Planned competitions

A planned competition creates its leagues and tournaments for you, on a schedule. Use one when the same people play again and again:

• a weekly americano with a fixed number of places and a queue of people who want in;
• league cycles every few weeks, with players moving up and down between groups;
• groups that end in a tournament, or a season of tournaments that count towards one table.

The competition keeps a roster of the teams that hold its places, a free waiting list, and asks the regulars each time whether they are coming. Places that free up go to whoever claims them first.

Each league or tournament the plan creates is a cycle. To the member app, a cycle is an ordinary league or tournament, so players record results and follow the table the same way as in any other league.

Before you start

Build the league or tournament that each cycle will copy. This is the stage's template: every cycle copies all of its settings, including its format, group size, court schedule and venue. Nothing is copied from the previous cycle except the players.

Any league or tournament that hasn't started can be a template. Set it up in Leagues or Tournaments as you would for a one-off event. Once a stage uses it, it is hidden from the club's lists.

Create the competition

Planned competitions live under Club Admin → Competitions → Rankings.

1. Choose New competition.
2. Enter a Name. The Sport starts as your club's primary sport. Add a Description, Starts on and Ends on if you want them.
3. Choose Save. The competition opens.

A planned competition has these tabs: Standings, Leagues and competitions, Bonus and penalty points, Plan, Roster, Cycles, Sign-up and Settings.

Set up the plan

Everything about places, fees and schedule is on the Plan tab.

Places

Regular places is how many teams hold a place. Leave it empty for No limit: everyone who joins is then a regular. Choose Save.

Season fee

Switch on Paid season and enter the Price to charge for a place. Players pay once, when they take a place, and are on the roster once the payment goes through. The season fee is always paid online. Joining the waiting list is always free.

Stages

A stage creates cycles from one template, once or on a repeating schedule. Choose Add a stage and fill in the form. A change to a stage applies only to cycles that haven't been created yet.

What it creates

• Name — shown before each cycle's date, for example "Tuesday americano". It defaults to the competition's name.
• Makes — League or Tournament. You can't change this after you save the stage.
• Copies — the template league or tournament.

When it plays

• Repeats — Every few weeks for a recurring stage, or Once.
• Every how many weeks — 1 for weekly.
• First on (or On for a single cycle) and At — the date and time of the first cycle.
• Until and At most, cycles — when a recurring stage stops. Both are optional.

When a stage follows another, it starts once the one before it finishes.

Who plays

Pick how each cycle takes attendance:

Then set the timing, counted back from each cycle's start:

• Made, days before — when the cycle is created and regulars can start answering. The default is 7 days.
• Answers close, hours before — the attendance deadline. The default is 24 hours. Places left free then go to whoever claims them first.
• Remind the undecided and Reminder, hours before answers close — for Regulars confirm each time only. Regulars who haven't answered get a push this many hours before the deadline. It is on by default, at 24 hours.
• Locks, hours before — claims close, the players are fixed (except by Replace), the cycle starts and its games are drawn. The default is 2 hours.

Groups (league stages only)

Choose how each cycle's groups are filled at the deadline:

• By current rating — strongest first, from each team's rating that day. This is the default.
• Promotion and relegation — each team starts from its group and place in the previous cycle. The first cycle is grouped by rating.

Rating chooses between The club's own rating and DUPR. Teams with no rating are placed after those with one.

When fewer play than the groups hold decides how a short field is spread. With 27 players in six groups of five:

A group never drops below the number of teams its format needs to play. An americano group needs at least four.

Courts (league stages only)

Book the courts is off by default, which leaves players to book their own courts. Switch it on and each cycle copies the template's court schedule, moved to the cycle's date, and books it when the cycle locks. The courts are booked in the name of the admin who switched booking on.

If a court is already taken, nothing is booked over it. The cycle shows the problem on the Cycles tab, and booking is tried again until the cycle plays.

Points (tournament stages only)

Points by round reached lists the points for the winner first, then the finalist, the semi-finalists and so on. The default is 100, 60, 35, 15. These points count towards the competition's standings.

Choose Save.

One-off fee

After a stage is saved, open it again with the edit button to see its One-off fee. Switch on Paid cycles and enter the Price a team pays to play a single cycle of this stage when it takes a free place. Without a one-off fee, taking a single cycle's place is free.

Open sign-up

The Sign-up tab decides who can join and puts up a public sign-up page. It needs at least one stage on the Plan tab first.

Sign-up window

• Opens — optional. Leave it empty to open sign-up as soon as you save.
• Closes — setting a closing time puts the page up. Leave it empty to take the page down.

Without a closing time there's no sign-up page, and members can join from the app at any time.

The badge shows where the page stands: No sign-up page, Opens later, Sign-up open or Sign-up closed. While there is a page, Copy link copies its address on your club's website, and Open shows it. While sign-up is open, the competition is also listed on your website's competitions page, at /competitions.

On the page, members sign up and pay the season fee straight away while places are free. When the competition is full, they join the waiting list for free.

Who may enter

• Approve sign-ups — a member who signs up waits until you approve them on the Roster tab. They pay the season fee only after that.
• Members only — every player on a team needs an active membership at the club. Membership types narrows that to particular memberships. Leave it empty to accept any membership.

These checks apply when members join, claim a place or pay a fee. You can still add anyone to the roster yourself.

Venue and description

• Location — where the competition is played, picked from your club's locations. The page shows it with a map link.
• Description — what players should know before they sign up, such as the format, the level and what the fee covers.

Choose Save.

