Competitive Rules

These Competitive Rules are part of the Hoopers Terms of Service. They explain how games are recorded in Hoopers (formally, Hoopers Ranked Play), how competitive records are produced, and what iCatch Labs LLC ("iCatch Labs," "we," "us," or "our") may do with those records. Words defined in the Terms, such as Teen Account, Adult Account and Play Connection, have the same meaning here. If these rules and the Terms conflict, the Terms control.

1. Key terms

• Game: a one-on-one basketball game between two Hoopers players, played in person and recorded in Hoopers.
• Format: the length of a game. Hoopers has three formats: Quick Run, Standard Run and Full Run. Each format is rated separately.
• Skill Rating (SR): a number Hoopers calculates for you in each format from your rated results.
• Provisional: a format in which you have not yet completed enough rated games to be established.
• Rank: the tier that corresponds to your SR in an established format, from Bronze up to Legend.
• Overall SR: a single figure derived from your SR in all three formats, available once all three are established.
• Board: a leaderboard. A list of players ordered by SR, for a format or for Overall SR, within a scope such as a Metro, State, Region, the nation, or an organization.
• Standing: your position on a board.
• Competitive records: SR, Overall SR, rank, Standing, provisional status, win-loss records, rating history, game status and classification, rated-play eligibility, vouches as they appear in platform records, geographic membership, organization affiliation, Everest, and any other competitive distinction Hoopers creates.

2. How a game is recorded

1. Challenge. You challenge a player, choosing a format. The other player may accept or decline. A challenge that is not answered in time expires. An Adult Account can challenge a Teen Account only after the Teen has started a Play Connection with that Adult Account. Once a Play Connection exists, either player may challenge the other.
2. Play. You meet and play the game in person. Hoopers does not arrange the time or place, and does not attend.
3. Location check. After the game, each player is asked to share a one-time location reading from their device for that game.
4. Result. Each player submits the result separately.
5. Pending. A submitted result may be held for a period before it counts. While a result is pending or under review, Hoopers shows both players the same neutral status. It does not show either player whether the other has submitted, agreed or disagreed.
6. Review. If the players' submissions do not match, or a game needs a closer look, the players may be asked to review the result, and authorized Hoopers administrators may review the game.
7. Final. When the result is final, it is added to both players' records and SR is updated.

3. Rated play

A game counts toward SR and rank, and toward Standing for players who appear on boards, only if it meets Hoopers' conditions for rated play. These include:

• both players have eligible, active accounts in good standing;
• both players complete the location check, and the readings support that both players were at the same place for the game; and
• the result is completed through the process in section 2.

A game that does not meet these conditions may not be rated, may be held for review, or may be voided.

The same conditions apply to Teen Accounts and Adult Accounts, and to games between them.

Courts. A game does not have to be played at a court listed or verified in Hoopers to be rated, for any player. A court that is not listed or not verified does not by itself void a game or reduce anyone's SR. Whether a court is verified may be one of the integrity signals Hoopers considers, but it is not a condition of rated play and does not by itself prove that a game happened.

Hoopers may also limit rated play, or access to some competitive features, during a beta or early-access period.

4. Skill Rating, rank and boards

SR. Hoopers calculates SR for each format from your rated results, taking account of your opponents' ratings and how much Hoopers knows about each player's level. Your SR in one format does not change your SR in another.

One rating for everyone. SR is calculated the same way for every player, whatever their age. There is no separate rating, formula, age adjustment or ladder for Teen Accounts. A valid game between a Teen Account and any other account affects both players' SR in the usual way.

Provisional status. A format is provisional until you complete the number of rated games in that format shown in the app (currently 20). A provisional format shows your SR and your progress, but no rank.

Rank. In an established format, your rank is the tier for your current SR. Rank changes when your SR changes.

Overall SR. Once all three formats are established, Hoopers derives your Overall SR from your three format SRs. It is not earned directly from any single game.

Boards and Standing. Boards list eligible players by SR within a scope. To appear on a board, you must meet the eligibility and recent-activity requirements shown in the app. Your Standing is your position on that board.

Teen Accounts and boards. While a player is under 18, their Teen Account does not appear on any board and does not hold a Standing, including on Metro, State, Region, national and organization boards. A Teen Account can view boards, and keeps its SR, rank, win-loss record and game history. When the player turns 18, the account can appear on boards if it meets the usual requirements, with its SR, rank and history unchanged.

