A ladder tournament is an ongoing competition. All teams sit on a single ranking and climb by challenging and beating higher-ranked opponents. A ladder can run for a few weeks or a whole season.
Create a tournament as usual and open the Indeling (layout) tab. Choose the Ladder format there. All teams in that division are immediately placed on the ladder. Then manage the ladder from the Ladder tab.
In the ladder settings you choose how the ranking works:
You also set whether new players start by strength or at the bottom, and whether results count toward the rating.
A ladder can be played in duo (doubles) or individual (singles). In duo a team is a pair of two players; in singles each team is one player.
On the Ladder tab you create challenges: pick a challenger and an opponent. When you accept a challenge, a match is scheduled automatically. The maximum positions up setting limits how far above itself a team may challenge (for example 2 places at most). Left at 0, there is no limit.
Results are entered under Resultaten (results), just like a regular tournament. As soon as you save a result, the rating and positions on the ladder are recalculated automatically. If you edit an old result, the ranking still stays correct.
On a ladder the participants do the work themselves: challenging, agreeing on a date and entering their result. For that they need a player account. In most cases this is arranged automatically.
Through a registration. As soon as you approve a registration, we set up an account on the contact email address of that registration. The approval email then contains a Choose my password button: the participant picks a password, is signed in to their portal right away and their team is already linked. That link is valid for 30 days and confirms their email address at the same time. If a UwTornooi account already existed on that address, it stays completely untouched and the email simply asks them to sign in.
Participants you add yourself. If you add someone manually under Participants, no email goes out. That person creates a player account themselves via the login page — using the same email address as the one on the participant.
The link always runs through the email address. If there is a typo, or the participant uses a different address than the one they registered with, they will not see their ladder: their portal stays empty. Correct the address under Participants — as soon as the team's address matches the one on their account, the ladder appears in their portal.
Link expired or email lost? The participant requests a new link via Forgot password on the login page, using that same email address. With their email address and password they also sign in to the UwTornooi app.
In their personal portal, participants see their position, their incoming and outgoing challenges and the matches they still need to schedule.
The ranking is also publicly visible on your tournament's live page, with a refresh button and the time of the last update. Everyone can follow the standings.
If you enable automatic matchmaking, the system pairs players itself. Each player chooses in their portal how many matches they want to play (for example 1 per 2 weeks); those who choose nothing follow the default you set as organizer. The system draws an opponent within the challenge range (if you already played someone, the search band widens step by step) and emails/pushes both players to agree a date together.
If a drawn match does not get a date in time — within the number of days you set — it is, per your choice, cancelled (and redrawn later) or recorded as a walkover: both players then receive a loss and drop one place.
Players with an account see their scheduled matches in their portal under My matches. They enter the set scores themselves and save; the ranking and rating update immediately. Only a participant in the match can enter the result. The organizer can still enter results via the Results tab.
Using rating (ELO) mode? By default everyone starts on the same rating. To let a stronger player start higher, edit their starting rating in the Rating column of the ranking on the Ladder tab. Type the new value and click away (or press Enter); the whole ranking is recalculated and re-sorted right away. If matches have already been played, the current (calculated) rating is shown below the field. In position swap mode there are no ratings — the order in which teams are added sets the starting position.
If participants are already on the ladder and you change a setting that determines the standings (starting rating, k-factor, ranking or matches count towards the rating), UwTornooi asks on save what should happen to the existing standings.
For the starting rating that distinction matters most: every participant has their own stored starting rating (see Starting rating per player). If you choose to recompute, all participants get the new starting rating — including those you had adjusted individually. If you keep the standings, the new starting rating only applies to participants you add later.
If you use rating (ELO) mode, participants can report their own points on the registration form. Switch on Ask for points on the registration form in the ladder settings (on by default). The form then shows an extra, optional field Your current points, where someone can enter their rating or points from a club, a federation or another ladder.
What happens next:
In position swap mode nothing is asked: there the order in which teams are added sets the starting position and points play no role. The rating settings disappear from the screen as well.
On a ladder the participants agree a date themselves. That is why you can ask for a phone number on the registration form. Switch on Ask for a phone number on the registration form in the ladder settings (on by default). This works in both modes: in rating mode as well as position swap, players need to be able to reach each other.
The participant sees two things on the form: an optional field Your phone number and, below it, a separate tick box My opponents may see my phone number. That box is not ticked in advance — sharing is always a deliberate choice. If someone enters no number, there is nothing to share either.
If the participant gives consent, their opponents see the number:
Without that consent the number appears nowhere for the opponents: only you see it, as the organizer.
On the Registrations tab every registration shows the Phone field, with the share tick box next to it. That is where you fix a typo, and where you untick share when a participant withdraws their consent. This also works after approval: from that moment their opponents no longer see the number. If you clear the field, the consent disappears with it.
When consent is withdrawn the number itself is kept, so that you can still reach the participant.