Picking teams is the tensest moment of any pickup game. There’s always the “that’s not fair”, the “he’s on my team again?” and the guy who picks his friends. After the game comes round two: who scored, what was the score, who was the MVP.
With the Torneyo bot in the group, those three moments become four commands. The draw comes out balanced by the ratings the players give each other, the score and goals are recorded, and the MVP is picked by secret vote. At the end of the month, /ranking shows who delivered.
If your group isn’t connected to Torneyo yet, start with the guide How to organize pickup soccer on WhatsApp without a spreadsheet. Here we pick up from the opening whistle.
/sortear: balanced teams from the confirmed players
List closed, everyone on the court. The organizer sends:
/sortearThe bot takes only those who confirmed for the current session and builds the teams. For three teams, /sortear 3 (from 2 to 6 teams). The reply looks like this:
🎲 Teams for Thursday (14 confirmed):
Team 1 (blue shirt): Rodrigo F., Lucas S., Felipe M., Rafael C., ...
Team 2 (no vest): Marcos P., Diego A., Bruno L., Gabriel T., ...What makes this draw different from flipping a coin:
- Balanced by ratings. Each pickup-game participant can rate teammates (an overall score from 1 to 5 and, optionally, attack, defense and commitment), one vote per teammate per month. The draw uses those ratings plus attendance over the last 90 days to spread the strength. Players not yet rated count as average.
- Deterministic. The same confirmed players always produce the same draw. If someone sends
/sortearagain without the list having changed, the bot reposts the same teams. No “draw again until I like it”. - Goalkeepers where they belong. Whoever confirmed in a goalkeeper spot isn’t drawn as an outfield player.
- Guests are in. A guest without an account, added by the organizer with
/convidado Name, plays as an average-strength outfield player.
To see the teams again at any time, anyone in the group sends /times. And if the game uses vests, /cor 1 azul or /cor time2 sem colete sets each team’s color, which then shows up in /times and on the dashboard.
Tip Only the organizer draws: the class manager on Torneyo or an admin of the WhatsApp group. If anyone else tries, the bot replies “Only the organizer can use this command.”
/placar and /gol: the result is on record
Game over, the organizer sends the score in the order of the teams from the draw:
/placar 3x2Reply: ”✅ Score for Thursday recorded: 3x2”. If a different score was already saved, the bot doesn’t overwrite it by accident: it shows the current one and asks for /placar 3x2 confirmar.
Goals and assists go in through /gol:
/gol Marcos assist JoãoThe bot looks for “Marcos” and “João” among the class participants. If there are two Joãos, it asks: “Which João? 1) João S. 2) João P.” and you reply with just the number. Goal and assist are recorded together and count toward the rankings right away. A player can also report their own goal from their athlete area, and it’s up to the manager to approve it.
With scores and goals on record, the class builds a match history: wins per team, each player’s win rate and the pairs that win the most together.
/craque: secret vote, no cliques
One hour after the game starts, the bot posts the MVP voting invitation on its own. Anyone who wants the link again sends /craque.
Voting happens on the session page, from the start of the game until 48 hours later. Each participant votes once (and can change the vote within the window), nobody votes for themselves and only those who played appear as options. Once voting closes, the page shows the elected MVP, and the result feeds the month’s MVP ranking.
/ranking and /artilharia: who delivered this month
Any registered participant can ask for a top 5 in the group:
/artilharia
/ranking vitorias ano
/ranking presenca tudoThe available rankings are the same ones on the dashboard and in the athlete area:
| Ranking | What counts |
|---|---|
| Attendance | Days the person showed up, based on recorded attendance |
| Word of honor | Confirmed and came: +1. Confirmed and didn’t show: −1 |
| Top scorers | Goals logged with /gol or approved by the manager |
| Assists | Assists logged |
| Wins and Win rate | From the scores recorded on draws |
| MVP | Votes received in MVP votes |
| Best pairs | Wins by players who played together |
| Progress | Who improved the most in teammate ratings |
The period can be mes (default), ano or tudo. The reply is compact, with abbreviated names (“1. Marcos P. - 7 goals”), the way it fits in a group chat.
What this changes in practice
- The draw stops being the game owner’s call and becomes a transparent calculation. Whoever complains can rate their teammates next month.
- Score and top scorers stop depending on the memory of whoever was sober after the game.
- The ranking creates the week’s conversation in the group without anyone building a spreadsheet.
And if your crew plays volleyball, basketball or beach tennis, performance follows the sport: Torneyo validates what makes sense to record in each one.
Next step
The game itself is sorted. The other half of pickup soccer is the money: who paid for the court, who owes for the barbecue, who no-showed and has to pay the fine. That’s covered in Cash box, cost splits and no-show fines: the boring part of pickup soccer, solved.
