How do I set up a tournament?

A tournament runs in five steps, and each one is a section below.

1. Make itA name, two dates, and an event for each draw.
2. Entries openMembers put their own names down, and you add anybody else.
3. Make the drawSeed who you like and press it. That closes entries.
4. Score itRound by round, with a format per round if you want one.
5. Finals dayAn order of play for the day, across every event.

Making one

A tournament is a name and two dates: Entries close and finals day. Nothing happens on the first of them by itself: it is the day you tell members by. Inside are events, such as Mens Singles or Ladies Doubles, each with its own format, shape and entries.

Running the whole thing in one day? Tick Day tournament and it asks for one date instead of two. No round gets a play-by date, so nothing in it ever shows as overdue. Everything else is the same.

You can run up to 6 tournaments at once, such as your championships and a junior week.

Members entering themselves

Entries are open the moment a tournament goes up. A member opens the event and puts their own name down. On a doubles event they name a partner, who has to say yes, or come on their own for you to pair. You still type in anybody who tells you in the bar, and you can take a name off. If your club would rather not, Entries open is a tick under the tournament’s settings.

The same is true of next season’s boxes, from the other end. A member who is not playing this season can put their name down on their You screen. The list is waiting for you when you build the season, and nobody is placed in a box by it.

Making the draw

Type a seed number beside anyone who is seeded and press Make the draw. That is what closes entries, so a club still one short on the day can wait. You can redraw as often as you like right up to the first score. After that you cannot, because a result would be filed against a pairing that no longer exists. How a draw is made has the seeds, the byes and the shapes.

Getting the players in

Put the entries in, then press Player link. That gives you one link for the whole championships: post it in the club group chat, and everybody who has entered taps their own name to sign in. One link covers every event. It works like a box’s player link, with the same warnings: sign in on the phone you use most, in a real browser rather than inside WhatsApp.

It matters most for a junior or a social member who is in no box. Replace link stops the old link working straight away, and anybody already signed in stays signed in.

Scoring, round by round

An event is scored one way by default and most clubs leave it there. Once the draw is made you can set a format against any round. Fast4 to the quarter-finals and two sets from the semis, say.

Leave a round alone and it plays the event’s own. You can change a round until somebody plays it, because the score in it was checked against the old rules.

Changing an event afterwards

Press Event settings under the draw. Before the draw is made you can change anything. After it, this is where you stand:

Anything fixed is shown greyed out, so you can still read what you chose. Changing the scoring under a match somebody has played would rewrite their result. A club night settles its courts, how it is played and how a round is scored when the first round is dealt.

Clear every score puts the whole event back to unplayed, so everything that waited on a first score is yours again. The draw and the entries stay. A plate or a knockout drawn out of the groups comes off with the scores, and is drawn again once results are back in. To correct one match instead, tap it in the draw and press Clear this score.

Remove this event takes it off the tournament with everyone entered in it. Nobody leaves the club: entering made them a member, and this does not undo that.