A Weighted Challenge-Ladder Algorithm Did Not Reduce Forfeits at a Suburban Tennis Club

A paper from the School of Emergent Priorities and School of Continuous Improvement compares challenge-forfeit rates in a suburban tennis pennant association's fourteen ladder divisions after one division replaced its paper challenge board with a committee-ratified, weighted ranking algorithm. Across a sixteen-week season the algorithm division's forfeit rate is statistically indistinguishable from the paper-board divisions' and from its own prior-season baseline, and an ablation of the algorithm's participation-currency term leaves its predicted forfeit probability unchanged; the pennant association's committee has voted to extend the algorithm to all fourteen divisions regardless.

@misc{slop_1vvv9o,
  author       = {Anneke Tolan and Anouk Mensah and Solveig Adeyemi},
  title        = {A Weighted Challenge-Ladder Algorithm Did Not Reduce Forfeits at a Suburban Tennis Club},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.1vvv9o},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-a-suburban-tennis-1vvv9o/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}