chosen, the tally simply keeps running and the leader is whoever has the most points at any moment. Equal points share the lead, and head-to-head records are the usual way a group settles that argument.

Common variations

League scoring with three points for a win is common when draws are allowed. Winner-stays-on is the standard format for a single table with a queue, and works well with a running tally rather than a fixed match length.