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Tournaments

Overview

PodPlay Tournaments turns any event at your club into a tournament or league — from a casual Open Play to a full bracket competition. It really shines for adding structure to your day-to-day Open Plays: run a Challenge Court, a Paddle Rack queue, or randomly assigned MLP teams without leaving the platform. This article gives you the lay of the land — what formats are available, when to use each, and where to go next.

Two Big Buckets to Choose From

Open Play. Ad hoc, open-ended events where your players come and go. Designed for fair bye distribution and partner/opponent variety. Great for daily drop-in sessions.

Fixed Tournament Formats (Round Robin, Elimination, Hybrid). Structured events where the player list is locked at the start and everyone plays through to the end. Use these for scheduled tournaments where a winner is decided.

Open Play Formats at a Glance

  • Shuffle Play — randomized rounds with balanced court time and variety in partners and opponents.

  • Challenge Court — winners stay on a designated court (always, or for a set number of wins).

  • Challenge Ladder — multiple courts where players move up or down based on results.

  • Paddle Rack — queue-based continuous play, no rounds. Players line up and matches generate automatically.

  • Timed Play — per-round timer, available for any Open Play format. Switches to sudden death once the timer expires. See: Running an Open Play.

Fixed Tournament Formats at a Glance

  • Round Robin — every team plays every other team. Single or Double.

  • Elimination Bracket — knockout style. Single or Double Elimination, with a Bronze Match for 3rd place in Double.

  • Hybrid (Round Robin + Bracket) — group play followed by an elimination playoff. Includes Finals and Bronze Match. See: Running a Tournament or League.

League Formats at a Glance

Leagues run multiple tournament sessions with cumulative standings across the season.

  • Single Round Robin League — each session is a single round robin.

  • Double Round Robin League — each session is a double round robin.

  • Hybrid League — round robin sessions with a championship bracket in the final session.

  • Weekly Schedule League — each team plays once per week, with playoffs at the end.

  • Ladder League — round robin with multiple groups where players move between groups by performance (1 Up / 1 Down or 2 Up / 2 Down). See: Running a Tournament or League.

Event Type Options

For any tournament format, choose how matches are structured:

  • Singles — one player per side.

  • Doubles — two players per team.

  • Rotating Doubles — players rotate partners (Round Robin only).

  • MLP 4 Players — teams of 4 with mixed doubles.

  • MLP 3 Players — teams of 3 (Hybrid only).

Public Event Pages

Every tournament has a public link for viewing brackets, standings, and match results — no login required. Players can track their upcoming matches; leagues have dedicated public pages showing cumulative standings across sessions.

App Integration

Tournament functionality is built into your club's app. In Tournament Settings, toggle on Show Tournament In App to expose a Match Info link on the Event Card under "My Bookings". Your players can then see court assignments, submit scores, and view standings from their phones.

Roadmap

  • iPad / Monitor Integration (coming soon). Score submission directly on iPad kiosks; live standings and matchups on court monitors.

  • Push Notifications (coming soon). Court assignment and opponent notifications.

  • DUPR Integration (coming soon). Automatic score submission to DUPR. In the meantime, scores can still be submitted via iPad kiosks.

  • Player Score Submission (coming soon). Players will submit scores directly from public event pages.

Where to Next

Where to learn more?

Once logged into the Tournament feature, further documentation is provided:

  • What's New — a chronological changelog of new releases for the feature

  • Knowledge Base — different use cases spelled out with graphics

  • Tutorials — educational videos to further enhance leveraging the feature

PreviousReviewing Match Points in App
NextRunning an Open Play

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