Setting up Teams in a Race

How teams work

In PunchMonkey, the team is the unit of competition — the leaderboard ranks teams, not individuals. This is true even when a team has only one person: a solo racer is simply a team of one. All participants on a team share the same checkpoint record, so any teammate's tap counts for the whole team. Teams belong to a specific race, so each race within an event can have its own set of teams.

Participants do not need accounts to race. They open the PunchMonkey app, enter their name, and pick (or create) their team on race day — the rest is self-service.

Teams are optional

When you create or edit an event you can turn on Teams optional. With that flag set, racers don't pick from a pre-made team list — each racer automatically becomes their own one-person team named after them, and they jump straight to scanning. Use this for individual events where you don't want to manage a team list.

Leave it off when you want named teams (relays, group field days, families). You can pre-create those teams in the console, or let racers create their own (below).

Racers creating their own teams

For a race that allows it, a racer can tap + Add Team in the app and create a team on the spot (it defaults to a name based on the racer, which they can edit). Other racers then see that team in the list and can join it — any teammate's scans count for the team.

When creating the team, the racer can set an optional join password. If set, anyone trying to join that team is prompted for the password (three tries) and must enter it correctly before they're added. Leave the password blank for an open team anyone can join. This lets a group keep their team private without the race director having to pre-build it.

Creating teams (race director)

1. Open the race in the web console (Event → Race).
2. Click + Add Team(s).
3. Enter the team name(s). You can create multiple teams at once by entering each name on a new line.
4. Click Create.

How participants join a team

On race day, each participant:

1. Opens the PunchMonkey app and enters their name.
2. Browses the list of available events and selects the one they're participating in.
3. If the event has an entry code, they enter it when prompted.
4. Selects their race (if the event has multiple races).
5. Selects their team from the list. Once selected, they're ready to scan.

Multiple participants can select the same team — any teammate's checkpoint scan counts for the whole team. Once a team completes the race (scans the Race Finish tag), it is removed from the available team list so other participants won't accidentally select it.

Restricting access with an Entry Code

If you want to limit who can participate in your event, set an Entry Code when creating or editing the event. Participants must enter this code in the app before they can see the team list. Share the code with registered participants only.

Leave the entry code blank for an open event where anyone with the app can join.

Team tips

• For individual events, turn on Teams optional on the event — each racer becomes their own one-person team automatically; no team list to manage.
• For relay or group events, create team names and let participants self-select, or let racers create their own teams (with an optional join password). Any teammate's scan counts.
• You can edit or delete teams at any time from the event management page before the race starts.
• Teams that have completed the race (scanned the Race Finish tag) are automatically hidden from new participants, preventing accidental selection.