Setting up categories
A tournament is made of categories, and a category is what somebody enters. Here is what belongs to the category, and what changes from one sport to the next.
Creating a category
The event holds the name, the playing days and the venue. The category holds the entry fee, the number of places, the closing date, the format and the scoring, because inside one club championship the men’s doubles costs something different from the youth pool and is played differently too. Six steps: the first two take a minute, the last two decide what your tournament looks like.
- 1
Choose the discipline
The discipline decides what counts as one competitor: singles, doubles, a team of seven, a relay. If your form is not in the list you add your own under your organisation, and reuse it from then on.
- 2
Give it a name
PlayTour proposes one from the discipline and the conditions you set, for example Men’s doubles 40+. Overwrite it if you like: this name is what appears in search and on the entry form.
- 3
Decide who may enter
Here you set gender, age, rating or another class. Anything you leave open sets no limit, so anybody may enter. PlayTour admits only entrants who match the conditions.
- 4
Set up entries
Minimum, maximum, waiting list, entry fee and closing date. The minimum is the number below which the category does not go ahead. The closing date may fall earlier than the event’s.
- 5
Choose the format
How is one match won? Two sets, first to eleven points, best of five legs. PlayTour fills in the template for the sport, and per category you depart from it where your club does it differently.
- 6
Choose the structure
What happens to the whole field? Pools, a knockout, both in sequence, a Swiss system or a mass start. Until you have chosen a structure there is no draw to spread entrants over. So pick it as soon as you know how you want to play, even while entries are still open; you can change it for as long as the draw has not been made.
How your categories look on screen
One tournament, a row of categories, and per category the choices you made above.
Every category with its own price, places and format
Men’s doubles in a knockout and a free youth pool are two lines under the same tournament. The entry fee, the capacity and the format sit side by side, so you do not have to open every form to check what you set.
- Entry fee and number of places, per category
- The chosen format beside the name
- As many categories under one tournament as you need
The structure: how the field is divided
Five shapes, and you may put them in sequence. Pools followed by a knockout for the top two of each pool is one category with two phases.
The five shapes
- Pool: everybody plays everybody in their pool. You choose how many pools there are and how many go through from each.
- Knockout: lose once and you are out. The whole draw is made up front.
- Double knockout: lose and you drop into the losers bracket and play on. You are out after two defeats.
- Swiss system: a fixed number of rounds, each pairing you with somebody on a similar score. Nobody drops out. You set the number of rounds.
- Mass start: no opponents. Everybody starts together and the order they finish in is the result.
What counts as one competitor
- Individual: one person. Singles, the ten kilometres, a chess game.
- Pair: exactly two people who enter together and rank as one competitor.
- Team: a squad with a name, a roster and substitutes.
- Crew: a fixed boat or vehicle line-up, sometimes with a cox who does not compete.
- Relay: members take turns, each covering one leg.
- Combination: a competitor made of unlike parts, such as a horse and its rider.
What you may restrict a category by
- Gender: men, women, mixed or open.
- Age band, measured against a reference date: the playing day, 1 January, 31 December or the birth year alone.
- Weight class, with a weigh-in somebody can also fail.
- Rating: a band on a rating scale, for example KNLTB 5 or LK 11 to 14.
- Equipment or style: recurve, compound or barebow; foil, epee or sabre.
- Para class, which expires and is reviewed periodically.
- Experience, measured by a count: novice under five bouts, then open.
One answer per axis, so a category can never be both men’s and women’s. You may combine a run of classes, for example levels 3 to 5 in one draw.
The scoring: how one contest is measured
Nine kinds, and between them they cover every sport on PlayTour. You pick one per category, and the results and the standings then follow on their own, without anything being built in per sport.
The nine kinds of scoring
- Adding points: both sides score at once until the clock runs out or the target is reached. Football, basketball, handball, water polo, bowls, curling.
- Sets and games: the match goes to whoever won the most parts, not the highest total. Tennis, badminton, squash, table tennis, volleyball, darts.
