Switcholio – The #1 Tournament Format

Simply put, Switcholio is a blind draw round robin in which players get a new partner for every game, and get ranked on an individual basis. The organizer can use that leaderboard to recognize and reward top finishers, or seed them into a playoff. All done and managed for you through Scoreholio software.

Top players love Switcholio first because they aren’t always paired with a newbie for every game every week. Second, because over the course of an evening they should be able to do better than an average player, earning themselves a higher spot on the leaderboard. If the organizer ranks the leaderboard by total points, without factoring for win/loss record, top players always the opportunity to earn valuable points even if their partner can’t hit the board.
New players love Switcholio first because it’s less intimidating than a regular blind draw. I used to have potential players say “maybe next time” all the time, usually because they were self-conscious and didn’t want to feel the guilt and shame of holding a good player back all night.
Tournament organizers love Switcholio because they never need to worry about making sure they have an even number of players for randomization, or designating a “walker” that plays by themself if they don’t. Organizers also love the fact that they can add players late, or let players take a break for a little while, and either way Scoreholio will automatically “catch them up.” Finally, if people bail early for whatever reason they’re not leaving a partner in the lurch

Setting up and Running a Switcholio Tournament

Switcholio sounds a little crazy, I get that, and that might make you nervous about running it the first time. But Scoreholio automates the whole thing, so there’s really not much to it. We’ll walk you through everything you need to know. To run Switcholio, create a new tournament with format set to Round Robin and Team Generation set to Switcholio.

Download the Scoreholio app or login to Scoreholio at https://app.scoreholio.com/
Click “Create New”
Rank by: This is how your leaderboard will be sorted during Round Robin play. We have multiple options to choose from: Total Points, Record then Points, Record then Differential, PPR (points per round) and DPR (differential per round). Points differential is points for minus points against. PPR and DPR are only used for Cornhole.
# of courts: This depends how many players you expect, and you may end up changing it. Switcholio is all about randomization, and you want enough players in the coming up queue (waiting to play,) that the system isn’t limited in who it can pair up. Generally speaking you want to have 8 or more players in the queue. If you don’t, remove a court. (If you want to know more, or learn why, here you go.)
# of rounds: I strongly suggest you run 4 rounds, no more no less, because that way no matter how many players you have, everybody will get the same number of games. In fact, if you add somebody late, the system will catch them up and everybody including them will still get those same 4 games. Don’t ask me how it works, but it does. If you’re worried about how long that will take, keep games short by making them 15 point games, or capping time at 10 minutes.

Switcholio Graph

This graph will help you know how many players and rounds you can run in a switcholio. If your combination is in the green everyone will finish with the same amount of rounds. If your combination of players and rounds are in the red that means some players will end up short a rounds. If the number is .25 then 1 player will be short a round, if .50 then 2 players, and if .75 3 players will be short a round.

As you can see, multiples of 4 are always a good combination in switcholio.

Entering Players

When you check players in to a Switcholio event, or add them via the Players tab of the admin interface, they will automatically be to a “team” that consists only of them. That’s just the way it works. You can rename their team, and that’s what will appear in the dashboard and rankings. Click here to learn more on: adding teams and players

Adding Late Players

One of the nice things about Switcholio is that you can add players late, and the system will automatically “catch them up.” If you’re playing four games like I suggest they will get their four games in just like everybody else. If they’re too far behind, however, they will tend to hold things up toward the end, and they’ll be queued up back to back to back with no breaks. I like to let late-comers join the tournament as long as at least ONE player who started on time has only played a single game. As soon as everybody who was in the event from the start is at least playing their second game, I don’t allow new players.

Letting Players Leave

Another advantage of Switcholio is that if somebody has to bail, they’re not leaving a partner (and you) in a lurch. Note that somebody leaving mid-tournament CAN cause an uneven number of games at the end, but there are easy ways to resolve that. More on that in a bit.

Swapping Scores

Sometimes players will not pay attention and submit the score of a game backwards. To fix this, go into the “Stats & Logs” tab, select the edit button to the right of the game with the incorrect score. There you can swap the score, update, or edit ScoreMagic rounds.

Evening Out Games

If one player, or a few players, end up short a game because somebody bailed or you ran anything other than four games, it’s fairly easy to fix. What you will have to do is go back to the Player tab in admin where you started the tournament from. Add fake players called “ghosts”. Add as many as you need. Example: if 2 players are left short a round add 2 ghosts. Then go back to the round robin tab, click on a players name and manually pair them with a ghost onto a court. Repeat with the other player short a round until the court is full. Have those players play singles and submit the match. Go back to the players tab and click on the ghosts you added and delete them. Now everyone will have even matches.

Creating a Bracket after the round robin

Some organizers just consider the leaderboard their ranking for the tournament, paying out the top few places based on their point totals. You can, however, tack a playoff on to a Switcholio round robin. To create a bracket after the round robin click the bracket tab in admin and click “create bracket”

Single or Double Elimination: Depending on your group dynamics you can decide to run a single or double elimination after your round robin.
Pairing Method: This refers to how the teams will be made after the round robin is complete. We have a few options for you: Top with first of lower half – Top with bottom – “The Cornelius” which pairs 1 with 2 and 3 with 4 etc. – 50/50 which will blind draw someone from the top half with someone from the bottom half – or you can choose to play singles.
Bracket Size: You can run your playoff as any number of teams, from 4 to 32, and even 64 (128 players) if you upgrade to our Pro plan.
Note: If you have an uneven number of players and want to advance everybody, you will need to add a ghost player. They’ll be in last place. To change the ghosts position click the “Change Seeding” button and drag the ghost to your desired position.
Additional Brackets: If you would like to split your field into multiple brackets after your switcholio you would want to use additional brackets.
Click here to find out more: Additional Brackets

We now offer two other types of Switcholio tournaments.

Set Schedule Switcholio: If you would like to create a schedule for everyone to see who they are playing with and against for the entire tournament. OR you would like to setup a weekly league switcholio keeping running league stats. Click here: Set Schedule Switcholio

Split Switch: Looking to run more of a PRO AM or a Mixed Doubles type tournament? Where you can split your group up into 2 groups and have players ONLY play with players from the other group? Click here: Split Switch