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  • Oh, and just an explanation of the modes.

    There are 3 ways you can run it

    Automatic Mode: This will attempt to predict games before the end of the last round, so that you always have teams on deck. This is the default way, and is best for people who want no involvement at all, just enter the teams, and do what it says.

    Problems can occur, if games aren't played in order, as it did when Edisons/Cosmic was delayed in the Euros, and by the time they had played, their potential next opponents, of a similar level had all been picked already, and as it was being done automatically, no-one picked this up.

    I don't recommend using this mode.

    Manual Mode, the easy way

    Manual mode allows you to tell Podium when to select the next games, so if you wait until the end of the round, and then hit "stage games", it will choose the next round, in the same way Challonge works. You won't get any strange games, as it has all the teams to work with.

    The downside is, like Challonge, you have to wait until the round is over, so you can lose court time, as teams won't be ready, or on multiple courts you don't have any games on while the others finish.

    I'd recommend this to people who don't want to be too involved, you just press the button once a round, and do what it says.

    Manual mode, the advanced way

    This is where Podium really comes into it's own, and it's how I always run tournaments now.

    You can use manual mode to stage games in the next round, the same way Automatic mode would do it, except you are choosing the games.

    This obviously relies on the person doing it understanding which teams should be playing each other next, and what the factors involved are.

    So I'll wait until there are two teams who are certain to be chosen together in the next round, based on their points, and tiebreak scores. For example, if you have two teams who are 4 points ahead of everyone who hasn't played yet, and 1 point ahead of everyone who has, you know you can select that game for the next round, and no-one else can catch them.

    Once you've predicted the first few games of the next round, and the previous round is then over, you get Podium to fill up the rest of the games, by hitting "stage round"

    Running it this way gives you the balance of an efficient schedule, teams have warning of their games, and you have no court downtime, but also you can make sure there are no strange pairings.

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