Tournament Manager

Tournament Manager is the program made by the REC Foundation for hosting competitions. It is used to simply many of the tasks that come with running a Vex Robotics Tournament at all scales and levels. This article will follow the format of the user guide which is linked at the bottom of the article.

Overview and Concepts

Matches and Match Rounds

In VRC, a match is played between two alliances, of two teams each, while in VexU there are only 2 teams. At these events, there are 3 types of matches; Practice (optional), Qualification, and Elimination matches. Practice matches have no effect on a team's ranking and are more common at large events to help teams get situated. Qualification matches are used to determine event ranking, where alliances are randomly determined and rankings are determined as written in the game manual. Following all qualification matches, and alliance selection, an elimination bracket will be generated, and matches will be played in a single elimination style.

Fields and Field Sets

Tournament Manager supports the use of 1 or more fields where any more than one field at a competition should be added to a field set. A competition can have multiple field sets consisting of several fields each however in each field set, only one match timer can be run at a time. This feature is so that a field set can be used in a round-robin fashion. It is up to the Event Partner's discretion to decide the best arrangement of fields and field sets.

Audience, Pit and Field Displays

As Tournament Manager is used to run the event, it is also used to share information with teams, and spectators. Tournament Manager has 3 display types. Audience Displays give information to spectators including the match timer, match score results, alliance selection, and rankings information. Pit Displays are used to communicate with teams information like upcoming matches, and ranking. Field Que displays are placed at queuing tables to show what teams are on the field for the upcoming matches.