diff --git a/TODO.md b/TODO.md
index 62a45489..9422d021 100644
--- a/TODO.md
+++ b/TODO.md
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@
 - [x] sort forked blocks by total difficulty like geth does
 - [x] refactor result type on active handlers to use a cleaner success/error so we can use the try operator
 - [x] give users different rate limits looked up from the database 
+- [x] Add a "weight" key to the servers. Sort on that after block. keep most requests local
 - [ ] allow blocking public requests
 - [ ] use siwe messages and signatures for sign up and login
 - [ ] basic request method stats
@@ -90,9 +91,7 @@
 - [ ] if a rpc fails to connect at start, retry later instead of skipping it forever
 - [ ] synced connections swap threshold should come from config
   - if there are bad forks, we need to think about this more. keep backfilling until there is a common block, or just error? if the common block is old, i think we should error rather than serve data. that's kind of "downtime" but really its on the chain and not us. think about this more
-- [ ] have a "backup" tier that is only used when the primary tier has no servers or is many blocks behind
-  - we don't want the backup tier taking over with the head block if they happen to be fast at that (but overall low/expensive rps). only if the primary tier has fallen behind or gone entirely offline should we go to third parties
-  - [ ] until this is done, an alternative is for infra to have a "failover" script that changes the configs to include a bunch of third party servers manually.
+- [ ] improve rpc weights. i think theres still a potential thundering herd
 - [ ] stats when forks are resolved (and what chain they were on?)
 - [ ] failsafe. if no blocks or transactions in some time, warn and reset the connection
 - [ ] right now the block_map is unbounded. move this to redis and do some calculations to be sure about RAM usage
diff --git a/config/example.toml b/config/example.toml
index 000d88cc..3e170c87 100644
--- a/config/example.toml
+++ b/config/example.toml
@@ -11,38 +11,47 @@ response_cache_max_bytes = 10000000000
     [balanced_rpcs.ankr]
     url = "https://rpc.ankr.com/eth"
     soft_limit = 1_000
+    weight = 0
 
     [balanced_rpcs.cloudflare]
     url = "https://cloudflare-eth.com"
     soft_limit = 1_000
+    weight = 0
 
     #[balanced_rpcs.linkpool-light]
     #url = "https://main-light.eth.linkpool.io"
     #soft_limit = 1_000
+    weight = 1
 
     [balanced_rpcs.blastapi]
     url = "https://eth-mainnet.public.blastapi.io"
     soft_limit = 1_000
+    weight = 0
 
     #[balanced_rpcs.mycryptoapi]
     #url = "https://api.mycryptoapi.com/eth"
     #soft_limit = 1_000
+    weight = 0
 
     [balanced_rpcs.runonflux]
     url = "https://ethereumnodelight.app.runonflux.io"
     soft_limit = 1_000
+    weight = 1
 
     [balanced_rpcs.pokt-v1]
     url = "https://eth-mainnet.gateway.pokt.network/v1/5f3453978e354ab992c4da79"
     soft_limit = 1_000
+    weight = 1
 
     [balanced_rpcs.pokt]
     url = "https://eth-rpc.gateway.pokt.network"
     soft_limit = 1_000
+    weight = 1
 
     [balanced_rpcs.linkpool]
     url = "https://main-rpc.linkpool.io"
     soft_limit = 1_000
+    weight = 2
 
 [private_rpcs]
 
diff --git a/web3_proxy/src/app.rs b/web3_proxy/src/app.rs
index 1a91bd60..7153795b 100644
--- a/web3_proxy/src/app.rs
+++ b/web3_proxy/src/app.rs
@@ -262,7 +262,7 @@ pub async fn get_migrated_db(
     Ok(db)
 }
 
-// TODO: think more about TxState. d
+// TODO: think more about TxState
 #[derive(Clone)]
 pub enum TxState {
     Pending(Transaction),
@@ -279,6 +279,8 @@ pub struct Web3ProxyApp {
     balanced_rpcs: Arc<Web3Connections>,
     /// Send private requests (like eth_sendRawTransaction) to all these servers
     private_rpcs: Arc<Web3Connections>,
+    /// Track active requests so that we don't 66
+    ///
     active_requests: ActiveRequestsMap,
     /// bytes available to response_cache (it will be slightly larger than this)
     response_cache_max_bytes: AtomicUsize,
diff --git a/web3_proxy/src/bin/web3_proxy.rs b/web3_proxy/src/bin/web3_proxy.rs
index f22d177b..de0ab1f4 100644
--- a/web3_proxy/src/bin/web3_proxy.rs
+++ b/web3_proxy/src/bin/web3_proxy.rs
@@ -201,11 +201,11 @@ mod tests {
             balanced_rpcs: HashMap::from([
                 (
                     "anvil".to_string(),
-                    Web3ConnectionConfig::new(anvil.endpoint(), 100, None),
+                    Web3ConnectionConfig::new(anvil.endpoint(), 100, None, 1),
                 ),
                 (
                     "anvil_ws".to_string(),
-                    Web3ConnectionConfig::new(anvil.ws_endpoint(), 100, None),
+                    Web3ConnectionConfig::new(anvil.ws_endpoint(), 100, None, 0),
                 ),
             ]),
             private_rpcs: None,
diff --git a/web3_proxy/src/config.rs b/web3_proxy/src/config.rs
index 3411f0d9..f92b0f2a 100644
--- a/web3_proxy/src/config.rs
+++ b/web3_proxy/src/config.rs
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ pub struct Web3ConnectionConfig {
     url: String,
     soft_limit: u32,
     hard_limit: Option<u32>,
+    weight: u32,
 }
 
