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Community Tournaments: joining one, and running your own

Competitions built by managers rather than by Lonida. Pay an entry fee, play for a real prize pot - or design your own tournament, bring the clubs, and keep a share of what it raises.

lonida
lonida

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September 9, 2026 9 min read 1

A Community Tournament is a competition a manager built, not one Lonida scheduled. Somebody decides the shape, the entry fee and the prizes, we review it, and then clubs pay in and play for a real pot. You can be on either side of that: entering one takes a minute, running one is a proper piece of work.

Where to find them

The Games tab in your account, under Community Tournaments. Open to join shows everything currently taking entries; Mine shows anything you have created.

Part one: joining one

Every open tournament shows the same four things up front: what it costs to enter, what the prizes are, how many clubs it needs, and when it starts. Entry is paid in LONIDA from your club wallet the moment you join.

What your club has to be able to do

  • Field a sideRequired
    A squad of at least 22 players, with 11 starters and 4 substitutes picked. This is checked when you join, not on match day - a competition needs clubs that can play every round, not clubs that forfeit in the second one.
  • Squad ratingOptional
    Some tournaments are limited to a rating band, anywhere between 35 and 99. Your club average is compared against it when you join, and you are told the number if you fall outside.
  • Entry feeRequired
    Held by the platform from the moment you join. Minimum 5 LONIDA; the organiser sets the real figure.
  • A free slotRequired
    Some tournaments hold places back for clubs the organiser invited directly. If the open slots are gone you are told so plainly rather than left guessing.

What happens to your entry fee

It is held, not spent. If the tournament fills and runs, it becomes part of the prize pot. If it never fills, you get it back - that is not a favour, it is the rule the platform enforces on its own.

Three ways a tournament that has not filled can end

  • It shrinks to a size the clubs who did join can actually play, and everyone squeezed out is refunded in full.
  • The organiser extends the deadline once, if there is still room before the start date.
  • It is called off and every club is refunded in full. Nobody has to ask.

A refund is a wallet credit

It goes back to the same club wallet it came from, and shows on your transaction list like anything else. You do not need to contact anybody.

Part two: running your own

Anyone with an active account can submit one. What you are really doing is proposing an event: the form asks for the shape of the competition, the money behind it, and - the part people underestimate - how you intend to fill it with clubs.

Having the money is not enough

Applications are reviewed by a person and not all of them are approved, even when the fees are paid. The single most common reason for a refusal is a thin plan for reaching players outside Lonida. Naming the channel, saying roughly how many people are on it, and lining up a few clubs before you submit makes more difference than anything else in the form.

Choosing a shape

You pick a cup or a league, then a pattern inside it. The fixture generator already knows how to build each of these, which is why they are a fixed list rather than a free-form description.

Cup formats — 4 to 128 clubs

  • Straight knockoutOptional
    Everyone in the first round, one defeat and you are out. Needs a club count that is a power of two: 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128.
  • Preliminary roundOptional
    The clubs above the nearest bracket size play a qualifying round first, the way the FA Cup does. Use this for any number that is not a power of two.
  • Groups, then knockoutOptional
    Drawn into groups, everyone plays their group, top finishers go through. Guarantees every club several matches - the friendliest format for a field of new clubs.

League formats — 4 to 20 clubs

  • Single round robinOptional
    Everybody plays everybody once and the table decides it.
  • Home and awayOptional
    Everybody twice. Four times the matches of a knockout, so keep the field small or the calendar will not hold it.
  • League, then a play-offOptional
    A round robin to rank the clubs, then the top four contest two semi-finals and a final.

There is a ceiling on matches

A competition may not generate more than 200 matches, and above 60 you are warned as you build it. Home-and-away with twenty clubs is 380 fixtures - the form will tell you before you get attached to the idea.

The money, in plain terms

There are two ways to fund a tournament, and they behave completely differently.

Community pool — the clubs fund it

Every club pays an entry fee, minimum 5 LONIDA. The pot is the entry fee multiplied by the number of clubs you are aiming for. Out of that comes the platform fee, then your prizes; whatever is left is your cut, and it is capped at 20% of the pot. Set the prizes too low and you are over the cap and told to add more. Set them too high and the pot cannot pay them, and you are told exactly how much to take off.

Sponsored pool — you fund it

Entry is free for clubs. You deposit the prize money yourself, winners take 100% of it, and there is no creator cut - you are buying attention, not running a business. The setup fee is charged on top of your deposit rather than out of it.

You are told where you break even

On a community pool the form shows the number of clubs at which you stop losing money, before you pay anything. Read it. A tournament that needs 40 clubs to break even and has no plan for finding 40 clubs is the application that gets refused.

The setup fee, and when you pay it

The order things happen in

  • You build and submit. Nothing is charged.
  • A reviewer approves it, sends it back with notes, or refuses it. You get an email either way, with the reviewer's own words in it.
  • Only once it is approved do you pay the setup fee - and only then does it open to clubs and unlock the invitation tools.
  • A tournament that is sent back or refused has cost you nothing at all.

Filling it

This is the part that decides whether your tournament happens. Once it is live you can invite clubs on Lonida directly, send email invitations, and share a link into your own WhatsApp, SMS or Telegram channels. Places can be held back for the clubs you invited so an open rush does not fill the field before an invitation is even read.

What a strong application actually contains

  • A named channel you can reach players through, with a rough size - "a WhatsApp community of about 400" beats "social media".
  • Clubs already interested before you submit. Nothing else in the form carries as much weight.
  • One or two sponsors, named. You may show up to 8 on the competition page.
  • Prizes worth entering. A pot nobody would cross the road for will not fill, however well organised the rest of it is.
  • A structure that looks deliberate - a format, a size and a calendar that fit each other rather than three separate guesses.

Advertising and sponsors

You may attach up to 6 YouTube videos as advertising on your competition, and list up to 8 sponsors with their logos. Both appear on the competition page that clubs see before they join.

Dates

A competition has to start at least seven days from when you submit it. Between submitting and kicking off there is a review, a payment and the entire job of finding clubs; three days is not enough for any of that, so it is refused at submission rather than approved into failure.

Do I need my own club to create a tournament?+
You need an active account. Creating a tournament and entering one are separate things - you can organise a competition your own club is not in.
Can I edit my application after submitting it?+
Yes, right up until it is approved. Open it from the Games tab and continue editing. Once it is approved the details are fixed, because clubs will have joined on the strength of them.
What happens if it is sent back?+
You get an email with the reviewer's notes in full. Make the changes and submit it again. Nothing has been charged and nothing will be until it is approved and you choose to pay.
Why was mine refused when I had the money?+
Funds are not the test. The test is whether the competition looks likely to fill and to be worth playing in. Almost every refusal comes down to no credible plan for bringing clubs to it.
What if not enough clubs join?+
It shrinks to a size that fits, or the deadline extends once, or it is called off and every entry fee is refunded automatically. No club is ever left having paid for a competition that did not run.
When do I get my cut?+
On a community pool your cut is what is left of the pot after the platform fee and the prizes, capped at 20%. On a sponsored pool there is no cut - the whole deposit goes to the winners.
Can my club join more than one?+
Yes, as long as it can field a full side for each. The squad check is applied per competition when you join.
My club is rated outside the band. Can I still enter?+
No. Rating bands are the organiser deciding who the competition is for, and they are enforced on joining. You are shown your own squad rating so you know how far off you are.

A tournament is not approved because it can afford to exist. It is approved because somebody would want to play in it.

What a reviewer is looking for

Written by lonida

Published September 9, 2026

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Community Tournaments: joining one, and running your own | Lonida Knowledgebase