The ecosystem
Three doors into the same season. Each one scores differently, each one has its own ceiling, and all three add up on one board.
Pillar 01
Events
The marquee. Circled dates and regular sessions — the events that anchor the season.
What it pays
Placement, 200 down to a floor of 25, plus a +20 Takedown bonus, times the event tier.
Your best 8 events count.
Majors
The big ones — full-day landmarks like The Colorado Springs Gauntlet. Biggest points of the year.
Minis
Ad-hoc, frequent, lower-stakes sessions for smaller points. The heartbeat between Majors.
Pillar 02
Gauntlet Rec
Play for fun. Points follow. Organized play with zero bracket pressure.
What it pays
2 for turning up, +1 a round you win, +5 for winning your pod (+3 for second). Singles: a point for every game you win, up to 7 a session.
35 points a month, no rollover.
Individual sessions
Self or group-scheduled play whenever you can make it.
Leagues
A season of weekly sessions in a variety of fun formats. Every league session scores exactly like a session.
Pillar 03
Challenge Ladder
Self-scheduled, traditional competition. Pick your partner — 3 matches before a switch.
What it pays
4 for a win, +2 a rung jumped (max 3), 3 for holding your rung. Nothing for a loss.
35 points a month, no rollover.
Rank
Set by average DUPR. Decides who you can challenge — up to 4 spots above you.
Points
Earned for challenge wins and defenses. Rank is reach; Points are earned.
Pillar 01 · Your event session, start to finish
01
Check in
Your DUPR seeds you into a Division of 5–8 inside your Level. Seeding locks 30 minutes before start.
02
The Grind
5–7 games, one a round, to 11 with rotating partners. You partner your Division's Top Gun once and face them at least once — every result is yours alone.
03
The Takedown
Finish 3rd in your Division and you play the other 3rd-place finishers on Court 3. Every court is a final — Court 1 is the championship.
04
Boards move
Placement points land on your Level's board within 24 hours of certification. Live boards run all day.
05
DUPR is your call
Points and stats count for everyone. Results go to DUPR on Monday only for DUPR-rated events, or when you opt in — so your rating never moves without your say.
Levels are set by DUPR — it places you, and that is all it has to do. Reporting results back to DUPR is your choice per event. No DUPR yet? Creating one is free and takes a minute at dupr.com; do it before you register.
The core idea
Each Level has its own Gauntlet Leaderboard. Event points, Rec points and ladder points all feed it — one number, one board, one race per Level.
There's no Level weighting. You're ranked against your peers, and every board crowns its own season champion.
A 1st-place session pays the same
200
Prospect
200
Elite
Whether it's Prospect or Elite, the win is worth 200. You beat your peers — that's the whole point.
Set by DUPR · same in every city
Registration day
Your DUPR on registration day sets your Level. No choosing down, ever.
On the line
Exactly on a line (4.25 / 4.75)? You belong to the lower Level.
No DUPR yet
A DUPR ID is needed to place you — it does not mean your results go to DUPR. Creating one is free and takes a minute at dupr.com.
Beside your DUPR, on every profile
A rating that reads the game, not just the score. Most ratings treat a scoreline as the whole story — four players move together, a win can cost you, and one bad night can erase a season. RYVL Rating was built from the ground up to fix each of those.
A win never lowers it
Beat players above you and it moves fast. Beat players below you and it moves a little — but never backward. A competitive loss to a stronger team can even raise it.
It knows who the points went through
Partner someone rated below you and the other side targets them — so the rating does too. Your number is not dragged down by your partner's errors, and theirs is not inflated by yours.
Your record protects you
A new player's rating finds its level in a handful of games. A long record cannot be undone by one off-night: the more games behind your number, the less any single loss can move it — while an upset you win still counts in full.
Every game you play here counts
Rec sessions, leagues and Gauntlets all move it, whether or not a result ever goes to DUPR. Same 2.0–8.0 scale as DUPR, seeded from it, shown beside it — DUPR places you in a Level; RYVL tracks what you do once you are in one.
Every move is on your record
See exactly what each game did to your rating — beside every score, per session, and on your rating explorer: peak, low, biggest gains, biggest drops, any window you like. Nothing is hidden and nothing moves without a game behind it.
