Hello! :)

Just wondering if there are judges or scorekeepers here who also post their pairings online while using WER.

One of my fellow Filipino judges mentioned that it's only possible when you're using DCI reporter, but perhaps some of you have found a workaround for it.

In the last WMCQ, we posted the final standings (after Swiss) online by taking screenshots of the list - page by page - (I think we had to take 5-6 photos to cover just he top 150).
I'm also thinking of the time it would take to do it as it should not take longer than the amount of time needed to print and post the pairings.

I just really think that it would be a good add-on for the players especially if the event has more than 300 people. It was also mentioned in a constructive feedback given by one of the players in our last WMCQ.

Thanks! :)

The answer is, honestly, “it's complicated”. Your scorekeeper has it mostly right, that simple export options for purposes like this only exist in DCI Reporter as of today.

If you have an enterprising software developer, you can parse through WER's export files (Save > Export Event) and generate a website from them with pairings.* The standings page in WER has it's own export file available, which could also be used in this way

I've developed software which has some penetration in North America, which does online pairings along with a few other utilities to help at events; I'd recommend emailing me directly if you want more information on that option, though.

*If you do this, please get the OK from your region's WPN representative, and also please test thoroughly - there are a couple pitfalls in the export file.

Hi!

We were able to figure something out with the help of some of our local judge techies. :)

1. Select the option to print the pairings.
2. On the “Print” dialog box, select Microsoft XPS Document Writer for printer Name.
3. Open the xps file with PDF-Xchange Editor (or any other PDF reader/editor that has the ability to read xps files, and save it in PDF format).
4. Once the file is opened, save it in PDF format.
5. Upload the PDF file on Facebook.
6. Anyone with a PDF reader on their mobile device can view it. (I was also able to view it on my iPad mini through the Facebook app)

And now you have online pairings. :)

Hi Wella,

you can try to print pairing as an PDF and upload those into your dropbox
public folder.

Then, players can use basic html to create a html page to view / download
the pdf file.

please see example here >>
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64603558/event/wmcq2/wmcq2.htm

I will try to include this in my "WER topic in upcoming judge seminar. :D

Best regards,
Smith

Nice! I'll PM you for more details. :)

http://www.bradleyjx.net/event-extensions-rtools

Rtools allows display of pairings/standings/round timer on multiple TV screens / Monitors and the Event Extensions enables a way of getting that data online.

Takes a little bit to get working properly.

I hope it's not seen as taking anything away from this thread or the questions being asked, but I have passed this feature request on to WPN (and I would be surprised if I am the only one). Posting pairings to something like PasteBin and then distributing that link somehow is becoming more and more common, and anything we or the tournament software can do to reduce the time players spent huddled around the pairing boards will be of great help from a tournament flow and logistics team standpoint.

If I hear anything, I will post an update into this thread.

Sorry I couldn't offer a more immediate solution at this moment.

Cheers,
Adam

Thanks Adam and Mark!

I just want to share that the workaround that we did at yesterday's WMCQ was a hit among the players. They loved the fact that they can see the pairings and standings online, to the point that we got a commendation for it in a forum that's made for mtg-related complaints. ^_^

What we did was we made a Facebook group where we can upload all the files needed.

The pros:
1. Less players cluttered among the pairing board.
2. Some of the announcements were also shared there.
3. Online posting is faster than paper posting so by the time the players are moving from the pairings board t their designated tables, about a quarter (or half) of the group is already seated so less traffic.

The cons:
1. A lot steps involved, but our scorekeeper had a good system running so we were able to post it on time every round.


With the popularity of social media and other online tools with which we can easily disseminate information, this is definitely a project worth looking into. :)

I'll just throw out a statistic for people to back up the pros of this, if anyone is thinking about the extra work that may be required.

In the last ~2 years, when I've run online pairings for various events, I've seen unique hits to the website representative of about 50% of a tournament's participants, +/- 5% depending on the events. This number is with an almost surprising amount of consistency, from PTQs to Grand Prix. That's 50% of an event not crowded around a pairings board.

Just keep in mind a couple specific things:

- Online information works best at an event where you are not expecting a large international presence; specifically, that you aren't anticipating a large presence of players that are on international data plans, if that. (consumer wifi routers generally can't handle the number of connections a large event brings with it, so keep that in mind if you want to mitigate this issue)

- Please, if you use a prebuilt solution (mine or another) or another method to disseminate this type of info, talk with your scorekeeper well ahead of time, as they will likely require some additional information, such as passwords or clarifications on the process. If you need to talk with the developer of the solution, talk with that person well ahead of time. (I've been contacted to help build out a site for a large event as late as the Wednesday prior to the event; please don't do that :) )

Are there any privacy issues with sharing that information online?

I vaguely remember having to sign a waiver for an event that did this awhile ago, but I can't recall the specifics.

Thanks to Jordan, I used his RTools for online paring on serveral events and it turned out to be great. With his Event Extension, players are able to check out his/her pairings and standings online with only a few clicks. The only thing the SK needs to do is to generate an export text file every round and upload it to the server. (sorry, I never made the automatically uploading working…)

Only players' names and tournament statistics are shown on the Event Extension website and no DCI numbers are shared via this way.

As stated before, TOs who want to do this should contact their WPN representation beforehand.

One of my fellow judges here in Uppsala, Niklas Ramquist, has developed a very useful application/site called MTG Pairings (www.mtgpairings.com). All you as the TO/SK need to do to use it is download a small program, run it and then it will monitor your WER-database. You can then in MTG Pairings select any event you are currently running in WER and it will automatically update all your pairings for that event onto mtgpairings.com. This is great, since you generally don't want to add even more things for the SK to do.

As a player, you go to mtgpairings.com, enter your DCI-number and then you get information on your pairings.

I think it's a great tool and it's been really popular with players around here.

Edited Per Carlsson (Sept. 2, 2014 09:27:23 PM)

As Pelle mentioned, feel free to try out mtgpairings.com. We've gotten good feedback from both organizers and players here in Sweden.

My focus for the site has been to make it easy to use for organizers, and to make it simple to get the important information as a player.

Thus, as a player, once you've “logged in” by typing in your DCI-number, you will get your own table number and opponent presented to you at the front page, so that you only really need to visit the front page. If you want more information, you can of course dig down to player lists, full pairings and standings for all rounds in the tournament, as well as your event and match history. I've also tried to make the site easy to read on a mobile screen, as that is what matters on site at the tournament.

For the organizer, you only need to start the helper application, and tick the checkbox next to your event, and it will automatically upload pairings and results to the site at the start and end of every round, without the organizer needing to do anything else. The application will also by default only show you events from today, making it easy to find your event in the list.

There are still things to do, mainly regarding performance of full pairings/standings for large events, and better status feedback in the helper application. I also have an iOS app that can receive push notifications when you get new pairings that I have in working beta for myself and a couple of testers, but have not gotten around to finishing up for release yet. There is also an Android version that is working in the emulator, but as I have no android device, I've never been able to try it out for real :) I have not had too much time and energy to spend on the project the last couple of months, but the main functionality is working well. We've been using it for pretty much every tournament with more than 8 players at our LGS since january, as well as several bigger tournaments around Sweden.

If you have any problems, ideas or comments, feel free to post them here or fire off an email to webmaster@mtgpairings.com.

As mentioned by Milan and Jordan, please contact your local WPN representative if you want to do online pairings. You will need to show them all the information accessible on your online site. AFAIK DCI numbers and Sanctioning numbers (Yes, Niklas, I just found out about the sanctioning number yesterday) are not supposed to be freely accessible (think of them as your passport number / social security number)

Also, Niklas, great work !