Setting Up Division Rules
Divisions are configured per event in the Tournament Manager, after the wizard creates your event types. Taikai App gives you two complementary tools: the Division Tree Builder for designing the structure visually, and Division Rules for the thresholds that keep divisions viable — minimum sizes, caps, and merge behavior.
The Division Tree Builder
Open your event in the Tournament Manager and launch the Division Tree Builder. It's a full-screen, left-to-right grid: each column splits the competitor pool by one criterion, and every path through the tree becomes a division. A typical kumite tree splits by gender, then age range, then rank, then weight class — producing divisions like "Male · 12–13 · Intermediate · -45kg" automatically.
There are no fixed presets to fight against: you decide the age boundaries, the belt groupings, and the weight classes, so the same builder handles an AAU-style structure, a WKF-style structure, or a simple intra-dojo split with equal ease.
Split criteria
| Criterion | Notes |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male / Female split. |
| Age Range | Numeric ranges you define, e.g. 8–9, 10–11, 12–13. |
| Rank / Belt | From/to belt ranges, e.g. White–Yellow or Brown–Black. |
| Weight Class | Min/max ranges with a kg ↔ lbs unit toggle. |
| Experience | Ranges of years training, an alternative to belt-based splits. |
| Custom | Your own labels for anything the standard criteria don't cover. |
As you edit ranges, the builder checks sibling divisions for overlapping values and warns you — see Overlap detection.
Division rules
Rules handle the reality that registration numbers never match the plan. Each rule you create in the Division Rules editor specifies:
- Who it applies to — a gender filter plus age, rank, and weight ranges.
- Minimum competitors — below this, the division is merged rather than run with one or two entries.
- Maximum competitors — a hard cap, or no limit, with a split-by criterion (age, rank, weight, or gender) for when it overflows.
- Merge direction — whether an undersized division merges up, down, or to the nearest neighbor, and whether merging must stay within the same gender.
- Merge priority — a reorderable list that resolves conflicts when several rules could apply.
Saved rules are listed per event, where you can edit, delete, and reorder them, or trigger Run Reassignment… to apply them to the current roster with a preview of every proposed move.
Copying rules to other events
Built the perfect ruleset for Kumite? Use Copy to other events to duplicate the entire ruleset onto Kata or any other event, then tweak the differences instead of rebuilding from scratch.
How age is calculated
Age is computed as of the tournament date, from each competitor's date of birth. A competitor who turns 12 the week before your event competes as a 12-year-old, regardless of when they registered.