Running a Tournament

Set up venues and prepare your league before creating tournaments.

Set Up Venues

1. Ask your league administrator to create venues in the Admin panel
2. Venues include a name, address, and number of courts
3. You'll select from available venues when creating a tournament

Set Up Seasons

1. Go to Admin → League Settings and create seasons (e.g., "Spring 2025")
2. When creating or editing a tournament, assign it to a season
3. Players can filter their stats by season on the My Stats page to compare performance across seasons
4. Each season has a public leaderboard at /seasons/[slug] showing aggregated player stats across all tournaments in that season

Season Directors

You can assign season directors to a season from the League Settings page. A season director automatically has director-level access to all tournaments assigned to that season, without needing to be individually added to each tournament. Add season directors by expanding a season card and entering their email address.

Manage League Members

1. League members are managed by the league administrator in Admin → Members
2. Each member has a name, gender, and skill level
3. Members can be quickly added to tournament rosters from the Players page

1. Go to Admin → Tournaments (or ask your league administrator to create one for you)
2. Click "Create Tournament"
3. Fill in the tournament details:
   • Name: A clear, descriptive name (e.g., "Summer Slam 2024")
   • Date: Start date and time
   • Venue: Select from your venues
   • Tournament Type: Round robin, king of the court, etc.
   • Description: Any additional info for players
4. Configure registration settings:
   • Entry Fee: Set the price (or $0 for free)
   • Max Capacity: Limit the number of players
   • Registration Deadline: When registration closes
   • Open Registration: Toggle to allow self-registration
5. Click "Create" to save the tournament. It starts in Draft status (not visible to players). You'll be taken to the Director Portal for this tournament.
6. When ready, click "Publish Tournament" in Setup to move it to Upcoming status, making it visible on the public tournaments page

Tournament Status Lifecycle

Tournaments progress through these statuses. Some transitions happen automatically.

1. Draft: Only visible to admins. Use this while setting up the tournament.
2. Upcoming: Visible to players. Set manually by clicking "Publish Tournament" in Setup. Players can register if registration is open.
3. Live: Transitions automatically when the tournament start date and time is reached.
4. Complete: Transitions automatically when all matches have been scored. Can also be set manually from the Admin tournaments list.
5. Archived: Set manually after completion. Hides the tournament from public view.

Tournament Locking

When a tournament reaches Complete or Archived status, it becomes fully read-only. Everything is locked: players, rosters, presence, teams, schedule, scores, and settings. The entire director portal shows a "Read-only" banner and all controls are disabled. To unlock a tournament, change its status back to Live or Upcoming from the Setup page status dropdown.

Automatic Snapshots

The system automatically saves snapshots of your tournament data at key moments, so you always have a recovery point:

• Teams generated: Snapshot saved after teams are created (e.g. "Teams generated (8 teams)")
• Schedule generated: Snapshot saved after the schedule is built (e.g. "Schedule generated (24 matches)")
• Tournament completed: Snapshot saved when all matches are scored and the tournament auto-completes
• Tournament archived: Snapshot saved before the tournament is locked as archived

Snapshots can be viewed and restored from the Admin Settings page under Tournament Snapshots.

Format Compatibility

Not all settings work together. The table below shows which sign-up methods, team formation options, and scoring types are compatible with each tournament type. Incompatible options are automatically disabled in the setup page.

Lore (Team Name Themes)

Each tournament can use a team name theme (called "lore") such as Greek Gods, Street Fighter, etc. If you change the lore theme after teams have already been generated, all existing team names are automatically renamed and the schedule updates to reflect the new names.

Build your tournament roster by adding players or accepting registrations.

Adding Players Manually

1. Open your tournament from the Director Portal
2. Go to Players
3. Click "Add Player" to create a new player
4. Or expand "Add from League Members" to add existing members
5. Select members and click "Add" to add them to the roster

Player Self-Registration

When registration is open, players can register themselves:

• Players browse the public tournaments page
• They click "Register" on your tournament
• After payment (if applicable), they're added to your roster
• You can see all registrations in the Players page

Import from CSV

Bulk import players using a CSV file with columns: Name, Gender, Skill

On tournament day, check in players as they arrive.

