Running Tournaments

Flexible tournament software is available as a free feature for events. This section will cover how to set up and run a tournament for a created event.

Creating a Tournament

From your event page, select Edit, then open Tournaments in the sidebar and select Create Tournament (or Create if the event already has one). If you created the event with the Quick Tournament template, its tournament and entry ticket already exist. For Swiss, choose a Scoring Format before saving, since the template leaves it blank.

Tournament Setup

Tournament Structure

XP Network currently offers Swiss, Single Elimination, and Double Elimination tournament formats. Make sure to select the proper tournament format from the dropdown.

Status	A tournament can have the following tournament statuses: Pending, In Progress, Paused, or Completed. Tournaments should start in Pending and will automatically move to In Progress once started. An event organizer can pause the tournament if necessary, and unpausing it would move the status to In Progress again. Once a tournament has concluded, the status should be set to Completed, which automatically happens when the Stop button is pressed.
Import Prior Tournament	Allows you to duplicate tournament setup by importing information from a previous tournament. Only available when creating a tournament. It also copies the old dates, so update Start Time and Ends after importing.
Tournament Name	Defaults to the main event name, but can be modified if the details are different, or in the case of more than 1 tournament in an event.
Capacity	The number of player spots, up to the event’s capacity (maximum 1000). With Split, the entry ticket gets up to this many seats. With Take Over, it gets all remaining event capacity. Changing it later doesn’t resize the ticket, so update the ticket’s Available Inventory too.
Start Time and Ends	Automatically defaults to the main event Start Date and End Date, but these can be modified if necessary, especially if multiple tournaments are being created under the same event.
Admission	Can only be set when you create the tournament. Split (default) creates a free ticket for this tournament and takes seats from General Admission only when the event’s unused capacity is less than the tournament’s capacity, and only as many as it needs. Take Over removes General Admission, or stops its sales if some have already sold, and gives the tournament ticket all remaining event capacity.
Require Player ID	This toggle is only used if the event organizer is using XP Network for ticketing, then exporting the player list to be used with external tournament software. If this toggle is on, upon registering, players will be required to enter their Player ID from whichever external system the event organizer chooses in the Player ID Type dropdown. Players can also edit their external Player IDs from their profile.

Description	Defaults to the main event description, but can be modified if the details are different, or in the case of more than 1 tournament in an event.
Competitor Type	Individual Players or Teams. The Teams format is only available if the event is created from the Leagues feature. This can’t be changed after the tournament is created.
Max Games	The number of games per match, anywhere from 1 to 7. Locked to 2 when Scoring Format is Best of 2.
Top Cut	If the tournament structure is Swiss, you can set the number of top cut players to play in an elimination bracket after Swiss. Choose an even number from 0 to 100.
Grand Finals Mode	For Double Elimination, choose Bracket Reset (True Double Elimination), Single Match (the default), or No Grand Finals. This locks once the bracket is created.
Scoring Format	If the tournament structure is Swiss, you can set the scoring format to Traditional, Best of 2, or Custom. Traditional is the standard used point system across most games, while Best of 2 is suited for games that support that point system, such as Alpha Clash. Custom adds Win Points, Loss Points, Draw Points, and Bye Points. Leave Bye Points blank to score byes as wins.

Match Experience settings control what players see and can do while reporting.

Show Scores	Allows players to input a numerical score while submitting their match.
Show Ties	Allows players to submit an individual game result as a Tie. This option should only be used for tournament structures that allow for individual games to end in ties or no contest.
Show Win-Loss-Draw Records	Defaulted to on, but can be toggled off if you wish to hide W-L-D records from the public.
Disable Disputes	Prevent players from calling a judge from their device.
Avoid Repeat Tables	Swiss only. Tries not to seat players at a table they’ve already played at, without changing pairings.

Tiebreakers are only available for Swiss. They decide how players are ranked in the standings.

Match Points	Points earned from match results, based on the Scoring Format. In Traditional scoring, a win or bye is 3 points, a draw is 1, and a loss is 0.
Match Win Percentage	The share of a player’s matches they won, with byes counting as wins.
Opponent Match Win Percentage	The average Match Win Percentage of everyone the player has played, with a minimum of 33%.
Game Win Percentage	The share of individual games a player won across all their matches.
Opponent Game Win Percentage	The average Game Win Percentage of everyone the player has played, with a minimum of 33%.
Opponents Opponents Match Win Percentage	The average Match Win Percentage of the opponents that the player’s opponents have played, with a minimum of 33%.

After creating your tournament, it will show up in the Tournaments tab. Selecting the Manage button will take you to the respective tournament’s organizer view. Tournaments can’t be deleted once created.

