Common configuration options

Player order

The player order option determines in what order players are listed for their game. If you have multiple games per round, players will be listed in the same order for all games with the exception of the rotating option (see below).

Balanced (default)

Over the course of the tournament, the player will play each position roughly the same amount of times.

Random

Players will be listed in a random order.

Disabled

Players will be listed in a random order. For entirely silly reasons, random and disabled exist as separate options even though they do the same thing.

Original seed

Players will always be listed in the order of the original seeding for the tournament. This is useful if you need to be able to identify the top seed easily (for example, if you let the top seed have game choice). In head-to-head tournaments, the top seed will always receive play order choice.

Current tournament position

Players will be listed in the order of their current position in the overall tournament standings. Note that ties will not be broken, and this option is not a good choice if your tournament is likely to produce many ties (knockout tournaments being the prime example).

Rotating

The rotating option is only useful for tournaments with more than one game per round. In the first game, the player positions are random but for each subsequent game, the player positions shift by one. For example, on the second game, player #4 from the first game will shift to become player #3. Player #3 will become player #2 and so on. This is useful if you have four games per round and want each player to play each position exactly once.

Manage player order

This configuration option determines who can change the player order in matches.

Scorekeepers (default)

Only the tournament organizer or any scorekeepers can change the player order.

Players

In addition to the tournament organizer and scorekeepers being able to change the player order, players themselves can change the player order for their own matches. This is useful if you are organizing a tournament where the players pick their own player order.

First round pairing

The player pairings in the first round of your tournament are determined by your player seeding.

Random (default)

Players are paired with completely random opponents. The tournament setting for seeding has no impact.

Adjacent

Players are paired with their adjacent seed. Seed #1 will be playing Seed #2 and so on. This mimics Swiss pairing for the first round. This provides a disadvantage to the top seeds as they are sure to face other top seeds in the first round.

Cross

The field of players are divided into two equal halves. Then the top seed in each half plays the bottom seed in each half. This gives a some advantage to the top seed, while protecting the weaker seeds from facing very strong opponents in the first round.

Slaughter

The strongest seed plays the weakest seed, the second-strongest plays the second weakest and so on. This gives a big advantage to the top seed.

Player pairing

After the first round of your tournament, the initial seeding does not effect how players are paired, and players are paired together using the general pairing setting.

Balanced (default)

A thorough attempt will be made to pair players with random opponents they haven't faced before in the tournament. However, there are no guarantees, and a few players may end up with repeat opponents. This typically happens in small tournaments using four-player groups.

Random

Players are paired with completely random opponents. This will result in players playing the same opponents more than once. For most tournaments, balanced is a better choice.

Swiss

Players are paired with opponents who have roughly the same amount of points (in match play-style tournaments) or strikes (in knockout tournaments). For knockout tournaments in particular, Swiss pairings is an effective way to cut down the amount of rounds required.

In head-to-head tournaments, a simple attempt will be made to pick opponents that haven't been faced before in the tournament, but only among players who are tied. In group tournaments, no such attempt will be made. It is normal for a player to play against the same opponent multiple times when using Swiss pairings.

Strict Swiss

Players are paired with opponents who have roughly the same amount of points (in match play-style tournaments) or strikes (in knockout tournaments). With strict Swiss pairings, a much greater emphasis is placed on avoiding repeat opponents, and a smaller emphasis is placed on pairing people with the same amount of points or strikes. This more closely mimics classic Swiss pairings from, for example, chess tournaments. Strict Swiss is only available for head-to-head tournaments.

Tiered Swiss

Tiered Swiss is a specialized pairing method for Swiss tournaments with a large amount of players. Players are grouped into tiers that narrow as the tournament progresses.

Tiered Swiss pairings is only available for group match play and requires at least 16 players and no more than 128 players. In addition, this format requires running a predetermined number of rounds.

Because of these limitations, tiered Swiss pairings are generally not recommended. Regular Swiss pairings provide much more flexibility.

You can preview the tiers for a specified number of players and rounds in the swiss tiers visualizer.

Balanced across series

This is a special version of the balanced pairing. Instead of only looking at previous opponents in the current tournament, any opponents from previous tournaments in the current tournament series will be taken into account. This is useful to avoid repeat opponents when running a league.

