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Tournament Time for Windows Help File

Division

This is the main tool used to define the particulars about your division and scheduling requirements. After entering all the details about your division and schedule, choose ®Generate¯ to actually create the schedule for the division.

The entry information is described below:

Division Name:

    Up to 37 characters for the name of the division.

Division ID:

    Unique ID for this division (up to 3 characters, can not be blank). Try to use recognizable abbreviations such as U14 for under 14 soccer or 12B for 12 year old baseball.

Tournament Type:

    Highlight this field and press the space bar to see the list of tournament types. They include:

        Single

            Single elimination tournament with option for third place game.

        Double

            Double elimination tournament.

        Round Robin (Pool Only)

            Generates tournament with round robin games only. No championship playoff between pools is generated.

        Pool with Single

            Generates pool games with a championship round which is a single elimination format.

        Pool with Double

            Generates pool games with a double elimination format championship round.

    Note that there are 3 tournament formats listed that may not yet be selected. They are planned for a future release.

Method:

    Choose the tournament sequencing method. The default method is Pure Seed. An alternate method providing better playing characteristics is the Byl method. You may also find the seeding method specified by your specific organization. This version contains the sanctioned double elimination formats specified by Little League Baseball, Babe Ruth Baseball, ASA softball and USSSA softball. Review the list for the method best suited for your tournament.

Sport:

    This option allows you to choose the terms to be used on your reports. For example, the playing surface has different names depending on the sport such as "Field" for baseball or "Rink" for ice hockey.

    In addition, this chooses the default name for the official, e.g. umpire for baseball, referee for soccer, etc. The sport also sets up a default Game Length. All of these terms are displayed below and may be changed by you.

Number of Teams:

    This convenient field is used if you don't want to bother entering all the specific team names to start the scheduling process. You can simply enter the number of teams you want to generate and hit Enter. A list of team names will be created automatically starting at 1 up to the number you specify. If you decide to generate a schedule with only the number of teams, a blank schedule will be generated and you will be able to see the number of games and the draw chart for that number of teams without the need to enter anything else. This is a powerful planning tool.

Random Seeding:

    Use this choice if you want Tournament Time to randomly shuffle the team order for the scheduling process. If you say "N" here, the seed numbers you specify next to each team are honored.

Officials:        (See your user's manual for a complete description.)

    Select    'Own Team' to schedule officials associated with the teams playing a game.

            'Another Team' to schedule officials who are not associated with either team playing a game.

            'Don't Care' allows officials to be scheduled without regard to team affiliation and can produce a more optimum schedule.

    Note:    This can't be guaranteed throughout the tournament since there is no way to predict what teams can and cannot play against each other in single and double elimination tournaments. The first round can be established firmly and any pool games but as the tournament progresses, there are more chances that a possible conflict in official assignments can arise. This is honored for as many rounds as possible. You will have to watch as the tournament progress and make any adjustments necessary.

Label for Play Surface:

    You get to choose what to call the field of play: field, court, rink, pitch, etc.

Official's Title:

    You may have umpire, referee, judge, or, etc.

Scoring Term:

    Used to place the correct label on reports about scoring. Choices include Runs, Goals, Points, etc.

Game Length:

    Amount of time, in minutes, needed to complete a game. This is the amount of time a field or playing area is in use. You may want to consider including additional time for teams and fans to move from game to game or time required to prepare the field in between games.

Start of Tournament:

    Starting date of Tournament. If left blank, the system date (today) will be used for the start of the tournament.

Max Games per Day:

    Number of games a team can play in one day. Zero (blank) means any number of games. Weekend tournaments usually permit teams to play more than one game/day while longer tournaments restrict games to one per team per day.

Min Rest Between Games:

    This field is variable depending on the value of the Max Games per Day parameter above. If Max Games per Day is 1, the minimum rest is the number of days rest required between games. However, if the Max Games per Day is greater that 1, this number represents the minimum amount of time (in minutes) between games for a team.

    Note:

    the word "Days" shows next to this field if Max Games per Day is one. The word "Mins" is displayed next to this field if the Max Games per Day is greater than one.

Requirements:

    This area specifies the official's qualifications required to be assigned for each game. You may list up to 8 different officials each with a unique qualification. You may specify an official by either a certification level (1,2,3, etc.) or by exact requirement (A,B,C, etc.). A blank means no official is required. If you only need two officials for a game, the other six entries should be blank.

Delay For Officials:

    'Y' (Yes) forces games to be delayed until officials meeting the listed requirements become available. 'N' (No) will not delay games if one or more officials are unavailable but will report (in the Officials Report) where Officials were needed but unavailable.

Bye Matching:

    When generating pool games, if you have an odd number of teams in a pool, each time a set is generated, one team is left without an opponent. This game is called a bye. As additional sets are generated, Tournament Time has different strategies of how to combine these byes.

    See the section "Bye Matching" for explanations of these strategies.

Third Place Game:

    When your tournament involves a Single Elimination bracket, this choice is able to be selected. The third place game is scheduled so that the losers of the last two pre-championship games play. The loser of this game takes fourth place, the winner takes third place, the loser of the championship game takes second, and the winner of the championship game is first.

Pair Order:

This option is available if you are scheduling any Pool Play games.

    Normal:    Most schedules work best using this order. In it, the pairs are ordered for scheduling by taking one pair from each set, sequentially.

    Pool:    Some schedules require Pool Priority pair ordering. In this mode, an entire set from each pool is taken as a unit. Notably, schedules trying to fit several pool games per team on each day work best using this method.

            Another benefit of Pool Priority ordering is that the set scheduling last on one day is in a different pool from the set scheduling first on the next day. This eliminates the problem of a team playing late at night being scheduled for an early morning game the next day.

The buttons across the top of this screen are used to enter additional detail about each aspect of the division. See below for details about each of these buttons.

SEE ALSO:    Teams, Pools, cHamps, Officials, play Areas, Fields, Exceptions, Schedule Now, Bye Matching