Snapdown offers five matchmaking formats. The right choice depends first on whether you need placements, whether preset groups should stay together on a mat, and whether your divisions are already separated by age and experience.
Quick decision guide
| Choose | Best when | Placements | Mat operation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual Matchups | You want the most flexibility to find each wrestler suitable opponents | No | Shared queue; wrestlers may move between mats |
| Preset Match Groups | You want preset quality matches without advancement or placements | No | Small groups can stay together on one mat |
| Placement Mini-Brackets | You want small advancement brackets and official places | Yes | Bracket can stay together; later opponents depend on results |
| Placement Round Robins | Everyone in a pool should face everyone for places | Yes | Complete fixed pools; larger pools take more matches |
| Weight-Only Brackets (Madison) | The roster is already divided appropriately by age and experience | Depends on selected format | Fast, fixed weight-based groups |
The first four choices use Ability-Based Matching. Madison uses Weight-Only Grouping. That distinction matters more than the bracket shape.
Ability-Based Matching
Ability-Based Matching considers the data available for each wrestler, including effective weight, age, grade, rank, gender eligibility, and your same-team policy. When the exact matches are known in advance, it can also work to avoid recent opponents.
Complete and accurate ranks improve skill matching, but ranks are not the only criterion. Missing ranks do not mean you need to switch to Madison. If all wrestlers have the same rank, Snapdown still uses the other available information.
Individual Matchups
Individual Matchups creates standalone matches rather than one fixed round robin or advancement bracket. It gives the optimizer the most freedom to choose quality opponents and is often the best recommendation when placements are unnecessary.
Match order and mat assignments remain flexible throughout the event. The desired match count is a target and also the cap — no wrestler receives more than the target, and limited compatible-opponent availability can leave a wrestler below it.
Preset Match Groups
Preset Match Groups places wrestlers of similar ability into small groups with two or three matches assigned in advance. There is no advancement and no placement standings. The preset match pattern helps keep teammates apart.
This is built for youth events: because every match in a group is known ahead of time, staff can call an entire group of about four wrestlers to the mat together and run their matches as a cluster. It suits leagues that value match quality, predictable rounds, and keeping each group on one mat. A larger three-match group can schedule selected opponents instead of forcing every wrestler to face everyone. That flexibility helps Snapdown separate teammates and recent opponents while still finding competitive matches.
The target is not a guarantee. Roster size and compatibility rules can produce a smaller group or fewer matches for some wrestlers.
Placement Mini-Brackets
Placement Mini-Brackets creates small advancement brackets — usually three or four wrestlers — with official places. Wrestlers usually receive about two matches, depending on bracket size and results.
The bracket format follows the group size:
- Four wrestlers wrestle a four-person placement bracket: semifinals, then a first-place and a third-place match, so every wrestler earns a place.
- Three wrestlers wrestle a round robin for places.
- Two wrestlers (when the roster does not divide evenly) wrestle a best-of-three series.
Snapdown can optimize the opening bracket, but later opponents depend on who wins and loses. Even when teammates begin on opposite sides, they can still meet in a championship or placement match.
Placement Round Robins
Placement Round Robins creates complete pools with official standings: everyone in a pool wrestles everyone else. (A pool here is simply a complete round-robin group — places come from the pool results themselves, not from a later bracket.)
Choose the desired matches per wrestler:
| Desired matches | Preferred pool |
|---|---|
| 3 | 4 wrestlers |
| 4 | 5 wrestlers |
| 5 | 6 wrestlers |
These are preferred sizes, not guaranteed sizes. Snapdown can use smaller pools when the number of eligible wrestlers or your compatibility limits do not divide cleanly. A complete pool reduces pairing flexibility because accepting two teammates into the same pool means they must wrestle each other.
Five- and six-wrestler pools require substantially more matches and can take longer to optimize on a large roster. Allow the generation process to finish rather than assuming every event will generate in a fixed number of seconds.
Weight-Only Brackets (Madison)
Madison groups eligible wrestlers by weight and selected bracket formats. It does not use rank, grade, team, or opponent history to optimize the groups.
Use Madison when divisions have already been separated appropriately—for example by age and experience—so weight-only grouping is safe for that roster. Optional gender separation can happen before grouping, but Madison does not correct an overly broad division.
If the known wrestler ranks span more than one level, Snapdown shows a warning when you select Madison. The warning is advisory: it does not change your selection, but it calls attention to useful skill information that Madison will ignore.
Same-team settings
Your Same Team setting is applied according to the selected format:
- Allow keeps teammates eligible under the normal quality rules.
- Discourage applies a strong penalty, so Snapdown prefers groups without teammates when a reasonable alternative exists. Teammates can still be grouped when needed.
- Disallow blocks teammate matches where the format can guarantee that. In complete Placement Round Robins, a second wrestler from the same team makes the pool invalid. In Placement Mini-Brackets, teammates can be placed on opposite sides but may still meet after results are known. Preset Match Groups may contain teammates when their assigned matches keep them apart.
Before generating
- Confirm the correct wrestlers are eligible in the division.
- Enter current weights for the wrestlers you want grouped.
- Review ages, grades, ranks, gender eligibility, and team assignments when using Ability-Based Matching.
- Set realistic age, weight, grade, and skill limits. Extremely narrow limits can leave wrestlers unmatched.
- Choose the matchmaking format and target match count that fits how the event will run.
Review the result
Preview the generated groups before publishing matches. Look for outliers, teammate pairings, repeat opponents, unexpected smaller pools, and the total match count. Correct wrestler data or adjust limits and regenerate if needed.
Regeneration is safest before competition starts. Once matches have been published, scored, or manually scheduled, confirm what will be replaced before rebuilding the competition.