The court timeline
The screen you keep open all match day: which court is free, which is running, what the next match is waiting for — and why you don't assign courts here.
Updated 9/27/2026
The timeline answers exactly one question, and it is the question you ask again every few minutes all match day: which court is free, which is running, and what is the next match on that court waiting for?
Every other surface of the tournament groups by category then by round — the court is just a small line of text on a match card. But one court serves several categories at once, so when you are standing at the tournament, the court is the right axis.
Opened from the tournament page. This screen is public — spectators who are not logged in can view it too, and it only shows categories whose bracket has been published.
Do NOT assign courts here
The timeline is a READ screen. Assigning a court to a match is done in the referee console or that match's court sheet — because every court write is a switch of the recording camera, and an overview screen left open all day must not touch that. The only exception is recording a COURT RELEASE.
Reading the board in 30 seconds
The left column is the court, scroll sideways for time
The court-name column stays put as you scroll — it is always on the same row as that court's blocks.
Block width = minutes that match occupies the court
A wide enough block shows both team names, the score and the minutes. When it is tight, the round chip shrinks first.
A court can have several lanes
Team formats run two games in parallel on the same court — each game gets its own lane within the same row.
A gap between two blocks is a break
Only drawn for breaks of 5 minutes or more. Shorter than that is just changing ends and swapping teams.
The five colours in the legend
In progress — a match running on that court.
Awaiting confirmation — the score is complete but the referee has not confirmed the game. The court is still held.
Waiting to go on — ready, waiting its turn.
Finished — the match is over, the court released.
Withdrawn — a team has pulled out, awaiting the referee's walkover.
«Awaiting confirmation» is the most important thing on the board
A match with a complete score but no confirmed game still HOLDS THE COURT, and the group is still missing a result, so every bracket slot fed by that group stands still. The score column shows the full numbers, so at a glance it looks finished. If a branch is not progressing, the first thing to look for is an «Awaiting confirmation» block.
The queue column and free courts
After the time axis, each court has a queue — matches that are ready but not yet on court. It scrolls with the axis.
Free courts are highlighted, and the free-court number on the strip below the board counts exactly the courts you can genuinely call a match onto right now — not every court that happens to be idle. That way the strip never says «7 courts free» while the board shows only one highlighted cell.
The PLAYER CONFLICT warning — two views of the same fact
On a block holding a court: it tells you how many other waiting slots this match is holding up. On a queue card: who you would clash with if you called this slot on now. Two numbers seen from two sides but the same thing — an athlete stuck in two matches at once.
The «MATCHES WITH NO COURT» strip
It sits below the court board, and deliberately shows only numbers: how many matches have no court yet, of which how many are awaiting a result, and how many have a complete score but no confirmed game.
Why not a list: at 14:00 in a real tournament there were still 94 matches with no court — no arrangement can rescue a list that long on a phone screen.
Tap the strip to open a sub-page. There, matches are grouped into blocks (group, round) rather than dumped flat; you open a block to see the individual matches. Viewing an earlier day hides the whole strip — it talks about work still to do, not history.
This list is NOT the playing order
The board has no ordering axis in the data, so any displayed order is an inference. Do not read «the third block» as «the third match» and do not promise teams anything based on the order you see. The order of going on court is decided by the organising team and the referees.
Releasing a court
You rented 8 courts and at 15:30 you hand 3 back — tap the court name then «Mark court as released». The court switches to RELEASED and nobody schedules a match onto it any more.
Reopening is implicit: the «released» band stops at the next match scheduled onto that court. There is no separate reopen button, and if you released it by mistake, tap the court name again to un-mark it.
This is the only write path on this screen; it needs Head Referee or senior administrator permission. It writes to a separate table, so it does not touch the court assigned to a match and does not move any camera.
A court's three states
FREE — still part of the tournament, idle, you can call a match onto it.
UNUSED — still part of the tournament but outside today's plan.
RELEASED — no longer part of the tournament.
Frequently asked questions
I want to change a match's court right on the timeline?
You cannot do it here, and that is intentional. Tap the block to open the match detail and change the court from there — or do it in the referee console. The reason: every court write drags a recording camera switch along with it.
A court shows as free but I cannot call a match onto it?
Check that court's queue. The match may be carrying a player-conflict warning — an athlete is still playing on another court. Calling it on would require them to be in two places at once.
The board is completely empty even though the tournament has started?
The timeline only shows categories whose BRACKET HAS BEEN PUBLISHED. With nothing published there is nothing to draw — go to Draw & bracket and publish first.
The «no court» number is not going down even though matches are running?
It counts matches with no court assigned, not matches not yet played. A match running on an assigned court was never counted in that number in the first place.
Where does tapping a court chip on the bracket take me?
Straight to the timeline, on the right court and the right day for that slot. It is a shortcut from the bracket to the court board without having to hunt for it.
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