The following tutorial describes how to use Wrestling Nerd to run a tournament. To get started run Wrestling Nerd by clicking its icon in the Start Menu or on the Desktop in Windows or running it using a Python intepreter on other platforms.
To start a new tournament, select New from the File menu. The new tournament wizard will appear and walk you through the steps of creating a new tournament.
On the first screen of the wizard, enter a name of the tournament. This name will appear on printouts of tournament results.
Click the Next button when you are done.
On the second screen, enter the names of all teams that will participate in the tournament. Type the team names one at a time in the text box above the large list box. Click the Add button or press Ctrl-Enter to add a new team to the list. Select a team from the list and click the Remove button to remove it from the tournament.
Click the Next button when you are done.
On the third screen, enter the weight classes for the tournament. Type the weight classes one at a time in the text box above the large list box. Click the Add button or press Ctrl-Enter to add a new weight to the list. Select a weight from the list a click the Remove button to remove it from the tournament.
Click the Next button when you are done.
On the fourth screen, select a bracket layout for the tournament. The names of the available layouts appear in the left list box. Selecting a name causes a detailed description of the selected layout to appear in the right list box.
Click the Next button when you are done. On the final screen, click the Finish button to complete the wizard. You may press the Previous button to go back and make changes.
The main interface consists of three primary views: the bracket window, the team scores, and the current weight class indicator.
The bracket for the currently selected weight class fills most of the screen. Use the scroll bars at the edges of the bracket window to view different parts of the bracket. Any consolation rounds appear below the championship rounds.
The drop-down list in the top right corner of the screen controls the weight class shown in the bracket window. Select a new weight from the drop-down list to change the weight class displayed in the bracket window.
The current team scores are visible in a list just below the weight drop-down box. Double-clicking a team name gives more information about the team, including the names of its wrestlers and its adjusted score.
Once the tournament has been created, wrestlers may be seeded. Seeding wrestlers is as easy as typing their names and teams, although more advanced options are available for swapping and scratching seeds.
Wrestlers are seeded on the numbered lines in the bracket. Click on a seed location to select it. Type the full wrestler name to the left of the vertical bar. Type the team name to the right of the vertical bar. If the seed information is invalid (i.e the team doesn't exist or is spelled wrong) the seed will be highlighted in yellow. If the seed information is valid, it will not be highlighted.
You can navigate quickly ahead through seed locations in order by pressing the Tab key. Pressing Shift-Tab will navigate backwards through seed locations in order.
If your tournament has junior varsity wrestlers or other wrestlers that should not score team points by default, simply prefix their names with the letters JV. Any matches won by JV wrestlers will not score team points by default. This behavior can be changed on a per match basis, however, as explained later.
During seeding, wrestlers often need to be swapped up or down in seeding order (a move often called flip-flopping). To perform a swap, right click the wrestler you wish to move. Then choose Swap Up or Swap Down from the popup menu to move the wrestler ahead or back a seed. If another wrestler is already seeded ahead or behind the chosen wrestler, it will be swapped to the selected location.
Alternatively, you may press Ctrl-Page Up or Ctrl-Page Down to swap the currently selected wrestler one seed location up or down respectively.
In rare occassions, wrestlers need to be swapped to seed positions beyond the immediate neighbors. In this situation, right click the wrestler you wish to move and choose Swap to from the popup menu. The Swap to dialog box appears. Enter the seed number to which you wish to move the selected wrestler and click OK. The selected wrestler is swapped with the wrestler at the seed number entered.
You may press Ctrl-T to access the swap to dialog without using the popup menu.
Seeded wrestlers may be quickly deleted. To scratch a seed, right click the wrestler you wish to delete and choose Delete from the popup menu.
Sometimes only some of the wrestlers in the bracket are considered seeded while others (e.g. JV wrestlers) are not. Selecting the last seeded wrestler is useful in distinguishing the break between seeded and unseeded wrestlers. You can mark the last seeded wrestler by right clicking his name and choosing Set last seed from the popup menu.
The last seeded wrestler must be marked properly for the next two features to work properly when there are seeded and unseeded wrestlers in a bracket. If all wrestlers are considered seeded, then the last seed need not be marked.
Occasionally, it is necessary to scratch a wrestler and move all the wrestlers seeded below him up to fill the empty space. To perform this operation, right click the wrestler to scratch and choose Scratch - Move up from the popup menu. The selected wrestler will be removed from the tournament. All wrestlers seeded below him, up to and including the last seeded wrestler, are moved up a seed to fill the empty spot. If the last seeded wrestler is not set, all wrestlers up to the first blank seed spot are moved up.
