Running a round

Pairing

The console offers one action at a time, and it is always the right one: pair the next round, cut to the top, pair the next bracket round, or finish. You do not choose the format on the night — the ruleset already decided it.

Pairing the next round is also what closes the last one. There is no separate "end round" step to forget.

The clock

Start the round and every device in the room counts down to the same moment, because the time is set once by whoever started it rather than read from each device’s own clock.

You can show the room the exact time remaining, a rounded estimate, or nothing at all. A judge always sees the exact time, including any concealed time running past the end — that is hidden by default so nobody can read it over your shoulder.

Last turn replaces the clock everywhere with the words "Last turn". It is called once, so every screen says it at the same moment.

Ending at a final table

Where a format seats more than two, a night can end with a final table rather than with the last round. The top finishers are cut to one table and play once more, and whoever wins that table wins the night — not whoever topped the standings going into it.

At Commander that is a top 4, from sixteen players up. Below sixteen there is no cut: a small field has already met most of the room, so a final would be a rerun of the last round rather than a conclusion to it.

A cut to a final table is not a bracket. Four players sit down together and one result settles it, which is why the event page says "final table" rather than "top 4" — a top 4 in a two-player format is two matches and then another one.

Tables of three, and why

Where a format seats more than two, the event page says exactly how the room will be split before anybody turns up — including what happens when the field does not divide evenly.

At four to a table: as many full tables as possible, and what is left spread over the rest. Never fewer than three at a table and never more than five, and never a table of two. Ten players is 4–3–3 rather than 5–5, because one full table and two short ones finishes before two long ones do.

There is one rule and it is published, rather than a set of options to configure. If your store needs a different one, tell us which and why — we would rather add the rule a real store asked for than five nobody did.

Announcing it in your Discord

Create an incoming webhook in your Discord server, paste the URL into your webhook settings, and choose the Discord format. New events, pairings going up and final results get posted as plain messages.

There is no bot to add and nothing to approve. A bot would be something we have to keep running and you have to keep trusting, for a channel your server can already point at things. Discord is never required — everything works without it.

Only three things are announced: a new event, pairings for a round, and the final result. Anything posting on every result during a round is something people mute, and a muted channel tells you nothing at all.

Only one device pairs

Pairing, starting the clock and cutting are structural: they reshape the competition, so only the device holding authority may do them. Everything else — results, drops, penalties, check-ins — works from any device at once.

If the wrong device holds authority, take control from the sync bar. The device that loses it is told.