We're currently working on a massive overhaul of our Documentation which is updated and edited in real time. Please be aware that if you see a half-built section, blank section, or a confusing one, that it will be updated shortly. All updates should be finished by the end of November, 2022.

This will help in the creation of a basic account for Melee.

Clicking Here will take you to our registration page (Hold Shift while clicking to keep this walkthrough open)

If you would like to become an organizer, you must create a basic account first before you can make your account an organizer account. There is no application process for becoming an organizer. You can go Here to turn your account into an Organization account.

This can be whatever you want, and you will have the ability to display this name instead of your first and last names in tournament results.

Usernames are public, please be considerate when choosing your username, and don't choose anything that may be considered offensive. Offensive usernames may be changed without notice.

If you would like to change your user name contact us by email or on our Discord server.

This is our primary method of contact, and you will use this email address to log in.

Melee displays your username as the default. You can choose to make your First and Last Name your default display name in Account Settings.

Note: Tournament Organizers have the ability to look you up by your First and Last name or by Melee username in order to enter you into their tournaments.

You will use this password to log into your account. Choose something that is secure and only you know!

Melee staff will never ask you for your password. If anyone claiming to be Melee staff asks you for your password, please contact us by email or on our Discord server.

You will receive an email once you create your account asking to veryify your email address. You'll need to do this before enjoying many of Melee's features.

This section will explain the steps you need to become an organizer with Melee and get you to running your own tournaments. Clicking Here will take you to our Organizer Application page (Hold Shift while clicking to keep this walkthrough open as you apply) The information filled out on this page will be used to create your Organization Page. You can change and update it later if needed.

The name of the organization will be displayed on your organization page and all of your tournaments.

Your Contact Email will be the email address players will use to get in touch with you.

This menu will show you how to navigate Melee.

It is located in the top right hand corner of the screen next to the search bar. Once a profile picture has been loaded, a thumbnail version will be displayed here.

You can see what your profile looks like to other players. View stats and see past results.

This link is visible only if you have been approved as an organizer. It will bring you to your Organization Dashboard where you can create, see, and maintain your tournaments, as well as other organization specific activities

This will bring you to the tournaments page where you can view all of your upcoming tournaments you're playing in, browse for new tournaments and see results of tournaments that have ended.

View the decks you have submitted in tournaments or create new decklists to generate links and visual displays. Each list will show a link to the tournament in which it was used.

Note: This is not where you will submit decklists for tournaments. You will do this in your Player Controller

Your Account settings allow you to add a profile picture and personal information, add links to your social media and update your account settings.

A link to the document you are readng right now!

Don’t forget to sign out when you're done playing for the day!

You will find details on site updates here. when there is a new update you havent seen yet, you will see a small red dot at the lower right hand corner of your profile image thumbnail, letting you know there is a new update for you to read.

We highly recommend reading all updates to stay informed as we expand services and fix bugs.

The Tournament page can be reached by clicking "Tournament" in the top menu or click "Your Tournaments" in your player Menu.

On the top very left side of the screen you'll find a list of upcomming tournaments you're registered for or currently participating in.

Found at the top of the page, the "Browse Tournaments" sections allows you to filter by:

• Upcoming, In-Progress, or Finished (Results) tournaments.
• Format
• Entry Fee or no Entry Fee
• and more

In the top right corner of the screen is a toggle for how the table information is displayed.

Once you have selected a tournament you would like to explore, you will be brought to the “Tournament Details” page.

The time posted at the top of the page is localized to your time zone using UTC time zones. The time posted here is always correct to the time zone set on your viewing device. If a time is posted in the tournament name or description box, these times do not update and are written by the organization, usually in their specific time zone.

The name the organizer has given this tournament

The organization that created the tournament. You can click on the name of the organization and see a list of all the other tournaments they have created.

Note: Please contact the organizer for questions about issues or clarification questions about tournaments as they are hosted by third-party organizers, NOT Melee

This can be Magic Arena, Magic: the Gathering Online, or even Live Paper! Make sure the tournament is being hosted on a platform you have access to!

Entry fees are determined by the Organizer. Some organizers are allowed to charge entry fees.

Open status allows anyone to join the tournament.

Invite only is when the organizer has set limitations on who can join their tournament. Details on limitations are normally found in tournament description.

For questions about linking an account for a subscription required tournament, please click here.

Note: Please contact the organizer for questions about issues or clarification questions about tournaments as they are hosted by third-party organizers, NOT Melee

The format being played in the tournament (To see general descriptions of formats click here)

• Not Started - in the future
• In progress - has begun
• Ended - has ended

Number of players who are currently enrolled in the tournament

Connections the Organizer has listed for Social media

Lets you send a message to the tournament organizer about issues or questions. For a thorough overview of this button please click here.

Please use this to contact the organizer with any questions about the tournament. Melee staff can only answer platform related issues and may be reached through our discord. Tournament specific questions as well as non-site related registration questions should be directed to the Organizer through this button.

The Countdown Clock gives you a countdown to the precise moment registration ends.

Click this button to register for the tournament.

If registration has not opened yet or has closed this button will show greyed out and will say "Registration not Open."

Unenroll, not shown. Once you have been enrolled, you will gain access to the unenroll button. It will be located where the register button is located on this image. If for any reason you determine you will not be able to participate in the tournament, click the unenroll button to remove yourself from the tournament. This will not prevent you from re-enrolling at a later time.

