Admin Manual

01Initial Setup

Not on your server yet? ➕ Add CLUTCH to your server (requires Manage Server). Once the bot is in, configure a few things before your first tournament.

Set an announcement channel

/admin set-announcement-channel channel:#tournaments

This is where the bot posts tournament embeds (the signup message with buttons). If you skip this, the bot auto-creates a #tournament-announcements channel.

Set a match room category

/admin set-match-category category:Tournament Matches

When a tournament starts, the bot creates text channels for each match under this category. If you skip this, it creates one automatically.

Add tournament admin roles

/admin set-role action:Add role role:@Tournament Manager

By default, only users with Administrator or Manage Server permission can create and manage tournaments. Add a role here to let community managers run tournaments without those permissions. Up to 3 roles.

Verify your settings

/admin settings

Shows your current configuration at a glance.

02Creating a Tournament

There are two creation modes: Simple and Advanced.

Simple Mode

/tournament create

1. A dropdown appears with the supported games (CS2, VALORANT, League of Legends, Rocket League, etc.). Pick one, or choose "Other Game" for anything custom.
2. A form pops up asking for Tournament Title, Date & Time (natural language works: March 10 8pm EST, tomorrow 7pm UTC), and Max Players/Teams (2–512).
3. Hit submit and the tournament is live with a signup embed in your announcement channel.

Simple mode uses the game's default settings (format, team size, and best-of — e.g. Bo3 for CS2, Bo5 for Rocket League — with no check-in).

One tournament = one channel

/tournament create channel:#cs2-eu

Both create commands take an optional channel: — the tournament announces there and all of its posts (start, check-in, round news, DQ notices, final results) follow it. Ideal for per-region events of the same game: create one with channel:#cs2-eu and another with channel:#cs2-na. Without it, the per-game override (/admin set-announcement-channel game:) or server default applies. The web dashboard's create form has the same channel picker.

Advanced Mode

/tournament create-advanced

Same game picker, but after the basic info form you get a settings screen with dropdowns and toggles:

Click More Options for check-in window (5–120 min), required roles Pro, and — for single elimination — a 3rd Place Match toggle (semifinal losers play it out instead of sharing third).

03Tournament Lifecycle

Registration

The bot posts a signup embed with Sign Up (or Register Team) and Withdraw buttons. Players click to join. The participant count updates in real-time. DM reminders are sent 24 hours and 1 hour before start.

Check-in (if enabled)

Check-in opens automatically before start time (based on your configured check-in window). Players tap Check In — and tapping again cancels it. Signups stay open through the window too (unless you've set a separate signup deadline, below), and anyone who signs up during check-in is checked in automatically. You keep the Start Tournament button available the whole time. Players who don't check in are removed when the tournament starts.

The check-in window (or turning check-in off entirely) can be changed after creation with /tournament edit or from the web dashboard's edit card.

Checking someone in manually

A player is standing right there but their button won't work (broken client, wrong account, closed DMs)? While check-in is open, admins can override it:

/tournament check-in tournament:Friday Night Fights participant:PlayerA

Add checked_in: False to undo one instead. For team events this checks the whole team in (or out) at once. The same control lives in the web dashboard: open the tournament's Entrants tab during check-in — every entrant shows ✓ in or ⏳ waiting with a Check in / Undo check-in button.

Closing signups before start

By default signups stay open right up to the start (and through check-in). If you need a quiet window between the field locking and the first match — most commonly to seed the bracket — set an optional Signups close time in the web dashboard's edit card — or in Discord:

/tournament signup-close tournament:Friday Night Fights time:Jul 20 18:00 UTC

time also accepts now (close on the spot — the moment to do it when you're ready to seed) and off (remove the deadline, signups open until start). When the deadline passes, the bot announces it in the channel, the Sign Up button disappears and the embed shows Signups close: Closed. Withdrawals stay possible, and admins can still add latecomers with /tournament add-player / add-team.

Bulk add players (spreadsheet paste)

Bringing a whole qualified field over — say the players who made it through a GOALS qualifier? On the dashboard's Entrants tab, open 📥 Bulk add players and paste one player per line: Discord username or ID, then the tournament's signup fields (for GOALS that's GOALS Username and GOALS User ID, validated exactly like a real signup), then an optional seed. Columns can be separated by tabs — so you can copy straight out of Excel or Google Sheets — or by semicolons or commas. Everyone is matched against your server's member list (use the Discord user ID when a name is ambiguous), added as if they signed up, and you can tick Check everyone in too to mark the whole import present. Lines that can't be imported are listed with the reason — fix those lines and paste just them again; already-added players are skipped, never duplicated.

