How to Create a League
Creating a league on Nerd Leagues takes three fields and one click. Here's what each field does, what happens when you submit, and what you can change later.
Creating a league takes three fields and one click. There's nothing to set up first — no ELO configuration, no seasons, no member list. Everything below can be changed afterward.
Before You Start
You'll need:
- An account. Sign in with Google from the home page.
- A league name. That's it — you don't need invite codes, member lists, or a season planned. You can add all of that later.
The only game currently selectable is Magic: The Gathering.
Step 1 — Open the Create League Panel
From the top navigation, click My Stats. There are two ways to open the create panel from there:
- + New menu. In the top-right of the page header, click the + New button and choose Create League.
- Leagues grid. Scroll to your leagues and click the Join or Create a League tile, then hit Create a League at the bottom of the panel that opens.
Both routes open the same slide-in form.
Step 2 — Fill Out the Form
The form has three fields:
- Game — Magic: The Gathering (the only option for now).
- League Name — Required. This is what members will see on their leagues list.
- Description — Optional. A sentence or two about the league's vibe, format, or playgroup.
Click Create League when you're done.
Step 3 — What Happens Next
When you submit, Nerd Leagues:
- Creates the league with you as the commissioner.
- Adds you as the first member automatically.
- Generates an invite code — an iconic Magic card name plus four digits, like lightning-bolt-4729. It's drawn from a curated card list, so it reads out loud cleanly over voice chat without being guessable.
- Redirects you to the Leagues tab of My Stats, where your new league appears in the list.
That's the whole creation flow.
Settings You Can Change Later
Once the league exists, the commissioner can open the league page and click Manage League to adjust:
- League Name
- Description
- Invite Code — you can replace the auto-generated code with anything URL-safe, like friday-night-edh.
- Member Invites — a checkbox controlling whether any member can invite players, or only the commissioner. It's enabled by default.
- Discord Webhook URL — optional. Paste a Discord webhook (must be a https://discord.com/api/webhooks/... URL) to receive a Discord message in your league's channel whenever a game in the league is flagged.
None of these are set at creation time. All of them can be changed later.
What's Next
You have a league with one member: you. The natural next steps are:
- Invite your playgroup — see Inviting Players: Invite Codes and Joining a League.
- Register decks so each one tracks its own per-league ELO — see Adding Decks to a League.
- Set up a season — a time-bounded scoreboard inside the league. See MTG League Seasons.