Participants Management

Participants are the heart of your tournament. MyCup provides tools for managing participants, teams, player rosters, and registration requests throughout your tournament.

The Teams list header shows your current usage against your plan (for example, 3 of 8 used), where the limit is the maximum number allowed by your active plan. Click View plans to open the plan comparison and upgrade if you need more capacity.

Understanding Participants#

In MyCup, participants can be:

Individual Participants - Single competitors participating in individual sports (tennis, chess, esports players, etc.)

Teams - Groups of players competing together in team sports (football, basketball, volleyball, etc.)

The participant type is determined by your sport selection or sport configurations (for custom sports). Once set, the system will use the appropriate management interface for your tournament.

Teams and Player Rosters#

For team-based sports, each team can have:

• Team name and logo
• Team photo (displayed on the team's public page)
• Card color (accent color used on the public team card)
• Contact information
• Player roster with multiple players
• Group/bracket assignments

Teams maintain their own player roster where you can add, edit, and manage individual players who are part of that team. Teams can also have staff members (coaches, physiotherapists, etc.) managed separately from the player roster.

Adding Participants#

You can add participants to your tournament in three ways:

Direct Manual Entry#

Add participants directly to your tournament:

For Individual Participants:

1. Navigate to Teams & Players in the sidebar
2. Click "New Participant"
3. Fill in participant details (name, contact info)
4. Upload photo (optional)
5. Save

For Teams:

1. Navigate to Teams & Players in the sidebar
2. Click "New Team"
3. Fill in team details (name, contact info)
4. Upload team logo (optional)
5. Configure the Website Data section (optional) - fields displayed on the public tournament website:
   • Card Color - accent color used as the gradient header on the team card on the public participants page. Leave empty to auto-generate a unique color from the team name
   • Team Photo - displayed on the team's public page
   • Description - rich-text description shown on the team's public page
6. Save

From a Spreadsheet (Pro & Premium)#

If your teams already exist in a spreadsheet, upload it instead of typing each one:

1. Navigate to Import teams & data in the sidebar (under System)
2. Choose From a file
3. Download the template, fill it in, and upload it back

Players and staff import the same way, one team at a time. Uploading the same file twice updates your teams instead of duplicating them, and any import can be undone for 7 days.

See Importing from a Spreadsheet for the full walkthrough, including logo links, plan limits, and undo.

Via Registration (Candidates)#

Enable public registration or add candidates manually, then convert them to participants. See the Registration Management section below for detailed information.

Managing Player Rosters (Team Sports Only)#

For team-based sports, you can manage player rosters within each team:

Adding Players to a Team:

1. Go to Teams & Players in the sidebar
2. Click Manage on the team
3. Open the Players tab
4. Add player information:
   • Player name and number
   • Position/role
   • Nationality (optional)
   • Photo (optional)
   • Contact information

Roster Management:

• Add or remove players from the roster
• Set squad numbers
• Designate team captain
• Specify positions (goalkeeper, defender, etc.)
• Update player information

Settling a roster: once you have checked a player's identity you can mark them verified, which freezes their details against further changes by their club — see Verifying Players. To stop every club changing its squad at once, set a roster deadline instead.

Managing Team Staff (Team Sports Only)#

Each team can also have staff members such as coaches, physiotherapists, and other support personnel:

Adding Staff to a Team:

1. Go to Teams & Players in the sidebar
2. Click Manage on the team
3. Open the Staff tab
4. Add staff member information:
   • Name (required)
   • Role (e.g., Head Coach, Physiotherapist)
   • Date of birth (optional)
   • Nationality (optional)
   • Photo (optional)
   • Additional info

Staff Management:

• Add or remove staff members (up to 30 per team)
• Assign roles to staff members
• Update staff information
• Staff members can also be managed by team managers via the Team Panel if enabled

Registration Management#

Public Registration#

Clubs can sign up through a form on your tournament website. Everything about it — when it is open, who is notified, which fields it asks and at what level (Off, Internal, Optional or Required), your sources, lost reasons and default prices — is on Sales → Registration form. See Registration form.

