Running a Tournament on Podium

• Overview
• Planning & Setup
  • Choosing Your Format
  • Setting Up Courts
  • Registering Teams
  • Registering Players (Shuffle)
  • Designing Your Tournament Structure
  • Adding Staff
  • Publishing Your Tournament
  • Pre-Tournament Checklist
• Tournament Day
  • Following the Schedule
  • Scoring Games
  • Keeping Things Moving
  • Reading Standings
  • Seeding Brackets
  • Running Brackets
  • Finishing the Tournament
• Decisions & Troubleshooting
  • Round Robin vs Swiss
  • Single vs Double Elimination
  • How Many Groups?
  • Correcting a Score
  • A Team Drops Out
  • Running Behind Schedule
  • Sharing Your Tournament

Overview

Podium is tournament software for bike polo. It handles scheduling, scoring, standings, and brackets to help organizers run their event.

Tournament formats to fit different style events:

• Standard — pre-formed teams, swiss or round robin play into elimination brackets. Classic competitive tournament.
• Shuffle — individual players get randomly mixed into teams of 3 each round. Great for low key pickup style tournaments.

Session Formats to structure your tournament:

• Groups — round robin where every team plays every other team
• Swiss sessions — competitive pairings based on win/loss record, with a flexible round count
• Brackets — single or double elimination to crown a champion

Podium is built to be used easily on your phone anywhere you are. Tap to add goals, credit players, and finish games. The court queue organizes your schedule into 3 tiers: On the Court, On Deck (next up), In the Hole (two away).

Standings are computed automatically from game results — points, goal differential, strength of schedule, tiebreakers.

Staff roles let you share the work. Creators have full control, Organizers manage tournament structure, and Scorekeepers handle game scoring. Staff need Podium accounts, but individual Players aren’t required to.

Planning & Setup

Everything in this section can be done days or weeks before the tournament. Podium saves your tournament as a draft, so there’s no rush to set it all up in one sitting.

Choosing Your Format

This is the first and most permanent decision — format can’t be changed after you create the tournament.

Standard is for traditional tournaments with pre-formed teams. Teams register ahead of time, play through rounds to establish rankings, then seed into elimination brackets. Use this when you want a competitive arc that ends with a champion team.

Shuffle is organized pickup. Individual players sign up and get randomly sorted into teams of 3 for each round. After the round, everyone gets reshuffled into new teams. Individual player stats accumulate across rounds. Shuffles are more social and fun than competitive.

Setting Up Courts

Podium creates Court A automatically when you make a tournament. Add more courts to match your physical setup. At any point in the tournament, you can control which group / session / bracket is active on which court.

Registering Teams

Add teams from the Organizer tab. The order you arrange teams in sets their seed — this helps picks better matchups in the first round of a swiss session, and stages more competitive games in the later group rounds.

For each team, search the global player list to add players to the roster. Players exist across all Podium tournaments, so returning players will already be in the system.

Registering Players (Shuffle)

Shuffle format only.

Add individual players to the shuffle pool from the Organizer tab.

Each player gets a tier that affects how teams are balanced:

• A — strongest players
• B — middle of the pack (the default)
• C — developing players

Getting tiers right matters because they drive the balancing algorithm. In round 1, A-tier players are spread evenly across teams so no team gets stacked with all your best players. In round 2 and beyond, the algorithm pairs top-ranked players with bottom-ranked players for natural balance, keeping standout players separated. There are multiple shuffle algorithms available — including a “sandbag-proof” tier shuffle that overrides stats-based ranking — so organizers can tune how teams get built each new round.

Podium detects when a shuffle round would re-pair players who’ve already been teammates. If it can’t avoid the duplicate, you’ll get a warning so you can decide whether to proceed or reshuffle.

Designing Your Tournament Structure

Podium gives you three building blocks — Groups (round robin), Swiss Sessions, and Brackets — that you combine to create your tournament shape. Set these up during planning so everything is ready to go on tournament day, and players know what the tournament format is.

