Running Game Day: Pairings and Players

On the day you do almost everything from Game Day > Pairings: check players in, pair each round, publish it, start it, fix scores and complete it. The steps below follow the order of a real event.

Getting to Pairings

From the first day of your event, opening your dashboard takes you straight to Game Day > Pairings. Before then, click Game Day in the top bar. See Your Dashboard: Setup and Game Day for a tour.

At the top of the tab you will see:

• A summary of your pairing format (Round 1, Round 2+, Tables and anything you avoid, such as repeat tables). To change it, click Edit Pairing Format. That opens Setup > Scoring > Pairings / Rankings.
• The round bar: a round picker, the Players button, and the buttons for the next step in the round.

The round picker shows where each round is up to: Pending, Pairing, Pairings Published, Active or Complete. Teams events also have Captain Assigning.

Check players in

The Players button shows how many players are checked in, for example Players 14/16. Players can check themselves in from the Battle Hub (see Check-in on Event Day), or you can do it for them here.

1. Click Players.
2. Find the player under Playing and click Check in. It changes to Checked in. Click it again to undo.

The list has three sections: Playing, Waitlist and Dropped.

Add a late arrival

1. In Players, click Add Player.
2. Search for the player, or type a new name to create them.
3. Pick their Faction.
4. On a paid event, set Requires Payment and Payment Status (for example, if they paid you cash at the door).
5. Click Add Player.

If your event is already at its player cap, the new player goes onto the Waitlist.

Take someone off the waitlist

Under Waitlist, click Add to event next to their name. They move to Playing and get the usual spot-available notification.

Drop a no-show

1. Under Playing, click Drop next to their name.
2. Confirm with Drop. Dropped players are left out of all future pairings.

To undo a drop, find the player under Dropped and click Reinstate. A player who was refunded on a paid event comes back as unpaid.

Pair round 1

1. Click Pair Players (Pair Teams in doubles and teams events).
2. If anyone is not checked in, a Players Not Checked In box lists them. Check them in or drop them there, then click Generate Anyway. Once you have dealt with everyone, the button reads Pair Players.
3. Check the pairings. In round 1 each player shows a tick if they are checked in.

Adjust the pairings

• Swap players: drag a player onto another player. On a phone, press and hold, then drag.
• Keep a pairing: click the lock icon on a table (Lock this pairing). Locked tables are kept when you re-pair. To pin a player to a table (for example, an accessible table), open the player's menu and choose Lock to table. See Table Locks and Pinning.
• Pair two players by hand: click Add Match, choose both sides (or a BYE) and click Add Match. Hand-made matches are locked, so re-pairing will not wipe them.
• Start again: click Re-pair Players. Locked tables stay put. To wipe everything, including locked tables, use the bin icon (Clear all pairings).
• Take a player out of one match only: open their menu and choose Remove from this match only.

If two players have already met, a warning tells you how many repeat matchups there are.

On a phone, Add Match, Rescore and Clear all pairings are in the ... menu next to the round picker.

Publish the pairings

Click Publish Pairings. If there are repeat matchups, confirm with Lock Anyway.

Players now see their table and opponent in the Battle Hub, and the pairings appear on the Battle Board. Players are emailed their pairing (and sent a push notification if they use the app), unless you have turned off Player notifications enabled in Setup > Communications.

To make a late change, click Unlock Pairings, make the change, then click Publish Pairings again. Only the players whose pairing changed are notified again.

Start the round

When everyone is at their table, click Start Round. The round timer starts on the Battle Board and players can enter scores. You can also start the round from the Battle Board tab.

If you started too early, Reopen Pairings takes the round back to pairing, as long as no match has been scored yet.

Scores during the round

Players enter their own results in the Battle Hub: one player submits for both sides and their opponent confirms. Scores appear on this tab live. Each player shows Submitted, Confirming or Confirmed, and each table's button changes from Score to Scored.

