Matches

A match is the unit every competition mode is built on. Players create it, report it and settle it between themselves; the tournament only steps in when they disagree.

Player-driven match workflow

The day-to-day of a competition runs on the players themselves. Anyone taking part in a match can act on it directly:

Create a match — a player sets up a match they’re playing in. No admin step, no pre-generated schedule to wait for.
Report the result — the participants report the score. Reporting is restricted to the players actually in the match, so results always trace back to someone involved.
Confirm or contest — the opposing side can confirm the report to finalize it early, or contest it. A contested match is marked disputed, the tournament organizers are notified, and nothing finalizes on a timer from there.
Correct the entry — the player who reported the result can fix it as long as the match is not finalized, including after a dispute. The correction clears the confirmations already given and re-opens the validation round.
Talk it out — every match carries a discussion thread, visible to its players and to the tournament organizers, where disputes and corrections are recorded as they happen.
Dispute after the fact — on tournaments that finalize automatically, a participant still has a 7-day window to raise a dispute on a finalized result.
Cancel — a participant can cancel a match that shouldn’t count. Once a match is finalized, cancelling is tighter: only the player who reported it, only within 48 hours, and only in championship or ranked mode.

A shared-terminal kiosk role exists for club venues: a tablet at the table can create and report matches it set up, without being able to confirm or dispute on players’ behalf.

Validation modes

Every championship and ranked tournament picks its own validation mode — how much confirmation a reported match result needs before it’s locked in:

None — results finalize the instant they’re reported. Still disputable for 7 days afterward if something was wrong.
Auto — finalizes automatically after an organizer-set delay (1 to 168 hours), unless disputed first. An opponent can also confirm early to finalize immediately.
Strict (the default for new tournaments) — requires explicit confirmation from a player on the opposing side before the result locks in. No timer, no automatic finalization.
Admin — full manual control: only a tournament admin can validate and finalize a reported result.

Layered on top of Auto, a Trust Score system lets the app learn who to rely on: a player with a strong track record of clean, undisputed reports gets their results auto-finalized instantly, skipping the wait entirely. Disputing someone’s report resets their trust score, so trust has to be earned back.

Whatever the mode, a contested match never resolves itself: the timer only settles silence, not disagreement. A dispute pauses the match, raises a task for the tournament organizers, and opens the discussion thread. The player who entered the result can correct it at any point before finalization — a correction clears the validations already collected and starts the round again. The discussion can also end the dispute on its own: a player who contested may accept the result afterwards, and once no dispute is left the match returns to a normal validation round.

Team formats

Every match opposes exactly two sides, A and B, each holding the same number of players — whatever the discipline and whatever the team size. What changes is who fills those two sides: championships and brackets pick one of two team modes, and a side can be a single player.

Solo — team size 1 on both sides, so a plain 1v1. Not a separate mode, just the smallest team size.
Flex — teammates are grouped per match, so rosters can shuffle from one game to the next. Ideal for a group where whoever shows up plays together.
Static — a fixed roster carries the same lineup across the whole event, and standings track the team rather than reshuffling every round.

Team size is yours to set with a minimum and maximum, so the same platform covers 1v1 chess, 2v2 foosball, and 5v5 five-a-side.

On the roadmap: N-way matches — 1v1v1, 2v2v2 and other multi-side formats — are planned, but aren’t part of a release yet.

Static team rosters

For events where teams stay together, Skol Arena manages a static roster: add and remove members, keep a stable identity across every match, and let standings track the team rather than reshuffling per round.