Creating a tournament
Pick a format, set the date, scoring and options, and open your tournament for players to join.
1. Overview
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Watch: creating your first tournament
In Padel Fast a tournament is called a matchmaking. You create one from your dashboard, choose how it should be played, and Padel Fast generates the rounds, pairings and scoreboard for you automatically once it starts.
Creation opens a form that slides in from the side. The left side covers the tournament details (title, club, date, entry fee); the right side covers how it is played (format, scoring system and options). You can change most settings later, right up until the tournament starts.
2. Start creating
Open the create form.
From your dashboard, tap the button to create a new tournament. The create panel opens from the right on desktop and from the bottom on mobile.
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Give it a title and description.
A default title is filled in automatically based on the format you pick — replace it with your own if you like. The description is optional and shown to players on the tournament page.
Choose a club (optional).
Search for a venue from your added clubs or nearby clubs. Selecting a club shows its location to players and lets you reserve courts if booking is enabled.
Set the date and time.
Pick when the tournament starts. The date cannot be in the past.
3. Choosing a format
The format decides how players are paired and how rounds are generated. Formats fall into two groups: individual formats, where the app pairs players for you, and team formats, where you build fixed pairs or teams before playing.
Individual formats
| Format | How it works | Max players |
|---|---|---|
| Americano | Everyone plays with and against everyone; individual points. | 24 |
| Americano Mix | Americano with gender-balanced pairings. | 24 |
| Mexicano | Pairings each round are based on the current standings. | 64 |
| Mexicano Mix | Mexicano with gender-balanced pairings. | 100 |
| Round Robin | Every player plays every other; full schedule. | 100 |
| Ladder | Ongoing ranking; players challenge those above them. | 200 |
| Beat the Box | Group ('box') play in sizes of 4, 5, 7, 8, 12 or 16. | 64 |
| Match / Singles | A single one-off match (2v2 or 1v1). | 2 |
Team formats
| Format | How it works | Max players |
|---|---|---|
| Team Americano | Americano played by fixed teams. | 32 |
| Team Mexicano | Standings-based pairings for fixed teams. | 64 |
| Knockout | Single-elimination bracket. | 64 |
| World Cup | Group stage followed by a knockout bracket. | 64 |
| Winning Lane | Tiered play; winners move up, losers move down. | 64 |
| Team Clash | Two teams of 4–10 pairs face off. | 16–40 |
| Team Ladder | Ladder ranking for teams. | 200 |
The format also sets the maximum number of participants. If you already added more players than a format allows, you will not be able to select it.
4. Scoring system
The scoring system sets how each match is won. Choose the one that fits how long you want matches to last.
| System | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 16 / 21 / 24 / 32 points | First to (or highest at) the chosen point total wins the match. |
| Custom points | Set your own target point total for every match. |
| Time | Matches run for a set number of minutes; a timer is available in play. |
| Standard | No fixed target — enter the final result yourself. |
| Classic | Traditional tennis scoring (0, 15, 30, 40, game). |
The Ladder format always uses the Standard system, since matches are played as normal sets rather than to a point total.
5. Settings and options
Mode
- Normal — a public tournament anyone can find and join.
- Ranked — a public tournament that affects player ratings. Choosing Ranked lets you set a rating (ELO) filter with a slider, so only players near that level can join, and manual player adding is disabled.
Duration
Set how long the tournament runs — commonly 60 to 240 minutes for a single session. Ladder tournaments can instead run over 1, 3 or 6 months.
Player options
- Requires organizer approval — new players must be approved by you before they are added.
- Late participation — lets players join after the tournament has already started (supported by Americano, Mexicano, Winning Lane and Ladder formats).
Resting
Enable resting to let players sit out a round, and choose how many points a resting player is awarded.
Entry fee and payments
- Entrance fee — charge players to enter; set the amount and currency.
- Card payments — collect the fee by card (only available if your account is connected for payments).
- Booking — reserve courts at the selected club.
Format-specific options
- Ladder — challenge limit (how many active challenges a player may have), challenge threshold (how far up the ladder a player may challenge), challenge timeout (days before an unanswered challenge expires), optional wildcards, and optional activity points for wins, draws and losses.
- World Cup — teams per group (4, 6 or 8), number of tiers, whether to merge tiers after the group stage, and points awarded per win, draw and loss.
- Mexicano — an optional starting round if you want to begin later than round 1.
6. Linking to a league (optional)
If you organize a league, you can attach the tournament to one of its divisions so results feed into the league standings. This option only appears if you are an organizer of at least one league.
7. Publish
Create the tournament.
Submit the form. You are taken to the tournament page, where you can add players, invite people and share the tournament before starting it.
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