The Tiebreakers
- Tiebreaker scope
- Performance Tiebreakers
Sometimes, your participants will be so evenly matched and highly-skilled that they end up being tied at the end of a stage. This can only happen in non-elimination stages, meaning Round-Robin Groups, Leagues and Swiss Stages.
When a tie occurs, several options are open to you, you can have the tied participants play tiebreaker matches, but it's going to be hard to pull out if you have more than 2 participants tied, or a lot of ties, like in the case of a huge Swiss System stage with hundreds of participants. So the best option often comes down to having automatic tiebreakers used to... break the ties!
You can find them under the "Advanced" tab of the Stage Configuration menu:
We have plenty of those for you to choose from, that work conjointly with the Points Attribution System, to allow you to fine tune your ranking.
You can set several tiebreakers up for a single stage, and they will be triggered top to bottom to try and break the ties. If a tie resists to a tiebreaker, then the next one in the list will be used.
Tiebreaker scope
Most tiebreakers come with a scope that determines which matches will the tiebreaker take into account to define the ranking. There are currently 3 scopes that are used for the tiebreakers on Toornament:
Overall
Tiebreakers with the overall scope are taking ALL matches the participant has played in the stage into account to break a tie.
Head-to-head
Tiebreakers with the head-to-head scope are only taking the matches played between the tied participants in the stage into account to break a tie.
It is important to note that head-to-head tiebreakers can iterate multiple times if more than 2 participants are tied.
For example, if 3 participants are tied, each participant's results against the tied opponents are verified. If all three have different tiebreaker values, then the tie is broken. If two happen to still be tied, then a new tiebreaker is calculated, for these two participants only.
Note that the tiebreakers with this scope are only really meant to be used in stages where participants play their opponents at least once, and an equal number of times (so not the Swiss stage, or custom Leagues with uneven pairings), as it compares the results of all participants tied together, even if they have not played directly.
Match losses
Tiebreakers with the match losses scope are only taking the matches that the participant has lost during the stage into account to break a tie.
This scope is only recommended for stages in which ALL matches end up with a winner and a loser (no draw or bye possible).
Performance Tiebreakers
Points
(head-to-head)The participant that earned the most points in the matches played against his tied opponents wins the tie.
Match Results tiebreakers
Match wins/draws/losses
(overall | head-to-head)The participant with the most wins, then most draws, and finally most losses (a lost match is worth more than no matches played or a forfeited match) wins the tie.
Match forfeits
(overall | head-to-head)The participant with the lowest amount of forfeited matches wins the tie.
Match Score tiebreakers
Match score for
(overall | head-to-head | match losses)The participant with the highest accumulated match score wins the tie.
Match score against
(overall | head-to-head | match losses)The participant with the opponents' lowest accumulated match score wins the tie.
Match score difference
(overall | head-to-head | match losses)The participant with the highest match score difference ('match score difference' = 'match score for' - 'match score against') wins the tie.
Game Results tiebreakers
Game wins
(overall | head-to-head | match losses)The participant with the highest amount of won games wins the tie.
Game draws
(overall | head-to-head | match losses)The participant with the highest amount of drawn games wins the tie.
Game losses
(overall | head-to-head | match losses)The participant with the lowest amount of lost games wins the tie.
Game forfeits
(overall | head-to-head | match losses)The participant with the lowest amount of forfeited games wins the tie.
Game losses or forfeits
(overall | head-to-head | match losses)The participant with the lowest amount of lost and forfeited games wins the tie.
Game Score tiebreakers
Game score for
(overall | head-to-head | match losses)The participant with the highest accumulated game score wins the tie.
Game score against
(overall | head-to-head | match losses)The participant with the opponents' lowest accumulated game score wins the tie.
Game score difference
(overall | head-to-head | match losses)The participant with the highest game score difference ('game score difference' = 'game score for' - 'game score against') wins the tie.
Swiss-Specific Tiebreakers
Buchholz
The participant that has faced the strongest opponents wins the tie.The strength of opponents is calculated by adding the final points of all opponents the participant has faced during the stage.
Buchholz (scoped)
The participant that has faced the strongest opponents wins the tie, but with only a portion of the opponents met during the stage taken into account.The available scopes for this tiebreaker are as follow, and depend on the match result between the participant and their opponents:
- match wins: only amounts the points of the opponents the participant has won against
- match draws: only amounts the points of the opponents the participant has drawn against
- match losses: only amounts the points of the opponents the participant has lost against
- match forfeits: only amounts the points of the opponents the participant has forfeited against
- match losses or forfeits: only amounts the points of the opponents the participant has lost or forfeited against
Median-Buchholz
The participant that has faced the strongest opponents wins the tie.The strength of opponents is calculated by adding the final points of all opponents the participant has faced during the stage, minus the best and worst ranked opponents, to avoid extreme values from altering the result.
Cumulative
The participant that had the best results early in the stage wins the tie.Points earned in matches are counted again with each subsequent round, making an early point weigh more than a late point.
Cumulative opponent's points
The participant that had the strongest opponents early in the stage wins the tie.This tiebreaker mixes the Buchholz and Cumulative logics, by taking into account the final points of all opponents the participant has met, but giving more weight to the ones he faced early in the stage.
Other Tiebreakers
Participation tiebreakers
Most played matches
The participant with the highest number of played matches wins the tie.Least played matches
The participant with the lowest number of played matches wins the tie.Miscellaneous Tiebreakers
Manual
The participant with the highest number of 'Tiebreaker Points' wins the tie.The 'Tiebreaker points' are manually distributed via the 'Ranking' menu by the organizer.
Random
The participant with the highest random value wins the tie.These values are randomly attributed by the system, and recalculated after each match resulting in a tie.
