Four Tournament Manager databases from the 2025–26 regional season, read match by match. What each event booked as its cycle time, what it actually ran, and which minute of every cycle is the one worth arguing about.
Events read
4 databases
Matches timed
241
Season window
27 Jul – 30 Aug 2026
Programs
VIQRC & V5RC
01
The four events that ran
Median cycle is the gap between consecutive match starts across the whole field set — the number that actually sets when the day ends. Sparkline shows every qualification cycle in running order against the booked cycle (hairline).
02
Running against the clock
Actual start minus projected start, qualification match by qualification match. Above the line is behind schedule; below it is ahead. Both IQ events clawed back a late start and finished early; both V5 events spiked mid‑morning and spent the rest of the day recovering.
Schedule drift through qualifications
minutes behind (+) / ahead (−) projected match time
03
Every cycle, in order
One dot per qualification match. The horizontal rule is the booked cycle from the TM schedule block; the heavier rule is the event’s median. Scheduled breaks — lunch, alliance selection — are marked and excluded from every statistic.
04
Where the cycle goes
Split of the median cycle into the part TM can account for — match start through score committed — and the dead time before the next match starts. On a two‑field set the dead time is shared between fields, so it should be far smaller than a single‑field event’s. At Shore V5 it was not.
Median cycle composition, qualifications
match start → score committed, then dead time to next start · marker shows booked cycle
Match → score committedDead time to next start
05
What to change
Book VEX IQ at 2:30, not 3:00
Both IQ events ran a median cycle of 2:14–2:21 against a 3:00 booking — roughly three quarters of the time allowed. Knox started 11:45 late and still finished its 59 quals 5:36 ahead of projection; Shore finished 4:52 ahead. The p90 sits at 3:48–4:23, so a 2:30 booking absorbs the ordinary bad cycle and TM simply pushes the tail out when it doesn’t.
On a 60‑match qualification block that is half an hour off the published day — enough to pull the finish forward, or to seat two more matches per team.
−30 minper 60‑match IQ block
Scoring at Shore V5 cost about 36 minutes
A V5 match is fixed at 2:00 of play — 15 s autonomous, 105 s driver control, per the event’s own match_time_schedules. Shore took a median 3:54 from match start to score committed; Kings took 3:00. That is ~54 s per match spent between the buzzer and the commit, across 40 quals.
Shore’s tail is worse than its median: a 9:56 worst commit against Kings’ typical 3:26 p90. Score disputes and re‑entries, not play, set that number.
36 minrecoverable at Shore V5
V5 elimination rounds run slower than quals
Shore’s elimination bracket cycled at a median 8:23 against its 6:38 qualification pace — with the quarterfinals the worst at 8:48. Kings held 6:39. Alliance changeovers, field resets between bracket rounds and award breaks all land here, and the published schedule generally assumes elims are faster than quals.
Budget elims at qualification pace plus 25% for V5. Shore IQ’s 11 finals matches at 2:08 were the one block that beat its own qual pace.
8:23Shore V5 elim median
06
Every number
All durations in minutes:seconds. Cycle statistics are computed over gaps between consecutive match starts within the field set, breaks excluded.
Qualification cycle time by event
Per-field cycle — the gap between one field’s own consecutive matches
Elimination rounds
Sources
Knox IQ — BACKUP_RE-VIQRC-26-4508
Shore IQ — BACKUP_RE-VIQRC-26-4633
Shore V5 — shore v5 final.db
Kings V5 — TKS 30aug.db
How each metric is built
Cycle — actual_time of a match minus actual_time of the previous match, ordered by actual start across the whole field set.
Match → score committed — saved_time minus actual_time.
Drift — actual_time minus projected_time, in match number order.
Exclusions
Gaps over 25 minutes are treated as scheduled breaks and dropped from cycle statistics; each is marked on the facet charts and listed in the table.
Rows where saved_time < actual_time (a match re-opened after scoring) are dropped entirely: Knox qual 16 and Shore V5 qual 5.
A fifth database was read and set aside: Tamworth V5, 1 Jul, 20 quals scheduled for 7 teams with state = 0 throughout — no match was ever run from it, so it has no cycle time to report.
Practice matches and skills runs are not included; skills fields run on their own field set.