Running a Nonstop night

Starting

Mark tonight's players active on the Mixer as usual, then open the 📺 menu and choose Start Nonstop Courts…, or open ⚙ Games Settings or ⚙ Roster Settings and tap Start Nonstop Courts… there. You don't need to mix a round first. The dialog opens on your group's last Start: the same mode, minutes, scores choice, and mode options, whoever ran that night. If you close it without starting, say to sit a player out after a Pods warning, it reopens the way you left it, so you can pick up where you were. That lasts until you start a night or close the tab. Courts come from the Mixer's Courts Available, and the players and the email tick are set fresh each night. The first time, or when the saved mode can't start tonight, it opens on the mode it recommends (see Choosing a mode). With fewer than 4 active players the dialog doesn't open. A message says how many are active and how many are sitting out, and how to set more players active from the roster.

• Players and courts. The top line shows how many are playing, how many are sitting out, and a Courts stepper. Tap − or + to change the courts. This also changes the Mixer's Courts Available setting, and Cancel doesn't put it back. The line under it says how the players fit: how many wait at a time, or how many courts fill. With Pods it says the pods those players make ("3 pods: two of 4, one of 5"), or why the pods can't start. Tap + to check again; until it clears, Start shows the same reason instead of starting. With 3 courts or fewer, the line also says that Nonstop Courts pays off from 4 courts. That is a hint, not a block.

• No new games after. The number is minutes from now: from that point on, games already on court finish and nothing new starts. It opens on what your group used last, or 100 minutes the first time; you can set 15 to 600. For Pods the same field reads Aim to finish all games within and sits in the Time box with Pace and Break between games, because a pod night is planned to finish in that time (see Pods); no new game starts after it either.

• Scores. Choose who enters them:

  • Not recorded (the first-night choice). Players tap Game finished on their phones, and no scores or ratings are kept.
  • I enter them on this panel. Players still tap Game finished, but can't enter scores. You type each score on the court's card when you tap Finished, or under Scores to settle.
  • Players enter them on their phones. The first team to report a score frees the court, and the other team confirms it before its next game. You can still enter or fix any score yourself, under Scores to settle.

  See Scores on Nonstop nights.

• Player links. One line says how many players already have their page link, how many have an email, and how many have neither. If some have an email and no link yet, tick Email the N their link and the links go out as the night starts. Email can take a few minutes; anyone with neither can scan a QR (see Getting players their link).

Nonstop Courts can't start while the server auto-mix timer is running. Turn that off first.

During the night

The panel above your courts shows everything the server is doing:

• Each court has a card: the court's name with a ⋯ menu at the top, the two teams in coloured bands (in a pod of 5, "Sits this game" names who sits), and the game number and how long it has been playing. The timer turns amber with "Running long" once a game runs about half again as long as a typical game under the night's rules (or a little past its time limit); it changes nothing by itself. When a game is over and nobody reported it, tap Finished. On a night that records scores, Finished turns the card's team bands into score entry: set each team's score with − and + (or type it) and tap Save score (a 0–0 score asks you to confirm first), or tap No score to finish it unscored (it then waits under Scores to settle). Skip ends a game that was never played (it records nothing, and its players keep the waiting time they had before it was called). On a Pods night a skipped game leaves the pod's count: a pod of 4 with one skip reads "1 of 2 played", and the game is not replayed. A court's last game can be Reopened if it was marked finished by mistake.
• Expected scores. With Show Rating Badges on (Games Settings), each team on a card shows its team rating, and on a night that records scores its expected score too, such as "Exp 11 · 📊 1650.4" under one pair and "Exp 8.7 · 📊 1601.2" under the other, so you can tell the players before they start. Both are left out when one of the four has no rating yet.
• Rename a court from ⋯ on its card: Set Pseudonym… (Edit Pseudonym… once it has one) takes a name (leave it blank to go back to the number). The new name shows on the cards, players' phones and the big screen for the rest of the night, and is saved as the court's pseudonym for your next mixes. Clear Pseudonym (shown while a court has a name) clears it. On a Pods night the same menu has End pod….
• Waiting lists the players who are off court, how long each has waited, and why: waiting for a court, sitting out, or owing a score confirmation. On a Pods night it shows only players a call is waiting on, members of a pod that needs a player and players owing a confirmation, and it disappears when there are none; the roster says who sits this game, and players whose pod has finished have no more games to wait for.
• Tap a player's name under Waiting, or ⋮ on their roster row, for a short menu: Show QR and Email link get them their page (see below), and the moves that are possible right now appear with them (see Your roster during the night). Tapping a name never acts by itself.
• Scores to settle lists games whose score is still open. It sits under the courts, above Waiting, on every mode. See Scores on Nonstop nights.
• Each mode adds its own line: the pod on each court (a Pod 2 tag on the card; Pods), the round on each card and the Up next list (Round Ahead), or how many courts the next games wait for (Court Waves). With Show Rating Badges on, each Up next game shows its expected score too. On Court Waves nights the next games are mixed when the wave starts, so there is nothing to show ahead.
• Last call and Stop sit at the top. Everything else is under the ⋯ menu:
  • Player links gets players their own page (see below).
  • Call sound plays a short sound on this device for every new call. It's hidden on a Pods night, which plays no call sound.
  • End all pods… ends every pod (Pods nights).
  • Help opens these pages.

