Director Guide
Everything you need to create, manage, and run a Pool Tournament Manager event
Dashboard Overview
After signing in as a Tournament Director, the Home page shows all active and upcoming tournaments. Directors see extra buttons on each row: Edit (change settings before the tournament starts) and Manage (the full director console during play).
The top navigation also reveals director-only menus:
- Management › New Tournament — create a brand-new event
- Management › Venues — manage venue locations and pool table inventory (supports import/export)
- Management › Games — view and configure the games available for tournaments (8 Ball, 9 Ball, 10 Ball, custom variants)
- Management › Organizations — manage rule-set organizations (APA, BCA, WPA) and their settings
- Players › Invite Players — send registration email invitations to players
- Players › Player Ratings — view and override APA/BCA skill levels
Create a Tournament
Click Management › New Tournament in the navigation bar and fill in the form:
- Name — e.g. "Friday Night 8-Ball"
- Start Date & Time — when registration closes and play begins
- Game — select the specific game (e.g. APA 8 Ball Singles, BCA 9 Ball Team). The game determines the handicap system, scoring rules (game count or ball scoring), and team settings. Create or customise games under Management › Games.
- Max Players / Teams — registration closes once this number is reached
- Description (optional) — shown on the registration page and in match notification emails
- Single Elimination
- One loss and you are out. Fastest format for large fields.
- Double Elimination
- Every player starts in the winners bracket. A loss moves them to the losers bracket; a second loss eliminates them. Use the Double Elimination Rounds field to control how many rounds run as double-elimination before the field switches to single-elimination — great for longer events where you want a safety net early but want the final rounds to move quickly.
Select a Venue from the dropdown to pull in its tables automatically. Create venues first via Management › Venues — each venue stores a list of named tables (e.g., "Table 1 — 7-foot", "Table 2 — 9-foot").
Venues can be exported to JSON or XML and imported on another instance of the system, making it easy to share venue configurations across locations.
- Entry Fee — per-tournament fee charged at registration. Set to 0 for a free event.
- Annual Registration Fee — a one-time yearly fee charged to any player who has not paid it this calendar year. Set by an administrator in Admin › Registration Fee.
- Accept Cash Payments — check this box to allow players to choose cash. You will mark them paid manually in the Manage console.
Enable End match early when decided to automatically close a team match once one team has clinched — that is, when the trailing team can no longer win regardless of remaining mini-matches. Remaining mini-matches are recorded as forfeits. This speeds up team events significantly.
Click Create. The tournament is immediately open for registration.
Clone a Tournament
Running the same event every week? Use the Clone button on any existing tournament in the Archive or on the Manage page.
- All settings (game type, format, venue, fees, max players) are copied exactly.
- The start date is automatically advanced to the next occurrence of the same day of the week.
- All player registrations are cleared so the new event starts fresh.
Review and adjust any settings on the pre-filled create form, then click Create.
Manage Registrations
Open the Manage console for your tournament. The Registered Players (or Registered Teams) panel lists every registrant and their payment status.
Card Payment
Automatically marked Paid when the player completes the Stripe checkout. No action needed from you.
Cash Payment
Find the player in the list, click Mark Paid — Cash. The system records the payment with your director ID and the timestamp.
You can also remove a registered player or team before the tournament starts if they need to withdraw.
No-Shows & Backup Players
The Backup Players panel lets you maintain a waitlist. Add backup players in order of priority.
When a registered player does not arrive:
- Find the absent player in the No-Show Players panel (or mark them as a no-show from the player list).
- Click No-Show → Backup to remove them and promote the next backup player.
- The bracket is re-seeded if the tournament has not yet started.
Start the Tournament
The Start Tournament button becomes active once at least two players (or teams) have a Paid status.
Clicking it will:
- Randomly shuffle the player/team seeds
- Automatically insert BYE slots for non-power-of-two player counts
- Generate the full bracket (single or double elimination as configured)
- Lock registrations — no new players can join
Switch to the Bracket view to verify the draw looks correct before starting any matches.
Run Matches
In the Manage Console, scroll to Pending Matches. Each row shows the round, the two players (or teams), and an auto-assigned table number.
- Click Start on a match. The system immediately sends both players an email and text with their opponent's name, table number, and (for singles) the number of games they need to win.
- Players enter scores in the app and confirm each other's result. For team matches, players also manage their lineup and coin toss from the scoring screen.
- Once both sides confirm, the winner automatically advances and new pending matches appear.
You can change the table assignment for a match before starting it. Click the table badge to select a different table from the venue list.
Overriding a Result
Expand the Admin section on any match in the Manage console to override the result. The system will warn you if correcting the result would affect downstream matches that have already been played.
Team Tournaments
Team-format tournaments have teams of players competing head-to-head. Each bracket match consists of a series of mini-matches (one player from each team per mini-match). The team with the most points at the end wins the bracket match and advances.
Game Definitions & Scoring
The scoring rules for a team match come from its game. Navigate to Management › Games › Edit to review the team settings for a definition:
- Lineup size — how many players each team fields per match (e.g. 5 for APA)
- Max roster — maximum number of players a team may carry (e.g. 8 for APA)
- Max combined rating — the lineup's total skill level cannot exceed this cap
- Points per win / shutout / hill — point values for each mini-match outcome
Fewer-Player Restrictions
If a team cannot field a full lineup, fewer-player restrictions define what is allowed and apply a tighter combined-rating cap when they play short. For example: a 5-player APA lineup playing with only 4 may face a reduced cap of 19 instead of 23. Missing spots are forfeited automatically. These rules are set on the game definition and cannot be changed per-tournament.
Early End
If you enabled End match early when decided on the tournament, the system will automatically close a team match once the outcome is mathematically certain — even if mini-matches remain. All remaining spots are recorded as forfeits. This is particularly useful for APA-style events where the final few mini-matches would only change the final score, not the winner.
Bracket Display
Team brackets show the team name and avatar on each match card. The bracket page updates live as mini-matches are completed within a bracket match, so spectators can follow along without refreshing.
Prize Fund
To distribute prize money, click Prize Fund on the Manage page (available once the tournament has started).
- Enter the dollar amount for each finishing position (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.).
- Save the prize breakdown — it will be displayed on the public bracket page.
- Prize winners are highlighted in the final bracket with special callouts so players and spectators can easily see the placements.
The prize fund is separate from entry fees — you can set it up before or after the tournament starts.
Finish & Archive
Continue starting matches round by round until one player (or team) remains. The bracket displays a Champion banner with the winner's name highlighted.
The tournament moves to Completed status automatically when the final match is confirmed. It is then visible in Tournaments › Archive with the full match history preserved permanently.
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