This handbook mirrors rules version 2026-08-20. The agreements shown in the app at creation or joining are authoritative if a newer version is released.
Location finds the area. Your network fills the roster.
indieSoccer coordinates user-created games. It does not choose the field, recruit the players, or play the match. Those inputs come from local players.
Look nearby
Allow location to surface accessible Everybody games within 20 miles. Each listing came from a host who selected a real field and kickoff time.
Check local activity
Players in your area is an anonymous current count with a seven-day history. It indicates local activity without exposing nearby identities or exact locations.
Use Available Today
When eligible, signal that you can play. Direct friends are notified, your network can see the status according to privacy rules, and eligible same-day games can reach you.
Build the network
Friend players you would play with again. Network games reach friends and friends of friends, making repeat local groups easier to assemble.
Host when needed
If the right game does not exist, select a field, surface, kickoff, and discovery setting. The host owns the roster and final result.
Show up and play
Choose a soccer position, check in near the field during the final hour, and complete the 5v5 match with the roster that arrived.
The short version
- Format
- 5v5 · Light vs Dark
- Schedule
- 30 minutes to 7 days ahead
- Game window
- 2 hours
- Active limit
- 1 hosted or joined game
- Check-in
- Final hour · within 1 mile
- Reliability
- Starts at 3 · range 0–5
Game format
The real-world soccer format, schedule, and two result types used by every game.
- Every listing represents a user-created, real-world pickup soccer game at a field selected by the host. Games are 5-a-side; Light and Dark can each roster up to five players.
- The host is rostered first and supplies the field, kickoff time, surface, game type, discovery setting, team, and position.
- A game must be scheduled at least 30 minutes ahead and no more than seven days ahead. Its scheduled game window lasts two hours.
- Rated results affect Elo. Casual results do not affect Elo.
Teams and positions
How players claim a square and when their side becomes final.
- Players choose an open marked field square. Each square maps to Goalkeeper, Defender, Midfielder, or Attacker.
- Each side can have only one goalkeeper, and a full five-player side must include a goalkeeper.
- New players cannot join at kickoff, and every joined player’s team locks then. A joined player may still move to an open position on the same team.
Game access
How location and the player network determine who can discover a local game.
- Network games can be found by the host’s friends and friends of friends. This makes repeat teammates and opponents the primary path into games that are not broadly local.
- Everybody games can be found by eligible players within 20 miles of the game. Location supplies the local discovery context; the host still controls access requests.
- In either setting, direct friends within 200 Elo points of the host can join immediately. Other eligible players must ask first.
- A blocking relationship prevents access. Host approval grants access but does not add the player to the roster; the player must still choose a position and accept the join agreements.
Your game commitment
One active game and one scheduled-date allowance at a time.
- A player can have only one active hosted or joined game at a time.
- Creating or joining reserves that player’s one-game allowance for the game’s scheduled date while the participation remains.
- After any cancellation, a non-host restores their active slot and same-date allowance by leaving. Cleanup restores both for everyone still attached, including the host, when it deletes the game.
- The host cannot leave their own game. The host must cancel it instead.
Check-in and kickoff
The physical-presence check and ten-player condition for starting at the selected field.
- Check-in opens one hour before kickoff and closes at kickoff. It requires a fresh device location within one mile of the host-selected field while the player is still joined.
- The game starts only when all ten rostered players, including the host, are still joined and checked in at kickoff.
- If the roster is not full and completely checked in, the game is cancelled automatically. That cancellation is neutral: no player loses a reliability star or receives an Eligible, Attended, Voluntary leaves, or Missed check-ins stat.
Reliability stars
A compact record of whether players follow through on real-world game commitments.
- Players start with three reliability stars and can have from zero through five.
- Completing a non-cancelled game while still joined and checked in earns one star. Leaving and not returning by the grace deadline costs one star.
- Each game produces at most one reliability outcome per player. Host removal and every game cancellation, including incomplete check-in, are neutral unless that player’s outcome was already final.
Leaving and rejoining
The fixed two-hour grace deadline and the conditions for returning.
- A non-host player may leave before kickoff. Their grace deadline is fixed at two hours after their first join, and they may rejoin only before kickoff and no later than that deadline.
- Repeated departures do not restart the grace deadline. If the game has not been cancelled, remaining out when the deadline passes costs one reliability star and permanently closes rejoining for that game.
- A player removed by the host cannot rejoin that game. Host removal does not change the removed player’s reliability stars.
Host controls and cancellation
Requests, removals, cancellations, and the host’s daily limit.
- The host can approve or reject access requests before kickoff. Everyone with game access can view the roster, but only the host manages requests and approved access.
- The host can remove a non-host rostered player only before kickoff. A removed player cannot rejoin.
- Host cancellation is immediate, counts toward the daily cancellation limit, and holds the active hosting slot during cleanup for at least 30 minutes. Cleanup restores the same-date allowance when it deletes the game.
- A second host cancellation that day blocks the host from creating another game until the next day.
Results and game history
How the game played on the field becomes a permanent result in the app.
- At kickoff, the roster, each player’s matchup Elo, team averages, win percentages, and projected stakes are frozen for that game.
- After the two-hour game window, the host records the real-world result by selecting Light or Dark as the winner. A finalized result cannot be changed in the app.
- A valid completed Rated game updates Elo and Elo history. A valid completed Casual game records the result without changing Elo.
- If a valid game reaches automatic cleanup without a host-entered result, the service may finalize a side automatically before archiving the game.
Attendance statistics
What the four public game counters mean under the current rules.
- Eligible counts a resolved participation that produced an attendance outcome. Attended counts a completed, non-cancelled game in which the player remained joined and checked in.
- Voluntary leaves counts a departure that remained unresolved when the player’s grace deadline passed and therefore produced the reliability penalty.
- Missed check-ins is retained as an attendance counter, but an ordinary game cancelled at kickoff for an incomplete roster or incomplete check-in is neutral and does not increment it.
- Cancelled games do not increment the current rules’ attendance counters.
Available Today and nearby alerts
A location-aware signal that helps a player network turn free time into a same-day game.
- Available Today is for a day when the player is not hosting or joined to a game and still has an unused active-game slot. Turning it on shares availability with the player’s eligible network and notifies direct friends.
- The Home view shows named Available Today players in the user’s network. Public availability can reach friends and friends of friends; a private profile appears available only to direct friends.
- Location also supports an anonymous Players in your area count and seven-day activity history. The count does not reveal nearby player identities or exact locations.
- A later same-day game can alert eligible Available Today players within 20 miles. Nearby Game Alerts are a separate opt-in for accessible future-day games within 20 miles when the player’s Elo is within 200 points of the host.
Safety, blocking, and reports
Player controls do not replace real-world judgment.
- Blocking prevents the blocked relationship from accessing the other player’s games and profile interactions where the feature applies.
- Use Report User from a player profile or Report an Issue from a game for conduct, safety, or game concerns.
- Games and locations are submitted by users. indieSoccer does not organize, supervise, reserve, inspect, or guarantee a game or location.
- Confirm permission to use the property, follow posted rules, inspect current conditions, and contact local emergency services if anyone is in immediate danger.
A machine-readable copy
indieSoccer.md is a plain-Markdown public reference with the same rules, terminology, formulas, and interpretation notes.