How Pickleball Log Lite works

👋 Getting started

Pickleball Log Lite keeps track of the games you play with your group: who played, the score, and how everyone's rating changes over time. Most people use it in three ways:

Joining

1. Create an account with Join. Pick a display name (this is what others see) and, optionally, your skill level.
2. Confirm your email. We send a link; you can't log in until you click it. No email? Use Resend confirmation and check your spam folder.
3. Log in and you're ready. The Record a game button sits in the top bar, and your name opens a menu with your profile, sessions and account settings.

🙂 Your account & profile

Open your name in the top bar → Account settings.

• Profile: change your display name, first and last name, gender and skill level. Display names must be unique.
• Where you play: optionally add your country and state or province (in the Profile section, or when you sign up). It shows next to your name and puts you on the Where we play page. Leave it blank to stay off the map.
• Password: change it any time from Password. Forgot it? Use Forgot password on the login page and we'll email a reset link (valid for 2 days).
• Email: change the address you log in with. We send a link to the new address, and the change happens when you click it.
• Notifications: turn score emails on or off. With them on, you get one email when scores for your games have been waiting for your confirmation for a few minutes, and an alert if someone disputes a score you entered. Session recap emails have their own switch.
• Your data: download everything we hold about you as a file, or delete your account. Your games stay for the other players' records, under your name or anonymized as "Former player N", whichever you choose.
• Lockout: after 5 wrong passwords in a row, the account locks for 5 minutes.

Why skill level and gender matter

• Skill level sets your starting Elo rating, so your first games are fairer. After that, only results count.
• Gender is only used to build men's, women's and mixed doubles. Open doubles and singles ignore it.

👥 Players & guests

The Players page lists everyone in the group with their rating and record. Click a name to see their profile.

Registered

Has an account with a confirmed email. Registered players can confirm scores, and their games can count toward ratings.

Guest

Someone added by another player so they can be put into a game: a visitor, a friend trying the sport, or someone who hasn't signed up yet. Guests get a rating too, but they can't confirm scores and don't count toward the "registered players" rules.

Unconfirmed

Has signed up but hasn't clicked the email link yet. Treated like a guest until they do.

You can add guests while generating a session or recording a game. To prevent spam, each player can add up to 20 guests per day.

🔑 Claiming a guest profile

When a guest decides to join, they shouldn't lose the games they've already played. Here's how they take over their guest profile:

1. The person who added the guest (or an admin) opens Players and clicks Invite to claim next to the guest. This creates a one-time link that's valid for 14 days; Copy link puts it on the clipboard.
2. They send the link to the guest, by text, email or however.
3. The guest opens it and either creates an account (the guest profile becomes theirs) or logs in to an existing account (the guest's games are merged into it).

Either way, every game, session and stat moves over, and ratings and milestones are recalculated. A merge isn't possible if the guest and the account played in the same session, because that would put one person on both sides of the net. An admin can sort that out.

🗓️ Generating matches

Go to Sessions → Generate and work through the steps. The summary on the right updates as you go.

1. Format

2. Style

3. Courts, sit-outs & scoring

Enter how many courts you have. When there are more players than spots on court, some players sit out a round. Sit-outs always go to the people who have played the most so far, so everyone gets a fair share of games. The summary shows how many play and how many sit out each round, and warns you if a court would be left empty.

Choose the target score (11, 15 or 21, win by 2).

4. Who's playing

Tick the players who are here and add guests if needed. A session needs at least 2 registered players. Players can create up to 3 sessions per day; the summary shows how many you have left.

🏟️ Running a session

The session page shows every round, court by court, plus live standings (wins, losses and point difference).

Entering scores

Any player in a match, or the organizer, can enter its score. Depending on who enters it, the score is either confirmed right away or pending until the other side confirms. See Scores & confirmation.

Games are scored in order. A game's score can't be entered while any of its players still has an unscored game in an earlier round, so nobody can fill in results for games that haven't happened yet. Those games show ⏳ After round 1, court 2 until the earlier game is scored. If an earlier game was never played, the organizer can still enter scores out of order.

Games that don't happen

If a game is never played (a no-show, rain, someone left), the organizer can click Mark as not played under it. It gets no score and no rating, doesn't hold up later games, and counts as done for the round. In a ladder, those players keep their spots. Undo brings it back.

Live updates

The session page updates by itself: when anyone enters, confirms or disputes a score on their phone, everyone else's screen shows it within a moment. Look for the ● Live tag at the top.

