Flash tournament

The flash tournament is for the event that starts and finishes on the same day: a Saturday kickabout, an inter-class competition, an esports stage. It skips nearly all the setup of a full tournament.

When to use it (and when not to)

Use it when you want a bracket drawn and a result the same day, with no online registration, no categories and no stages.

Don’t use it if the competition runs over several weeks, has separate categories or needs financial tracking. That’s what creating a tournament is for.

What you enter

• Name and description
• Number of entrants
• Match length, in minutes
• Walkover tolerance, in minutes

That’s it. With those, the bracket is drawn.

Bracket and rounds

From the number of entrants, the system works out the bracket size and the total rounds.

When the number isn’t a power of two (8, 16, 32), the bracket is padded and some entrants get a bye in the first round. That’s normal knockout behaviour — not an error and not an unfair draw.

Walkover tolerance

This is the field that saves the most arguing courtside.

You set how many minutes of lateness are tolerated. Past that, the match can be closed as a walkover and the opponent advances. Because the rule is recorded before the tournament starts, nobody argues the criterion afterwards.

Tip In a one-day event, a short tolerance is what keeps the schedule. Five minutes is usually enough for everyone to see the rule is real, without punishing whoever arrived running.

Tournament states

A flash tournament moves through four states:

State	What it means
Awaiting start	created, bracket drawn, not started yet
In progress	matches open for result entry
Finished	every match resolved, champion decided
Cancelled	closed without completion

During the event

Enter each match result as soon as it ends. The winner advances automatically to the next round — you don’t build the next tie by hand.

Linking to a tournament

A flash tournament can stand alone (a one-off event) or be linked to an existing tournament, when it works as a stage or a side event within a larger competition.

Frequently asked

Does it work for any sport? Yes. The bracket is the same; what changes is how the score is recorded, according to the sport.

Can I change the number of entrants after creating? The bracket is sized at creation. Changing the number means recreating the tournament — so confirm attendance first.

Is it good for esports? Yes, one of the most common uses: a single-elimination bracket settled in an afternoon.