The organizer's playbook.
Anyone can open a bracket. Organizers who finish tournaments — with verified results, no ghosts and no arguments — are rarer. This guide walks through every decision you make as a Cupside tournament organizer, from the first setting to crowning a champion, with the reasoning behind each one.
Before you start
Install Cupside (free on iOS and Android), sign in, and complete your profile. Everything an organizer does — creating the competition, approving results, posting announcements — happens from your phone.
Decide up front what kind of event you're running. A quick weekend knockout for eight friends needs very different settings than a month-long open cup with a group stage. Every choice below flows from that answer.
- ▸Free organizers can run 1 active public tournament, with up to 8 players in any tournament they create.
- ▸Pro unlocks more simultaneous tournaments, up to 32 slots, the group-stage format, a prize field and cover branding — and Pro tournaments are featured at the top of public discovery.
- ▸Private tournaments don't count against the public limit — they never appear in discovery and work by invite only.
Pick a format that fits your player count
Cupside supports straight single-elimination knockouts and group stages that feed into knockout playoffs. Knockout-only is fast and dramatic — half the field goes home every round — which suits small fields and short timeframes.
A group stage (a Pro feature) guarantees everyone several matches before anyone is eliminated. That's worth it for bigger fields and for communities where people show up to play, not just to win. Configure 3–8 players per group, single or double round-robin, and how many advance (1–4 per group).
Knockout ties can be single matches or two-legged (home and away, aggregate score). The final is always a single match, and you can add a third-place match so the semifinal losers have something real to play for.
Rule of thumb: 8 players or fewer → knockout only. 10–32 players → group stage into playoffs. Double round-robin groups only if your players are committed; it doubles the match count.
Platform pool and match rules
Every tournament is scoped to one platform pool: mobile, or console/PC (crossplay). Ratings and match counts are tracked per pool, so pick the one your community actually plays in — entry requirements are checked against that pool's numbers.
Then lock the match rules players agree to by joining: squad mode (Dream Team or Authentic), match length, player condition, extra time, penalties, substitutions. Cupside shows these rules on the tournament page and in the join confirmation, so nobody can claim they didn't know.
State the squad mode clearly and never change it mid-tournament. Mixed Dream Team vs Authentic expectations are the single most common source of disputes.
Entry requirements: keep ghosts out
The biggest killer of community tournaments isn't cheating — it's players who sign up and never play. Cupside gives you two gates, both enforced by the platform at signup, not just displayed.
A minimum ELO requirement sets a skill floor for competitive fields. A minimum matches-played requirement is the anti-ghost filter: someone with zero recorded matches in the app has no history, no reputation, and statistically a much higher chance of vanishing in round one.
- ▸Minimum ELO: 0–2400, checked against the player's rating in your tournament's platform pool.
- ▸Minimum matches played: require players to have real match history in Cupside before they can enter.
- ▸Both gates apply to self-signups and to invite accepts — there's no side door.
For open public cups, even a small '5 matches played' requirement removes most no-shows without shrinking your field.
Visibility and recruiting players
Public tournaments appear in Cupside's global discovery feed, where any eligible player can sign up. Clan tournaments are visible to your clan members. Private tournaments are invisible — players enter only through invites.
Every tournament has a shareable invite link and its own public web page right here on cupside.app, with the bracket, participants and live status. Drop the link in your Discord, group chat or social media; players who tap it land on a join flow.
Joining is always consent-based: you can invite anyone, but they enter the bracket only when they accept. Nobody gets drafted into a competition they didn't agree to — which also means everyone in your bracket actually chose to be there.
- ▸Set a signup deadline — it's a hard gate, enforced by the platform. Need more time? Edit the date to extend it.
- ▸Use announcements to reach every participant with one post; they get notified in-app.
Running the group stage
When signups close, you draw the groups. Cupside generates every fixture and the live tables — points, goal difference, the lot — update automatically as results are confirmed.
Set a group-stage deadline that gives players enough time for their match count. A single round-robin group of 4 means three matches per player; double round-robin means six. Budget roughly a week per two or three matches for casual fields.
Announce the deadline the moment groups are drawn, then remind at the halfway point. Deadlines players hear about twice get met.
Building the bracket
After the group stage (or straight after signups in a knockout-only cup), the playoff bracket is generated from your promotion rules and seeding. If you want control, use the manual bracket editor: arrange exactly who meets whom in round one before you confirm — useful for seeding by group results or keeping clanmates apart early.
The bracket is a draft until you confirm it. Once confirmed, fixtures go live, players are notified, and the tournament chat opens for coordination.
Results, proof and disputes
Players report their own scores with a screenshot of the final result attached. The opponent confirms — or disputes, at which point you step in, look at the proof, and settle it. Every result in your tournament ends up backed by evidence.
This is the core of why Cupside tournaments don't collapse into arguments: the norm is proof, not trust. As organizer you almost never need to intervene, but when you do, you're arbitrating between two screenshots instead of two stories.
Deadlines and walkovers
Each round has a match deadline you configure (from 6 hours up to a week). Cupside tracks who has played and nudges players before time runs out. When someone still doesn't show, the walkover rules you set keep the bracket moving instead of letting one absent player freeze the whole competition.
Be consistent. The first time you bend a deadline for a friend is the last time anyone respects your deadlines. If a genuine scheduling clash comes up, extending the round for everyone is fair; quiet exceptions are not.
Finishing strong
The final is always a single match — one night, one winner. With a third-place match enabled, your semifinal losers get a real send-off too, and your tournament produces a proper podium: champion, runner-up, third place.
Final standings land on the tournament's public page — shareable proof of who won. Then archive the tournament, take what you learned about your field's pace and reliability, and set up the next one. Communities are built by the organizer who runs cup number two, three and four.
Post a short wrap-up announcement crediting the podium. It costs a minute and it's the difference between an event and a community.
Organizer FAQ
Is it free to organize a tournament on Cupside?+
Yes. Free organizers can run one active public tournament, with up to 8 players in any tournament, plus unlimited private invite-only tournaments. Pro adds more simultaneous tournaments, up to 32 slots, the group-stage format, prize and cover branding, and featured placement in discovery.
How do I stop people from signing up and never playing?+
Set entry requirements when creating the tournament: a minimum number of matches played in Cupside filters out ghost accounts with no history, and a minimum ELO sets a skill floor. Both are enforced at signup by the platform.
Can I control the bracket matchups myself?+
Yes. The playoff bracket starts as a draft, and the manual bracket editor lets you arrange round-one matchups exactly how you want before confirming.
What happens when a player misses their match deadline?+
Cupside applies the walkover rules you configured, so the bracket keeps moving. Every round has a deadline you set — from 6 hours to a week — with reminders sent automatically.
How are results verified?+
Players report scores with a screenshot of the final result. Opponents confirm or dispute, and the organizer resolves disputes by checking the proof. Every result is auditable.
Can players join without my approval?+
In public tournaments, any player who meets your entry requirements can sign up until the deadline. In private tournaments, players enter only through invites — and joining is always consent-based, so invited players must accept before they appear in the bracket.
Your first cup is a minute away.
Install Cupside, create a tournament, share one link. The bracket, deadlines and results take care of themselves.