How does bracket seeding work?

Brackets generator in MartialMatch allows you to automatically arrange brackets according to selected criteria.

By ranking and academy

This is the recommended automatic seeding method for most brackets.

The system uses the competitors' MartialMatch all-time ranking for the event's country, matched to the category's discipline, gender and age group.

The bracket is then arranged using two priorities:

1. Protect the strongest competitors. The highest-ranked competitors are placed on separate bracket paths so that they can meet as late as possible. Only the top of the ranking is protected: the top 2 competitors in categories of 4-8 competitors, the top 4 in categories of 9-16 and the top 8 in categories of 17-32 (fewer if fewer competitors have ranking points).
2. Separate academy teammates. Without weakening the ranking protection, the system arranges competitors so that people from the same academy meet as late as possible.

Competitors outside the protected group do not get a protected path, even if they have ranking points. They are arranged together with the unranked competitors: separating academies comes first, and among layouts equally good for academies the system keeps competitors as close to their ranking order as possible. A ranked but unprotected competitor can therefore still meet a protected one in the first round, but only when separating academies requires it.

Example. There are 8 competitors and three of them are from Academy A: ranked #1, #4 and #8. Two of the three must end up in the same half of the bracket, so one semifinal meeting between teammates cannot be avoided. The system chooses a layout with only that meeting and, among such layouts, the one closest to ranking order: #1 to #4 take the top seed positions and none of them meets another top-four competitor in the first round.

When separating academies, the system considers the bracket as a whole. It first tries to avoid same-academy fights in the first round, then in each following round. It will not create an earlier fight between teammates just to move another teammate fight from a later round.

Protected competitors always have priority. The system never moves them out of their ranking positions and never gives a lower-ranked competitor a more favorable protected path just to separate teammates. For everyone else, separating academies comes first and ranking order is kept as closely as that allows, so in small categories a competitor without ranking points can occasionally get a better position than a ranked but unprotected one.

If ranking data is missing or incomplete, the bracket is still generated. Competitors without ranking points are arranged using academy information together with the other unprotected competitors.

Teammates may still meet early when a category is small, many competitors represent the same academy or ranking protection leaves no better arrangement. This does not necessarily mean that the bracket was arranged incorrectly.

If the category has BYEs, the strongest protected competitors receive priority for them. Regenerating the same category produces the same arrangement unless its relevant data or bracket settings change.

By academy

Each competitor registered for the competition is assigned to an academy. It often happens that in one weight category there are several competitors from the same academy. In this case, the bracket generator will arrange the brackets so that competitors from the same academy meet as late as possible.

ℹ️ Important: Competitors, to be properly seeded in the bracket, must represent the same academy, i.e. they must have the same academy identifier. The system distinguishes between academies with different identifiers, even if they have the same name. For example, if one competitor registered under the academy ABC and another competitor duplicated the same academy in the system, technically they will be two different academies.

By assigned spot

If we organize wrestling competitions, we can additionally, during the verification of competitors, assign each competitor a spot — e.g. by drawing lots.

Then, when the system generates brackets, it will seed competitors according to the assigned spot. I.e. competitors who drew numbers 1 and 2 will meet in the first match.

In a situation where we partially draw and assign spots to several competitors, and the rest of the category will not have assigned spots. The system will take into account the order of registration.

• For example, having 8 competitors in the category, we assign spots only to three: 1, 2, 8.
• The remaining 5 competitors do not have assigned spots.
• The system will arrange the bracket, first selecting competitors with assigned spots: [1, 2, 8] and then the remaining competitors in the order in which they were registered for the competition.
• So, even though the third competitor has chosen number 8, he will be placed in the 3rd place in the bracket.