This is a list of all the various things you will need to play this event. If the organizer has any specific requirements such as Discord required or a specific GeoLocaiton, it will be noted here.

This tells you how many players are curently registered and includes the amount waitlisted in it's own section if the event is capped and allowing a waitlist.

Organizers will give more details about the tournament here, such as: Invite only limitations, special rules for tournament, decklist requirements and other general information.

Note: Please contact the organizer for questions about issues or clarification questions about tournaments as they are hosted by third-party organizers, NOT Melee

A List of the players who have registered in the tournament.

Once you have registered, your name (or user name if you have chosen that as your default display in profile settings) will appear here.

This icon takes you to the organizers discord channel. If the organizer does not have a discord attached, it will send you to melee discord instead.* Remember: if you have tournament specific questions choose "Contact Tournament Staff" to ask questions!*

This is your home screen for your entire tournament. Anything you want to know about your tournament will be displayed here, in real time! You'll even get Text-to-Speech notifications when your rounds start and end! You'll also see a notification if decklists are required for your tournament. You can use the Decklist submission module to manually enter your decklist, or you can upload directly from Magic Arena!

A quick overview video can be found HERE

This button indicates the strength of your connection to the Melee Servers.

• Green - Strong connection
• Yellow - Experiencing slow connection time
• Red - No connection

This box holds basic tournament information.

• Name of the Tournament
• What organization is responsible for the tournament
• When the tournament will start
• What is the status of the tournament
  • Not Started
  • In Progress
  • Ended

This section will give you information about the event when it is in progress

• Current Phase - Some events will only have one phase. For instance a 4 round Swiss event with no top 8 would be a single Swiss Phase. A 6 round Swiss with top 8 would have 2 Phases, a Swiss Phase and a Playoff Phase
• Format - The deck construction rules this tournament uses
• Match type - How many games make up a match. In the case of our example, we are playing up to 3 games. The winner of the match is the player who wins 2 of those games.
• Current round - What round the event is in right now.
• Matches remaining - Indicates how many matches are still unreported in your tournament. Once this number reaches zero, the event is waiting for Staff to do the necessary between round work and new pairings should be imminent.

This box gives information directly relating to the players event status.

• Player's Display Name
• Check in Status - If the player is checked in, it will show "checked in" here. Check in now happens automatically when you are on the player controller page within the check in window (90 mins before start time) and are active. If you load your Player Controller then leave it inactive for more than 10 minutes, it will not automatically check you in. Returning to the page within the check in period and selecting anything on the window will reconnect your session and check you in.
• Player Status - This indicates your status in the event. If you have dropped or been eliminated for any reason, it will display that status here. A status of enrolled or active means you are in the event and ready to play.
• Decklist Submitted - This is the status of your decklist submission. This will show true if you have successfully submitted your deck. it will show false for various reasons including:
  • Decklist was imported, but not submitted.
  • Decklist was imported but not submitted before deck registration time had passed.
  • Deck was imported but had a legality error In all cases if you have imported your decklist and this still shows false, please contact Tournament staff for help solving your decklist error.

If questions or issues arise during your tournament you can click the Contact Tournament Staff yellow banner all the way to the right hand side of the screen. Please Click Here to see the section about Contact Tournament Staff for more details and information.

Note: Please contact the organizer for questions as they are hosted by third-party organizers, NOT Melee

Every tournament you have the option to submit a decklist. Once submitted you will be able to see it here. You will also be able to edit the decklist, purchase the deck through TCGPlayer and download a copy. Click Here to learn how to submit your decklist for the tournament.

Please note that a decklist is required to play in some tournaments and failure to submit on will result in you being dropped from the tournament automatically.

This will be the most recent tournament pairing information. Your information is listed on the left, your opponent information is listed on the right. For Tabletop tournaments, the table number will be available between you and your opponent's information.

• Melee username.
• Game username. You may click the user name here to copy it to your clipboard for pasting to your game client when challenging opponents.
• Current points
• Match Check in status. There will be a button here to click that checks you in for your match. Checking in is the only way to be shown your opponents Game ID.
• Submit the results of the match. You will select the winner of each game in order.

Once the tournament has started, your pairing will populate automatically, and if the Organizer is using a round timer, it will appear on this screen.

This will be your current round opponent's information

Match results are entered here. PLease select the games won in order they occurred. If you win games 1 and 3, select your name from the first and third lines and your opponent's name on the 2nd line.

Results can not be changed by you or your opponent once submitted. If there was an error made please use the Contact Staff button for assistance.

During the tournament your organizer makes any announcements they will show at the top of your screen for a few moments and recorded here in case you missed the notification at the top of the screen. It is a good idea to check here every now and again to make sure none were missed.

Under Your Matches you can see the results from all previous matches.

All pairings show the pairings and results of all players filtered by round. You can use this to keep track of how well your friends or rivals are doing!

This menu will show you the decklist you are playing as well as your opponent's decklist if decklists were made public by the Organizer. In it's minimized state it sits in the lower left hand corner. When maximised (the panel at the bottom) you can switch between your deck and your opponent's deck.

When a new match is created for you, this window allows you to chat through the melee server with your opponent to help communicate about your match. Please be respectful in this chat. We are able to check these logs if a complaint is filed. Inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated.

If questions or issues arise before or during your tournament you can click the Contact Tournament Staff yellow banner all the way to the right hand side of the screen.