The big screen on your own computer shows the live courts too — in the page, or in its separate window if you use one. It sizes the text to fit everything on the screen, with the waiting players on one line ("Sam (12:04), Lee (3:10)"); A− and A+ make it smaller or larger from there, and ↻ goes back to the fit.

Every call also appears on the TV board ("Now calling: Court 3", with one ring), and the four players called get a buzz if they opened their score link. A Pods night is quieter: the TV doesn't ring, and a player is buzzed only for their pod's first game and, in a pod of 5, when they come back from sitting out (Pods). Your phone's Mix buttons are locked while Nonstop Courts runs, because the server chooses the games.

To show the courts on a TV, use the shared TV board as on any night. There is nothing to send: the TV follows the night by itself. Auto-mix is not offered while Nonstop Courts runs, so the 📺 TV & sharing panel leaves it out.

Your roster during the night

From Start to Stop, the roster on the Mixer shows the night instead of the usual list. Every player is in a group, and each row looks like the usual roster: the name, the rating badge (for a rated player), and, with the roster's Show Courts on, the small court box (or ▼ for a player who sits this game in a pod of 5). A waiting player's row shows how long they have waited. A player's own request to leave or sit out shows on its own line under their name.

• On a Pods night the groups are the pods, in pod order, with each pod's progress in its header ("Game 2 of 5" while a game is on, "2 of 5 played" between games, then "done", or "needs a player"). Waiting for a pod sits at the top: late arrivals, and anyone you put back in. Sitting out is at the bottom.
• On Round Ahead and Court Waves nights the groups are On court, Waiting and Sitting out.

Tap ⋮ on a row for the same short menu as on the panel: Show QR, Email link, and the moves that are possible right now, such as Sit out tonight, Back in, Remove from tonight, or on a Pods night Keep in pod, Move to another pod and Remove from pod. Notes… stays, and Set rating… appears for a player who has no rating yet; the rest of the roster menu comes back when the night ends.

A walk-in, or a sub for an injured player? Type the name and tap + (Add to tonight) at any time, even after the cutoff; with Player self-service on, Check-in QR lets players check themselves in until the cutoff. They start waiting for a game, or for a pod. Nothing you do on the roster changes the night without asking you first.

Pods and mixed games on the same night

Some nights want both: a few courts of pods for players who want to play their own level, and the rest mixing everyone else. Choose Pods on some courts, mixed games on the rest in the Start dialog. It runs pods on the courts you pick and your usual mixed games on the others, and a pod's players join the mixed games the moment their pod is done.

• Which courts play pods. Tap the court chips to mark the pods courts; the rest mix. At least one court must play pods, and every court may: the mixed games then have no courts to start with and begin as each pod finishes, taking its court and players. Anyone you didn't pick for a pod waits until then.
• Who plays in the pods. Tap the players, or Pick the 8 highest / Pick the 8 lowest (the number is four per pods court). Everyone you don't pick plays the mixed games. The pods then form from the picked players as on any Pods night: the same Time box, rules and Proposed pods, and the same reasons a pod can't start (see Pods).
• When a pod finishes, its players and its court join the mixed games. Its players join the waiting line right away, like anyone arriving: having just played, they may sit out the next game, and their pod games don't hold them back after that. If you'd rather a pod's players be done for the night when their pod ends, choose When a pod finishes… under the ⋯ menu once the night is running; their court then stays dark until you move it.
• The mixed games run as Standard Rounds, Court Waves or Round Ahead, with your mixer settings as they are when you press Start. To mix them with a different preset, change it before you start. Court Waves and Round Ahead keep each court going the moment it's free, which adds games on bigger sets; with 1–3 mixed courts the difference is small and Standard Rounds is the simplest pick.
• Scores has two choices on these nights, Pod games and Mixed games, each with the same three options as any night. When a pod finishes and its players join the mixed games, their later games follow the mixed games' choice.
• The time you set applies to every court: no new game starts after it, on the pods courts or the mixed ones.

