Starting a Game
Every game starts the same way: set up teams, pick rules, play. This is true whether it's a park game or a league final — what changes is only which kind of game it becomes.
Where you start from
Where you launch a game determines its kind:
- ›Home tab with no venue → a quick game
- ›A court at a venue → a venue game, with queue and voting available
- ›An event or league match → an event or league game, using the organizer's rules
The setup screen
Two things to get through: teams and rules.
Teams — pick singles or doubles, then fill the slots from your mutuals or with guests. See Teams & Guests.
Rules — play style, win condition, target score, and timeouts. See Rules.
Presets
If you don't want to configure anything, use a preset. There are two:
- ›Singles — singles game type with default rules
- ›Doubles — doubles game type with default rules
A preset fills everything in at once, and you can adjust anything afterward. For a casual game this is usually all you need.
The coin toss
Tap Coin Toss to fairly decide which team serves first.
Optional, and worth using. Serve advantage is real in side-out scoring, and settling it with the app avoids the negotiation.
The one requirement
Both teams need at least one registered player for PaddleRank to be awarded.
You can absolutely play and score a game that doesn't meet this — against a guest, or with guests filling both sides. The game records normally. It just doesn't move anyone's rating.
The app tells you this during setup rather than after, so you can add a registered player if the rating matters to you.
In an event or league
Rules are set by the organizer when the competition is created, and apply to every match in it. You'll set up teams; the rules are already decided.
That's the point of an event — consistent conditions across all matches. See Creating & Organizing.