Wordle Tournament rules

The short version

• 8 players per tournament, 3 lives each
• Each round has 1v1 duels on a shared board, all at the same time
• Winning a duel costs nothing, losing costs 1 life, and in a draw both players lose 1 life
• If an odd number of players is left, one gets a bye: no duel and no life lost
• At 0 lives you are out, and the last player alive wins
• Your rating, which starts at 1000, changes when your place is fixed

Tournament

A tournament starts in a lobby of 8 players. In every round the players who are still alive are paired for 1v1 duels, and all duels of the round run in parallel. A 6-second intro shows the pairs before each round, and the round ends when its last duel is over

A tournament usually takes 8 to 10 rounds, and the finalists play for about 15 to 20 minutes

Pairing is random. It tries to avoid your opponent from the previous round, and it never gives you a bye twice in a row

Lives and elimination

Everyone starts with 3 lives. Losing a duel costs 1 life. At 0 lives you are eliminated, and the last player alive wins the tournament

Your place is fixed when you are eliminated. Players eliminated in the same round share one place. If a round eliminates everyone who was left, they all share that place, and the round is not replayed

Once you are out, you see your rating change at once, and you can leave or keep watching the other duels

Draws

A duel is a draw when both players have used all 6 turns and nobody solved the word. In a draw both players lose 1 life

Byes

If an odd number of players is left, one of them gets a bye in that round: no duel and no life lost. A bye never goes to the same player in two rounds in a row

Turns and the clock

In a duel both players guess the same secret word on a shared board and take turns, and a random player moves first. Each player has up to 6 turns, so the board holds up to 12 rows, and each turn lasts 30 seconds

If your time runs out, the turn is skipped: it is used up and passes to your opponent. Skips have no limit, and skips alone do not lose the duel

The first player to solve the word wins the duel. A guess must have the right length and be in the word list, otherwise the row shakes, a message appears, and the turn and the clock keep going

Rating

Everyone starts with a rating of 1000. It changes with your final place, which is counted like a duel against each of the other 7 players. If you finish above a player, it counts as a win against them, below as a loss, and in the same place as a draw

The change is applied as soon as your place is fixed, when you are out or when you win. Beating players with higher ratings gives more points, and losing to players with lower ratings costs more

In a lobby where everyone has the same rating, the change by place looks like this:

Matchmaking looks for lobbies within 200 rating points of yours, and that window never widens. Party games are rated like any other

Leaving and disconnects

• Before the tournament starts you can leave the lobby with no penalty
• Leaving after the start counts as an automatic defeat: you lose the current duel, you are eliminated, and you are placed below the others eliminated in that round
• If your connection drops, your turns run out as skips, and you have 60 seconds to come back. After that you are treated as having left

Parties

A party is a group of up to 8 friends. You gather before the start with an invite link, and the party leader starts the game. The whole party lands in one lobby, and matchmaking fills the remaining seats

Party games are rated like any other. After the tournament the members come back to the party screen, and the leader can start again once nobody from the party is still in a tournament

Languages and words

A lobby plays one of 13 game languages: English, Indonesian, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Uzbek, Polish, Portuguese, Kazakh, Russian or Ukrainian. The secret word length is drawn for each duel, 4, 5 or 6 letters with equal chances, and every pair of players gets a different word

Players and chat

Players are anonymous: a nickname is made for you, and you can change it. There is no chat and there are no emotes