Guide for Players

Where Open the app link from your club

1. Open the club's Bench Boss link in Safari (iPhone) or Chrome (Android).
2. Add it to your Home Screen: Share → Add to Home Screen on iPhone, or the ⋮ menu → Install app on Android. It then opens like a normal app.
3. Pick your gamertag from the roster list. That's you from now on on this phone.
4. Leave the app open after the final horn. EA posts results after the game ends, which can take a few minutes and sometimes longer when EA's servers lag. New grades then land on their own, no reload needed. Pulling down to refresh still works any time.
5. Every time in the app shows in your phone's own time zone, wherever you play from.

Where Website → Claim

1. Players never pay to join. Your coach claims; you just open the link and pick your gamertag.
2. If you get a vote notice about a claim, vote within the window. Majority of the roster decides.

Where Bottom bar → Home

1. The top card is Club Rank: division, set points, record and how close the club is to promotion or staying up.
2. Under the last game score, Who Skated shows who played where. Tap a position to open that player's grades.
3. Who's skating best ranks everyone who dressed in the period you picked (Last game or Last night) by their Bench Boss grade, best first. Tap a name to open a short “why” right there: their numbers, what pushed the grade up and what held it back. Tap again, hit × or press Esc to close. Bench Boss grades are our own calculations, not EA ratings, and Bench Boss is not affiliated with EA.
4. Switch between Last game and Last night. Last night lists Forwards and Defense, since more than 5 can play in a night.
5. Your card (“Your last game” / “Your night”) shows your letters and the standards you met.
6. Tap a skater row for Offense, Defense and Team play tiles, then See coaching for what to fix.

Where Home, Coach, Stats → tap a player

1. Each game you get letters A to F for Offense, Defense and Team play, judged against standards for your position (Forward or Defense).
2. Grades are standards, not curves. You aren't ranked against teammates; you hit the bar or you don't.
3. Open the receipts to see each standard you met or missed and the stat behind it.
4. 6s and 3s are graded separately and never mixed.

Where Bottom bar → Coach

1. Your card opens first with three rows: Offense, Defense, Team play. Each has a letter, one line, and the stat behind it.
2. Read “Keep doing” and “Work on”. Use the Last game / Tonight / Season toggle to change the window; the letters follow it.
3. You need 3 games at a position before you get coached there.
4. Open Plays to see your route on the animated board, the controls to use, and how to practice it.

Where Bottom bar → Stats

1. Leaders is one table of every rostered skater: GP, G, A, shots, pass %, giveaways, takeaways, GV:TK, possession and more.
2. Tap a column header to sort; tap again to flip it. Swipe sideways for more columns.
3. Tap your name for your full card, game log and your history at Forward or Defense.
4. Use Compare to put two players side by side at the same position.

Where Who's playing?

1. Tap the check-in button (☑) in the top bar, or the Who's playing? card on Home. A badge on the button means a check-in is open and you haven't answered.
2. Tap every spot you'll play on the rink: LW, C, RW, LD, RD or G. Pick one or more (say C and LW) and you show up at each one. A spot can hold several players; the number on it says how many. Can't make it? Tap Out tonight.
3. Then tap When are you on?: Now, one of the next times, or Custom. If the coach set a puck time, the times start there; if not, they're the next few half-hours.
4. Under each name is a small line: the player's season grade letter for that spot (in its grade color), their EA player level (Lvl) from their latest game, and their time. Goalie spots skip the grade.
5. The rink shows everyone at every spot they picked, with their time. One line up top counts the players in, F, D and G coverage, and who's out. When forward and defense are covered you'll see “Lines set! Lace 'em up.”
6. Times are real moments, so everyone sees them in their own time zone: a 9:00 pm Central puck drop reads 10:00 pm for a teammate on Eastern.
7. Picked two or more spots? Bench Boss posts a friendly chirp in Team Chat, like “Weave Dogg thinks they can play 2 positions. In at C/LW for 8:00 pm.” One spot gets the plain line.
8. Your answer saves right away and the card confirms it: “You're in · C/LW — saved.” or “— boys got the buzz.” once the team's alert goes out. “Couldn't save — try again.” means it didn't stick, so tap again.
9. Changed your mind? Tap a spot again to drop it; drop them all to clear your check-in. The team buzz and the check-in post in Team Chat both wait about 10 seconds, so a quick change never sends the wrong call.