Editing Tournament Entry Tickets

Creating a tournament adds a free [Tournament Name] Admission ticket (except for events run by a league that manages registration) that’s on sale right away until the event ends, limited to 1 per buyer. Edit it on the Tickets page to change the price or dates.

Tickets on sale can’t be edited. Switch the ticket off in the Tickets list, select Edit, and tick Enable After Saving so it goes back on sale when you save.

Name	The ticket’s name, shown to buyers.
Optional Image	An image shown with the ticket.
Brief Description	A short summary of the ticket, up to 255 characters.
Long Description	Optional details, such as rules or what’s included.
Available Inventory	How many tickets you want to sell, usually your player cap. It can’t be more than the event’s remaining capacity.
Max Purchase Quantity	Locked to 1 for Tournament Entry tickets, since each player can only enter a tournament once.

Purchase Privileges	What the ticket gives its holder. A Tournament Entry ticket can include Admission to the event and a spot in one or more of the event’s tournaments, so buyers are added as competitors right away.
Sales and Pricing	Works the same as for any other ticket. Select Add Price to add more price tiers, such as an early bird price.
Caption	A short label buyers see to tell price tiers apart, such as Early Bird or Last Chance.
Payment Method	Online (Stripe), or Pay in Person for payments collected at the event.
Price Per Ticket	Locked to $0 for Online (Stripe) until your Stripe account can accept payments. Pay in Person prices can be set any time. A saved price can’t be changed, so remove it and select Add Price to set a new one. Proceeds go to the hosting organization’s Stripe account, or the event creator’s if the event has no organization.
Quantity	How many tickets to sell at this price. Defaults to unlimited. Useful for limited tiers like early bird pricing.
Fee responsibility	Who pays the payment processing fee: Seller (the default) or Buyer. Only appears for Online (Stripe) prices, and is unavailable until your Stripe account can accept payments.
On Sale	When this price goes on sale. To sell right away, set it to earlier today.
(Optional) On Sale Countdown	Shows buyers a countdown, starting at the date you pick, until that price goes on sale.
Off Sale	When this price stops being sold. Defaults to the event’s end.
Allow XP Redemption	Lets buyers spend XP on this ticket when XP redemption is turned on for your organization or event. It only applies to paid Online (Stripe) prices.

Adding Judges to Your Tournament

Under the Staff tab, select Invite Staff, then search for XP Network users by username, or enter one or more email addresses, and assign them the Tournament Judge role for any tournaments you want them to judge. This will give them access to the Judge Dashboard (the Match Disputes page) and will give them notification alerts of any match disputes or judge calls. XP Network users will be added directly; if an email address isn’t tied to an XP Network account, they’ll receive an email invite to join. You can optionally add an Assignment to note what this person is responsible for at the event, such as a specific bracket or gate.

Judges can also update match results and resolve disputes, but they can’t start rounds, advance to the top cut, or end the tournament. Invite judges after the tournament exists, since the Tournament Judge role needs at least one tournament to pick. Judges open the dashboard from the Judge button on the tournament page.

Players Joining Your Tournament

After creating the ticket and enabling it, players will be able to join the tournament by navigating to the event page and selecting Join Event. In the case of a paid ticket, they will be taken to a checkout session to complete the payment to obtain their ticket.

If you configured the Require Player ID toggle, their ticket will be held in checkout and give them a window to enter their Player ID for the platform you required. The system will then allow them to acquire their ticket. If that Player ID has already been saved to their profile, this step will be skipped for them.

Tournament Management

After creating a tournament, it will be listed under the Tournaments tab of your Event manager. Selecting Edit will allow you to edit any details of the tournament, such as the description, tiebreakers, or top cut number. Selecting Manage will take you to the Tournament manager.

The tournament manager has 5 tabs.

Rounds	Pairings, round controls, and match reporting. Most of running the tournament happens here.
Competitors	Add players, check them in, change their status, and manage seeding.
Standings	Rankings after each round. For Single and Double Elimination, it shows final placements based on the round each player was knocked out in.
Bracket	The bracket for elimination tournaments and Swiss top cuts.
Disputes	Match disputes and judge calls, where you resolve them.

Checking Players In

A player will need to be checked into the tournament in order for them to be included in Swiss pairings or bracket generation. Players check in with Check Into Tournament on the tournament page, which opens 12 hours before the tournament starts. Organizers can check players in with the Checked In checkbox on the Competitors tab. Scanning a player’s tournament ticket at the door also checks them in.

For team tournaments, Add Teams lists the league’s teams. A team is checked in once any member is, and only the captain can check the team in from the tournament page. Adding a team registers its roster for the event. If the team changes its captain afterward, the new captain must be registered before check-in works.

Add Competitors	This button allows you to manually add any user to your tournament, provided they have registered for your event. XP Network currently does not support ghost users, or allow for manual entry of users who have not registered for your event.

