It might be a good idea to add a function that allows players to be paused — not deactivated (with the associated fair deletion of matches), but simply marked as temporarily unavailable. This way, the matchmaking logic (max MP) can take into account potentially recurring opponents while being able to skip paused players when creating new matches. In cases where an active player has no available opponents left except for one or more paused players, that player can either be paused as well with a notification or simply remain in the waiting queue, also with a corresponding message.
This is just an idea I’d like to put out there, without having a deep understanding of the underlying max MP algorithms.
Overall, I think the ability to pause for 20–30 minutes during a long max MP tournament would be very useful, and I would really appreciate it if this could be implemented technically in this format.
Additionally, this would mean that the tournament director wouldn’t have to set a lower number of rounds just to manually ensure everyone ends up playing the same number. For example, @pinmanic as a TD could simply set the total number of rounds to 40, and max MP would handle the pairings. In the worst case, some active players may have to wait longer than necessary because their potential opponents are on a break.
To avoid disrupting the tournament flow too much, breaks could be allowed only for players who have already completed a significant number of rounds. In other words, you’d have to play a certain amount before being eligible to pause without negatively impacting the flow.
As I said, these are just some spontaneous thoughts that I believe could make this awesome format even better.
Looking forward to flipping some more ideas around with you – cheers
Daniel
So, we are holding a Maxmatchplay tournament next year with 100ish players and 35-40 machines. With a que that large I assume we can just start the next match as soon as a game is done and the software will have no problems?
It also depends on how many games you have each player play. Generally speaking I would still be keeping an eye on the queue to make sure that no player ends up far ahead or far behind the same as if it was a smaller tournament.
I love the MM format and was very happy that you fulfilled my wish in December 2024 to allow players flexible breaks by making it possible to deactivate them. This allowed us to play Max Matchplay in January 2025 with 60 players and 40 rounds in a relaxed manner. We paid close attention in the end and everything worked perfectly.
I noticed that the calculated number of remaining rounds was displayed incorrectly and even became negative. However, that didn’t bother us. Apparently, the software was changed later so that no further rounds can be started if the calculated number of remaining games is zero or below. During our tournament in August, this meant that we had to increase the number of rounds and manually adjust the pairings at the same time because some players had already reached the maximum number of rounds.
It would be great if the software could ignore the calculated remaining rounds as before. Many tournament directors would be happy if they could once again deactivate players at their own risk so that flexible breaks for participants remain possible.
There was no error message. There were still a few rounds left, but there was no way to create games. The reason for this was that the calculation of the remaining number of games was 0. I believe that in the January tournament, due to deactivations, the calculation of the remaining games was even negative.
So if you allow the number of remaining games to be less than 0 (due to deactivations), it is important that you continue to let create rounds as long as not everyone has completed their games.