Always start your first group or Swiss session ahead of tournament day. Starting generates the schedule, so players can see when and where their first game will be. This is critical — letting players know when their first game is, and when they need to be at the court. Just make sure your teams are finalized before you start, since starting locks the team list.

Groups (Round Robin)

A complete group plays out every possible matchup between its teams. With 6 teams in a group, every team plays 5 games. This gives the most accurate rankings because no team can hide from a weak schedule — important for qualifying tournaments. You can also set a group to play fewer than the full number of rounds, but if you’re cutting rounds short you may be better off splitting into smaller groups or using Swiss.

When you create a group, all tournament courts are assigned to it by default. Toggle off any courts you don’t want that group using. Select which teams belong in the group, either manually or based on the results of other groups or sessions.

When you’re ready, hit “Start” on the group. This generates the full round-robin schedule upfront — all matchups for all rounds are determined at that point. Rounds advance automatically as games get scored. The schedule is seed-aware: early rounds pair teams far apart in the standings, and the closest matchups (1st vs 2nd, 3rd vs 4th) happen in the final round. Make sure your teams are seeded before starting the group to get the best schedule.

For large tournaments, split teams into multiple groups that play simultaneously. Each group produces its own standings, which you use later to seed brackets.

Swiss Sessions

Swiss is an alternative to round robin that works better for larger fields. Instead of playing every possible matchup, Swiss pairs teams based on their current record — winners play winners, losers play losers. You get solid overall rankings in fewer rounds since teams don’t need to play every other team.

You set the number of rounds when you create the session. Add teams either manually (toggle and drag to set prerank order) or by pulling from other groups and Swiss sessions using the same interleaved/sequential source selection as bracket seeding.

Pre-ranking sets round 1 pairings. After that, standings take over. Choose a pairing method for the first round:

• Balanced (halves): 1v4, 2v5, 3v6 — top half vs bottom half. Pick this unless you have a strong reason not to. Sorts teams well by the end without many blowout games.
• Lopsided (snake): 1v6, 2v5, 3v4 — top seeds face bottom seeds. Saves closer-ranked matchups for later rounds, and gives weaker teams a chance to play top teams they’d otherwise never meet.
• Cutthroat (sequential): 1v2, 3v4, 5v6 — neighbors play each other. Closely matched teams start playing each other right away. Pairings may degrade in later rounds if evenly matched teams have already played.

After round 1, pairings are generated automatically based on standings.

If you have an odd number of teams, one team gets a bye each round — they receive 2 match points but don’t play a game. This is worth knowing if you have 7 or 9 teams.

Brackets (Elimination)

Brackets crown a champion through elimination. Create them during during tourney setup, and seed them once source groups or swiss sessions are complete.

Single elimination — one loss and you’re out. Faster and simpler.

Double elimination — every team gets a second chance through the losers bracket. Longer but fairer. See Single vs Double Elimination for help choosing.

Brackets typically follow in sequence after group or Swiss play: those stages produce rankings, then you seed teams into bracket positions based on those results.

Common Tournament Shapes

• Swiss → Bracket — large field, Swiss narrows rankings, bracket crowns the champion, 2 days
• 2 Groups → Double Elim — competitive tournament, 12-24 teams, 1-2 days
• 2 Groups → 1 Group — qualification-focused, e.g. two large groups feeding into one smaller final group for precise rankings, no bracket needed, 2 days
• Shuffle → Bracket — casual fun focused tournaments.

For major events like NAHPBC or Worlds, tournaments often run 3-4 days with multiple qualification stages.

Adding Staff

Three roles control who can do what:

• Creator — full control over everything, including managing staff
• Organizer — manages tournament structure (teams, groups, brackets, courts) and scores games
• Scorekeeper — scores games only

All Staff need Podium accounts. Add them before tournament day so they can pull up the tournament on their phones and be ready to go.

Publishing Your Tournament

Your tournament starts as a draft — only you and your staff can see it. When you’re ready for players to find it, use “Request Publish” in the Organizer settings. Once approved, the tournament appears on the public tournament list and is accessible to everyone.

