Tournaments

PRO - Requires MediaVerse Pro. This feature is not in the free plugin.

Enter a single-elimination bracket competition - submit your best photo, survive each round of community voting, and claim the championship title.

What You Can Do (as a User)

• Register for an open tournament
• Submit a photo for each of your matches
• Vote in other members’ matches - any member can vote (except in their own match)
• Track your bracket position round by round
• Earn points for every match you win and a larger prize if you win the tournament

How It Works (for Users)

Registering

1. Go to /media/tournaments/ on your site
2. Open a tournament that shows Registration Open and click Register for this tournament
3. You see “You’re registered. Photos open when the bracket generates.”
4. Once registration closes, the bracket is generated automatically. A tournament needs at least 2 registered players to start

You do not pick a photo when you register. You submit a photo for each match.

Playing Your Matches

1. When the bracket is generated, open the tournament and find your match
2. Click Submit Your Photo, choose one of your photos, and click Submit Photo
3. When both players have submitted, the match opens for voting

Following the Bracket

1. Open the tournament detail page to see the full bracket, round by round
2. Each match shows its status: Awaiting Start, Submissions Open, Voting Open or Match Complete. A bye shows Automatic Advance
3. Each matchup shows two photos side by side
4. Click Vote on the photo you think should advance - you get one vote per match
5. You cannot vote in a match where you are a player
6. When all matches in a round are resolved, the next round opens automatically

What Happens If You Win or Lose

• Win a match: You advance to the next round and earn the Round Win points
• Lose a match: You are eliminated but keep any points already earned
• Win the tournament: You earn the Champion points and are shown as the champion

There is no separate prize for the runner-up.

For Site Owners

1. Go to MediaVerse > Settings > Competitions, tick Competitions, then enable Tournaments
2. Go to MediaVerse > Competitions > Tournaments and click Create Tournament
3. Set the title, bracket size (4, 8, 16, 32, or 64 participants), registration window, and round duration
4. Set point rewards for each round win and for the champion
5. Save - the tournament appears on the frontend when registration opens
6. The bracket generates automatically when registration closes

Bracket Sizes

Supported sizes: 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 participants.

If registrations do not fill the bracket exactly, the empty places become byes. A player who meets a bye advances to the next round without a match.

Seeding is random at bracket generation time.

Lifecycle

Stage	Description
Registration Open	Tournament is open - members can register
In Progress	Registration closed - bracket generated, rounds underway
Completed	Champion determined, points awarded
Cancelled	An admin cancelled the tournament

The system generates the bracket when the registration deadline passes (a recurring job that runs about every 5 minutes), or when an admin clicks Start Now. A new round begins after all matches in the current round are resolved.

Creating a Tournament

Go to MediaVerse > Competitions > Tournaments and click Create Tournament. You can start from a preset.

Field	Description
Title	Tournament name displayed to users
Description	Optional text
Bracket Size	Maximum participants: 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64. Cannot be changed after creation
Registration Start	Date and time members can start registering
Registration End	Deadline for registrations - the bracket generates after this
Round Duration (hours)	Default 48. Players get this long to submit a photo in each match, and then the same length of time again for voting
Point Rewards: Round Win	Points awarded each time a player wins a match (default 150)
Point Rewards: Champion	Points awarded to the tournament winner (default 500)

Settings Reference

Setting	Key	Default
Tournaments	mvs_tournaments_enabled	Off

REST API

Base URL: /wp-json/mvs-pro/v1/tournaments

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/tournaments	Create a tournament. Requires the manage_mvs_settings capability.
GET	/tournaments	List tournaments (optional status, page, per_page)
GET	/tournaments/{id}	Get tournament details, stage, and participant count
POST	/tournaments/{id}/register	Register for a tournament. No body is needed
DELETE	/tournaments/{id}/register	Withdraw your registration, before the tournament starts
GET	/tournaments/{id}/participants	List registered participants
GET	/tournaments/{id}/bracket	Get the full bracket structure with all matches and results
POST	/tournaments/{id}/matches/{match_id}/submit	Submit your photo (media_id) for your match
POST	/tournaments/{id}/matches/{match_id}/vote	Cast a vote in a match (voted_for_id, the user ID of the player)

POST /tournaments/{id}/register

Returns an error if registration has not started or has closed, if the bracket is full, or if you are already registered.

GET /tournaments/{id}/bracket

Returns the full bracket as a nested structure by round.

{
  "tournament_id": 12,
  "size": 16,
  "current_round": 2,
  "rounds": [
    {
      "round": 1,
      "matches": [
        {
          "match_id": 101,
          "entry_a": { "entry_id": 5, "media_id": 456, "user_id": 11, "votes": 14 },
          "entry_b": { "entry_id": 9, "media_id": 502, "user_id": 22, "votes": 8 },
          "winner_entry_id": 5,
          "status": "resolved"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

POST /tournaments/{id}/matches/{match_id}/vote

{
  "voted_for_id": 12
}

Returns 400 if the match is not in its voting phase. Returns 403 if you are one of the players in the match. You can vote once per match.

Frontend Behavior

The /media/tournaments/ page lists all tournaments with their current stage and participant count.

Clicking a tournament opens the detail page with the bracket visualization. Active matches show vote buttons directly inside the bracket.

• Registration stage - Shows Register for this tournament, how long registration stays open, and the player count relative to bracket size. A full tournament says registration is full
• In Progress - Shows the bracket with each match’s status and Submit Your Photo or Vote where they apply
• Completed - Shows the full bracket with the champion shown at the top

The Compete hub (/compete/) shows the tournaments you are in under My Activity, and open ones under Open Tournaments.

Bye Handling

When registrations do not fill the bracket exactly, byes are assigned before round 1 begins. A bye appears in the bracket as an automatic advance: the real player moves on and the opposing slot shows “BYE”.

A bracket with few players still finishes. When a later round has an odd number of winners, the last winner gets a bye into the next round.

Photos for tournament matches must be your own public, approved photos.

Scheduled Actions

Action Hook	Condition
mvs_start_registered_tournaments	Runs about every 5 minutes - generates brackets when registration deadline passes
mvs_resolve_expired_matches	Runs about every 5 minutes - resolves matches where the vote deadline has passed; advances winners to next round; detects when all matches in a round are resolved and opens the next round