Quick answers about StatDek — what it is, what's free, and how it works. For a full walkthrough of running a tournament, see the User Guide.
A tool for running tournaments — brackets, live scoring, standings, and a results page, all in one place. It's built for a director running an in-person event (horseshoes and cornhole leagues specifically, though the underlying engine isn't sport-specific) who wants their players and spectators to actually be able to follow along, without whiteboards, paper brackets, or a dozen separate spreadsheets.
No. StatDek runs entirely in a web browser — for you as the director, and for anyone watching. Nothing to download, on desktop or mobile.
Single Elimination, Double Elimination, and Swiss. Seeding can be random, entered-order, or fully manual.
128 players per tournament. This is a deliberate choice, not a technical ceiling — 128 is itself a power of 2, so even a tournament at maximum size never needs an awkward first-round bye.
Use the Team Builder, linked right next to "Start New Tournament" on the Start Page — it pairs players into balanced teams (or handles an odd number gracefully) before you ever create the tournament itself. Full details in the User Guide.
Yes — and it always will be. The free version is the complete tournament director experience: every format, every player up to the 128 cap, live scoring, live standings, player search, and a full results page when you're done. No account required, no time limit, no cap on how many tournaments you run.
Two things: Instant Messaging and a live link (and QR code) so players and spectators can watch the tournament in real time on their own phones and on TV. Everything about actually running the tournament is identical either way.
It's a one-time purchase per event, not a subscription — priced by how many spectators you expect:
Better to be safe than sorry. Simply purchase the plan that is best for your audience - However, if you think you'll need 101 player spectator connections, purchase StatDek Live 200.
From your tournament's control panel — the plan selector sits in the sidebar, alongside your other tournament settings like the password.
No — scores are entirely optional. When you confirm a match winner, you can enter both players' scores if you're tracking them, or leave it blank and just record who won. If you do enter scores, StatDek checks that they actually match the winner you picked — you can't confirm a result where the "winner" has the lower score.
Yes. Player Search — available on your dashboard and on every StatDek Live spectator view — shows any player's current status, record, next opponent, and full match history at a tap. This is the real beauty of StatDek Live.
For Swiss, standard points-and-Buchholz. For Single and Double Elimination, players are ranked by how far they actually advanced in the bracket — not by raw win count, since in double elimination a player fighting back through the losers bracket can end up with more individual wins than the actual champion.
You can keep working — recording winners, drawing matches — without interruption. Your screen doesn't wait on a connection to update. Everything queues locally and syncs automatically once you're back online, and a status indicator in the header shows you exactly what's happening rather than leaving it invisible.
If you clicked past the warning popup, this can't be undone — that warning exists specifically to prevent this. Always double-check before confirming a bracket regeneration on a tournament that's already underway.
No — never. Anyone with the link or QR code can watch, with nothing to sign up for and nothing to install.
On mobile, a purpose-built view with five tabs — Live, Matches, Bracket, Standings, and More — plus player search throughout. On desktop, active matches, upcoming matches, completed matches, and either a full bracket tree or a live standings table, depending on the format. Either way, results and scores update the moment the director confirms them.
Yes — TV Mode, a large-format display built to be read from across the room, auto-paging through active matches, what's coming up, and recent results.
Yes. Signing in is entirely optional. Everything works the moment you click "Start New Tournament," with no account required. Signing in (with Google or an email/password) only adds a private "My Tournaments" list and the ability to manage your tournament from a different device later.
If the browser you originally created it in is still available, you don't need the password at all — that session is still recognized as the owner. The password only matters when you're trying to take control from a different browser or device than the one that created it. If you've lost both the original browser and the password, there's currently no recovery path — worth writing the password down somewhere safe when you set it.
You're viewing it in read-only mode, which means the browser session or account you're using isn't recognized as the one that created it. If it's your tournament and you're on a different device, or if you know the tournament's password, you'll see a prompt to enter it and take control from wherever you're currently viewing it.
That's a "bye" — when the number of players doesn't divide evenly, some players get a free pass in the first round. This is normal and handled automatically.
Once a bracket is published, the roster locks so it can never disagree with what's actually in play. You can still rename a player at any point — that updates everywhere automatically, including already-recorded results — but adding or removing someone requires regenerating the bracket, which erases results and starts over.
Try a hard refresh of the page first (this fixes most display glitches). If a problem persists, reach out to us directly with your tournament's Passkey ID so we can look into it.