Geographic boards. Hoopers uses the U.S. county where your recent rated games were played to place you in a State and, where applicable, a Metro, and in a Region. That membership decides which geographic boards you appear on, and it is recalculated as you play. The Privacy Policy explains how location readings are used for this.

Organization boards. If you are affiliated with an organization in Hoopers, you may appear on that organization's boards, which its members can see. An affiliation is added when you request it, or when the organization confirms its relationship with you, and Hoopers may check it using information from you, the organization, or public sources. You may be affiliated with a limited number of organizations at once.

Everest. Where available, Everest recognizes the first time a player reaches Standing number 1 on a board. Because Teen Accounts do not hold a Standing, a Teen Account cannot earn Everest while the player is under 18.

5. Integrity

To keep competition fair, Hoopers relies on technical and contextual evidence, such as location readings, result submissions and game history. Hoopers may use automated integrity signals and human review, and may consider several sources of evidence together.

No single signal necessarily means anyone did anything wrong. Based on the evidence, a game may be held, reviewed, reclassified, restored or voided.

To protect the system from abuse, Hoopers does not publish the details of how its integrity checks work, including thresholds, formulas, weights or the combinations of signals that lead to review. Hoopers may adjust those details at any time.

6. What Hoopers may do with competitive records

Hoopers may calculate, hold, recalculate, correct, reverse, restore or void any competitive record, exclude a player or result from boards and Standings, and change the methodology used to produce competitive records, for these reasons:

• system or calculation error, including a bug or data problem;
• invalid, incomplete or inconsistent evidence about a game;
• dispute resolution, when players' accounts of a game differ;
• integrity findings, when evidence indicates a game or record is not reliable;
• fraud, duplicate activity, manipulation or abuse, including conduct prohibited by the Acceptable Use and Safety Policy;
• account or safety enforcement, including suspension or termination of an account;
• inaccurate records, such as a result recorded against the wrong game or player; and
• methodology changes, such as a change to how SR, rank, Overall SR, boards, eligibility or activity requirements are calculated, applied to players generally.

When a game's treatment changes, the competitive records that depend on it follow. For example, voiding a game can change both players' SR, records and Standings, and if a game that produced an Everest is voided, that Everest stops being an active achievement. Hoopers keeps a record of corrections rather than silently rewriting history.

Future rating tracks. Ratings and records earned during a beta, early-access or casual period may be kept separate from, and not carried into, any later official or verified rating track with additional eligibility requirements. Those requirements may include verifying your identity through a verification service. Hoopers does not require identity verification today, and will explain any such requirement before it applies.

7. Game review and administrator decisions

Hoopers may hold a game or its result for review. Authorized Hoopers administrators may review disputed, invalid, unverifiable or integrity-flagged games, and may resolve, restore, correct or void how a game counts. Competitive records then follow that decision.

Review timing depends on the circumstances. Hoopers does not commit to a fixed review time.

8. Notice and questions

Hoopers may tell you when a final competitive record of yours changes materially. While a game is pending or under review, Hoopers keeps both players' status neutral, as described in section 2.

Hoopers does not currently offer a formal appeal process for competitive decisions. If you believe a record is wrong, contact support@hoopersapp.com.

9. What competitive records are, and are not

Records, not property. Competitive records are records kept by Hoopers. They are not property, currency or a prize, have no monetary value, and cannot be bought, sold, traded or transferred.

Competition metrics, not ability ratings. SR, rank, Standing, Everest and other competitive records measure results within Hoopers' own rules and methods. They are not a scouting evaluation, a certification, a prediction of future performance, or a guarantee of anyone's basketball ability outside Hoopers.

Evidence, not guarantees. A recorded or rated game does not guarantee that the game happened exactly as recorded, that a player is who they say they are, or that meeting a player is safe.

10. Changes to these rules

We may update these rules as described in section 17 of the Terms. A change to methodology may change existing competitive records, as described in section 6.

11. Contact

Questions about these rules: support@hoopersapp.com, or iCatch Labs LLC, 418 Broadway, STE 7369, Albany, NY 12207, United States.