How you climb the ladder from Iron IV to Legend.
By Yves Richel ·
Your division is a step from 0 to 25, Iron IV to Legend. It is not a value of its own but the display of your PadelLeague Rating: the rating is a number that shifts after every match, and the division is the band that number falls into. How far your rating moves depends on who you played. A win over a stronger pair is worth more than one over a weaker pair, and a loss to a much stronger pair costs little.
Without onboarding you start in Bronze II. During onboarding you can enter your Playtomic level (0.5–7.0), answer a five-question form, or do both — that sets your starting step. Self-assessment takes you to Platinum III at most. Everything above that has to be played for.
The PadelLeague Rating is based on Glicko-2, a rating system by the statistician Mark Glickman. Alongside the rating, Glicko-2 tracks how uncertain it is: a new player with few matches moves in large steps, and every rated match makes the rating more stable. In doubles, the average of both partners counts as the team’s strength, and after the match each player is updated individually.
Source: Mark Glickman, “Example of the Glicko-2 system” (2013)
26 steps across eight main tiers from Iron to Legend. Iron through Diamond each have four sub-divisions (IV, III, II, I — IV is the lowest, I the highest). Master and Legend are flat. Step 0 is Iron IV, step 25 is Legend.
| Tier | Step | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Iron IV | 0 | Bottom of the ladder |
| Iron III | 1 | |
| Iron II | 2 | |
| Iron I | 3 | |
| Bronze IV | 4 | |
| Bronze III | 5 | |
| Bronze II | 6 | Starting step without onboarding |
| Bronze I | 7 | |
| Silver IV | 8 | |
| Silver III | 9 | |
| Silver II | 10 | |
| Silver I | 11 | Playtomic 2.25 (median) lands here |
| Gold IV | 12 | |
| Gold III | 13 | |
| Gold II | 14 | |
| Gold I | 15 | |
| Platinum IV | 16 | |
| Platinum III | 17 | Highest step by self-assessment |
| Platinum II | 18 | from here on only by playing |
| Platinum I | 19 | |
| Diamond IV | 20 | |
| Diamond III | 21 | |
| Diamond II | 22 | |
| Diamond I | 23 | |
| Master | 24 | flat, no divisions |
| Legend | 25 | flat, very rare |
Iron · Bronze · Silver · Gold · Platinum · Diamond · Master · Legend
A league runs between one week and three months in one place, and everyone who signed up plays in one table. In a Solo league you arrange your own matches and can join at any time. Points come from opponents you beat, 3, 2 and 1 for the first three wins against the same person, then none. Playing a lot pays off, but against many different opponents. In a Classic league, fixed pairs play everyone against everyone on a fixture list. At the end the table is final and first place wins the league. By then your rating has already moved, each match at the moment it counted.
Every match you play moves your rating, whatever it was part of: league, tournament or Quick Match. What matters is not where you finish but who you won or lost against. What you gain, the other side loses, and the other way round. That is why the ladder cannot be inflated. It is calculated as soon as a game counts: a tournament when it is finished, a league match when it is confirmed, a Quick Match when the other side has confirmed. Each is rated against the ratings your opponents had before it. You see your new rating a few seconds later. Winning a league does not lift you a step by decree. It moves you through the matches you won to get there. Winning a strong league is worth more than winning a weak one.
What counts is what was played and confirmed: league matches, tournaments and Quick Matches. A league result goes into the rating once it is confirmed, after 48 hours at the latest, a tournament once it is finished, a Quick Match once the other side has confirmed. After that the result is locked and only PadelLeague can correct it. Disputed and voided results never count, nor does a Padel Party or any match from a cancelled or unpublished tournament.
There is no monthly cap and no minimum number of matches. Moving a step up or down needs no permission; it follows from the rating. What there is, is weight. An Quick Match you confirm between yourselves counts for less than a tournament or a league game. A match with a guest who has no account also counts for less, because nothing is known about the guest. If neither player on one side of the net is registered, the match does not count at all. Not playing for a while costs you nothing. The system simply becomes less certain about you, and your next result moves you further than it otherwise would. A holiday or an injury costs no steps.
