Karate Tournament Charting Software

Introduction
By Julian Forbes
CEO Karate Athlete, Inc.

It is with great pleasure that I am able to bring you all this useful tool. I have repeatedly been asked for tournament charting software and the only ones I found were approximately 600 Euros to buy. ($800 USD)

After asking everyone I knew, I finally ran into someone who had actually written his own software! Thanks to Mike Mustoe of California, I can present you with a programmed Microsoft Excel file which will chart a tournament. Best of all, it's FREE!!!!!

YAHOOOO!!!!!

NOTE: I just got version 1.5. The notes below correspond to v1.0. As soon as I get the new notes I will post them here so check back, but feel free to explore the changes on your own.

This program (v1.0) charts:

• Single Elimination
• Repechage
• Kata

Enter names and affiliations and the program will create a fair chart. Enter results as the come in and again, the program does the rest.

Did I mention it's FREE?????!!!!!

O.K.... now a few warnings and instructions:

1. This program, by the writer's own admission, is a "work in progress" - this means that there is more that he can do to it and that if you don't like it, don't use it. DO NOT COMPLAIN! And we accept no responsibility for anything that may go wrong at your tournament (or otherwise) from use of this software. Use it at your own risk! - Having said that, it has been successfully used to run many major tournaments, so it has been tested in the real world.

2. As soon as you download this, MAKE A BACK UP COPY. You can inadvertently change some of the formulas or even delete them accidentally causing the program to malfunction.

3. When you open the file, if it asks you if you want to "Enable Macros", click "Enable Macros".

4. The following are the instructions that came with the program. The most important of these is to know that the program will separate the names entered closest together, furthest away in the charting. So if two competitors from the same country are fighting in that pool, you should enter their names one right after the other. The program will separate them as much as possible automatically. Here are the programmer's notes:

The important part of this entire exercise is primarily how to build the chart, i.e. where should any individual in the event be placed on the chart.

a. The method

i. In order to make a quick and accurate decision as to whom should NOT fight whom in the first round, is to collect those people together. In other words, as names are entered onto the competitor sheet, when they are sorted, the people you want to be the farthest apart will all be stacked together.

ii. Everything is rule based, i.e. A set of criteria is defined that will enable the computer to determine how to separate competitors

iii. There is always a final override capability, i.e. You can always place any competitor any where in the chart that seems more appropriate.

iv. The chart is not filled in from the top down, rather the first person in the list will got to a designated position on the chart.

1. Examine the Competitor sheet Note the column labeled ‘Order:Kumite’

2. Examine any of the Chart sheets, Note the column labeled ‘Seed’

3. As names are added to the competitor list, there ‘Order:Kumite’ or ‘Seed’ number is established, and they will be placed in the chart according to the ‘Seed’ number,

4. The ‘Seed’ order, as set forth, will keep competitors with connections, as far away from each other as possible. However, you can rearrange the placement by changing the seed order on the CHART, not on the competitor sheet.

b. The rules

i. Top seeded competitors get the best spots on the chart.

ii. Competitors that have a connection will be separated as far as possible in the chart.

1. Same school/country
2. Same instructor
3. Same system

iii. Additional rules can always be added as experience grows, perhaps, region, state and country need to be added

iv. Individual competitors can be moved as necessary

And there you have it. I strongly suggest that you play around with it and get accustomed to it well before using it on a real tournament. There are 2 sections which appear not finished - both are labeled with "ALT" after them. These will actually appear when you've finished filling in the competitors.

Known BUGS:

• The LOAD COMPETITORS Button is not finished and therefore doesn't work but you'll find that the competitors are charted automatically anyway.
• The Buttons in the MATCH section have been known to change visual format - i.e change size etc. This is an issue with Microsoft Excel and not with the programming. Hopefully it will be resolved as newer versions of Excel emerge.

If an update becomes available I will post it here. Some of the illustrations here are of the program with me just altering the color scheme a bit. Its very flexible but be careful not to erase or change any of the formulas. (Unless you know what you're doing.)

Enjoy, and THANKS to Mike Mustoe - a cool and groovy dude!