Pre-Tournament Checklist

• Teams or players registered and named
• Courts match your physical setup
• Groups or Swiss sessions created with the correct teams assigned, and the first one started so players can see the schedule
• Scorekeepers added as staff (they need Podium accounts)
• Tournament URL shared with players
• Description filled in — players see this on the Info tab, so include start times, venue details, registration info, side events, and after-parties

Tournament Day

Everything from “players are here” to “we have a champion.”

Following the Schedule

If you started your first group or Swiss session during setup, the schedule is already populated and waiting. If not, go to the Organizer tab and hit “Start” now.

The Schedule tab organizes games by court status:

• On the Court — game is in progress
• On Deck — next game for that court
• In the Hole — two games away
• Waiting — matchup is determined but no open court slot

Use the filters at the top to narrow by court, group, team, or bracket.

Scoring Games

This is the core loop you and your scorekeepers will repeat:

1. Tap a game card on the Schedule tab to open the scorer
2. Tap “Start Game” to put the game on the court
3. Add goals — tap a team’s side and credit the goal to a specific player
4. When the game is over, tap Finish (you’ll be asked to confirm)

If you make a mistake, you can remove a goal at any time — until you tap Finish. Tap the goal and confirm removal. The score and standings update automatically.

Ties are allowed in group and Swiss play. Bracket games cannot end in a tie.

Crediting goals to specific players is optional, but worth doing — it builds each player’s stats across tournaments.

Keeping Things Moving

Groups are pre-determined and advance automatically. When you started the group, all matchups for every round were generated upfront. As soon as every game in the current round is scored, the next round’s games move into the court queue. You don’t need to do anything — just keep scoring.

Swiss sessions work differently. Each round’s pairings are generated based on the current standings after the previous round completes. Podium will pre-generate a few “certain” pairings before the round fully completes to keep the court queue moving, but the next round won’t be fully determined until all games in the current round are scored.

Court management can help you pace the tournament. Early on, use as many courts as you have. As the tournament progresses and you near the last games of a bracket, you can narrow down to fewer courts so fans and streaming viewers can follow all the action in one place. Toggle courts on or off for specific groups or brackets from the Organizer tab.

Reordering groups and Swiss sessions lets you control which one plays first when they share a court. On the Organizer tab, re-order groups or Swiss sessions. Reordering takes effect immediately for unassigned games; anything already on the court stays put.

Reading Standings

Standings update automatically as games are scored. Check them anytime from the Results tab.

Column guide:

Tiebreaker order — when teams are tied on points, Podium breaks ties in this order:

• Groups: Points → Goal Differential → Goals For → Goals Against (fewer is better) → Original Seed
• Swiss: Points → Goal Differential → Goals For → Strength of Schedule → Prerank
• Shuffle: Points → Team Goals For → Player Goals → Team Goal Differential → Tier

Seeding Brackets

Once group or Swiss play finishes, the next step is seeding your bracket. The bracket structure should already exist from setup — now you’re placing teams into positions.

Standard tournaments

Select which groups or Swiss sessions to pull teams from, then choose how to order them:

• Interleaved — pulls rank 1 from each source, then rank 2, and so on. Use when sources are peers (e.g. parallel groups of similar strength).
• Sequential — takes all teams from source 1 first, then source 2. Use when sources are tiered (e.g. an A pool feeds before a B pool).

You can drag sources to reorder their priority. Podium previews the resulting seed list so you can review before committing. If you have more teams than bracket slots, the lowest-ranked teams are cut automatically.

Seed 1 plays the lowest seed, seed 2 plays the second-lowest, and so on. Getting the seeding right matters — it determines the entire bracket draw and ensures the strongest teams don’t meet until the later rounds.

Shuffle tournaments

Shuffle brackets build new teams from the player pool rather than pulling existing teams. Preview the teams before committing, then choose an algorithm:

• Reshuffle — builds teams by selecting top, middle, and bottom-ranked players based on stats
• Supershuffle — randomly selects within top, middle, and bottom tiers for more variety
• Tier Shuffle — spreads A-tier players first, then fills from stats. Sandbag-proof: tiers override stats so deliberately tanking standings doesn’t help.

