The app for your weekly volleyball night

Most volleyball nights run on a group chat: a poll on Monday, twenty replies, a headcount someone does by hand, and teams made by counting off at the net. Rostara leaves the chat for talking and takes over the rest: who's coming, the cap, the waitlist and the teams.

How a volleyball night runs on Rostara

1. Make a group and pick Volleyball. Paste your players' names; names are enough to start.
2. Post this week's game with the time, the gym, a player limit (12 for two teams of six) and an RSVP deadline.
3. Share the invite link in your group chat. Players join with Google or email and tap Going, in the browser, with nothing to install.
4. Let the waitlist work. Once the game is full, Going puts players on a first-come waitlist. When someone drops out, the next player moves in and gets a "You're in!" notification.
5. Tap Auto Balance when the list is final. Rostara splits the players into even teams, you publish them, and everyone sees which team they're on.
6. Next week, duplicate the game. Everything moves forward seven days, including the deadline and the time RSVPs open.

A full court and a fair waitlist

A court holds twelve, and on a good week more people want to play. Set the player limit when you post the game, and Rostara keeps the order:

• First come, first in. Anyone who taps Going after the game fills joins the waitlist and sees their place: "Waitlist #2".
• Spots refill themselves. When a player switches to Maybe or Not Going, their spot goes straight to the first person waiting.
• A second court when it fills. Add two sizes, such as 12 and 18. The game opens at 12, and when enough people want in to reach 18, the cap grows and everyone waiting moves in together. Rotate the third team in, or book the second court.
• Guests count. A friend someone brings takes a spot like anyone else, and waits in line when the game is full.

More detail, and policies you can paste into your group: waitlists and guests.

Even teams, with a setter on each side

Counting off ignores who can do what, so one side gets both setters and the other spends the night sending free balls over. Rostara balances the teams on what your players can actually do:

• Private ratings. You and your co-organizers rate each player on the six volleyball skills: Serving, Passing, Setting, Attacking, Blocking and Defense. Nobody sees who gave which score. Anyone you haven't rated yet counts as the group average, so it works from the first night.
• Setters spread out. Part of the balance compares the teams skill by skill, so a team with both setters against a team with none scores badly, and Auto Balance avoids it.
• Make sure of it. Put one setter on each team before you tap Auto Balance. Players you place stay where you put them, and everyone else is balanced around them. The same works for a coed rule.
• Two to eight teams. Three teams of six for a rotation night, or six teams of four for 4s. Team sizes never differ by more than one.

Rostara decides who plays on which team; each team still sorts out its own rotation and serving order. No group yet? The free volleyball team generator runs the same balancer in your browser, with no sign-up.

The same rhythm every week

• RSVPs open at the same time every week. With Schedule for later, the game is listed straight away and opens at the time you pick, with a "New event" notification to the whole group.
• A deadline, such as 24 hours before the start, gives you time to balance the teams. When it passes, everyone going, maybe or waiting gets an "RSVP closed" notification.
• Teams are out. Players who are going get a notification when you publish the teams, and see "You're on Team 2" on the game.
• Calendar links put the game in Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar.

Rostara has no automatic repeating games yet: duplicating last week's game takes two taps. See games, RSVPs and deadlines.

Splitting the court fee

Someone books the gym and fronts the money. With Rostara Pro, a shared ledger splits the court fee among the players, players record what they paid, and an organizer approves each payment, so everyone can see who still owes. Rostara never handles the money itself; your group keeps paying the way it does now. See splitting costs and tracking who paid.

Pro costs $12.99 a month or $99.99 a year for one group. Players never pay. Everything else on this page is free.

Rostara or a group chat poll?

If your group is the same eight friends every week and nobody minds the teams, a poll is enough. Once you have a waitlist, a fee to split or teams people complain about, that's what Rostara is for.

Run soccer too? See the app for your weekly soccer game.