The Mixer — live round-robin generator
The live round-robin engine — fresh partners and opponents, fair sit-outs, fixed partners, ratings balance, and more.
The Mixer is the heart of PickleFriend. Type in your players, set your courts, and it builds matchups that keep everyone on fresh partners and opponents as deep into the session as the math allows. It runs in milliseconds, online or off.
What it does
- No-repeat rotation — the engine tracks every pairing and sit-out so partners and opponents stay fresh as deep into the session as the math allows.
- Fair sit-outs — when numbers don't divide evenly, sit-outs are shared across the whole session instead of benching the same people.
- Fixed partners — lock couples or training pairs together while everyone else rotates.
- Mixed doubles & gender balance — keep mixed courts, or all-men / all-women courts, automatically.
- Rating balance — weight matchups by skill so the games stay close instead of lopsided.
- Live controls — freeze a court that's still playing, drag players between courts to swap, rename courts, add late arrivals, jump between the courts and roster from the sticky header, and show everything on a TV with Big Screen mode.
In this section
- Mixer settings reference — every knob in one place: what each setting does and when to reach for it.
- Presets — save your favorite setups and load them in one tap for recurring sessions.
- Roster management — add, import, sort, and recover players, set VIPs, and change roster display options.
- Fixed partners — set a locked pair, keep players apart with Bad Blood, and let everyone else rotate around them.
- Mixed doubles & gender balance — the gender settings and when each one applies.
- Court controls — freeze and pin courts, rename them, and change what each court card shows.
- Live controls — swap players, add late arrivals, undo a clear, and check a player's history mid-session.
- Sessions — save, switch, and sync multiple mixes across devices.
- Big Screen mode & printing — put the rotation on a TV or hand out a printed sheet.
- Player self-service — players scan a QR to check in, add themselves, sit out, or check out from their own phones; requests apply at the next mix.
- Offline play — run a full session with no signal; everything mixes right on your device.
- Player badges & counters — decode the roster counter strip and every badge that can appear on a player.
- Launch URL parameters — pre-load players and settings by adding parameters to the mixer's URL.
- Mixer settings reference Every Mixer setting explained — courts, sit-out fairness, fresh partners and opponents, ratings balance, gender rules, court weights, and the quality slider.
- Presets One-tap setting bundles — Rating Isolation, balanced mixing, gender courts, and more — and when to reach for each.
- Fixed partners & keeping players apart Lock couples or training pairs together while everyone else rotates on fresh partners and opponents — or use Bad Blood to keep two players apart.
- Mixed doubles & gender balance Keep every court mixed doubles, or run all-men / all-women courts — automatically.
- Big Screen mode & printing Show matchups on a TV at the venue — with a countdown timer, buzzer, and hands-free auto-mixing — print court sheets for the wall, or share the schedule as an image.
- Offline play (Mix Offline) Download the offline mixing package and the Mixer keeps generating rounds with no signal — even on courts with dead Wi-Fi.
- Court controls Freeze courts, pin players, rename courts with pseudonyms, and adjust court display settings in the PickleMixer.
- Live controls during a mix How to shoo in a late arrival, swap players between courts with repeat-aware green highlights, view a player's session history, and undo a clear-all — without stopping the round.
- Managing mixer sessions How to create, switch, rename, delete, and cloud-sync mixer sessions — including sessions shared with co-organizers — plus what happens when a mix was started without a group.
- Roster management How to add, import, organize, and recover players in the Mixer roster.
- Player self-service (QR check-in & sit-outs) Players scan a QR on the big screen to check themselves in, add their own name, sit out a round, or check out — their requests apply automatically at the next mix.
- Player badges and counters A reference for every symbol in the roster counter strip and on each player row — what each one means and when it appears.
- Launching the mixer with URL parameters Pre-load a roster and settings into the mixer with URL query parameters — what each one does, how they are encoded, and what happens when players already exist.