Your first rating can come from a single match

A new player used to need 10 matches before getting a rating. One match is now enough, as long as the other three players on court all have an AR (Accurate Rating) and the match was competitive.

The rating shows up the next day. If you have other eligible matches, your first rating is the average of all of them.

What makes a first match competitive

This applies only to a new player's first rating. It does not change how existing ratings are calculated.

It does not matter whether you won or lost. What matters is how many games the losing team managed to take in their best set. A 6-0 says just as little about your level when you win it as when you lose it.

One set played

Two sets played

Only the losing team's better set counts, so one bad set does not rule the match out.

Three sets played

Always eligible. Going the distance is evidence enough.

One-sided matches between four AR players are now eligible

The rule above is about a new player's first rating. This one is different. When everyone on court already has an AR, a one-sided score is real information about the level gap, so the match now counts in both directions, however lopsided it was. It stays ineligible when someone on the other team does not have an AR yet.

Playing with a partner at a different level

When you and your partner are far apart in level, the result says less about how well you played, so the match should count for less. That idea is not new. How it worked was the problem.

Before, a match like this could be marked eligible, use up one of the matches in your rating cycle, and then move your rating by zero. You played it, it took a slot, and nothing changed.

Losing was the worst case: a loss with an unrated partner moved you by nothing while a win moved you up a little, so your rating could only ever drift upward.

That is fixed. A match now does one of two things, and there is nothing in between:

• It counts for less. The bigger the level gap between you and your partner, the smaller the effect on your rating. It always moves your rating by something, and it treats wins and losses the same way.

• It does not count at all. If the gap is very large the match is ineligible. It does not touch your rating, and it does not use up a slot in your cycle.

The case that made no sense is gone: eligible, uses a slot, changes nothing.