Box League

A Box League is Pods where each box picks its own night. Your players are sorted by rating and cut into boxes of four or five; each box meets once a round — an hour or two, on any court, any day before the round ends — and plays its whole round robin in that sitting: 3 games for four, 5 games for five. One of them enters the scores from a phone and a box-mate confirms. When every box is done and every score is settled, the boxes re-form from the updated ratings and the next round starts. Rounds are a week by default, so a league is simply as many weeks as you want to run. Tennis and badminton clubs run the same thing under this name.

A Box League needs recorded scores, so it is part of Pro and up, and free during your first month. Players never pay and never create an account.

Starting a league

Mark the players who are in on the Mixer roster, open ⚙ Roster Settings and tap Start a Box League….

• Round length. One week is the suggestion — one meetup per box, then new boxes. Pick two to four weeks if your players need longer to find a time; each box still meets once. Rounds end on a Sunday night in your group's timezone.
• Games. To 11, win by 2, by default; rally scoring and other targets as in the Mixer. Five games to 11 take about 90 minutes. Boxes of four and of five can play different games.
• Boxes of 5. When the count needs them, Best fit puts them where the ratings are most crowded. See how pods are formed — a box is formed the same way.
• Between rounds. Re-sort everyone by rating (recommended): every settled score moves the players' Elo ratings, and the next round's boxes are cut from the new order. Swap the top and bottom player of neighboring boxes is the classic box league: one up, one down.
• Rollover. Rounds roll over on their own once every score is settled. You get the proposed boxes first, with time to change them, and the next round starts Monday morning — or Tuesday, if the last scores came in late on Sunday. Tick I'll start each round myself to roll over by hand.
• The box page. Choose what players get beyond the time line: the Days that work grid, Box notes, and an optional contact line each player writes themselves. Emails are never shown.

Then check the proposed boxes — drag to swap or move, as on a Pods night — and press Start Round 1. If you ticked it, everyone with an email gets their box page link at once; show a QR to anyone else from the Box League page.

The box page

Each player's page shows their box-mates, the box's games with who partners whom, and the day the round ends. At the top is the meetup: any box-mate taps Set our time and picks a day, a time and a place; everyone else taps I'm in or Can't make it, and the page shows "3 of 4 in". A box of four needs all four — everyone plays every game. A box of five needs all five: each game sits a different player, so with four present only one game could be played.

• Days that work is a grid of weekdays and mornings, afternoons and evenings. Each player marks their own; the page shows where everyone overlaps, and a slot that works for all can be set as the time with one tap.
• Box notes are short messages to the box ("I booked court 4"). Box-mates with notifications on get a buzz; the others get an email, at most one a day. The page also notes when the time was set or changed.
• Contact line. A player can add how to reach them. It is shown to their box while the round runs and nowhere else, and they can clear it any time.

What players see and tap is in Box League for players.

Scores

At the end of the meetup one player taps Report scores and enters the whole sheet — all three or five games, with the day played. Every other box-mate gets a buzz, and any one of them confirms the sheet with one tap; the games are saved and rated at once. If a box-mate remembers one game differently, they mark that game and enter their score: that game comes to you under Needs you on your Box League page, with a buzz at once and at most one email a day, and it doesn't count until you settle it; the rest of the sheet is confirmed as usual. A sheet nobody confirmed stays the box's to confirm — the box-mates are reminded, and after three days your page flags it so you can remind them yourself, or accept it if you know the scores. A box that ran out of time leaves the unplayed games blank and can report them after a second meetup.

Settling scores before the next round

The next round's boxes are cut from the ratings, and every unsettled score would change them. So no round starts, and no proposed boxes are shown, while a score from the closing round is unsettled.

• Disputes come to you as they happen, so most are settled the same week.
• When the round closes, any sheet nobody confirmed comes to you too. Each item offers Accept, Fix score or Void game; Void all clears the list in one tap. Nothing is ever accepted on its own — ask the players first if you can.
• While the list waits you get a reminder after two days, five days, and weekly for a month; then the reminders stop and the league stays held until you settle it.
• Players see "Round 2 starts once your organizer settles the last scores" — no names, no blame.
• The moment the list is empty, the boxes are cut and sent to you, and the next round starts at 9 in the morning, Monday at the earliest and at least 12 hours after the last settle (or, if you roll over by hand, Start Round 2 lights up).

Watching a round

Your Box League page opens with Needs you — the short list of what only you can do: a disputed score, a box that lost a player, a sheet nobody confirmed for three days, a round ending Sunday with boxes not done. Under it, every box with its status: No time yet, Time set (with the day and who's in), Today, Scores waiting, Done, Behind (no time set with three days left, or met but no scores in) and Needs you. Players get a handful of buzzes a round — when it starts, when their time is set, on the day, if the scores aren't in, and when it ends — and at most two emails. Remind sends your own note to one box, once every few days. Three days before the end you get an email if boxes aren't done; it opens your Box League page, where Extend by a week is one tap.

When every box is done early

Most boxes are done the night they meet, so a round usually finishes before Sunday. The round then closes on its own and you get the proposed boxes right away; the next round still starts Monday morning as everyone was told, unless you tap Start Round 2 now — or Start on another day…, a later Monday for a holiday, say.

Dropouts, subs and a box-mate who can't make it

Tap a player's name in their box and choose Remove from box before the meetup. A box of five becomes a box of four and its games are redrawn; a box of four left with three needs a player: add a sub from the group, who takes the open seat. A sub's games count in the box's table (marked sub) and rate as normal, but a sub isn't carried into the next round the way a regular is — to keep them, tap their name and choose Keep for Round 2. If one of five can't make the time and the round is nearly over, you can add a sub for that round or let the box play as four — the fifth sits the round out with their rating unchanged. New players join at the next round — a box is a complete round robin.

The end of a round

On the Sunday the round closes if it hasn't already. Games not played are marked not played and count for nobody; a box's table ranks by win percentage, then point difference. When the next round starts, everyone gets their box's results card and their new box ("Moved up to Box 2", "Stays in Box 3") — by push, and by email if you ticked it at setup. The round's games are saved like any recorded game, in a game session named "Box League · Round 1".