What’s the worst meaningful sports experience? It’s not losing. It’s playing a match that was decided before it started.

The Problem with Open Knockouts

In a traditional “Open” tournament, you mix everyone together.

  • For the Beginner: You pay your entry fee, wait for 2 hours, play the #1 Seed, lose 11-0, 11-1, and go home effectively having played zero tennis.
  • For the Pro: You arrive, beat a beginner without sweating, and wait another hour.

The Mismatch Problem

The Solution: Banding

“Banded” (or Graded/Divisional) tournaments split players into groups based on their rating before the draw is made.

  • Band 1: The top 20% of players.
  • Band 2: The next 20%.
  • Band 3: The rest.

This ensures that every match is competitive. A Band 3 final is just as exciting as a Band 1 final because the players are evenly matched.

The Friction: “It’s Too Much Math”

Organizers love the idea of Bands, but hate the execution. To run a banded tournament manually, you need to:

  1. Collect all entries.
  2. Look up every player’s rating manually.
  3. Sort the list in Excel.
  4. Decide where to “Main Cut” the list (e.g., between player #16 and #17).
  5. Deal with unrated players (guesswork).
  6. Create separate brackets for each band.

Banding Visualization

How TourneyPilot Solves It

We built Banding into the core of the system.

  1. Automated Split: You select “Create 3 Bands”. We instantly sort all players by rating and cut the list into 3 equal chunks.
  2. Flexible Cuts: You can drag the “Cut Line” up or down to adjust the size of each band (e.g., maximize Band 2 if that’s where most players are).
  3. One Click Draws: We generate the draws for all bands simultaneously.

Stop doing the math yourself. Let the software handle the sorting so you can focus on the sport.