Please contact the organizer for questions or clarifications about tournaments. Tournaments are hosted by third-party organizers, NOT Melee

Start by clicking on the “Contact Tournament Staff” banner on the right hand side of the screen. This will prompt a pop up to appear.

This pop-up will give you the option to select a general subject. Subjects include: Match Result Issue, Incorrect/Missing Pairing, Issue with Arena or MTGO, Cheating or Behavior Issues, Decklist Issue, Opponent No Showed, and General. Choose the best match for your issue.

Once you select an issue, you will be taken to a screen where you will describe your problem. Please be as descriptive as you are able. It will help the organizer solve your problem faster!

You will not be allowed to select "No Opponent after 10 minutes" until the round has been paired for at least 10 miuntes. Then you will be prompted to check that you have performed prerequiste steps before being allowed to submit this ticket.

• If a ticket is submitted before check in (90 minutes prior to tournament start time) or after the tournament it will send an email to the organizer. They will be able to respond the same way.

• Submitting a ticket during a tournament will start a chat with the organizer. Once the organizer accepts the ticket and assigns it to a staff member, you will see a number with a red bubble appear on the chat bubble found at the top of the screen (highlighted in the red box in the picture). Click this and you will be brought to the message center where you can discuss the question or issue at hand with the staff member.

Decklists for tournaments are submitted in that tournament's Player Controller.

Submitted decklists can be deleted or edited until the tournament starts or a Decklist Submission Deadline has ended.

If you've made or downloaded a text file of your decklist, you can upload it using the "Upload" button.

Using the "Paste" button, you can copy and paste your decklist directly from Magic Online, Magic Arena, or decklist strings from Melee or other websites.

Enter a quantity and begin typing a card name. You can select a card name from the search that appears. Press the enter key to add the card. Make sure if the card is part of your sideboard you check the sideboard box before entering it.

Make sure you hit the blue "Submit Decklist” button. Your decklist can still be edited, and will be submited and validated when the tournament starts, but it's still best to submit and validate yourself to make sure you're submitting a legal decklist.

• The winner of the match is responsible for entering the results.

• Click on the name of the player who won each game then click “Submit Results” to enter them.

• We recommend taking screenshots of the results just in case there is an error in the results reported but this is not required.

• If you believe there is an error in the results reported, contact the organizer to inform them about this issue right way

• Click Here to learn how to contact your organizer.

Here is a list of things to know when playing in digital tournaments on Melee.gg.

Players are often required to check into digital tournaments. To do this, be sure to navigate to your Player Controller within the 90-minute window before your tournament begins.

When you receive a new pairing, you'll be asked to check in to the match. Once you do so, you'll gain access to your opponents Direct Challenge ID for match making, and the organizer will be able to see you've checked in.

In the bottom left corner of your Player Controller you'll see a chat box. This is a 1-on-1 direct message to your current opponent.

It is now time to begin the match. If you click on your opponent's Direct Challenge Id it will automatically copy their screen name for you. You will need to issue a direct challenge to play against your opponent. To issue a direct challenge you will need to:

1. Log-in to Arena

2. Click on the Home tab

3. Click on the Direct Challenge Play Blade icon (the crossed swords) on the upper right-hand side of the screen. This takes you to the Direct Challenge menu.

4. At the top of the Challenge menue select the type of match required for your tournament. Note: Tournament Match is typically used as this contains features like coin flip for who goes first, match clock and turn timers.

5. Enter your opponent's Direct Challenge Id

6. Click the Select Deck button to choose from your available MTG Arena decks

7. Click the Play button

8. Once you hit Play you will be taken to the matchmaking screen. From there, the system will wait for your opponent to challenge you in return before putting you into a match. A game will only start once both players have challenged each other.

Please contact your opponent in the Melee Player Controller Chat if there's any problems

Details Coming Soon!

The Organization Dashboard is where you can:

• Create a tournament
• Edit your Organization's information
• Add staff members to your organization
• Review players who have participated in your tournaments or have received suspensions
• Review past tournaments
• Create Custom Formats
• Create a Tournament Hub

In your Organization Dashboard you'll find an "Edit Organization" button in the top right corner. On the edit page you'll be able to link your PayPal account enabling you to host tournaments with Entry Fee's on Melee. Please review our Entry Fee and Payment Policies before doing so.

To learn more about creating a tournament, click here.

Tournament Hubs are organizer defined lists of tournaments. They are designed to make it easier for players to find groups of tournaments such as an event weekends or leagues.

Staff access is how you give external users permission to view and edit information about your organization and tournaments. The staff members listed here have permission to interact with all of your tournaments. You may review what permissions are given to each role by clicking on the Staff Permissions item in the left nav bar of the Tournament Controller. If you want to restrict staff access to a single tournament, you may do so by creating staff records on its Tournament Controller. You should not add staff members here if your intent is to restrict their access to a single tournament.

There’s two pages you’ll interact with when creating a tournament. The first is the Tournament Edit Page. You can get to the edit page by locating the “Create a Tournament” button through your Organizer Dashboard or on the menu bar under the “Organizers” tab.

• Under the Organizers Tab, click “Create a Tournament”.

• Create a name for your tournament. This can be anything you want!

Set a Registration End Date by clicking on the Calendar icon on the right side of your screen.

• This is when Registration will close and will prevent any more sign-ups. Most often, this will be shortly before the tournament is set to begin, but if you want to, it can be earlier.

