How matches get onto the mats

Building a bracket doesn’t put anything on a mat. A built bracket has its bouts, but no bout numbers and no mat yet. Both come from Match Publishing.

From bracket to mat

1. Brackets. Create the brackets for each division. Building them first is optional; Match Publishing builds whatever isn’t built.
2. Match Publishing. Turns brackets into a schedule: which bouts run, on which mats, in what order.
3. Bout numbers. Bouts get numbers when you publish the schedule or run a plan, not when you build, so the numbers follow the running order across every bracket.
4. Queues. Each mat pulls from a queue. Queue depth is how many bouts wait on a mat behind the one being wrestled.
5. Mat Control Center. The director’s event-day screen for loading, pausing, and switching mats. See Run the Mat Control Center.
6. Table Scoring. The scorer picks their mat and runs the bout at the top of its queue. Once they submit it, the mat pulls in the next one. See Score matches at a table.
7. Bout Board. The venue display showing what’s up next on each mat. See Set up the Bout Board.

Do I need to build brackets?

No. Building turns a bracket into its bouts: who wrestles whom, in which round. Publishing the schedule or running a plan builds any bracket that isn’t built yet, so you can skip it and go straight to Match Publishing.

Building early is a way to check a bracket off. In Director Managed, choose Build matches on a bracket once you’ve looked it over and it’s set. If its wrestlers or format change after that, Snapdown flags it, so you know which brackets to look at again before you run them.

Pick a scheduling mode

System Managed is the default and the quick path. One Publish Schedule builds the brackets, numbers the bouts, fills the queues, and loads the mats as one shared session. With the default Scheduling Type, each mat gets its own number range: Mat 1 from 101, Mat 2 from 201. Use it when every division wrestles together on all your mats. See Use System-Managed Scheduling across mats.

Director Managed is for when you want a say in the shape of the day: divisions on their own mats, morning and afternoon sessions, each bracket on one mat, finals on a featured mat, or a dual tournament. You save plans, then choose Run… on each when its mats are ready. Run builds what’s missing, numbers the bouts, fills the queue, and loads the mats you pick. Switch with Switch to Director Managed on Match Publishing, then start with Plan your tournament schedule. Two common setups have their own guides: Keep each bracket on one mat and Give divisions their own mats.

When something changes after publishing

Add a late wrestler or fix a bracket and the mats keep running the old version until you publish the change. Publishing a change never moves or renumbers a bout that has started or finished.

• In System Managed, choose Review changes… on Match Publishing. Other brackets keep their numbers; the changed bracket’s bouts fit back into the running order, sometimes as 106.A.
• In Director Managed, choose Run… on the plan again. Run only changes what’s out of date. To change the plan itself, see Change a plan after it runs.
• Rebuild Schedule, in System Managed, starts over: it deletes every match, results included, and numbers everything again. Save it for before the first whistle.

If numbers changed, reprint the affected brackets and table sheets. See Reprint after bout numbers change.

If a mat isn’t getting bouts

• Nothing is assigned to the mat, or its work is finished. Check it in the Mat Control Center.
• The mat is paused, which is easy to forget after an awards break.
• The table hasn’t submitted the last bout. The next one loads only after the scorer submits it.
• A new or changed bracket hasn’t been published, or its rule hasn’t been run.