1. Two Modes: Drop-In Session vs. Ladder League
Traditional brackets force everyone to play at a specific time. SliceWin’s Open Play format removes the concept of structured "Rounds" entirely and lets you choose between two schedule modes:
The Drop-In (Single Session)
Perfect for your standard weekend open play. It acts as a single-day event. Players show up, match up on the fly, and compete to top the leaderboard by the end of the night.
The Ladder (Continuous League)
Perfect for a seasonal league. You set a start and end date (e.g., spanning 3 months). Players can challenge each other, organize their own matches whenever they have free time, and watch their ranking change over the entire season.
2. Empower Players to Create Their Own Matches
Instead of the organizer acting as a bottleneck and assigning every single game, you can toggle on Player Match Creation. Players simply open the app, hit the blue "+ Create Match" button, and select who they are playing with.
- Just claiming a court? They can save the match as "Pending" so the rest of the club knows those players are busy.
- Finished playing? They toggle "Match Completed," enter the score, and it immediately updates the live leaderboard (after opponent validation, of course). Players can even attach photos to the match to capture the winning moment or verify the score!
Admin Control Retained
Note for Admins: You can always turn player match creation off if you prefer to retain full control and build the matches yourself directly from your roster!
3. Fair Leaderboards for Uneven Playtime
The biggest problem with flexible play is that Player A might play 10 matches, while Player B only has time for 3. How do you rank them fairly on the same leaderboard?
SliceWin solves this by letting the admin choose the Ranking Metric that fits their specific group. We calculate the math automatically:
- Win Percentage (%): Ranks players by their win rate. This is the fairest metric when participants play an uneven number of games.
- Tournament Elo: A fresh start! Everyone begins the event at 1000 Elo and competes for points strictly within this specific session or ladder.
- Elo Difference: Uses your club's overarching Community Elo, but ranks players based on who improved their rating the most during the event.
- Total Wins: Classic metric that rewards the players who show up and grind out the most victories.
Feeds Your Global Club Ranking
Just like every other tournament format in SliceWin (such as Round Robins and Brackets), all matches played during an Open Play session automatically feed into your club's overarching long-term Elo ranking. This ensures that every drop-in game helps players continuously build their permanent club reputation!