• These times will automatically adjust to your players' time zone, so you won't need to do that math in your description.

Set a Start Date by clicking on the Calendar icon on the right side of your screen.

• This is when the tournament is actually going to take place, and is different than the Registration End Date.

There are currently two different kinds of Registration Types

• Open - The most common type of tournament. Anyone can enter!

• Invite Only - Only allows players that you, the Organizer, have chosen to enter.

• Code Entry - This is used for Invite Only and Membership Required Tournaments.

• Entry Fee - This is used for Tournaments that require payment to enter.

• Free - This is used for Open Tournaments where anyone can enter, or Free tournaments that are unlisted to the public (say, if you wanted to run something for your store but did not want to do Invite Only).

• Variable - Players pay a set entry fee, but have the option to pay more. This option is useful for Charity Tournaments!

• The Description field is where you tell your participants about your tournament. This is a markdown editor - meaning you can edit the text and insert images and links like you would be able to in a program like Microsoft Word.

• You can also include prize information (if applicable) and any other details you like in this space.

• Try to avoid mentions of specific times here. The above fields adjust to time zones, but anything typed here won't, and seeing multiple times may cause players to miss your tournament! If you do add a time please try and use the time zone associated with the time.

• Set your Player Cap, if you want. The default cap is 1000. The Round Length determines the maximum time in the round, if you choose to use a Round Timer. The default time is 50 minutes.

• Team Size tells us how many players are on a team in the tournament. For an individual tournament, the Team Size is 1. If you are running a Team Event, this will most often be 3.

  • Note: Melee currently only supports team sizes of 1. Support for larger team sizes will be added soon!

• You can choose to enable the Round Timer. For MTG Arena, we recommend setting it to 60 minutes as a courtesy and using the in-client clock provided in tournament Match mode, as this clock will provide a better experience for players.

• Choose whether or not your tournament will require decklists. (Both can be selected)

  • Selecting “Require Decklists” this will display to players that your tournament requires a decklist submission but nothing will occur if the player fails to submit one. This will give you the ability to decide the outcome of failure to do so.
  • Selecting “Auto-drop Players Without Legal Decklists” will automatically drop players from the event once the tournament starts but you have the ability to manually add the player back into the tournament if necessary.

• Choose whether or not decklists will be public for your tournament. If checked, this allows players to see their opponent’s decklists when the tournament has begun.

  • The Mock Tournament Option allows you to run a test tournament to get the hang of Melee. We encourage you to make a mock tournament to give the platform a try and get comfortable with the client!

The ticketing system allows organizations to work with multiple staff members to solve issues. The ticketing system will send an email to the Organizer if it is more than 90 minutes before the tournament. Once the 90 minute window has closed, the tickets will appear in a messaging window inside the tournament controller application. Click Here to see how players contact you.

Once the ticket is generated a new ticket will appear in the Tournament Controller visible to the Organizer and all Staff that has been added to the Organization. An audio "new ticket received" message will play. This message will only play when it has been sometime since the most recent ticket. it will not play for every new ticket if they come quickly. The ticket will be displayed here whether it is far enough out from the tournament to be emailed, or if it is within the 90 minute check in time which will generate a chat with the player.

• Use the "Assign to Me" button to claim the ticket. You may not assign tickets to staff members from this window. You are only able to assign tickets to yourself. Each staff member has the same view and is able to claim tickets by selecting the "assign to Me" button. Once the ticket has been assigned, the "Assignee" will be listed as the person who claimed that ticket.
• Once a ticket has been assigned, if it is within the 90 minute check in period tournament a chat will appear in the chat window reached by clicking the chat bubble at the top of the screen.

• Click the chat icon and you will be taken to the ticket messaging interface. Once on the interface you will see messages listed on the left, and the message contents in the main panel on the right. Messages will default to unread messages on top. Each time you respond, the message at the top will be the oldest unread message available.
• Type your response in the chat line at the bottom of the right hand panel, then [ENTER] to send. Once you have sent a message back to the player, they will be notified with an audible "ding" and a marker will appear on the chat icon indicating they have a new message if the messaging window is not already open. The person who has claimed the ticket will hear the same audible "ding" and see a badge on the icon once the player responds if they are not currently on the messaging window. We are currently unable to send images through this chat system, that upgrade is planned at a future date.

Once the issue has been resolved, click the gear on the right side of the Support Tickets tab corresponding with the resolved ticket and select "resolved" from the menu to change state. Note there are other designations that can be chosen to help with communication among your team.

The tournament edit page is where you’ll enter most of your tournament’s essential details, add graphics to make your tournament’s view page stand out, and select important settings for how your tournament will be structured. One thing you won’t do on this page is select the format your players will be playing, that’s something you’ll do on the Tournament Controller.

The name of the Tournament that will be displayed to your players.

The data and time you intend the tournament to start. Keep in mind that the time will be reflected based on your computer's internal clock. This is true for your players as well.

Example: If you're in PST and set the tournament for 10:00 AM, any users in EST will see the tournament starting at 1:00 PM EST.

The Platform is where play will take place.

MTG Arena: On Magic Arena

MTG Online: On Magic Online

Other: Typically used for tournament ran over SpellTable

Paper: Tabletop Magic most commonly played at Local Game Stores or Convention Centers

Registration Only: The tournament will not be ran using Melee as the tournament operations platform, and instead using Melee for registration solutions. For more information, please review our Entry Fee and Payment Policies

For Entry Fee tournaments, Organizers must agree to pay out prizes in less than 60 days after the end of the tournament. If you're playing out immediately, leave this as zero.