Arena assignment

Balanced (default)

Match Play will make a thorough attempt to avoid assigning the same arena to the same player multiple times. Because arenas are assigned after players are paired with each other, the arena balancing will not be as effective as the player pairing balancing. This is especially true in smaller tournaments and those with fewer arenas available.

Disabled

When arena assignments are disabled, Match Play will not assign arenas automatically, and you will not be able to assign arenas yourself.

Manual

Manual arena assignments mean that Match Play will not assign arenas automatically when each round is started. The tournament organizer will have to manually assign arenas to each individual game. It will not be possible to save game results until an arena has been assigned.

Random

A random arena will be assigned to each game. This will result in players being assigned the same arena multiple times.

Arena banks (balanced)

Arena banks are predetermined collections of machines. Each group of players will be assigned a single bank of arenas to play. Arena banks only work when the tournament is configured to have more than one game per round. See more details below.

Arena banks (manual)

The tournament organizer configures banks of arenas, but Match Play will not automatically assign a bank to each group of players. The organizer or a scorekeeper must manually assign a bank to each group. This is useful for tournaments where a players have choice of banks.

Category banks

Each group of players will be assigned arenas from a new category for each game in the round. The first game each group plays will be assigned an arena from category A, the next one category B, then C, D, E. Each arena may be assigned to multiple groups. Categories without arenas will be skipped. For example, if each group is playing three games but only categories A and B have arenas then the group will be assigned an arena from Category A, than B and finally A again. Category banks only really make sense when the tournament is configured to have more than one game per round.

Balances across series

This is a special version of the balanced assignment. Instead of only looking at previous assignments in the current tournament, any assignments from previous tournaments in the current tournament series will be taken into account.

Seeding

Random (default)

Players will be randomly seeded. It is equivalent to having no seeding.

IFPA

Players will be seeded according to their IFPA ranking as it stands at the time they are added to the tournament. If you add players to your tournament well in advance of the tournament date, the player rankings may change before your tournament starts. To refresh the seeding, go the the Players tab and click the Update IFPA seeds button. Players without IFPA numbers attached or where a ranking cannot be determined will be given the lowest seed in the tournament.

Manual

Manual seeding means you must manually seed each player. This happens on the Players tab where you can click the Update seeds button to change the seeding. By default, players are seeded in the order they are added to the tournament, and you can save a lot of time by adding players in the order of seed from top to bottom.

Games per round

This number determines how many games each group of players plays in each round. One typical use is for creating PAPA- or Pinburgh-style finals in which a group of players play three or four games each round.

Number of rounds

Set a specific number of rounds if you want to be sure the tournament stops at that point. If you have any uncertainty at all around the number of rounds you wish to play, leave this to the default value of No specific duration since that provides you with maximum flexibility.

Tiebreaker

Disabled (no tiebreaker)

No ties will be broken, and players with the same amount of points will share the same position in the tournament standings.

Strength of opponents

Ties will be broken using a calculation that determines the strength of the opponents faced by each player. For head-to-head match play tournaments, the Median-Buchholz and Solkoff scores are calculated for each player. In group match play tournaments, the average points for opponents is used.

Most 1st and 2nd placements

Ties will be broken by number of first place finishes, then by number of second place finishes. If players are still tied at that point, they will remain tied.

Fewest 4th and 3rd placements

Ties will be broken by fewest number of fourth place finishes, then by fewest number of third place finishes. If players are still tied at that point, they will remain tied.

Original seed

Ties will be broken using the original seeding for the tournament. This is generally not a good way to break ties, but the option is included for specialized finals tournaments that break ties using a players result from the qualifying tournament.

Pingolf standard tiebreaker

Ties will be broken by comparing holes played, followed by holes-in-one, followed by holes-in-two. If players are still tied at that point, they will remain tied.

Most wins (Flip Frenzy)

Ties will be broken by comparing the number of won matches in the Flip Frenzy.

Fewest losses (Flip Frenzy)

Ties will be broken by comparing the number of lost matches in the Flip Frenzy.

Scoring

See Scoring systems for details.

Cutoff line

This will insert a "cut line" on the tournament standings so players can easily see who is above or below a certain point. Use this to indicate who will advance to playoffs, who will receive a payout or anything else. Set to "0" to remove the cut line again.