Tournament Checklist

This is a general chronological checklist for running a tournament on Tabroom. It's not comprehensive, but it should help remind you of things you probably want to do at each stage of the tournament. For a more extensive explanation of each item, see the relevant section of the full manual. If you're not an experienced tabber, you should start with the Tournament Quick Start instead.

You might want to print off a copy of this checklist, and then check off each item as you complete it or decide it's not applicable to your tournament. Going roughly in the order presented here is recommended - it helps avoid problems if you configure judge groups before events, for example.

As Early As Possible

• Request a tournament on Tabroom.
  • Double check your dates, as many of the default deadlines are based off what you enter. Tweak any of the deadlines as you see fit.
  • List your tournament in the correct circuit so it shows up on the main calendar.

Before Online Registration Opens

• Tournament Setup - go through each page of the Settings menu and decide if each available option applies to you.

• Settings - Tournament
  • Name & Info Tab - upload your Invitation document, and if applicable, Congress packet.
  • Settings Tab - Most tournaments should check "Require adult contact info to register," "Log registration changes," and "Publish list of registered schools."
  • Settings Tab - If not using online registration, check "Closed tournament; admin staff registers."
  • Settings Tab - If using Online On-Site Registration, enable it and set the deadlines.
  • Access Tab - give access to any of your tournament staff who will be using the website, helping enter ballots, start rounds, etc.
  • Housing Tab - if your tournament offers housing, configure it here, and see the longer section of the manual on housing.
  • Messages Tab - if you need to set a special message for invoices, registration, or waitlist admission, set them here.

• Settings - Rules & Results
  • Decide if the built-in Tiebreak sets are sufficient, or if your league rules require setting up your own. Create them if necessary.
  • For each Tiebreak set you use, decide if you want to uncheck the box for "No shows/forfeits cannot break/advance."
  • If you have speech events, decide if your speech tiebreaks will use "Truncate Ranks" and configure them on the Tiebreakers tab.
  • If you give Sweepstakes awards, configure a rule set on the Sweepstakes tab.
  • If your tournament gives NDCA Points or TOC bids, configure them on the "Points & Bids" tab.

• Settings - Judges (Repeat for each judge group)
  • Create judge groups. Most tournaments will have one judge group for all IE's, one for congress, and one for each division of debate events. Some tournaments use a combined judge group for all divisions of a single debate event (i.e. one judge group for both open and novice CX). Make sure to give each judge group an abbreviation.
  • Register Tab - Most tournament will want to check "Suppress Judge Codes (names only)" and "Publish the list of judges online" so judges can find themselves more easily.
  • Register Tab - Check the option for "Ask for judge phone #s at registration" - It's almost always good to collect as much contact info as you can.
  • Register Tab - If using online ballots, consider checking the "Require judges to have linked accounts" option. It will offload some of the linking to pre-tournament, rather than during round 1.
  • Register Tab - set one of the two judge burden methods, usually "Entries per judge owed" for IE's, or "Rounds owed per entry" for debate.
  • Register Tab - set a fee for missed rounds of judging.
  • Hires Tab - If offering hired judging or using a hiring exchange, use the Hires tab to configure.
  • Tabbing Tab - Check the box for "Judges can get the same event twice" unless it's an IE judge pool with lots of extra judges.
  • Tabbing Tab - Most tournaments will want to check "Allow panels w/ same school judges."
  • Tabbing Tab - If using MPJ, decide if you want to adjust the MPJ placement weights. If not, the defaults are fine.
  • Ratings Tab - If using MPJ, configure on the Ratings tab by choosing a "Pref Method" and, if applicable, using the "MPJ Tiers" tab to configure tiers.
  • Part Timers Tab - if you predict a large number of part-time judges, such as "Saturday Only" judges, configure part-timer blocks.
  • Pools Tab - Create a Judge Pool for each elim round, which you will auto-populate later with only obligated judges.

• Settings - Events (Repeat for each event)
  • Create Events. The "Add New Event" form has a variety of options you should set for all events. Make sure to give each event an abbreviation, set an entry fee for the event, set the minimum/maximum number of competitors per entry (they will be 1 or 2 unless you have an exotic event), ensure the event is in the right judge group, and choose an entry code format under "Designate entries." Also make sure to set the correct "Event Type" (e.g. Policy, LD, Speech) - only use the generic "Debate" for non-standard events.
  • Registration Tab - If you need to set an entry cap, do so here.
  • Tabulation Tab - Choose a "Preset seeding" method. If using a method other than "random" make sure to add preset seeds after you have all your entries.
  • Tabulation Tab - Choose a tiebreak set to use for speaker awards, if applicable for each event.
  • Tabulation Tab - Check the "Use live updates (Text/Email)" box.
  • Tabulation Tab - If using Online Ballots, check the "Online Ballot Entry" box.
  • Tabulation Tab - Set a minimum and maximum for speaker points, and if applicable, online ballot points.
  • Tabulation Tab - Set the "Point Increments." Most tournaments use either .10 or Half. Choose whether to allow Tied Points.
  • Tabulation Tab - Set the option for "Auto-publish results once next round is paired" to "Full Results." That way, you don't have to worry about manually setting each round's results to public.
  • Tabulation Tab - For most tournaments, check the box for "Allow repeat judging in elims."
  • Tabulation Tab - If you have a very small tournament or very tight judging pool. consider using some of the options in the "Judging" section to remove some common judging restraints (such as allowing repeat judging."
  • Ballot & Rules Tab - If desired, add a message/point scale to the ballot.
  • If allowing double-entry, configure double-entry limits after configuring all events.

