Judo tournament software and live scoring

A judo championship is a collection of individual competitions, one for each weight category within each age group and gender division. A national championship for cadets, juniors and seniors can hold many categories across several days, each with its own draw and medallists, and many events add a team competition in which clubs or regions field one judoka per weight.

In Zeetius Tournaments the organiser sets up the age groups, gender divisions and weight limits before entries open, along with the contest duration for each age group. Because these follow the federation's rules and change between editions, they are configured for each event rather than fixed by the software.

Clubs enter their judoka online against those categories. Eligibility is checked as each entry is made, against date of birth and the category rules, and where an event sets a minimum grade, the athlete's kyu or dan grade can be held on their record.

• Age groups. Cadet, junior, senior, veteran or the federation's own bands.
• Weight categories. The limits for each age group and gender division, reused across the season.
• Contest duration. Contest time set per age group, with golden score when scores are level.
• Team events. Club or regional teams with one judoka per weight, where the event holds them.

Most judo categories are run as a knockout with repechage. Judoka beaten in the quarter-finals go into the repechage, its winners meet the beaten semi-finalists in the bronze medal contests, and two bronze medals are awarded. Because the repechage depends on results from the main draw, it has to be filled and scheduled while the session is running.

Zeetius Tournaments generates the main draw from the judoka who made weight, places byes automatically and applies seeding where the event uses it. The repechage is filled from the main draw as contests finish, so officials do not have to work out who qualifies by hand. Where an event uses a different repechage format, it is configured for that event.

Categories with only a few judoka are often run as a round robin, where everyone meets everyone and the ranking is decided by wins and scores. The organiser chooses the format for each category, so a full senior category and a small veteran pool can run correctly in the same event.

Judo events run several mats through preliminary and final sessions. Organisers decide which categories go on which mat, order the contests so judoka have rest between them, and keep repechage and bronze medal contests in the right place in the schedule. When a mat runs behind, contests can be moved and everyone working from the schedule sees the change.

Each contest needs a referee and judges. Zeetius Tournaments and Zeetius Federation keep a register of technical officials with their grades, so referees can be nominated to the championship and allocated to mats and sessions, and federations can see who refereed where across the season.

Team events add their own scheduling needs. Each team match is a series of individual contests, one per weight, so the mat has to hold the whole match together and the team result depends on every contest in it. Organisers configure the team weights and how a drawn team match is decided, following the rules of the event.