Games and sessions
Everything about playing outside ranked: opening a casual game, filling it, joining the ones around you, and running a King of the Court rotation.
Create a casual game
One single form creates every game: from the Casual tab of your games, from a venue page, from your calendar, or from the Create a slot page. Six decisions, then one button.
Pick the venue and the court
The form opens on your home court when you have one, and any other venue can be picked instead. Courts are numbered, Court 01, Court 02, and the game is attached to one of them so players know where to go.
Date, start time and length
The date slider covers the next 15 days. The start time is the time at the court, never the time on your own phone, and a time already gone today is pushed forward for you. Length goes from 30 minutes to 5 hours, 90 minutes by default.
Choose the format
2v2, 3v3 or 4v4. The format says how teams line up on the court, it does not limit how many players can sign up.
Decide how many spots
Set a limit takes any number between 2 and 64, and the suggested number is the one your format implies, so 4 for a 2v2. Open ended never turns anyone away: a spot is added every time somebody signs up, which is what you want when nine players show up and teams rotate.
Say which level you have in mind
All levels, Beginner, Intermediate or Confirmed. The level guides the players who read the game, it blocks nobody from joining.
Note, visibility, publish
The note is optional and free: balls, water, house rules. Visibility is Public or Friends only. Publish slot creates the game and opens the share sheet straight away.
A public court is not booked
Creating a game on a public court does not reserve anything, it gathers players at a set time and the sand stays first come first served. If another game is already planned on that court at that time, a confirmation warns you before publishing, and Create anyway goes through.
A club court can be taken
On a court managed by a club, a class on the same time window blocks your game and the form says so before you publish. On a private venue, a game outside the opening hours is refused too.
Fill your game
A published game is worth nothing if nobody hears about it. Three ways to get players in.
Share the link
The share sheet opens right after Publish slot, on the address of the game. Send it wherever your mates are, anyone who opens the link lands on the game page.
Invite your mates
On the venue page, the Invite button of your own game lists your friends and invites them in one tap. They see the invitation in Your games, with Accept or Decline.
Invite someone not on Beachmates
Invite a friend, on the game page, creates a public invite link. It shows the game, the venue and the time without naming a single participant, and your friend signs up then lands directly in the game.
Join a game
The Casual tab of Play is where games are found: what you have coming up, then the open games around you.
The Casual tab
Casual and ranked never mix on this page. Casual shows Your games at the top, with the invitations waiting for your answer, then Open slots at your venues, then the games you already played.
Follow the courts you play on
Search a court by name or city and follow it: its open games appear in the list. Your home court is in the perimeter by default, and its cross takes it out of this search without touching your profile.
Or search around you
A radius of 10, 20 or 50 km widens the search around your home court. Near me asks for your position once, never in the background, and turns a radius on for you.
Filters
Filters narrow the list by date range, by time range and by level, and King of the Court keeps only the open play sessions.
The map and the full list
Find a venue lists the open games of the venues around, and See all opens the whole list of open games. Both lead to the game page.
Join, and what you see
On a casual game, Join signs you up right away. The card shows how many spots are left, or Open ended when there is no limit, and a game that just filled up tells you instead of failing quietly.
I'm on the courts, or sign up for a game
Two different things. Checking in at a venue says you are on the sand right now, for 30 minutes up to 12 hours, anonymously if you prefer. Signing up for a game puts you on a slot at a set time, with its list of players and its own chat.
How venues and courts work👑 King of the Court
King of the Court is a casual session with a rotation: the winner stays on the court, the next team comes in. It is a switch inside the casual form, and it runs on its own live board.
Set the rotation up
Turn King of the Court on, then set the wins before rotating (2, 3, 4, 5 or no cap), the maximum number of players (from 4 to 64, or no limit) and the points per game (11, 15 or 21).
Get in the queue
On the session page, Join the rotation puts you in the queue. A player who comes alone is added to a team that is not full yet, and the host can move waiting players between teams from the board.
The host starts it
Two teams at least are needed to start. The first team in the queue becomes the King, the second becomes the Challenger, and the session goes live.
Winner stays
The host reports who won each game. The loser goes to the back of the queue and the next team on deck takes the court. When the Challenger wins, it becomes the new King and the beaten King queues up.
The wins cap
With a cap, a King that reaches it leaves the court as well: both teams go to the back of the queue and the two next ones take over. With no cap, a King stays as long as it keeps winning.
The live board
The board shows the King and its streak, the target score, the Challenger, the teams on deck and the standings, and it refreshes by itself for everybody watching. Undo puts the previous game back exactly as it was, and End session closes the rotation.
Chat, leaving, cancelling
The game chat
Every game has its own chat, open to the players signed up and to the host, nobody else. Messages, photos, polls and your location can be shared there, and you can delete your own messages.
Leaving a game
Leave sits on the game card in Your games, and it always asks for a confirmation first. Your sign up is removed and your spot goes back to the other players.
Cancelling your own game
As the host, open your game from the venue page. Edit changes the court, the date, the time, the length, the format, the spots, the level and the note. Cancel slot removes the game and its sign ups, after a confirmation.
Casual or ranked
Same courts, same app, two very different promises.
Casual keeps no score
Beachmates never asks you for a score on a casual game. What is kept is that you played, with the players and the venue, and it changes nothing to your tier. That is the point: getting people on the sand with no pressure.
Ranked counts
Ranked is played by named teams of two. The score is entered, confirmed by the other side, and it moves your tier. It has its own guide, with placement, forfeits and access.
How ranked works