What You Can Customize
From the format to the very last tiebreaker rule, everything is customizable:
- Format: league (round-robin or single round), cup with group stages and knockout rounds, league + knockout rounds, single-elimination tournament, Swiss system, McMahon system, or American system.
- Combined phases: With Custom Mode, you can combine a group stage, a league, and a knockout stage into a single competition, deciding who advances in each stage.
- Any sport: football, basketball, padel, tennis, chess, esports, and many more—whether played as a team, individually, or in pairs.
- Points and Tiebreakers: It establishes the points awarded for a win, a tie, and a loss, and lists up to 9 tiebreaker criteria (goal difference, head-to-head results, fair play, etc.).
- Privacy and Capacity: a competition open to the public or by invitation only with an access code, and a maximum number of teams or participants.
How to Create Your Own Custom Contest, Step by Step
- Create a free account. Sign up in less than a minute; no credit card required.
- Choose the format and the sport. League, cup, qualifying rounds, knockout stage, Swiss system, McMahon system, American system, or a custom combination of stages.
- Establish the points and tiebreaker criteria. Define the points corresponding to each result and establish the order of the tiebreaker criteria to be applied in the event of a tie.
- Add teams or players and set the capacity. Set the maximum number of participants and, if you wish, an access code to make it private.
- Generate the schedule and share the standings. The system generates the matchups, and the standings are automatically updated with each result.
Real-life example: a neighborhood darts league with its own rules
A group of eight friends organizes a darts league with a double round-robin format and its own rules: 3 points for a win, 1 for a tie, and 0 for a loss (some matches are best-of-one and may end in a tie). Before the first matchday, they agree on a three-tier tiebreaker system: 1) head-to-head results, 2) leg difference, 3) legs won. At the end of the season, two players are tied at 24 points. Since they’ve faced each other twice and each has won once, their head-to-head record stands at 1-1 and doesn’t settle the tie, so they move on to the second tiebreaker: Player A has a leg difference of +14 and Player B has +9, so A is declared the champion. Without that pre-agreed order, a dispute at the end of the season would have been inevitable.
Tips for Organizing Your Custom Competition Effectively
- Agree on the rules before the first game: Establish the scoring system and tiebreaker rules before the first match is played, not after a tie has already occurred.
- Choose the items that best suit your sport: If there are no ties in your sport (sets, tiebreakers, etc.), consider using a system based solely on wins and losses, rather than assigning a value to a tie that will never occur.
- Rank the tiebreaker criteria from least to most controversial: It gives priority to a decisive outcome in a direct confrontation and to the overall result, and reserves a tie or a coin toss as a last resort, so that it is rarely necessary.
- Try out the format with a small group before expanding it: If you plan to combine stages (groups + regular season + playoffs), test the schedule with a small group before opening it up to more participants.
- Write down the rules and post them in a visible place: Post the link to the competition with the rules regarding points and tiebreakers clearly visible, so that no one has to figure them out halfway through the season.
Common Mistakes When Customizing a Competition
- Do not establish tiebreaker criteria until a tie actually occurs: Deciding on the criteria as you go gives the impression that choices are being made to favor someone, and that leads to disputes that are difficult to resolve.
- Copying the scoring system from another sport without adapting it: Using the 3-1-0 system in a sport where there are no ties renders that value useless; relying solely on wins and losses in a sport with many ties places too much emphasis on tiebreakers.
- Changing the rules midseason: Changing the tiebreaker criteria or their order after several matchdays undermines the principles on which previous matches were played and erodes the team's confidence.
- Forgetting the participant limit or privacy settings: A public competition without an access code can attract people outside your group; set the capacity and privacy settings before sharing the link.
How is this different from a format with fixed presets?
The other guides on this website are based on a specific mechanism: the Swiss system for chess, the McMahon system for Go, the American system for padel, or a single-elimination bracket for a single-elimination tournament. You should choose this custom option when none of those predefined configurations fit your situation as is: a neighborhood league with its own rules, an esports tournament with a tiebreaker based on map differential, or a championship for a minor sport that doesn’t have a standard format anywhere. Here, you can customize the format, sport, points, and tiebreaker criteria to suit your needs, rather than having to adapt your competition to a predefined system.
Frequently Asked Questions
What file formats can I choose as a base?
League (with or without a second leg), cup with a group stage and knockout rounds, league + knockout rounds, single-elimination tournament, Swiss system, McMahon system, and American system, as well as a custom mode for combining stages.
Can I combine multiple formats in a single competition?
Yes, with custom mode, you can combine a group stage, a league, and a knockout stage, and decide how many teams advance to the next stage in each one.
How do I choose the scoring system if my sport isn't football?
You must set the points for a win, a tie, and a loss—or just for a win and a loss if your sport doesn’t have ties, such as in volleyball or basketball, where scoring is based on sets. You can use the 3-1-0 system, like in football; the 2-0 system, like in sets; or your own system for racket sports or darts.
In what order are the tiebreaker criteria applied if three or more teams are tied?
In the order you have defined, each tiebreaker is recalculated only among the teams that remain tied after the previous tiebreaker: if the first tiebreaker (for example, head-to-head record) does not resolve the tie among all three teams, the second tiebreaker is used, and so on, up to a maximum of nine levels.
Can I change the scoring or tiebreaker criteria midway through the season?
Technically, yes, but it's not recommended: changing the rules after several rounds undermines the criteria according to which the previous matches were played. It's best to set them before the first match and leave them as is until the end.
What if there isn't a standard system like cards in my sport?
Just don't include it on your list: choose only the tiebreaker criteria that make sense for your sport—such as point differential, head-to-head record, or points scored—and order them however you like, without having to use all nine available options.
For which “unusual” sports is this custom option useful?
It's ideal for neighborhood leagues with their own rules, esports tournaments with tiebreakers based on map differences, darts championships, team game nights or trivia nights, or any niche sport that doesn't fit a pre-established standard format.
Is it free?
Yes, you can create and manage your own competition for free, with real-time standings, a schedule, and statistics.
Create your own custom competition now
Set up any competition you need, with your own rules, in just a few minutes. Type Create your free account or Discover the competition to see how it works.