Help Center · Open play and tournaments
GameQ rules
How a game with a time limit is won, how a tie is played off, and how 1st, 2nd and 3rd are decided.
1. Max time per game
- The organizer can give every game a max time: 8, 10, 12, 15 or 20 minutes, or Custom from 5 to 60. It's off unless they pick one.
- It counts from when each game goes on court. Changing it counts for the games already playing too.
- Each court counts down: Playing · 9 min · 4 min left.
- When time runs out, the run screen, the TV and the Player page say Time's up, and the TV calls it out.
- Nothing ends by itself. Finish the rally, then the organizer enters the score. The team ahead wins.
A court once its time runs out: Time's up · 13 min
2. Ties: one more rally
Tied when time runs out? Play one more rally: one serve, played until someone misses. Whoever wins it wins the game, even if they didn't serve. The team that received first in the game serves it.
- A rally is one serve and every shot after it, until the ball goes out, into the net, or bounces twice.
- Why one rally and not the next point: in normal scoring only the serving team can score, so the next point would favour the team serving. In this rally, either team can win.
- The team that received first in the game serves it, so each team gets one first serve.
- Then the organizer enters the final score, for example 10 to 9.
3. How the standings rank
Wins minus losses first, then the better win rate. A tie goes to who won when they met, then to points won minus lost, then to who got there first.
- A loss costs as much as a win earns. Playing more games helps only when you win more than you lose.
- Nobody shares a place: a tie on both goes to who won when they met, then to points won minus lost in the games with a score, then to who reached that record first.
- Only players who played a game are ranked.
- Team battle ranks its teams the same way: wins minus losses, then the better win rate. A team never ranks higher for having played fewer games.
| # | Player | Won | Lost | Net | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eve | 10 | 2 | +8 | 83% |
| 2 | Ana | 4 | 0 | +4 | 100% |
| 3 | Fay | 9 | 5 | +4 | 64% |
| 4 | Ben | 4 | 1 | +3 | 80% |
| 5 | Cy | 5 | 3 | +2 | 63% |
| 6 | Dee | 1 | 0 | +1 | 100% |
- Ana at 4-0 is ahead of Ben at 4-1 and Cy at 5-3: +4 beats +3 and +2, though Cy won more.
- Eve at 10-2 is ahead of Ana: +8 beats +4. Eve beat more people.
- Ana and Fay are both +4, and Ana's 100% win rate beats Fay's 64%.
- Dee at 1-0 can't take a medal from Cy at 5-3: +1 against +2.
- 1st place in a session of 8 or more ranked players, with 6 or more games played, earns an award on the winner's profile.
- Sessions started before October 22, 2026 keep the order they had then: most wins first, then the better win rate. Their results still match the awards they gave.