This glossary provides concise definitions for key tournament, competition format, and rating terms used throughout TopSeed.

Tournament and competition terms

Draw

A distinct competition division within a tournament event, structured by sport format, age, or skill level (such as Men's Singles Open or Mixed Doubles 4.0). Each draw maintains its own capacity and bracket.

Bracket

The visual match diagram illustrating pairings, elimination rounds, and progression pathways from opening matches to the final. Players consult brackets to track scheduled match times and courts.

Seed

A ranking assigned to top competitors before bracket generation. Seeding separates top entrants into different sections of the bracket so the strongest players do not meet in early rounds.

Bye

A pass awarded to an entrant in an opening round when entrants are fewer than full bracket capacity. A player with a bye advances to the next round without playing.

Walkover

An uncontested match victory awarded when an opponent fails to arrive, withdraws, or retires prior to match start. Walkovers advance the remaining player automatically.

Round robin

A tournament format where every participant or team plays against all other entrants within their group. Standings rank by total match wins and set or game win percentages.

Single elimination

A knockout format where a single match loss eliminates an entrant from the championship draw. Play continues until one undefeated winner remains.

Double elimination

A tournament format with a winners bracket and a consolation bracket. An entrant must lose two matches before elimination from the event.

World Cup

A two-stage tournament format combining round-robin group play with a single-elimination knockout stage. Top finishers from each group qualify into the elimination bracket to compete for the championship, with optional third-place playoffs.

Ladder

An ongoing challenge format where participants challenge higher-ranked competitors on the ladder board to climb rankings over a season.

Platform and rating terms

Normalized rating

TopSeed's universal 0.1 to 10.0 player rating benchmark, rounded to one decimal. TopSeed translates provider-native ratings (like UTR, NTRP, WTN, DUPR, or UTR-P) onto this shared scale for fair cross-provider seeding.

Authorization hold

A temporary payment authorization placed on a card when entering a paid draw, captured when entry is confirmed or at the registration deadline.

Registration deadline

The scheduled cutoff date and time after which players can no longer register for or modify entries in a draw.

Waitlist

Not available yet. When a draw reaches its maximum capacity it shows as full and closes to new entries; nobody is queued for a spot that opens later.

Partner pool

The looking-for-partner list for doubles draws where individual unpartnered players can register to be paired before the registration deadline.