How to Change Your Tournament Format on Score7
You created a round-robin tournament, added all your participants, and then realized knockout would work better for the time you have. Or your league grew from 6 teams to 20, and round-robin just isn't practical anymore. The format needs to change — but you don't want to start from scratch.
Score7 now lets you duplicate a tournament with a different format. All your participants carry over, and a fresh schedule is generated automatically.
Why you can't just switch formats mid-tournament
Tournament formats define the structure of pairings and progression. A round-robin generates every possible matchup. A knockout generates a bracket tree. A Swiss system pairs based on standings after each round. These structures are fundamentally different — there's no way to convert one into another without throwing away match data.
That's why Score7 locks the format at creation. It's not a limitation — it protects the integrity of any results you've already entered.
But what if you haven't entered results yet? Or what if you want to run the same group of participants in a completely different format? That's where duplicate with a different format comes in.
How it works
When you duplicate a tournament, Score7 creates a brand-new copy. The original tournament stays exactly as it is — nothing changes. The duplicate gets its own schedule, its own results, its own standings. It's a fresh start with familiar participants.
The key: during duplication, you can now choose a different format for the copy.
Step by step
1. Open the duplicate dialog
You can get there two ways:
- From My Tournaments, find the tournament you want to duplicate and click the menu icon, then Duplicate
- From inside the tournament, go to Advanced Settings and click Duplicate
2. Choose a different format
In the duplicate dialog, you'll see a format selector. By default it's set to the same format as the original. Change it to whatever you need:
- Round-robin — everyone plays everyone
- Swiss — paired by standings each round
- Knockout (single elimination) — lose once, you're out
- Double elimination — lose twice to be eliminated
- Multistage — combine two formats (e.g., group stage followed by knockout)
If you pick Multistage, you'll also select the sub-formats for Stage 1 and Stage 2.
3. Note the schedule toggle
When you change the format, the "Include schedule" option is automatically disabled. This makes sense — the original schedule was built for a different format and wouldn't apply. Your new tournament will get a fresh schedule generated for the format you selected.
4. Click Duplicate
Score7 creates the new tournament and opens it for you. Your participants are already there. The schedule is ready. You can start entering results immediately.
What carries over
- Participants — all teams or players, including their names, logos, and player rosters
- Tournament settings — color theme, contact information, timezone
- User roles — anyone who had Admin or Editor access on the original
What doesn't carry over
- Scores and results — the new tournament starts clean
- Standings — recalculated from scratch once you enter results
- Match timestamps — the fresh schedule has its own timing
- Referees and locations — these are tied to the old schedule
This is by design. You're creating a new competition with the same participants, not cloning match history.
Who can duplicate
Only the tournament Owner can duplicate a tournament. Admins and Editors don't have access to this option. If you need to duplicate and you're not the Owner, ask them to do it or to transfer ownership to you.
When this is useful
You picked the wrong format. It happens. You set up a round-robin for 16 teams before realizing that's 120 matches. Duplicate as knockout or Swiss and you're sorted in seconds.
Your league grew. What started as a casual 6-team round-robin is now a 20-team competition. Duplicate with Swiss or multistage to handle the larger field without the match count explosion.
You want to experiment. Not sure whether Swiss or double elimination works better for your community? Duplicate the tournament in both formats and compare. The original is untouched either way.
Recurring events with format rotation. You run a monthly tournament with the same group. Last month was round-robin — this month, try knockout. Duplicate, change the format, and you're ready to go without re-entering every participant.
Season playoffs. Your round-robin regular season is over. Duplicate the tournament as a knockout bracket for the playoff stage, and all qualified teams are already there.
Key takeaway
Changing a tournament format doesn't mean starting from scratch. Duplicate your tournament, pick a different format, and Score7 handles the rest — your participants carry over and a fresh schedule is generated automatically. The original tournament stays untouched, so there's no risk in trying something new.