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Stages & Formats

Competitions are organized into one or more stages. Each stage has its own format, scoring, and advancement rules.

How Stages Work

A stage represents a phase of competition. Simple events use a single stage. Complex events chain multiple stages together:

  • Single-stage example: A Swiss tournament with 5 rounds
  • Multi-stage example: Round-robin group stage → single-elimination playoffs

Stage Properties

  • Name — display name (e.g., "Group Stage", "Playoffs")
  • Format — the competition format (Swiss, elimination, etc.)
  • Sequence — position in the competition (stage 1, stage 2, etc.)
  • Status — Pending → Active → Completed
  • Scoring — point values and tiebreaker configuration
  • Advancement — how participants move to the next stage

Stage Lifecycle

  1. Create the stage and configure its format and scoring
  2. Activate it when you're ready to start play
  3. Run matches — generate pairings, record results
  4. Finalize when all matches are complete — optionally advance top participants to the next stage

Available Formats

Swiss

Players with similar records are paired each round. Everyone plays all rounds — no elimination.

  • Best for: 8–64+ players, 3–7 rounds
  • Config: Number of rounds, bye point value
  • With groups: Add groups to a Swiss stage to run independent Swiss within each group (the "Group + Swiss" template below). Pairings stay in-group and the standings page shows a separate leaderboard per group, with ranks resetting from 1 inside each group.

| Players | Recommended Rounds | |---------|-------------------| | 8 | 3 | | 16 | 4 | | 32 | 5 | | 64 | 6 |

Single Elimination

Classic bracket — win or go home.

  • Best for: Top cuts, quick events, 8–32 players
  • Config: Seeding method, optional third-place match

Double Elimination

Two losses to eliminate. Winners bracket and losers bracket converge in grand finals.

  • Best for: Competitive events, 8–32 players
  • Config: Grand finals rules (single set, bracket reset, advantage)

Round Robin

Everyone plays everyone. Best for small groups.

  • Best for: 4–8 players, league play, group stages
  • Config: Double round (home/away) toggle

Ladder

Continuous ranked play with tiers.

  • Best for: Ongoing competitive seasons
  • Config: Tier thresholds (1–4), allow demotion, win streak bonus
  • Notifications: Players automatically receive in-app + push notifications when promoted to a new tier (Bronze → Silver, etc.). Discord channels subscribed to match results also receive a rank-up broadcast — no extra subscription needed.

Open

Freeform play — participants create their own matches against anyone else in the stage.

  • Best for: Casual leagues, practice seasons, community play
  • Config:
    • Default match format (BO1, BO3, BO5, Two-Game)
    • Allow participants to choose format (toggle)
    • Max matches per opponent pair (or unlimited)
    • Show/hide standings leaderboard

GSL (Group Stage League)

A group stage format used in esports-style events, where groups play a specific bracket structure.

Multi-Stage Templates

When creating stages, you can start from a template:

| Template | Stage 1 | Stage 2 | |----------|---------|---------| | Group + Knockout | Round Robin groups | Single Elimination playoffs | | Group + Swiss | Swiss groups | Swiss finals | | GSL + Playoffs | GSL groups | Single Elimination playoffs |

Or create stages individually for full control.

Scoring Configuration

Each stage has its own scoring settings.

Match Points

Points awarded per match result:

| Result | Default Points | |--------|---------------| | Win | 3 | | Draw | 1 | | Loss | 0 | | Bye | 3 | | Forfeit Win | 3 | | Forfeit Draw | 1 | | Forfeit Loss | 0 |

Customize these per stage (e.g., Win = 1 for simple formats). Forfeit-specific values let you decouple administrative outcomes from played outcomes — for example, a league might award a full forfeit win the same as a regular win but penalize a forfeit loss with -1 to discourage no-shows.

Game Points

For Best-of-3 or Best-of-5 matches, individual game results are tracked:

| Result | Default Points | |--------|---------------| | Game Win | 3 | | Game Draw | 1 | | Game Loss | 0 |

Tiebreakers

Configure tiebreaker priority when players have equal match points:

| Tiebreaker | Description | |-----------|-------------| | Buchholz | Sum of opponents' scores (strength of schedule) | | Sonneborn-Berger | Wins add opponent's full points, draws add a proportion based on the draw/win match point ratio, losses add nothing | | Head-to-Head | Direct result if tied players faced each other | | Game Win % | Individual game performance | | Match Win % | Overall match win percentage | | Matches Played & Won | Match wins excluding forfeits — rewards wins from actual play | | Games Won | Game wins excluding forfeit games — rewards wins from actual play | | Total Games | Total games played | | Median Buchholz | Buchholz score excluding the highest and lowest opponent scores — reduces the impact of outlier pairings (FIDE standard) | | Koya System | Points earned only against opponents with a winning record (above 50% match win rate) | | Wins at Disadvantage | Number of game wins when playing without first-turn advantage | | Unique Fighter Wins | Number of game wins using distinct characters — rewards versatility | | Seed | Original seeding position as final tiebreaker (lower seed = higher priority) |

Tip: Drag tiebreakers to reorder their priority. The first tiebreaker is checked first; if still tied, the second is used, and so on.

Select and order the tiebreakers that make sense for your format.

Advancement

When a stage finishes, you can advance top participants to the next stage:

  • By standings — automatically advance the top N participants based on final standings
  • Manual — hand-pick who advances (useful for wildcard spots or special circumstances)

Configure the advance count (total or per group) when setting up the stage.

When Players Are Eliminated

A player's status in a stage is Active, Advanced, Eliminated, or Withdrawn. When someone becomes "eliminated" depends on the format:

  • Single & double elimination (brackets): a player is eliminated the moment their knockout match result is confirmed — you don't have to finalize the stage. (If your competition requires result verification, this is when the result is verified, not the instant it's submitted.) A player is knocked out when they lose a match with no further match to play. In double elimination, losing in the winners bracket is not elimination — that player drops to the losers bracket; they're eliminated only after losing there (or in the grand finals).
  • Swiss, round robin, league, group stages: losing a match does not eliminate anyone. These players are marked eliminated only when you finalize the stage — everyone who isn't advanced becomes eliminated at that point.
  • Withdrawn is separate from eliminated: it's applied when a player drops out, regardless of results.

Why it matters: eliminated status drives "knocked out" indicators in standings and, if you've enabled it, automatic removal of the competitor Discord role. If you correct a match result so a bracket player is no longer knocked out, their status returns to Active automatically.

Match Formats

Individual matches within any stage use one of these formats:

| Format | Description | |--------|-------------| | BO1 | Best of 1 — single game | | BO3 | Best of 3 — first to 2 wins | | BO5 | Best of 5 — first to 3 wins | | BO7 | Best of 7 — first to 4 wins | | Two-Game | Both players play twice (common in chess-style events) |