This check box will allow you to enter a "sandbox" mode to be able to test all of Melee's features. Any "test tournament" will not be visible to the public, and you'll be able to enroll fake players allowing you to run a complete tournament without actual players.

The section of the Tournament Edit page pertaining to registration.

This is the last date players will be able to register for the tournament.

The last date players will be able to unenroll themselves and receive automatic refunds.

Open Registration: Anyone is able to register for the tournament.

Invite Only: Used to let specific users play in the tournament. Often used for community-run and qualifier-only tournaments.

Code Only: Give out an Organizer-created code for players to be able to register for the tournament.

Entry Fee: Charge an Entry Fee for the tournament. *If you do not see this option, you will need to link your PayPal to your account.

Free: The tournament is free to play in.

Add your businesses branding to your tournament's on Melee.

A short description for your tournament for social media.

A URL of an external image. Ideal size is 550x275 (2:1 ratio). Use of copyrighted images may result in removal as an organizer.

A Twitter hashtage for your tournament.

Free form communication for your players that will be displayed on your Tournament View Page[Needs link].

Here you can control what data is collected from players when they register for this tournament. This data will appear in the Melee API, player card, hovercard, and some exports in the tournament controller. Sensitive data like emails is only available to your organization until 60 days after the start of the tournament.

Player metadata is a way of collecting custom data from your players. Each custom field will appear on the registration form as the player registers for this tournament.

Section of the Tournament Edit Page where you can set decklists to be public, decklist submission deadlines, or automatic drop players without decklists.

The date that is the last moment your players can submit or edit their decklists.

Note: If your tournament has a Decklist Submission Deadline and has the checkbox Make Decklists Publisc checked, decklists will be public once the Decklist Submission Deadline as ended.

Make Decklists Public

Decklists will be open to players in their Player Controller and to the public.

Auto-drop Players Without Legal Decklists

When you start the tournament, all players that haven't submitted a deck, or have a non-legal decklist unsubmitted in their Player Controller will have their status changed to dropped and not be paired for the first round.

Require Decklists

Require decklists for players to submit. If left unchecked, players will not be prompted to submit a decklist in their Player Controller.

The Advanced Options Settings is home to specific features and tools available to you.

The maximum amount of players who can register for the tournament.

Ability to set a minimum or maximum for age restrictions.

A great resource for digital events wanting to restrict players to a specific geo-location.

Allows you to decide how print outs will look for paper (tabletop) tournaments.

Ignore Player Check-in

Player check-in involved players going to their Player Controller within the 90 minute window before the tournament starts. If unchecked, players who do not "check in" will be dropped from the tournament once it is started.

Enable Waitlist

For tournaments that reach a Player Cap, a waitlist is started for future players who register. This is a great tool for digital/no-entry tournament.

Enable Draw

Allow players to perform IDs

Delay Deliver of Matches

When enabled, new pairings will only be visible in the Tournament Controller until they are published to players. This is a great tool for Organizers to double check pairings, print standings, ect before players receive their pairings digitally.

Enable the Round Time

Internal round timer best used for Digital Tournaments.

This is your tournament’s home page. From here, you can edit the steps that we went through in Creating a Tournament. You can also access your main tool: the Tournament Controller. Click on that, and you’ll see this:

In the upper right-hand corner, you will see a Publish button. This is the first button you need to press. It publishes your tournament to the Melee page and makes it visible to the public or group of people that will be playing in the tournament. It allows players to be able to register as well.

This will take you to the tournament's public-facing landing page.

This will edit the Create a Tournament page in case you need to change details of the tournament.

This is one of the most important pages to set up, as it determines how your tournament runs. First, click “New Phase”. You will see the following options:

Except in very rare circumstances, you will only be using this for phases beyond the first. Checking this box will allow you to automatically drop players based on parameters you set. Setting the Pairing Method to Playoffs will automatically check this box for you.

This allows you to structure the tournament itself. Most tournaments will have two separate phases — a Swiss phase and a Playoffs phase.

• Swiss will pair players according to the Swiss tournament algorithm. This allows players to play all rounds without being removed from the tournament. This will also attempt to pair players with the same (or similar) records against one another. This is the recommended format for tournaments larger than 8 players

• Single Elimination will seed your players into a bracket. Any player who loses a single match will be Eliminated from your tournament automatically.

• When you select Playoffs, it will ask you how you would like to perform your cut (Top X Players or Minimum Points), and how many players you would like after your cut. This option will create a single-elimination bracket, so it is recommended that the number of players you cut to be a power of 2 (2, 4, 8, 16, or 32 are recommended, with 8 being the most common.)

For Swiss tournaments, you will choose the number of rounds that you will play before moving to a Single elimination bracket for the top players (if applicable).

The recommended number of rounds for your tournament is based on the number of players in the tournament, and is as follows:

This is where you will choose the format for your tournament. For a complete list of formats supported on Melee Click Here

Here is where you will choose the maximum number of games that will be played per round. Most tournaments use Best of Three, while some tournaments might use Best of One. Best of Five is typically reserved for the Playoff portion of tournaments with significant prizes on the line.

