Run a volleyball tournament from the entry list to the last point
Entries by team, by club, by email or by link. A draw and a timetable built in one press and checked before anyone sees them. A public page where every squad reads its own schedule, and results that move the bracket and the table the moment a match is finished. Free forever, on the web.
Create a tournamentSeven shapes, and the trade-off of each
A format is a preset over stages — a pool stage feeding a bracket, say — and you can edit the stages it gives you. The picker reads how many teams, courts and hours you have, marks the best fit, and says plainly what each shape costs: how many matches a team is guaranteed, and whether half the field is done by lunch.
Round robin
Everyone plays everyone and the table at the end is the result. No bracket and no elimination, so nobody goes out on one bad set. Usually three to six teams — eight teams is twenty-eight matches.
Pools, then knockout
Pools of four, top two into a single-elimination bracket with a third-place match. The standard weekend tournament, and the one entrants expect if you say nothing. Usually eight to twenty-four teams.
Pools, then crossover
Pools first, then the top finishers cross the draw, so the two pool winners can only meet in the final. Usually eight to sixteen teams, in even pools.
Pools, then gold and silver
After the pools the field splits: top finishers into a gold bracket, the rest into silver, both seeded by pool finish. Everyone keeps playing all day, so it wants courts or a long one. Usually twelve to thirty-two teams.
Single elimination
Straight knockout off the seeding, with a third-place match. The least court time of any format, and the right answer when the hall closes at four. Usually four to thirty-two teams.
Double elimination
Lose once and you drop into the losers' bracket; lose twice and you are out. The final can carry a bracket reset. Roughly double the matches of a straight knockout. Usually four to sixteen teams.
Swiss rounds
Each round pairs teams on equal records, so matches get closer as the day goes on and nobody is knocked out. A big field is ranked in a few rounds, but the next pairings are only known when the last round finishes. Usually ten to sixty-four teams.
Six steps, in the order the work happens
The console is a run sheet: the step that is next is lit, with one sentence and one button. Nothing is sent to anyone until you publish.
Set up
Name it, pick the venue and its courts, and set the days of play — the dates follow the days. Decide how many places there are, how big a squad has to be, whether there is an entry fee, and who can see it: public, link only, or private. Divisions are optional, for when a men's and a women's draw share a day.
Entries
Add the teams you already know — a team on Spike, a club with places held for it, an email to a captain, or a name typed by hand — or open registration and share the entry link. Accept, waitlist, remind or decline, and give each team a seed.
Plan
Choose a shape. Building the plan draws the pairings, generates the matches and lays them into your days and courts in one press. Look it over, move things or rebuild it; teams see nothing of it yet.
Publish
Each squad is told its times, the draw and the schedule go on the public page, and registration closes. From here, moving a match tells the squads it affects.
Play
Call teams to court, score from the console or type in the result, and the standings and the bracket move as each match is finished. Running late? Push the rest of the day back and every squad it affects is told.
Wrap up
Finish each stage to write its final positions, then finish the tournament. No more results after that.
A draw you can argue with before anyone sees it
Each stage draws its teams from the one before it — first and second from every pool into the knockout, or the best of the third-placed teams into a silver bracket. Populating a stage turns that rule into a list you can reorder by hand: drag a team up or down its pool, move it to another, set a slot or a seed. Pool winners are drawn apart, and a field that is not a power of two still draws as one bracket — the odd team out carries straight through.
Then the timetable. The scheduler cuts each day into slots, offers that day’s courts, keeps a rest gap between a team’s matches, and never puts a semi-final before the quarter-finals that feed it. Match length is worked out from the court time you have — twenty to ninety minutes — or you set it yourself. If the draw will not fit, the console says so and suggests a court, a day, or shorter matches, rather than failing.
Until you publish, all of this is a draft. Rebuild it when the entries change, or move a single match on a grid of courts across and times down. Nothing is sent, so nothing needs undoing.
Entries, invitations and the squads behind them
Four ways in, and every one of them lands in the same entry list. Invite a team that is on Spike and it accepts as a team. Invite a club and hold places for it, and its admins decide later which teams fill them. Email a captain who is not on Spike. Or type a team in by hand. Alongside that, open registration so teams can find the tournament and apply, or share an entry link that works whatever the tournament’s visibility — and rotate it if it gets somewhere it should not.
An invitation states the cost before either button: the dates, the venue, the squad size, the fee and the format, with the date to reply by. Accepting means naming the squad — the smallest and largest you allow, picked from the team’s roster, and nobody can be in two squads for the same tournament. A captain with no account enters as a guest through the link, and is told what a squad with accounts is told, by email.
Set a number of places and a team accepted past it goes on the waitlist, first in line when a place opens. If a team withdraws, its remaining matches are walkovers and its opponents advance. An entry fee can be collected through Spike by card — paid to you, or to the club the tournament runs under — or teams can pay you directly and you mark each entry as paid, or waive it. The fee is between you and the team; Spike does not refund it.
What moves when a match is finished
A tournament match is a match event, so it gets the same scoring console as a club fixture: best of five or best of three, the toss, line-ups, points, time-outs, substitutions, libero swaps and sanctions, on a laptop or tablet at the table. It keeps scoring when the hall’s Wi-Fi drops and sends when it is back, and if two devices end up scoring the same match it says so instead of guessing. When a team simply walks up and tells you the score, type it in set by set from the live board instead.
