Joining open play
Joining open play on OpenCourt: find a session, join or join the waitlist, pay for a seat, what to do if you can't go, and host and run your own.
1. Find a session
- Open Plays lists every drop-in session hosted by players and courts.
- Each card shows the day, the hours, the court, the level, the format and how many spots are left.
- Filter by city and by your level. Every visit opens on all sessions.
- An Unli play is a court booking, not an open play: a court's own hours at one price for the whole window. Tap its band on the court's calendar to book a spot with up to 3 friends and play as many games as you like until it ends. Your spots are in My bookings. It has no waitlist: when it's full, spots passed on with Pasalo show on the same sheet. A service fee of 3.5% is added as its own line.
Browse sessions by day, city and level. 2. Read the session
- The session page shows the price, the level range, the format and how it's played.
- The roster shows who's going, their level and when they joined.
- Free sessions and pay-at-the-court sessions say so under the player count.
- Reservation verified means the court is really booked: on OpenCourt, or the host sent the court's receipt and OpenCourt checked it. Not verified means the host hasn't shown a booking yet.
- Share sends a short link, like opencourt.ph/op/K7QW2M, that opens the session.
Everything about a session, and who is going. 3. Full? Join the waitlist
- When a session is full, tap Join waitlist. It's free.
- When a spot opens, the first player on the waitlist moves in and gets a notification.
- In a paid session you then have up to 2 hours to pay for the seat, and never past the start.
- Some hosts move people in from the waitlist themselves. Then the first to pay takes an open spot, and you get a bell when one opens.
- An unpaid spot can move to the back of the waitlist: when the host moves it, at the session's deadline, or when the session ends. If a spot is open, you can still pay for it.
The waitlist moves up in order when a spot opens. 4. Join and pay
- Tap Join & pay. The price is the host's price per seat.
- A service fee of 3.5% and the processing fee are added as their own lines.
- Your credits are used first. Your seat is held for 15 minutes while you pay.
- It opens on a QR Ph code. Scan it with GCash, Maya or any bank app, or tap Pay another way.
- Bringing friends? Pick how many spots in the sheet and name each +1. You pay for all of them at once, and you can add more later with Add another spot.
- Some hosts let you reserve now and pay later. Tap Reserve, pay later, then pay by the time the session page shows. An unpaid spot moves to the waitlist, and you get a reminder before.
- Some hosts approve each spot. Tap Request a spot, with any +1s. The host approves or declines, and you hear back on the bell. In a paid session you then pay by the deadline.
- Pay for my spot in the email or on the bell takes you straight to the payment.
- Some hosts collect payment themselves. Their session page shows the host's account and QR. Pay them, add a photo of your receipt, and tap I've paid. Your spot is paid at once. The host checks the receipt and can mark it not paid if the money isn't there. That money goes to the host, not OpenCourt, so ask the host if you need it back.
- Some hosts offer both. Tap Join & pay to pay on OpenCourt, confirmed at once, or Pay the host directly to pay their account with no processing fee, then send your receipt with I've paid. You can switch until your seat is paid.
- More in Paying and receipts.
Seats and entries use the same checkout. 5. You're in
- Once the payment goes through, your seat is confirmed and the receipt is in your email.
- Paid seats are listed under Games, in the Open plays tab.
- Your +1s show right under you on the roster, with your picture and +1 on it. You can rename them.
- The session's Chat tab opens its players' chat: the host, co-hosts, everyone with a spot and the waitlist. It's also in Messages, under Open plays.
- After the game, the session page asks how it went. Under each player you played, tap Give kudos for what stood out, with your name on it, or tap Rate for anonymous stars and a note. Kudos show on their profile and on the club's Most praised.
Paid and confirmed. 6. Can't go?
- A paid seat is final. Pass it on with Pasalo: another player buys it at the host's price, and you get that back as credits or cash. The fees you paid stay paid. Paid for +1s too? Each of their spots goes on Pasalo on its own, and whoever buys one takes that spot.
- In a free session, tap Leave. The next player on the waitlist moves in. Your +1s leave with you.
- A paid +1 is final too. One you haven't paid for comes off with the minus on its row.
- If the host cancels the session, your seat price is refunded, to the method you paid with or as OpenCourt credits, as the host picks.
- Holding a spot you won't pay for? Tap Leave. A host can mark a player who held an unpaid spot and didn't come as a no-show. If that's wrong, tap I was there on the session page within 48 hours, and OpenCourt decides.
