Reusing a setup
The second edition of a tournament is mostly the first one again: the same halls, the same pitches, the same age categories, the same match length, the same scheduling rules. A template saves that configuration so you never rebuild it.
What a template carries: venues, pitches, categories, groups, days and settings — plus the format and the knockout defaults. What it never carries: teams, matches and results. A template is a shape, not a copy.
Saving one
Two routes, same result:
- From the tournament list, Save as template on a tournament's row menu.
- From inside the tournament, Settings → General → Template.
Give it a name and, if it helps future you, a description — 3 halls, 9 pitches, 6 age categories is worth more than Template 2. Saving with an existing template's name updates that template rather than creating a second one.
Starting from one
New from template on the tournament list. Pick the template, name the new tournament, set a start date, and everything is scaffolded around those dates. Each template shows what it contains — days, venues, pitches, categories — before you pick it.
You land in a tournament with your facilities and structure already in place, ready for this year's team list.
The template builder
Open the template builder goes further: it composes the template's format directly rather than deriving it from an existing tournament.
- Format. The same phase composer described in building a custom format. The format is stored with the template as a custom tournament system and applied automatically when you scaffold.
- Knockout bracket. Bracket defaults for every category scaffolded from this template — how many advance, whether there is a plate cup — including categories a team import creates later.
- Scheduling. Auto-scheduler defaults. Rules that name specific teams or pitches stay per-tournament, so they are not set here.
- Venues and pitches. The halls and surfaces the template should scaffold, with their daily availability windows. Every tournament created from the template starts with them.
- Default match duration. Categories created from the template — including ones a later sheet import adds — start with this length.
A template built from scratch carries the format, the knockout defaults, and any venues and pitches you add. To include categories too, save an existing tournament as a template and load it in the builder.
Sharing with another organizer
Share template sends a template to another organizer by email. It appears in their template library under Shared with you, where they choose whether to add it to their own templates or dismiss it. Teams, matches and results are never included, so sharing a template shares a way of running a tournament, not your data.
This is the sane answer to a federation that wants twelve clubs running the same format: build it once, share it, and every club scaffolds from the same shape.
Editing a template
Open New from template, then Open the template builder. This action is available even when the library is empty, including from the template option in the setup wizard.
In the builder, choose an existing template from Edit template. Its name stays fixed; Save changes updates that template. To give the edited setup another name, choose Save a copy and enter an unused name. New template starts a blank setup.
The format editor is open initially. Expand Knockout bracket, Scheduling or Venues & pitches when you need those settings. Collapsing a section keeps its values. Categories and other settings carried by a loaded template are retained. Changes are saved only when you press the save button; save before switching templates or leaving the builder.
The version worth keeping is the one that survived the tournament — with the pitch availability you actually had, the rest rule you actually needed, and the category list that actually turned up. Save it on the Monday after, while you still remember what you changed.
Knockout and scheduling explanations are available from the small information buttons beside each setting. Hover, focus or tap to read them. Qualification warnings and the computed bracket summary remain visible.
While a template is saving, all draft fields and navigation actions are unavailable until the save and library refresh finish. If saving fails, your draft remains available for correction or retry, including an explicit change to zero arrival days.
Template dialogs keep their actions visible while the contents scroll. Optional explanations are available from the information buttons beside the fields. The same-name overwrite notice stays visible. While saving, sharing or creating from a template, wait for the operation to finish before closing the dialog.