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Referees & running a tournament

Opening the referee console

Start here. Who is allowed to score, where to find your match, and how to open the console — for both tournament matches and Open Play matches.

Updated 9/27/2026

Landscape

The console always rotates sideways

Stays awake

The device won't lock while you score

1 tap

One tap per rally

What the referee console is

This is the screen you use to score a game live: the two halves of the court fill almost the whole display, and tapping the half of the team that won the rally records one rally. The score, the serve, the server and the call are all computed for you — you don't add up points in your head.

The screen rotates to landscape and keeps the device awake the whole time you are in it, so you never have to unlock between rallies.

Opening the console for a TOURNAMENT match

01

Open the tournament, then the match

Find the match in the schedule, the bracket, or the list of matches assigned to you.

02

Scan the QR code if the organisers posted one courtside

The scan tab in the app reads the match's 8-character code and opens the match detail screen. The QR code does NOT open the console directly.

03

Tap "Open scoring console"

The button is on the match detail screen. For a finished match it becomes "View console" — open it to look back, but you can no longer record.

04

Check the role line above the button

The app states which capacity you are entering with: "Tournament staff · enter results" or "Administrator · enter results".

Opening the console for an Open Play or standalone match

01

Open the match from the session

Go into the Open Play session and pick the match, or scan the match's QR code.

02

Read the referee line

The match detail screen says "You are the referee for this match", or names the assigned person, or says "No referee yet".

03

Tap "Referee console"

The button only appears for someone allowed to score that match.

Who can open the console

Tournament matches. Permission is checked by the server, not decided by the app. You need to be an administrator, or tournament staff with permission to enter results (granted by the organisers in the tournament's staff management section). Without it, the console opens a locked screen reading “You don't have permission to score this match.”

Open Play / standalone matches. You can score if you are the person who created the match, the assigned referee, the host, or an approved co-host of the session. If the match has no referee assigned, players competing in it can also score — but once the organisers assign a referee, permission narrows to that person only.

A console link won't open in a browser

The console only lives inside the app. Pasting a console URL into a browser or tapping it from a message will only open the spectator view of the match, not the console. Always go through the app: open the match, then tap the button to open the console.

Frequently asked questions

I opened the console but got a locked screen — what now?

The locked screen means your account doesn't have permission for that match. Ask the organisers or the referee team to grant you result-entry permission for the tournament, or to assign you as the match referee. Tap the button to go back to the match detail.

Is it a problem if two referees open the same match?

Opening it at the same time is fine — whoever opens the console is only a display label and the system doesn't lock anyone out. But don't both SCORE the same rubber: the second device will be refused by the server with a warning that another referee may be officiating it. If you see that warning, stop and verify; don't override.

If I lose network mid-match, do I lose points?

No. The console records the point on the device first and sends it to the server in the background, with rallies queued in order so they can't be reordered. On a patchy network, keep scoring as normal and watch the reminder strip on the bottom bar.

Can the console be used for Open Play matches?

Yes, but in a reduced form: no roll call or coin toss, no time-out buttons, no recording and no match record. In exchange it has a manual score-entry button right in the menu.

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