# Welcome

Match Play Events is a tournament app that makes it easy to organize tournaments on any device. Your players can follow standings and results live on their own mobile devices.

The Match Play Handbook aims to document all aspects of using Match Play Events for organizing tournaments. Use the menu to navigate to the different sections.


# Creating a tournament

The life of a tournament goes through a handful of stages from planning to playoffs.

When you create a new tournament, you will fill in general information about the tournament. You'll decide a name, a date and a location. You will also decide the tournament format and configure the tournament the way you want. You can read more about each tournament format on the respective handbook pages for your specific format.

After you have created your tournament, you can still go back and edit it. As long as you have not started the tournament, you can change any of the configuration options.

## Starting a tournament

Once you are happy with how your tournament is configured, you'll need to add some [players](/configuring-a-tournament/managing-players) to the tournament. In many cases, you will also need to add one or more [arenas](/configuring-a-tournament/managing-arenas). When all of that is set up, you'll be ready to play.

Start your tournament by clicking the large **Start tournament** button. Once you start your tournament, you will not be able to change any of the tournament configuration options. You can still change some settings like the tournament name, date and location.

## Running a tournament

Once your tournament has started, you will be entering results into Match Play. Each tournament format is different, but you'll typically be starting new rounds of play for direct play tournaments or recording individual scores for single player tournaments.

## Concluding a tournament

When the tournament is over, you must close it out by clicking the large **Close tournament** button. This locks in all results.

## Creating playoffs

If you want, you may create playoffs or finals for your tournament. Click the **More...** button and then the **Manage playoffs** menu option to get started. You can read more about playoffs on the [Managing playoffs page](/configuring-a-tournament/managing-playoffs).


# Managing players

After creating a tournament, you can add players from the **Players** tab. Various tournament formats require a different minimum amount of players, but typically you need at least four players.

## Adding players

After switching to the **Players** tab, click the **Add players** button to add one or more arenas. There are four possible ways to add a player to your tournament.

**Existing players**

This is simply a list of players from all your previous tournaments.

**New player**

Use this to search for a player by name. The IFPA database will be searched for matching players. If you want to add a player who is not in the IFPA database yet (for example, if it's their first tournament), you will be able to do so after searching.

**IFPA number**

Enter the IFPA number for a player to add them to the tournament.

**Batch**

Use this to add many players in one go. You can copy and paste in as many IFPA numbers and player names as you want and Match Play will add them all. It is **highly recommended you use IFPA numbers** rather than names when adding players this way to avoid creating duplicate players.

## Players page

The Players page lists all players you have ever had participate in a tournament. You can access it by opening the main menu and clicking on the **Players** menu item. On this page, you can **retire** players so they will not show up under **Existing players** when you add players to future tournaments.

You can also **edit** each player, changing their name or updating their IFPA number.

{% hint style="info" %}
When editing a player, you're changing the name and IFPA number for past and present tournaments involving that player. **This is rarely needed**, as this action will modify all previous tournaments, not just the current one. Instead, you likely want to access **View details**, followed by **Change players**. There you can [add, remove, or modify tournament players](/running-a-tournament/troubleshooting#adding-removing-player-from-existing-match) without altering their IFPA data.
{% endhint %}

## Merge players

On the Players page, it's possible to merge two players into one. This is useful if you have mistakenly added the same player under two different names in different tournaments. To get started, go to the **Players** page and switch to the **Merge Players** tab. One thing to note: you will not be able to merge two players if they have at any point been added to the same tournament.


# Player registration

Match Play offers a flexible player registration feature that allows players to register themselves for an event, allows players to check themselves in to an event when they have arrived, and much more.

## How to configure player registration

Registrations can be configured for both tournaments and series. To set up registration for a tournament, open the tournament, click on the **More...** button and select the **Configure RSVP settings** option.

To set up registrations for a series, open the series, switch to the **Configuration** tab and click the **Configure RSVP settings** button.

## Configuration options

**Registration type**

Match Play offers four different configuration types:

1. **No registration:** The registration feature is disabled.
2. **Public registration:** Players can register themselves for your tournament or series.
3. **Closed registration:** The tournament organizer can create registrations.
4. **Direct registration:** Player can register themselves *and* they're immediately added to the tournament. Use this for selfie league or other tournaments in which players should be able to start playing immediately without involving the tournament organizer.

**Open / close registration on**

Set dates for when registration should open and close. Both of these are **optional**. Leave them blank if you don't want to open/close registration at a specific time. The tournament organizer can **always** create registration, even outside the open/close dates.

**Player capacity**

Use this to set a maximum number of registrations for your tournament/series. Players will not be able to register once this capacity is met unless you also enable the wait list (see below).

**Request player phone/email**

When checked, the player can provide a phone number or email when registering for the tournament/series so that the tournament organizer can get in touch.

**Show tournament description**

When checked, the tournament description will be displayed on the registration page to give players more information about the event.

**Public registration list**

When checked, the tournament/series will have a list of registered players publicly available. 

**Use wait list**

When checked, a wait list will be created if there are more registered players than the **player capacity** allows. If you also have **public registration list** enabled, the wait list is also displayed publicly. The tournament organizer can move registrations in and out of the wait list at will.

**Use virtual check-in**

When checked, players will be allowed to check in on their own. Players must have a free Match Play user account, and their registration must be connected to their user account in order to check in. 

**Custom fields**

If you want to collect additional information from players when they register, use the custom fields. This type of custom information could include dietary restrictions or a t-shirt size.

## Managing registrations

When registrations are enabled for a tournament/series, you'll see a new **Registrations** tab. Head there to manage all registrations for your event.

You can see a table of all the registrations along with some checkboxes to mark a registration as checked in or paid (both optional to use).

To **add a registration,** click either the **Add existing** or **Create registration** button. The former will let you add one of your existing players as a registration to the event. (This saves time as you don't have to type in the name or IFPA number.) The latter lets you create a new registration from scratch. (For this, you have to do all the typing.)

If you need to change anything about a registration, click the **name**. This will open the info panel where you can see all details for a registration and take the following actions:

* Add a player to tournament. (See below for a more efficient way to do this.)
* Force into event, if you're using the wait list and want to force a registration into the tournament.
* Move to wait list, if you're using the wait list and want to force a registration onto the wait list.
* Edit registration, to change the details of the registration.
* Delete registration, if you want to get rid of the registration altogether.

## Turning registrations into players

The final step before starting your tournament is to turn registrations into actual players in the tournament. To do this in one action, click the **Convert to players** button. This will give you a few options on which registrations to convert. For example, you can choose to only convert registrations for players who have checked in to the tournament. Once you've confirmed all the relevant registrations are turned into players, you can start the tournament.

For series, there are two options. You can choose the **Convert to players,** which works the same as above. Registrations for the series are turned into players in a tournament in the series.

Or you can **Copy to tournament,** which will copy the *registrations* to a tournament. This is useful if you use the series registration as a league roster but want players to use the virtual check-in feature for each tournament in the series.


# Managing arenas

Arenas are places players are assigned to play. In the case of pinball tournaments, an arena typically represents a pinball machine. After creating a tournament, you can add arenas to the tournament from the **Arenas** tab. If you do not see an **Arenas** tab, your tournament does not need arenas.

## Adding arenas

After switching to the **Arenas** tab, click the **Add arena** button to add one or more arenas. There are four possible ways to add an arena to your tournament.

**Existing arenas**

This is simply a list of all arenas you have used in previous tournaments.

**Scorbit**

Use Scorbit to add arenas to your tournament. Your tournament location must be linked to Scorbit to use this feature. If your location is not linked to Scorbit, edit the tournament details to add a new location using the **Search** tab instead of typing in a location name manually.

**Pinball Map**

Use Pinball Map to add arenas to your tournament. Your tournament location must be linked to Pinball Map to use this feature. If it's not, go to your locations page and click the **Edit** or **Update** button to link it to Pinball Map.

**Enter name**

Use this to search for an arena by name. Start typing part of the name of a pinball machine and the [Open Pinball Database](https://opdb.org/) will be searched for any matching machines. If you want to add an arena that's not a pinball machine, you can enter the full name and create a new arena.

## Adding arena banks

An arena bank is a collection of arenas that are assigned as a single unit. Before the tournament starts, the organizer must configure each bank of arenas they want to use. Organizers create and edit arena banks from the **Banks** tab.

The main advantage of using arena banks is that each bank can be assigned more than once. This ensures all player groups are provided a full set of arena assignments if the tournament uses multiple games per round, even there are not enough arenas available to cover every game.

Each arena in a bank is always assigned in the order it appears in the bank. A thorough attempt is made to assign players to a random bank that they have not played before.

You can modify arena banks even after your tournament has started, either by deactivating a bank you no longer want to use or by replacing one or more arenas in the bank in case of malfunctions. You can even create brand new arena banks after the tournament has started.

## Arenas page

The Arenas page lists all arenas you have ever used in a tournament. On that page, you can **retire** arenas so they will not show up on the **Existing arenas** list when you add arenas to tournaments.

You can also edit your arenas. You can fix spelling mistakes in the arena name, change their category or attach [OPDB IDs](https://opdb.org/about) to arenas that do not have them.


# Managing playoffs

In cases where one tournament is not enough to determine the winner, you can configure one or more playoffs tournaments. Match Play will create links between your qualifying and playoffs tournaments so players can easily jump between them.

## Creating playoffs

Click the **More...** button and then the **Manage playoffs** menu option. From that page, you can create playoffs in two ways. You can create a new tournament from scratch, or you can link an existing tournament as the playoffs.

You may create up to nine separate playoff tournaments. Typically, a playoff tournament would represent the A division finals, B division finals and so on.

### Editing playoffs

When you create playoffs, you won't see all the usual options when creating a tournament. This is just to speed things up since most playoffs follow set formulas. But after the playoffs have been created, they are normal tournaments and you can edit the tournament details just like any other tournament. You can change the tournament format or any of the other details.

### Adding players and arenas

Once you've created the playoffs, you can add players and arenas. You can do this in two ways:

1. From the **Manage playoffs** page, click **Actions...**
2. From the playoffs tournament, go to the **Players** and **Arenas** tabs and click the **Add from qualifying…** button.

Both options function the same way. Choose the one you find most convenient.

## Series playoffs

You may also create up to nine playoff tournaments for a tournament series. From your series, open the **Playoffs** tab where you can manage playoffs the same way as you manage them for tournaments.


# Common configuration options

<details>

<summary>Player order</summary>

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.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Manage player order</summary>

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.

</details>

<details>

<summary>First round pairing</summary>

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.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Player pairing</summary>

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 160 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**](https://app.matchplay.events/tools/swiss-tiers).

#### 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](/additional-features/tournament-series) will be taken into account. This is useful to avoid repeat opponents when running a league.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Arena assignment</summary>

**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](/additional-features/tournament-series) will be taken into account.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Seeding</summary>

**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.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Games per round</summary>

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.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Number of rounds</summary>

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.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Tiebreaker</summary>

**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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tie-breaking_in_Swiss-system_tournaments) 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.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Scoring</summary>

[See Scoring systems for details](/configuring-a-tournament/scoring-systems).

</details>

<details>

<summary>Cutoff line</summary>

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.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Suggested results</summary>

**No suggested results**

The suggested results feature is disabled, and players can't submit any results.

**Suggest with approval**

Players can submit suggested results for their own matches, but the tournament organizer or a scorekeeper must approve those suggestions. This setting can significantly speed up scorekeeping for a tournament. See the [Scorekeeping](/running-a-tournament/scorekeeping) page for more details.

**Automatic approval**

Players can submit results for their own matches, and the first result submitted for a match is accepted and automatically stored. The tournament organizer can delete and resubmit results if a mistake was made. This can be a useful option in settings where players can be trusted to submit results without making mistakes. See the [Scorekeeping](/running-a-tournament/scorekeeping) page for more details.

</details>


# Scoring systems

How a tournament is scored (and ultimately how tournament standings are determined) depends on the specific tournament format.

