Whether you are competing in serious competition, or just playing some pickup games in the bar, there are some things to know about how to play the game.
It's important stuff like order of play, who chooses tie-breaker games, and what order players shoot in.
Determining the order of play of players or teams in a dart game is done by a number of ways. It can also control who shoots first, or what game is played.
A common situation occurs across many darts games after there is a winner and losers. The next game involves the lowest scoring shooter "loser" shooting first, and the highest scoring shooter "winner" going last. This gives the person who lost the last game the advantage of perhaps winning this one, since there is a positional advantage in each round -- you can win before your opponent has a chance to shoot.
A curious thing about that -- make sure you understand how players are ranked in that game just played before setting up the playing order for the new game. We ran into a situation where we switched back and forth from cricket to '01. Moving back to cricket, I had the highest PPR, and another player had the highest PPD (he'd shot two really great rounds with bulls). I was thinking Cricket MPR (rounds matter), but shooting '01, PPD (darts) matter.
With casual play, or with multi-player play we'd have probably just gone by reverse order of scores and been done with it. This so someone who was shooting well but way behind and not favored to win is put in a better situation for the next game.
To diddle each opponent throws a dart at the bullseye. The thrower with the dart closest to the bullseye wins. If the first thrower is in the center of the bullseye, the second can ask for the dart to be removed to see if they tie. If that happens they diddle again.
Diddling can be used in lieu of a coin toss, so that the player with the higher skill gets to go first, similar to lagging for pool break instead of flipping.
The most important case of a diddle is to choose the tie-breaker game format after the two teams or opponents are tied up. For example, say you are shooting race to 2 of Cricket and '01. It's tied 1-1 after '01 and Cricket is played. The game played for the tie-breaker will favor one team over the other.
The winner of a diddle gets to choose either
If players are ranked by overall skill level, that ranking can determine the order of teams, and order of shooting inside a team.
Typically the lowest ranked team will shoot first, so they get the positional advantage of shooting first.
In team competition, order of shooting in a team may be controlled by rank as well for the same reason. Typically lowest ranked first, highest ranked last.
When you are playing a straight up game against someone else, you are playing a match you choose to play in, and the best shooter will win. You may be shooting someone who's skills you know, or a total stranger and you'll find out who is better after the game is over.
In a dart tournament the disparity in skill levels causes a huge problem -- a better player being matched against a less skilled opponent creates two problems:
To fix this problem, dart competitions are separated into a number of fields by ranking. For serious competition there are typically 4 fields A B C D or 1 2 3 4. In other situations there may just be an Upper and Lower field.
Players are separated into the correct field by evaluating either their known performance, or by outside statistics, such as league stats, that are a record of average play.
One interesting thing about darts tournaments is that if you play much better than your ranking, you can be ejected from a tournament! There is real incentive to be ranked correctly so that competition and payouts are are fair to all opponents.
Ranking can be done using
a Players PPD, MPR,
or some sort of combined evaluation.
For example you could be ranked overall by your highest stat;
your better stat (PPD, MPR) controls what your ranking
is in competition.
A combined evaluation of say PPD + 10 * MPR is
also used for placement.
For example... dragging some random victims league (or online) stats out (from the middle of the 2013 league season, and these are all shooting on different leagues with a combined Cricket+'01 format. It is NOT a head-to-head comparison of skills of these players, but would be used to choose their placement in a tournament.
Grabbing a random tournament ranking with cut-off points at 45 and 60 ...
That is a great example of why I need to get better -- by that system I'm a B player and the other "B" players blow me out of the water! I know I'm off the bottom of the ladder -- I just play in a dart tournament every once in a while to see if I've gotten better.
Actually, this is a great example of a ranking system that should have a low end C player class for players of my skill level. I'm guessing a C rank with a 30 cutoff would be a good break for that.
Why do you want a low-end bracket? You want to encourage more players to play in tournaments. That is so that tournaments are larger, and there are better payouts for the winners of the tournament, and more people paid out. The problem is -- that doesn't happen unless you encourage "ordinary" dart players to get used to playing in tournaments. The problem I see is that most typical players don't play in tournaments -- Even when they are decent, reliable shots.
