How Dinkmix works

No. Scan the QR code, type your name, pick your level, and you’re in the queue.

Your phone remembers you for that event.

Names are unique within an event. Add a last initial or a nickname (“Ana R.”, “Ana 🦋”).

If the organizer added you before you scanned, you’ll be asked “Are you Ana?”. Confirm, and your phone takes over that spot with your place and games.

Yes. While you’re waiting, tap Check out on your phone, then Check back in when you’re ready. You can’t check out mid-game.

From the game you’re projected to be in and how long games are taking.

There aren’t 4 players at your level free yet.

Your game forms as soon as enough of your level come off court or check in. Organizers can also let games borrow players from other levels.

The player who has waited longest, plus the freshest match-up from the next few in line.

The queue shows the Next game, then the projected games after it, which update as games end and people check in.

Yes. A newcomer’s place is their check-in time, so everyone already waiting is ahead of them.

Every possible group and team split gets a cost, and the lowest cost wins.

• Repeat partner: the biggest cost.
• Same four players as a past game.
• Repeat opponent.
• Games imbalance: prefers players with fewer games.
• Waiting: prefers players who have waited longer.
• Level gap between the two teams, and players borrowed from other levels.

No.

No. However the levels and settings work out, nobody waits forever.

Rarely.

When a court frees up, the promised group is kept unless a clearly better one has become possible (for example, players who just finished can break up a repeat foursome). It also changes if one of those players is moved or checked out. The organizer can shuffle the teams without changing who plays.

Nobody else was free.

With exactly enough players for the courts (say 16 players on 4 courts), the 4 coming off court are the only ones available, so they play again with new teams. More players than court spots, or Winners vs winners, mixes things up.

Each event has 3–5 levels. Players pick theirs at check-in, and games are formed within a level first.

The organizer can change anyone’s level. The colors are the same everywhere; the legend at the top of each screen shows them.

Yes, with Match players: All levels together. Everyone shares one queue with the same fairness rules.

Only when a level can’t make a game on its own, and only if the organizer turned on Mix levels when short.

Fair rotation (the default) is everything under “Who plays next”: new partners and opponents, equal games. Winners vs winners: winners of two courts play each other, losers play losers.

Yes. The organizer picks Singles when creating the event, for the whole event.

Games are 1 v 1 and everything else works the same: fair rotation with new opponents, levels, Play next, the wait guarantee, the leaderboard and the podium. Partner features (linked partners, team shuffle, challenge court) don’t apply.

One court runs “winners stay on” for pairs, while open play continues on the other courts.

You’re reserved for the challenge court.

The organizer picks the format when opening the challenge court.

• 4 qualifiers: Semi 1 = 1st vs 4th to qualify, Semi 2 = 2nd vs 3rd, then the final.
• 2 qualifiers: the first two to qualify play the final.
• No playoffs: the first pair to reach the streak is champion.

Once enough pairs qualify, the pair queue closes. The organizer starts each playoff match.

For your games played and your place in the queue, yes (you go to the back after any game).

Not for the leaderboard, rating or podiums, which use open-play games only.

Your win rate, adjusted for how many games you played. The leaderboard and podium rank by it.

A few wins in a row could be luck, so a short record counts for less. The more games you play, the closer your rating gets to your win rate:

Events with results from before ratings were added keep ranking by win rate, so their podiums stay as they were.

Live standings for each level during the event, updated as games finish.

There’s an Overall table too when more than one level is playing. It ranks exactly like the podium. Players who haven’t played enough games yet are listed underneath as “not ranked yet”. When the event ends, the top of the final standings becomes the podium.

The top 3 by rating in each level, from open-play games.

• Overall: top 3 by rating across all levels (when more than one level played).
• Iron Player: most games played (ties go to the earlier check-in).
• Champion and Runner-up of the challenge court.
• King of the Court: the challenge pair with the longest winning streak.

Yes. Organizers can fix the winner or score of any finished game from History.

The leaderboard and podium update; the queue doesn’t change. Challenge winners can’t be changed once the next match depends on them, only the score.

Anyone with the 6-digit PIN can open the organizer board on their own device. Wrong PINs are limited (5 tries per device per 15 minutes) to stop guessing.

Auto-fill courts on: tapping Done and picking the winner immediately puts the Next group on that court.

Auto-fill courts off: courts stay empty until you tap Fill on a court or Fill all. Fill all only touches empty courts — nobody already playing is moved.

Always. The app suggests; you decide.

• Play next (tap a chip): that player is in the next game, whatever the level rules. ▶ marks them.
• Drag a waiting chip onto someone in a game to swap them in, or onto an empty spot.
• Drag a waiting chip onto someone in any game in the queue (Next or a projected game) to put them in it instead. That game is then pinned (📌): it stays as you set it, its players wait for it, and it moves up one place each time a game starts. If a pinned player checks out, the next person in line takes their place. Unpin lets the app pick that game again. Unpinned games are worked out again whenever a game ends or someone checks in.
• Waiting a long time lists anyone past the limit whom your own settings keep out (level mixing off, a linked partner away, the challenge court), with a one-tap fix (Play next, or Unlink). Everyone else past the limit is put in the next game automatically, so they aren't listed.
• Turn Auto-fill courts off to build every game by hand, and use Undo if something goes wrong.

Yes. Undo at the top of the organizer board shows what it will undo (for example “Undo: Court 2 result”), and a toast offers Undo right after you finish a game. You can undo several steps in a row, including End event.

Yes, but only the organizer can link them: tap a chip → Link partner…. Tap either chip → Unlink to undo it. Linked chips show 🔗.

• Drag chips between courts and the queue. Tap a chip for Play next, Move to queue, Change level, Link partner or Check out.
• Moving a player out of a game in progress cancels that game. With Auto-fill courts on, a replacement steps in right away (swap someone else in if you prefer); if nobody’s free, the other 3 go back to their place in line, usually the front, when the next game is called. With it off, the other 3 stay on the court and Fill rest completes it.
• Players pulled off a court go back to their old place in line. Players who check back in go to the back.
• Checked-out players are listed under Checked out, below the queue, with the time they left. Tap Check back inthere, or add the same name again, to bring someone back.
• Shuffle cycles the 3 possible team splits; history records the teams that actually played.

Picking the winner is always required. With Record full scores on, both scores are required and checked:

• Deuce (win by 2): winner reaches the target and wins by 2; past the target the loser has exactly 2 fewer.
• Sudden death: winner has exactly the target, loser has less.

End event from the menu. Games still in progress are discarded (no winner). The podium stays available and results can still be corrected.

If nobody ends it, an event ends on its own once its scheduled end time has passed and nothing has happened for 24 hours. Undo brings it back.

Anything with a browser. A tablet or laptop gives the most room for dragging chips; a phone works too. Put the TV board on a big screen for everyone to follow.