Teams play a running total rather than sets. Every rally is a point to the team that wins it, and the round ends when the clock does — not at a target score.

The team with the most points when time expires wins the round. If two teams finish level, the one that reached that score first is placed ahead: every point is timestamped, so a lead held for longer counts for something.

Every court in a round runs one clock, started from the round’s scheduled time — not from when a referee opens the screen. All courts therefore finish together.

The clock turns red for the last two minutes. Once time expires the referee has 30 seconds to record a rally that was still being played, and scoring then closes.

Used in the playoffs — quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final. Each team may call it once per court, before a rally.

If they call it and win that rally, the point is worth two instead of one. It replaces the ordinary point; it is not a bonus on top. If they lose the rally, the point goes to their opponents as normal and the Golden Ball is spent.

On courts where the rule is enabled, a missed serve in the final two minutes gives the point to the receiving team. The app shows a banner while the rule is live; the referee applies it.

In a ranked competition the seed order comes from each team’s ranking points, highest first. A wildcard entry may be given a fixed seed position regardless of its points.

In an unranked competition — including most King/Queen of the Court events — the order is arranged by the organisers.

Pools are drawn by snake seeding, so each pool gets one team from each seeding band. That is also why every team on a court has a different colour.