The following steps will walk you through the start to finish process of running a constructed tournament including troubleshooting tips and best practices.
Create the Event
The event may be created ahead of time or the day of the event. This can be done by anyone with Staff Admin or Scorekeeper permissions to the organization. Below are some steps and resources to help you through this process.
- Ensure that you have the correct organization set to default.
- You can only create tournaments for your current default organization. See HERE for a guide on how to change your default organization.
- Navigate to your Organization Dashboard and select Create Tournament.
- Select the appropriate location and game and then select Continue.
- Complete the tournament details using the Tournament Setup Guide, then select Create Tournament at the bottom of the page.
- The next page you see will be the Phases section of the Tournament Controller for that event..
- Tabs on the left will help you navigate to different sections.
Create Phases
- Select the Phases tab on the left side. Click on that tab then on the Phases Actions dropdown on the right side of the screen and create a new phase.
- Use the Phases Guide to create the appropriate phases.
- A tournament MUST have phases before it can be published to the public.
Add Staff
You may want to add a judge or other staff to access the tournament. You can utilize this Staffing Guide to add individuals to your tournament. Keep in mind that different roles have different accesses and permissions. You can read more about that HERE <permissions article>.
Enroll Players
Players can be enrolled manually or the tournament can be set to allow players to enroll themselves. These settings are on the 2nd tournament creation screen and can be accessed from the blue Tournament Actions dropdown (→ Edit tournament details selection) which appears on the top right of the Tournament Controller. See the documentation below for guidance.
If you are hosting a large event, the Melee team can also allow your organization to upload players from a CSV. However, this may require taking payments on Melee or paying a small per player fee to the platform. If you are interested in this, please reach out to us at contact@melee.gg.
Set the Starting Table (if not starting at 1) and Fixed Seats
Select Phases then, select the green edit button next to the phase for which you are setting the table number. Select Table numbers to expand the section. You may provide a starting or ending table number.
If you need to assign a fixed seat for a player, please refer to this article.
Begin the Event
You can either start a tournament by:
- Changing its status to In Progress from the Status button on the top right of the Tournament Controller.
- Navigating to the Matches tab and matching players/teams for the first round of play, which will automatically change the tournament’s status to In Progress.
Match Round 1
Go to the Matches tab then to the Matches Actions dropdown and select Match players/teams. This will pair the round which will display (*see below for more details) for players within their Player Controller and Player Portal. These are two unique tools your players have as options to use for tournaments.
- Player Controller: Full tournament information. Intended for more competitive players with access to more tournament information.
- Player Portal: Streamlined, better for mobile devices. Intended for more casual players, providing them with only what they need to receive pairings, submit results, and drop.
Running Constructed Rounds
It is best practice to retain a copy of the pairings by table and standings for each round. You can do this by printing those items or by saving them to a .pdf through the print function.
*Pairings and Standings will default to automatically publish once they are generated. These settings can be adjusted if you prefer to manually publish. To do so:
- Select Quick Settings and then click the boxes next to the option to “Delay Delivery of Matches” and/or “Delay Delivery of Standings”.
- Each round you will need to navigate to Matches the select Match Actions then select Publish Matches to make them visible to others.
Note: If you want to turn off this delay during a round, you should publish that round before un-delaying since the publish button disappears when you remove the delay.
Mid-Round Actions
Round Turnover // Going To The Next Round
Once all the results are submitted the standings will automatically be updated. If you are ready for the next round you can go back to the Matches tab, click on the next round’s button then Match players/teams again.
Top 8
If your tournament includes a Top 8 or similar play off,move to that phase following the final round of swiss pairings. Ensure that your Top 8 has the appropriate settings applied (see Creating a Tournament with a Top 8) and then on the Matches tab select the green Go to Next Phase button.
Note: Top 8 and Power Pairings in the final round of Swiss: If your event has a top cut phase after the Swiss rounds then Power Pairings will be used for the final round of Swiss. This will pair players with similar tie-breakers together so that intensional draws and the top cut are cleaner. If your top cut is added after the Swiss rounds are complete, Power Pairings will not be used.
Troubleshooting: Top 8 Issues Article
Concluding the Event
Tournaments will automatically end once the final results are submitted. If your tournament was set up with too many rounds, you can go back to the Phases tab and edit the phase to have the correct number of rounds.
Note: If you have decreased the number of rounds to the current number completed, the event will not automatically mark itself as “Ended” – you will need to do so manually.