Staffing for tournaments is an important step for insuring a smooth event for the players. On the Staff tab on the Tournament Controller you'll find the ability to add staff members for the tournament using their Melee user account email addresses. You may permanently add staff members to your organization using the Organization Staff tab on the Organization Dashboard.

There are four unique staff roles:

• Coverage
• Judge
• Scorekeeper
• Admin

You may learn more about the permissions for each staff role in your Organization Dashboard under the Staff Permissions tab.

Note: Staff for an individual tournament will not be able to access the tournament's "Edit Page". Staff set on the Organization Dashboard will be able to access your tournament's Edit Page.

This is a tool you can use to communicate with everyone in the tournament. Click “New Announcement” to share information. Players will receive an audio message that an announcement has been made, as well as a pop-up window that will not go away until clicked on. This way, you can be sure your players have seen what you need them to see.

From this screen, you can view your registered players and whether or not they have checked in for the tournament. You can also add players manually via the search function (First, Last, or Arena name) or import a whole list of players via username, email, or Arena name). You can either import them directly into the tournament as registered, or click the “Enroll as Preregistered” box, which will drop them automatically from the tournament if they do not check in when the tournament starts.

Click Here for a list of the different player statuses

This page will show you the decklists of your players, if you’ve required them to have decklists. You can also allow players to edit their decklists by granting them access from this page.

The Pods tab on the Tournament Controller is used to generate draft pods. Once pods have been generated, players will be entered into pods based on current standings (1st-8th in Pod 1, 9th-16th in Pod 2, ect). Order within pods is randomized.

• The size of the draft pods generated is designed to minimize the number of pods with an odd number of players.
• Pods pair using the swiss pairing structure.
• Placement in pods and order within pods can be edited then saved using the blue save icon on each field.

The seating tab generates seating for non-match playing purposes such as:

• Players Meetings
• Sealed Deck Constrcution
• Drafting Pods
• Draft Deck Construction

Note: You will need to generate pods before you'll be able to generate seatings for Draft Pods and Draft Deck Construction.

Generating seatings will not automatically push that information to the Player Controller. Once you've generated the desired seatings, you will need to hit the Publish Seatings for players to receive this information. This will update previous seating assignments (if they've been updated), and add new seating assignments to their Seatings tab.

Once you've generated seatings, you will also be able to print off desired documentation such as:

• Draft Pods By Name
• Draft Pod Slips
• Build Seats By Name

This page shows you the pairings of the current round. It also allows you to pair and re-pair the round, manually enter results in case the players can’t, and advance the tournament to the next rounds and phases. Here is a sample screen that you might see before the tournament begins and without players entered.

Allows you to display the standings at the conclusion of the phases of the tournament.

When you click on a player's name in the Tournament Controller the Player Card for that player will appear. This is a centralized location for that player's information and also an area for you to take any actions necessary for that player.

Editing the Player's Status

The most used feature of the Player Card is editing a player's status. For example if a player who has dropped themselves now wants to rejoin the tournament, you'll edit their status from Dropped (self) to Active. Here's a description for each status a player could have or be given.

• Active: In the tournament and will be paired against an opponent in the next round.
• Cut: Eliminated from the tournament based on a phase’s cut parameters.
• Disqualified: Disqualified from the tournament based on the * * Organizer’s decision.
• Dropped (Self): The player dropped themselves from their “Player Controller”.
• Dropped (Staff): The Tournament staff dropped the player from the tournament.
• Eliminated: Has received the
• Enrolled: They are enrolled into the tournament before it has begun.
• No Show: They did not show up for the previous round and are dropped due to it.
• Qualified: The player will receive a bye in the following round; not receive a pairing against an opponent and will receive a win for the round.
• Unenrolled: The player has unenrolled from a tournament that has not started yet.
• Unenrolled (Decklist): The player was enrolled, but did not meet the decklist requirements set by the Organizer and therefore is not active to be paired in round 1.
• Unenrolled (Payment): The player was enrolled, but did not submit payment for the tournament.
• Unenrolled (Waitlist): In tournaments with Waitlists, the player was on the waitlist but there was not enough room for them to join the tournament when it started.

Refunds

The Player Card is where you'll issue refunds to players once a tournament has started and before it has completed. Once you click on the refund button, our system will initiate a refund for that Player. This will not change their status in the tournament though so you'll manually have to do that if the situation calls for it.

Before a Tournamernt has Started

Players will automatically trigger a refund when they unenroll from a tournament. They are able to do this from either the Tournament’s View Page, or from their Player Controller by clicking on the red “Unenroll” button.

After a Tournament has Finished

There is no way for an Organizer to issue a refund once a tournament has concluded. If you wish to issue a player a refund, please reach out to Melee staff to assist you at Contact@Melee.gg.

Fixed Table Seeting

Found underneath the “Status” drop down you’ll find the “Fixed Table” section. Here you can select a table number for a player to always be paired at. Again, make sure to use the blue floppy disk icon to save this setting.

If you set a player to have a fixed seating, this won’t change their current table number. It will only impact future pairings when they are generated. If you need to change a player’s table number seating for the current round, you will need to use the “Edit Pairing” feature found on the “Pairings” tab.

Penalties

You’ll also be able to enter penalties for players in their Player Card. This tool is solely used for documenting situations, and will not change a player’s status in the tournament. If you wish to escalate a situation after multiple penalties, be sure to manually execute any of those procedures.

When you are ready to begin your tournament, you will start it from the Tournament Controller page. At the top right-hand corner of the screen Hit Start!

