Match

A match is a small structured form of play involving one or more participants. These participants play with each other following a match format and until an outcome is established. This outcome can then be used to progress the competition.

Type

A match has a type that describes how the match should be played. It defines a number of participants and how the outcome should be defined.

There are three different match types:

• Duel: Such match involves only two participants. Both participants play against each other and produce a standard outcome based on win, draw or loss. Participants may also be declared forfeit.
  
  
• Ffa: A ffa match involves two or more participants that compete in game format that establishes a ranking. All participants end the match with a rank or a forfeit. The outcome of such match is a ranking.
  
  
• Bye: A bye match involves only one participant. This match type is used in some stage types when it is important to establish that an opponent could not play in a round because no other opponent(s) could be found.
  

Format

The match format refers to the management of games and scores within a match. You may set a match format at any level of a competition (tournament, stage, group, round or match). A match format set on a smaller subset of the competition has priority.

Status

A match has a status that contains the progress of the match. It can have three values:

• pending: the match has not yet started.
• running: the match is in progress.
• completed: the match has finished and has an outcome.

The status is automatically calculated based on the outcome and score in the match. All matches are created with the “pending” status by default. The status becomes “running” as soon as some outcome or score information is set within the match. The status becomes “completed” when a complete and valid outcome has been set.

Outcome

The outcome of match is obtained from the outcome information provided in each opponent. Each opponent must have outcome information for the match to have an outcome.

In some rares cases, it is possible to rely on a partial outcome. In a ffa match, a ranking containing only the top X opponents might be sufficient to have a match outcome.

A match contains opponents that identify who is playing and how they perform. Opponents are not participants. They act like slots that expect to receive a participant at some point in the tournament. Therefore, they can exist before there are any participants in the tournament.

Number

An opponent does not have an id. It instead has a number that acts like a local id within a match.

Participant

A match opponent can contain a participant that defines who is playing as that opponent. When a match is created by the structure, it does not have a participant yet. A special proceeding usually called the placement (or the seeding) is used to place participants in a stage. The stage type then defines how participants are set in matches.

Outcome

The outcome of a match represents the final result of the match. It is described with three properties in each opponent. Depending on the match type, only one or two of these properties are used:

• result: describes the result of a match (only duel or bye) based on one of the three values: win, draw, loss.
  
  
• rank: describes the place in the ranking of a match (only ffa).
  
  
• forfeit: describes whether the opponent is forfeit (only duel or ffa).
  
  

Each outcome must be valid. It should only contain the properties required by its match type. It should have a valid combination depending on the match type.

In a duel match, the outcome must be one of the following combinations: win/loss, loss/win, win/forfeit, forfeit/win, draw/draw, or forfeit/forfeit.

In an FFA match, the outcome of all opponents must produce a valid ranking. This implies that the rank should respect the following rules:

• The rank should not exceed the size of the match.
  
  
• There should be no missing ranks between all ranks (ie: 1st, 3rd)
  
  
• Multiple opponents can be tied with the same rank, but the next rank must be increased for each tied opponent (ie: 1st, 1st, 1st, 4th)
  
  

Position

Each opponent also has a position that is mostly used on ffa matches. It can be used to display the match’s ranking in a consistent way.

Before and during the match, it is based on the opponent’s number, allowing to display the initial position of the participants.

Once the match is completed, it uses the outcome to reposition all opponents in the correct order.

Score

The score of a match is optional information that describes the accomplishment in the game. It is described in each opponent. A score is always an integer number.

In some stages, it is possible to enable an alternate score system by defining a score type and a score intent. The score type enables to describe a specific unit. The score intent defines whether the highest or the lowest scores win.

The score type can be:

• points: no particular unit
• duration: expressed in milliseconds

The score intent can be

• highest: a higher score means a better result
• lowest: a lower score means a better result

A match game or match set is a subset of a match that represents a single game in the discipline. It functions like a match with a few changes.

A match game is identified by an incremental number instead of a match id. It contains a status that functions like the match. It also contains discipline-specific information (such as maps or game modes).

A match game also contains game opponents. They share the same opponent number as the match opponent, and do not contain participant information. It contains score and outcome information. It also contains discipline-specific information (such as characters, factions or additional scores).