Choose a matchmaking format and generate matchups

Start with one question: do wrestlers need official places? If they do, pick Skill-Matched Brackets or Madison. If you just want every wrestler to get good matches, pick Scramble Pairings or Preset Two-Match Groups (No Placements).

Quick decision guide

Choose	Best when	Placements	Mat operation
Skill-Matched Brackets	You want official places, with groups built from wrestlers of similar age, weight, and ability	Yes	Round robins run as fixed groups; in brackets, later opponents depend on results
Madison	Divisions are already separated by age and ability, so grouping by weight alone is safe	Yes	Fixed weight-based groups
Scramble Pairings	You want matches without brackets, with the most freedom to find each wrestler good opponents	No	Shared queue; wrestlers may move between mats
Preset Two-Match Groups (No Placements)	You want two scheduled matches per wrestler without advancement or places	No	About four wrestlers stay together on one mat

How wrestlers are matched

Every format except Madison uses the information you have for each wrestler: effective weight, age, grade, rank, gender eligibility, team, and your same-team policy. When the exact matches are known in advance, it also works to avoid recent opponents.

Complete and accurate ranks improve skill matching, but rank is only one piece. Missing ranks are not a reason to switch to Madison. If every wrestler has the same rank, Snapdown still uses everything else.

Skill-Matched Brackets

Skill-Matched Brackets builds groups of compatible wrestlers, then runs each group with the bracket format you picked for that group size. You choose one format per size, for example:

• 2 wrestlers: best of three
• 3 wrestlers: round robin
• 4 wrestlers: round robin, or a four-person placement bracket (semifinals, then first-place and third-place matches, so everyone earns a place)
• 5 wrestlers: round robin
• 8 or 16 wrestlers: wrestleback bracket

Snapdown avoids groups of one or two wrestlers and uses them only as a fallback when nothing else fits.

Pick a shortcut to start, then change the formats under Bracket Formats in Settings if you want something different:

• Mini Brackets: three-person round robins and four-person brackets, about two matches each. A good fit for fast sessions.
• Round Robins: groups of three to five where everyone wrestles everyone. A four-person round robin guarantees three matches. Five-person groups mean more matches and can take longer to build on a big roster.
• Wrestleback: eight-person wrestleback brackets, with sixteen-person brackets as an option, and small round robins when the numbers don’t divide evenly.

Round robins have fixed opponents. Brackets are seeded by ability for round one; after that, opponents depend on who wins.

Madison

Madison groups wrestlers by weight only, then uses the same one-format-per-group-size choices as Skill-Matched Brackets. It ignores rank, age, grade, team, and past opponents.

Use it when divisions are already separated by age and ability, so weight alone is safe. You can separate by gender before grouping, but Madison won’t fix a division that’s too broad.

If the known ranks in a division span more than one level, Snapdown shows a warning when you pick Madison. The warning is advisory: it points out skill information Madison will ignore.

Scramble Pairings

Scramble Pairings skips brackets. Each wrestler gets a target number of matches against independently chosen opponents, which gives Snapdown the most freedom to find good fits. Pick it when places don’t matter and you want everyone wrestling. The matches aren’t tied to a group, so they can run on any mat; Tournament Queue (Pull On Demand) scheduling works best (see Use System-Managed Scheduling across mats).

Max matches per wrestler sets a ceiling from the target up to target + 3. Target + 2 is the default and is marked recommended. A wrestler only goes over the target when that extra match gets someone who is short of the target a match. That mostly happens when one team is much bigger than the rest and teammates can’t wrestle each other. The target isn’t a guarantee either: without enough compatible opponents, some wrestlers end up below it.

Review and adjust Scramble matches

After you generate, the matches show as a table. The two wrestlers in each match are stacked so their age, grade, rank, and weight line up, and any fit warnings, such as a weight or age gap, sit under the match name. Click a wrestler’s name to filter the table to their matches, and click it again to clear the filter. When some matches still need publishing and others don’t, the ones that need it are tagged.

