Qualification Match Scheduler

Your event

Two numbers drive everything below, and a match is 1 alliance of 2 teams, 2 teams per match.

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.

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.

Generate the qualification match list

A real schedule for the team count and matches-per-team above. It uses Team 1 through Team N, not a real roster. Mapping these onto your actual team numbers is a later step; Tournament Manager does that part anyway. What this answers is whether the shape of the schedule is a good one before you commit to it: are matches spread evenly, does anyone get an unfair rest, and are the fields balanced.

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.