How registration works:

1. Public access — the form appears on your public website (at /registration, and in the top menu if you add it there in the Website Editor).
2. Submission — the club fills it in; the club gets a confirmation email, and your notification address gets an alert.
3. Review — the sign-up appears on Candidates as a Pending lead.
4. Conversion — you convert approved leads into participants by hand.

Outside the dates you set, or with registration switched off, visitors see that registration is not open. Dates follow your tournament's time zone.

Managing Candidates#

Candidates are registration requests that need to be reviewed and approved. They can come from two sources:

Public Website Registration:

• Participants fill out the registration form on your public website
• Submissions appear in Candidates

Manual Candidate Entry:

• Navigate to Candidates in the sidebar
• Click "Add candidate" to open a quick form and create entries by hand
• Useful for participants who contact you via email, phone, or other channels

From a Spreadsheet (Pro & Premium):

• Upload a list of sign-ups you collected elsewhere — a Google Form export, a season's paper entries, a spreadsheet a league sent you
• See Importing from a spreadsheet
• Imported candidates arrive as Pending, exactly like a website registration, so nothing skips your review

All candidates (from the public form, added by hand, or imported) are managed in the same Candidates page — which is also your sales pipeline: each lead's value, source, owner, follow-ups and activity, with totals by division, country and source. See Sales pipeline.

Divisions on the Candidates page

If your tournament runs more than one division, each candidate carries theirs, and the Candidates page gains three things:

• A division column and chip on every row, so you can see at a glance who's entering what
• Filter chips across the top — one per division plus All, each with a count
• Bulk assign: tick several candidates, choose a division, and set them all at once. Handy after a draw, or for a batch of sign-ups that arrived before you'd created your divisions

A candidate's division carries over to the team when you convert them, so you don't reassign it afterwards.

Candidate Statuses#

Each candidate has a status that tracks their registration progress. Understanding these statuses helps you manage the registration workflow effectively:

Pending (Gray)

• Initial status when a registration is submitted
• Indicates the candidate is awaiting review
• Default status for new registrations

Under Review (Blue)

• Registration is actively being reviewed by administrators
• Use this to indicate you're processing the application
• Helps track which candidates need attention

Info Requested (Yellow/Warning)

• Additional information has been requested from the candidate
• Set the candidate as "editable" so they can update their registration
• Add notes explaining what information is needed

Approved (Green)

• Registration has been approved and meets all requirements
• Candidate is ready to be converted to a participant/team
• Final step before conversion

Converted (Primary/Purple)

• Candidate has been successfully converted to a participant/team
• This is a final status - candidate cannot be edited further
• Link to view the created participant/team is available

Rejected (Red)

• Registration has been rejected
• Choosing a lost reason is required (Price, Dates don't suit, No response…); the list is yours to edit on the Registration form page
• Keep rejected leads rather than deleting them: their lost reasons feed the Breakdown → Lost reasons report

Withdrawn (Gray/Secondary)

• Candidate has withdrawn their registration voluntarily
• Can be set manually if candidate contacts you to withdraw
• Also needs a lost reason, so you can see why teams drop out
• Helps maintain a record of withdrawal vs rejection

Status Management Tips:

• Always add notes when changing status to document your decision
• Status history is automatically tracked for each candidate
• Use filters to view candidates by status
• Keep candidates informed by email about status changes

Converting Candidates to Participants#

Important: All candidates must be manually converted to participants/teams by the tournament administrator. This ensures you review and approve each registration before adding them to your tournament.

When a candidate is registered, a pending team is automatically created behind the scenes. This allows team managers to access the Participant Panel immediately — even before the candidate is approved. The pending team does not appear in your Participants list or count toward plan limits until converted.

Conversion process:

1. Go to Candidates
2. Review the candidate row — status filter chips across the top show a live count for every status (All, Pending, Under Review, Info Requested, Approved, Converted, Rejected, Withdrawn), so you can jump straight to the ones awaiting a decision
3. Click the green Convert button on the candidate's row
4. The pending team is activated and appears in your Participants list
5. Logo/photo and contact info are synced from the candidate
6. Players and documents are preserved
7. Confirmation email is sent to the candidate
8. Team managers retain their access seamlessly

Once converted, the green Convert button is replaced by a View team link that opens the new participant/team's edit page.

