A system and method of server selection using competitive evaluation includes receiving a service request at an arbiter running on a computing device, determining whether the service request is associated with a preferred server, and forwarding the service request to the preferred server when the service request is associated with the preferred server. When the service request is not associated with the preferred server, the method further includes using the arbiter to coordinate a competitive evaluation among a plurality of active servers, selecting as the preferred server a first one of the active servers that completes processing of the service request first, and associating the preferred server with the service request. The method further includes receiving a response to the service request from the preferred server and returning the response to a client. The service request is received from the client.