More signups than the bracket holds Studio

Brackets top out at 512, but for qualifier-style events you can let up to 2048 sign up (and check in): set a Signup cap above the bracket size in the web dashboard's edit card or create form, or in Discord with /tournament signup-cap (cap:0 turns it off). The announcement then reads “900 signed up · 512 spots” instead of a fraction, with a note that who plays is decided at start by seeding and check-in — signup confirmations and the check-in post repeat it once signups pass the spot count, so late signups know exactly where they stand. When the tournament starts, the spots are filled automatically:

1. Seeded entrants first, in seed order — your explicit picks always get a spot (this is where CSV seeding shines: export everyone, pick and seed your lineup in the sheet, import back);
2. then checked-in entrants by signup time;
3. then everyone else by signup time, until the bracket is full.

The start summary shows how many signups didn't get a spot. Clearing the Signup cap turns overflow off again (signups stop at the bracket size as usual).

The same mechanic works in reverse: you can lower Max entrants below the current signup count (say a 512 tournament you decide to run as a 64 bracket) — from the edit card or /tournament edit, while signups are open or closed, any time before start. Nobody is removed when you save; the spots are decided at start exactly as above, and the announcement switches to the “200 signed up · 64 spots” display. Further signups stop once the count is at the new size (unless a Signup cap keeps them open).

Starting

When the scheduled time arrives, the bot posts a message saying the tournament is ready. Start it with:

/tournament start tournament:Friday Night Fights

Or click the Start Tournament button that appears in the channel.

Active

Matches are played. Results are reported via buttons in match rooms or slash commands. The bracket advances automatically and new match room channels are created for each round.

Completed

After the final match, the bot announces results with a podium (champion, runner-up, 3rd place). If auto-cleanup or rolling auto-archive is on, the remaining match rooms are cleaned up shortly after — their chat history is saved first.

Cancelling

/tournament cancel tournament:Friday Night Fights

Cancels immediately. Scheduled reminders are also cancelled.

04Reporting Results

From match room channels

When a tournament starts, each match gets its own text channel (e.g. #match-1-player-a-vs-player-b). Inside, there are Player A Wins and Player B Wins buttons. Any admin can click to report the result. The bracket advances automatically.

From slash commands

/tournament report tournament:Friday Night Fights match_number:1 winner:PlayerA score:2-1

The score parameter is optional but useful for record-keeping. The winner field autocompletes with participants in that match.

Viewing the bracket

/tournament bracket tournament:Friday Night Fights

Or click the View Bracket button on the tournament embed.

BRBattle Royale

Battle Royale events (PUBG, PUBG Mobile, Apex Legends, Warzone — or any game via Custom + the Battle Royale format) work differently from brackets: everyone plays in shared lobbies, teams earn points per game, and the highest total wins. Scoring is built into the game preset — picking PUBG is picking SUPER scoring, Apex is ALGS, Warzone is kill × placement multiplier. You never configure a scoring table.

Creating

Exactly like any tournament: /tournament create, pick a BR game, fill in title / date / size. Lobby size, games per stage and scoring come from the preset; /tournament create-advanced → More Options lets you change them (one dropdown each).

Single lobby vs. groups

If signups fit one lobby (e.g. 18 squads, lobby size 20) the whole event is one lobby playing N games — done. If signups exceed the lobby size, the bot splits entrants into groups (Group A, B, …), each plays its games, and the top N per group advance to a Grand Finals lobby. N defaults to exactly filling one finals lobby; change it under More Options (Advance/group button). The live standings page shows the cutline.

Reporting — tap, never type

Each lobby room gets a standings board with a button per game. After a game, any admin taps 🎮 Game N and picks the teams in finish order — Who placed 1st? 2nd? … Report at least the places that score points (the picker tells you how many — e.g. top 8 for SUPER, top 15 for ALGS); anyone unplaced scores 0 placement points. If the scoring counts kills, a tap-only kills step follows before the result is saved (pick team → pick count — optional but they score).

Made a mistake? Tap the reported game again — the same flow re-runs as a correction. Group results can be corrected until the Grand Finals have a reported game.

The web dashboard has the same grid with per-team kill boxes — fastest for full-lobby results with kills.

Players see

Nothing new: the same signup button, one lobby channel with the in-game slot list, and live standings on the tournament's web page (points, kills, wins, advancement cutline).

05Team Tournaments

When you create a tournament with a team size of 2 or more, the signup flow changes:

1. Players click Register Team on the tournament embed.
2. A form asks for Team Name and Team Members (one username per line, count must match team size minus the captain).
3. The person who registers becomes the team captain.

Captain commands

All team commands only work during the registration phase.

