Skip to content

Creating Your First Tennis Arena

This comprehensive guide will walk you through setting up a MCTennis tennis arena from start to finish. By the end, you'll have a fully functional game ready for players to enjoy!

🎯 Overview

Creating a MCTennis arena involves:

  1. Basic Setup: Create the game and define play areas
  2. Team Configuration: Set goals and spawn points
  3. Game Activation: Enable and test your arena
  4. Optional Enhancements: Add advanced features

⚡ Quick Setup (Minimum Requirements)

Step 1: Create Your Game

First, create a new arena configuration file:

/mctennis create game1 My first game

Pro Tip

You can copy settings from an existing arena instead: 

/mctennis copy existing_game new_game My new game

Step 2: Verify Creation

Check that your game was created successfully:

/mctennis list

Expected Output: 

game1 [My first game] [disabled]

✅ Success! Your arena exists but is disabled (normal for new arenas).

Step 3: Get Setup Tools

Obtain the selection tool for marking areas:

/mctennis axe

Enable visual highlighting to see areas while editing:

/mctennis highlight game1

Visual Aid

Highlighting makes boundaries visible with particles/blocks, making setup much easier!

🏟️ Define Your Playing Areas

Step 4: Mark the Playing Field

The playing field is where all tennis action happens.

  1. Select Corner A: Left-click with the axe
  2. Select Corner B: Right-click with the axe
  3. Apply Selection: Run the command
/mctennis select game1 field

Playing Field Selection

Important

Make sure your field is large enough for players to move around comfortably!

Setting the area of team red

image info

/mctennis select game1 red_area

Setting the area of team blue

Select Point A with left-clicking using the MCTennis axe and Point B with right-clicking using the MCTennis axe. Then execute the command below.

image info

/mctennis select game1 blue_area

Setting the ball spawnpoint for team red

Move to the location where you want the ball to spawn. The current location of your player is used as a value when you execute the /mctennis location sub command. Execute the command below.

/mctennis location game1 red_ball

Setting the ball spawnpoint for team blue

Move to the location where you want the ball to spawn. The current location of your player is used as a value when you execute the /mctennis location sub command. Execute the command below.

/mctennis location game1 blue_ball

🎮 Activate Your Game

Step 7: Enable the Arena

Once all areas are defined, activate your game:

/mctennis toggle game1

Step 8: Verify Success

Confirm your arena is now active:

/mctennis list

Expected Output: 

game1 [My first game] [enabled]

🎉 Congratulations! Your basic arena is ready!

Step 9: Test Your Arena

Players can now join in two ways:

  • Walk into the field: Automatic join
  • Use command: /mctennis join game1

🔧 Enhanced Setup (Optional)

Improve Player Experience

Set Leave Spawn Point

Prevent players from being teleported to random locations:

/mctennis location game1 leave_spawnpoint

Configure Team Spawn Points

Give teams dedicated starting positions:

/mctennis toggle game1

/mctennis location game1 red_spawnpoint

/mctennis location game1 blue_spawnpoint

/mctennis toggle game1

🏆 Create a Minigame Mode

Transform your arena into a structured minigame with lobbies and time limits.

Step 10: Convert to Minigame

/mctennis gamerule gameType game1 minigame

Error Messages

If you see errors, don't worry! We'll fix them in the next steps.

Step 11: Set Lobby Spawn Points

Players need somewhere to wait before games start:

/mctennis location game1 red_lobby

/mctennis location game1 blue_lobby

Step 12: Final Activation

Enable your completed minigame:

/mctennis toggle game1

🎖️ Advanced Features

Throw-Ins, Goal Kicks & Corner Kicks

When the ball leaves the playing field, MCTennis can automatically trigger a throw-in, corner kick, or goal kick instead of simply bouncing the ball back. Three setup steps are required to enable this.

Step 1: Set the Outer Field, Red Out and Blue Out areas

The outer field defines the extended area players are allowed to move into when performing a throw-in, corner kick, or goal kick. It must be larger than the standard playing field so that players can reach the sideline and corner positions.

  1. Select Corner A: Left-click with the axe
  2. Select Corner B: Right-click with the axe
  3. Apply Selection: Run the command
/mctennis select game1 outer_field

The red out and blue out areas define the zones where the ball must exit to trigger a corner kick or goal kick for each team. These should be set to cover the area behind each goal line and include the outer field.

/mctennis select game1 red_out

/mctennis select game1 blue_out

Goal Selection Example

Sizing Recommendation

Extend the outer field by at least 3–5 blocks beyond each sideline and goal line so players have enough room to take their positions.

Step 2: Set Keeper Spawn Points

The keeper spawn point of each team is used as the goal kick position — the location the designated player is teleported to when their team is awarded a goal kick.

Stand at the desired point front of each goal (it has to be in FRONT OF the goal), then run:

/mctennis location game1 red_keeper

/mctennis location game1 blue_keeper

Step 3: Enable Throw-Ins in the Arena Configuration

By default the ball bounces back when it goes out of bounds. Open your arena file at
plugins/MCTennis/arena/game1.yml and set forceField to false under ballOutOfBounds:

ballOutOfBounds:
  # If set to true, the ball simply bounces back when it goes out of bounds.
  # If set to false, a throw-in, corner kick or goal kick is triggered instead.
  forceField: false
  # Seconds until the selected player is teleported to the throw-in / corner kick / goal kick position.
  timeToTeleportSec: 3
  # Seconds the player has to prepare before they gain exclusive control of the ball.
  timeToStartSec: 5
  # Seconds of exclusive ball control before other players can interact.
  timeOutStartSec: 5

Save the file and reload the arena:

/mctennis reload game1

How It Works

Once all three steps are complete, the following rules apply automatically whenever the ball leaves the playing field:

Situation Result
Ball exits over a sideline Throw-in — nearest opponent of the last touching player performs it from the boundary
Ball exits over a goal line, last touched by the defending team Corner kick — nearest attacker is teleported to the nearest corner of the field
Ball exits over a goal line, last touched by the attacking team Goal kick — nearest defender is teleported to the keeper spawn point

A temporary force field is placed around the throw-in / corner kick / goal kick position to prevent other players from interfering until the designated player has taken their kick.

Time Periods & Overtime

Configure half-times, breaks, and overtime rules by editing your game1.yml file in /plugins/MCTennis/arena/. See the Customization Guide for details.

Referee Mode (Patreon Feature)

Set up real tennis games with full referee control. See our Referee Guide for complete setup instructions.

🆘 Troubleshooting

Problem Solution
Game won't enable Ensure all required areas are set (field, goals, ball spawn)
Players can't join Check that game is enabled and players have mctennis.command mctennis.join.* permission
Ball doesn't appear Verify ball spawn point is set within the playing field
Areas not visible Use /mctennis highlight game1 to see boundaries

✅ Next Steps