This month’s Get the Most Out of Your Orion Scoring System newsletter is all about Virtual Matches, a technology Scopos invented 15 years ago. 

Virtual Matches allow two or more clubs to compete with each other from their own range. Scores are uploaded to Scopos’ cloud network, merged, and displayed on Rezults as if it was a traditional shoulder to shoulder match. Their popularity speaks for themselves - in the past year Scopos hosted over 2500 virtual matches at 6000 combined locations. 

Virtual Matches work with all rulebooks, all courses of fire, and all scoring technologies: Athena, paper targets, Excel, scorecards, MegaLink, Sius, Kongsberg, and every other EST system.

Virtual Matches are the modern replacement for outdated postals. Both allow minimal travel costs for teams, easy access to competitions, and subsequently low entry fees. The distinct advantage Virtual Matches have over postals is that scores are known immediately and posted online. In fact, calling a Virtual Match a postal is misleading; virtual matches are simply modern, easier, and faster. 

Parent and Child Matches

The match’s organizer is called the match “parent.” The parent creates the match and sets its properties, such as the course of fire and categories. The invited host locations are called “children.” Children inherit the properties of the match from the parent. 

The parent location, and each child location, compete from their home ranges. Each location has until the end date, set by the Parent, to shoot and turn in their scores. Scopos software handles the automatic upload of scores, the merging of results across all locations, and the displaying of scores online. 

Any Orion for Clubs Customer can create a Virtual Match. Any Orion for Clubs or Orion at Home customer can participate in a virtual match as a Child.

Scopos Host Monthly Virtual Matches

Each calendar month Scopos hosts 8 different Monthly Virtual Matches. All Orion for Clubs and Orion at Home customers are invited to participate. They are free for both individuals and teams. The events each month are:

• Three-Position Air Rifle – 3x10
• Three-Position Air Rifle – 3x20
• Air Rifle Standing – 60 Shots
• Air Pistol – 60 Shots
• Bullseye Pistol – 900 Aggregate
• Smallbore Rifle – 3x20
• Smallbore Rifle – 60 Prone
• BB Gun – 4x10

Improvements are Coming to Virtual Matches

Later this year Scopos will release Orion 3.0. One of the improvements in Orion 3.0 is a rebuilt Virtual Match system. To start with, we are simplifying the match creation process. Now every match will be a Virtual Match. A “local match” will simply be a Virtual Match without any children.

Next, the parent match will be able to change properties after the match is created, with the changes being reflected by each new and existing child. 

Orion 3.0 will also offer new invite options:

• An “invite only” Virtual Match will function like the current Virtual Match system does, where the parent match has to invite each child match. 
• An “open” Virtual Match will allow any Orion club to join, much like Scopos’ Monthly Virtual Matches are today.
• A “request only” Virtual Match will allow any Orion club to request to join a match, but must then get the Parent’s OK to compete.

Have an Idea or Find a Bug?

Please help us make Scopos' technologies even better products. We routinely push out updates to Orion, Athena, and Rezults, often based on ideas and feedback from our customers. Share your ideas and we may add it into our system.