Finishing a match stores the result, recalculates the standings, advances the winner into the next slot of the bracket and tells both squads. The organiser can score, as can a scorer you nominate for the match and the people who run either team.
Every pool has a table: played, won, lost, sets for and against, points for and against. Teams are ordered on wins, then the share of sets they won, then the share of points, then the result between the two of them. If something has to be settled by hand you can fix a position and record why. Finishing a knockout stage writes final positions too — first and second from the final, third and fourth from the third-place match, and everyone else by the round they went out.
The day itself, on court
The public page is the poster on the hall wall: who runs it, when, what it is called and where it is played, with the entry card beside it. Below that, whatever the day has produced — matches on court now with a live score rail, today’s results, the field as a wall of crests with the open places still showing, the standings, a schedule read a day at a time and a court at a time, and the draw with “To be decided” where a side has not qualified yet. While play is on it refreshes every ten seconds. Nobody needs an account to read it.
For a squad, the entry card shows its next match, who it is against and which court. Calling a match to court sends “You’re up” to both squads’ phones with the court name. When the day slips, one action pushes every unstarted match after a given time back and tells the squads it affects, with your reason. A guest squad with no accounts gets the same by email.
Coming to tournaments
A tournament is one competition on one weekend. The things above it and inside it are not there yet, and each says plainly where it stands.
Who it’s for
Clubs running a one-day cup
Eight teams, two courts, a hall until four. Pools then knockout is the shape entrants expect, the scheduler fits it into the hours you have, and the third-place match is already in the draw.
Organisers inviting other clubs
A team on Spike accepts as a team and names its squad. A club you invite can hold places and decide later which teams fill them. A captain with no account enters through the link and is told by email.
Whoever is at the scorer's table
Score on a laptop at the table, or type the result when a team walks up and says what it was. Either way the bracket and the table are right before the next match is called.
Common questions
What tournament formats can I run?
Seven: round robin, pools then knockout, pools then crossover, pools then gold and silver, single elimination, double elimination, and Swiss rounds. Each is a preset over stages — pools then knockout is a pool stage feeding a bracket — and you can edit the stages you are given. The picker marks the best fit for your number of teams, courts and hours, and says what each shape costs: how many matches a team is guaranteed, and whether half the field is done by lunch.
Do I have to work out the schedule myself?
No. Building the plan draws the pairings and lays the matches into the days and courts you set up: rounds one after another, no team in two places at once, a rest gap between a team's matches, and no semi-final before the quarter-finals that feed it. Match length is worked out from the court time you have, or you set it. If the draw will not fit, Spike says so and suggests a court, a day or shorter matches. Any match can be moved by hand, and if the day is running late you push everything after a given time back in one go and the squads it affects are told.
How do teams enter?
Four ways, all landing in the same entry list. Invite a team that is on Spike and it accepts as a team. Invite a club and hold places for it, which its admins fill with whichever teams they choose. Email a captain who is not on Spike — the invitation link lets them accept, name their squad and withdraw without an account. Or add a team by hand. You can also open registration so teams can find the tournament and apply, or share an entry link that works whatever the tournament's visibility. Set a number of places, and a team accepted past it goes on the waitlist.
Can I charge an entry fee?
Yes. A fee per team can be collected through Spike by card, paid to you or to the club the tournament runs under, or teams can pay you directly and you mark each entry as paid. You can waive it for a team. A squad's place is held whether or not it has paid yet. If a team withdraws, its remaining matches are walkovers and the fee is between you and them — Spike does not refund it.
How are the standings worked out?
Every pool has a table of matches played, wins, losses, sets for and against, and points for and against. Teams are ordered on wins, then the share of sets they won, then the share of points, then the result between the two teams themselves. The table is recalculated every time a match is finished, and if something has to be settled by hand you can fix a position and record the reason. Finishing a knockout stage writes final positions too: first and second from the final, third and fourth from the third-place match, and everyone else by the round they went out.
Who can see a tournament?
You choose: public, link only, or private. A link-only tournament's page opens for anyone holding the link, no account needed — the field, the schedule, the standings and the draw. A private one is visible to you and the teams that have entered. A public tournament is also listed for people browsing tournaments on Spike, after a quick check from us; until then it behaves like a private one. Invitations and the entry link work whatever you choose.
How do we record scores?
Two ways. The scoring console runs a match on a laptop or tablet at the table — best of five or best of three, the toss, line-ups, points, time-outs, substitutions, libero swaps and sanctions — and keeps scoring if the hall's Wi-Fi drops. Or open the match on the live board and type the result set by set, the way a team walks up and tells you. Finishing the match stores the result, recalculates the standings, advances the winner into the next slot of the bracket and tells both squads. The organiser can score, as can a scorer nominated for the match and the people who run either team.
Does it work on a phone?
The organiser console, the scoring console and the public page are web pages, and the public page is built for a phone: a squad's next match, opponent and court are on its entry card, and the entry button stays at the bottom of the screen. Tournaments do not have their own screens in the Spike app yet, so a tournament link tapped in the app opens in the browser.
The rest of the club, too
Put the cup on Spike this year
Set the days and the courts, add the teams you already know, and let the plan build itself. There is nothing to pay and nothing to cancel.
Create a tournament