Nobody likes to makes changes to a published schedule. Teams hate it, referee assignors hate it and most likely, as a tournament director, you most of all hate it. But sometimes, it cannot be avoided.

To avoid making changes, publish the schedule at the last possible moment. Almost nothing good comes from publishing a schedule early. Teams sorta hate this, but they hate changes even worse.

Do not take changes lightly. Every change affects at least four other teams. You will never be seen a hero for making changes.

Depending on how extensive your changes are, you may wish to unpublish the schedule while you re-work it and then publish it when done. For small changes like game times, field switches, etc, just do the changes and re-publish just to level things out.

If you chose to unpublish the schedule, you should try to minimize the “panic” from teams as much as possible by posting a message to the front news, saying the schedule is unpublished due to a few changes and will be active by [insert date/time] Teams will still email you in a panic, but as long as you have made a good-faith effort to keep them informed, you needn’t worry too much about their “panic.”

Making changes with a team change-out

First, if you get a team to replace the team that dropped, that is the best case scenario.

In the Team Applications Module:

1. Team Applies through the application form. The application will come over as Waiting/Fees Waiting.
2. Mark the OUTGOING team as Withdrawn. Update the NEW application as Accepted/Fees Pending, Paid, Whatever your deal is with the team, Update the discounts for the correct amount.
3. Place the team in the correct Division and replace the seed with the outgoing team seed.

In the Scheduling Module:

1. Build/Edit Game Schedules
2. Click on the Edit Schedules for that division
3. The Team that was been Withdrawn will show up with the flag on their games. Edit each game and replace them with the new team. If you would like to notify the teams of the change (teams probably already know, though) you can check the “Flag Affected Teams for Broadcast” box. That puts the team affected in a teamp group for you to send out a broadcast later.
4. Publish the Schedule for ALL Days, making sure to check the box to Clear the cache on standings.

In the Team Applications Module: (Optional)

1. Send a message to the affected teams. If you checked the “Flag Affected Teams for Broadcast” you will notice a line in red right above the GO! button. Check that, hit GO! and just the teams affecred will appear. Once you send the message, the line will clear.

Be sure to notify the referee assignor if necessary. Usually, a team change is not a concern.

Making changes with a format change, team drop/add

Ok, that’s the easy part. Also, changing times, venues, etc but the game format and the teams don’t actually change, is pretty easy, too. Just click on the Edit button on the game line and make the changes. If you would like to then send a message to all the affected teams, make sure you check the “Flag Affected Teams” and follow up with an email from the Team Applications Module. And the referee assignor! Don’t assume they know. If they check the settings in their Referee Module, they can get an alert on every change as well as disable the game delete, so the rule of thumb is to coordinate closely with your referee assignor! No refs; no game.

More than often, though, you will have a team drop (or add) completely changing the game format, the pairings, times, fields. Clearly a headache. But, not unmanageable.

1. Mark the team Withdrawn. In the case of an addition, mark the team Accepted, put it in the right division and seed properly.
2. Set your division format properly so the pairings will line up better.
3. If you are going from a 2of3 to a 1of5 or a division format that did not have Finals and you need placeholders, make sure you add them or edit the existing one so they make sense. If your new division is a true Round Robin and you won’t need the placeholders, you can just let them hang in there… if you don’t use them, they won’t hurt just being there.

Here you have a choice to make. If you are good at moving stuff around and editing things on the fly, awesome! Just make the changes to the existing games; pairings, field assignments, times, dates, etc and deleting games you don’t need and adding new games.

I’m not good at that, so I just delete all the games and start over scheduling the division like it was brand new. Once all the games have been deleted, go back to the Build/Edit Games screen and the button will have changed rom Edit Schedule to Ok to Schedule (assuming you set the game format, division and seeding correctly.)

1. Build/Edit the game and click on Edit Game Schedule. Reseed if needed.
2. Schedule as you did originally, except the new format will be used.
3. Publish the Schedule for ALL Days, making sure to check the box to Clear the cache on standings.

When you delete the games and set up new games, you will then need to notify all the teams in that division that a new schedule has been written because a team dropped, added, etc. Keep the message short and direct.

Reminder

Coordinate closely with your referee assignor! No refs; no game.

SCHEDULING MENU
00: Overview
01: Set up tournament divisions
02: Set game times and dates
03: Set up venues and playing fields
04: Create Placeholder Teams
05: Placing Teams into Tournament Divisions/Groups
06: Update and/or review your tie-breaker rules.
07: Schedule games by division
08: Review and publish
09: Making Changes to a Schedule