Sometimes a wrestler needs to be inserted into an already seeded bracket, pushing all of the seeded wrestlers down one spot. To perform this action quickly, right click the seed location where you'd like to insert the wrestler and select Insert - Move down from the popup menu. All wrestlers, up to the first blank seed, will be moved down one spot to make room for a new wrestler a the location you clicked. If the bracket is full when a new spot is inserted, all of the wrestlers are moved down one spot and the last seed is pushed off the bracket and lost.
As results for matches are reported, they must be entered into Wrestling Nerd. Winners advance and losers are either eliminated or drop down to consolation rounds.
The winning wrestler of a pair of matched wrestlers advances to the next round on the bracket. To advance a winning wrestler, left click on the spot in the bracket to which the wrestler should advance. Spots that can be filled by winning wrestlers are highlighted when the mouse passes over them. Spots that cannot be filled are not highlighted.
When a spot on the bracket is clicked to advance a wrestler, the result dialog appears. If results have already been entered, you may change them. Otherwise, select the winning wrestler's name from the drop-down box at the top of the dialog. Check or uncheck the box indicating if the results of the match should count towards the team scores or not. Choose how the match was won, or leave the setting at None to indicate that the wrestler advances without a match. If the match was won by a pin, enter the pin time in the box that appears after selecting Pin as the win type. If the match was won by a decision, enter the final score. The pin or score box will be highlighted if an invalid value has been entered.
Click OK to accept the match results or Cancel to cancel any changes. The team scores are automatically updated to reflect the new results after you click OK. If the losing wrestler is eliminated, he simply does not advance on the bracket. If the losing wrestler is not eliminated, he automatically drops to the proper place in the consolation bracket.
The results of matches can be viewed without opening the results dialog. To quickly view match results, hover the mouse cursor over a spot on the bracket that has a wrestler name in it. A popup will appear that shows the results of the match. The popup disappears when you move the cursor off of the spot on the bracket.
Incorrect matches sometimes need to be deleted altogether instead of just changed. To delete a match entirely, right click it on the bracket and choose Delete from the popup menu.
Alternatively, to delete all matches from an entire round, right click any entry in the round and choose Delete all from the popup menu.
Many times, initial rounds have few matches, and most wrestlers may advance automatically without a result or with a bye. The standard method of using the result dialog to advance all of these wrestlers may be time consuming. You may alternatively right click any spot in a round and choose Move in to automatically advance appropriate wrestlers to this round.
Wrestling Nerd will try to detect if the wrestlers should advance with no results or with byes. However, you should double-check especially if your tournament has both scoring and non-scoring wrestlers.
Besides match and team scores, Wrestling Nerd automatically computes a few other types of results.
The wrestler with the most pins in the shortest amount of total time is considered the fastest fall winner. To see fast fall results, choose Fast Fall from the Query menu. The fast fall dialog appears showing the fast fall results in descending order. Click OK to dismiss the dialog.
The fast fall dialog can be displayed by pressing Ctrl-F instead of using the menus.
Referees for tournaments are usually paid based on the total number of matches. To determine how many matches have been officiated in a tournament, choose Bout count from the Query menu. A dialog appears showing the total number of bouts in the tournament.
The bout count can be displayed by pressing Ctrl-B instead of using the menus.
Fans always want to see the up-to-date scores during a tournament. If you are fortunate enough to have a computer that supports a second, large screen display, you can show the current team scores to the public. To open the team scores in a separate window, choose Score window from the Query menu. The score window will refresh to show the most current scores every 30 seconds. You may continue to work with Wrestling Nerd while the score window is open.
The separate score window can be displayed by pressing Ctrl-W instead of using the menus.
Sometimes, mistakes are made when creating the tournament and seeding wrestlers. The options in the Tools menu allows you to correct these mistakes while running the tournament.
In large tournaments, it is often the case that you forget to enter a team name in the new tournament wizard. To add a new team to an existing tournament, select Add a team from the Tools menu. Enter the new team name and click the OK button. If the team you entered already exists in the tournament, no changes will occur. Otherwise, the new team will appear in the team scores list.
When teams fail to show up for a tournament or have no wrestlers that make wait, you may wish to remove them from the tournament. To remove a team, select Remove a team from the Tools menu. Choose the team you wish to remove and then click the OK button. The team will be deleted from the team score list. However, any wrestlers on that team who appear on the brackets will not be removed.