Substitutes

If someone gets injured or doesn't show up, the organizer can click Substitute and pick a replacement (or add a guest). The new player takes over that player's place in every round that hasn't been scored yet. Games already played stay with the original player.

Ladder rounds

Once every match in the current round has a score (or is marked not played), the organizer clicks Next round to move players up and down and build the next round. A disputed score blocks the next round until it's resolved; pending scores are confirmed automatically at that point.

Finishing

When you're done, the organizer clicks Finish. Any remaining pending scores are confirmed and the session locks. The organizer can reopen it within 48 hours; after that, only an admin can.

Court display

Put a TV, laptop or tablet by the courts and open 📺 Court display from the session page. It's a full-screen, read-only view that anyone can open, no login needed:

• On court now: the game on each court, with each side's win chance. Courts move at their own pace, so a court can be a round ahead; if its players are still finishing a game elsewhere, the card says which one.
• Up next on each court, who's sitting out, the standings (they page through by themselves when there are many players) and the latest results, with new scores highlighted.
• A QR code: players scan it to open the session on their phone and enter scores.
• It updates by itself as scores come in. When the organizer finishes the session it switches to the final results and highlights.
• Tap ⛶ for full screen. On browsers that support it, the screen is kept awake, and the mouse pointer hides when it isn't moving.

The recap

A finished session opens with a recap: the winner and podium, your own record, place and rating change, the biggest upset (the lowest pre-game win chance that still won), who climbed the most Elo, pickles, anyone unbeaten, the closest game, and badges earned that night.

• About 3 minutes after the organizer finishes, everyone who played gets the recap by email, with their own line at the top. One email per session; reopening and finishing again doesn't send another. Turn it off in Account settings → Notifications.
• 📸 Share card draws a branded image of the recap for your group chat. On a phone, Share… opens the share sheet; on a computer, download the image or copy the link.

Finding your session

With several sessions going at once, open Sessions and use Find your session. Logged in, it shows the sessions you've been in during the last 48 hours. You can also search by a player's name, and the session opens with that player's matches highlighted.

✍️ Recording a single game

Played a pickup game or a challenge match outside a session? Click Record a game.

1. Pick doubles or singles, the target score and the date (today or up to 7 days back).
2. You're already on your side. Choose your partner and opponents; add a guest if someone isn't listed.
3. Enter both scores. Before you save, the panel shows each side's win chance, what each player's rating would change by, whether the game is rated, and who will be asked to confirm it.
4. Click Save game.

At the top of the same page, Waiting for you to confirm lists scores other people entered for games you played in, from recorded games and sessions alike. Confirm them or dispute them right there. The same list is on its own page, Check your scores, which is where the email reminder takes you. Players can record up to 20 games per day.

✅ Scores & confirmation

Every score has a status, so one person can't quietly enter wrong results.

Pending

Entered, waiting for the other side. Pending scores count in session standings but not in ratings yet.

Confirmed

Final. Ratings and milestones update.

Disputed

Someone on the other side said the score is wrong. The organizer (if they weren't playing in the match) or an admin sets the final score.

Not played

The organizer marked the game as never played (no-show, rain, someone left). No score, no rating, and it doesn't hold up later games.

Who confirms

• A registered player on the other side from whoever entered the score.
• If nobody confirms or disputes within 24 hours, it confirms automatically.
• A score is confirmed immediately when it's entered by an admin, by an organizer who isn't playing in that match, or when the other side has no registered player.

Email reminders

• If a score for one of your games is still waiting for you after 10 minutes, you get one email listing every game waiting on you, The button opens Check your scores, a page with just those games and a Confirm and Dispute button on each. Confirm on court and you'll never get one.
• If someone disputes a score you entered, or one in a session you organized, you get an email straight away.
• Each score is only emailed about once. You can turn these emails off in Account settings → Notifications.

Joining after playing as a guest

If you played as a guest (or before confirming your email) and someone confirmed those scores for you, they start counting for Elo once you're registered. Scores the other player confirmed for themselves, because nobody on your side could, are sent to you to confirm or dispute first.

Valid scores

The winner must reach the target and win by 2. A game only goes past the target if it was tied near the end, so it must finish exactly 2 apart.

Changing a score

• While a score is pending, whoever entered it (or the organizer) can fix it.
• Once it's confirmed or disputed, only the organizer (if they weren't in the match) or an admin can change it.
• After a session is finished, or 48 hours have passed, only an admin can change it.

