# (snippet)

my %player = ( joe => 1,
               jay => 2,
               jak => 3,
               jim => 4);

# Say jim beat jak, then you just need to reassign
$winner = 'jim';
$loser  = 'jak';

if ($player{$winner} < $player{$loser}) {
  ($player{$winner},$player{$loser}) = ($player{$loser},$player{$winner}); 
}

# then rewrite your hash to db