## Scoring in group match-play tournaments

Group match play and group elimination bracket tournaments have several scoring options. They are summarized below.

| Type             | Four-player groups | Three-player groups |
| ---------------- | ------------------ | ------------------- |
| IFPA             | 7/5/3/1            | 7/4/1               |
| PAPA             | 4/2/1/0            | 4/2/1               |
| Pinburgh         | 3/2/1/0            | 3/1.5/0             |
| Bonus point      | 5/3/2/1            | 5/3/1               |
| Only winner      | 1/0/0/0            | 1/0/0               |
| Only 1st and 2nd | 1/1/0/0            | 1/0/0               |
| Marburg points   | 7/4/2/0            | 7/3/0               |
| BAPA             | 8/6/4/2            | 8/5/2               |
| NEPL             | 10/6/4/2           | 10/5/2              |
| DC League        | 4/3/2/1            | 4/2.5/1             |

## Scoring in best game tournaments

| Type                | Samples                        |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------ |
| Linear              | 100/99/98...                   |
| Linear 150          | 150/149/148...                 |
| Linear 200          | 200/199/198...                 |
| PAPA                | 100/90/85/84...                |
| PAPA Circuit        | 100/75/60/50...                |
| INDISC              | 100/97/95...                   |
| INDISC 200          | 200/195/190...                 |
| CAX                 | 100/94/91...                   |
| Hella Heart         | 105/90/80/70/65/60/55/50/45... |
| Top 30              | 30/29/28...                    |
| Top 25              | 25/24/23...                    |
| 90% decay           | 100/90/81/73...                |
| 95% modified decay  | 100/95/90/85/81...             |
| PAPA w/ Quick Decay | 100/90/85/83/81/79...          |


# Scorekeeping

Match Play provides several different ways of recording match results and game scores. You can choose the solution most comfortable for you and your players.

### Organizer records results <a href="#organizer" id="organizer"></a>

The tournament organizer can always record results and scores. In match play-style tournaments, this happens on the **Matches** tab. For best game-style tournaments, it happens on the **Arenas** tab by clicking on one of the arenas to go to the details page for that arena.

The tournament organizer is the only person who can change or delete results once they have been saved.

### Players suggest results <a href="#suggested-results" id="suggested-results"></a>

Letting players suggest results is an easy way to reduce the work needed to run a tournament. The tournament organizer can enable this feature after they have created a tournament. Once enabled, players can submit suggested results for their own matches. In order to submit a suggested result, the player must be logged in to their own free Match Play user account.

In Best Game tournaments, this feature lets players submit scores for each arena in the tournament. Players can also upload a photo with their submission. This feature and the photo submission is what enables tournament organizers to run selfie leagues using Match Play.

{% hint style="info" %}
In Best Game tournaments, you have to choose between virtual queues and suggested results. A tournament can't have both.
{% endhint %}

Results are now saved immediately. The tournament organizer must approve each suggested result (or enter their own result instead). This provides a balance between speed (players can submit their own scores) and safety (the organizer must approve each result).

If the tournament organizer has a lot of trust in their players, they can enable **Automatically approve first suggested result**. With the option enabled, the first suggestion will be automatically approved. The tournament organizer can still modify the results after the automatic approval.

### Using dedicated scorekeepers <a href="#scorekeepers" id="scorekeepers"></a>

Working with scorekeepers allows the tournament organizer to share the responsibility of recording results. The tournament organizer can add scorekeepers from the **Info** tab of the tournament. Scorekeepers must have their own (free) Match Play user account.

Scorekeepers can record results directly, and the tournament organizer does not need to approve the results. Scorekeepers can also manage the queues in a best game tournament. However, scorekeepers cannot change results once they have been saved. Only the tournament organizer can change results.

### Printing scoresheets <a href="#sheets" id="sheets"></a>

Match Play offers printed scoresheets for match play-style tournaments. After starting a new round of the tournament, open the **Actions** dropdown for the round and select the **Print scoresheets** menu option. After opening the printable scoresheets, you can customize the scoresheets by clicking the **Settings** button at the top.


# Tournament managers

Tournament managers are people who have the same power as the tournament organizer. Unlike scorekeepers who can only perform a limited set of actions like recording results, a tournament manager can take **any** action the tournament organizer can take.

This is helpful if the tournament organizer has a conflict and can't attend their own tournament. Or in case of a larger tournament where it's might be useful to have multiple people who can perform administrative tasks.

You can designate one or more tournament managers for your tournament by going to the **Scorekeepers** tab. From there click the **Add scorekeeper** button. You're then able to select whether the person should be a regular scorekeeper or a tournament manager.

Both the tournament organizer and the tournament manager must have an a paid subscription to Match Play at the **premium** level.


# Announcement banner

Announcement banners are short messages from the tournament organizer to the players. You can use the banner to tell players when to return from a lunch break, inform them that a particular machine has broken down or anything else that strikes your fancy.

### Adding an announcement banner

* Go to the tournament **Overview** page
* Click to open the **More…** menu
* Click the **Announcement banner** menu item

You can enter a short announcement, pick a color and optionally an expiration time. For technical reasons it may take up to five minutes before all players see the announcement banner so keep that in mind.

You can remove the banner again by clicking on **Announcement banner** again and then clicking the **Clear banner** button. It may also take up to five minutes before the banner disappears for all players.


# Troubleshooting

## A player arrived late

In most tournaments, you can simply switch to the **Players** tab and add the player. For match play-style tournaments, the player will be included in the next round of play. If your tournament is using four-player groups and you have a three-player group available, you can click **View details** for that group, then **Change players**. There you can add the new player to an existing group. You may also create a new group from scratch by opening the **Actions** menu for that round and choosing the **Add group** option.

{% hint style="info" %}
In knockout tournaments, you also want to assign a number of strikes to the late arriving player to avoid the player gaining an advantage from showing up late. Click the player's name to open the player info panel, then select the **Adjust strikes** option to add strikes.
{% endhint %}

## A player left early

When a player leaves early, go to the **Players** tab and deactivate the player. The player will not be included in the next round in a match play-style tournament. If the player was part of an active match, you can **View details** for that group, then **Change players,** and there you can remove the player from an existing match.

## Wrong results entered

If the current round has not ended, click **View details** for the group and then the **Delete results** option. After the existing results have been deleted, you can enter a new set of results.

If the round has already been closed, you can adjust the points or strikes for the impacted players. Click the player's name to open the player info panel, then select the **Adjust points** or **Adjust strikes** option.

## Handling arena malfunctions

At any point, you can pick a new arena for a match by clicking **View details** for the match and then choosing the **Change arena** option.

## Adding/removing player from existing match

If you need to manually move players between matches, click **View details** for the match followed by **Change players**. That will open up a dialog where you can add, remove or replace players from the match. If you need to switch two players, that requires a two-step process in which you have to **Change players** for each of the two effected matches in turn.

## Too few arenas

If a tournament doesn't have enough arenas to cover all games in a round, Match Play will assign as many arenas as possible. The tournament organizer will be unable to assign arenas to the remaining games until one or more of the games have finished, freeing up their arenas. The tournament organizer assigns arenas by clicking **View details** for a match and then picking the **Select arena** option.


# Direct play tournaments

Direct play tournaments—or match play-style tournaments—has players play against other players directly, either in two-player matches (head-to-head formats) or in four-player matches (group formats).


# Head-to-head match play

Head-to-head match play tournaments are simple but versatile. Over a number of rounds, players are paired against each other in two-player games. Each game win results in a point earned. At the end of the tournament, the player with the most points is the winner.

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).

**Value of byes**

By default, any player who receives a bye will receive one point for that round. This setting can be changed to award either half a point or no points at all.


# Group match play

Group match play tournaments are simple but versatile. Over a number of rounds, players are paired against each other in four-player games. If the number of players is not divisible by four, a number of three-player games will be created. Players earn points based on their finishing position. At the end of the tournament, the player with the most points is the winner.

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).


# Target match play

Target match play is a variant of [Group match play](/tournament-formats/direct-play-tournaments/group-match-play). Instead of play happening over a set number of rounds, the tournament organizer defines a target number of points. When a player accumulates enough points to reach the target, they are no longer included in future rounds. The winner of the tournament is the player who first reaches the target.

Target match play is especially suited as a qualifying tournament where the tournament organizer defines both a target number of points and a number of players to advance from the target match play tournament to a playoffs tournament. The tournament will conclude when the chosen number of players have reached the target number of points. Then the players are moved to a playoffs tournament.

### Tiered swiss pairings

Tiered swiss pairings can be used in a Target match play tournament, but it requires the tournament organizer to plan ahead and modify some tournament settings during the tournament.

Choose how many rounds of tiered swiss to play. The [swiss tiers visualizer](https://app.matchplay.events/tools/swiss-tiers) may help you decide. Configure your tournament and set **Player pairings** to **Tiered swiss**. Set the **Duration** to the number of tiered swiss rounds you want.

*During* the tournament you must edit the tournament configuration once the players have played all the tiered swiss rounds. Set **Player pairings** to **Balanced** and **Duration** to **No set duration**. The remainder of the tournament will be played using balanced pairings.

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).

**Target points**

The number of points a player must reach.


# Basic & group knockouts

## Basic knockout tournaments

Knockout tournaments are the simplest elimination tournament format. Over a number of rounds, players are paired against each other in two-player games. Each time a player loses a match, they receive a *strike*. When a player reaches a predetermined amount of strikes, they are eliminated from the tournament and will not be included in the next round of matches. At the end of the tournament, the last player standing is the winner.

## Group knockout tournaments

Group knockout tournaments are another popular elimination tournament format. Over a number of rounds, players are paired against each other in four-player games. Depending on how the player finishes in their match, they will receive one or more *strikes*. When a player reaches a predetermined amount of strikes, they are eliminated from the tournament and will not be included in the next round of matches. At the end of the tournament, the last player standing is the winner.

### Strikes options

There are different options available for how many strikes to award in each group.

| No. of strikes      | Notes                                                                                                                                             |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Fair strikes        | <p>0/1/1/2 strikes are given to 1st/2nd/3rd/4th place finishers<br>Three-player groups get 0/1/2 strikes<br>Two-player groups get 0/2 strikes</p> |
| One strike          | Only fourth place finisher receives a strike                                                                                                      |
| Two strikes         | Third and fourth place finishers receive a strike                                                                                                 |
| Three strikes       | Second, third and fourth place finishers receive a strike                                                                                         |
| Progressive strikes | <p>0/1/2/3 strikes are given to 1st/2nd/3rd/4th place finishers<br>Three-player groups get 0/1/2 strikes</p>                                      |

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).

**Number of strikes**

Determines the number of losses (strikes) a player can receive before being knocked out of the tournament.

**Strikes in four-player groups**

Determines the number of strikes awarded to players in four-player groups. See table above.

**Strikes in three-player groups**

Determines the number of strikes awarded to players in three-player groups. It's possible to award two strikes (strikes to 2nd and 3rd place finishers) or just a single strike to the third place finisher.


# Max match play

Max match play is a type of head-to-head match play tournament. Instead of playing a predefined number of rounds, a Max match play tournament creates new matches as soon as possible. This means a Max match play tournament can fit in more matches than a head-to-head match play tournament based on rounds.

The two core concepts in Max match play tournaments are:

* Every player will play the same number of matches.
* Players will not face the same opponent repeatedly.

Because of those two ideals, Max match play can be used as a replacement for a Flip Frenzy in cases where the tournament organizer wants to avoid the IFPA penalty for [Flip Frenzy](/tournament-formats/direct-play-tournaments/flip-frenzy) tournaments. Max match play can also be used to execute [round robin](/tournament-formats/direct-play-tournaments/round-robin) tournaments more efficiently.

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).

**Duration**

This setting determines the length of the tournament. Set this number to the amount of matches you want each player to play.

{% hint style="info" %}
A Max match play tournament will not be able to conclude if you have an odd number of players and an odd duration. To avoid this situation, make sure to pick an even duration.
{% endhint %}

**Max active games**

If you wish to limit the number of active games, you can set a limit here. This is useful if you want to make sure you always have a set number of players waiting.

**Scorekeepers create matches**

If you wish for scorekeepers to be able to create new matches, set this to "yes."