Where Home → “Data from EA · updated” line

1. Keep Bench Boss open after the final horn. Grades show up on their own once EA posts the game (a few minutes, sometimes longer when EA lags), with no reload.
2. When they land you'll see “New grades are in” and the screen redraws on its own.
3. In a hurry? Tap “↻ Check EA now” on the “Data from EA · updated” line. EA posts results after the game ends. It can take a few minutes, and sometimes longer when EA's servers lag, so it can only show what EA has posted so far.
4. The button works once every 20 seconds. “Up to date with EA” means EA hasn't posted anything new yet.
5. The “updated” time is the last good pull from EA, shown in your phone's own time zone.

Where Gear → Settings → Alerts

1. Open Settings and tap Turn on alerts, or tap the bell at the top of Team Chat. A plain bell means alerts are on (tap it for alert settings); a crossed-out bell with a red dot means they're off. On iPhone, alerts only work from the home-screen app (iOS 16.4 or newer), so add it to your Home Screen first.
2. Pick what buzzes you: Check-ins, Team chat, Game results and Scrimmages. Each one has its own switch.
3. Game results sends one “Grades are in” alert per game. Turn that switch off and you won't get it.
4. Quiet hours run from midnight to 9 AM in your own time zone. Chat, results and scrim alerts wait; check-ins always come through.
5. Alerts blocked? Turn them back on in your phone's Settings › Notifications › Bench Boss.

Where Chat button (top bar)

1. Tap the chat bubble to open Team Chat.
2. Chat is temporary: messages, photos and clips disappear [24 hours] after they're posted, and nothing from chat goes into notifications, logs or analytics. Save anything you need elsewhere.
3. On a computer, chat opens as a panel on the right beside the page you're on; on a phone it opens full screen. It's the same chat, and a message sent on one shows up on the other within a second or two.
4. Type a message, or add up to 4 photos or clips (MP4/MOV) from your camera roll. Text is optional with media.
5. Tap a clip to play it; close it with the X.
6. Press and hold a message to react: ❤️ 👍 👎 😂 ‼️ ❓. One reaction per person per message; pick another to swap it, or tap yours again to remove it.
7. The same press-and-hold menu has Reply (quotes the message in your answer) and Copy.
8. When someone checks in, a post shows up in chat about 10 seconds later, so a quick change of mind never posts the wrong answer.

Where Bottom bar → Film

1. Film has goal clips, highlights and full games, newest first.
2. Open your player section: your goals first, then your other clips.
3. Watch your clips before the next session.

Where Bottom bar → Scout

1. Type tonight's opponent to see their division, RP, record and last 10.
2. Read “Key on” and “Your job” for what to watch for against them.
3. Tap a gamertag to open it on xbox.com, or use Copy gamertag to paste it into the Xbox app.
4. “Shut him down” names their Key Player: a current member who dressed in at least 2 of their last 5 games and stands out. If nobody does, Scout shows nobody.
5. Got the ★ Key player badge? Rivals' Scout features you. Tap it to see how they scout us.

Where Scout → Schedule

1. See every opponent's division and RP and your record against them.
2. Window tabs: Season 1, All on file, Last 10 and 3 nights. French: Saison 1, Tout au dossier, 10 derniers and 3 soirées.

Where Scout → Farm / Prospects

1. Farm players are graded on the main club's standards. Their letters are provisional.
2. A call-up meter fills as a prospect plays; 5 games are needed before it reads.
3. Two-way players (on both rosters) show a “Two-way” badge and get no call-up meter. Main-club stats only count main-club games.

Where Gear → Settings → Grading → Edit grading (PIN)

1. Only the coach edits grading. Every change is a saved version the club can see, so the rules are the same for everyone.

Where Profile · gear · Club

1. Profile: save your Twitch channel so your streams show up in Film.
2. Switch changes the gamertag on this phone if you picked the wrong one.
3. Builds shows EA's pre-builds; Texan Times is the club paper after big nights.

Where Website → Sign up / Log in

1. Sign up free on the website with your email, then link your gamertag.
2. Your Career page follows you from club to club. Grades stay with the club that earned them.
3. Forgot your password? Use “Forgot password” on the Log in page.