Captain Mode Pro

Normally, all team members must be in the server at signup. With Captain Mode enabled, the captain just types names — members don't need to be in the server yet. The bot resolves names to server members immediately when it can (those members are DMed right away); unmatched names show as (pending) on the signup list and are resolved — and DMed — when the tournament starts. Great for cross-server communities.

06Seeding Pro

Seeding must be enabled for the tournament — toggle it on in Advanced Mode at creation, or turn it on later from the web dashboard's Seeding tab.

/tournament seed set tournament:Friday Night Fights participant:PlayerA seed:1

Seeding affects bracket placement — seed 1 plays the lowest seed in round 1, and so on.

From the web dashboard

Open a tournament in the dashboard before it starts and pick the Seeding tab. Type a seed next to each entrant, or use 🎲 Randomize / Clear all, then Save seeds. Duplicate or out-of-range seeds are rejected. If seeding wasn't enabled at creation, an Enable seeding button turns it on right there.

Group Stage Pro

Pick the Group Stage format at creation (web or advanced mode) and set the group size (e.g. 4), what happens after the groups — single-elim playoffs, double-elim playoffs, or no playoffs (the tables decide) — and how many advance per group (e.g. top 2). Players are placed into groups by snake seeding (seed 1 → Group A, 2 → B, … then back), each group plays a round robin with normal match rooms and reporting, and the live bracket page shows every group table.

When all group matches are reported, admins start the playoffs — the dashboard's Groups tab has the button, or /tournament start-playoffs. For the classic top-2 shape, standard seeding follows the cross template: each group winner opens against the runner-up of the group at the opposite end (A1 vs H2, B1 vs G2, …), and a group's two qualifiers are placed in opposite halves — so a same-group rematch can only happen in the final. Built the playoffs and changed your mind about the order? While no playoff result has been reported, the Groups tab offers ↩️ Rebuild playoffs: it tears the bracket down (archiving any playoff rooms), reopens seeding, and you start again. Want your own order? The Seeding tab stays open between groups and playoffs: give the qualifiers seeds 1..N (CSV import works too) and press Start with custom seeds. Group results lock once the playoffs begin.

Hold rooms, end early, change the playoff plan

Three run-time controls for events that don't follow the standard script:

• ⏸ Hold new rooms (Run view top bar): results keep landing and the bracket keeps advancing, but no new match rooms open — nobody gets summoned to a match you don't intend to play yet. Release with 🚪 Open match rooms. Handy for multi-day events or formats that stop after a certain round.
• 🏁 End tournament: closes an active event as Completed without playing the rest of the bracket — reporting locks, rooms archive per your cleanup settings, no champion is announced, and corrections stay possible. Use it when the played matches WERE the point (e.g. a qualification round whose winners simply advance). An unplayed event should be cancelled instead.
• Playoff format (Groups tab): for Group Stage events you can change what happens after the groups — single elim, double elim, or none — and how many advance per group, any time before the playoff bracket is built.

Custom bracket link Studio

Every public bracket lives at an unguessable /b/<id> URL. Want something you can put on a poster — like tournaments.clutch.game/b/goals-asia-qualifiers? In the dashboard's Run view, the 🔗 Custom link card lets you set a slug (lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens). Links are first-come-first-served across all servers, and every old link keeps working: the original id URL and any custom link you replace permanently redirect (301) to the current one, so nothing already shared ever breaks. New announcements and DMs use the custom link automatically. Group-stage pages also have shareable per-stage URLs — ?stage=groups and ?stage=playoffs open the right tab directly.

Publish the bracket first, open rooms later

Want everyone to see the bracket or the groups before play begins — say, matchups revealed the day before? Start with rooms held back: the dashboard's 📋 Publish bracket only button, or /tournament start open_rooms:False. The field locks, the full bracket appears on the live page and in the announcement, and bye players get their DMs — but no match rooms are created and nothing can be played. When it's time, press 🚪 Open match rooms (or run /tournament create-rooms): the rooms are created and players get pinged in the tournament channel. The same choice exists for Group Stage playoffs — untick Open match rooms right away next to the Start playoffs button, or use /tournament start-playoffs open_rooms:False.

Seeding from a spreadsheet Studio

For big fields, do the seeding in Excel or Google Sheets instead of typing into the form:

1. ⬇ Export CSV downloads every entrant with their signup info — name, ID, check-in status and all signup fields, including private ones like a game User ID (this is the admin view). It doubles as a general participant export.
2. Open the file in Excel or Google Sheets, sort it however helps (by rank, say), and fill in the Seed column — 1 is the top seed. Only the numbers matter, not the row order. Leave a seed blank to keep that entrant unseeded, and don't edit the ID column — it's how rows are matched back (if an ID does get mangled, the import falls back to the exact name).
3. Save/download as CSV and hit ⬆ Import CSV. The file only fills in the seed fields on screen and reports anything it couldn't match — nothing is saved until you review and hit Save seeds. Comma-, semicolon- and tab-separated files all work, so Excel's regional CSV flavors are fine.