## Configuring a round robin

To play a round robin, set the **Duration** to one less than the number of players. Set it to two less for a double round robin. For example, if you have 10 players, set the tournament to 9 matches for a round robin, or to 18 matches for a double round robin. Match Play will make sure players only play each other exactly once (or exactly twice).\
\
The main advantages over the [robin tournament format](/tournament-formats/direct-play-tournaments/round-robin) are:

* Easier to navigate matches because only active matches are being displayed
* Player starting positions are much better balanced
* Machine selections are handled better because only the active matches are assigned a machine

## When should I create new matches?

If the tournament's **Duration** is not set up to create a true round robin (see above), then the tournament organizer should be mindful of when they create new matches to avoid a situation at the end of the tournament in which the same two players may be forced to play each other multiple times in a row.

As the tournament progresses, use the **Matches** tab to keep an eye on how many matches each player has played. **You do not want a player to fall behind** due to the playing longer games.

If one or more players are falling behind by two or more matches, wait to create new matches until those players are waiting (i.e. they are ready to get on a new game). When creating matches, you can even limit the number of matches created so you only create matches for the players who have fallen behind while keeping players who are ahead waiting.

## What if a player arrives late / leaves early?

If a player arrives late, the tournament organizer can add them to the tournament at any point. However! Keep in mind that this will increase the time needed for the tournament since more games need to be played. It's also important to make sure the new player can "catch up" to the other players in the tournament (see section above).

Removing a player from a Max match play tournament is quite destructive and should be avoided if possible. If you often find yourself with players having to leave tournaments early, then Max match play may not be the right choice for you.

When the tournament organizer deactivates the player they have a choice between **deleting all matches** involving that player or **letting those matches stand**.

The default choice is to **delete all matches**. This ensures all players play the same amount of matches (one of the core concepts in this tournament format). Match Play will not include that player in the tournament standings—it's like the player never participated in the tournament—though for IFPA submission purposes, the tournament organizer should include the player in last place.

Deleting matches is the most fair way to handle a difficult situation. Even if it was possible to conclude the tournament, letting those results stand is unfair to the remaining players. If the player who left had a habit of losing, it's unfair to the players who did not yet get a chance to beat the player who is leaving. And if the player had a habit of winning, it's unfair to the players who did play them since the rest of the field won't have to face a difficult opponent.

If the tournament organizer does not want to delete those matches they can **let them stand**. The player who left will continue to be listed in the tournament standings. The downside is that there is no longer a guarantee that all players will play the same about of matches in the tournament and you may end up with a player left over at the end up the tournament who still needs to play a game but won't have an opponent available.


# Pace match play

Pace match play is a bit like running a race. You’re playing your matches, accumulating points along the way, but there’s a minimum amount of progress you need to make to stay in the race. Players who fail to make the required progress are eliminated.

This tournament format plays a bit like a [knockout tournament](/tournament-formats/direct-play-tournaments/basic-and-group-knockouts) but with more flexibility around when the first elimination happens and the total runtime. It also has a more positive psychological spin as players are accumulating positive points vs. getting unwanted strikes. When compared to knockout tournaments, Pace match play will give all players more minimum guaranteed rounds while still ensuring the tournament ends in a reasonable maximum number of rounds.

Pace match play was invented by [Tommy Vernieri](https://app.matchplay.events/users/11142).

## Setting up your tournament

{% hint style="info" %}
To estimate the number of rounds for your tournament, use the [pace match play calculator](https://gameboy9.github.io/pacematch.html).
{% endhint %}

To start, decide how many **initial rounds** you want players to play before anyone is eliminated (e.g. seven rounds). Multiply that by four (the average number of points per player per round) to come up with the **initial target** (in this example 7x4=28).

Next, choose the **pace**. A normal pace is seven points (equal to getting first place in a match) but you may increase or decrease the pace to make your tournament go shorter or longer.

In your IFPA calendar submission, explain that:

> Everyone will play at least 7 rounds. The **initial target** is 28; anyone who has less than 28 match points after round 7 will be eliminated. The pace increases by 7 points for every round after that. E.g. players who have fewer than 35 points after round 8 will be eliminated; less than 42 after round 9; etc.

Balanced player pairing is recommended since this is an elimination format. As players are eliminated, the best players will naturally play against other players closer to their skill level.

## Managing playoffs

There are no tiebreakers in a Pace match play tournament. Since each round is defined by a point threshold rather than a player count, no eliminations will ever occur between tied players.

A Pace match play tournament can be run as a standalone tournament without playoffs. Simply keep playing until only one player is left. You may have to play a final tiebreaker match in case two or more players are tied at the end.

If you'd like to run a [playoff tournament](/configuring-a-tournament/managing-playoffs), set the **eliminate until** setting to the max number of players to take to playoffs. Match Play will stop you from creating new rounds once the field of players has been reduced to that number or fewer.

It's important to note that you will end up with a variable number of players for playoffs. A format like [Group elimination brackets](/tournament-formats/elimination-brackets/group-elimination) does not handle a variable number of players very well.

Recommended playoffs formats for Pace match play tournaments are:&#x20;

* [Single elimination](/tournament-formats/elimination-brackets/single-elimination) or [double elimination](/tournament-formats/elimination-brackets/double-elimination) brackets (with byes)
* [Amazing race](/tournament-formats/elimination-brackets/amazing-race)
* [Ladder elimination bracket](/tournament-formats/elimination-brackets/ladder-elimination)
* [Group match play](/tournament-formats/direct-play-tournaments/group-match-play) (if the player count is four or fewer)
* [Knockout](/tournament-formats/direct-play-tournaments/basic-and-group-knockouts)

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).

**Initial rounds**

The number of rounds to play before any player is eliminated.

**Initial target**

The number of points a player must have by the end of the initial rounds to avoid being eliminated.

**Pace**

The number of points the target increases by each round after the initial rounds.

**Eliminate until**

The minimum number of players each round must have.


# Flip Frenzy

Flip Frenzy tournaments are, as the name implies, very hectic tournaments. The tournament organizer decides on a duration for the tournament (for example, three hours) and a number of machines to be used for the tournament. When the tournament starts, head-to-head matches are created on those machines, and any players not assigned to a match are placed in a queue.

When a match ends, a new game will be created using the following approach:

* Player 1 will become Player 2 on the new game.
* Player 2 will go to the bottom of the queue.
* The player at the top of the queue will become Player 1 on the new game.

The tournament will progress in this manner until the timer runs out. The winner is the player with the most net wins (or total number of wins minus total number of losses).

## Using the Frenzy tab

After starting a Flip Frenzy, the **Frenzy** tab is where the tournament organizer runs the tournament. It is split in two columns. The left column displays the player queue and any unused arenas. The right column shows the list of active matches.

The timer in the top left shows how much is left in the tournament. There is a button to temporarily pause the timer if something unexpected happens that causes the tournament to stop completely for a period of time. There is also an **Adjust time** button you can use to add or subtract time from the timer.

The list of unused arenas will only be displayed if you have more arenas than strictly needed. If you have more arenas available than needed, it's a good idea to keep them active in the tournament. When creating a new match, Match Play will pick an arena from the pool of unused arenas using a balanced approach to minimize repeats. This will prevent players from playing the same arena multiple times in a row.

## Managing the queue size

When setting up a Flip Frenzy tournament, you can tell Match Play how big you want the queue size to be. A good rule of thumb is 20% of the number of players (with 20 players, the queue would be four players). Of course, you will need enough arenas to cover all the matches. If you have 20 players total and four players in the queue, you'll need eight arenas for the 16 players playing.

After the tournament begins, you may want to decrease the size of the queue (if it's too long) or increase the size of the queue (if players don't have time to catch their breath). Decreasing the size of the queue is easy. Simply activate another arena, and the queue size will decrease by two. Increasing the queue size can only be done by using the **Arena malfunction** button to remove an arena from the tournament (see below).

## Arena malfunctions

If an arena malfunctions and needs to be removed from the tournament, click **View details** for the match and the **Arena malfunction** button. This will remove the arena from the tournament and place the players at the top of the queue.

If you have a spare arena available, click the **Activate** button for the arena to immediately create a new match using that arena. This will put the same two players on the recently activated arena so they can start playing again right away.

## Players not present

If a player hasn't shown up for their match, click **View details** for the match and then **Player not present**. You can then pick the player that didn't show up. Two things will happen:

1. The player who is not present will be placed at the bottom of the queue and will be awarded a loss (the other player will *not* be awarded a win).
2. The player from the top of the queue will be assigned to play in place of the not-present player.

If the not-present player has left the tournament completely, switch to the **Players** tab and deactivate the player. This will remove them from the queue, effectively removing them from the tournament.

## Wrong results entered

If you enter the wrong result for a match, switch to the **Completed matches** tab where you can either delete a result completely or flip the results (in case you picked the wrong player as the winner).

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).

**Show standings**

Determines whether the current tournament standings should be displayed to players. If standings are concealed, they will not be visible to players until the tournament is completed. Some tournament organizers find it more exciting if players cannot see their position in the tournament until the end.

**Duration**

Determines the amount of time the tournament should run. If the virtual queue is enabled, this option controls the queue timer. If a virtual queue is not used, this setting is purely advisory; it is displayed to players but has no effect on the tournament.

**Virtual queue**

Whether or not to have Match Play create a virtual queue for the tournament. When enabled, Match Play will control the tournament timer, automatically move players in and out of the queue during the tournament, and automatically end the tournament when the timer runs out. If the virtual queue is not used, Match Play will let the tournament organizer enter match results and maintain the tournament standings, but the organizer will have to manage the timer and queue manually.

**Initial queue size**

When using a virtual queue, this setting determines how many players should be placed in the queue at the start of the tournament. This setting only has an effect at the time the tournament starts and will not affect the queue if, for example, players are added or removed after the tournament begins. The organizer can choose between a percentage value (like 20% of players in the tournament) or a specific number of players.


# Round robin

{% hint style="info" %}
[Max match play](/tournament-formats/direct-play-tournaments/max-match-play) is often a more efficient way of running round robin tournaments.
{% endhint %}

A round robin tournament is a tournament in which every player plays every other player exactly once. Each game is a head-to-head match between two people where the winner earns a point. At the end of the tournament, the overall winner is the player with the most amount of points.

**Double round robin** is a variant in which every player plays every other player **twice** instead of once. This is a convenient option if the organizer wants to provide players with choice of arena for the matches since each player can make an arena choice.

When a round robin tournament is started, all the matches for the entire tournament are created at the same time. The matches are still divided into rounds, but creating all matches at once gives the organizer the freedom to ignore the rounds if they wish. The number of rounds will equal the amount of players in the tournament minus one. So for example, if there are 16 players, the tournament will have 15 rounds.

## World Cup Soccer (WCS) style groups

WCS-style groups is a variant of a full round robin that is best used as a qualifying format. When using WCS-style groups, the field of players is first divided into smaller groups. The size of these groups is chosen by the organizer. A round robin is then played only among the players in each group. Players still earn one point per match won. This matches the group stage format used at the FIFA World Cup, hence the name.

Players are divided into the small groups based on their seeding. For example, with 16 players and groups of four players, the following groups will be created:

| Group 1 | Seed #1, Seed #8, Seed #12, Seed #16 |
| ------- | ------------------------------------ |
| Group 2 | Seed #2, Seed #7, Seed #11, Seed #15 |
| Group 3 | Seed #3, Seed #6, Seed #10, Seed #14 |
| Group 4 | Seed #4, Seed #5, Seed #9, Seed #13  |

## Configuration options

**Arena draws**

In a round robin tournament, arenas are assigned for each round, and each arena will only be assigned once per round. It's strongly encouraged to only have Match Play assign arenas for round robin tournaments if there are enough arenas to cover every game in each round. The amount of arenas needed is half the amount of players in the tournament, so for example, if there are 16 players, eight arenas are needed. If there are not enough arenas available, it's best to leave this setting to "disabled" or "manual."

**Use WCS-style groups**

Determines the size of any WCS-style groups. See the section above for a description of WCS-style groups.

**Value of byes**

If the tournament doesn't have an even number of players, a single bye game is created for each round. This configuration option determines whether the bye player earns a point or not. The default value is to not earn a point.


# Single player formats

Single-player formats has players play only against themselves on an arena. Their results are compared against everyone else who played that arena (or against a target shared by all players). These formats are typically used for qualification with an elimination format or direct play format used for finals.


