Teams & Guests
Filling the team slots is where the one rule that governs PaddleRank eligibility gets decided.
Two kinds of player
Registered player — someone with a Vallio account. They earn and lose PaddleRank based on the result, and the game appears in their history and stats.
Guest — a placeholder for someone who isn't on Vallio. Lets you score an accurate game with the right number of people, but a guest has no rating and nothing accrues to them.
Only mutuals appear in the list
When you're adding a registered player, you'll only see your mutuals — people you follow who also follow you back.
This is deliberate. Team setup usually happens courtside in about fifteen seconds, and a list of every account on the platform would be unusable. Mutuals keeps it to people you actually play with.
The practical consequence: follow your regular opponents, and get them to follow back. Until that's mutual, you'll be adding them as guests and the games won't count for either of you.
See Friends & Following.
The eligibility rule
PaddleRank is only awarded when both teams have at least one registered (non-guest) player.
Some cases:
| Team 1 | Team 2 | PaddleRank? | |---|---|---| | Registered | Registered | Yes | | Registered + guest | Registered + guest | Yes | | Registered ×2 | Guest ×2 | No | | Guest | Registered | No |
The logic is that a rating needs a real opponent on the other side. Beating two placeholders proves nothing, and if it counted, it would be trivial to farm.
When a game doesn't count
It still records. You get the score, the result, and the history. What you don't get is a rating change — for anyone.
That's fine for a lot of play. Teaching a friend, hitting with someone visiting from out of town, a game where two people don't have the app. Score it anyway; the record is worth having.
Guests are per-game
A guest is a name in one game, not a persistent profile. If the same person plays with you weekly as a guest, nothing accumulates for them.
That's the argument for getting them onto Vallio: the moment they register and you're mutuals, every subsequent game builds a record for both of you — including a head-to-head rivalry if you play often.
In an event or league
Rosters come from registration rather than ad-hoc setup. Everyone in an organized competition has an account already, so the guest question doesn't arise.
See Joining an Event or League.