Logo
Director Guide

Tournament Setup Guide

A step-by-step guide to creating, configuring, and running a tournament on Volleyball Engine.

In this guide

Creating a Tournament

From the Director Hub, click "Create Tournament" to get started. Fill in the basic information: tournament name, slug (a URL-friendly identifier used in the tournament link), description, date, time, check-in time, and venue. The slug must be unique and becomes part of the tournament URL that you share with players. Set the tournament visibility to public when you are ready for players to discover and view it.

Steps

  1. 1.Navigate to the Director Hub
  2. 2.Click "Create Tournament"
  3. 3.Fill in name, slug, description, date, time, check-in time, and venue
  4. 4.Set visibility to public when ready for players to see the tournament

Registration Settings

Registration settings control who can sign up and how. Set the maximum capacity to limit the number of registrants. Choose an entry fee model: free, pay at the door, online payment, or prepaid. Select the registration type based on how players sign up: solo (individual), pair (with a partner), or team (full team). Enable the waitlist if you want overflow players to be queued automatically. Set a registration deadline to cut off signups at a specific date and time. Open registration when you are ready for players to start signing up.

Steps

  1. 1.Set max capacity for the tournament
  2. 2.Choose an entry fee type: free, pay at door, online, or prepaid
  3. 3.Select registration type: solo, pair, or team
  4. 4.Optionally enable the waitlist for overflow
  5. 5.Set a registration deadline
  6. 6.Open registration when ready

Format & Phases

The tournament format determines the overall structure of your event. Choose from Standard, Shuffle, Level Up, King of the Court, Swiss System, Breakup & Makeup, or Manual. Configure the team size (2v2, 3v3, 4v4, 6v6) to match your event. Then set up phases. Each phase represents a distinct stage of the tournament, such as pool play followed by a playoff bracket. For each phase, configure: name, schedule type (pool play, single elimination, or double elimination), games per team, points to win, point cap, game duration, best-of sets, and advancement rules that determine how many teams move on to the next phase.

Steps

  1. 1.Choose a tournament type (Standard, Shuffle, Level Up, etc.)
  2. 2.Set team size: 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, or 6v6
  3. 3.Add one or more phases (e.g., pool play then single elimination)
  4. 4.For each phase, configure schedule type, games per team, points to win, point cap, game duration, and best-of sets
  5. 5.Set advancement rules to control how many teams advance to the next phase

Team Formation

Team formation determines how players are grouped into teams. There are four methods. Balanced random uses skill tiers to distribute players evenly across teams, producing competitive and fair matchups. Me+you+2 lets each player pick a partner, and the remaining spots are filled in. Manual gives the director full control over team assignments. Fully random assigns players to teams with no skill balancing. Set the team formation method in your tournament settings. Teams are typically formed after check-in closes, once you know exactly who is present and ready to play.

Steps

  1. 1.Choose a formation method: balanced random, me+you+2, manual, or fully random
  2. 2.Set the method in tournament settings before tournament day
  3. 3.Run check-in to confirm who is present
  4. 4.Form teams after check-in when attendance is finalized

Courts & Venue

Courts are central to how the schedule is generated. Select a venue that has pre-configured courts, or set the number of courts manually if the venue is not in the system. When using a saved venue, you can select specific courts from that venue to use for your tournament. The scheduler uses the court count to generate an efficient game schedule that minimizes downtime and distributes games evenly across available courts.

Steps

  1. 1.Select a venue with pre-configured courts, or enter a court count manually
  2. 2.Optionally select specific courts from the venue to use
  3. 3.The scheduler uses court count to generate the game schedule efficiently

Scoring & Attribution

Scoring attribution determines how player statistics are recorded. Choose solo attribution to track individual performance, pair attribution for doubles-style stat tracking, or team attribution to track stats at the team level. You can also configure the tiebreaker hierarchy, which defines the order of tiebreakers used when two or more teams have the same win-loss record. Available tiebreaker options include: wins, win percentage, point differential, points for, points against, head-to-head record, and level reached.

Steps

  1. 1.Set scoring attribution: solo, pair, or team
  2. 2.Configure the tiebreaker hierarchy by ordering the tiebreaker criteria
  3. 3.Available tiebreakers: wins, win %, point differential, points for, points against, head-to-head, level reached

Staff & Roles

You can add tournament staff from the setup page. There are two roles. Directors have full access to all tournament operations including setup, check-in, teams, schedule, scoring, and analysis. Scorekeepers have limited access restricted to check-in, score input, and manual scoring only. When staff members are added, they automatically receive an email notification with their assigned role and a direct link to the tournament.

Steps

  1. 1.Go to the tournament setup page
  2. 2.Add staff members by email
  3. 3.Assign either the Director role (full access) or Scorekeeper role (limited access)
  4. 4.Staff receive an email with their role and a link to the tournament

Going Live

Before going live, run through this checklist. Verify that the tournament status is set to "upcoming" and registration is open. Confirm your format and phase configuration is correct. Double-check the venue and court assignments. On tournament day, the workflow is: run check-in to confirm attendance, form teams from checked-in players, generate the game schedule, set the tournament status to "live", and begin scoring games.

Pre-flight checklist

  • Tournament status is set to "upcoming"
  • Registration is open
  • Format and phase configuration is verified
  • Venue and courts are confirmed

Tournament day workflow

  1. 1.Run check-in to confirm player attendance
  2. 2.Form teams from checked-in players
  3. 3.Generate the game schedule
  4. 4.Set tournament status to "live"
  5. 5.Start scoring games

Ready to get started? Back to tournaments