As a note, once the tournament has been started, players will be unable to edit their decklists. Make sure, if you are requiring lists, that you don’t start the tournament early. If you do, no big deal, you can always allow players to edit their lists later, but that is something to avoid.

From there, go to the Pairings page. On the right-hand side of the screen, click the “Pair Round” button. The round will be paired, and all players will receive an audio notification telling them they have a new pairing.

Once you’ve paired the round, you have the option to Edit Pairings, and Delete the Pairings. Editing and Deleting the pairings should only be done if a mistake was made.

How To Coming

How To Coming

How To Coming

How To Coming

You will also notice a Dummy Results button in the above image. You will only see that button if you are running a Mock Tournament. Clicking that button generates random results for the round, so you can move quickly through the tournament once you have the hang of things.

During the tournament, players will be able to report the results of the match from the Player Controller. They can also open a ticket with you if they have any questions. You will be able to see these tickets in your tournament controller Support Tickets tab and respond from the Messages Page, which is reached through the messaging icon at the top near your profile image. See "Ticketing Function" below for more information.

Once you have all results for the round, click the next round’s button, and pair the next round! Repeat for all future rounds of the current Phase.

Once you have completed all rounds in the Phase, click “Go to Next Phase”. The tournament will automatically advance. You will still have to generate pairings for the next round in a new Phase.

Once the Finals are done, End the tournament. Click the “End” button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

Melee uses format configuration files to control card legality, decklist size, and other decklist validation rules. Files managed by Melee are called “evergreen format configs” and include configs for official tournament formats like Standard, Legacy, etc. Organizers can create their own format configs to run tournaments with custom formats.

The legality of cards in each evergreen format supported on Melee are updated on the official release date of Magic: The Gathering Sets. This creates a one week window with each set release where the legality of formats on Magic Online and Magic Arena will not reflect the legality of formats on Melee.

Organizers can create these custom configs in their organization dashboard.

In their dashboard, organizers can see and clone evergreen configs. Also, it’s possible to create new configs from scratch.

Format configurations can be complicated or simple. We've designed a web form to help you build yours. Clicking on "New Config" in your organization dashboard opens a page with a blank form.

You must name your custom format. This name must be unique for your organization. This name will be shown to players whenever they go to register so they know the format of the tournament. Hovering over the name of the format on the tournament pages will show the format’s rules.

The rules section contains fields that represent general rules about deck construction including deck size restrictions and Commander validation.

The allow list section contains lists of allowed sets, cards, card types, etc. By default, all sets and cards are legal. Setting an allow list will make it so only those values are allowed. An allow list of a given type overrides the deny list of the same type.

The allow list section contains lists of denied (or banned) sets, cards, card types, etc. By default, all sets and cards are legal. Setting a deny list will make it so those values are not allowed or banned. An deny list of a given type is overridden by the allow list of the same type.

The card quantities section contains fields that control the minimum and maximum card quantities per deck. For example, the Commander format allows for a maximum and minimum of 1 for each card of a given name. The Standard format allows for a maximum of 4 cards and no minimum.

You can also assign custom card quantities for individual card names. For example, the Vintage format has several cards restricted to a maximum of 1.

Some formats, like Canadian Highlander, use a points system to restrict the power level of cards in a player's deck. The card points section allows you to assign points to cards of a given name and limit the number of points per deck.

You must assign points to at least one card for this section to have an effect.

On the form to create/edit format configs, there is an explanation tab. This tab shows a human readable explanation of the format’s rules. This explanation shows up whenever a player looks at the tournament details and hovers over the format of the tournament.

On the form to create/edit format configs, there is a testing tab. On this tab, you can copy/paste decklists and check them for parsing and validation against the custom format config you created. The parsed decklist and any errors appear below the copy/paste decklist box.

You can enter and update your basic info on this page.

Click on "Your Player Menue" located in the top right hand corner of the screen next to the search bar. Once a profile picture has been loaded, a thumbnail version will be displayed here. Select "Settings" in the drop down to update you profile

You can upload your profile picture here! Optimal size is 200x200px.

This is your chance to say a little something about yourself. You can write about your experience and history with playing Magic: The Gathering, your favorite decks or formats or just a fun fact to break the ice. There are no restrictions but this will be public.

If you have a personal or professional website you would like to share. This is not for social media accounts. That is on the “Social Media” page.

• If you want to play in MTGA tournaments you must enter it with the Arena ID (careful it is case sensitive)
• Need to create an account? Click Here
• Don't know your username? Open arena and start a direct challenge. This will pull your name up. Click your name to copy it so you can paste it here. Learn How To Direct Challenge

• If you plan on playing in MTGO tournaments you must enter it.
• Need to create an account? Click Here

Melee has the ability to link to your DCI account and upload results if you are updating your stats there.

If you check this box it will display your user name instead of your full name

Update and authorize your social media accounts here

All of your social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Discord, YouTube and your Podcast can be entered here. They will be displayed on your profile as their icon button (Example in orange box). If you do not want your info to be public, do not enter anything here.

This is very important as some organizers require you to have a Twitch or Discord account linked to your profile. You must hit the “Authorize” button (Buttons in red box) to link your account. Linking it will not display your information on your profile and will remain private. You do not have to link your accounts but you will not be able to enter a tournament that requires it without doing this.

All of your settings for your account are found here.

Update and change the email address associated with your account. Make sure this email is correct to receive tournament reminders and reset password if needed.

