Tournaments

One way to enjoy croquet is to play in tournaments. You'll meet new players from other places, learn new techniques and strategies, and enjoy the thrill of victory.

Start by playing in an event at your local croquet club. Then enter a state or regional tournament sanctioned by the USCA. Broaden your horizons by competing in other states. Finally, enter an international competition in another country.

The way in which players are paired up against each other is call the format of the tournament. There are many different formats. They may confuse you at first, but you can read about them here, or ask the tournament director.

Clubs usually have an on-going tournament in a format (like Ladder) that allows continuous play among, and ranking of, all the members of the club.

Large tournaments are often divided into flights, with each flight containing a reasonable number of players of approximately the same ability.

Large flights are often held in three phases: blocks, knockout, and plate.

All the players are divided into several equal-sized blocks. Each block plays a format (like Round Robin) that ranks the players. High ranking players advance to the knockout, and low ranking players enter the plate. The block is like a qualifier.

Advancing players from all the blocks enter a single knockout. The knockout plays a format (like Single Elimination) that determines the winning player. Losing players sometimes enter the plate.

Players eliminated from the blocks and the knockout may enter the plate competition. The plate plays a format (like Egyptian) that determines a winner from any number of players. The plate is like a consolation prize.

The USCA has published regulations for running tournaments, and for selecting players for team and individual events. You may need to get the Adobe Acrobat Reader, or Microsoft Word Viewer, to open them.

Each player starts with an rating of 100, or some other rating based on their rank or handicap. After each game, the winning player's rating is increased, and the losing player's rating is decreased, by an amount that depends on the rating difference between the two players.

For example, Player A with a rating of 110 plays Player B with a rating of 90. Their rating difference is 20 (110–90). If Player B beats Player A, then Player B's rating is increased by 7 to 97, and Player A's rating is decreased by 7 to 103.

Ladder Format

Each player tries to climb to the 1st rung of the ladder by winning games against other players on the ladder. The player on the 1st rung is the winner.

Ladder format is also known as Challange Ladder.

In a strict ladder, a player may play only the player on the rung directly above them. If the player on the lower rung wins, the two players switch rungs: the lower player moves up, and the higher player move down. Some ladders allow players to play players one or two rungs above them.

A handicapped ladder allows a player to play any other player on the ladder — above or below them by any number of rungs. The winning player moves up one rung. This works because in handicapped play even the player on the lowest rung has a chance to beat the player on the highest rung.

Round Robin Format

Each player plays one or more games against each one of the other players. The player winning the most games wins the tournament. The player winning the second most number of games comes in second, etc.

Round Robin format is also called Block, and All-Play-All.

This format ranks the players in a fixed number of games.

Several players may win the same number of games, so a method of tie breaking is required.

Total net points is the most common tie breaker. A game score of 26-9 is +17 net points for the winner, and –17 net points for the loser. The sum of all the net points in all the games won or lost by a player is that player's total net points.

Total gross points is the most common second tie breaker — used in the unusual case when players are tied on both games and total net points. A game score of 26-9 is 26 gross points for the winner, and 9 gross points for the loser. The sum of all the gross points in all the games won or lost by a player is that player's total gross points.

Below, is a five-player double (each player playing every other player twice) Round Robin tournament. Player C comes in first place by winning six games. Players B and E each won five games, but Player E comes in second place with +61 total net points, and Player B comes in third place. Players A and D are tied in both total wins and total net points, so Player D comes in fourth place with 70 total gross points, and Player A comes in fifth place.

Single Elimination Format

Each player plays a match against one other player in the first round. Only the winning players of a round proceed to the next round; the losing players are eliminated from of the tournament. The player who is never eliminated wins the tournament.

Single Elimination format is also called Knockout or Sudden Death.

This format determines a definite winner in the fewest number of matches, and in a predictable number of matches.

Matches may consist of one or more games; usually an odd number of games to prevent ties. Matches in later rounds, after most players have been eliminated, often have more games than the early rounds. For example, the first-round matches might be just one game, while the final-round match might be three-out-of-five games.

The better players are seeded in the first round in such a way that their matches with each other occur in later rounds. Seeding is based on player's rankings or handicaps, or the tournament director's opinion.

When the total number of players is not equal to a power of two (4, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc.), the next higher power of two is used, the players are seeded into a first round for the next higher power of two, and the empty slots are treated as byes. A player with a bye automatically advances to the next round.

Also, see the Croquet Association's Regulations for Tournaments.

Below, is an example of a Single Elimination format for eleven seeded players, using the sixteen-player first round with five byes. The first and second rounds are one-game matches. The semi-final round is two-out-of-three games. The final round is best of five.

Seed	First Round	Second Round	Semi-Final Round	Final Round	Tournament Winner
1st	Player A	Player A	Player A 26-2	Player A 26-25 9-26 26-9	Player A 26-9 9-26 26-9 9-26 26-25
	bye
9th	Player I	Player H 26-9
8th	Player H
5th	Player E	Player E	Player D 26-25
	bye
	bye	Player D
4th	Player D
3rd	Player C	Player C	Player C 26-9	Player B 26-1 26-9
	bye
11th	Player K	Player F 26-4
6th	Player F
7th	Player G	Player G 26-3	Player B 26-2
10th	Player J
	bye	Player B
2nd	Player B