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Playoff phase creation

A Playoff phase is used to determine the final placings for teams in a competition. This phase is highly flexible and can be customised to your exact requirements to capture complex scenarios such as team eliminations, repechage, teams progressing directly to finals and much more.

In this article:

To create a Playoff Phase

  1. Select + Add Phase
  2. Add phase name (required)
  3. Select Playoff from the list of phase types
  4. Select the contributing phase. This can also be customised per grade if necessary in the Contributing Phase column
  5. Select the Playoff format as required for each grade in the Playoff column. The options available are:
    • PQSF (Preliminary Final, Quarter Final, Semi Final and Final)
    • QSF (Quarter Final, Semi Final and Final)
    • SF (Semi Final and Final)
    • F (Final)
    • None

Note: The selection of playoff format can be edited without needing to create a new phase providing no fixtures have been scored. You will receive a warning that the draw will be regenerated when saving the new selection.

PlayoffSettings-Options.png

6. Add the dates for each stage of the playoff phase.
7. Edit preferred times if necessary
8. Select Add.

 

How teams are matched

SKED builds the playoff draw as a seeded bracket, using the final standings from the contributing phase.

  • Seeding: Teams are ranked by finishing position across all sections, with every section’s 1st placed team ahead of every 2nd placed team, and so on (A1, B1, C1, then A2, B2, C2).
  • Bracket size: Set by the playoff format: F (two teams), SF (four), QSF (eight), or PQSF (16).
  • Matchups: The highest seeds play the lowest seeds (e.g. in an eight-team bracket, 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5). The top two seeds can only meet in the final.
  • Byes: If there are fewer teams than the bracket holds, the highest seeds get byes.
  • More teams than the bracket holds: The top seeds fill the first bracket, and the remaining teams form a second, lower bracket. Every team from the contributing phase is included.
  • Later rounds: Winners play winners and losers play losers, so each final only contains teams that can finish in the placings it decides (e.g. 3rd/4th is always the two beaten semi-finalists).

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