1. Go to Check-in in the Director Portal sidebar
2. As players arrive, find them in the list
3. Click to toggle their presence status:
   • Present: Player is here and ready
   • Not Present: Player hasn't arrived
4. The stats at the top show how many players are checked in
5. Wait until you have enough players before generating teams

Generate balanced teams based on player skill levels and gender.

1. Go to Teams in the Director Portal sidebar
2. Set the number of teams you want to create
3. Click "Generate Teams"
4. The algorithm will:
   • Balance total skill across teams
   • Distribute genders evenly (for co-ed)
   • Create teams of similar size
5. Review the generated teams
6. Manually adjust if needed by dragging players between teams
7. Click "Save Teams" when satisfied

Create a game schedule for your teams.

1. Go to Schedule in the Director Portal sidebar
2. Configure schedule settings:
   • Number of courts: How many games can run simultaneously
   • Game duration: Length of each game
   • Break time: Time between games
3. Click "Generate Schedule"
4. Review the generated schedule
5. The schedule shows which teams play when and on which court

Adjusting Mid-Tournament

• Games per team: Click the games badge on a phase to change the number of games per team, then regenerate the schedule. This is useful if the tournament is running ahead of or behind schedule.
• Advance Times: Use the "Advance Times" button to shift match start times forward. Only upcoming matches are affected. Completed and in-progress games keep their original times.

Schedule Display

Share the schedule with players using the TV display mode (/tv) which shows:

• Current games in progress
• Upcoming games
• Court assignments
• Live scores (when entered)

Keep things running smoothly during the tournament.

Managing Games

• Announce upcoming games and court assignments
• Use the TV display for real-time schedule updates
• Scorekeepers can enter scores as games complete
• The score entry page shows per-round progress (e.g., "2/4 scored") so you know how many matches remain in each time slot. A notification appears when all matches in a round are complete.
• View live standings in the Analysis section

Public View Links

At the bottom of the Tournament Hub, you'll find quick links to share with players:

• TV Mode: Full-screen display for venue monitors (/tv/[slug])
• Public Dashboard: Mobile-friendly view of teams, schedule, and scores (/dash/[slug])
• Tournament Page: Public detail page with registration and info (/tournaments/[slug])

Assigning Scorekeepers

• Add scorekeepers to your tournament from the Setup page under Tournament Staff
• Scorekeepers receive an email with a link to the tournament's Scorer interface
• They can also access their assigned tournaments from the Director Portal home page
• Or use a shared tablet/device at each court

Handling Issues

• Late arrivals: Mark them present and consider adding to a team short on players
• Early departures: Adjust teams if needed to keep games balanced
• Score disputes: You can edit scores from the Scorer or Manual Scoring pages

1. Ensure all scores have been entered. The tournament automatically moves to Complete status once every match is scored. A snapshot is saved automatically at this point.
2. If needed, you can manually mark a tournament as Complete from the Setup page status dropdown or Admin → Tournaments
3. Once complete, the tournament is read-only. All data (players, teams, schedule, scores) is locked to prevent accidental modifications.
4. Review final standings in Analysis and Standings from the Director Portal sidebar
5. Players can view their results in their player portal
6. When you're done, Archive the tournament from the Setup page to hide it from public view. Another snapshot is saved automatically.
7. If you need to make corrections, change the status back to Live from the Setup page, make your changes, then re-complete.

The Activity Log page in the Director Portal provides a chronological record of all actions taken during the tournament. This includes:

• Team generation and regeneration events
• Score saves and edits
• Player check-ins and status changes
• Staff additions and role changes
• Lore (team name theme) changes
• Schedule generation and time adjustments

Each entry shows who performed the action and when. This is useful for auditing changes and understanding what happened during a tournament.