Champions League Competition Format

Learn how to organize your "Champions League" tournament by setting up pots, randomizing match draws, and establishing any downstream knockouts.

Matthew Warr
26 steps
3 minutes

Localhost

Firstly, set up the competition details as per any other type of competition, and progress through your entry list so you are on the screen that allows you to configure Rounds.

Round Settings

Select the "Champions League" round type from the dropdown.

Configure your Match Setup as per any other competition type.

The Champions League format is based upon splitting your entries into Pots. You then configuring each entry to play a set number of matches per pot. These are typically seeding by ability, so that any entry plays an even number of top, average and poor entries.

Type in the number of pots you want to use and press Create Pots."Create Pots" and confirm the action in the popup.

As the first stage is a Round Robin, you need to configure the league table profile that is going to be used to determine how many points are awarded for your matches. If you need to create new one you can click *Setup league table profiles* to take you to that section, otherwise just click and select the one you want to use.

Pot Assignments

The Pot Assignment section allows you to assign players into their Pots using drag-and drop. Drag the players into the pots, usually based upon ability. Alternatively, you can click the Randomize button which will assign players into pots evenly at random

Match Generation

This format works by allowing you to draw a certain number of matches for any given player to play per pot. So if you have 4 pots, generating 2 matches per pot will ensure each player plays 8 matches. 2 players from each pot, including their own.

It is NOT POSSIBLE to accurately draw all matches evenly with any more than a 50% ration. So if you have 8 players per pot, you should draw no more than 4 matches per pot.

Enter the number of matches to draw, and click "Draw Matches" to generate the group schedule.

Expand any given matchday to view the generated fixture list. Each heading contains a summary of how many matches have been created. Click the expand button to view the individual matches.

Ensure it creates the right number of matches per per week. If not, you may need to redraw or reduce the number of matches per pot setting.

For each matchday/week you can set a date that it needs to be played on or by.

Knockout Configuration

In most "Champions League" format competitions, you progress the qualifiers from the group into some form of knockout.

**PROGRESSION TYPES** There are 3 different progression types. 1. **No Knockout** - The competition ends here, and the final group standings are your final results. 2. **Top Teams Only** - The top X teams qualify from the group to the second phase (Knockout) 3. **Top Teams and Playoff** - The Top X teams qualify as a group, then the next Y teams qualify into a playoff group who will play each other in the first knockout round. Top teams receive a Bye. So if you have 4 top teams, it will auto calculate 8 playoff teams

Set the Progression Format as required. This example will use "Top Teams and Playoff" to provide the example

Select the Number of Top Teams. These will receive a Bye in the first round of the knockout phase. You'll see the Number of Playoff Teams automatically calculates as Double the number of top teams.

**KNOCKOUT TYPE**\ \ The second phase can be configured as a Single Elimination tournament or a Double Elimination tournement. Please refer to the relevant section below.

Single Elimination

Set the Elimination Type to "Single Elimination".

Choose the type of seeding you want to apply, or assign it as a random draw.

**SEEDING TYPES**\ \ There are 3 types of seeding you can apply to the knockout stage. 1. **No Seeding/Random Draw** - This will simply randomly assign all qualified entries into the knockout 2. **Seeding By Group** - This will group together the Top entries into a group, the top half of the playoff entries into a group, and the bottom half of entries into a group. It will then randomise those groups into the next round. 3. **Seeding By Finish Position** - This is true seeding based upin finish position. So if you have 4 top teams, 8 playoff teams, then the top 4 teams receive a bye, position 5 will face position 12, position 6 will face face position 11 etc. Designed to ensure if they win all their knockout matches, the top 2 in the group will face off in the final.

If you are doing a random draw, its possible for you to randomise each round, rather than use a traditional tournament bracket. You can check the **Randomize Each Round** box to enable this. Enable the "Pre-draw randomized matches" checkbox will randomise each round and still allow players to track their potential route to the final in a more scattered and random way.

Click "Save" to apply the knockout configuration.

Double Elimination

Select the "Double Elimination" option for your knockout type.

Pick a double elimination template to use. It will only allow you to select a valid template.

Choose a seeding type. See more [here](https://scribehow.com/viewer/Champions_League_Competition_Format__-BtcwfDrQ7Cpmy2a-kSM7A?scrollToActionId=3c16d77c)

Click "Save" to save your knockout settings

Competition Launch

Click "Start Competition" and confirm to finalize the draw. This will automatically start all rounds and draw out your knockouts.

You can see these draws in the admin section using the standard system options.

Click "Live Scoring" to view brackets and results. This can be shared with your competitors.

You can see the full draw based upon your competition options and your matches are ready to be played.