Introduction

Spordle Play is at the heart of your tournament's game management. This is where you'll be able to manage game parameters, assign referees, set schedules and enter results. Everything related to game management takes place here. Several players will have access to Spordle Play: tournament registrar, assignor, scheduler, etc.

Validate your tournament settings

By default, the tournament registrar with access to the Spordle ID platform will have access to the Spordle Play platform with the role of SUPER ADMIN. This role enables the registrar to oversee the overall management of the tournament and to delegate access to other relevant individuals.

It is also recommended that the person in charge of tournament management take on the role of registrar within the tournament organization. This role will enable him or her to invite the coaches of external teams to create a Spordle PLAY account, giving them the opportunity to manage the printing of their game sheets themselves.

The first thing to do is to connect to Play and validate the organization's parameters. Since everything is synchronized from Spordle ID, the data should be compliant, but it is recommended to validate that everything is correct.

Validation of existing roles and users in your tournament

Line-up:

Pour les équipes qui proviennent de l’environnement Spordle et qui utilisent Spordle PLAY. La gestion des feuilles de games se fait comme à l’habitude en saison régulière.

Pour les équipes externes; l’alignement doit être entré soit dans Spordle ID ou directement dans Spordle PLAY.

Assignor

An assignor is an essential person or role responsible for assigning officials or scorekeepers to sporting events, such as games, tournaments or cups.

The assignor ensures :

• Assign competent officials to each game according to their experience, the rules of the game and the level of competition.

• Coordinate the availability of referees and officials, taking into account the schedules and needs of the sports organization.

• Manage potential conflicts of interest (for example, avoid assigning a referee to a game where he or she may have a personal link with one of the teams).

• Ensure good logistics, by checking that each event is covered by a sufficient number of officials, and that they are informed in good time of the venues and times of games.

Access to the Spordle PLAY platform :

Before you start preparing your assignments, make sure you have all the access you need to perform your tournament-related tasks in the Assignment Tool. You must first have a Spordle PLAY account. If you don't have one, contact the tournament or association manager, who will be able to grant you the required access. It is also essential to have the appropriate administrative roles to work effectively on the PLAY platform. If you're the tournament assignor, you need to be set up as the assignment manager within the association, not within the tournament organization.

Preparing for assignment:

Before deciding who will referee your tournament games, it's important to check your association's assignment parameters . Adjustments may be necessary compared to the regular season, such as the limit on the number of games assigned per day. Don't forget to activate claims if you plan to use them when paying referees for the tournament. You can also choose to have a referee make a claim before the end of the game. You must also ensure that the assignment system is properly configured for the tournament. This system determines the number of referees and supervisors required for each game.

How do I create a pay structure?

It's ideal to create your pay structure before drawing up the schedules, so that the rates are automatically applied and associated with each game. The pay structure is what you will pay your referees during the tournament, and often differs from the regular season. Don't forget to link your pay structure to the specific categories of your tournament. If the games have already been scheduled when you create your pay structure, you'll need to apply these changes manually to the tournament games.

You can create a pay period entitled "tournament". This will enable you to prepare referee payments in advance. By using the "assignment" tab, you can retrieve the transactions linked to the tournament games. As soon as a referee accepts an assignment, it is automatically recorded in the transactions. You can also manually create a transaction to calculate the amounts due to the referee in advance.

You can manage the claims made by your referee if you have previously determined the various possible claims.

How do you choose tournament referees?

Once you've defined your assignment parameters, it's time to determine which referees will be used for your tournament. Do you have enough referees in your association to meet your needs? Do you need additional referees or other assignors to assist you? If you don't need referees from outside your association, the assignment will take place as in the regular season. However, if you do require external referees, you will need to add them to your association. We recommend that you create a list of referees entitled TOURNAMENT to facilitate future assignments.

How can I delegate games to another organization?

If you have decided to receive assistance in assigning games, for example by appointing an assignor from another association to manage the referees at a specific playing surface, you can delegate the games concerned to the organization assisting you. When delegating, you will have the option of whether or not to delegate payroll management. If you delegate payroll, you will no longer have access to the transactions for these games, and will not be able to make payments. The organization will then have to provide you with a report containing the transactions for its referees. You can quickly locate the games to be delegated by accessing the "games" tab on the left-hand side of the screen, then refining your search by selecting the scheduling organization and the field. You can also delegate several positions at the same time.

How do I assign officials quickly?

