Qualification, play-off and knockout
How the overall table, the seeded play-off with byes and the knockout bracket work.
After the districts, the season continues in two stages: a play-off that fills the remaining places, and a knockout that decides the champion. Both are built automatically from the district tables.
1. Direct qualifiers
The top players of every district go straight to the knockout. The default is 2 per district. With 11 districts that is 22 direct qualifiers.
2. The overall table
The overall table puts every district together. Because districts have different sizes, players have played different numbers of matches, so the table is ranked by points per match and not by total points.
Ties are broken by the stage's tie-breaks, also per match. Head-to-head is skipped here because the players come from different districts. The table is cut at the overall table size (32 by default).
3. The play-off
Everyone in the overall table who didn't qualify directly plays the play-off. They play for the remaining knockout places:
places = knockout size − direct qualifiers
With a knockout of 32 and 22 direct qualifiers, the play-off decides 10 places.
Byes for the higher seeds
The play-off is seeded by the overall table. The number of players rarely halves cleanly to the number of places, so the higher seeds get a bye in the first round and only the lower seeds play. After that first round, every round is a clean halving.
- Round 1: seeds 1–14 have a bye. Seeds 15–26 play 6 matches. 20 players remain.
- Round 2: the 20 players play 10 matches. The 10 winners go to the knockout.
The stage page shows the Play-off plan and the Field after each round before you start, and a Qualification (live preview) while the districts are still running.
When you click Start stage, the seeding is frozen. Later changes to district results no longer change who plays whom.
4. The knockout
The knockout starts when the play-off is finished. The direct qualifiers are seeded first, ranked by the overall table, followed by the play-off winners. The bracket uses standard seeding, so the top seeds can only meet in the late rounds.
| Round | Default length |
|---|---|
| Last 32, last 16 | Best of 5 (first to 3 frames) |
| Quarter-finals, semi-finals | Best of 7 (first to 4) |
| Final | Best of 9 (first to 5) |
The length of every round can be changed in the stage settings. Knockout matches can't end in a draw. The winner moves to the next round automatically.
5. Correcting a knockout result
If a result was wrong, correct or clear it on the match page. The bracket is updated: the right winner moves on, and the wrong one is taken out of the next round.