Creating a tournament

Creating a tournament takes about two minutes if you have the basics ready: name, format, structure, dates, and a sense of how you'll seed entries.

The New Tournament form

Open /manage/tournaments and tap “New tournament”. You'll be asked for:

• A name members will recognise on the entries list.
• A discipline — Singles, Pairs, Triples, Fours, or Mixed Pairs.
• A structure — Knockout, Round-robin, or Sectional.
• Start and end dates.
• An entries-close date — the cut-off after which round 1 can be generated.

The form creates the tournament in draft status. Drafts are visible only to club admins until you publish them.

Choosing how to seed

Three seeding methods are available:

• Random— entries are shuffled before round 1 is generated. Use this when seeding doesn't matter (social or first-time events).
• Seeded— you assign a seed number per entry. The fixture generator places higher-seeded teams to avoid early meetings.
• Sectional— entries are split into sections and play within their section first.

BSA's national tournaments use seeding informed by district recommendations. Henselite Connect supports seeded draws but doesn't claim to reproduce any specific BSA algorithm — coaches and conveners decide the seed values.

Closing entries and generating round 1

The entries-close date doesn't automatically transition the tournament. It's the gate after which the “Generate round 1” action becomes available. When you generate, the tournament moves from open to in_progress and fixtures appear on /play for entered players.

Once round 1 is live, entries are frozen for the duration of the tournament.

The status timeline

A tournament moves through four statuses:

• draft— being set up, visible only to club admins.
• open— published and accepting entries.
• in_progress— round 1 has been generated and play has started.
• completed— the final has been recorded and the tournament is closed.

cancelled is a terminal state available from any status. Use it if a tournament has to be called off before completion; existing entries and any played matches stay on record but no further play is allowed.

Knockout vs round-robin

A knockout is single-elimination — winners advance, losers are out, and the bracket halves each round until one team remains. A round-robin runs every team against every other team and ranks them on shots up once everyone has played everyone. Sectional events combine the two: round-robin within each section, then knockout among the section winners.