How the Runout Rank rating works

1. Pick a level and start the test

A Rating Test is ten tables at a single level. You choose the level: the app suggests one, but nothing is locked, so a strong player can start at Competitor rather than grinding up from Rookie. If you have never been rated, the test is one tap from the home screen — there is nothing to configure first.

If you would rather warm up, you can generate a single practice table instead and take the test later.

2. Set each table up on a real table

Every table is drawn top-down with the cue ball, the object balls, and any blocker balls in place. Blockers are drawn deliberately drab and unnumbered so they never read as part of the potting order. You rack what you see, on the table you already play on. The illustration stays on screen for the whole attempt, so you can rebuild the layout if you disturb it.

3. Play it once, record it once

Run out, or do not. One tap records the result and moves you to the next table. The header always shows which table you are on out of ten, and the strip above the table shows which of the played tables were run-outs and which were misses.

There is exactly one attempt per table. No retries, no skips. That restriction is the whole reason the number at the end is worth anything.

4. Read the result

The moment the tenth table is recorded you get:

• A score out of ten — how many of the ten you ran out.
• A 0–100 rating and the tier that goes with it.
• Cleared or not. Seven of ten clears the level.
• Your rating delta — how far the number moved since your last test.
• Your edge level — the level currently beating you, with a plain-language explanation of what to do about it.

From that screen, practising at your edge level is one tap.

Why random layouts still produce a comparable score

Every test is generated fresh, so there are no answers to memorise and no drill you can rehearse in advance. Two players never meet the same ten tables — and they do not need to.

What is fixed is the level. Ball count, whether you get ball in hand, the minimum spacing between balls and the number of blockers are defined constants, identical for everyone on both platforms. A Level 4 test always asks a Level 4 question. Ten tables is enough for the difficulty to average out, which is why the test is ten and not one.

So the thing being measured is you against the level’s constraints, not you against ten particular tables. That is what makes one player’s 58 mean the same as another’s.

Why the rating is absolute

No opponent appears anywhere in that calculation. League systems such as Fargo Rate are relative — your number is derived from results against other rated players, which is why they need a large game history before the rating settles, and why a weakly connected local scene can sit high or low against the rest of the network. Runout Rank compares you to a fixed standard instead. The level constraints are the same everywhere, so the rating is the same measurement everywhere, from the very first test.

The one local variable is your equipment. Pocket cut, table size and cloth speed change how hard a run-out is, so take the test on the table you actually play on and compare your own numbers over time.

Absolute vs relative pool ratings →

What the rating is not

It is a measurement of your run-out ability on generated layouts, taken under a no-retry rule. It is not a handicap system, not a governing-body rating, and it does not talk to any league database. If you need a number to handicap a match, that is what a league rating is for — see how the two compare. This is an honest number you can take yourself, on your own table, whenever you want a fresh one.