# Best game

In best game tournaments, players are not paired together for match play-style matches. Instead, they play single-player games. The tournament organizer assembles a bank of arenas, and each player plays each arena one or more times. Their "best game" is compared against the best game of the other participants in the tournament, and they are awarded points based on how well their best game ranks.

Match Play provides flexible configuration options so you can organize a range of different styles of tournaments using the best game format.

Best game tournaments are a popular qualifying format because you can support a large number of players with only a handful of arenas. Selfie leagues are also organized using a best game tournament.

## Managing entries

Match Play can manage entries purchased by players for the tournament. The entries configuration is flexible and you can setup your tournament as being unlimited or limited entries. With limited entries Match Play will automatically prevent players from buying/playing more entries than the limit.

You may also assign a number of entries automatically to each player. This can save lots of time for tournaments where every player received a set number of entries along with their registration. These automatic entries are added to players when the tournament is started.

By enabling pricing for entries, Match Play will keep track of the money paid for entries. This is useful both for general auditing and for automatically calculating prize pools (see below). You can even set up bundle pricing like seven entries for $20.

Once entries are enabled, you manage the entries themselves from the **Entries** tab. The page displays all "purchases" made for all players. There are three types of entries you can add to a player:

* Regular entries are just that.
* Comped entries are entries with a cost of zero. Comped entries can also exceed the limit for the tournament.
* Refund entries are negative entries. They subtract rather than add entries. They have a negative cost.

{% hint style="info" %}
You may also link entries across multiple tournaments. See **Link queues across tournaments** below.
{% endhint %}

## Setting up prize pools

For best game tournaments, the prize pools feature can be connected to the tournament entries. All you have to do is select **Tournament entries** as the prize pool type, and all money from entries are automatically added to the prize pool.

## Scorekeepers

Scorekeepers in a best game tournament can perform a wide range of tasks. They can add/remove players from queues, enter scores and void games.

## Managing virtual queues

Best game tournaments all come with virtual game queues. The game queues let players see when they are up on a game without the need for the tournament organizer to have players line up in person.

When virtual queues are enabled, players can add themselves to a queue, leave a queue or switch queues using their own Match Play account without having to locate a scorekeeper. A scorekeeper can also perform the same actions for players who do not have Match Play accounts.

Scorekeepers can remove any player from a queue. If the player is not present for their game, the scorekeeper has additional options available. They can skip the player or send them to the back of the queue.

### Opening & closing queues

The queue for a specific arena can be opened or closed by the tournament organizer at any time from the **Actions** menu. When a queue is closed no player can be added to the queue. The organizer can also close all queues in the entire tournament from the **Actions** menu on the **Arenas** page. This is useful at the end of each day of a multi-day tournament to prevent players from queueing up overnight.

### Clearing queues

The tournament organizer clear the queue for a specific arena. Doing so will remove all players from the queue except the currently playing player. This is done from the **Actions** menu. The tournament organizer can also clear all queues in the entire tournament from the **Actions** menu on the **Arenas** page. This useful at the end of each day of a multi-day tournament where the organizer may want to clear all queues overnight.

### Link queues across tournaments

If you are running multiple tournaments at the same time you may link the queues together. When queues are linked they act as a single shared queue and a player can only be queued for a single arena across all tournaments.

When linking queues you may also link entries between tournaments. When entries are linked an entry added in one of the tournaments may be spent in any of the tournaments. This is useful if you're selling entries that can freely be used in both main and classics tournaments, for example.

## Recording scores

A scorekeeper can add scores from the **Arenas** page. An **Add score** button is shown for arenas where a score can be added. If virtual queues are enabled, scores can only be added if there is at least one person in the queue for the arena.

After clicking **Add score,** the scorekeeper will select or verify the player they're adding a score for. Once that's done, they will enter the score or void the game. Voided games do not have a score attached and are not eligible for points, but they still count against the player's limit.

If a score has been entered incorrectly, the tournament organizer has several tools at their disposal to fix the problem. To get started, go to the **Scores** page and locate the problematic score. There is a filter button in the top right to help locate the score. You can show only games from a specific player and opt to show voided games (hidden by default). Click **View details** for the game and now the organizer will have three options:

* **Change score** lets you change the score itself if it was entered wrong
* **Change player** lets you assign the score to a different player
* **Delete score** lets you delete the score outright. This is different than a voided game because the deleted game will not count against any limits.

{% hint style="info" %}
In the event of two players have the exact same game score, both players will receive the **higher** number of points for the position.
{% endhint %}

## Suggested results

When suggested results are enabled, players can submit their own scores. **This feature is not available if virtual queues are enabled.** Scorekeepers can approve submitted scores from the **Score** page.

## Viewing arena details

The **Arenas** page shows an overview of all arenas in the tournament, and it lists the most important details such as the number of people queued for the arena, who is currently playing, what the high score is, etc. But it doesn't show all the details. You may click either the arena name or the **view details** button to access the arena details.

On the arena details page, you can see all scores on the arena and see the players who are currently queued up. This is also where scorekeepers can perform actions on the queue (like removing players from the queue).

Finally, the arena details page is where the tournament organizer can start the process for **arena malfunctions** (see below).

## Arena malfunctions

Despite best intentions, an arena may have a malfunction that requires it to be removed from the tournament either temporarily or permanently. Match Play automates this process for the tournament organizer.

If an arena needs to be removed from the tournament, the organizer should go to the arena details page for the arena, click on the **Actions** dropdown and select the **Arena malfunction** menu item. The organizer has two options:

* **Deactivated**: The arena will be removed from the tournament. Scores will not count for standings. It is as if the arena never existed in the first place.
* **Blocked**: Existing scores will still count for standings, but no new scores may be recorded. Typically used when an arena malfunctions after 50% of the time for the tournament has passed, but can also be used if an arena is temporarily down for repairs.

If an arena is **deactivated** and the tournament **uses entries,** then you typically want to refund any entries played on that arena. Match Play can do this for you. Once the arena is deactivated, re-open the **Actions** dropdown and click the **Refund entries** menu item. That will ask for confirmation and issue comped entries to all players who played the arena.

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).

**Attempts on each arena**

Determines how many games a player can play on each arena in the tournament.

**Overall max attempts**

Determines how many games a player can play in total across all arenas in the tournament. In a limited best game tournament, use this option to specify how many total entries each player should have.

**Number of arenas counted**

Determines the number of arenas used when calculating the overall standings in the tournament. For example, use this option if you want to count only five out of seven arenas.

**Number of best games**

Determines the number of games on each arena that are awarded points. Use this if you want to allow more than one score to be counted for the tournament standings.


# Card-based best game

Card-based best game tournaments are a variant of [best game tournaments](/tournament-formats/single-player-formats/best-game). Most of the concepts and behavior are identical to best game tournaments. This page will only outline the differences between a regular best game tournament and a card-based best game tournament. You should read the page for best game tournaments first and then return to this page.

In a card-based best game tournament, the tournament director assembles a bank of arenas. Each player completes a "card" consisting of a set number of games. Points are awarded for each game on the card, and players are ranked based on their best card. The difference from a regular best game tournament is that in a regular best game tournament, each individual game is scoring points independently, and in a card-based best game tournament, multiple games are collected on a "card" of games, and the card is scored as a single unit. Card-based best game tournaments reward players who perform consistently well across multiple games in a row.

## Recording scores

Just like a regular best game tournament, a scorekeeper can enter scores for players on the **Arenas** page. If a player doesn't have an active card, a new card will be created. If a player has an active card, the score will be added to that card. Once a card has been filled up, it will automatically be completed and points awarded.

A scorekeeper or the player can void the entire card. Voided cards can no longer have scores added, and they will never earn points.

If scoring mistakes are made, the tournament organizer has several options:

* **Change score** lets you change the score itself if it was entered wrong.
* **Delete score** lets you delete the score outright.
* **Delete card** lets you delete a card outright. This is different than a voided card because the voided card will not count against any limits.
* **Un-void card** lets you re-open a card that has mistakenly been voided.

## Arena malfunctions

The basic flow for arena malfunctions is the same as a regular best game tournament, but it has a more significant impact on your tournament, and you should avoid arena malfunctions as much as possible.

If an arena is marked as **blocked,** the procedure is identical to regular best game tournaments.

If an arena is marked as **deactivated,** all cards that include the deactivated arena will be marked as **incomplete**. These incomplete cards will be re-opened one-by-one for each player and the player will have to play a replacement game before they can start a new card. Cards will automatically be opened for the player, but it's obviously very disruptive and time consuming to have players play replacement games.

### Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).

**Max. number of cards**

Determines how many cards a player can play in total.

**Cards scoring**

There are two possible options for how cards are scored. One option is that all cards are counted from each player. (This is how PAPA World Championships are scored.) Or, only the newest card is counted for each player (so a player will only ever have one card counting for points).

**Number of games per card**

Determines how many games must be played on each card.


# Pingolf

Pingolf tournaments allow you to create scorecards for a number of "holes." Typically a "hole" is a single game played, and the scorecard records how many "strokes" each player used on each hole. The winner of the tournament is the player with the fewest amount of total strokes after all holes have been played.

### Assigning arenas and target scores

Assigning an arena to each golf hole and optionally a target score can make it easier to input scores and it'll make the tournament easier to navigate in general since players won't have to remember which golf hole corresponds to which arena.

To assign arenas and target scores go to the **tournament overview** and click the **Configure hole** option.

{% hint style="info" %}
If you use pingolf **objectives** instead of target scores, click **Set objectives** to enter the objectives for the golf hole.
{% endhint %}

### Determining pingolf target scores

*Deciding on target scores for pingolf tournaments can be difficult. Below, experienced tournament director Dave Stewart shares some of his tips.*

A successful pingolf tournament is all about time spent at machines, not "what score is achievable." It takes just one long-playing machine to cause the entire tournament to backlog. The approach I recommend that works really well is the following:

Get three or more players who represent the skill of the competing players to play each game for exactly three minutes, uninterrupted, using as many balls as they need. Preferably the games are all set to five-ball play. Don't use two three-ball games on any machine that builds state as the game proceeds, because you lose all that state if you have to start a second three-ball game. That messes up target score calculations and will likely lead to a machine that creates a backlog.

At the three-minute mark, record their score and number of balls. If their game ended in under three minutes, then record their time used to play all balls. Take the average score recorded by those three players, round it to a score with lots of zeros, and make that the target. For example, 13,465,100 could be rounded to 13,000,000. With this cutoff, you can do about one tee-off every five minutes (or a pair every 10 minutes, or a three-player every 15 minutes, or four-player every 20 minutes).

If you want to do four-player every 15 minutes, then cut off about 20% of that score. For example, make it 10,000,000.

If you want to do two-player every 15 minutes, then add about 20% of that score. For example, make it 15,000,000.

You can then estimate the length of your tournament, based on how long it takes for everyone to tee-off, plus nine times the tee-off-time-delta for the last tee-off group to finish. You can accelerate a tournament by having one group tee-off per hole and rotating holes. If you have 27 players and nine holes, that means three players start per hole.

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/#configuring-tournament-settings).

**Duration**

Determines the number of holes played in the tournament.

**Stroke limit**

The maximum number of strokes a player can have on each hole.

**Par score**

If a par score is set, the **Scorecards** tab will display each player's over/under par score. This lets players see relative standings while the tournament is progressing.

**Holes counted**

Set this number to a number lower than the **Duration** to let players drop one or more worst results.

**Tiebreaker**

Determines whether to apply an automatic tiebreaker. If enabled, ties will be broken by most number of holes-in-one followed by number of holes-in-two. If players are still tied at that point, they will remain tied.


# Pinbowling

Pinbowling tournaments allow you to create scorecards for a number of "frames." Typically, a "frame" is a single game played, and the scorecard records how many points each player earned for each frame. The winner of the tournament is the player with the most points after all frames have been played.

### Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/#configuring-tournament-settings).

**Duration**

Determines the number of frames played in the tournament.


# Elimination brackets

Elimination brackets are tournaments that progress over one or more rounds. In each round, one or more players are eliminated from the tournament. The winner is the last player standing after all others have been eliminated. These tournament formats are typically—but not always—used as tournament finals.


