Packet swap

Packet swap is a procedure in which tournaments increase the number of packets blind to participating teams by exchanging with a tournament run on a similar date in a different region. A packet swap is differentiated from a mirror by the presence of packets originally submitted by teams participating in the tournament. There are two main types of packet swap: the direct packet swap and the central editing packet swap.

Direct Packet Swap

In a direct packet swap, tournament sites edit their packets independently, then exchange edited packets. Direct packet swaps are largely disappearing because the central editing method produces fewer repeats, fewer avoidable variations in difficulty, and less work for everyone involved.

Central Editing Packet Swap

In a central editing packet swap, tournaments receive unedited packets from participating teams, then exchange these raw materials between the tournament editors with a chief editor at one of the sites responsible for overseeing all sites' editing and the final packet assembly. Typically, this results in several tournaments contributing various subject editors to the overall finished product. ACF tournaments employ a variant of the central editing method in which the editing team does not necessarily come from the tournament hosts.