MinorAugust 18, 2026
👀 A Quiet Second Pair of Eyes on Matchups
- CourtConnect now double-checks its own matchmaking. After a match is drawn up, it looks at whether any of those players were just teammates or just opponents — and if they were, and someone on the bench could have taken the spot, it says so on the match card: "⟲ Ana & Carlo were teammates last game." Swap someone in, or ignore it, entirely up to you.
- It stays quiet unless something is actually off. If everyone at that skill level is already on court, repeating the same four is simply the only option available — so it says nothing, because nothing went wrong. It also never comments on locked partners, who are supposed to stay together.
- This is a safety net rather than a feature. Matchmaking should get this right on its own; this is here so that if it ever doesn't, you find out during the session instead of hearing it from your players afterwards.
MajorAugust 17, 2026
🔄 Big Fix: You Should Stop Seeing the Same Faces Every Game
- Fixed: the same small group of players kept getting matched together for hours. On busy sessions — especially with skill levels assigned to courts — players reported the same teammates game after game, and the same opponents just swapped around. Measured on a 28-player group across 3 courts, each player was only ever teamed with about 10 of the 27 others all session. That is now about 21, and repeating a teammate from your last few games has gone from 29% to essentially zero.
- What was wrong. CourtConnect avoids pairing you with someone you just played with, and that avoidance fades the longer ago it was. But "how long ago" was being counted in total games finished across every court, not in your own games. On 6 courts, roughly 15 games finish between two of your own — so the app treated the partner you had one game ago as ancient history and happily gave them back to you. The more courts you ran, the worse it got. It now counts in your games, so your last partner is always treated as your last partner, whether you run 1 court or 10.
- Why skill-restricted courts made it obvious. Reserving courts for a level splits your roster into smaller separate pools, and each pool then kept recycling the same handful of players. The underlying problem affected open courts too — it was just easier to miss.
- No settings to change, and nothing to redo mid-session — the improvement applies to the next matches you generate.
MajorAugust 16, 2026
🔒 Fairer Rotation for Locked Partners on Skill Courts
- Fixed: locked partner pairs were getting more games than everyone else. Organizers running skill-restricted courts noticed locked pairs seemed to be on court constantly. They were — a locked pair was measured playing 10–46% more games than unlocked players, and in many rounds could not be benched at all.
- Why it happened. Matchmaking skips the "you two just played together" penalty for locked pairs, since they're meant to stay together. But every other possible team still paid that penalty, so any lineup containing a locked pair scored better than one without — regardless of who had actually been waiting longest. Locked pairs now pay the same average rate as everyone else in the pool, so who plays next comes down to wait time again.
- Waiting time is now counted per player, not per pair. A locked pair used to count as a single spot in the queue, which quietly moved them up the line ahead of players who had waited longer. A pair now costs exactly what two individual players in those queue positions would.
- New warning when a skill level has no room to rotate. If you reserve 3 courts for ⭐3 and have exactly 12 ⭐3 players, everyone is on court at once — so when a game ends, the same four are the only ones eligible to go straight back on, and you see the same match repeatedly. CourtConnect now spots this and tells you how many players to add (or suggests opening a court).
- Tip: recording all results before pressing Generate Matches lets a whole skill level reshuffle at once, instead of one court replaying the same four players.
MajorAugust 10, 2026
🏆 Leaderboards Now Rank by Results — Plus New Guides
- Fixed: the leaderboard was ranking by skill level, not results. A ⭐3 player who had won a single game could sit top of the table with a gold medal while a ⭐1 on a 3–0 run sat 14th. The Rank column was quietly using the internal team-balancing score, where one star outweighs even a perfect win rate. Standings now rank by wins, then win rate, then games played — exactly what the columns say.
- Players who haven't played yet rank last. Anyone on 0 games used to land mid-table, above players with a real losing record.
- Every table agrees now. The in-session leaderboard, the live spectator leaderboard, the end-of-session standings, and the CSV export all use one ranking. The CSV in particular used to come out in a completely different order from the screen.
- New guides on the site — how to use CourtConnect step by step, a guide to running open play (formats, rotation, court ratios, handling odd numbers), a skill levels reference with DUPR equivalents, an about & FAQ page, and a public changelog.
- Tidier home page — there's now a proper menu bar across the top linking every guide, and the floating "How to Use" button has moved to its own page you can link or bookmark. What's New and the Facebook link sit in that bar too, instead of floating over the page corner. The in-session guide is unchanged and still one tap away while you're running a session.
- Royale Mode's ladder ordering is unchanged — it was already ranking on results.