Every change is recorded in the score's history, so you can always see who entered, confirmed or edited it.

📈 Elo ratings & win chances

Your Elo rating is a number that estimates how strong you are. Beat stronger players and it rises a lot; lose to weaker players and it drops a lot. Everyone starts from their skill level (see the table above).

How a game changes ratings

1. Team strength is the average of the partners' ratings.
2. Win chance comes from the gap between the teams: equal teams are 50/50, and a 200-point edge is about 76%.
3. Rating change = K × margin × opponent experience × (result − win chance), where result is 1 for a win and 0 for a loss. Partners each get their own change.

Experience: how many games you've played (K)

New players' ratings move fast so they find their level quickly, then settle down as they play more rated games:

Until you've played 10 rated games, your rating shows a P for provisional.

The score: margin of victory

Winning 11–2 says more than winning 12–10, so the score margin scales the change. Margins are compared on an 11-point scale, so a 21–15 game counts like 11–8. When the favorite wins big the boost is trimmed, and an underdog's big win is boosted, so strong players can't pile up points by beating weaker ones.

Example: established players, a team averaging 1550 against one averaging 1450 (win chance about 64%):

When a game is rated

• The score is confirmed, and
• each side has at least one registered player.

Unrated games still count in session standings and show in everyone's history.

🏆 Rankings & profiles

• Rankings lists everyone by Elo, with games played and win rate. It also has a win chance calculator: pick any two teams to see the odds and what's at stake for each player.
• A player profile (click any name) shows their rating history, record, recent games and milestones.
• Tap an earned badge on a profile to make a share card for it.
• On a session page, each match shows the pre-game win chance, and once it's rated, each player's rating change.

Partners & rivals

• Open another player's profile while logged in to see your record against them (e.g. 7–4), your record as partners, your recent meetings and your win chance in singles.
• Every profile shows a best partner (highest win rate together), toughest opponent (lowest win rate against) and biggest rival (most games against), plus full partner and opponent tables.
• Best partner and toughest opponent need at least 3 games with or against that person, so one lucky game doesn't decide it. Only rated games count, the same games as the W-L record. In doubles, a game counts against both opponents.

Where we play

• Use the 📍 Where selects above the leaderboard to rank only the players in a country, or in one state or province. Ranks are counted within that place, so "#1 in Texas" means exactly that. The link is shareable.
• The Where we play page shows each country, then each state or province within it: players, players active in the last 30 days, average Elo, win rate, pickles and the top-rated player.
• Average Elo only counts players with 10 or more rated games, so one lucky newcomer doesn't skew a whole state.
• Only players who added a location are counted. Guests appear once an admin adds a location for them, or once they claim their profile and add one.

🏅 Milestones

Milestones reward playing often, mixing with new partners, improving, and serving the occasional 🥒 pickle (an 11–0 win). You'll see a 🎉 banner when you unlock one, and they're shown on your profile with progress toward the next tier. They're based on confirmed games, so they update as scores are confirmed.

Playing more

Mixing in

Getting better

Pickles

Ladder

🤝 Fair play & limits

A few guardrails keep the data honest and stop anyone from flooding the site:

Admins are exempt from the daily limits. Admins also review an integrity page that flags unusual patterns, such as big rating jumps or scores that get edited or disputed a lot.

⚙️ For admins

Admins see ⚙️ Admin in their name menu.

• Dashboard: Online now (who has the site open, what they're doing, recent scores, live sessions and court displays, with a ✅ / 🟡 / ⛔ "good time to release an update?" check), totals, recalculate all ratings and milestones, and send test emails to yourself, including samples of the score reminder and dispute emails.
• Users: confirm accounts, resend confirmation or reset emails, lock or unlock, grant or remove admin, and delete a login (the player stays as a guest so their games aren't lost). Core admins (🛡, the emails in the site's App:AdminEmails setting) can't have their admin role removed, be locked or be deleted from here, so the site can never lose its owners.
• Players: edit profiles (including a guest's country and state or province), merge duplicate players, and delete unused guests.
• Sessions: finish, reopen or delete sessions.
• Integrity: resolve disputes, chase long-pending scores, review the score history (including games marked not played) and the weekly flags.

Admins can enter, confirm and change any score, and mark any game as not played. Anything they enter is confirmed immediately.

❓ FAQ

Still stuck? Ask your group's organizer or an admin.