07Server Settings

Per-game announcement channels

Each game can announce its tournaments in its own channel. The game: parameter is optional — it appears in the option list after you pick the channel:

/admin set-announcement-channel channel:#cs2-tournaments game:Counter-Strike 2

Games without an override keep using the server default channel. Current overrides are listed in /admin settings.

CHChannels, Capacity & Archiving

Every match gets its own private room — great for players, but Discord caps servers at 500 channels. A 512-player double-elimination needs 256 rooms for round 1 alone, so big events need a plan. The bot handles this for you:

Capacity checks & warnings

• Before start: if the first round's rooms don't fit, the start is blocked with exact numbers ("needs 256 rooms, 117 slots free") and the fixes.
• Mid-event: if the server fills up, the bot stops cleanly, posts one clear notice in the tournament channel, and shows a capacity banner on the web dashboard. Matches without a room can still be reported normally.
• The dashboard's Run view shows a channel meter whenever usage passes 400.

Archiving — free capacity, keep the history

Three ways to archive, all of which save the room's full chat history before deleting the channel:

• Per room: after every reported result, the room posts a 🗄️ Archive room button (admins only) — one tap closes that room.
• Per match on the web: the dashboard's decided list has a 🗄 action on any match whose room is still open.
• Whole tournament: /admin cleanup mode:archive sweeps every remaining room at once.

Safety guarantee: a room is only ever deleted once its history has been safely stored — if saving fails, the channel is left untouched and the failure is reported.

History lives in two places:

• Web dashboard — every decided match gets a 📜 transcript link (authors, timestamps, attachments). Browsable during the event and forever after.
• #match-logs — an auto-created, admin-only Discord channel that receives each transcript as an HTML file. Toggle with /admin set-match-logs.

Auto-cleanup on completion supports the same modes: archive (recommended), delete (no history), and category (legacy move — note it does not free the 500-channel cap).

Rolling auto-archive Pro

/admin set-auto-archive minutes:10

Closes each match room X minutes after its result is reported (history saved first). The room posts a notice with two buttons:

• ⚠️ Contest result — players of that match can pause the countdown and alert the admins. The match is flagged on the dashboard; settle it with /tournament correct or the dashboard's Confirm button.
• 🗄️ Close now — admins can archive immediately.

With rolling auto-archive on, a server only ever holds rooms for matches actually being played — which is what makes multiple 512-player events on one server possible. A per-tournament override lives in /tournament create-advanced → More Options.

08Debug & Testing Tools

These add fake participants so you can test the full tournament flow without needing real players. Pick the tournament from the autocomplete list (it shows tournaments still in registration, check-in, or running), then set how many to add — the bot fills up to the tournament's max size.

Solo vs. team is decided by the tournament's team size — use add-test-players for 1v1 events and add-test-teams for team events (the bot tells you if you pick the wrong one). Fake entrants never receive DMs and are skipped by check-in.

09Templates Pro

Save tournament configurations for reuse. Handy for weekly recurring events.

Save from an existing tournament

/templates save tournament:Friday Night Fights name:FNF Standard description:Our weekly 1v1 bracket

Captures all settings: game, format, team size, best-of, check-in, max participants, and more.

Up to 25 templates per server.

10Subscription Management

11Web Dashboard

Run tournaments from the browser: sign in with Discord at tournaments.clutch.game/admin and every server where you can manage tournaments shows up. The dashboard mirrors the whole Discord admin toolset — everything you do there posts to Discord exactly as if you'd used the commands (announcements, match rooms, DMs).

Who can sign in

Anyone can sign in, but you only see servers where the bot is installed and you're the owner, have Administrator or Manage Server, or hold a tournament-admin role (/admin set-role) — the same permission check as in Discord. Every state-changing action re-verifies your rights live, so revoked admins lose access immediately.

What you can do

Battle Royale results work here too — the Run view has the same tap-to-report grid with per-team kill boxes (in Discord, tap the 🎮 Game buttons on the lobby standings board). Sessions last 7 days; use Log out (top right) to end one sooner.

12Command Reference

Tournament Management

Server Settings

Debug Tools

Player Commands

Subscription

Templates Pro

13Supported Games

The bot includes presets with optimized defaults for 19 games, organized by category:

Choose Custom to run a tournament for any game not on the list.

14Tier Comparison

During the launch period, tournament count / entrant / concurrency limits are not yet enforced — feature access follows the table above. Studio is our partner plan for game studios and esports orgs: get in touch.

Run /admin help in Discord for a quick in-server reference, or /help for the player-facing guide.