How Katy Fried Rally works — the short version, in plain English. Tap Show details on any part you want to dig into.
Section 1
How ranking works
Everyone has a Strength number. Your sorting games move it — win and it goes up, lose and it goes down. When sorting ends, your Strength sets your spot.
- Beating a stronger player moves your number up more. The score doesn’t matter — a win is a win.
- New players start at 1500 and move fast. Players with a history start near their usual level and move in smaller steps.
- Every game updates your number right away. Sitting out changes nothing.
- Same number? We use today’s head-to-head first, then your starting number. Never a coin flip.
- Losing on purpose never helps. It drops your Strength for good, and at best drops you into a lower bracket that pays less. Playing your best is always the better move.
Why throwing a game is a losing move
Lose on purpose and two bad things happen: your Strength drops (it follows you to every future event), and you can only land in a lower bracket that pays less — where 1st place can’t beat 2nd place in the bracket above. There’s no easy group to sneak into. Playing your best is always the higher-paying move.
Section 2
How you’re matched each round
Round 1 is a fair random draw. After that you play someone close to you in the standings, and we try hard to never repeat a matchup.
- Round 1: a random draw, so everyone starts even.
- Round 2 on: you play the player nearest you in the standings — best plays next-best — so every game counts.
- No rematches while a fresh matchup is still possible. A repeat only happens in a small field that has run out of new opponents, and then it’s the fewest possible.
- Odd number of players? One person sits out each round, taking turns. Nobody sits twice. A sit-out adds nothing and takes nothing away.
- About scoring: sorting games usually use rally scoring (a point can be won on any serve) to keep the rounds moving — it’s recommended, not required. Bracket games usually use standard scoring. Either way, only the win counts.
Section 3
How brackets are made
How many people showed up sets the brackets, your Strength picks which one, and your record today picks your seat inside it.
- Bracket sizes come from a set chart based on the headcount (any field from 4 to 31), not from where the score gaps fall. The strongest players fill Bracket 1, the next fill Bracket 2, and so on.
- Playing better can only help. A great sorting run can raise your seed, but it can never drop where you’re guaranteed to finish — and it can never bump you down a bracket.
- Inside your bracket, the best record today gets the #1 seat — and the bye, if the bracket has one. Then it’s a normal knockout: the top seed plays the lowest, and the two best seeds can’t meet until the final.
- Every bracket plays down to 1st and 2nd. Each match starts fresh at 0–0, and a bye never lowers where you finish.
Section 4
The money
The prize pool comes from who actually paid. Once the field is big enough, 10% goes to charity and the rest is paid out — and a bigger bracket always pays more.
- The pool is all the entry fees that were paid.
- 8 or fewer paid players → no charity cut. More than 8 → a flat 10% goes to charity (Sandy Long / Texas JR Racquetball Team). It’s set at the start and never changes.
- Prizes come from a set chart — the top two in every bracket win money. Every prize is a clean multiple of $10, paid in $100, $50, $20, and $10 bills.
- 2nd place in a higher bracket always beats 1st place in the one below. So dropping down never pays more — there’s no reward for losing on purpose.
- Any few dollars left over from rounding go to the charity too.
Section 5
Your two numbers: Strength & Skill Score
KFR keeps two numbers that do two different jobs. Strength seeds you at events. Skill Score is your season ranking.
- Strength counts who you beat, not just how many — so you can’t pump it up by beating easy players. Everyone starts at 1500, and it climbs faster when you beat strong players. This is the number that seeds every event.
- Skill Score rewards winning — how often and how well you win. It’s what ranks the season leaderboard and sorts the A1, A2, B1, B2 divisions.
- Both are kept for each format. Your singles, doubles, and blind-doubles numbers are separate — a singles star isn’t automatically a doubles star.
- They don’t change each other. Strength decides how you’re seeded; Skill Score decides where you stand.
- In doubles you win and lose as a team, so both numbers reflect your team’s day.
See them live on the leaderboard →, or on any player’s profile — one set for every format they play.