Cribbage Pro Multiplayer Competitive Matchmaking
Multiplayer Competitive Matchmaking games are designed to rank players against each other using a skill ranking algorithm over a tournament which runs roughly 12 weeks (one quarter of a year, roughly 90 days), with each tournament called a “season”. To get started, download Cribbage Pro for Apple iPhone and iPad, Android phones and tablets, Windows, or Mac.
All Competitive Matches Are:
- Best-Of-3
- A single game is just not enough of a sample to determine your skill versus your opponent
- Automatic Counting
- Your skill with selecting discards and playing your cards is what we care about
- 10 Sec. Discard Turn Limit; 6 Sec. Play Turn Limit (10 / 6)
- Shorter than anything in the classic games, so think fast
- 10 Seconds to discard
- 6 Seconds for all other actions like playing a card during the play / pegging phase
- Automatic Go / Deal
- The game will automatically issue a “Go” when needed, regardless of your individual settings
- The game will automatically deal the cards each round, regardless of your individual settings
- Start Automatically
- Nobody is responsible for “starting” the game, all automatic
- Disconnect/Quit is Always a Loss
- Don’t try to get away with quitting, dropping your connection, etc. It won’t work, and you will lose as a result
- Even if you quit right as soon as you join the match, it is still a loss
- Classic XP Level of 5+ Required
- You have to play in the classic mode for a little while to familiarize yourself with the game before you jump into competitive play
- 10 Matches Per Week of Season Required!
- It is critical to complete at least 10 matches per full week of the season since you started playing that season (each week since you joined the season). There are penalties for failing to meet this requirement, and the penalties compound.
- Competitive Matchmaking weeks end at 23:59:59 on Saturday UTC. If you miss one week, you can usually recover. If you miss two weeks, it can be difficult but possible to recover. If you miss more than two weeks, it may become impossible for you to find matches and recover from the penalties.
- In addition to the above 10 matches per week requirement there is also a 10 matches per full week of the season minimum required to be eligible for the Leaderboard (Top 50). Each full week completed in a season adds another 10 matches to the requirement, until the full season is completed at 12 full weeks and 120 matches total required to be on the final Leaderboard. This is explained in more detail on the blog post announcing this match minimum.
You can read more about how this ranking system works, and other details on the game blog post announcing the release of Competitive Matchmaking for Cribbage Pro.
Competitive Matchmaking and The American Cribbage Congress
For American Cribbage Congress (ACC) members, starting August 1st, 2026 you can now earn Internet Rating Points (IRP) in the Competitive Matchmaking seasons as officially sanctioned ACC Tournaments. Eligible ACC members who complete the season and finish in the top 25% of all Cribbage Pro Competitive Matchmaking players will be eligible to earn IRP. IRP awards will be based on each eligible ACC member’s final rank relative to other eligible ACC members and, for those outside the top ten eligible ACC finishers, their final percentile placement within the full Cribbage Pro leaderboard. That makes this a great fit for players who want a flexible way to compete while still working toward ACC recognition in a meaningful way.
The approved ACC IRP table for eligible ACC members is:
| Eligible ACC Result | ACC IRP |
|---|---|
| 1st ACC finisher | 200 |
| 2nd ACC finisher | 180 |
| 3rd ACC finisher | 160 |
| 4th ACC finisher | 145 |
| 5th ACC finisher | 130 |
| 6th through 10th ACC finishers | 115 |
| Remaining eligible ACC members | |
| Top 5% overall | 100 |
| Top 10% overall | 85 |
| Top 15% overall | 70 |
| Top 25% overall | 60 |
Fixed rank awards are applied first. After that, any remaining eligible ACC members receive the highest applicable percentile award based on their final placement in the full Cribbage Pro leaderboard. These percentile awards are not cumulative.
In other words, the first step is finishing in the top 25% of the full Cribbage Pro Competitive Matchmaking season. After that, eligible ACC members are ranked against the other eligible ACC members for the fixed rank awards, and any remaining eligible ACC members receive the percentile award shown above.
Starting on August 1st, 2026, completing the required placement matches for a Cribbage Pro Competitive Season will be considered you joining the tournament and count as ten (10) ACC online tournaments for purposes of the ACC annual online tournament participation quota. This allows you to play a few matches before fully committing.
For players who are not ACC members, Competitive Matchmaking remains fully open and unchanged. ACC membership is not required to play, compete, place on the Cribbage Pro leaderboard, or earn Cribbage Pro awards. Everyone continues to compete together in the same season, and every player remains part of the same Competitive Matchmaking community.