Qualification Match Scheduler
Work out how long qualification matches actually take. Enter your team count and the cadence you run matches at, and this page answers both directions: how many matches fit in the time you have, and how much time you need for the matches you promised.
Your event
Two numbers drive everything below, and a match is 1 alliance of 2 teams — 2 teams per match.
Minutes and seconds between one match STARTING and the next one starting, across the whole venue. This is the same number VEX Tournament Manager asks for, and it is not the time one field takes to turn around.
Not sure what cadence to use?
Field count does not shorten a qualification block on its own. It changes how quickly you can start the next match, so it belongs here, as a suggested cadence you can look at and overrule.
Start to start on ONE field: from a match beginning to the next match beginning on that same field. It includes the match itself, not just the reset between matches.
Those fields would support a cadence of 3:00.
Read the other way: the cycle time you entered asks each field to turn around every 6:00. If that looks impossible for your volunteers, the cycle time is too fast.
How long do qualification matches take?
The question Tournament Manager will not answer. Tell it what every team is promised and when the day starts, and it returns the block length you need and the time quals finish.
Lunch, judging, or anything else that stops matches at a fixed time. Matches pick up again afterwards.
72 matches, 216 minutes, running 09:00 to 12:36.
What that needs
- Matches to schedule
- 72
- Match time needed
- 216 min (3 hr 36 min)
- Quals run
- 09:00 to 12:36
- Start to finish
- 3 hr 36 min
Matches run in 09:00–12:36
What fits in the blocks you have?
The direction Tournament Manager's Schedule Setup screen answers. Name the windows you have for matches and it reports what they hold. Blocks add up, so split them around lunch or judging exactly as your day runs.
Uncheck Confirmed on a block you are still moving around. Confirmed blocks are the ones the whole-number total below is computed from, matching how Tournament Manager treats a block you have committed.
70 match slots across the confirmed blocks, 5 per team.
Warning: 1 match per team short of the number asked for.
| Block | Window | Length | Matches | Per team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morning quals | 09:00–10:00 | 60 min | 20 | 1.67 |
| Afternoon quals | 11:30–14:00 | 150 min | 50 | 4.17 |
Across the confirmed blocks
- Match slots
- 70
- Matches per team
- 5
- Slots left over
- 10
The slots divide out to 5.83 matches per team, but every team has to play the same whole number, so each one plays 5 and 10 slots (30 min) go spare. Tournament Manager floors this the same way.
That is 1 short of the 6 matches per team you asked for above. Lengthen a block, add one, or run a faster cadence.
Why cycle time is the number to get right
Cycle time is a venue cadence: the gap between one match starting and the next one starting, no matter how many fields are running. Two fields do not halve a qualification block on their own. They let you start matches closer together, which is a different statement, and it is the one that belongs in the arithmetic.
Reading the same number as a per-field turnaround is the mistake worth avoiding. A three minute cadence across two fields gives each field six minutes to clear, reset and start again. Treating that three minutes as the per-field turnaround instead would mean starting a match every ninety seconds, which a first-year volunteer crew will not sustain. The gap between those two readings is roughly double, and a qualification block sized on the wrong one pushes finals and awards hours out of place.
Nothing here replaces Tournament Manager, which still builds and runs the real schedule. This page exists so an event partner can plan the day before the software is open, and so the number that drives our own agenda templates is one somebody has checked against a real tournament.
Planning the rest of the day? The practice field timer keeps practice rotations moving, and the student age checker settles which level a student competes at.