Frequently Asked Questions

I need to create a single (double) elimination tournament bracket? Will this plugin help?
No. Tournament brackets are supported in the MSTW Bracket Builder plugin .

Can I add non-league games to a team’s schedule?
Yes. First, let’s reset the challenge. The plugin was written for leagues, league standings, and league schedules. (duh!) For something like the NFL, there are no “non-league games”, so one can just set up a hierarchy of leagues and divisions, NFL -> NFC -> NFC West, and good to go. In high school and college, there are a lot of non-league games. When you try to add a game, the plugin asks for the league, and only shows the teams in that league to be the home and visiting teams for the game. For example, in 2016 Cal plays Hawaii, SDSU, and Texas, three teams that are not in the Pac-12. So here’s step-by-step of what to do:

  1. Create the non-league teams (and their home venues).
  2. Add non-league games to a LEAGUE and SEASONS using the ADD GAMES screen. On that screen there is a “Non-league’ checkbox for each game. Check it for the non-league games.
  3. By default the league schedule tables and galleries only show league games. Add the argument show_nonleague=1 to the shortcode(s). There is no control on the plugin’s Settings screen to do this. Note that by default the individual team schedules show non-league games, and you can’t change that.

An example can be see on the MSTW Dev Site.

Yes, I know how to create non-league games, but now when I check the non-league box for a game on Manage Games or Add Games screen only a few of my teams appear. This wasn’t a problem before release 2.6. What’s going on?
Some sites have MANY teams listed, sometimes most of the teams in a state. So for them the dropdown list for a non-league game was VERY long and cumbersome. In release 2.6 only the teams playing the same sport as the league for which a game is being added or changed appear in the dropdown for non-league games. That seems to make sense. Unfortunately, leagues, not teams, are associated with a sport, and some users created their large list of teams without bothering to put them in leagues, which also makes sense. [Typically, these teams are playing teams in leagues the site is tracking, but the site does not display standings or schedules for these teams or their leagues.] But if such teams are not in a league, they have no sport associated with them, and don’t appear in any non-league dropdown. So what should one do? The best answer is create a “pseudo-leagues” called something like “football-general”, “girls-basketball-general”, etc. Teams in those leagues will appear in the appropriate (same sport) non-league dropdown lists. Note that a team can be in multiple leagues, and serve the purpose of a school. So for example, Podunk High has football, girls basketball, and boys-soccer, there is no need to create three Podunk High teams, just create one and put it in the “football-general”, “girls-baskeball-general”, and “boys-soccer” leagues. (If Pudunk High’s mascot is the Bulldogs, and the girls teams are the “Lady Dawgs”, then in order to display the different mascots you will need to create two teams. You could also leverage the Schools database in the LM Addons.)

How do I display multiple leagues in a standings or schedule table (or gallery)?
There is one step and one gotcha. First, simply add multiple league slugs separated by commas to the league argument. For example,

&sqlb;mstw_league_schedule league="pac-12-north,pac-12-south" season=2015&sqrb;

That’s it, but now the gotcha. All the leagues must have the same season slug. You cannot enter multiple season slugs, and expect the shortcode to figure it out. If the leagues do not have the same season (slug), you will only see the league with the season you specify. An example can be see on the MSTW Dev Site.

I don’t like the way you calculate points. Can I change it?
Yes. See this man page.

I don’t like the way you calculate win percentage. Can I change it?
Yes. See this man page.

My favorite sport (TiddlyWinks) is not in the list of sports; what can I do?
The list of sports may be extended using the mstw_lm_sports_list filter. The default sport names are ready for translation via the standard WordPress methods. So you could also pick a sport you’ll never use and “translate” its name to your favorite.

My site is on Mars, and our standard date & time formats are not on your lists; what can I do?
The list of date formats may be extended using the mstw_lm_date_formats filter. The list of time formats may be extended using the mstw_lm_time_formats filter.

On Mars we also use a unique abbreviation for “To Be Announced”; what can I do?
The list of “To Be Announced” abbreviations may be extended using the mstw_lm_tbd_list filter. All the abbreviations in the default list are translation ready, so another option is to translate them into Martian. (I do not know the country code for Mars.)

Multiple sliders (or tickers) display on my page, but their controls are messed up. The arrows on one slider control that slider and others. What’s going on?
The JavaScript that controls the league sliders uses the FIRST LEAGUE SLUG in the shortcode arguments to identify the sliders. So if you have multiple sliders on the same page, each shortcode must have a different league slug. For example, if

[mstw_league_slider league=”pac-12,big-10,sec” ] and [mstw_league_slider league=”big-10,pac-12,sec” ]

appear on the same page, everything works fine. But if

[mstw_league_slider league=”pac-12,big-10,sec” ] and [mstw_league_slider league=”pac-12,sec,big-10,” ]

are on the same page, the controls will not work correctly. TICKERS use the same logic.

I tried to display two multi-standings tables on the same page, and my controls seem to be linked together somehow. What’s up?
Only one instance of the multi-standings table shortcode can be used on a page, or you will see “unexpected” results when using the controls.

I tried to display two multi-schedule tables on the same page, and my controls seem to be linked together somehow. What’s up?
Only one instance of the multi-schedule table shortcode can be used on a page, or you will see “unexpected” results when using the controls.

I tried to display a multi-schedule table and a multi-standings table on the same page, and they seem to be broken. What’s up?
Same answer as above. The Javascript that supports the controls gets ‘confused’ if there is more than one shortcode on a page.

I installed the MSTW League Manager Addons plugin. Now my Edit Teams screen does not work correctly? What am I doing wrong?
Check that the MSTW League Manager plugin and the MSTW League Manager plugin have identical versions. If not, upgrade both to the latest version.