Beside the table, Matches per Wrestler lists everyone, unmatched wrestlers first. Search by name or team, or click a match-count chip to see only the wrestlers with that many matches. Hide the list with its arrow when you want the table at full width.

There are three ways to add a match:

• Add matchup, in a wrestler’s ••• menu in the list, suggests the best compatible opponent who is under the max, favoring whoever has the fewest matches. Nothing saves until you confirm: you see both wrestlers side by side with any fit warnings, then choose Add match, or Choose someone else to pick from the list yourself. If nobody qualifies, the picker opens. A wrestler already at the max can’t get another matchup this way.
• Add Match, above the table, lets you choose both wrestlers. After you pick the first wrestler, the second list is ranked by how well each wrestler fits.
• Add wrestler shows up in a match’s empty spot, for example after you remove someone. It suggests an opponent for the wrestler who is still there, the same way Add matchup does.

To change a match, use the ••• next to a wrestler in the table: Move to another match…, Swap with…, or Remove from match.

Matches you add are pinned. Regenerating keeps them, and those wrestlers are still included when the new matches are built.

Scramble match order

Before any match is published, Space out matches reorders the division so no wrestler goes back to back when that can be avoided. A match you add goes where both wrestlers get the most rest, and never ahead of a finished match.

A match you add after the division is published still goes through Match Publishing, but it keeps its place in the running order instead of going to the end. It gets an unused number between the matches around it, or the number of the match before it plus a letter, like 64.A, and it lands in that spot in the queue. Review and the publishing preview show that number before you publish.

Preset Two-Match Groups (No Placements)

Preset Two-Match Groups puts about four wrestlers of similar ability together and schedules two opponents for each in advance. There’s no advancement and no places. Because every bout is known ahead of time, staff can call the whole group to one mat and run it there, which keeps big youth sessions moving.

Teammates can share a group, because the preset pairings keep them from wrestling each other. For three guaranteed matches per wrestler, use Skill-Matched Brackets with four-person round robins instead.

Two matches is the target, not a guarantee. Roster size and compatibility rules can produce a smaller group or fewer matches for some wrestlers.

Same-team settings

Your Same Team setting applies to every format except Madison:

• Allow treats teammates like anyone else.
• Discourage strongly prefers keeping teammates apart, but still groups them when there’s no reasonable alternative.
• Disallow keeps teammates apart as far as the format allows:
  • Round robins keep teammates out of the same group, since everyone wrestles everyone.
  • Brackets seed teammates apart in round one, but they can still meet later.
  • Preset Two-Match Groups can hold teammates, because the assigned bouts keep them apart.
  • Scramble Pairings never pairs teammates.

Before generating

1. Confirm the correct wrestlers are eligible in the division.
2. Confirm the registered weights you will use before weigh-ins, or enter weigh-in weights for wrestlers who have arrived.
3. Unless you’re using Madison, review ages, grades, ranks, gender eligibility, and team assignments.
4. Set realistic age, weight, grade, and skill limits. Extremely narrow limits can leave wrestlers unmatched.
5. Choose the matchmaking format and target match count that fit how the event will run.

Generate before weigh-ins

You can prepare provisional brackets from registered weights. If no one in the division has weighed in, Generate Brackets offers Use Registered Weights. The confirmation shows how many wrestlers have a usable registered weight and excludes those without one. For Scramble Pairings, the action is labeled Generate Matchups.

After weigh-ins, open Roster and filter Not Weighed In. Confirm which wrestlers did not arrive, then scratch them as no-shows, which takes them out of their brackets or groups. Review the affected brackets or groups before publishing matches. See Run your tournament from weigh-ins to results for the event-day sequence.

Review the result

Preview the generated groups or matches before publishing. Look for outliers, teammate pairings, repeat opponents, unexpected smaller groups, 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.