 impl Web3ConnectionConfig {
@@ -97,6 +98,7 @@ impl Web3ConnectionConfig {
             block_sender,
             tx_id_sender,
             true,
+            self.weight,
         )
         .await
     }
diff --git a/web3_proxy/src/connection.rs b/web3_proxy/src/connection.rs
index 25a0a388..be227309 100644
--- a/web3_proxy/src/connection.rs
+++ b/web3_proxy/src/connection.rs
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ pub struct Web3Connection {
     /// used for load balancing to the least loaded server
     soft_limit: u32,
     block_data_limit: AtomicU64,
+    weight: u32,
     head_block: parking_lot::RwLock<(H256, U64)>,
 }
 
@@ -151,6 +152,7 @@ impl Web3Connection {
         block_sender: Option<flume::Sender<BlockAndRpc>>,
         tx_id_sender: Option<flume::Sender<(TxHash, Arc<Self>)>>,
         reconnect: bool,
+        weight: u32,
     ) -> anyhow::Result<(Arc<Web3Connection>, AnyhowJoinHandle<()>)> {
         let hard_limit = hard_limit.map(|(hard_rate_limit, redis_conection)| {
             // TODO: allow configurable period and max_burst
@@ -175,6 +177,7 @@ impl Web3Connection {
             soft_limit,
             block_data_limit: Default::default(),
             head_block: parking_lot::RwLock::new((H256::zero(), 0isize.into())),
+            weight,
         };
 
         let new_connection = Arc::new(new_connection);
@@ -663,6 +666,10 @@ impl Web3Connection {
 
         Ok(HandleResult::ActiveRequest(handle))
     }
+
+    pub fn weight(&self) -> u32 {
+        self.weight
+    }
 }
 
 impl Hash for Web3Connection {
diff --git a/web3_proxy/src/connections.rs b/web3_proxy/src/connections.rs
index 21a87702..22b938bd 100644
--- a/web3_proxy/src/connections.rs
+++ b/web3_proxy/src/connections.rs
@@ -731,7 +731,7 @@ impl Web3Connections {
             impl<'a> State<'a> {
                 // TODO: there are sortable traits, but this seems simpler
                 /// sort the blocks in descending height
-                fn sortable_values(&self) -> Reverse<(&U64, &u32, &U256, &H256)> {
+                fn sortable_values(&self) -> (&U64, &u32, &U256, &H256) {
                     trace!(?self.block, ?self.conns);
 
                     // first we care about the block number
@@ -751,7 +751,7 @@ impl Web3Connections {
                     // TODO: what does geth do?
                     let block_hash = self.block.hash.as_ref().unwrap();
 
-                    Reverse((block_num, sum_soft_limit, difficulty, block_hash))
+                    (block_num, sum_soft_limit, difficulty, block_hash)
                 }
             }
 
@@ -784,7 +784,8 @@ impl Web3Connections {
                         })
                     }
                 })
-                .max_by(|a, b| a.sortable_values().cmp(&b.sortable_values()))
+                // sort b to a for descending order. sort a to b for ascending order
+                .max_by(|a, b| b.sortable_values().cmp(&a.sortable_values()))
             {
                 let best_head_num = x.block.number.unwrap();
                 let best_head_hash = x.block.hash.unwrap();
@@ -948,14 +949,14 @@ impl Web3Connections {
             .iter()
             .map(|rpc| {
                 // TODO: get active requests and the soft limit out of redis?
+                let weight = rpc.weight();
                 let active_requests = rpc.active_requests();
                 let soft_limit = rpc.soft_limit();
-                let block_data_limit = rpc.block_data_limit();
 
                 let utilization = active_requests as f32 / soft_limit as f32;
 
                 // TODO: double check this sorts how we want
-                (rpc.clone(), (block_data_limit, utilization, soft_limit))
+                (rpc.clone(), (weight, utilization, Reverse(soft_limit)))
             })
             .collect();