Points come first
Standings are sorted by points. The most common scoring is 2 points for a win, 1 for a tie and 0 for a loss. Some events use 3 for a win. Publish which one you use.
The four usual tiebreakers
- Head-to-head. The result of the game between the tied teams.
- Run differential. Runs scored minus runs allowed across pool games.
- Runs scored. The team that scored more goes higher.
- Fewest runs allowed. The team that gave up fewer goes higher.
Most organizers use them in that order, but there is no single official order across slo-pitch. If every rule leaves teams tied, the last resort is a coin flip or a short tiebreaker game.
Cap the run differential
Without a cap, run differential rewards running up the score. A cap, often 7 or 10 runs per game, means a 25 to 2 win counts the same as a 12 to 2 win. Teams stop piling on and games stay friendly.
Three-way ties
Head-to-head only settles a three-way tie if one team beat both of the others. When the three teams went 1 and 1 against each other, head-to-head cannot separate them and you move to the next rule for all three.
Say in your rules what happens once one team is separated: either carry on down the list for the remaining two, or go back to head-to-head between them. Both are used. What matters is that it is written down.
Pools of different sizes
With 10 or 14 teams some pools have an extra team, so teams have played different numbers of games. Comparing teams across pools on raw points or run totals favours the bigger pool. Compare on a per-game basis instead.
Show your working
Arguments start when teams cannot see why they finished where they did. Post the tiebreaker order with the rules, and show the standings with records and run totals where every team can check them.
On Esports Authority the organizer sets the tiebreaker order, and the live standings mark which rule decided each spot.