# Single elimination

Single elimination brackets are a simple way to organize tournament playoffs. Players are organized into a bracket using a seeding method (typically manual seeding). Each match is a head-to-head match between two players. The winner of each match will advance in the bracket, and the loser is eliminated from the tournament.

Match Play will automatically create a bronze match for the losers of the semifinal round to determine the third and fourth place finishers in the tournament. A four-player match to determine 5th through 8th place will also be created. If you do not wish to play out these extra matches, they can be ignored.

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).

**Bracket size**

Determines the size of the bracket that will be built. 4/8/16/32/64/128 player brackets are available. Pick the next size up if you do not have the perfect amount of players; byes will be created accordingly. For example, if you have 24 players, pick the 32-player bracket size.

**Best-of-X matches**

If you want to play each match in the bracket as a best-of-x match (like best-of-3 or best-of-7), set this option accordingly. When entering results for a match, you can enter partial results as you go and the match won't be marked as completed until a player has enough wins to satisfy the best-of requirements.

#### Results

If the tournament uses best-of-x matches you can record results either as individual results or as total wins only. When using individual results you enter the game scores for each individual match along with the arena the game took place on. If you don't want to enter individual game scores switch to total wins where you only have to enter the amount of won matches for each player.


# Double elimination

Double elimination brackets builds on [single elimination brackets](/tournament-formats/elimination-brackets/single-elimination) but give players who lose one more chance to win the tournament. Players are organized into a winners bracket using a seeding method (typically manual seeding). Each match is a head-to-head match between two players. The winner of each match will advance in the winners bracket, and the loser is moved to a secondary losers bracket.

Matches in a losers bracket are also head-to-head matches. The winner moves on to the next match in the losers bracket while the loser is eliminated from the tournament.

When the winner is both brackets has been found, the winner of the winners bracket will face the winner of the losers bracket. The winner of that match-up is the winner of the tournament. The winner of the losers bracket will have to beat the winner of the winner's bracket **twice** to win the tournament. The winner of the winners bracket only has to win once.

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).

**Bracket size**

Determines the size of the bracket that will be built. 4/8/16/32/64 player brackets are available. Pick the next size up if you do not have the perfect amount of players; byes will be created accordingly. For example, if you have 24 players, pick the 32-player bracket size.

**Best-of-X winner's bracket**

If you want to play each match in the winner's bracket as a best-of-x match (like best-of-3 or best-of-7), set this option accordingly. When entering results for a match, you can enter partial results as you go, and the match won't be marked as completed until a player has enough wins to satisfy the best-of requirements.

**Best-of-X losers's bracket**

This lets you set a best-of-x target for the losers bracket.

#### Results

If the tournament uses best-of-x matches you can record results either as individual results or as total wins only. When using individual results you enter the game scores for each individual match along with the arena the game took place on. If you don't want to enter individual game scores switch to total wins where you only have to enter the amount of won matches for each player.


# Group elimination

Group elimination brackets are a popular way to organize tournament playoffs. Players are placed into four-player groups using a seeding method (typically manual seeding). The first and second finishers advance in the bracket, while third and fourth place are eliminated.

Typically, players will play three or four matches each round. This mimics the popular playoff formats known from **PAPA, Pinburgh** and other large pinball tournaments. In those cases, players accumulate points in each match. After all matches have been completed, the first and second finishers advance. Tournament organizers have access to several different scoring options (see below).

At the beginning of each round, players are **re-seeded using the original seed in the tournament**. This gives a significant advantage to players with a good initial seeding.

When players are eliminated from the bracket, their final standing in the tournament is determined by the amount of points earned in the round they were eliminated.

## Multi-match play

Group elimination brackets can also be used for multi-match play tournaments in which four players play four machines simultaneously. The only thing to note is that Match Play will keep the same player order for all four matches, so extra care must be taken when recording results.

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).

**Bracket size**

Determines the size of the bracket that will be built. Regular brackets for 4/8/16/32/64/128 players are available as well as special brackets for 12 players (top four players received a bye), 24 players (top eight players receive a bye) and 28 players (top four players receive a bye). There is also a special setting for 40 players to mimics the format used in the Stern Pro Circuit finals (this is limited to two rounds). You must have the exact number of players in your tournament to match the bracket size. Create "dummy" players to fill out the field if you don't have enough actual players.

**Double byes**

Single byes and double byes are always created for some bracket sizes (12 players, 20 players, 24 players and 40 players). **Specifically for 8-player and 32-player brackets** this setting determines how to assign byes.

The default is to play a straight bracket without any byes. If you wish to assign byes to the top seeds set **Double byes** to **Yes**. This will assign the following byes:

8-player bracket: Double byes for seeds 1-2; single bye for seeds 3-4.\
32-player bracket: Double byes for seeds 1-8; single bye for seeds 9-16.


# Pingolf elimination

Pingolf elimination brackets are created to facilitate playoffs for [Pingolf tournaments](/tournament-formats/single-player-formats/pingolf) and are a variation of [group elimination brackets](/tournament-formats/elimination-brackets/group-elimination). The only difference between the two is the way scores are recorded. The way players are seeded and advance in the bracket are the same.

Instead of using a [scoring system](/configuring-a-tournament/scoring-systems) to award points to 1st/2nd/3rd/4th place finishers, the organizer in a pingolf elimination bracket enters the amount of strokes used on each game. The two players with the fewest amount of strokes advance in the bracket. Typically, players will play three or four matches each round, and in that case, a pingolf elimination bracket mimics the finals at the IFPA Pinmasters.

When players are eliminated from the bracket, their final standing in the tournament is determined by the amount of strokes used in the round they were eliminated.

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).

**Bracket size**

Determines the size of the bracket that will be built. Regular brackets for 4/8/16/32/64/128 players are available as well as special brackets for 12 players (top four players received a bye), 24 players (top eight players receive a bye) and 28 players (top four players receive a bye). There is also a special setting for 40 players to mimics the format used in the Stern Pro Circuit finals (this is limited to two rounds). You **must have the exact number of players** in your tournament to match the bracket size. Create "dummy" players to fill out the field if you don't have enough actual players.


# Ladder elimination

Ladder elimination brackets are a playoff format that gives a large advantage to the top seeds. Players are placed on a "ladder" in order of seeding. The bottom four seeds play against each other and the loser is eliminated. A new match is created with the lowest seed on the ladder replacing the eliminated player. One player is eliminated after each match until a winner is found.

Once there are only four players remaining, one player continues to be eliminated after each game. Thus, there will be a game with three players and after that a final match with two players to find the winner.

This provides a substantial advantage to the top seeds. The top seeded player will not have to play until there are only four players remaining, and they are guaranteed a placement in the top four.

Ladder tournaments can take a long time to run and especially for the top seeds, the waiting time is significant. For that reason, Match Play also offers a **fast ladder** option. In a fast ladder, two players are eliminated after each match. Additionally, the tournament will end with the match for the final four; final matches with three and two players are not created.

## Configuration options

See also: [Common configuration options](/configuring-a-tournament/common-configuration-options).

**Ladder type**

Choose between a regular ladder and the fast ladder (see above).


# Amazing Race

An Amazing Race tournament has all players in the tournament face off against each other on the same machine over a number of rounds. Each round, an arena is picked by the tournament organizer, and all players play a single game on that arena. The player with the lowest score is eliminated; all other players advance. This process is repeated until there is only one player left standing.

## Configuring automatic arena selection

Match Play can automatically assign an arena when a round is created. Go to the **Arenas** tab, click the **Actions** menu and select the **Set arena order** option.

There are you specify the order in which arenas should be assigned. When a new round is created the next arena on the list will be automatically assigned. Once all arenas have been used the process will start over again with the first arena from the list being selected.

## Speeding up Amazing race tournaments

Amazing Race tournaments can be time consuming, but Match Play offers some tools to speed things up.

**Auto-advance players**

As soon as a player has surpassed the lowest score on that round's arena, there's no reason for them to keep playing. A scorekeeper should use the **Auto-advance** button to advance the player to the next round without inputting an exact score.

**Play on multiple machines**

Do not wait for all players to finish a round before moving play on to the next round. As soon as the first player is advanced into a round, a scorekeeper should assign an arena, and the player should start playing. It's not unusual to have many rounds going at the same time.

**Use scorekeepers**

Assign trusted tournament participants as scorekeepers. These people will be able to enter scores for all players in the tournament. Having just a single tournament organizer enter scores will be chaotic experience. It's better to share that responsibility between multiple scorekeepers.


# Calendar

The Match Play calendar shows combined tournaments and event listings from both Match Play and the IFPA calendar. It also provides calendar feeds that can be imported into your calendar app such as Google Calendar or Apple's Calendar.

## Calendar types

Match Play provides four different calendars.

* The **nearby** calendar shows you events close to your current location. By default events within 150 miles are shown but you can adjust this range.
* The **regional** calendar shows events from a predefined region. For example, "Los Angeles" or "Wisconsin" or "United Kingdom". The regions are provided by the Pinball Map
* The **location** calendar shows events from a specific location or arcade. Locations are provided by the Pinball Map
* The **personal** calendar shows events you are playing in. This calendar only shows events from Match Play, not the IFPA calendar

## Set your default calendar

When you first open the calendar it'll show you the **nearby** calendar. This may be annoying because it can take a bit for your computer or phone to provide your current location. If you prefer the calendar open on one of the other calendars:

* Open the calendar you want to be your default
* Click to open the calendar menu
* Click the **Set as default…** option

## Subscribing to a calendar feed

Calendar feeds are provided for all Pinball Map regions. To access a calendar feed:

* Click to open the calendar menu
* Click the **Calendar feeds…** option
* Find your region in the list and click the **Copy** button to copy the link to paste into your calendar app
* The calendar feed is updated every **four hours**. There's no reason to set your calendar app to refresh the calendar any more often than that.

## Adjusting calendar settings

You can customize your calendar from your **Account settings** page. Scroll to the bottom until you reach the **Preferences** section. There you can modify:

* The **Nearby distance** to decrease or increase the range used by the nearby calendar
* Whether the calendar display should start the week on a Monday

## Why is my tournament not on the calendar?

The most likely reason your tournament is not showing on the calendar is that your tournament does not have the right kind of location attached. Your location must have geo coordinates attached to show up on most calendars.

If you originally created your location without linking it to Scorbit or the Pinball Map it's likely there are no geo coordinates attached. The fix this head to your **Locations** page, click the **Edit** button for your location and finally click **Link to Pinball Map** to start syncing your location with a location from the Pinball Map.

If your location is a private location that is not listed on the Pinball Map you can manually enter the latitude and longitude that should be used for your location.


# Event listings

With a Match Play event listing, you won't have to create a website or Facebook event for your weekend of tournaments. Event listings link directly to the tournaments and can be customized with a description, links to your stream or ticket provider, a banner image and more.

{% hint style="info" %}
While event listings are primarily for events that have more than one tournament you can use them to advertise any tournament or league. Generally speaking the tournament page will fulfill most needs but you can use an event listing if you need a longer description or want a page that displays a large banner graphic.
{% endhint %}

## Finding events

Click on **Events** in the sidebar menu. You'll be taken to a list of upcoming events, and you can use the tabs to switch to see events you're following, events you're organizing or an archive of past events.

If you're interested in an event listing, click the **Follow event** button so you can find it again easily.

## Creating and publishing event listings

Click **Create event listing** in the sidebar menu to create a new event listing. You can fill out various data about your event. Leave blank anything that isn't relevant. For example, if you're not selling tickets to your event ahead of time, you can skip filling in a registration date.

You may also customize the layout of your event listing by switching between stacked and tabs layouts as well as specifying the order of the various sections.

Saving the event listing will create a **draft** listing. The public can't view it yet. You still need to add tournaments, a description and maybe some links (see below).

Once you've saved your event listing, you can click the **Preview** button to see a preview of what your event listing looks like. When viewing the preview, click on the **Configure** button to switch back to the event listing configuration page.

When you're happy with how your event listing looks, click the **Publish** button to make it available to the public. In order to be published, your event listing must have a description, a location and a contact e-mail.

## Adding a description

Click the **Edit** button in the description section to add or change the description for your event listing. You may use Markdown to format your description.