Enter or fix a score yourself

1. Click Score (or Scored) on the table.
2. In the Table window, open each section (such as Game Result and Soft Scores) and fill it in.
3. Click Submit Score. If you have only filled in part of it, the button reads Save Progress. For a match that is already scored it reads Update Score.

Your score always wins over anything the players submitted, so this is also how you settle a dispute. To clear a table's score completely, open the table's ... menu and choose Reset score.

BYEs are scored automatically with the BYE points from your scoring setup. To change one, open it and click Update BYE.

A player leaves mid-round

If you drop a player while the round is Active, they stay in their current match so you can score it, and they are left out of the next round. If you drop someone before the round starts, they are taken out of their pairing and their opponent is left with an open slot. Re-pair, drag someone in, or use Add Match.

Complete the round

1. When every table has its battle score, click Complete Round 1 (the number matches the round). Until then the button is greyed out, and hovering over it tells you how many matches still need scores.
2. Standings are recalculated. If Public live pairings is on, followers are emailed the round standings.
3. Click Start Pairing Round 2 and repeat the same steps: pair, publish, start, score, complete. From round 2 the pairings follow your Round 2+ format (usually Swiss).

You cannot pair a round until the round before it is complete.

Soft scores do not hold up a round. You can enter or change them at any time, even after the round is complete. When you complete the final round with soft score categories set up, a Check Soft Scores warning reminds you to get them in first. Click Complete Round Anyway to carry on.

Fix a mistake

• To correct one result in a completed round, click Scored on the table, open the section you need, click Unlock and change it. Pairings and later rounds do not change.
• To reopen the whole round, click Reopen Round. Scores are kept.
• If you change your scoring settings mid-event, click Rescore, then Recalculate Scores. Every match in every round is recalculated with your current scoring setup.

For more ways to undo a step, see Fixing Mistakes on Game Day.

Finish the event

1. When the last round is complete, a card tells you final standings are calculated. Check the Standings tabs and add any penalties or bonuses now (see Score Adjustments).
2. Click Reveal Results to Players & Battle Board. Players see the final results in the Battle Hub and the Battle Board shows them. To undo, click Hide Results from Players & Battle Board.
3. Click Complete Tournament in the top bar. This publishes the results to Old World Rankings, updates player profiles and rankings, and emails final results to players and followers.

If you click Complete Tournament early, you are warned first: Incomplete Rounds if rounds are unfinished, and Results Not Revealed Yet if you skipped the reveal (completing reveals them for you). Click Complete Anyway to go ahead.

To fix something after completing, use Reopen Tournament in the arrow menu at the top right, make the fix, then complete the tournament again. See Fixing Mistakes on Game Day.

Doubles and teams

Doubles events

Doubles pair as teams, so the button reads Pair Teams and Add Match pairs two teams. A doubles team can play with one player, but a team with nobody active is left out. Before pairing you will see a Some teams can't be paired warning, with Pair anyway to continue.

Teams events

1. Click Pair Teams to set up the team matchups. Drag teams to swap them and lock any matchup you want to keep.
2. Click Release to Captains. Captains are emailed and pick which of their players plays on each table.
3. If captains leave gaps, click the dice button (Randomly fill open slots).
4. Publish Pairings stays greyed out until every player is assigned. Then publish and start the round as normal.

To go back a step, use Recall from Captains (while captains are assigning) or Reopen Matchups (after publishing). See Teams Rounds and Captains.

Team events need full rosters. Dropping a player takes their whole team out of pairings, so keep them on the roster and score that table instead. Team soft scores (such as painting) are entered on each team captain's match, marked with a crown.

---

Related

• Your Dashboard: Setup and Game Day
• Standings and Soft Scores for Organisers
• The Battle Board (Venue Screen)
• Fixing Mistakes on Game Day
• Check-in on Event Day
• Pairings, Tiebreakers and Strength of Schedule