How a session is seeded
Level
Your rating band — Elite, Contender, Challenger or Prospect. Set by DUPR, the same in every city, and the board you are ranked on.
Division
The group of 5–8 you rotate inside on an event session. Your Level splits into several of them at check-in, by DUPR.
Pod
The Rec-side group you rotate with. Same idea as a Division, on a session with no bracket — it is the field your Rec finish is measured against.
Top Gun
The highest DUPR in a Division. Also the role a 4.5+ player applies for and is paid for — same job, both ways in.
At check-in, the field splits into Divisions of 5–8 by DUPR — the size depends on the turnout. The highest-rated player in each Division is that Division's ★ Top Gun.
32
Players, for example
4
Top Guns · 1 per Division
Over the Grind, guaranteed
You'll partner your Top Gun at least once.
You'll face your Top Gun at least once.
Top Guns compete for points like everyone else. Taking one down is how you announce yourself.
Pillar 01 · The engine
Session score
Placement points
Every completed session scores. 1st pays 200, tapering to a floor of 25.
DNF = 0. Not finishing scores nothing.
Takedown bonus
+20Win your Division without being its Top Gun. Take the favorite down on their own turf and it's +20 on top of your placement. If the Top Gun holds the Division, nobody scores it.
Event tier multiplier
8
Your best 8 events count toward the season. Grind wins buy your seed — seed buys your placement ceiling.
Pillar 02 · Play for fun, points follow
Turn up to a Rec session and you score. No bracket, no entry fee, no pressure — organized play with rotating partners, and a line on the season board at the end of it.
A perfect session, worked through
Based on a pod of eight playing 6 rounds. Smaller pods play fewer rounds and are worth less; the turnout 2 and the pod finish never change.
35
Rec points a month, maximum. Calendar month, no rollover.
That is about 3 flawless sessions, or four or five ordinary ones — generous for anyone playing for the love of it, and worth nothing to anybody stacking games to farm a number. The ceiling is what lets Rec count at all.
Leagues count the same
A league session is a Rec session. Same 2, same wins, same pod finish — there is no separate league currency.
The pod, not the room
Big sessions split into pods. You are placed against the people you actually rotated with.
Voided games count for nobody
A game that was never played pays nothing, and an unfinished session pays no pod placement.
Rec is not certified
Rec results move your Rec record, your chemistry and now your season points. They are marked as Rec everywhere, and they never touch your Level.
Pillar 03 · The grind between sessions
One city-wide ladder for everyone, regardless of Level. Challenge up — there's nothing to lose.
35
Monthly cap, no rollover — and a separate budget from Rec's 35. A full ladder month ≈ one strong event session.
The fine print
Same opponent scores max twice per month.
Both players confirm within 24h or it doesn't count.
Promotion is earned, not chosen
Your DUPR sets your Level. The one exception runs upward and it is narrow: while registration is open you may enter the Level above yours if you are within .25 DUPR of its floor. Points score on the board of the Level you played, at full value — and they bank there, waiting for you. One catch: every Level has a cap — set per event, and shown on its page — with DUPR holding the tiebreaker. Register early: your spot is only at risk to the rating sheet, not the clock.
Promotion is automatic, driven by DUPR
Cross & hold
Cross your band's top line and hold it across two straight Monday rating updates — you're promoted on the second. No bouncing at the boundary.
Points convert 50%
A Contender point isn't an Elite point. Converted points can't land you above the bottom 25% of the new board — you arrive at the bottom and climb.
Played-up merges 100%
Enter higher-Level events early and pre-build your position. Promotion becomes a runway, not a reset.
No mid-season demotion
Drop below your band and you finish the season where you are. Levels re-set at season reset.
Ladder carries through
Ladder rungs and ladder points carry through promotion untouched.
Live · the board moves as results certify
One row per player. Total is the season number, and the three columns beside it are where it came from — events, Rec and the ladder.
Rec points post
As each session's scores confirm.
Ladder points post
At score confirmation.
Event points post
Within 24h of event close.
Season vs. ladder
Points reset at season end; ladder rungs persist.
That's the Gauntlet