BracketOps

Judge Guide

How to judge an event in BracketOps.

Judge Guide

Last Updated: October 9, 2026

Judging in BracketOps is per event: an organiser adds you to their event, and for that event you get the staff view of the tournament page (every player's full name, the standings, submitted lists) plus the tools to check players in, grant time extensions, and record penalties and deck checks. There is no separate judge account.

1. Getting Assigned

How you are added
  • You need a BracketOps account with your Player ID on your profile. Section 1 of the Player Guide, on the Help page, walks through setting it up.
  • The organiser adds you on their event's Tournament Staff card, under Add Judge, by typing your complete Player ID. Give them the exact number.
  • When they add you, your inbox gets You have been added as a judge with an Open Judge button.
Finding your events

The Judge Dashboard lists your Upcoming Assignments, with an event that is running sorted to the top, and your Past Assignments. Tap an event to open its page. To get there, use:

  • My Events in the menu under your avatar, on any screen, and, unless you are also an organiser, in the bar under the page header on a larger screen;
  • the banner on your home page that counts your upcoming judge assignments, with View Judge Dashboard;
  • Open Judge on the inbox notice.

If you are also an organiser, My Events is an entry of its own in your avatar menu, apart from Organiser Functions. The bar under the header doesn't have it, and your My Tournaments there lists only the events you run, so an event you judge for another organiser is under My Events.

You can open the events you judge even when the organiser hasn't published them. If an event you judge is cancelled, you are told in your inbox.

2. The Event Page as Staff

Pairings

Every match, with both players' full names. Search... filters by name. Each player's line shows their record, and badges for anything recorded at this event: DC R3 (the latest deck check, in round 3) and 2 P (two penalties). Only staff see the badges.

Standings

Standings shows the standings while the event runs; players see them only once it is complete. On a TOM event they come from TOM's file, and TOM writes standings only once a division has played all its rounds, so this tab can stay empty until then.

Roster

Roster is there when the event requires lists: everyone in the event with their list status (Online ✓, Paper ✓, or No deck list / No team list), and a Search players... box. Tap a name to open that player.

Player window

Tap a player's name on the pairings, the roster or the check-in list to open their window: their Player ID and record, and three tabs, Actions, Deck (or Team) and History.

You see things players are told only staff see: full names, Player IDs, lists, penalties and deck checks. Use them for running this event.

3. Before Round 1: Check-in

Until round 1 is paired, the event page shows the roster. As staff you get a Check In button on each player who holds a seat, and Undo if you tap the wrong row.

On an event run in TOM, agree with the organiser before you start checking people in. Once anyone is checked in, the tournament file the organiser exports to TOM contains only the checked-in players: everyone else is left out.

Judges can't seat or remove players, confirm payments, or use Check a Player ID: those stay with the organiser and the admins. Send those players to the organiser.

4. The Pairings Switches

Beside the search are two switches, each with a count for the round on screen:

  • Unfinished matches (crossed swords): only matches with no official result yet. A match both players have confirmed online still counts until the result is entered, because that is the one the scorekeeper is looking for. A bye never counts.
  • Time extension (clock): only matches a judge has given extra time, finished or not.

Turn both on to see unfinished matches with a time extension. Your switches and your division are kept for this browser tab, including through a pull-to-refresh, so a reload doesn't send you back to Masters.

5. Time Extensions

  1. On an unfinished match, tap the clock under the table number.
  2. In Time Extension - Table N, enter the minutes under Extension (minutes) and tap Save. The number is the match's whole extension, not an addition to it, so 0 removes it.

The match then shows +N in the middle of its row, for everyone looking at the pairings, and keeps it after the match finishes. Your own page shows it at once; everyone else sees it the next time their page refreshes, by hand or with the next TOM sync. TOM syncs don't remove it.

BracketOps has no round clock. An extension here is a record on the pairings so staff and players can see it; it changes nothing in TOM.

6. Penalties and Deck Checks

Open the player's window (section 2), on Actions.

Issue Penalty

Tap Issue Penalty. Choose the Round (it starts on the current round), the Category and the Severity: some categories allow only certain severities, and Cheating is Severe only. The form then fills in the usual Penalty for that category and severity; change it if your call is different. The penalties are Caution, Warning, Double Prize Card Penalty, Quadruple Prize Card Penalty, Game Loss, Match Loss and Disqualification.

Add Notes, then tap Issue Penalty under the form. A Game Loss, Match Loss or Disqualification shows a reminder above that button: This is a severe penalty.

Log Deck Check

Tap Log Deck Check, choose Passed or Failed, add a note if you like (for example, a mid-round check), then tap Save Deck Check.

What happens next
  • Both appear on the player's History tab, with who recorded them, and as badges on the pairings.
  • The player sees their own penalties and deck checks on their Dashboard: the penalty, category, severity, round and time; for a deck check, the round and the outcome. They never see your notes.
  • Only the organiser or an admin can edit or delete a penalty. If you made a mistake, tell the organiser.
  • Penalties are kept in BracketOps, not written into TOM. The organiser exports them as the penalty log after the event.

7. Deck and Team Lists

  • The Deck (or Team) tab in the player window shows the list the player submitted.
  • On a TCG event that requires lists, when a player hands in a paper list, use Mark Paper Decklist on Actions. It is there while the player has no online list. The roster then shows Paper ✓, the player's card says Staff accepted your paper deck list., and the History tab records who accepted it. Unmark Paper Decklist reverses it. A player who later submits online replaces the paper mark.

8. Players' Reports and Match-slip Barcodes

When the organiser has turned on online result reporting, each unfinished match on the pairings shows staff where the players' reports stand, once either player has reported:

  • Both reports agree: a green box with the result (the winner's name followed by Wins, or Match Tied) and, on a TOM event, a barcode under it. These matches are sorted to the top of the round.
  • One player reported. Waiting for opponent.
  • Conflict! Players reported differing results. Go to the table.

Players' reports don't arrive on your page by themselves: refresh it (pull down on a phone), or wait for the next TOM sync, to see the latest. If you are scoring in TOM, scan the barcode exactly as you would a paper match slip; the key is printed under it in case the scan fails. The green box goes once TOM's own result for that match has synced. Until TOM next saves, the barcode is still there, so don't scan a slip twice.

  • Top-cut matches show the agreed result without a barcode: enter those in TOM by hand.
  • The organiser can turn Match-slip barcodes off; the green box then shows the result without a barcode.
  • Only organisers, admins and the event's judges see any of this. Players and spectators never do.