If your description is long, it may be overwhelming to see on the event listing. If that's the case, check the **Show short preview** checkbox and the event listing will only display the first paragraph of your description and include a **show more** link for people to view your entire description.

## Adding tournaments

Your event listing can contain links to all your tournaments, including tournaments not hosted by Match Play Events.

To add Match Play Events tournament, scroll down to the **Tournaments** section and click the **Add** button. A dialog will open where you can search your own tournaments and add them. If your event has tournaments organized by different people (maybe a side tournament is organized by someone else), switch to the **All tournaments** tab in the dialog and you can add a tournament organized by someone else.

You can add tournaments organized elsewhere by clicking the **Add external** button. On the form that follows, you have to fill in the tournament name, date and a link (typically the link to DTM).

### Labels, TGP and player limits

Click the **Actions** button next to a tournament to add additional information about that tournament. You can use **labels** to group tournaments together. You could, for example, use labels to highlight which tournament is the **main** tournament, which are **women's** events and which are **warm-up** tournaments outside the main events.

You can also specify the TGP for a tournament and specify the player limit, if your tournaments have one.

## Adding links

Your event listing can contain any number of links that are relevant to your event. You could, for example, create links to your own website, your ticketing website or your stream.

Two link types are special. If you're linking to your registration or ticketing provider, make sure to check the **This is a registration link** checkbox. Then your link will be displayed as a button at the top of the listing.

If you're linking to a Twitch or YouTube stream, channel or video; you may check the **Embed video** checkbox. If checked, the video or stream will be embedded directly on the page. You can use this to promote your stream or create a video archive once the event is over.


# Tournament series

A tournament series allows you to collect multiple tournaments together. Match Play will keep track of the overall standings based on the individual results from each tournament. This makes a tournament series well-suited for keeping track of standings in a league. Each tournament represents a single league meeting, and the series represents the entire league season.

## Adding and removing tournaments

When you create your series, you can plan out all the tournaments in the series right away. To do so, open your series, switch to the **Tournaments** tab, and click the **Create new** button. The first tournament is created as any other tournament, but subsequent tournaments let you copy the settings from other tournaments in the series. This can save you a lot of time if you're creating several tournaments with the same settings. This works well if you know that all your tournaments will have an identical configuration and you know all the dates in advance.

You can also add existing tournaments to the series. Again, open your series, switch to the **Tournaments** tab, and click the **Attach existing** button. You can also remove tournaments from the series' **Tournaments** tab. To do so, click the **Remove** button next to the tournament you want to remove.

This is useful if you don't know how long your series will be or if you need to shorten an existing series by removing one or more tournaments.

## Configuration options

**Scoring system**

Determines how points are awarded for the series. See details below.

**Dropped results**

Use this setting if you don't want to count all tournaments in the series for standings. You can either choose to keep a player's best X results (recommended since it provided better standings at the start of a series), or you can choose to drop a player's worst X results.

## Scoring in tournament series

There are three different ways points can be calculated for tournament series:

**Sum of points earned**

The points earned by players in the individual tournaments are added together for their overall score. This is the typical choice for a match play-style league.

**Pingolf scoring**

Same as above, but the goal is to have as few points as possible. You should only use this for pingolf tournaments.

**Rank players**

In each individual tournament, players are ranked by finishing position and will receive a point value based on that rank. Their overall score is the sum of these points. This is the only format in which playoffs tournaments for each individual tournament will be taken into account. The options for ranking players are the same as for best game tournaments.

## Series playoffs

You may create up to nine playoff tournaments for a tournament series. From your series open the **Playoffs** tab where you can manage playoffs the same way as you manage them for tournaments. Read more on the [Manage playoffs](/configuring-a-tournament/managing-playoffs) page.


# Challenge matches

Challenge matches are games of competitive pinball that aren't part of a tournaments. You can use them when you're hanging out with your friends and want to keep track of your match results but you don't want to setup a tournament.

There are three types of challenge matches available.

#### Head-to-head challenge

Head-to-head challenges have two players face off against each other in a best-of-X series. For example, you can play a best-of-3 or even a best-of-15.

#### Group challenge

Group challenges are played in a group of three or four players. There are two variants available: A **fixed** duration challenge is played for a specific number of games while a **first to target** challenge has players competing to see who can reach a target number of points first.

#### High score challenge

A high score challenge can have up to 32 players. Each player will play a single game and have their score recorded. The player with the highest score wins the challenge.

### Starting a challenge

As you create your challenge you will add the participants in the challenge. Each player must have a free Match Play user account in order to participate.

After creating your challenge the participants must accept the invitation. They do this by going to the challenge and clicking the **Accept** button. Once all players have accepted you can start the challenge. The challenge will show up on their **Challenges** page as **pending**.

High score challenges are slightly different in that players can add themselves. You'll find a **Share** button that will let you copy the link to the challenge and display a QR code for players to scan. Click the **Refresh** button once players have added themselves to submit scores for them.

### Entering results

Only the person who created the challenge can record results and otherwise manage the challenge (add arenas to matches, complete the challenge etc.).


# Cloning tournaments

Cloning tournaments is a quick way to create a full or partial copy of a tournament. A clone always clones the tournament configuration, and you can choose whether to also copy the tournament players and arenas to the new tournament.

You can start the cloning process by opening the tournament you want to clone, clicking to open the **More...** menu, and then selecting the **Clone tournament** option. You can only clone your own tournaments. You can't clone tournaments created by someone else.


# Custom links

Custom links are short, easy-to-remember links that point to a tournament, series or user profile.

When you create a custom link you pick a word or short phrase along with a destination for that link, for example a tournament. People can then go to that destination by going to `https://matchplay.live/` followed by the phrase you entered. For example, if your phrase is `my-tournament` people will be able to go to the destination you picked by going to `https://matchplay.live/my-tournament`.

## Custom link destinations

Custom links can point to a variety of destinations.

**Specific tournament**

The custom link will send people to a specific tournament you pick.

**Specific series**

The custom link will send people to a specific series you pick.

**Automatic to newest tournament**

The custom link will send people to the newest tournament organized by you. Using this feature, you can have one easy-to-remember link that never changes but always sends people to your tournament.

**Automatic to newest series**

Works just like above, but will send people to the newest series organized by you.

**Your user profile**

The custom link will send people to your user profile.

## Where to create custom links

There are three ways to create custom links:

**From a tournament**

If you have opened a tournament and want to create a custom link for it, go the **Overview** tab and click the **Create link** link in the sidebar under the **Custom link** heading.

**From a series**

If you have opened a series and want to create a custom link for it, go the **Configuration** tab and click the **Create link** link under the **Custom link** heading.

From the main menu

Open the main menu and click on the **Custom links** menu option. This will show you all custom links you've created. Click the **Add custom link** button to create a custom link.

## Custom link QR codes

Custom links all come with a QR code. On the **Custom links** page, click the **QR code** link. From a tournament or series, click the link itself to show the QR code. You can copy or print this QR code if you need it for a flyer or other advertising.


# Player & arena labels

A **label** is a word or short phrase that can be assigned to a player or arena in a tournament. The labels can be used to group players or arenas in a flexible way.

## How to use labels

Only your creativity is the limit, but here are some examples to get you started:

* A "TD" label for any tournament officials
* A "Scorekeeper" label for scorekeepers
* "A div." and "B div." labels for players who satisfy the requirements for playing on those divisions
* A "rookie" label for player who are playing in their first tournament
* Labels indicating the location of an arena for a tournament that spans multiple locations (like the names of different arcades participating in a selfie league)

## Assigning labels

There are two main ways to assign a label to a player or arena. If you want to assign labels to multiple players (or arenas), go to the **Players** tab (or **Arenas tab**) and mark the players/arenas you want to assign a label to using the checkboxes. Once you're satisfied with your selection, click the **Set label** button. You will be asked to enter the label and select a color for it.

If you want to assign and change the label on a single player or arena, click the player/arena to open the info panel. In the info panel, click the **Set label** option.

**Assigning player labels based on IFPA ranking**

For your convenience, Match Play can assign labels to players matching specific IFPA rankings. To do so, switch to the **Players** tab and then click the **Set rank labels** link to start the process.

You can use this feature, for example, to assign a label of "B Div." to all players with an IFPA ranking below 1,000.

**Assigning labels to registrations**

If you are using the player registration feature, you may assign a label to a registration. Click the name of the registrant, and then click the **Set label** option in the info panel. Any labels assigned to registrations will be copied when the registrant is added to the tournament.

## Filtering based on labels

Once you have created one or more labels, you can use them to filtering various lists. On the **Arenas** and **Players** tabs, you can filter the list of arenas/players to just those having a specific labels.

On the tournament standings page and the series standings page, you can also filter the standings to only show players who has a specific label.

## Starting rounds using labels

When you start a round in a tournament, you can limit the arenas used in that round to those with a specific label. This is similar to how categories work, but labels are more flexible since an arena can have multiple labels assigned, and you can create as many labels as you want.

## Global labels

On the [players](https://app.matchplay.events/players) and [arenas](https://app.matchplay.events/arenas) pages you may set a **global** label for your players and arenas. If a player or arenas has a global label that label will be copied to your tournament whenever those players or arenas are added to your tournaments. This is useful if you always want to apply the same labels to all your tournaments.


# Prize pools

Match Play provides a flexible system to setting up and automatically calculate prize pools for tournaments. You can access the prize pools feature by opening your tournament, going to the **Overview** tab and then selecting the **Prize pools** sub-tab.

## Setting up the prize pools

The prize pool configuration page lets you setup the funding, expenses, prize pool distributions and potential bounties.

### Funding and expenses

The two funding inputs determine how money is added to the prize pool. The **per player** funding number is multiplied by the number of players in the tournament. Typically you'd enter the cost to participate in the tournament (if you charge $10 to enter, put `10` into the field). The **fixed funding** field lets you add additional funds to the prize pool.

Expenses are setup the same way, but they subtract funding from the prize pool. The **per player** expense you can use to deduct an amount for each player. For example, enter a `1` to deduct the IFPA player fee. A **fixed expense** field lets you remove additional funds. For example, the cost of trophies or any other costs from running the tournament.

### Currency, rounding, visibility

A few settings apply to all prize pools. You can change the currency symbol from a `$` to your local currency and specify how to do rounding. Finally you can make the prize pool private if you don't want players to see it.

### Prize distributions

You may setup one or more prize pools in the **prize distributions** section. Many tournaments only need a single prize pool but if you're giving out prizes for an A Division and a B Division you would set that up as two separate prize pools.

For each prize pool you decide how many placements to award prizes to and for each one which percentage of the prize pool the placement should receive.

You may also add an **extra** prize to a placement. You can type anything in the **extra** field from "A NIB Stern" to "A chocolate chip cookie".

Finally, you may adjust the prize up or down for each placement. This can help you manually adjust the prizes to get more round numbers, if you wish.

### Bounties

Bounties are extra prizes awarded outside the main prize pool. These can be anything you want. For each one you can enter both a monetary prize and a description. If your bounties have no monetary value, leave the field blank.

## Saving your favorites

After you have configured your prize pool you may save it as a favorite. Saving the prize pool configuration as a favorite will make it possible to add it to subsequent tournaments with a single click. You may save up to five prize pool configurations as favorites.

## Standalone prize pool tool

A standalone prize pool tool is available if you want to test out the prize pool feature without having to create a tournament. You may access it here: <https://app.matchplay.events/tools/prize-pool>


# Match Play Ratings

Match Play Ratings is a pinball rating system based on individual match results. It is a free service, and the match data comes from a variety of sources.

Match results are used to calculate a player's rating whenever they participate in a tournament. Match Play Ratings does not concern itself with results from best game tournaments, pingolf tournaments, selfie leagues or any other indirect play tournament formats. Only tournament formats where players compete head-to-head or in groups directly against each other are eligible for inclusion.

## Submitting results

Whenever you complete a tournament in Match Play Events, you'll be asked to confirm that the tournament was a pinball tournament and that you wish to submit the results to Match Play Ratings.

There is a seven day delay before your tournament will be processed. For example, tournament results for September 14th are calculated on September 21st. This delay gives tournament organizers time to verify results and fix mistakes.