• Settings - Schedule
  • Create Timeslots for each day of the tournament. Usually, you will want a separate timeslot for each round of each event, even if the times are the same, to more easily facilitate changing the schedule if necessary. Make sure timeslots don't start at the same time as the previous timeslot (e.g. use 8-9:30 and 10-11:30, NOT 8-10 and 10-12).
  • Schedule rounds for each event into the appropriate timeslots. Add a label for each elim round. Make sure to set the round type (Prelim, Hi/Lo, Elim, etc) and a Tiebreak set for each round.
  • Double check the schedule again, and make sure you have a round type and tiebreak set for each round. The most common problems are created by failing to double check the schedule.
  • If double-flighting an event, set the number of flights on the schedule.

• Settings - Sites & Rooms
  • Create a site for your tournament, and if necessary a separate site for your hotel (if holding elims there). Then add all your rooms to the site. Include quality ratings for each room if desired.
  • Create a room pool for each event (or at least each judge group), and place the appropriate rooms into each pool.
  • Assign every round of every event to the appropriate room pool. Verify that you haven't schedule the same room in two different pools during the same timeslot.

• Settings - Money
  • Use the C.R.E.A.M. box to scan through all your entry fees, judge fees, and nuisance fines. Most should already have been set during your judge group and event setup.
  • If offering concessions, configure t hem.

• Settings - Website
  • Add any desired information to the standard website pages - for example, consider putting the text of your invitation on the "Main Page" so it's the first thing people see.
  • Take note of your tournament website address, for publicizing during registration and once the tournaments starts as a centralized location for tournament info.

While Registration Is Open

• Monitor your entries to see where your numbers are, for planning room needs, food, necessary hires etc.
• If using a waitlist, manage accepting entries off the waitlist at predetermined times.
• If manually managing hired judging, keep an eye on hired judge requests.
• Contact any schools with obviously incomplete entries, large numbers of TBA slots, fake judges, insufficient judging, etc.
• Badger registrants several times to provide judge contact info - it will help immensely once the tournament starts.
• If you receive checks/payments from registered schools, record their payments on their invoice so they can see their outstanding balance.

After Registration Closes

• Remove empty schools - use Entries - Data - Empty Schools to remove empty schools from your registration.
• Drop/Delete all TBA's - use Entries - Data to get rid of TBA slots that ended up unclaimed.
• Evaluate judging needs for each event, and ensure you have sufficient judging to run the tournament - otherwise, hire or beg for more rounds
• Evaluate room needs for each event, adjust room pools as necessary, and ensure you have sufficient rooms in each timeslot for each event.
• Use Entries - Reports to get any other information that might help you with tournament planning, such as total entry numbers, diet restrictions, concessions totals, overall tournament finances, etc.
• Recode all events - Sometimes unnecessary, but can be helpful to use Entries - Data - Codes & Names to recode the entry codes for all events and judges, to ensure a consistent nomenclature and account for any name changes.
• Check the Shenanigans report in Entries - Reports and resolve all potential problems (like double-entered judges).
• Scan the "Coach Notes" column in the list of all judges in each judge group, and manually enter any constraints or time strikes listed - coaches frequently put this information here and forget to tell you.
• If you did registration externally (e.g. on Joy of Tournaments) and need to import it, use Entries - Data to input all your schools/entries/judges.

2-3 Days Before

• If using MPJ, verify you have set the times for prefs to open/close, and remind your registrants of the deadlines.
• As the deadline for prefs approaches, use Entries - Reports - Prefs Totals to see the status of prefs and remind people to finish them.

1 Day Before

• Once prefs are closed
• Make any registration changes that have been emailed to you, since registrants will no longer be able to do it themselves.
• If using online on-site registration, make sure it's active and monitor the status as schools check in
• Print invoices and reg mats

During Registration

Before Pairing

• Scan settings again
• Make a backup
• Approve link requests
• ADA Entries - Reports

Pairing Presets (Night Before)

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