- Counting down to zero: darts 501, where the finishing throw has to be legal and scoring too much is a bust.
- Time: the fastest wins. Running, swimming, rowing, time trials, alpine skiing. One contest can hold hundreds of competitors.
- Distance or height: the best attempt counts and the rest is history. Throws, jumps, weightlifting, climbing.
- Judges’ marks: a panel scores and a published rule turns the marks into one figure. Gymnastics, diving, dressage, ski jumping, freestyle, skateboarding, surfing.
- Placement: the position you finish in is worth points. Sailing, motocross, speedway, BMX, road cycling.
- Relative to par: strokes per hole, with a stroke index and a handicap. Golf and disc golf.
- A decisive action: who won, and how the bout ended. Judo, karate, boxing, wrestling, MMA.
How long a match runs is set separately: best of five sets, first to eleven points, three attempts, eighteen holes. PlayTour fills in the template for the sport and you change it where your club does it differently.
Questions by subject
Price, places and closing
Can every category have its own entry fee?+
Yes, and free is allowed too. That is why the events list shows no price against a tournament: there is rarely only one.
What does per entry or per participant mean?+
Per entry, a pair pays the amount once. Per participant, each of them pays it. On a ten euro doubles category that is a difference of exactly ten euros.
What is the minimum for?+
It is the number below which the category does not go ahead. Useful for a class you would like to try but are not sure there is appetite for.
How does the waiting list work?+
Once the category is full, further entries go onto the waiting list, up to the number you allow. If somebody withdraws, the first in the queue moves up and is notified.
Can a category close before the event does?+
Yes. Later makes no difference, because entries for the event have already closed by then. Set nothing and the category follows the event’s closing date.
Who may enter
How do I restrict a category to men aged 40 and over?+
Set the gender axis to men and the age band to 40 and over. PlayTour admits only entrants who match, and the conditions are shown to the player beside the category too.
What if I leave a condition empty?+
It sets no limit and anybody may enter. A category with no conditions is simply an open category.
Can I combine two levels?+
Yes. Instead of one class you set a run, for example levels 3 to 5. That is exactly what a sports club does when one level on its own is short of entries.
How is somebody’s age worked out?+
Against the reference date that belongs to the age band: the playing day, 1 January, 31 December or the birth year alone. Federations genuinely disagree, and for somebody born in December it decides whether they may play.
How many categories may one person enter?+
You set that on the event and not on the category, because it is about the person and not the class. It stops somebody entering five things that are all played on the same day.
Structure and scoring
Can I combine pools and a knockout?+
Yes, and it is the most ordinary setup there is. You choose the number of pools and how many go through from each, and you can override that number for a single pool. Beside the main draw you can put a consolation draw, filled with the losers of a round you nominate. Pick the round just before the final and you have the play-off for third place.
Can the final be scored differently from the pools?+
Yes. You set the scoring on the category and then depart from it per phase, pool or round. Pools at 301 best of five and the final at 501 best of seven is one category with two exceptions.
Can I change the structure later?+
While the draw has not been made, yes. If it has, undo the draw first. Once something has been played it is fixed, because results would otherwise belong to a draw that no longer exists.
My discipline is not in the list+
Then add it under your own organisation. You record once what it is called and how many people make up a competitor, and from then on it sits in your own list for every tournament.
How do I hand out start numbers?+
Per category, in entry order, by lot or by seeding, starting from the number you choose. A number once issued stays put, even if somebody withdraws, so a result keeps pointing at the same person.
Read on
Creating an event
The step before this: club, volunteers, dates, venue, entry window and publishing.
Assigning courts
Recording which courts, tables or boards a category is played on.
The draw and the schedule
Seeding from ratings, drawing each category and building the playing schedule.
Help with running a tournament
The whole arc from start to finish, with the questions that come up most.
Set your categories up
One event, as many categories as you need, each with its own entry fee, field and way of playing.