Hi fellow tt players, being playing for many years on veteran competitions I found some standard problems, which often appears and reduces satisfaction of players. Like:
- uneven groups
- players who train together appears in same group
- too big pause from group phase to main draw, you almost can sleep few hours
- many tables are empty for long time because organizer uses manual/excel solutions, entering results, fixing results, making draws with unclear criteria, discussing draws with unsatisfied players, changing draws...
- some players advancing from group do not appear in main draw, being forgotten, when you realize this, it's too late
- some groups has more players and takes more time, blocking main draw
- some players do not appear in tournament although present in groups, organizer too lazy/affraid to do changes just before tournament start, and this greatly decreases quality of tournament, some group appears with 2 players some with 4, instead of making 2x3, to save some time, and offer equal treatment. Or to recreate groups, because less players then expected. This happened even in European veteran championships, pitty.
-player which plays match in one group being called to play match in other group
- some tables are better, some worse, and happens that finl of category is played on table with shorter leg or sunlight
- No tournament report with results, so you have to call by phone people to ask what happened. Even worse, organiser loses results immediately after tournament ended, because not on his computer, guy with comp in far away, or even worse all was written only on papers which are lost...
So I made program which helps with all those aspects,. It's desktop application and uses local database so all results are saved, players also, so you can reuse them. Also supports, multiple categories, players can play in more than one category, uses ranking to determine seeds, uses snake system + randomization to make groups, good draws after groups (also with seeds + randomization), supports up to 128 players in category (at the moment), easy way to enter results, as results are entered, groups are populated, calculates points and positions in groups using set and point quotient if needed, allows saving groups with results and draw into pdf file for printing them, group/match templates for referees, just print them. Also allows changing players in groups, indication that players from same city are in same group (if you entered city), some settings about populating groups, optimal group size and number of groups based on number of players, optimal match order in group based on group size). Creating groups and main draw takes 1 second, so you can recreate groups quickly before tournament if needed. It;s possible to create main draw before all groups are ended, and to start matches from main draw (if thare are possible matches and free players). You define your tables, and every match takes one table, in all categories there is list of free tables. In case some table is not for use for some period, you can turn of this table temporarily and turn on later if needed. Supports groups of 4-5 players, where there is no main draw, this happens on older categories in veteran competitions.
Probably there are some other pluses, but don't want to type too much, here is one example of usage for simple tournament with one category where players are already in database, so you just choose them from list (in case of tournament with multiple categories and new/existing players, there is dedicated form for entering applications).
if somebody would like to try, contact me in private message, I can sent you free version. Every feedback is welcome of course.
- uneven groups
- players who train together appears in same group
- too big pause from group phase to main draw, you almost can sleep few hours
- many tables are empty for long time because organizer uses manual/excel solutions, entering results, fixing results, making draws with unclear criteria, discussing draws with unsatisfied players, changing draws...
- some players advancing from group do not appear in main draw, being forgotten, when you realize this, it's too late
- some groups has more players and takes more time, blocking main draw
- some players do not appear in tournament although present in groups, organizer too lazy/affraid to do changes just before tournament start, and this greatly decreases quality of tournament, some group appears with 2 players some with 4, instead of making 2x3, to save some time, and offer equal treatment. Or to recreate groups, because less players then expected. This happened even in European veteran championships, pitty.
-player which plays match in one group being called to play match in other group
- some tables are better, some worse, and happens that finl of category is played on table with shorter leg or sunlight
- No tournament report with results, so you have to call by phone people to ask what happened. Even worse, organiser loses results immediately after tournament ended, because not on his computer, guy with comp in far away, or even worse all was written only on papers which are lost...
So I made program which helps with all those aspects,. It's desktop application and uses local database so all results are saved, players also, so you can reuse them. Also supports, multiple categories, players can play in more than one category, uses ranking to determine seeds, uses snake system + randomization to make groups, good draws after groups (also with seeds + randomization), supports up to 128 players in category (at the moment), easy way to enter results, as results are entered, groups are populated, calculates points and positions in groups using set and point quotient if needed, allows saving groups with results and draw into pdf file for printing them, group/match templates for referees, just print them. Also allows changing players in groups, indication that players from same city are in same group (if you entered city), some settings about populating groups, optimal group size and number of groups based on number of players, optimal match order in group based on group size). Creating groups and main draw takes 1 second, so you can recreate groups quickly before tournament if needed. It;s possible to create main draw before all groups are ended, and to start matches from main draw (if thare are possible matches and free players). You define your tables, and every match takes one table, in all categories there is list of free tables. In case some table is not for use for some period, you can turn of this table temporarily and turn on later if needed. Supports groups of 4-5 players, where there is no main draw, this happens on older categories in veteran competitions.
Probably there are some other pluses, but don't want to type too much, here is one example of usage for simple tournament with one category where players are already in database, so you just choose them from list (in case of tournament with multiple categories and new/existing players, there is dedicated form for entering applications).
if somebody would like to try, contact me in private message, I can sent you free version. Every feedback is welcome of course.
