Game day

How to Manage a Forfeit

Record the forfeit winner, finalize the result, verify standings, and communicate the ruling without treating a forfeit as an ordinary score.

By LeagueArc Product Team Reviewed by LeagueArc Product Operations Last updated 2026-08-09 8 min read

The short answer

Open the affected game in the scoring workflow, choose the forfeit result, identify the winning team, and finalize only after the ruling is confirmed. LeagueArc standings treat a forfeit as a completed result and can apply configured forfeit points; a 0-0 score alone is not a reliable forfeit record.

Before you start

Administrator or authorized scorekeeper access.
A game belonging to the current organization and season.
A confirmed league ruling and winning team.
A published forfeit policy.

Step-by-step instructions

Confirm the ruling

Check the league rule, the reason, and which team is awarded the result. Resolve appeals before finalization where policy requires it.

Open the correct game

Use Matches or Live Scoring and verify the date, teams, league, and season. Similar team names make this check important.

Select the forfeit result

Use the forfeit action and explicitly choose the winner. Do not imitate a forfeit by entering a conventional score while leaving the game status Final.

Apply the configured policy

Confirm whether the sport or season awards a standard score and whether a standings-points penalty applies to the forfeiting team.

Finalize and verify

Finalize the game, then open Standings to verify wins, losses, points, and any penalty. The recorded winner must belong to the game.

Communicate the decision

Publish or send the result with the applicable rule and appeal path. Avoid exposing private incident details on the public schedule.

What success looks like

The game is stored with forfeit status and an explicit winner, allowing standings and playoff logic to interpret the result consistently.

Common errors and fixes

A 0-0 game looks tied

Use the dedicated forfeit workflow and winner field instead of relying on scores to imply the winner.

Standings did not change

Confirm the game is finalized as a forfeit, the winner is one of the game's teams, and the game belongs to the selected season.

The wrong team was awarded the game

Use the score-correction workflow immediately and recheck downstream standings before publishing.

Where this lives in LeagueArc

Product area: Matches or Live Scoring
Access: League administrators and authorized scoring roles
Records affected: Game status, forfeit winner, score, audit, and standings inputs
Data boundary: The active organization and the game's league and season