Before we start  using the software we should have a basic idea what power pairing is and how it works. Knowing that will help us understand what is happening and dealing with possible anomalies. 

 

Basic idea of power pairing is having teams with the same record debating each other. There are many arguments why such a system is the best. Let’s just take a look on the most important ones. Form the educational standpoint it is believed that you will learn most when debating against somebody that is roughly same skill that you. In case a very good team would meet a bad one there would be little to gain for both teams. Good team would have an easy job winning and not learning a lot, bad one on the other hand would see a debating which is not on their level and this would probably cause more harm than good for this team.  If we go to the tournament it would we unfair that one team would constantly get teams that are much better or worse than them. Both this problems are best solved with using power pairing system. 

 

We can divide power pairing to two categories. First one is the high – low and other is high – high. Both systems work in brackets. In high – low system top team in the bracket would debate bottom team in the same bracket.  In case of high – high power pairing top bracket team would debate each other.  For me high – low system is best compromise since it assures similar skill teams meeting and at the same time makes sure that very best teams do not bump each other off and it gives you (arguable) the best break possible. 

 

Let’s take a look on examples. Firstly we need some teams and their records (we only have one judge per round in this example):

 

 

In case that we have no restrictions regarding teams e.g. all teams can debate each other high – low power pairing would look like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In case that we have no restrictions regarding teams e.g. all teams can debate each other high – low power pairing would look like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is of course a perfect example. In reality it is very unlikely that such a perfect situation would happen. For example: team E is quite likely to have more speaker points than team D but note that this would not change power pairing since it works in bracket and number of wins is first criteria by which teams are put in brackets.

 

Next situation that can happen to you is that teams that should debate against each other would be restricted to debate each other (for example: be from the same school or debated each other before in the tournament (TRPC will not allow them to meet again)). In this case we look for option that would do the least harm to power pairing. If for example Team A and Team D would not be allowed to debate each other high – low power pairing would look like this: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we understand the basic idea of power paring we also need to note that in reality there are additional restriction that we need to take into account. TRPC automatically takes all this restrictions into account when paring rounds. The first one is side distribution. In odd rounds teams are on random side and in following even round teams will be on the opposite side than they were in previous  one. This ensures that teams debate equal times on government and opposition. Secondly you can not meet same team twice and you can not meet team from the same school that you are (this will be more in details explained later).