Tournaments will be placed into a **rating period**. Each rating period starts at 00:00:00 and ends at 23:59:59 in the UTC timezone. The time a tournament is concluded determines to which rating period the tournament belongs. For example, if a tournament in California ends at 10PM Pacific time on October 8, it'll be included in the rating period for October 9 because the rating period uses the UTC timezone, which is nine hours ahead of California.

## Understanding rating numbers

Match Play ratings are calculated using the [Glicko](http://glicko.net/glicko/glicko.pdf) algorithm. This means a player's strength is made up of two numbers: A rating and a rating deviation (RD). A player's rating is a best guess of the player's strength, while the rating deviation describes how confident we are that the rating is accurate.

A player's strength is most accurately described as an interval rather than a single number. The interval is the player's rating plus/minus twice their RD. For example, a player with a rating of 1500 and an RD of 30 would be written as `1500 ±60`.

In some cases, a player's strength must be represented as a single number, such as when determining rating restrictions for different divisions. In those cases, the lower bound should be used. The lower bound is the rating minus twice the RD. If a player has a rating of 1500 and an RD of 30, the lower bound is `1500-(30*2) = 1440`.

Finally, a ranking number is calculated by comparing the lower bound of all players in the system.

There are two main differences between Match Play Ratings and the IFPA WPPR system. First, Match Play Ratings only concerns itself with direct play between players, while the IFPA WPPR system estimates individual rankings based on indirect play (like comparing two players in a best game tournament who never played each other directly). Secondly, the IFPA WPPR system is purely additive, meaning your ranking will never decrease as a result of participating in a tournament. Under Match Play Ratings, a player will see their rating decrease if they perform worse than expected in any tournament. Both are perfectly valid ways to estimate the strength of a player, but one method may be more accurate than the other depending on your use case or the makeup of your local player base.

## Exporting ratings

The latest ratings for all players are available in a single CSV file (about 5MB and 100,000 rows):

```
https://mp-ratings.sfo3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/latest-ratings.csv
```

## Glicko constants used

The following configuration is used for the Glicko implementation:

**Provisional rating:** 1500

**Max. RD:** 75

**Min. RD:** 15

**System constant&#x20;*****c*****:** 2

**Rating period:** One day

**Initial rating period:** January 1, 2016


# WPPR estimates

Match Play can estimate IFPA WPPR values for a tournament or for an arbitrary list of players. For those who don't want to wait for IFPA approval of results, these estimates can give an idea of the value of a tournament.

## WPPR estimate for tournament

To view a WPPR estimate for a tournament, first open the tournament and then click the **View WPPR estimate** link in the sidebar on the **Overview** tab.

At the top of the page, you can see and set the TGP value. This value defaults to 100%, and you must manually set it to a realistic value. If the tournament organizer changes the TGP value, that value will be used as the default value when anyone else views the WPPR estimate.

The WPPR estimate itself consists of two tables. The first table shows the amount of WPPRs each finishing position in the tournament is awarded. If the tournament has been completed, this table will show the player names for each position as well.

The second table shows how many WPPRs each player in the tournament contributes to the total WPPR pool for the tournament.

If you want to do further processing of the second table of WPPR contributions, there is a **Copy to clipboard** button. Click it to copy the table data in a format you can paste into a spreadsheet.

## WPPR estimate for series

Match Play also provides WPPR estimates for tournament series. Open the series standings page and scroll all the way to the bottom. Below the standings, click the **View WPPR estimate** link.

The WPPR estimate itself functions the same as for tournaments (see above).

## WPPR estimate for arbitrary list of players

In the main menu, click on the **WPPR estimator** option. On the resulting page, you can type or paste in a list of names or IFPA numbers (IFPA numbers work best). Then a WPPR estimate can be worked up as if these players all played in a tournament together.


# How to change your name

#### I am a new player and the tournament organizer misspelled my name

* Contact the tournament organizer and ask them to fix the spelling of your name
* If the misspelled name has made it to the IFPA website, you should also [update your IFPA profile](https://www.ifpapinball.com/user-profile-3/).

#### I have changed my name due to gender transition, marriage or divorce

* Make sure your IFPA profile reflects your name name. You may have to [update your IFPA profile](https://www.ifpapinball.com/user-profile-3/)
* Once your IFPA is updated please email <play@matchplay.events> with the following information:
  * Your new name. This is the most important part!
  * A link to your IFPA profile
  * A link to your Match Play profile, if you have one

Name changes like these are done by manually updating multiple systems and it may take a day or two to process.


# Adding your IFPA number

Adding your IFPA number to your Match Play account is an important step to take. It will allow you to enter suggested results for your matches and allows you to queue yourself in best game tournaments.

To add your IFPA number to you account:

* Open your [Account settings](https://app.matchplay.events/account) page
* Scroll down to the **Linked accounts** section
* Click to add your IFPA number

If a player in a tournament is missing their IFPA number, contact the tournament organizer. They will be able to add the missing IFPA number.


# Big screen view

A projector or "big screen" display is available for all tournament types. The tournament organizer can open the projector view by opening the **More...** menu from the tournament's **Overview** tab and choosing the **Open big screen view** option. The big screen view opens in a new browser tab.

The projector view is meant to provide the most relevant information for the tournament on a single screen that can be displayed on a laptop, television or projector.

## Configuration options

Once the big screen view is opened, there are several configuration options. Click the three dots in the upper right corner to access the settings.

**Auto scroll**

By default, the big screen view will periodically scroll through the content. If you don't like it, you can disable this auto scrolling behavior.

**Show/hide standings**

By default, the big screen view will display the tournament standings. You can hide these standings if you want more space for the other content or if you just don't want the standings displayed.

**Expanded/compact matches**

Some tournament formats offer "compact matches." Choosing this option will maximize the amount of matches on the screen. Use this option if you have a bigger tournament and want to cram as many matches onto the screen as possible.

**Show queues/scores**

Available for Best Game tournaments, this option lets you switch between the big screen view displaying arena queues or arena scores.


# Broadcast view

The broadcast display shows information about a single in-progress match. The screen is meant to be easily embedded into a live broadcast of the tournament. The tournament organizer can open the broadcast view by opening the **More...** menu from the tournament's **Overview** tab and choosing the **Open broadcast view** option. The broadcast view opens in a new browser tab.

Once opened, pick a game to display either by picking a specific game or by always showing the latest match on an arena. The latter option lets you leave the broadcast view alone—it'll automatically update as new matches are created.

Players will always be displayed in their tournament playing order on the broadcast view. The tournament organizer can change the playing order from the **Matches** tab at any time.

The broadcast view contains several options for customizing the view. You can choose between light/dark mode, horizontal/vertical view, or whether to display points. You can also pick the color scheme.


# Overview

The Match Play API provides programmatic access to tournament data. In addition to the API several large data sets are maintained for easy access to popular data.

## Base domain

All requests should be made to:

{% code overflow="wrap" %}

```http
https://app.matchplay.events/
```

{% endcode %}

## Read-only API

The Match Play API is a read-only API. It will allow you to extract data from Match Play but it will not allow you to submit data into Match Play. You cannot use the API to, for example, add players to a tournament or submit results for games.

## Authentication

You must provide authentication using an API token for all requests. While some endpoints may respond without authentication, you should always include it to avoid having your IP address blocked.

To authenticate, [generate an API token](https://app.matchplay.events/account/tokens) and provide it using an `Authorization` header:

```http
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN
```

Replacing `YOUR_API_TOKEN` with your API token. It is important to include your API token in all requests made to the Match Play API. If you do not include your API token and there is a problem with the way you interact with the API the consequence will be that your IP address will be blocked.

## Rate limits

The Match Play sets generous rate limits (generally 120 requests/min but some endpoints have lower limits) with the understanding that API users will do their best to avoid causing needless load on the servers. The following guidelines should be followed:

1. If you seek OPDB, PinTips or Match Play Ratings data, fetch the data from the CDN (see [Data exports](/data-exports)). Do not fetch this data via the API.
2. Do not treat the Match Play API as your backend service. Your architecture must include a storage service.
3. Avoid re-fetching the same data over and over. Most data in Match Play will not change. Tournament results do not change once recorded, for example. If you have fetched the data once, store it and avoid fetching it again.
4. Fetch data once on behalf of all users. If two users on your platform both need the same data from Match Play, fetch it once and serve the data from your backend subsequently.


# Data exports

Match Play offers a handful of easy-to-access data exports. These provide large data sets without putting strain on the API. If the data you're seeking is available as an export, use the export rather than the API.

Some of these exports will generate CSV files you can import these into your spreadsheet software.

## Export OPDB

The OPDB dataset is available in three different export formats. Each file is updated once per day.

Full dataset V2 format (easier to consume than V1):

{% code overflow="wrap" %}

```
https://mp-data.sfo3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/opdb-v2.json
```

{% endcode %}

"Slim" dataset containing only machine/manufacturer name and the backglass image:

{% code overflow="wrap" %}

```
https://mp-data.sfo3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/opdb-slim.json
```

{% endcode %}

Full dataset in the legacy V1 format (for backwards compatibility):

```
https://mp-data.sfo3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/latest-opdb.json
```

## Export PinTips

The entire PinTips dataset in a single JSON file (about 1MB):

```
https://mp-data.sfo3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/latest-pintips.json
```

## Export Match Play Ratings

The latest ratings for all players are available in a single CSV file (about 8MB):

```
https://mp-ratings.sfo3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/latest-ratings.csv
```

## Export Match Play Rating history

The rating history for all players for the past year available in a single CSV file (about 19MB). Please note that the file only contains *rating* changes. A players *RD* value changes daily, but those changes are not reflected in the file. If you need the RD for a specific data you must advance the RD yourself from the last rating period where the rating changed. The [tournament-utils](https://github.com/haugstrup/TournamentUtils/blob/master/src/GlickoCalculator.php) package includes a Glicko calculator which can perform that action through the `advanceRD` function (see [Match Play Ratings](/additional-features/match-play-ratings) for the system constants).

```
https://mp-ratings.sfo3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/latest-rating-revisions.csv
```

## Export players

Enter the following URL into your browser, replacing `TOURNAMENT_ID` with the numeric id for your tournament:

```php
https://app.matchplay.events/api/tournaments/TOURNAMENT_ID/players/csv
```

## Export single-player games

Enter the following URL into your browser, replacing `TOURNAMENT_ID` with the numeric id for your tournament:

```php
https://app.matchplay.events/api/tournaments/TOURNAMENT_ID/single-player-games/csv
```

## Export match play games

Enter the following URL into your browser, replacing `TOURNAMENT_ID` with the numeric id for your tournament:

```php
https://app.matchplay.events/api/tournaments/TOURNAMENT_ID/games/csv
```

## Export entries

Enter the following URL into your browser, replacing `TOURNAMENT_ID` with the numeric id for your tournament:

```php
https://app.matchplay.events/api/tournaments/TOURNAMENT_ID/entries/csv
```


# Tournaments API

Tournaments are the basic building blocks of Match Play. The tournament object contains basic tournament data like the name, date and configuration options, but also optionally the players and arenas.

## Get tournament

```http
GET /api/tournaments/{tournamentId}
```

Get details for a single tournament, optionally include players, arenas and other details in the response.

**Query params**

| Name                                  | Description                                                                 |
| ------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `includePlayers` (boolean)            | Set to `true` to include players                                            |
| `includeArenas` (boolean)             | Set to `true` to include arenas                                             |
| `includeBanks` (boolean)              | Set to `true` to include banks                                              |
| `includeScorekeepers` (boolean)       | Set to `true` to include scorekeepers                                       |
| `includeLocation` (boolean)           | Set to `true` to include location                                           |
| `includeEntryConfiguration` (boolean) | Set to `true` to include the entry configuration for best game tournaments  |
| `includeRsvpConfiguration` (boolean)  | Set to `true` to include RSVP configuration                                 |
| `includeLinkedTournaments` (boolean)  | Set to `true` to include linked tournaments such as qualifying and playoffs |
| `includeEvent` (boolean)              | Set to `true` to include the event this tournament is part of               |
| `includeShortcut` (boolean)           | Set to `true` to include custom link                                        |
| `includeSeries` (boolean)             | Set to `true` to include series                                             |

## Get tournament list

```http
GET /api/tournaments
```

Retrieve a list of tournaments. You can filter the list using various parameters. **Note: Do not attempt to iterate over thousands of tournaments using this endpoint.** Get in touch if you are looking to download large amounts of data.