Be careful! Deleting a team destroys the association between that team name and any wrestlers from that team who appear on the brackets. Simply re-adding the team after deleting it will not re-associate those wrestlers, and they will not score team points.
If you mispell a team name, you can correct it without removing and then re-adding the team. To fix the spelling of a team name, select Change team spelling from the Tools menu. Choose the current team name you wish to fix from the drop down box. Then enter the new team name in the text box. Click OK to confirm the name change. The new name will appear in the team scores list and on all brackets.
Misspelling a wrestler name is a very common mistake, one that fans will bug you about constantly. To correct a wrestler's name, select Change wrestler spelling from the Tools menu. Choose the wrestler's team and current name from the first two drop down boxes. Then enter the new wrestler name in the text box. Click OK to confirm the name change. The new name will appear on all brackets.
You may wish to rename the tournament after creating it. To rename the tournament, select Change tournament name from the Tools menu. The existing tournament name appears in the text box. Replace it with the new name for the tournament, and click OK to confirm the change. The new name appears in the titlebar of the Wrestling Nerd window and on all bracket printouts.
Paper copies of bout sheets, brackets, team scores, and place winners are needed by score keepers, the press, and fans. Wrestling Nerd is capable of printing tournament results for you.
Bouts sheets are structured forms that scorekeepers used to keep track of points in individual matches and report results. To print bout sheets for certain rounds and weight classes, choose Print from the File menu. The print dialog appears. Select Bouts as the type of printout you wish to make. Select the weights for which you wish to print bouts by holding the Ctrl key and left clicking on the weight class names. Select the rounds in the same manner. Holding shift and left clicking selects a contiguous range of items in either list.
Once you have selected the desired weights and rounds, click the OK button. The options dialog for your printer appears. Choose any additional printing options and press OK or Print to begin printing. The bout sheets will print two to a page.
Printed brackets resemble the bracket shown on the screen, except that the results of each match are printed directly below the wrestler name. To print brackets for certain weight classes, choose Print from the File menu. The print dialog appears. Select Brackets as the type of printout. Select the weights for which you wish to print brackets by holding the Ctrl key and left clicking on the weight class names. Holding shift and left clicking selects a contiguous range weights.
Once you have selected the desired weights, click the OK button. The options dialog for your printer appears. Choose any additional printing options and press OK or Print to begin printing. The brackets will print one to a page.
Team scores are a current ranking of teams by their scores in descending order. To print team scores, choose Print from the File menu. The print dialog appears. Select Scores as the type of printout.
Click the OK button when you are ready. The options dialog for your printer appears. Choose any additional printing options and press OK or Print to begin printing. The scores will print with about fifty teams per page.
Place winners are medalists for each weight class. To print brackets for certain weight classes, choose Print from the File menu. Select Places as the type of printout. Select the weights for which you wish to print place winners by holding the Ctrl key and left clicking on the weight class names. Holding shift and left clicking selects a contiguous range weights.
Once you have selected the desired weights, click the OK button. The options dialog for your printer appears. Choose any additional printing options and press OK or Print to begin printing. The place winners will print with six weight classes per page.
You may wish to see what a printout will look like on the screen before sending it to the printer. To see a preview of what will be printed, select Print preview from the File menu. Choose the results you want to print by following the instructions in the sections above, and then click the OK button.
The print preview window will appear showing what will be printed. Use the controls at the top of the window to navigate through the pages to be printed or to zoom in on the current page. Press the Close button to dismiss the print preview window. Press the Print button to send the pages to the printer.
Tournament data can be stored on disk for later use in Wrestling Nerd or in other programs.
To save a tournament to disk for the first time, choose Save as from the File menu and enter a filename in the file dialog. To quickly save a previously saved tournament, choose Save from the File menu. The data will be saved under the last filename used to store this tournament.
The Save and Save as options may be accessed by pressing Ctrl-S and Shift-Ctrl-S respectively instead of through the menus.
To backup a tournament without changing the current filename, choose Backup from the File menu and enter a filename in the file dialog. The next time you choose Save, the tournament will be saved under the previous file name, not the one entered in the backup dialog.
To open a previously saved tournament from disk, choose Open from the File menu and select the file to open.
The open dialog may be opened by pressing Ctrl-O instead of using the menus.
The final scores, place winners, and fast fall leader of a tournament can be saved to a plain text file that can be opened in a simple text editor. To export these results, choose Export from the File menu. Enter a filename for the text document in the file dialog box that appears.