Every format below runs in the Live Mixer on one phone. The app builds the courts and keeps score as you tap the winners. The formats differ in three ways:
- How often you get a new partner
- Whether the courts are ranked from best to worst
- Whether the night ends on a podium of players or a winning team
You can switch format mid-session. If a format isn't working for the group, open the settings drawer, tap Format and pick another one. Rounds already played stay as they are, rounds that haven't started are dropped, and the new format starts on the next round. You can switch out of Mini-tournament but not into it, because it runs on fixed teams from the first game. Leaving a Scramble block part-way through drops the rest of that block.
Popcorn
New partner every roundFresh random partners and opponents every round. Over a few rounds you play with nearly everyone in the room.
Best for: casual groups at similar skill levels, and any first night.
Freeplay
You pick the teamsCourts fill randomly, then you hand-pick and adjust. Nothing is enforced: no skill balancing, no locked pairs, no scoring rules. You move players between the courts and the bench as you like.
Best for: mixed-level social play where the organiser wants control.
Scramble
Stay on one court, partner your whole groupCourt groups are drawn once and stay together for the whole block, and you partner each person in your group in turn. A court of four plays three games and a court of five plays five. If a block has both sizes, everyone plays five, so a group of four repeats two of its pairings.
Best for: groups that hate downtime, and nights with limited courts.
Gauntlet
Matchups follow your resultsRound one seeds by skill. After that, each round is built from the live win percentages, so winners move into tougher company. Gauntlet needs the leaderboard on to do this. Setting the night to Competitive turns it on for you.
Best for: competitive clubs with a spread of skill levels.
Claim the Throne
Climb the courts to the ThroneCourts are ranked from the Throne down. Winners move up a court and losers move down, except that winners on the Throne stay there, and so do losers on the bottom court. Partners split every round, so one player can climb all the way up. A win on the Throne counts for more.
Best for: competitive groups who want movement all night.
Mini-tournamentClub Plus
Pools, a bracket, a championFixed teams play pool games, the top teams go into a knockout, and the night ends with a champion team. Knocked-out teams keep playing friendlies so nobody goes home early.
Best for: a competition night with five to twelve teams that wants a real winner.
Which one for tonight
Pick by the room in front of you:
- New group, or people who don't know each other: Popcorn
- You want to set the courts yourself: Freeplay
- More players than courts: Scramble
- Competitive, with a range of standards: Gauntlet
- Competitive, and you want movement all night: Claim the Throne
- You want a winning team at the end: Mini-tournament, on Club Plus
| Format | Style | Partners | Min courts | Leaderboard | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Popcorn | Casual | Rotate every round | 1 | Optional | Free |
| Freeplay | Casual | You choose | 1 | Optional | Free |
| Scramble | Casual | Rotate within a block | 1 | Optional | Free |
| Gauntlet | Competitive | Rotate every round | 2 | Needed | Free |
| Claim the Throne | Competitive | Split every round | 2 | Recommended | Free |
| Mini-tournament | Competitive | Fixed all night | 2 | Always on | Club Plus |
Claim the Throne moves players on the last round's results, so the leaderboard is useful there but doesn't pick the courts. The casual formats let you keep full scores or just mark the winners.
How many nights you get
The free plan includes two scored mixer nights a month per club, on any of the five free formats. Club Plus lifts the cap, so you can run one every night of the week, and adds Mini-tournament. Results from every saved mixer go into the club's History tab and into each player's My Game.