**Query params**

| Name               | Description                                                                         |
| ------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `page` (integer)   | Which page of results to get                                                        |
| `limit` (integer)  | Number of results per page. Defaults to `25`, max is `100`                          |
| `owner` (integer)  | Filter to tournaments created by this user                                          |
| `played` (integer) | Filter to tournaments played by this user                                           |
| `status` (string)  | Filter to tournaments in this state. Possible values: `planned, started, completed` |
| `series` (integer) | Filter to tournaments belonging to this series                                      |

## Get tournament standings

```http
GET /api/tournaments/{tournamentId}/standings
```

Retrieve the tournament standings. **Do not request this endpoint more frequently than once every 15 seconds for tournaments that are in progress.** For completed tournaments only fetch standings once. They will never change.

## Get WPPR estimate

```http
POST /api/ifpa/wppr-estimator
```

Generate a WPPR estimate for a tournament or a series.

**Post data**

| Name                     | Description                                                                           |
| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `tournamentId` (integer) | Tournament to generate estimate for. Provide either this or a series id but not both. |
| `seriesId` (integer)     | Series to generate estimate for. Provide either this or a tournament id but not both. |

## Get tournament arena summary

```http
GET /api/tournaments/{tournamentId}/summary/arenas
```

One entry per arena in the tournament with data on how many times that arena was played. This summary is only available once the tournament has been completed.

**Query params**

| Name             | Description                  |
| ---------------- | ---------------------------- |
| `page` (integer) | Which page of results to get |

## Get tournament player/arena summary

```http
GET /api/tournaments/{tournamentId}/summary/player-arenas
```

One entry per player/arena combination in the tournament with data on how many times the player played each arena and how many wins & losses the player had. This summary is only available once the tournament has been completed.

**Query params**

| Name             | Description                  |
| ---------------- | ---------------------------- |
| `page` (integer) | Which page of results to get |

## Get tournament player/opponent/arena summary

```http
GET /api/tournaments/{tournamentId}/summary/matches
```

One entry per player/opponent/arena combination in the tournament with data on how many times the player played that opponent on each arena and how many wins & losses the player had. This summary is only available once the tournament has been completed.

The data from this endpoint is intentionally duplicated. If Player A and Player B played Machine X there will be both a `playerA-playerB-machineX` entry and a `playerB-playerA-machineX`.

**Query params**

| Name             | Description                  |
| ---------------- | ---------------------------- |
| `page` (integer) | Which page of results to get |


# Games API

Games store the central results of a tournament. Depending on the tournament format Match Play stores result as either multi-player games or single player games

## Get rounds

```http
GET /api/tournaments/{tournamentId}/rounds
```

Rounds are collections of games played at the same time. They are also used in pingolf tournaments to represent a golf hole.

## Get games

```http
GET /api/games
```

Games are multi-player games in direct play tournaments.

**Query params**

| Name                   | Description                                                                                                                                          |
| ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `page` (integer)       | Which page of results to get                                                                                                                         |
| `tournaments` (string) | Comma-separated list of tournament ids to get games for. You must provide either `tournaments` or `series`. You may provide up to 25 tournament ids. |
| `series` (string)      | Comma-separated list of tournament ids to get games for. You must provide either `tournaments` or `series`. You may provide up to 5 series ids.      |
| `ids` (string)         | Comma-separated list of game ids to fetch. You may provide up to 50 game ids.                                                                        |
| `status` (string)      | Game status to filter on. Value may be `started` or `completed`                                                                                      |
| `round` (integer)      | Round id of round to filter on.                                                                                                                      |
| `player` (integer)     | Player id of player to filter on.                                                                                                                    |
| `arena` (integer)      | Arena id of arena to filter on.                                                                                                                      |
| `bank` (integer)       | Bank id of bank to filter on.                                                                                                                        |

## Get single player games

```http
GET /api/tournaments/{tournamentId}/single-player-games
```

Single player games are used in best game and pingolf tournaments.

**Query params**

| Name                 | Description                                                                   |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `page` (integer)     | Which page of results to get                                                  |
| `limit` (integer)    | Number of games to get. Default is `25`, max is `500`.                        |
| `ids` (string)       | Comma-separated list of game ids to fetch. You may provide up to 50 game ids. |
| `status` (string)    | Game status to filter on. Value may be `pending`,  `started` or `completed`   |
| `bestGame` (boolean) | Whether to only fetch games that are marked as a "best game"                  |
| `voided` (boolean)   | Set to `true` to included voided games                                        |
| `round` (integer)    | Round id of round to filter on.                                               |
| `player` (integer)   | Player id of player to filter on.                                             |
| `arena` (integer)    | Arena id of arena to filter on.                                               |

## Get cards

```http
GET /api/tournaments/{tournamentId}/cards
```

Cards are used in card-based best game tournaments.

**Query params**

| Name                 | Description                                                                 |
| -------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `page` (integer)     | Which page of results to get                                                |
| `limit` (integer)    | Number of games to get. Default is `25`, max is `500`.                      |
| `status` (string)    | Game status to filter on. Value may be `pending`,  `started` or `completed` |
| `bestGame` (boolean) | Whether to only fetch games that are marked as a "best game"                |
| `voided` (boolean)   | Set to `true` to included voided games                                      |
| `player` (integer)   | Player id of player to filter on.                                           |


# Players & arenas API

Players and arenas form basic building blocks for tournaments.

Match Play APIs will generally only respond with the player id or the arena id for performance reasons. Separate API requests are necessary to receive the underlying player and arena objects.

When [fetching a tournament](/tournaments-api#get-tournament) set `includePlayers=true` and `includeArenas=true` to receive the initial set of players and arenas for the tournament. If you subsequently are exposed to unknown player or arena ids you can use the APIs on this page to resolve them.

## Resolve unknown arenas

```http
GET /api/arenas/resolve-unknown
```

Provide a comma-separated list of arena ids and receive the arena objects.

**Query params**

| Name              | Description                                                       |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `arenas` (string) | Comma-separated list of arena ids. Provide no more than `25` ids. |

## Resolve unknown players

```http
GET /api/players/resolve-unknown
```

Provide a comma-separated list of player ids and receive the player objects.

**Query params**

| Name               | Description                                                        |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `players` (string) | Comma-separated list of player ids. Provide no more than `25` ids. |

## Resolve unknown tournament arenas

```http
GET /api/tournaments/{tournamentId}/arenas/resolve-unknown
```

Provide a comma-separated list of arena ids and receive the arena objects including pivot data for the specific tournament (like arena labels and active/inactive status).

**Query params**

| Name              | Description                                                       |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `arenas` (string) | Comma-separated list of arena ids. Provide no more than `25` ids. |

## Resolve unknown tournament players

```http
GET /api/tournaments/{tournamentId}/players/resolve-unknown
```

Provide a comma-separated list of player ids and receive the player objects including pivot data for the specific tournament (like player labels, seeding and active/inactive status).

**Query params**

| Name               | Description                                                        |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `players` (string) | Comma-separated list of player ids. Provide no more than `25` ids. |


# OPDB & PinTips API

The Open Pinball Database (OPDB) is a searchable archive of pinball machines with a focus on providing a solid API for software developers who wish to incorporate pinball machine data into their apps.

{% hint style="info" %}

## You probably don't need OPDB endpoints

When working OPDB data it's often most efficient to download [the entire OPDB data set](/data-exports) as a data export instead of fetching machine details one by one.
{% endhint %}

## Parsing OPDB IDs

A common task when interacting with the OPDB data is to parse an OPDB ID into it's separate parts. The following regular expression can be used to parse OPDB IDs:

{% code overflow="wrap" %}

```regexp
/^G([a-zA-Z0-9]+)(?:-M([a-zA-Z0-9]+)(?:-A([a-zA-Z0-9]+))?)?$/
```

{% endcode %}

The first capturing group will contain the group identifier, the second the machine identifier and the third the alias identifier.

## Get OPDB changelog

```http
GET /api/opdb/changelog
```

Get the [OPDB changelog](https://app.matchplay.events/opdb/changelog) which you can use to update OPDB IDs which have been moved or deleted.

## Get OPDB entry

```http
GET /api/opdb/entry/{opdbId}
```

Get a single OPDB entry. Do not use if you're fetching data for many entries. Instead [download the entire OPDB data set as one export](/data-exports#export-opdb).

**Query params**

| Name                      | Description                             |
| ------------------------- | --------------------------------------- |
| `includePeople` (boolean) | Optional. Include people data for entry |
| `includeImages` (boolean) | Optional. Include image data for entry  |

## Get PinTips

```http
GET /api/pintips
```

Get PinTips (short playing tips) for a single OPDB entry or Match Play arena.

**Query params**

| Name               | Description                          |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------ |
| `opdbId` (string)  | Optional. OPDB id to get PinTips for |
| `arenaId` (number) | Optional. Arena to get PinTips for   |


# Profile API

Profiles represent user accounts in Match Play. A user account can be the claimant for multiple player objects in tournaments.

### Get self profile

```http
GET /api/users/profile
```

Returns the profile object for the user you are currently authenticated as.

### Get profile

```http
GET /api/users/{userId}
```

Returns the profile for the given user id

### Resolve unknown profiles <a href="#resolve-unknown-arenas" id="resolve-unknown-arenas"></a>

{% code overflow="wrap" %}

```http
GET /api/users/resolve-unknown
```

{% endcode %}

Provide a comma-separated list of user ids and receive the profile objects.

**Query params**

| Name             | Description                                                      |
| ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `users` (string) | Comma-separated list of user ids. Provide no more than `25` ids. |


# Real time API

Match Play offers an experimental web socket connect for real time updates for tournaments.

{% hint style="info" %}
This page is still a work in progress. Please report issues or omissions.
{% endhint %}

## Connecting to the web socket

You connect to the web socket using the following URL:

{% code overflow="wrap" %}

```http
wss://ws.app.matchplay.events/app/tnrxzkahdeullnwje83e?protocol=7&client=js&version=8.5.0&flash=false
```

{% endcode %}

The web socket connection URL may change in the future, but will be updated here if it does.

## Subscribing to the tournament channel

After connecting to the web socket you must subscribe to the channel that corresponds to the tournament you want to receive events for. Replace **{TOURNAMENT\_ID}** with the tournament id for the tournament and the the following message to the socket

```json
{
    "event":"pusher:subscribe",
    "data":{
        "auth":"",
        "channel":"tournaments.{TOURNAMENT_ID}"
    }
}
```

## Receiving events

After you have subscribed to the channel you will start to receive events. The following events are possible.

| Event name                         | Payload                                                                                                                                        |
| ---------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `TournamentUpdated`                | Payload contains the updated tournament model                                                                                                  |
| `RoundCreatedOrUpdated`            | Payload contains the round model. Use the [Get games](/games-api#get-games) endpoint with the `round` parameter to get the games for the round |
| `RoundsDeleted`                    | Payload contains the round ids for the deleted rounds                                                                                          |
| `GameCreatedOrUpdated`             | Payload contains the updated game model                                                                                                        |
| `GamesDeleted`                     | Payload contains the game ids for the deleted games                                                                                            |
| `SinglePlayerGameCreatedOrUpdated` | Payload contains the updated game model                                                                                                        |
| `SinglePlayerGamesDeleted`         | Payload contains the game ids for the deleted games                                                                                            |
| `ArenasAdded`                      | Payload contains the arena ids for the added arenas. [Resolve any unknown objects](/players-and-arenas-api).                                   |
| `PlayersAdded`                     | Payload contains the player ids for the added players. [Resolve any unknown objects](/players-and-arenas-api).                                 |
| `PlayersChanged`                   | Payload contains the player ids for the changed players. [Resolve any unknown objects](/players-and-arenas-api).                               |
| `ArenasChanged`                    | Payload contains the arena ids for the changed arenas. [Resolve any unknown objects](/players-and-arenas-api).                                 |
| `QueueChanged`                     | Payload *may* contain the updated queue models, but may not in case the queue is too large                                                     |