Introducing the Tournament Builder: Design Your Own Padel Formats

Every club runs its tournaments a little differently. Until now, you had to bend your event to fit a format. With the new Tournament Builder in Padel Fast, you design the format to fit your event — schedules, brackets and performance-based rounds, all in one place — and run it exactly like any built-in format.

Whether you organise a relaxed Friday Americano, a full weekend cup with group stages and playoffs, or something nobody has invented yet, the Tournament Builder gives you the tools to create it once and reuse it forever.

What is the Padel Fast Tournament Builder?

The Tournament Builder is a visual editor that lets you design your own custom padel tournament formats — no spreadsheets, no manual bracket drawing, no math. You define the rules; Padel Fast handles the pairings, the schedule, the live scoring and the standings automatically.

Once a build is saved, it behaves just like the classic formats you already know — Americano, Mexicano, round robin and knockout. Pick it when you create a tournament and you're ready to play in seconds.

Rules powerful enough to re-create Americano, Mexicano or knockouts — or to invent your own format entirely.

Why custom formats matter for organisers and clubs

Built-in formats cover the classics, but real-world events rarely fit a single mould. Organisers constantly juggle the number of courts, the number of players, how long the evening can run, and how competitive the group is. The Tournament Builder removes the compromise:

• Fit your courts and your clock. Control the number of rounds so an event finishes on time, every time.
• Mix stages freely. Combine a group stage with a knockout, add a consolation bracket, or finish with a performance-based final round.
• Reuse what works. Save your club's signature format once and launch it again with a single tap — no rebuilding each week.
• Share with the community. Publish your best builds so other organisers can run them too, and discover formats created by clubs around the world.

How the Tournament Builder works

Every build is made of a few clear building blocks. You can keep it as simple as a single round of rotating partners, or stack multiple phases into a full championship.

1. Choose who's competing

Decide whether players compete as individuals (partners rotate throughout, as in an Americano) or as fixed teams that stay together all event. Then set the minimum and maximum number of players or teams so the format only appears when the numbers make sense.

2. Pick how players are ranked

Standings can be driven by:

• Points scored — every point in every game counts, ideal for Americano-style play.
• Wins — simplest and cleanest for match-based events.
• Match points table — assign your own points per win, draw and loss for league-style tables.

3. Add your phases

Phases are played in order — for example a group stage followed by a bracket. There are three phase types, and you can combine as many as your event needs:

• Schedule — the full set of rounds is created up front, so the entire schedule is known before play starts. Choose rotating partners (everyone plays with as many different partners as possible) or a round robin (everyone plays everyone once).
• Bracket — a knockout stage where winners advance and losers are eliminated. Add a consolation bracket to keep knocked-out teams playing.
• Dynamic — performance-based rounds where each new round is generated from the results so far. This is how Mexicano-style matchups, court movement (winners move up, losers move down) and box formats work.

4. Fine-tune the details

For each phase you control the finer points that make a format feel right: seeding (random, by standings, or by registration order), pairing on each court (top-two-vs-bottom-two, best-with-worst, alternating, or random), how many rounds are played, and exactly who advances to the next phase — the top of the standings or the winners of the final round.

5. Save, run and (optionally) publish

Give your build a name, a description and a cover image, then save it. It's instantly available whenever you create a new tournament. Keep it private to your club, or publish it to the community catalogue so other organisers can use it too.

Three formats you can build in minutes

• Re-create a classic Americano. Individual players, ranked by points scored, one schedule phase with rotating partners. Done.
• Group stage + playoffs. A round-robin schedule phase to seed everyone, followed by a bracket phase where the top teams advance to a knockout final — with a consolation bracket for the rest.
• Mexicano with boxes. A dynamic phase that splits players into equal boxes, plays a full round, then re-forms the boxes from the standings so the strongest players keep meeting the strongest.

Your tournaments stay stable — always

Edited a build after an event already started? No problem. Every tournament runs on a frozen copy of the rules from the moment it was created. Tweaking or even deleting a build never disrupts a tournament that's already underway — live events keep working exactly as they began.

Who can use the Tournament Builder?

The Tournament Builder is included with the Pro Manager and Pro Club subscriptions. Authoring and publishing custom formats requires an active plan, and you can explore everything that's included on the Padel Fast pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to know how brackets or Mexicano math work?

No. You choose the rules in plain language and Padel Fast generates the pairings, schedule and standings automatically. If you can describe your event, you can build it.

Can I recreate formats like Americano and Mexicano?

Yes. The builder is powerful enough to reproduce the classic formats exactly — and to combine or extend them into something new.

What happens if I edit a build mid-event?

Nothing breaks. Tournaments run on a frozen snapshot of the rules taken when they were created, so edits and deletions never affect events already in progress.

Can other people use the formats I create?

If you publish a build, it becomes available in the community catalogue for other organisers to run. Keep it private and it stays exclusive to you.

Start building your own format

Stop forcing your events into someone else's template. Open the Tournament Builder in your Padel Fast dashboard, design the format your club has always wanted, and launch it like any other tournament. Explore the Pro Manager and Pro Club plans to get started, or browse the Padel Fast blog for more tips on running better padel events.