❓ Why do matches cancel when a player is in combat?

#Answer

You have CombatLogX installed, and one of the participants was still combat-tagged from fighting out in the world.

Phoenix Duels refuses to start a match while anyone taking part is tagged, and the cancellation message names the player responsible. Waiting for their combat tag to expire and starting again is all that is needed.

Fighting inside a duel never tags anyone, so this only ever comes from PvP that happened outside the arena.

If you do not want the behaviour at all, remove CombatLogX. There is no setting to keep the plugin and skip the check.