Podium warns you if the generated teams would re-pair players who’ve already been teammates. You can keep regenerating with different algorithms until you’re happy with the result.

Running Brackets

Once the bracket is seeded, all games for the entire bracket are generated automatically. As games are scored and teams advance, the bracket fills in.

Single elimination is straightforward — win and advance, lose and you’re done.

Double elimination has a winners bracket and a losers bracket. Lose in the winners bracket and you drop to the losers bracket for a second chance. Lose in the losers bracket and you’re out.

The double-elim finals are the trickiest part — there are up to 3 matches:

• Tournament Final Playin — determines who faces the winners bracket champion
• Tournament Final — winners bracket champion vs the playin winner
• Tournament Final Rematch — only happens if the losers bracket side wins the Tournament Final, since both teams would then have one loss and need one more game to decide the champion

Finishing the Tournament

For tournaments with brackets, completion is automatic — the tournament finishes when the final bracket game is scored.

For tournaments without brackets (groups only, Swiss only), use the “Complete Tournament” button in the Organizer settings section. This is only available once all games are finished.

Decisions & Troubleshooting

Reference material for decisions and situations that come up before or during a tournament.

Round Robin vs Swiss

Round robin (groups) guarantees every team plays every other team. This gives the most accurate rankings because every matchup happens. The tradeoff is time: a group of N teams takes N-1 rounds.

Swiss pairs teams based on their current record each round. You set a fixed number of rounds regardless of team count — 4 rounds of Swiss with 16 teams is much faster than a 15-round round robin. The rankings won’t be as precise, but they’re good enough to seed brackets fairly.

Use round robin when accuracy matters more than speed — qualifying tournaments, smaller fields, or when you have the time.

Use Swiss when you have a large field and need to move faster — or when you want competitive pairings where strong teams face strong teams early on.

Single vs Double Elimination

Single elimination is faster and simpler. Every team plays until they lose once. A 16-team single-elim bracket takes 15 games. The downside: one bad game and you’re out. A team that traveled across the country could be done after 12 minutes.

Double elimination gives every team a second chance through the losers bracket. A 16-team double-elim bracket takes up to 30 games. It’s fairer — a single upset doesn’t end your tournament — but takes roughly twice as long.

Use single when time is tight or the field is small. Use double when the event is competitive enough that teams deserve a second chance.

How Many Groups?

One group means pure round robin — every team plays every other team. The most accurate rankings, but it takes the most time.

Multiple groups let you run parallel play. Split 16 teams into two groups of 8 — each group finishes in 7 rounds instead of 15. The tradeoff: teams only play within their group, so cross-group comparisons are less precise.

When splitting teams, try to balance group strength. A simple approach: put odd-seeded teams in one group and even-seeded teams in the other (1, 3, 5, 7 in Group A and 2, 4, 6, 8 in Group B).

Use group standings to seed your brackets — top finishers from each group get the best bracket positions.

Correcting a Score

You can remove a goal from any in-progress game. Tap the goal in the scorer, confirm removal, and the score updates automatically. Standings recalculate immediately.

Once a game is finished, the score is locked. Make sure the score is correct before tapping Finish.

A Team Drops Out

If a team can’t continue mid-tournament, their completed games still count toward standings. For future scheduled games, you’ll need to score them as the opponent winning (there’s no automatic forfeit).

If a team drops before brackets start, simply don’t seed them into the bracket. Their group/Swiss games remain in the standings.

Running Behind Schedule

A few options to catch up:

Swiss sessions — reduce the total round count. If you planned 5 rounds but 3 is enough to differentiate teams, cut it short. Rankings will be rougher but usable.

Groups — if a group has played enough rounds for clear standings to emerge, you can move on to brackets even if not every round has been played. Seeding works the same — Podium computes standings from whatever games have been completed.

Sharing Your Tournament

Share your tournament URL with players and fans. Anyone with the link can see the live schedule, scores, standings, and brackets — no account needed.

The public view shows everything except the Organizer tab. Players can filter the schedule, check standings, and follow bracket progress on their own phones. Encourage players to bookmark the URL so they can check results between games without asking you.