1 Creating a tournament
Start by visiting /manage and clicking New Tournament. The wizard shows a live preview as you fill it in.
Sport & name
Date & courts
Format
Registration & entry fee
Scorekeeper PIN (optional)
2 How teams register
Every tournament has one registration mode, chosen at creation and changeable in Settings. It decides how teams get into your event.
Share your registration link and captains add their own teams. You can temporarily pause open registration without changing the mode.
Add the teams you're inviting; captains claim their team via a link you send.
No public sign-up. You enter every team yourself from the Teams tab.
3 Security, scoring access & roles
Rally HQ uses two authentication methods for public scoring. Both are automatically set up when you create a tournament.
A short scorekeeper PIN gates public scoring. You can set it during creation or in Settings → Scoring; if you leave it blank, Rally HQ generates one. Share it with designated scorekeepers — it protects against unauthorized scoring. You can view, change, or regenerate the PIN in Settings → Scoring at any time, including mid-tournament: if a device with the PIN goes missing, rotate it there and the old PIN stops working on the very next score submit.
Don't want anyone scoring from the public court pages? Toggle public scoring off in Settings → Scoring. Then only you and captains can record scores.
Captains can score any match without a PIN. Their team portal link serves as authentication. Great for self-officiated games — captains are trusted as designated scorekeepers.
As the organizer, you can score from your tournament workspace without any PIN — your login is your authentication.
Need help running the desk? In Settings → Access you can invite people with a specific role: co-organizer (full control), desk manager (check-in teams, update payment status), court monitor, or scorekeeper. Invite links are valid for about 48 hours.
When a captain signs in via Magic Link, they may set a display name on their Rally HQ account. Rally HQ now shows that display name in your Teams views and roster surfaces, with their email address available as a tooltip / secondary label. Captains who haven't set a display name (or who registered through the legacy verification-code flow without claiming an account) continue to show as their email address. You don't need to do anything differently — the change is purely cosmetic on the organizer side.
4 Check-in process
Set up a check-in station where captains confirm their team is present. This helps you know which teams are ready before starting pool play.
Confirm arrivals
Finalize pools
Brief your scorekeepers
5 Scoring rules
Rally HQ supports flexible scoring formats, configured in Settings → Scoring. You set rules separately for pool play and the bracket, and can override specific bracket rounds (e.g. longer finals).
Set the target score and an optional cap — for example play to 21 with a hard cap at 23. The defaults are two sets to 21 (cap 23) for pools and a single game to 30 for the bracket; change them to fit your event.
Single set, two sets, three sets, or best-of-3 / best-of-5 for bracket rounds.
Many formats require winning by 2 points. Rally HQ enforces this automatically when enabled, up to the cap.
6 Running the event
Assign teams to pools with Assign pools in the command strip (the Run and Teams tabs both carry it). Aim for 3–4 teams per pool to ensure everyone gets enough play time.
Matches are scheduled automatically based on court count. Each pool uses a round-robin format (everyone plays everyone). Standings update in real-time as scores come in.
Once pool play is done, go to the Bracket tab and click Generate Bracket. The system seeds from pool results — pool winners get top seeds, second-place finishers follow — and derives final placements from how the bracket plays out.
Running a series? You can also seed from series rankings so standout players carry their position into the bracket.
The Run tab is where you operate pool play: team rosters by pool before matches exist, then the desk console during play — press a pool letter to jump to it, type a result like 21-16, 16-21 straight into the match row, and press Enter. Standings update instantly above the row.
On game day, toggle Tournament is Live in Settings — it opens public scoring and shows the LIVE badge to spectators. You never need to turn it off: it switches off automatically when the tournament completes (the moment the final is decided). Everything else about a tournament's phase — registration, pool play, bracket, complete — is likewise derived from your data, not set by hand.
7 Handling ties
Rally HQ breaks ties automatically using the order below. The one exception is an exact tie — teams even on record, sets, and points — which the Run console surfaces inline and asks you to pick the winner.
Win-loss record
Set record
Point differential
8 Troubleshooting
Ensure all pool play matches have final scores.
Check that you have at least 2 pools.
Verify teams are assigned to pools (not unassigned).
Both captains should agree on the final score.
You can edit pool match scores from the Run tab and bracket match scores from the Bracket tab.
Changes are logged for transparency.
Double-check the PIN is correct.
Make sure they're using the right court link.
Try refreshing the page on their device.
9 Series & leagues
A Series links several tournaments together — a summer circuit, a recurring weekly league, any multi-event format. Manage them from the Series area of your dashboard.
Teams register once at /events/[slug]/register and carry into each event
in the series, so captains don't re-register every time.
For a league, team wins and losses accumulate across the season on a public standings page. Default scoring is 3 per win · 1 per tie · 0 per loss (the per-win value is adjustable).
Every series also publishes a player Rankings board. Because teams re-form between events, rankings track individual players: each earns season points based on how their team finishes in each tournament, summed across the series. Players and spectators can toggle Season vs All-time.
Add the next tournament to the series, rosters carry over, and you run it like any other — pools, bracket, scoring. Standings and rankings update automatically as results come in.
10 Billing & plans
Rally HQ is currently free while we launch — there's nothing to pay to run your events today.
Billing lives under your Account, at /account/billing — not in the organizer dashboard.
Your plan — current tier and what it includes.
Payment history — past invoices, once paid tiers are active.
Manage subscription — update payment or cancel via Stripe's secure portal.
Any payment processing is handled by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number. Note: entry fees you collect from teams go through your own payment app, not Rally HQ.
Frequently asked questions
As an organizer, you're responsible for participant data, safety, insurance, and payment handling. Rally HQ is software — you run the event.