tio tournament organizer

manual and readme

program version 1.1 by Neal Terrell

Table of Contents

  1. Index
  2. Tournament Editor
  3. Event Editor
  4. Entrants Viewer
  5. Bracket Viewer
  6. Results Viewer
  7. Players Editor
  8. Station Manager
  9. Menu Reference
  10. Frequently Asked Questions
    1. General
    2. Players
    3. Seeding
    4. Brackets
    5. Players
  11. Tips & Tricks
  12. Coming From Tournament Maker 2
  13. Credits

General

Q: Can I use the keyboard to navigate the program?
A: Yes! Almost every aspect of tio can be controlled using just a keyboard. See the Tips & Tricks section for details.

Players and Teams

Q: How do I change a player's nickname?
A: Click on the Players tab to activate the players editor. Find the player or team in the list, select their entry, and change their details in the edit area on the right.

Q: What is the skill field for?
A: Skill is a number from 0 to 10 that can help tio automatically seed a bracket when using By Skill seeding. Higher numbers represent better players, so a skill of 10 should be given to the absolute best players at your tournament. The skill field is always optional and is only used in By Skill seeding.

Q: What is the location field for?
A: Players can be given a location to help tio separate them from friends and crew mates during Manual, Skill, Random, or Location seeding. When using By Location seeding, tio will maximize the separation between players with similar or identical Location values. Other seeding methods can utilize the Attempt to Separate by Location option to make sure that players with identical locations will not play each other in the first round of an elimination bracket or be placed into the same round robin pool. The location field does not need to be an actual physical location; it can also denote a crew, player organization, guild, group of friends, etc.

Q: How many players can be on one team?
A: No limit. Simply separate each player's name with a plus sign (+).

Seeding

Q: What is the difference between seeding By Location and using the Attempt to Separate by Location option?
A: Location-based seeding ensures maximum separation between players with similar or identical locations. For example, two players with the location "Long Beach" will be guaranteed to not face each other until the finals of winners bracket in a double elimination bracket. The Separate by Location option only guarantees that two players with identical locations will not face each other in the first round of an elimination bracket. It does not make any guarantees beyond the first round. The behavior for both options is identical in a round robin bracket: they guarantee that no two players with the same location will be placed into the same pool (unless it is unavoidable, for example if there are 10 players with the location "Los Angeles" and only 8 pools).

Q: What is the best way to seed my event?
You should use Manual seeding if you can order some or all of your entrants by overall skill level. Order those entrants in the top-most list of the Manual seeding editor. Try and separate the remaining entrants into the bottom three lists based on their relative skill levels; the best 1/3 of the entrants should go into the Expert list, the middle third into the Intermediate list, and the worst into the Beginner list. You can also use just one or two of the relative lists if you cannot accurately split the remaining players into 3 distinct groups, or if you do not have the time to do so.

Use By Location seeding if you instead prefer to make sure that players from the same area or crew don't play each other in the bracket until it otherwise cannot be avoided. See the Tips & Tricks section for more details on flexing the power of Location seeding.

Skill-based seeding can be used if you are able to accurately assign a numerical skill value to each player in your event. However, you may be better off using Manual seeding in that case, as Skill seeding must randomly pick between players of equal skill during seeding, while you might want a specific seeding order for some of the best players.

In-order seeding is used in special scenarios, particularly when advancing players from a round robin to a new event. It also makes a very effective tool for recreating brackets from past tournaments; simply add players to your event in the order they appear in the old bracket, use the In Order editor to insert byes as needed, and create your bracket.

Random seeding should only be used as a last resort, as it is most likely to invalidate your overall event placings. With random seeding, it's possible for the third-best player to be matched against the best and second-best players in the first two rounds, which would cause that player to be ranked last even though he/she could likely defeat nearly every other player in the event.

Brackets

Q: Is there any way to post a copy of the bracket image online?
A: Right click on an elimination bracket and select "Copy Bracket Image".

Q: Can I rearrange brackets after they've been created?
A: Yes. Elimination brackets can be rearranged by dragging players from one first-round match to another. The Page Up/Down keys and mouse wheel can be used to scroll the bracket up and down while dragging players. Swapping cannot be performed if the selected match has already been completed. The pools in a round robin bracket can be rearranged by using the View/Edit Pool Asssignments button in the options area.

Q: Can I feed the winners of each pool in a round robin bracket into a new bracket?
A: Of course! Use the Advance Winners to a New Event button in the event's options area to do so. Players will be placed into the new bracket so as to avoid playing anyone from their round robin pool.

Q: Is there any way to choose a winner when two players have the same record in a round robin pool?
A: The results section shows all ties for a pool when it is selected in the results viewer. Just find the pool the players were in and drag them around the tie-break list to specify the order they should be placed overall.

Q: How do I find a player's position in a bracket?
A: Press Control+F and type the player's nickname. You do not have to spell their entire name; you merely have to provide enough letters for tio to pick that player from all other entered players. You will then be taken to the player's next match in the bracket, or to their pool in a round robin bracket.

Q: Can I view the names of the players on a team instead of the team nickname?
A: Yes. Right click the bracket and select the Show Player Nicknames option. This option also exists when right clicking on results lists in a results viewer.

Q: Can I print pool assignments for my round robin bracket?
A: Select the tab for the event you'd like to print and then use the File->Print->Bracket menu.

Q: Is there any way to change the position where a player enters the losers' bracket in a double elimination bracket?
A: Right click on the player you would like to move at the point where they enter losers' bracket. Select the "Swap player" option and click on the player you would like to swap the selected one with. This will rearrange the bracket so the players end up in the desired places.