Start your first club night in 2 minutes

Before you start

You need a PingPongArena account and to be signed in. The setup wizard opens automatically the first time you create an event, and any time an event is sitting in the "setup" phase — that is, before you've pressed Start.

Step 1 — Pick your format

The wizard opens on a splash screen with four format cards. This is the only format picker in the app — there is no separate "quick start" menu. Each card shows an icon, its name, and a one-line description.

• Look at the four cards: Single Match, Classic Groups, Ladder, and Doubles.
• For a normal club night, tap Classic Groups.
• Tapping a card selects it immediately — no confirmation needed. The button at the bottom of the screen advances you to the next step.
• Every other format has its own path: Giant Round Robin for 16+ players, a Doubles night, or a casual Ladder. This guide continues with Classic Groups, since it's what most organisers mean by "club night."

Step 2 — Add your players

The next screen is titled "Add Players." An inline form is already open with Name, Surname, Rank, and Rating fields — Rank and Rating are optional, so leave them blank if you don't track either.

Type a name and save; the form stays open so you can add the next player immediately. Watch the counter at the top: it reads "N players added" and turns green once you've added at least 2. Each player then appears as a card in a 2-column list.

• Tap the rank badge on a card to edit it inline — every rank below shifts automatically.
• Toggle the green/grey dot to mark a player active or inactive; inactive names show with a strikethrough and are left out of the draw.
• Tap the − icon to delete a player.
• If two players end up with the same rating, a tie-breaker button appears — tap it to manually decide who ranks above whom.
• For faster ways to build a big roster — pasting a whole list at once, or picking names from previous club nights — see the guide on adding players fast; this step works the same either way.
• When you have at least 2 players, tap Preview Groups to continue.

Step 3 — Match format

This step only appears for Classic Groups and Doubles — Single Match and Ladder skip straight to starting. Four stepper cards let you set, with − / + buttons (odd numbers 1–11):

• Tables — how many tables can play at once.
• Groups — best-of-sets for group-stage matches.
• Consolation — best-of-sets for the consolation/plate bracket.
• Finals — best-of-sets for the finals bracket.
• Tap Next to continue.

Step 4 — Group setup, and the finals toggle

Pick a Variation, with an explanation shown when selected: Classic (top finishers from each group advance into a shared finals, consolation and placement bracket), Group Medals (every group is self-contained and crowns its own gold, silver, bronze), or the big-field options, Giant RR Brackets and Giant RR Groups.

For Groups, choose Auto Groups (players are split automatically by the snake method) or Custom Groups (you set the number of groups; a sublabel shows "N participants · M per group"). In Custom mode you also choose the seeding method: Snake, By Rank, or Random. A note under Random reminds you the preview is illustrative — the real draw happens when you start.

A "Finals?" switch, labelled YES/NO, decides whether this event plays a separate finals stage at all. With NO, medals come straight from the standings — no separate gold-medal match is played. Below all of this, a live preview shows every active player distributed into group cards in real time as you change the settings above.

Step 5 — Start the tournament

Once you're happy with the groups preview, tap Start Tournament. The wizard closes and the Games screen opens with your matches assigned.

• If you haven't assigned tables yet, do that from the Games screen next.
• To enter scores as the club plays, use the manual results screen — this is how almost every club night actually gets scored.

Honest limits

• On the Free plan, an event is capped at 16 players. The Club plan raises that to 32. If you need more, or a second club night running at the same time, check the plans comparison.
• Once matches exist, some settings (like the format itself) lock to keep the draw consistent — you can't switch formats mid-event. If you picked the wrong card, start a new tournament from the wizard instead.