FAQ: Pairings, Tiebreakers & Strength of Schedule

OWR breaks ties using a list of metrics applied in order. The Tournament Organiser picks which metrics are enabled and how they are prioritised, so check the event's standings columns to see which apply. The full list:

The default enabled order is Wins, then Tournament Points, then VP Differential, then Strength of Schedule.

If the event uses the Head-to-Head tiebreaker, tied players are ordered by their direct results against each other before later metrics apply. A player who beat the people they're tied with can finish above someone with more Tournament Points. The H2H column on the standings shows the score that decided it: +1, 0, -1, or a dash when a player isn't tied with anyone.

The full explanation, including a worked six-player example and what happens when A beat B, B beat C, and C beat A, is in Understanding the Head-to-Head Tiebreaker.

Every event has one official final ranking, chosen by the organiser: Best Overall or Best General.

Best General is battle only. It applies the event's tiebreaker list to game results, and soft scores never touch it.

Best Overall includes the soft scores the organiser has set to count toward overall, such as painting and sportsmanship. When an event has counting soft scores, Best Overall ranks by total points first (battle plus soft), then applies the tiebreaker list to players level on total. That means a well painted army with a middling record can genuinely finish above a stronger record. If the event has no counting soft scores, the two rankings normally come out the same.

On the standings table a trophy icon marks the column driving the official ranking. The public results page shows the official placings, and where both rankings exist you can flip between the two orderings; only the official one decides the published final placings and ranking points.

SoS = (total wins of all your opponents) divided by (number of opponents), rounded to 2 decimals. We use each opponent's current win count, so as your opponents win more games later in the event, your SoS rises with them.

Example: you played 4 games and your opponents finished with 4, 3, 2, and 0 wins. SoS = (4 + 3 + 2 + 0) / 4 = 2.25. If you somehow played the same opponent twice, they only count once. A higher SoS means a tougher field; it rewards players whose record came against stronger competition.

The same idea, but using opponents' Tournament Points instead of raw wins: BP SoS = (sum of opponents' Tournament Points) divided by (number of opponents), rounded to 2 decimals. This is finer-grained than SoS because it rewards facing opponents who scored highly even when matches were close.

No. Swiss pairings only ever consider battle results. Soft scores can affect the final event rankings (if the organiser has configured soft scores to count toward overall), but never the opponent you get matched against in a round.

The list is shown in alphabetical order so the table is deterministic, but those players are genuinely tied; they share the same rank.