What Is a Nerd Leagues League?
A Nerd Leagues league is a persistent group of Magic: The Gathering players who track games, ratings, and standings together — a playgroup, an LGS pod, a Discord server, a cEDH crew.
Outside a league, you can still record games and they'll move your all-time ELO. Inside a league, the same game also moves a second set of numbers that belong to that league alone: its own leaderboard, its own player and deck ratings, its own history, and its own seasons.
What's inside a league
- Members — the players who belong to the league. Each has a role (Commissioner or Member) and their own per-league ELO, separate from their all-time rating.
- Decks — decks register themselves the first time they're used in a recorded league game. Each carries its own per-league ELO.
- Games — any game recorded inside the league updates the league's leaderboards and ratings.
- Seasons — optional time-bounded scoreboards inside the league (Spring 2026, Pre-Bans Era). Seasons can overlap, and each keeps its own standings.
- A leaderboard — a live ranking of every member and every registered deck, sorted by league ELO.
Who can see a league
There is no public or private setting on a Nerd Leagues league. League pages require an account, so anonymous visitors, search engines, and link-preview bots never see one. Who can join is controlled by the invite code, which the commissioner can change at any time. Public vs Private Leagues covers the full picture.
The commissioner
Every league has exactly one commissioner at a time: whoever created it. The commissioner edits league settings, changes the invite code, manages members, and runs seasons. Other members play and record games.
The role can be handed to another member with Make Commissioner on that member's row in Member Management. Transferring moves the role rather than adding a second holder — the league still has one commissioner afterward, and it's no longer you.
How leagues differ from recording games on their own
A standalone game affects your all-time ELO. A game inside a league does that and updates your league ELO — a separate rating counting only games played inside that league. A 1450 all-time rating can sit next to a 1620 in your Wednesday Commander pod.
The same applies to decks: a deck's all-time ELO and its per-league ELO are tracked independently.
Where to go next
How to Create a League covers the three fields and what happens on submit. Inviting Players covers getting your group in.