MinorAugust 2, 2026
⭐ Skill Levels at a Glance & Smarter Next Up
- See every player's skill level where it matters — the waiting queue, the 🎯 Next Up card, and every swap, add-player, and partner-lock dropdown now show each player's ⭐ level, colour-coded. Building brackets is a glance instead of a guess, and it's much harder to put a ⭐1 beside a ⭐5 by accident. DUPR sessions show each player's rating instead of stars.
- Spectators see them too — the shared live view shows the same badges in its waiting queue and 🎯 Next Up card, so players following along can see the line-ups the same way you do.
- Bug fix — Next Up on skill-restricted courts — when every court was set to a specific skill level, the 🎯 Next Up card could show a mixed group (beginners alongside intermediates) for a lineup that could never actually be placed on any court. Next Up is now hidden in that setup instead of showing a match that will never happen.
- Clearer waiting queue — the four players previously hidden inside that card now appear in the waiting queue where they belong.
- Sessions with at least one unrestricted court are unchanged. Court skill rules themselves were always enforced correctly; this only affected what was displayed.
MinorAugust 1, 2026
📋 Your Full Match History Is Back in the Summary
- Bug fix — after ending a long session, the earliest matches were missing from Match Details. A 57-match session only showed matches 8 through 57. The complete match list is now kept and shown, for sessions of up to 200 matches.
- More accurate stats in long sessions — net points and win streaks are now calculated across your entire session instead of only the most recent matches. In Royale Mode this also makes the final ladder rankings more accurate.
MinorJuly 16, 2026
📷 Spectator QR Code Now Shows on Every Device
- Bug fix — the "Show QR" code for sharing your spectator room came up blank on many devices (ad-blockers and some mobile networks were blocking the external service it loaded from). The QR generator now ships with CourtConnect itself, so it works everywhere — no third-party dependency.
- Self-healing — if the QR ever isn't ready the moment you tap Show QR, it now loads and draws itself automatically instead of staying empty.
MinorJuly 9, 2026
🏆 Consistent MVP on the Spectator Final Board
- Bug fix — after a session ended, refreshing the shared spectator link could crown a different MVP each time when the top players were tied. The final standings and MVP are now stable on every refresh.
- Matches the organizer view — spectator final rankings now break ties exactly like the session-end leaderboard: win rate and games played (or net score in Royale), then player name.
MajorJuly 8, 2026
🛡️ Strict Skill Courts, Royale Next Up & Rock-Solid Reconnect
- Strict skill courts — a court set to ⭐3 now accepts only ⭐3 players, everywhere: match generation, swaps, and add-to-slot all enforce it. Short courts show "waiting for N more ⭐L players" instead of mixing levels.
- Royale gets the full treatment — the 🎯 Next Up board, partner locks, and wait-time rotation now work in Royale Mode too. Groups still form ladder-first (winners face winners); waiting time decides within a tier.
- Partner locks on every court — locked pairs now stay together on skill-restricted and reserved courts as well, in every mode.
- Live view always in sync — spectators now see Next Up swaps, lock changes, renames, and roster edits instantly, not just match results.
- Reconnect fix — refreshing while offline no longer freezes the page after the internet returns. Buttons recover automatically.
MajorJune 20, 2026
🎯 Smarter Default Mode: Next Up, Partner Locks & Fairer Rotation
- Next Up board — Default Balanced now shows the exact next group of 4 (with teams). When a court frees up, that lineup drops straight in — no surprises, no reshuffling based on who just won.
- Auto-placed on every court — finish a game, record the score, and the next batch is placed automatically on the open court. Spectators see the Next Up board too.
- Partner Lock — lock any two players to always play together on the same team. Toggle on or off anytime during the session.
- Fairer rotation — players rotate by how long they've waited, so early birds get more games and latecomers slot in fairly — while still avoiding repeat teammates and opponents.
MajorJune 12, 2026
👑 Royale Mode + Shareable Stat Cards
- Royale Mode — a new ranked ladder for open play. Winners face winners, losers face losers, and the best record is crowned Rank 1 at session end.
- Mode picker — starting an open play session now lets you choose between Default Balanced and Royale Mode.
- Share your stats — every player on the final leaderboard gets a share button that generates a personal stat card image, ready for social media.
- This panel — tap ✨ What's New anytime to see what's changed.
MinorJune 2026
Stability & Polish
- Fixed buttons freezing after the connection drops or the phone is locked mid-action.
- Fairer player rotation — late arrivals now join the back of the active queue.
- Session name and venue now show on the spectator and session-end pages.
- Sessions-hosted counter on the landing page.
