Prelim and Combined Stats on SQBS

[cchiego]

Now that many tournaments feature some kind of prelim rounds/afternoon rebracketing, I've noticed a number of posts about difficulties in trying to merge two SQBS files. Trying to merge two separate files is usually a pain due to inconsistent player or team names, so I've learned to do the following:

1. Keep all games in one initial master file, making sure to enter the round number on each round.

2. After the prelims conclude, I save a copy of that file as the morning/prelim rounds but continue to use the master copy to enter afternoon games.

3. Once the playoffs conclude, I save the master copy of the file as the combined rounds, then quickly run through (less than 2 minutes usually, if you entered all the games by rounds) and delete all the morning round games. I'm then left with only the playoffs, which I save as the playoff results. Now you should have 3 separate files ready for posting.

Anyone else have solutions to this problem or others like it on SQBS?

[Frater Taciturnus]

Now that many tournaments feature some kind of prelim rounds/afternoon rebracketing, I've noticed a number of posts about difficulties in trying to merge two SQBS files. Trying to merge two separate files is usually a pain due to inconsistent player or team names, so I've learned to do the following:

1. Keep all games in one initial master file, making sure to enter the round number on each round.

2. After the prelims conclude, I save a copy of that file as the morning/prelim rounds but continue to use the master copy to enter afternoon games.

3. Once the playoffs conclude, I save the master copy of the file as the combined rounds, then quickly run through (less than 2 minutes usually, if you entered all the games by rounds) and delete all the morning round games. I'm then left with only the playoffs, which I save as the playoff results. Now you should have 3 separate files ready for posting.

Anyone else have solutions to this problem or others like it on SQBS?

You can set SQBS to only show results from certain rounds in the reports. Just go under settings and change all rounds to the range desired

[ScoBo]

With the functionality George describes, you should be able to get the playoff stats from the "combined" file if no games carry over. (The separate prelim file is still needed because pools changed). It's only when you have crossover playoffs that you have to have a separate playoffs file. In that case I think you have to enter games into the "combined" file and then once done, save as "playoffs" and go back and delete the prelim games that don't matter. (This essentially requires you to keep track of crossover playoff records separately from SQBS to quickly determine them, but you should probably be doing that on a chalkboard grid anyway.)

[ScoBo]

(Posted separately because this may be worthy of being split into its own thread)

For a while now I've wanted to develop an alternative stats program that has support for crossover playoffs, but of course the Quizbowl Resource Database will be my big quizbowl project for a while now. Basically, my idea would be to add a "stage" component - each "stage" of the tournament would have its own set of divisions and two attributes - the range of rounds to pull games from, and whether all games should be considered or just games between teams in the same pool in that stage.

So, for a 16 team tournament with 2 pools of 8, and then top 4/bottom 4 crossing over, you would have:

Prelims - Pool A, Pool B - rounds 1-7 - include all games ("pool games only" results in the same thing)
Playoffs - Championship, Consolation - all rounds - include pool games only

Each team would have one prelim pool and one playoff pool assigned to it. You would be able to generate a report for All Games as well as each stage.

For a more advanced use case, consider what Mizzou's Tiger Bowl did (and what we're planning to use for the NAQT Qualifier this weekend) for a 36 team tournament: 6 pools of 6. After that, the top 2 in each were still eligible for the championship, divided into 2 parallel pools each containing three #1 teams and three #2 teams. There is also a pool consisting of the #3 teams, another with the #4 teams, another with the #5 teams, and another with the #6 teams. Each pool has exactly one team from each prelim pool, so there is no crossover. After the playoffs, the top 2 in each championship pool advanced to a crossover superplayoff.

The configuration for this example would be:

Prelims - Pools A-F - rounds 1-5 - include all games
Playoffs - Championship 1, Championship 2, Consolation 3/4/5/6 - rounds 6-10 - include all games
Superplayoffs - Superplayoff bracket (the teams that go home at this time are assigned no superplayoff bracket) - rounds 6-14 - include pool games only

I think Gordon's WUStL may have this capability, but most tournaments don't have the luxury of having an accessible Internet-connected computer in each game room. It would be really nice if this functionality were available in a standalone program that doesn't require Internet access.

[dtaylor4]

If no games are carried over, and there are no crossovers, just use the selective report feature built into SQBS, and save a separate file after the prelims.

If there are carry-over games, I save a distinct copy of the prelims, figure out which games are carried over, delete everything else, and save that as a distinct second file. I then create a third file for the playoffs, and enter playoff games into it. For overall, I merge as necessary.