Check In All	This button gives the ability to Check In or Check Out all players.

Reset Seeds	Players you add yourself get the next seed. Players who join with a ticket don’t have a seed until you select Reset Seeds, which numbers everyone in the order they joined, or set seeds with Edit Seeds. Reset Seeds also removes tier dividers and only works before the tournament starts.
Edit Seeds	Used for Elimination tournaments to manually assign seeding and customize matchups. Swiss tournaments do not use this button.
Randomize	Randomly assigns seeding. Once you add tier dividers, this button is replaced by a Randomize button on each tier.
Lock Seeds	Seed changes save as you drag. Lock Seeds hides the editing controls and shows a Generate Bracket button that takes you to the Rounds tab. Select Edit Seeds to unlock.
Tier Dividers	Hover between two players and select + Tier divider to group seeds into tiers. Each tier gets its own Randomize button. Tiers only affect randomizing, not the bracket.

Player Status

You can change the player status from the Competitors tab.

Active	Default status, player is active in the tournament.
Inactive	Player is inactive in the tournament and will not be included in matches.
Self Dropped	Player has dropped from the tournament.
Disqualified	Keeps the player listed but leaves them out of future pairings.
Eliminated	Marks the player as out of the tournament. Later Swiss rounds and the top cut only include Active players.

Changing a player’s status doesn’t change the match they’re in now, so report that match too.

Starting the Tournament

After all players are checked in, confirm the number of players is correct in the tournament options. There will also be some additional info like Recommended Rounds, Matches Per Round, Games Per Match, and more. Organizers are able to edit the number of Rounds and games per match after the tournament has started.

Duration (min)	This will set the default timer for each round.
Time Between Rounds (min)	Minutes added between each round’s scheduled start time, used for the countdown players see. Rounds still start only when you select Start Round. You can leave the default.
Start Date	Defaults to the tournament start date set when creating the tournament.

Select Create Initial Pairings to have the system automatically create all rounds and pair players for Round 1. You can then adjust rounds as necessary: select Add Round to add a round, Edit on the round bar to change its timer or delete it, or Add Match to pair a late arrival by hand. Completed rounds can’t be edited. You can use Reset Pairings to clear the round’s pairings, then select Generate Pairings to pair it again, in the event of dropped players, players who joined the tournament late, or after fixing incorrect scores in a previous round. In the case of Elimination style tournaments, you can view and manage everything under the Bracket tab.

Select Pairings to open these options again. Once a round has pairings, Export Pairings emails you a CSV of every round’s pairings, which you can print and post at your venue.

When you select Create Initial Pairings, checked-in players get a notification that pairings are ready, but they can’t see them until you start the tournament. Select Play to start it. Players get a “Tournament starting now!” notification. Play needs at least one round to exist.

How Pairings Work

In Swiss, Round 1 byes are random. After that, the bye goes to the lowest-ranked player who hasn’t had one, and it counts as a match win. In elimination brackets, the top seeds get the byes.

Swiss pairs players with the same match points and avoids rematches whenever possible. If a group can’t be paired without a rematch, a player moves down to the next point group. The highest-ranked pairs sit at the lowest table numbers, unless Avoid Repeat Tables is turned on.

Players only see their own table and opponent. Everyone else’s pairings stay hidden until the round is complete, so put TV on a screen if players need to find each other. After Round 1, players see their new pairing as soon as you generate it, but they can’t report until you select Start Round. In elimination brackets and top cuts, the full bracket is visible on the Brackets tab.

Starting Rounds

Once the tournament is started, select Start Round to start the Round Timer and send a notification to all players that the round has started. Players can then begin playing their matches. Players are able to report from their side, but an event organizer can submit scores for them. When the round timer runs out it shows “Time ended”, but the round stays open.

In elimination tournaments you don’t start rounds. Each match becomes ready, and its players are notified, as soon as the matches before it are reported.

Select Pause Round to stop the round timer, and Resume Round to pick up where it left off. Players are notified either way. Pausing the whole tournament with Pause hides the rounds from players and shows them a paused message until you select Play.

Reporting Matches

Use Result > Disputed to find matches that need a judge, and the search box to find a player’s match. To report matches as an organizer, select the match and the Update Match drawer will slide out.

You can select the winner of the match via Quick Report and it will automatically mark that player with the match win and the other player with the match loss, and it will automatically complete the match. Quick Report appears once a match is ready to play. It’s hidden while the round is paused or the match is disputed. After a match has been reported, the Reset Pairings function will no longer work for that round.

You can use the options beneath Quick Report to get more granular reporting, which may be important in Best of 3 matches for example.

To report a Double Loss for a match in the case of game rules or unsportsmanlike conduct, select the Match you wish to issue a Double Loss to, and change the Match Result to Double Loss.

