Set up Round Robin with Pros
Round Robin with Pros runs exactly like Round Robin (Rotating Partners), with one added rule: the event is built around one or more designated Pros. Every player is guaranteed to partner with a Pro once and play against a Pro once, and the schedule delivers those two promises before it worries about anything else. Repeat partners and opponents are still minimized for everyone otherwise.
A few things follow from the Pro being the main attraction: Pros never take a bye, two Pros are never paired with each other, and the Pros' matches rotate across courts instead of always sitting on court 1. Everything else—generation, courts, scoring, groups, standings—works the same way. See the Rotating Partner Round Robin walkthrough for the full lifecycle.
Set it up
Create the event as normal, from CourtReserve or directly in Good Game Sports.
Set Format to Round Robin with Pros.
Add your players, including the Pro(s).
On the Players tab, tap the Pro, then tap Make Pro (the star button). The player gets a PRO badge everywhere—player list, match cards, standings.
Generate matches as usual.
[!WARNING] Designate the Pro before you generate. The app refuses to generate this format with no Pro marked, and marking someone afterwards does not repair a schedule that was already built—you have to regenerate.
How many Pros can you run?
The app senses how many designated Pros are actually playing when you generate:
One or two Pros: the full guarantees hold. With two Pros, "once" means once with one of the Pros—a player who has partnered one Pro will not be handed the other while somebody still has neither.
Three or more Pros: the guarantees can no longer hold for everyone, so the app generates a best-effort schedule that spreads the Pros as evenly as possible and shows you a warning after generating so you are never surprised.
A Pro who is not playing (opted out or not checked in) is simply left out: the rounds generate without the Pro rules and you get a warning saying so.
Plan enough rounds
Each Pro can take on one partner and two opponents per round, so the guarantees need enough rounds to reach everyone:
Setup | Rounds to partner everyone | Example |
|---|---|---|
1 Pro, N players | N − 1 | 9 players → 8 rounds |
2 Pros, N players | About half of N | 12 players → 5 rounds |
Playing against a Pro completes roughly twice as fast, since each Pro faces two opponents per round. If you run fewer rounds than the table suggests, the schedule still prioritizes the Pros—some players just will not get their Pro game, and the coverage view below shows you exactly who.
Track who has had their Pro game
On the Matches tab, open the admin menu and choose Pro Coverage. You get one row per player with two checks: partnered with a Pro, and played against a Pro. Solid checks are matches already played, hollow checks are scheduled but not yet played, and players still missing either one sort to the top. This is the quickest way for staff to confirm the promise is being delivered mid-event.
Standings and prizes
Standings work like any rotating partner event—individual, cumulative. The Pro appears in the standings with a PRO badge but is excluded from final placements, so your top-three prizes always go to the real participants no matter how well the Pro scores.
Mid-event changes
Absences, late arrivals, and dropouts work exactly like the base format: update the player's status and regenerate the future rounds. Played rounds and scores are never touched, and the Pro guarantees carry across the regeneration—the app remembers who already had their Pro game and keeps covering the players who have not. See Handle dropouts and regenerate Rotating Partner Round Robin.