Manage the roster

The Roster tab lists every team in the competition and shows how many places are taken. To add a player, search for them at the top. They become a regular if a place is free, otherwise they go on the waiting list.

Teams are grouped by status:

Each row shows the team's rating (the one a league cycle would group it by), a Member or Non-member badge, No-shows if it has any, and the padel side if it plays one. Two badges record an admin's decision. Hover over them to see who made it:

• Override — the team was added without the membership a members-only competition asks for.
• Fee waived — the team was given its place without the season fee. The tooltip shows the reason.

Approve or reject sign-ups

When Approve sign-ups is on, requests are listed first. Choose Approve or Reject. The team's players are told either way.

• Without a season fee, an approved team takes a regular place while one is free, otherwise it joins the waiting list.
• With a season fee, an approved team joins the waiting list. While a place is free and the first cycle hasn't started, it takes the place by paying the fee, like any other waiting team.
• Reject withdraws the team.

Move a team

From a row's menu, choose Give a regular place, Move to the waiting list or Withdraw. You can give a regular place over the limit.

Waive the season fee

1. From the row's menu, choose Waive the season fee.
2. Enter a Reason.
3. Choose Waive the fee.

The team gets a regular place without paying, even over the limit. Waiving the fee for a team that is awaiting approval also approves it. Remove the fee waiver clears the record and leaves the team in its place.

Credit a wallet

To give a player money back, for example after a cancelled evening:

1. From the team's menu, choose Credit a wallet.
2. Pick the Player, enter the Amount, and under For pick The whole competition or one cycle.
3. Enter a Reason. The player sees it in their wallet history.
4. Choose Credit.

The amount goes into the player's wallet at your club, in the club's currency. Each credit is recorded in the audit log.

Run the cycles

Cycles are created automatically from the plan. The Cycles tab lists them, with how many teams are playing, how many places are free, and when answers close or the cycle locks.

What happens to each cycle

1. The cycle is created the set number of days ahead. Its status is Taking answers. Every regular gets a push asking whether they're playing, except in a stage where an admin picks the players.
2. Before the deadline, in a stage where regulars confirm, the undecided get a reminder.
3. At the deadline the cycle moves to Places up for claiming. Places released by regulars who declined, or didn't confirm, go up for claiming, and everyone on the waiting list gets a push and an email. A league cycle is grouped now.
4. Until the lock anyone allowed can claim a free place: teams on the waiting list, and any member of the club who isn't on the roster. The first to claim gets it. A player who claims plays that cycle only and doesn't join the roster. While they pay a one-off fee, the place is held for them for 15 minutes.
5. At the lock the cycle is Started: the players and groups are fixed (except by Replace), the games are drawn and, if the stage books courts, the courts are booked.

A regular place given up for good is offered the same way. Before the first cycle starts, it goes to the first waiting team to take it, paying the season fee if there is one. After that, waiting teams play single cycles as places free up.

If something stops a cycle from moving on, such as a court that couldn't be booked, the cycle shows Stuck - tried again every few minutes with the reason.

Change answers and groups

Open a cycle's answers with the list button at the end of its row.

• Answers — until the cycle starts, set any team's answer: No answer, Playing, Not playing or Took a free place.
• Groups — once a league cycle is grouped, the teams are listed by Group. Until the cycle starts, move a team with its group menu, or choose New group. Your moves stay put when other teams claim or give up places later.

A team that stops playing leaves its group, and its place is released. A team that starts playing takes the place released first. If there isn't one, it goes to the bottom of the smallest group.

Lock a cycle early

Choose Lock now to start the cycle before its lock time. Answers and claims close, the players and groups are fixed (except by Replace), and the league starts with its games drawn. You can't undo this.

Replace a team for one cycle

You can swap a playing team for another one, before the cycle starts and, in a league, while it is being played:

1. Choose Replace on the team.
2. Pick A team from the roster, or search under Or any member of the club.
3. Choose Replace.

The first team is marked as not playing. The new one takes its place and group for this cycle only, without a fee, and shows a Substitute badge naming the team it plays in for.

In a league cycle that has already started, the new team takes over every game of the group not yet played, with the same partners and the courts booked for them. Games already played stay as they were. Both teams score what they played, in the league and in the competition's standings, and their results count towards their ratings. A tournament cycle that has started can't be changed.

Waive the one-off fee

When a stage has a one-off fee, you can let a waiting team play a cycle for free. Use the fee button on the team, or Free place for a waiting team to pick one. Enter a Reason and choose Waive the fee. The team plays the cycle even if no place is free, and stays on the waiting list.

Record a no-show

Once a cycle has started, choose Mark no-show on a team that was due to play but didn't come. Undo no-show takes it back. No-shows are for your records only: they don't change the league or its groups, and they appear as a count on the Roster tab.

Mexicano rounds

A mexicano draws each round after the one before it. When the stage books courts, choose Book courts for new games on a started cycle to book the courts for the rounds drawn since.

Moving from a league with a waiting list

The member app no longer puts players on a waiting list when a league or tournament is full, or when its sign-up has closed. Instead, it says the league is full or closed. If your club has planned competitions taking sign-ups, it points players to them.

Players who registered interest the old way are still in the league, without a group. A started league lists them in a box headed with how many players are not in a group.

To give those players a real waiting list:

1. On the league's Settings tab, choose Create a planned competition. If the league has already started, create the competition under Club Admin → Competitions → Rankings and pick a league that hasn't started as the template.
2. Add a stage, and set Regular places and any fee on the Plan tab.
3. Open sign-up on the Sign-up tab, or add the players yourself on the Roster tab.