This is because the good players know they should be playing in tournaments ... and the typical players get beat early ... and become not interested in shooting tournaments. That is to the player's detriment, and the tournament's as well. So, if tournaments encourage lower level players to play, it's better for everyone involved -- and tournaments are a lot of fun to shoot in with the great competition.
Tournament formats depend on things. Commonly tournaments are a mixed format, typically a combination of Cricket and 301. Single format tournaments (Cricket or '01) are also common.
A typical mixed format is a race to 2 of 301 and Cricket. A coin toss decided who shoots first in the 1st game, the loser(s) of the 1st match shoot first in the second. If a tie-breaker game is needed, teams diddle for the choice of game format versus who shoots first.
One weird result is that many mixed format leagues and tournaments don't go to mixed format when they get larger.... Many larger soft-tip tournaments in the US stick with only a single format, usually 301 or 501. This is so individual matches are completed faster, to aid processing of a huge field of entrants. It's a bummer, though, if you are a great cricket player but a middle of the pack '01 player.
If you are playing doubles, there are a couple of different methods used to draw up teams.
Doubles competition can be interesting. You are typically shooting with someone you don't know, or who you don't shoot with regularly. Choosing which team member shoots first in a round can be an important issue. Do you want the best player to shoot first, because of the positional advantage? Or do you want the 2nd player to shoot first, so that the better player can work with what the other player gave them... That allows them to maybe take advantage of unexpected occurrences, or to play deliberate defense with their greater skill.
Strategy and skill differences can also be a cause of concern or frustration for the players. If one person is telling the other to do something they don't believe is right ... it isn't going to help the person who is shooting if they don't believe their shot will help, or if they don't believe they can make the shot the partner insists that they make. This can happen even by accident, where the "lesser" player defers to the better - even when the better player is just wrong. The problem is that the lesser player believes the better player is better ... they just may be a great shot, not a great tactician!
I think the best thing to do is to shoot your game. You won't feel bad that you did what you thought was right. Maybe you'll learn something from the other player to change your strategy later ... but doing what you think is right is always better in the long run. It leads to less regret. The other thing is -- the first idea is usually the right one -- follow your instincts!
Triples fall between doubles and teams for a reason. Sometimes you can have LOD triples (see doubles). Sometimes there are three person teams (see teams.
The real fun of Triples is for competition signed up at a tournament that wasn't planned in advance.
Good dart players, just like good pool players, are going to go around and see how other people shoot. It might be a game you are watching, or someone you are competing against.
Players find someone they respect, and choose to enter ad-hoc into triples competition with that extra player. One common combination is a formed doubles team that wants to grab a third for triples. The other is a bunch of people who think they might work out well in triples and go for it. Find someone who you'll think is fun and wants to shoot with you (and vice-versa) and go for it! Or 3 doubles teams do some mix-n-match to change things up a bit. Or a larger team that splits up and maybe grabs an extra to play some more matches, or gives their "backup" players a chance to compete.
Teams are formed for competition from friends and people you know. Typical teams are 3 and 4 person. Since competition in darts is ranked, typically the team is sorted by the combination of players in the team. For example, say there was a mixed skill level team of 3 players, ranked at 15, 30 and 45. A team could be ranked by:
You can have some interesting and unorthodox teams. Maybe you are playing your league team in a tournament; perhaps you hand-picked a bunch of players you know for a team. A really great player might have a bunch of middle players on their team ... and then one low ranked player to balance out the skill of the great player (for ranking). This lets them play in a bracket where they collectively could win money, but still makes them work for it.
One thing that always helps when forming teams is to shoot with people whose skills you respect -- whether they are better or worse than you. If you respect the other player's game you are happy with the outcome, even if it doesn't go the way you want. Another thing is that really helps to have a bunch of people who get along well with each other and have fun. I've seen teams formed of master players who don't do as well as lesser teams. Those other teams are formed of people who are serious, but also get along with each other and have fun. The friends are having a better time and it shows and affects their shooting!