Once the tournament games have been created, you'll be able to make your assignments. The team has set up a quick way to make assignments via the game tab. You'll be able to assign all positions quickly.

Scheduler

A tournament scheduler is a person or tool responsible for planning and organizing the schedules of games and events within a tournament. This role is essential to ensure that the tournament runs smoothly and efficiently. There are a number of factors to be taken into account, including:

1. Number of teams and games: Create a balanced schedule so that all teams play according to tournament rules.

2. Playing surfaces availability: Organize games according to available infrastructures.

3. Rest time between games: Ensure that teams have sufficient time to rest between games.

4. Schedule conflicts: Avoid overlaps for teams or officials.

5. Tournament priorities: Integrate special events, such as opening and prize-giving ceremonies.

The tournament scheduler plays a key role in ensuring that competitions run smoothly, with schedules running smoothly and participants happy.

Access to the Spordle PLAY platform :

Before you start creating tournament games, make sure you have all the access you need to carry out your tournament tasks. You must first have a Spordle PLAY account. If you don't have one, contact the tournament or association manager, who will be able to grant you the required access. It is also essential to have the appropriate administrative roles to work effectively on the PLAY platform. If you're the person who makes the game schedules, you need to be set up as administrator, director and manager within the tournament organization.

Preparing to create schedules

You'll need to check your tournament settings before starting to create your schedules. There are a few points to check. In the schedule tab, please make sure that your organization is listed for field ownership. In the game sheet tab, check to see when the suspension is activated and whether you allow teams to add members to their line-ups. In the team statistics tab, it's important to check whether any categories are hidden for the publication of statistics on your tournament's public page. Some federations have rules about this, so please check carefully.

Playing surfaces verification

Before scheduling your games on the playing surfaces, we strongly recommend that you check their availability before starting to create the schedules. If you have made the playing surfaces unavailable to ensure that they will only be used for the tournament, they will not appear when assigning the created games. In this case, it's best to create specific time slots for your tournament. If you need to add fields that belong to you but are not visible in Spordle PLAY, you'll need to submit a support request specifying the name, address and desired divisions to the following address: support@spordle.com, or via Spordle ID. If you're borrowing playing surfaces from another organization, you'll need to ask them to add your tournament as a secondary organization on these surfaces, so that you can use them when creating schedules..

Checking schedules and teams

You'll need to create your games in each of the schedules in your tournament. Each schedule corresponds to a Spordle ID competition that has been synchronized with Spordle PLAY. Before you start, we suggest you make sure that all your competitions (schedules) and the teams in them are correctly listed. If you see a problem in this area, you'll need to request support.

Creating schedules

Now you're ready to create your schedules. Before you start, there are a few important points to check.

Start by creating general groups, then you can select, for each schedule, the teams to be added to the corresponding groups. In the"Groups" tab under "Settings", you can create groups without specifying categories. By leaving these fields empty, groups will be available for all categories and can be used in the various schedules.

Next, it is essential to add a sequence for each schedule and/or bracket system. Without a sequence, draft games cannot be published. You are free to choose the sequence name and alphanumeric sequence. It is generally recommended to use the category, genre and division. For example: U9MR-01.

Then, by clicking on the schedule for which you wish to create a schedule, access the "Inverter" tab. Click on "+Create" and select "Generate schedule". You can then define the number of games per team. If you've set up groups, you'll need to generate a separate schedule for each group. At this stage, games will be in draft form, with no dates or fields assigned. You can manage these drafts by deleting games or recreating the entire schedule if conflicts arise. Once you're happy with the draft games, you can schedule them at the date and time you want, and on the fields of your choice. Once you're happy with all the schedules, you can publish the games. Once the games have been published, a notification will be sent to the teams concerned. They will also be notified of any changes.

If you're working with CSV or EXCEL files to create your schedules, it's also possible to import them instead of going through all the steps mentioned above.

Once your regular games are created, you can start planning your playoff games. First, decide whether you will have quarter-finals, semi-finals or finals only. You'll be able to use a bracket system, but if you've used groups in your schedule, you'll need to manually place the teams in the quarter-finals. games created at this stage will be published automatically. If you wish to inform teams to expect semi-finals and finals, you can add a note to the game, which will appear in the schedule on the public page. Team positions in the bracket system can be modified by a tournament administrator. The bracket system table is visible via Spordle PLAY to all users with access to the games, as well as on the public page.

You may also want to create cross-game between two groups on the same schedule, which is often used when the number of teams is odd.