To move a player, open Update Match and select the arrows next to their name, then pick a match in the same round to swap with. Both matches must have no results yet. In Swiss this works even after the round starts.

To undo a result in an elimination bracket, open the match and select Void match, which also clears the matches after it. In Swiss, set Match Result back to Not Completed or re-report the games. Delete Match removes the match entirely. The bracket can’t be regenerated once the first match is reported.

When every match has a result, the round ends automatically, and players get a notification that links to that round’s results. If a match is disputed, or the last match was settled by changing Match Result, select End Round. End Round lists how many matches have each result, such as Disputed or Not Completed, before you confirm.

You can review the results before proceeding to the next Round and selecting Generate Pairings for that round. Generate Pairings needs the previous round to be complete with no open disputes.

Continue repeating for all rounds until the tournament is over.

For Elimination style tournaments, selecting a match from the bracket will open the Update Match drawer.

Creating Stations for Elimination Formats

You can create and assign Stations to specific matches so that the players know which stations to play at. Select a match and go to Browse stations to get started and generate as many stations as you have. You can create up to twice as many stations as the tournament’s capacity.

You are able to rename Stations if you wish, such as “Stream Station” for example.

Once your stations are created, you can select a match and go to the Station Select and assign a station to a match. Select Update Match to save the changes. Competitors will be able to see which Station they have been assigned to play at.

In Swiss tournaments the same link reads Browse tables. You can create named tables, such as maps or terrain in miniatures games, and assign them to matches. Generated pairings still use Table 1, Table 2, and so on.

Top Cuts (Swiss tournaments)

Select Top Cut, then Advance. XP Network takes the top X active players from the standings of the last completed Swiss round and seeds them 1v8, 2v7, and so on. Players who dropped or were disqualified are skipped. If your Top Cut isn’t a power of 2, such as Top 6, the highest seeds get first-round byes. Resolve any disputes in the final Swiss round first, since open disputes block the Top Cut. If needed, you are able to customize player positions in the bracket similarly to how you can change players at tables in Swiss rounds, before the top-cut round starts.

If you end the final Swiss round with End Round, XP Network asks whether to advance to the Top Cut. If it ends on its own when the last result comes in, select Top Cut yourself. If you need to fix Swiss results after cutting, select Undo Top Cut to delete the bracket and go back to Swiss.

Top Cut rounds are run just like any other round. You are able to change the Timer if needed through the Update Round window before starting the round. You can also manually add games to Top Cut matches if necessary, such as Best of 1 for Swiss rounds, but Best of 3 for Top Cuts.

The Bracket view offers a cleaner look at the top cut playoffs, or any elimination format.

Judge Dashboard (Disputes)

Event organizers, judges assigned to this tournament, and both players in the match get a notification when a match is disputed. These disputes can include incorrect match reporting and judge calls. Any judge calls from players will appear in the Disputes tab along with any notes they may have written.

Disputes are created when a player selects Help > Request Assistance, when the two players report different results, or when an organizer selects the gavel icon on a match in the Table view. A match can only have one open dispute at a time.

A disputed match will have its individual match timer paused. Resolving the dispute will resume their match timer, giving them an accurate time extension to how many seconds/minutes were lost from the judge call.

Selecting the notification opens the Match Disputes page for that tournament. Organizers can also use the Disputes tab.

You will be able to see who created the dispute, the timestamp, table number, and additional notes provided by the player.

Selecting the dispute will bring up a Resolve Dispute window. You can write any Judge Notes you would like to appear on the Judge Dashboard for any other judges or organizers to reference.

Resolving the dispute will resume the players’ individual match timer, giving them an accurate time extension. The judge notes will also be added to the dispute. Resolve the dispute first, then report the result, since resolving resets the match result to Not Completed. You can select the match in a dispute row to edit it directly.

The match’s own time, including the extension, shows in the Timer column of the Table view.

Ending the Tournament

Select Stop, then End Tournament. This can’t be undone. If you end the last round with End Round, XP Network also offers to end the tournament with End & Lock In. Everyone who played gets a “Tournament completed!” notification. Ending the tournament removes the pairing controls, so export pairings first if you need them: select Pairings, then Export Pairings, to get a CSV of every round’s pairings by email.

Views and TV Mode

The View: options in the Rounds tab change how rounds are shown. Table lists the selected round’s matches, and Cards shows every round side by side.

Select TV to open a display page in a new tab that shows the current tournament status, showing pairings and also the global round timer. This tab can be broadcast to a monitor or TV for ease of viewing for the players in attendance. Scanning the QR code displayed on the TV page will take users directly to the tournament.

TV doesn’t require sign-in unless the tournament is private. It rotates long pairing lists every 15 seconds, shows standings between rounds, and shows the winner when the tournament ends. Use + and - to resize the text.