Toss (Play / Draw)
How the platform decides who plays first each round in Swiss, and how it keeps that advantage fair across a whole phase.
What the toss is
In most card games the player who goes first ("on the play") has a real edge. Normally that is decided by a die roll or coin flip at the table. The deterministic toss replaces the physical roll with a system that assigns who plays first AND keeps it balanced, so no one is stuck on the draw all day.
It is optional and set per phase: tick "Deterministic toss" when creating or editing a Swiss phase. When it is off, players roll at the table as usual. It only applies to Swiss phases -- elimination brackets, Round Robin, and multiplayer pods do not use it, and byes never receive a toss.
What players see
On their match card in the player portal, each player sees a small tag next to the opponent's name:
The same information is available to staff on the organizer pairings screen.
How balancing works
The system tracks a fairness score for every player, inspired by the colour-balancing rules used in FIDE chess. The idea: over a phase, everyone should play first about half the time.
balance = 2 x (toss wins) - (matches played)
- 0 -- perfectly fair so far.
- positive (+1, +2...) -- this player has had the play more often than their share (a "surplus").
- negative (-1, -2...) -- this player is "due" -- they have been on the draw too often.
When a pairing is created, the player with the lower balance (the more "due" one) is given the play. If both players have the exact same balance, the platform looks at who played first more recently -- whoever went first last time gives way to the other. Only when BOTH the balance and that recent history are tied does the tie-break policy below step in.
A worked example
Two players, A and B, who happen to meet three rounds in a row:
| Round | Balance (A / B) | Plays first | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 / 0 | A | Tied on balance, tied on history (no history yet) -- settled by the tie-break policy |
| 2 | +1 / -1 | B | B has the lower balance -- more "due" |
| 3 | 0 / 0 | A | Balance tied again, but B played first last round -- A gets it |
A played first twice, B once -- the gap never grows beyond one. Across a real tournament every player stays within +-1, so the play/draw advantage cancels out over the phase.
Round 1, and getting fairer over time
In round 1 there is no history, so every pairing is tied on both balance and history, and the toss is decided by the tie-break policy below. From round 2 on, the balance increasingly constrains the choice, so the distribution gets more even as the tournament goes on -- which lines up nicely with Swiss, since the rounds that matter most are the late ones.
Tie-break: when two players are perfectly even
Sometimes two paired players have had the play exactly the same number of times (same balance) and the same recent history. A final tie-break policy then decides who gets this one marginal play. It only ever orients that single play -- it never changes the overall counts, which the balance still governs. You choose the policy per phase, next to the "Deterministic toss" checkbox:
Neutral (reproducible, no bias)
A reproducible, unbiased choice that does not depend on standings or seating order. Recommended for competitive events -- there is no way to argue the software favoured anyone.
Catch-up (lower-ranked plays first)
On a tie, the play goes to the lower-ranked (trailing) player -- a small rubber-band that keeps standings tighter. Good for casual and league events. Falls back to Neutral when ranks are not yet known (round 1) or are equal.
Recommendation: keep Neutral for sanctioned / competitive play, and use Catch-up for relaxed or league formats where you want to give trailing players a small edge.
Managing the toss (organizer)
Enabling it
When you create or edit a Swiss phase, tick "Deterministic toss". An "On a perfect tie" selector appears so you can pick Neutral or Catch-up. The toss is then assigned automatically every time a round is generated.
The Toss tab
A dedicated "Toss" tab in the tournament admin sidebar gives a player-by-player table of the whole phase:
- Per-round tags -- a blue "T" tag means the player played first that round, a grey dash means they did not, a "B" tag means a bye. A ring around a tag marks a manual override.
- Toss Wins / Matches / Rate -- how many times they played first, out of how many matches, as a percentage.
- Balance -- the fairness score. Green at 0, amber at +-1, red at +-2 or more, so outliers jump out at a glance.
- Manual -- how many of this player's tosses were set by hand.
Manual override & recalculate
Click any round tag on the Toss tab to flip that toss by hand -- it is marked as manual and is never overwritten automatically afterwards. On the Pairings tab, the
action re-runs the assignment for a round from scratch while preserving every manual override -- useful after editing pairings. Both actions are available on web and in the organizer mobile app.
Good to know
- Byes never receive a toss and do not count toward the balance.
- Swapping or re-pairing players automatically re-syncs the toss, so a player who is moved never leaves a stale "plays first" behind.
- Manual picks survive a recalculation; only the automatic ones are recomputed.
- The balance is tracked per phase -- it resets when a new phase begins (e.g. a Top Cut), so each phase starts fresh.
- Tosses already shown for a round do not change retroactively; the balancing only affects future rounds and explicit recalculations.