- Hosts of your games see your no-shows and the spots you reserved and didn't pay, from the last 90 days. With 3 in 90 days, for 30 days you pay before you get a spot: no Reserve, no paying at the court, and the host approves your spot in a free game. See yours in Edit profile, under Playing.
Can't go? Pass your seat on with Pasalo. 7. Host your own
- Book a court first, then tap Turn into open play on the booking in My bookings. Or tap Host an open play.
- At a court on OpenCourt, pick the court and the hours you booked. Anywhere else, enter the court's name and drop a map pin.
- Set the number of spots, the level range and the format.
Host your own on a court you booked. 8. Price and details
- Leave the price at 0 for a free session, or set a price per player.
- To charge for seats, add your earnings account and accept the Host Terms. You can do it right in this step. Players pay on OpenCourt, and you get your full price per seat.
- Under How players pay, pick On OpenCourt, To you directly or Both.
- To you directly uses your own account or QR. You still accept the Host Terms, but there's no earnings account to add. Players pay no processing fee, you check each payment and mark the seat paid, and you refund players yourself.
- Both shows your account next to OpenCourt checkout, and each player picks. You can add or take off your account any time.
- You can change How players pay any time. Picking On OpenCourt or Both asks for your earnings account if you don't have one yet. Players who already paid keep how they paid: paid on OpenCourt stays on OpenCourt, paid to you stays yours.
- You can change the price any time. Players who already paid keep what they paid. Players who haven't paid yet pay the new price.
- Turn on Reserve now, pay later to let players take a spot first and pay by the deadline. Reserved spots show on the roster until they're paid, and GameQ only takes paid players.
- Turn on Approve reservations to approve each spot yourself. Players request one, with any +1s, and you approve or decline them under Requests, above Host tools. You also move people in from the waitlist with Make participant, and the first to pay takes an open spot. Join & pay stays instant. New paid sessions start with it on.
- Turn on Move unpaid spots to the waitlist to have unpaid spots move there 12, 24 or 36 hours before the start. Off, you move them yourself with the arrow on each unpaid player. Spots still unpaid when the session ends move there too, except players you added yourself.
- Add a title, a description and photos, then publish. The card on the right shows what players will see.
- Hosting somewhere not booked on OpenCourt? Send the court's receipt from the Verify tab on your session page. Once OpenCourt checks it, players see Reservation verified. It's optional, and the receipt is never shown publicly.
- Running games for a club? See Running club games.
Set a price, a title and who can join. 9. Run your session
- Your session page shows Host tools above the roster. Co-hosts see them too.
- Run the session: tap Start GameQ to run the courts with your players already on the roster.
- Listing: turn off Taking new players when you have enough. Nobody new can join, reserve or ask for a spot, the waitlist stays open, and everyone already in keeps their spot. Turn it back on and the waitlist moves up again.
- Turn off Listed on Open Plays to keep the session off Open Plays, your court's page, your club and search. Anyone you send the link to can still open it and join. Both switches are in the open play form too.
- Get more players: in a club's game, members who haven't answered hear that spots are open on their own, 36 hours before the start and never at night. Tap Send now to tell them sooner, or turn off Tell members when spots are open under Listing. At a court on OpenCourt you can also tell the players tied to that court, once, from 36 hours before.
- Settings: every setting of the session in one tab. Reservations switch on their own, and Details, Where and when, Players and Price each save on their own. Add co-hosts, hand it over to another player, mark it completed to award your players, or cancel it there.
- Add a player at the top of the roster by name or @handle. A guest by name is in at once, with nothing to pay on OpenCourt. A player you pick by @handle in a paid session pays on OpenCourt before the start, or, if they paid you directly, mark them Paid to host.
- Paid to host means OpenCourt never touched that money: it can't be refunded on OpenCourt or passed on with Pasalo, and the player can leave the seat and settle with you.
- In a club's game, members who can't make it tap Can't go. You see them under the waitlist.
- Tap the + on a player's row to add a +1 for them. They're in at once too.
- In the Chat tab you and your co-hosts pin or remove a message, and tag @everyone to alert all your players and the waitlist at once. Mute in chat on a player's roster row stops them writing there; they can still read it.
- A partner hosting at their own court reads the chat in their partner Messages, and writes there as the court.
- Who came: for 24 hours after the game ends, mark anyone who held a spot without paying and didn't come. GameQ check-ins are ticked for you, and paid spots can't be marked. They hear, and can tell OpenCourt they were there.
Run your session from Host tools. Change anything on Settings.