Player groups
Groups are a matchmaking tool for organizers. You sort players into named groups, and when you generate a season's schedule those groups steer who plays whom. A player can be in any number of groups, and groups are kept per season.
Groups only affect who gets matched — they never change standings, points, or tiebreakers.
Two kinds of group
Members of an inclusive group are matched with each other first, in the earliest rounds, before they branch out to everyone else. Use it for players you want to see face off: a skill tier, a clan, or a pod that wants games among themselves.
Members of an exclusive group are kept from playing each other wherever possible. Use it for players who already game together — roommates or a local pod — so the league sends them to face new opponents instead.
What you’d use them for
A few recipes to start from. Mix and match — a player can sit in several groups at once, so a multi-store league and a no-car group can run side by side.
Bring players together — inclusive
One group per shop (North Side, Downtown). Locals are paired first, so most games land somewhere people can already get to — then the schedule branches out for cross-store games and a league-wide champion.
Group your newcomers together (and your veterans together). New players meet each other in the early rounds — gentler games and a few wins before they run into the sharpest lists.
Group the weeknight crew, the weekenders, the lunch-break regulars. Matching people whose free time overlaps is the difference between a game getting scheduled and a game stalling.
A pod of friends who want games among themselves, or a narrative alliance — paired up early so they get their grudge matches in.
Keep players apart — exclusive
Put transport-limited players in one group. Two of them are kept apart, so each is matched with someone who can come to them — the game nobody could host never gets scheduled.
Players who already game at the kitchen table. Send them outward to meet the rest of the league instead of each other.
The flip side of the multi-store recipe: if one shop already plays in-house every week, make it an exclusive group so the league only matches them outward — that cross-pollination is the whole point.
How groups change matchmaking
- They're preferences, not hard rules. The scheduler always produces a complete, valid schedule — no rematches, one game per player per round, fair byes. Groups bias it toward your intent rather than forcing it.
- Exclusion wins. If two players share both an inclusive and an exclusive group, keeping them apart takes priority.
- Round count matters. Most seasons play fewer rounds than a full round-robin, so the schedule already picks a subset of all possible games — that's where groups do their work. In a full round-robin everyone meets eventually, so an exclusion can't always be honored.
- You review before it's saved. Preview schedule shows the proposed pairings and warns about any avoidance rule it couldn't honor; nothing is written until you commit.
Setting groups up
- Open a season in the admin area and find the Groups section.
- Add a group, name it, and choose inclusive or exclusive.
- Add players — from the Groups panel, or with the Groups column in the roster.
- Starting a new season? Use Import groups from another season to copy them over (players are matched by account first, then by name).
- Generate the schedule with Preview schedule, check the pairings and any warnings, then commit.
Groups are organizer-only — players don't see them.