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Batman and Robin

Tournament format

Batman and Robin is a kind of ladder system in which everybody plays at the same time on several courts. The courts are ordered from highest to lowest, and Court 1 is the highest court. You take part individually; the rules decide who plays with whom. After every match, players can move up to a higher court or down to a lower one.

Goals

The format has two goals, and the first matters more than the second:

  1. Have fun playing against opponents of a similar level.
  2. A competitive challenge.

There is a competitive element and you can improve, but that is not what it is all about. The winner is often not the best player, and that is fine.

Some other things we care about:

  • little waiting and a lot of playing;
  • a tournament that does not take the whole day;
  • a format that is interesting for players of every level. Not everyone can finish at the top, but everyone has something to aim for.

Moving up or down

Each match is two against two. Within a team, there is a higher-ranked player (the Batman) and a lower-ranked player (the Robin).

After the match has been played:

  • the winning Batman moves to the court above;
  • the winning Robin stays on the same court and becomes the Batman;
  • the losing Batman stays on the same court and becomes the Robin;
  • the losing Robin moves to the court below.

The winning Batman on Court 1 and the losing Robin on the lowest court remain on those boundary courts.

Starting positions

A player's starting position on the Ranking page is based on earlier results. Without earlier results, the organizer estimates the level as well as possible.

Who plays with whom

A Batman never plays in a team with another Batman, and a Robin never with another Robin. So on a court there are only two possible team combinations. To choose between them, the app first avoids repeating partners. If both options repeat partners equally often, it avoids repeating opponents instead.

Bench players

Players who sit out a match keep their rank on the Ranking page and normally get their previous role back when they play again. However, this is not guaranteed, since several things can affect it: players joining late, players leaving early, and keeping turns on the bench fair for everyone.

Example

Court 2 of three courts has these players, listed from the highest to the lowest rank: Anna, Ben, Cas and Dan.

  • Anna and Ben, the two highest-ranked players on the court, are the Batmans; Cas and Dan, the two lowest-ranked, are the Robins.
  • A Batman always plays with a Robin, so there are only two possible team combinations. In this case, Anna and Cas play against Ben and Dan.
  • Anna and Cas win.

After the match:

  • Anna, the winning Batman, moves up to Court 1.
  • Cas, the winning Robin, stays on Court 2 and becomes a Batman.
  • Ben, the losing Batman, stays on Court 2 and becomes a Robin.
  • Dan, the losing Robin, moves down to Court 3.

The two open places on Court 2 are taken by the losing Robin from Court 1 and the winning Batman from Court 3.