StriveX Badminton League

The StriveX Badminton League is a doubles team competition bringing clubs and players from across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland together in a structured league environment.

With four tiers of competition, Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze, every player is given a StriveX rating, and these ratings decide who can play at which tier.

Clubs can enter as many teams as they like, in as many tiers as they like. You do not need an established club: any group of four players may enter a team, and individual players can enter on their own.

The League runs from March to June 2027, with group matches and the first set of knockouts at ten venues across the UK, followed by the remaining knockouts and finals in London.

Every player is rated by StriveX on a single scale from 2 to 10 before their team is confirmed. The rating reflects the player's standard in open doubles, whatever their source grades.

9–10 — Can win a national-level event

8 — Can reach the top four of a Badminton England Gold-standard open event

7 — Can win a Badminton England Bronze-standard event

6 — Can reach the top four of a Badminton England Bronze-standard event (not the same as the StriveX Bronze tier)

5 — Can reach the top four of a Badminton England Tier 4 event

3–4.5 — Advanced beginner to lower intermediate

2 — Beginner

How ratings are set. StriveX uses every source available: Badminton England results and grade (or the equivalent from Badminton Scotland, Badminton Wales or Badminton Ireland); BBFUK or other such ratings; performance in previous StriveX events; video of the player in a match; and the declaration made by the team's point of contact, with appropriate references. The order in which a club ranks its players at entry, strongest first, forms part of that declaration. Where a grade exists it is the starting point, not the answer; a player's actual results decide.

The combined rating of the four players fielded in each match cannot exceed the relevant tier's team limit.

• Platinum — maximum 30
• Gold - maximum 25
• Silver - maximum 20
• Bronze - maximum 15

Teams can choose their preferred tier provided they meet its eligibility requirements. StriveX may move a team up if it is considered too strong for its selected level, or down where appropriate and subject to availability.

A match is six single sets, each to 15 points with setting. Every player partners every other player in the team once, giving six combinations. The only exception is Platinum, which plays five.

Pairs. StriveX ranks the four players on court A to D by rating, strongest first. The pairs are then fixed:

• A + B
• A + C
• A + D
• B + C
• B + D
• C + D

Pair 1 plays the opposition's Pair 1, Pair 2 plays Pair 2, and so on. Rating decides only the A to D order; after that, the combinations are fixed and teams do not choose them. Where two players share a rating, the team decides their order and tells StriveX before the match-day order is published.

Women play in every tier, in the same teams and the same sets as men. All ratings sit on one open-doubles scale, so a team’s cap works the same whoever is in it, with the one Platinum exception set out in Section 4.

Platinum. One of the four players on court must be a woman. She plays the two mixed doubles sets with the two designated male players (Section 7). If she is injured or unavailable, only a registered female reserve can replace her.

Gold, Silver and Bronze. Fielding women is optional and rewarded with bonus match points, added to the team’s group total at the end of the group stage:

• 2 bonus points if at least one woman is on court in every one of the team’s group matches.
• 4 bonus points if at least two women are on court in every one of the team’s group matches.
• The bonus is all or nothing. If the team plays even one group match with fewer women than the bonus requires, it drops to the lower bonus or to none.
• A woman injured during the group stage may be replaced by a registered female reserve without losing the bonus.
• A team that receives the bonus must field the same number of women in every knockout match. If it cannot, it forfeits that match.
• The bonus does not apply in Platinum, where a woman is already required.