Running Multiple Tatamis Simultaneously

Last updated October 2026  ·  7 min read

Multiple mats is how a 300-competitor tournament finishes before dinner. Taikai App treats each tatami as its own lane. Each one has its own division queue, its own operator scoreboard and its own display, while the Tournament Manager keeps the full picture.

Everything in this article lives in the Schedule section of the Tournament Manager, unless noted otherwise.

Setting up mats

Click Competition Mats at the top of the Schedule section, set the Number of Mats and click Update Mats. Schedule Settings holds the timing defaults (kumite match length, kata performance length, buffer between divisions) and a start time for each mat. These numbers drive every time estimate on the schedule.

Byes are treated as walkovers. They cost no mat time in the estimates and are hidden on the public brackets, so the projected end of each mat matches the bouts that will really be fought.

Assigning divisions to mats

The Timeline View tab shows one column per mat. To change it:

• 1
  Click Edit Schedule The edit tools appear: Auto-Schedule All, Clear All, Save Changes and Cancel.
• 2
  Drag divisions onto the mats Drag from the Unassigned Divisions card into a mat column, in the order the day should run. Start and end times are calculated for you.
• 3
  Click Save Changes Then click Publish Schedule when you want competitors and the public pages to see it.

Short on time? Auto-Schedule All spreads every unassigned division across your mats in one click, and you adjust from there. It also puts each division on its event's day, and when a kata and a kumite division share the same division code it places the kumite on the kata's tatami, so those competitors don't change mats.

Multi-day tournaments

When your tournament has more than one day, the Timeline View shows one tab per day. Each tab shows how many tatamis and divisions that day has.

• You choose the day. Every unassigned division is offered on every day tab. Dropping a division onto a tatami on a tab pins it to that day. For example, kids on Day 1 and adults on Day 2.
• Tatamis per day. Use Tatamis this day on each tab to run fewer mats on some days, for example 4 on Saturday and 6 on Sunday. A mat beyond that count still shows if it already has divisions that day, so nothing disappears.
• Judge assignments per day. The judge assignment form gets a Day picker (see Staffing each mat).

Breaks

Open Schedule Settings and use + Add Break under Schedule Breaks to block out an opening ceremony or lunch. Give it a name, a Stop Time and a Restart Time. The scheduler stops each mat before the break and resumes after it.

• Untick Apply to all mats to pause only some mats.
• On multi-day tournaments, untick Apply to all days and pick the days. A break on Day 1 only does not shift Day 2.

Who can change the schedule

Only the tournament director, or a staff member with the Register competitors permission (for example a co-director), can save the schedule. Everyone else sees it read-only. Live status updates from the mats (a division started, finished or skipped) still work for all approved staff.

If another device saves the schedule while you are editing, you get a warning that saving your edit will replace their changes. When nobody is editing, every open schedule, Live Control and Queue screen refreshes by itself.

Live Control and the mat picker

The Live Control (Active Matches) tab shows every mat at once: the division on the mat, its progress, what is up next and the projected end. Each mat has Open Scoreboard, Start Next Division, Pause and Skip. The Queue Management tab lets you reorder or remove upcoming divisions per mat.

Before anyone opens a mat, Live Control shows who is running it: "Free", "You operate it on this device", or the operator's name with how long they have held it. A mat whose device has gone quiet shows "no signal".

If you open a mat that someone else is operating, Taikai App asks first. You can:

• Cancel, and leave it alone.
• View (read-only), to watch the mat's TV board, the division's progress, the next bouts and the later divisions on that mat. This never takes the mat.
• Take control, to move the mat to your device. The other screen locks and stops sending results.

Operating a mat

Each mat's operator opens the scoreboard for their mat and works through its queue. Scoreboard state is kept separately per mat, so five mats can run five matches at once without touching each other.

The operator header shows which division should be next on that tatami according to the schedule. Opening a different division, or one from another day, asks for confirmation first. When the last division of the day on a mat is done, the board says the tatami is finished for that day and offers to go to the next day or back to the schedule.

If a division has a missing or damaged bracket, the board says so and offers Retry, View bracket, a button to skip to the next division on that tatami, and Back to divisions, so the operator is never stuck. The board only closes from its Close button, so a stray swipe or back gesture won't drop a live match.

Each mat also gets its own TV display and OBS overlay link, keyed by mat number.

Staffing each mat

Judges are seated in the Officials section under Mat Assignments. Click + Add Assignment, pick the official, the mat, the chair (Shushin or Judge 1 to 7) and, optionally, a time window with From and Until. On multi-day tournaments, the Day picker sets which day the seat is for, or Every day. The mat list always shows every mat in your tournament.

The director can always assign judges. Staff can too if they have the Assign judges permission, which is how a co-director seats the panels. Staff with View data can see who sits where without changing it.

Judges see their seat on the judge device and in the Taikai app's My Assignments screen (see Staff paging, chat and My Assignments). The dashboard tracks readiness with checks like "3 of 4 mats have judges assigned", so gaps show up before the first match.

Splitting a big division

If one division is too big for a single mat block, split it in the Divisions section:

• 1
  Click Edit Divisions, then Split on the division Split is offered on divisions with at least two competitors. Team events can't be split.
• 2
  Pick By age, By rank or By weight Click between two values to cut there, rename the groups, and check the preview of who lands in each group. Competitors missing that data are listed so nobody is left out by surprise.
• 3
  Click Split division, then generate brackets for the new groups An unstarted bracket for the old division is removed. A division whose bracket has started can't be split.

Late registrations go into the right group automatically. Undo split merges the groups back into one division.

Keeping mats coordinated

• Live results everywhere. Results recorded on any mat sync to the server right away, so the manager, brackets and standings stay current across the venue.
• Minimum hardware per mat. One operator device (laptop or tablet) and optionally one display device. Operators need only the Scoreboards permission, not full manager access.
• Watch the queues. If one mat falls behind, move divisions between mats; divisions whose brackets haven't started can move freely. The Staging screen shows who to call next on every mat.
• Updates never interrupt a match. When a new version of Taikai App is released during your event, scoreboards and TV screens wait for a safe moment, such as between matches, before updating. The operator sees an Update ready pill and can tap it when nothing is live.