Add your phone number to receive pairings via text message and add extra security like two factor authentication. Available for USA only at this time.

A list of the users that have been blocked

In case you need to change your password just click this button.

Add an extra layer of security to your account.

If you decide Melee is not for you and would like your profile deleted.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Log-in to Arena

2. Click on the Home tab

3. Click on the Direct Challenge Play Blade icon (the crossed swords) on the upper right-hand side of the screen.This takes you to the Direct Challenge menu.

4. At the top of the Challenge menue select the type of match required for your tournament. Note: Tournament Match is typically used as this contains features like coin flip for who goes first, match clock and turn timers.

5. Enter your opponents Direct Challenge Id

6. Click the Select Deck button to choose from your available MTG Arena decks

7. Click the Play button

8. Once you hit Play you will be taken to the matchmaking screen. From there, the system will wait for your opponent to challenge you in return before putting you into a match. A game will only start once both players have challenged each other.

Please contact your opponent in the Melee Player Controller Chat if there's any problems

Click Here to create an account for MTGA

Click Here for Wizards FAQ for MTGA

Click Here for Wizards Official Rules of MTG

Each player or team has a status field that shows what their current status is in the tournament.

The Preregistered status is used for enrollment. A team can be preregistered into the tournament by an organizer. This means that they are able to enroll into the tournament, if the tournament is an invite only tournament, but aren't considered active. Teams who are preregistered must enroll themselves before they are considered enrolled in the tournament. This status essentially saves a place for the team/player.

Teams with the enrolled status have registered in the tournament and will be converted to active whenever the tournament starts.

The team is active in the tournament and will be paired.

The team didn't make a cut requirement. Cuts happen at the beginning of phases, such as a cut to day two or a cut for Top 8.

A team will be eliminated from a tournament whenever they lose in a single elimination or double elimination round.

Teams have the Dropped status if the team dropped themselves from the tournament.

Teams will have the Deleted status if they unenrolled themselves from the tournament. This is different from dropping from a tournament and signifies that the team did not play in the tournament.

Teams with the Disqualified status were disqualified from the tournament.

Teams gain the Qualified status whenever they mean the 'Play Until X Wins' threshold. I.e.; If the tournament is set to 'Play Until 2 Wins', when a team hits 2 wins they will gain the Qualified status. This makes it so they are not paired for the subsequent rounds.

Magic: The Gathering formats are various ways in which the game can be played. Each format provides rules for deck construction and gameplay, with many confining the pool of permitted cards to those released in a specified group of Magic card sets.

Cards from core set Eighth edition and Mirrodin through today are legal. It is a constructed format and therefore it adheres to the constructed rules.

Standard is a dynamic format where you build decks and play using cards in your collection from recently released Magic sets. Evolving gameplay and fresh strategies make it one of the most fun and popular ways to play Magic.

Pioneer is a new nonrotating format featuring cards from Return to Ravnica and forward. It is a constructed format and therefore it adheres to the constructed rules.

Each player chooses a legendary creature as their "Commander" of their deck. It is played with a 99-card deck that contains only cards of their commander's colors. Other than basic lands, each deck can only use one copy of any card.

Historic is MTG Arena’s largest Constructed format, filled with both old and new Magic cards. Digital-only cards are legal in this format, including rebalanced versions of existing cards. Play unique strategies, wild synergies, and construct unique decks! Historic never rotates and is curated as a digital-first format.

Decks may consist of cards from all Magic card sets. Even cards from expansions and special sets are legal in the Legacy format. It is a constructed format and therefore it adheres to the constructed rules.

Players play with decks constructed at the tournament from a limited and usually randomized pool of cards, rather than constructing decks ahead of time

Restricts decks to only cards with the common rarity. It is a constructed format and therefore it adheres to the constructed rules. Vintage- The most powerful of constructed formats is Vintage as decks may consist of cards from all Magic card sets. It is a constructed format and therefore it adheres to the constructed rules.

Alchemy is a digital-only rotating format and play mode for Magic: The Gathering Arena that was introduced in December, 2021 as a fast and ever-evolving experience. It intentionally diverges from the metagame of Standard and other formats to provide an alternative experience to play.

Explorer is a new digital experience on MTG Arena – a true-to-paper, non-rotating format featuring all cards legal in the Pioneer format that appear on Arena.

It is a little like Standard, a little like Commander, and a uniquely exciting deck-brewing challenge. Build a deck around a specific legendary creature or planeswalker from the Standard card pool. Choose Your Champion!

Historic Brawl is a variant of Brawl format that is played with a deck of 60 cards. Basically, Historic Brawl is just what you would expect; the Brawl format (which otherwise uses only Standard-legal sets) with the added Historic card pool. It was introduced to MTG Arena in December 2020.

Gladiator is a 100 card singleton format, intended to be played primarily on MTG Arena. Many of the rules of the format are shared among other singleton variants, while also providing a unique experience.

Is a very casual Magic format rather relaxed. Play with any set or card, no cards are banned, build your deck with as many copies as you’d like and msure you have at least 40 cards.

A casual constructed format using an older or limited card pool, or older rule sets. There are many different variations, often with different rules set regionally by a play group or a local tournament organizer.

Please note these are generalized overviews and not full descriptions or rules. For questions about the rules please contact your tournament organizer for your tournaments specific rules or For a complete list of formats, visit Wizards of the Coast's website.