You've already done the hard part
Getting them
to turn up.
That's the bit nobody can do for you. The draw, the scoring, the telly on the wall and everyone's rating — that's ours, and it happens whether you're watching or not.
Cue sports and darts to start with, rackets next — each one built for how that game is actually scored, not squeezed into a generic bracket.
How a night runs
Not a bracket generator.
A whole production.
Most tournament tools give you a bracket and a prayer. This is everything between "shall we do a pool night" and people arguing about it on Thursday.
Before
Pick a game and a date. Send one link.
No spreadsheet, no sign-up sheet on the bar. They tap the link, put their name in, and you can see who's actually coming.
On the night
The draw goes up on the screen.
Names fly across the telly and everyone finds out who they've got at the same time. Thirty seconds of theatre before a ball is struck.
Short on players
Turn up with 11 instead of 16 and it still works.
The draw adapts to any number — 4, 12, 17, 32. No byes padding it out, no wasted spots. Fresh draw means at most one person sits out a round.
While it's on
Anyone can put a score in from their phone.
It updates on the TV and on everyone else's phone at once. Nobody asks what the score is, because it is already up there.
After
Every match gets written up.
Who choked, who came back, who hit the shot of the night. Awards land at the end — iron player, giant killer, comeback king. People screenshot them and put them in the group chat.
Next week
Run it again without chasing anybody.
Your contact list builds itself every time someone signs up. By month two they're asking you when the next one is.
Pick your format
However your lot
already play it.
Every format runs with live scoring, the TV display and rankings. Pick whichever suits the room — you're not learning ours.
Also here: double elimination, for when one bad frame shouldn't end somebody's night, and last man standing, for a full room and not much time. See all formats.
Nothing to configure
It already knows
what a frame is.
Pool counts frames and pots. Darts counts legs and checkouts and knows what a ton is. Snooker knows a break from a frame. You don't set any of that up and you don't translate your night into somebody else's idea of a tournament.
Pick the game and the scoring, the stats, the labels on the screen and the way the results read are already right for it. Best of three, best of five, per round if the final should be longer than the first round — your call, not a setting you have to go hunting for.
The night is yours. The admin is ours.
What leaves your evening
You came to play
as well, didn't you.
The reason nobody volunteers to run it twice is that the organiser never gets a night out. Here's the list that stops being your problem.
Working out the draw
Sixteen names on a beer mat, and somebody always ends up with a bye they didn't earn. It draws itself, for any number of people.
Chasing who's actually coming
They tap the link and put their name down. You can see the list before you leave the house, and if five drop out the draw redoes itself.
Being the scoreboard
Anyone can put a result in from their phone. You are not the person everybody asks what the score is.
Remembering who won what
Every result, every stat and every player's record is kept without anyone writing anything down. Including yours.
Starting from scratch next time
Run it again and everyone who played is already there. You don't rebuild the list, you pick a date.
Why they come back
One night is an event.
Ten is a scene.
Every match moves everyone's rating. Beat someone above you and you jump; lose to someone below you and it hurts. They get a profile, a rank and a history that carries across every tournament you run.
And it isn't trapped in your night. It carries into next season and anywhere else that runs one, so nobody has to start from zero again. That's the bit that makes people turn up in the rain.
Somebody already did
This started with
one bloke and a night.
19 players at The Weston Arms, ranked on matches somebody stood there and marked. It didn't start as a league — it started as a Tuesday.
Bal Jassal
1886
Pick a game. Pick a date.
Send the link.
That's the whole job. Takes about two minutes and you don't need to know anything about running tournaments.
£49 a month, per venue — 45 days to try it.
Own the place rather than run the night? What it does for a venue