Standard Rounds + Pods — your mixed courts run like a normal rounds night (Mix, swaps, the timer, round history) while each pod plays its own round robin on the courts you gave it, listed further down the page. When a pod finishes, its players join the next mix. Start fills every court at once: the pods begin and the first mix runs. With every court on pods, Start begins only the pods; press Mix when the first one finishes. Auto-mix isn't offered on these nights, so press Mix for each round.

Late arrivals, walk-ins and players you put back in join the mixed games. To put one in a pod, tap ⋮ on their roster row and choose Add to a pod.

During the night, the panel's header names both ("Nonstop Courts · Court Waves + Pods"). A free Pods court wears a small Free for the next pod tag under its name; a court about to change sides says Then mixed games or Then pods. The roster lists the mixed games' players under On court and Waiting, with the pods below them as on a Pods night. End all pods… under the ⋯ menu works as on a Pods night, except that on a pods-and-mixed night the pods courts then take mixed games. Once every pod is done and its players have joined, the panel reads as a plain Court Waves or Round Ahead night again. On Standard Rounds the mixer page stays as it is all night, with the pods below the Mix button; once every pod is done that section collapses to one line.

• Move a player. Tap ⋮ on their roster row and choose Move to Mixed games. A player on court moves after their game; their row says "Then Mixed games" until then. A member of a pod that is still playing can't be moved: choose Remove from pod first, and they join the mixed games.
• Move a court. Tap ⋯ on a free Pods court's card to move it to the mixed games; a busy one moves after its game. A court whose pod is still playing stays until the pod is done or you end it.
• Start pods later. On a Court Waves or Round Ahead night, Start pods on some courts… under the ⋯ menu picks the courts and the players; the pods start as soon as those courts and players are free. A night runs one set of pods at a time; once it is done you can start another.
• Mix games on a Pods night. On a night you started as Pods, Mix the other courts… under the ⋯ menu starts mixed games on the courts no pod is using, for the players no pod is holding (finished pods, late arrivals). From then on, each pod that finishes joins them with its court.

The TV board shows the mixed games' "Next games start when N courts are free" line as usual, and a finished pod's results on its court. Your phone and the TV ring for calls on the mixed courts only; the pods courts stay quiet, as on a Pods night. A pods-and-mixed night ends with Last call or Stop as usual; it doesn't end by itself when the pods are done, because the mixed games go on.

Getting players their link

Each player's own page shows their court, calls them to their next game with a buzz, and takes their score if players enter scores tonight. Open the ⋯ menu → Player links to see who has it:

• Has opened their page: nothing to do.
• Has the event invite: the night was started from a scheduled event, and its invite reached them by email. The court button on their event page takes them to their page.
• Link emailed: a link was sent tonight.
• Email on file, No email or Unsubscribed from email: nothing has reached them yet.

The quickest way, for anyone, is Show QR. The player scans your screen with their phone's camera and their page opens. That works for a walk-in, a player with no email, and a player who can't find their invite. ← All players brings you back to the list, and anyone who scanned now shows under Already on their page.

Email the link appears when some players have an email on file and nothing has reached them yet. It sends to those players only. Email can take a few minutes to arrive, so it's best at the start of the night; a QR is instant. On a player's QR screen, Email it instead sends the link to that one player.

For one player, you can skip the list: tap their name on the panel and choose Show QR or Email link (shown only when they have an email on file).

Players arriving, sitting out and leaving

Players change their own status from their phone, the same way as with self-service check-in: join late, sit out a game, come back, or leave.

• Round Ahead and Court Waves apply the change at the next game or wave.
• Pods keep a player's own sit-out or leave waiting for you, because it changes the pod's games. See Pods.

Players can check themselves in until the night's cutoff (the time you set under No new games after). After it, their page says check-in is closed and asks them to talk to you. You can still add anyone, at any time, with the + button on the roster, for example as a sub.

A player hurt during a game: mark that game Finished or Skip, then choose Remove from tonight (or Remove from pod) from ⋮ on their roster row. To bring in a sub, type the name and tap +.

Ending the night

• The night winds down by itself at the time you set: no new games start, and games on court finish.
• Last call does the same right away.
• Stop ends Nonstop Courts at once. Games still on court are marked finished, and the Mixer goes back to normal rounds.

A Pods night also ends by itself once every pod is done.