To reject a candidate:

• Click the Reject button (✕) on the candidate's row and choose a lost reason. This marks the candidate as Rejected and moves them out of your review queue while keeping their record — you can still find them later under the Rejected filter. Reopening a rejected lead clears its reason.
• To remove candidates permanently, tick their checkboxes and use the delete action in the selection bar.

Candidates stay in the list until you convert, reject, or delete them. There is no automatic approval — you review and act on every candidate by hand.

Participant Information#

Participant Profiles#

Each participant (individual or team) has a profile including:

• Basic information (name, logo/photo, contact)
• Group/bracket assignments
• Match schedule
• Tournament status

Updating Information#

You can update participant information at any time:

• Contact details
• Logo/photo (and team photo for teams)
• Card color (for teams) - the accent color shown on the public participants page
• Player roster (for teams)
• Additional notes

Contact details at a glance — Both the Teams list and the Candidates list show each row's contact name, email, and phone inline, so you can scan them without opening anything. To change a team's details, click the Manage button on its row to open the full edit page. Rows only respond to their explicit action buttons — clicking elsewhere doesn't navigate anywhere.

Tracking Payments#

Each participant can carry a ledger of what they owe and what they have paid — entry fees, instalments, refunds. Define a fee once and bill a division or the whole roster in one action, record payments as they arrive, and optionally let team managers see their own balance and report payments for you to approve.

Give charges a deadline and MyCup can chase the unpaid ones for you, in your tournament's name.

See Tracking Payments for the full walkthrough, and Payment Reminders for the chasing.

Form Responses#

When the Team Panel is enabled, the participant edit page includes a Form Responses tab showing all custom form submissions from that team. You can export individual responses or all responses combined as PDF directly from this tab. See Team Forms for details on creating forms and managing responses.

Visibility on Public Website#

Control what's displayed on your tournament website:

• Show/hide participants on public website
• Display logos and photos
• Display team photos on team pages (for teams)
• Show player rosters (for teams)
• Tournament results and standings

Exporting Team Data#

You can export your roster to a CSV (spreadsheet) file straight from the Teams & Players page.

To export your roster:

1. Go to Teams & Players in the sidebar
2. Click the Export button in the page header to download every team, or tick the checkboxes on specific rows and use the Export action in the selection bar to export just those
3. The CSV downloads automatically

Each row in the CSV holds a team's name, division, country and contact details, plus a column for every team custom attribute you've defined. The candidate list has its own Export (Excel or CSV) on the Candidates page, which includes the country too.

You can edit that file and upload it back to apply changes in bulk — see Importing from a Spreadsheet.

See Exporting Team Data for full details, including how to export team form responses.

Common Participant Tasks#

Before Tournament Starts#

• Add all participants/teams manually or via registration
• Verify contact information
• Assign participants to groups or brackets
• Build player rosters (for team sports)
• Conduct team draw if needed

During Tournament#

• Update participant information if needed
• Add or modify player rosters within rules
• Track participant progress through phases
• Manage withdrawals if necessary

After Tournament#

• Review final participant data
• Archive tournament records
• Recognize achievements
• Collect participant feedback

Best Practices#

Data Quality#

• Verify contact information upon entry
• Require email confirmation for registrations
• Check for duplicate entries
• Keep records updated throughout the tournament

Organization#

• Use consistent naming conventions
• Add all participants before opening the Structure page — the structure builder slots them into groups and bracket positions
• Keep logos/photos at appropriate resolution
• Use high-quality team photos for better presentation on public pages

Registration Management#

• Set clear registration deadlines
• Respond to registration requests promptly
• Communicate clearly with pending applicants
• Send confirmation emails after approval

Next Steps#

Once your participants are added:

1. Build the structure and generate matches: open the Structure page, place teams into groups or bracket slots (manually or via Draw teams), then build or save the structure — matches are produced from there, not from the Matches page
2. Manage the schedule and enter results: use Matches & Scheduling to set dates, venues, and referees, and to record results
3. Customize the public website: enable and configure your tournament site so participants and fans see the latest information
4. Track entry fees: use Tracking Payments to record what each participant owes and what they have paid

Your participants are the most important part of your tournament. Keep their information organized and up-to-date for a smooth tournament experience!