Host quick-start

From an empty account to a finished tab, in the order you'll do it on the day.

1. Create your tournament

Sign up, then choose New tournament. Pick the format, Asian Parliamentary (3v3) or British Parliamentary (four teams per room), and a URL slug. Everything else can change later from the tournament dashboard. The dashboard checklist shows what still needs attention before round one.

2. Add teams and adjudicators

Add institutions, teams, speakers, and adjudicators by hand, or import them from a CSV/XLSX sheet (Manage → Imports; template files are provided). Imports run a dry-run preview first: bad rows get flagged with exact errors, and nothing is saved until you commit. You can also open self-registration and let teams sign themselves up, with custom registration questions.

3. Rounds, draws, and motions

Define your rounds, mark who is present with check-ins, then generate the draw. AP rounds power-pair by team points; BP rounds balance the four positions. Review the draw, adjust it manually if needed, allocate adjudicators on the drag-and-drop board, assign rooms, attach the motion slate, and release. Releasing emails checked-in participants their pairing and private links.

4. Ballots and results

Chairs enter results from their phones through their private e-ballot link, or the tab room types in paper ballots. Every ballot must be confirmed by a second person before it counts. The ballots page shows which rooms are still outstanding, with one-click reminder emails to their chairs.

5. Standings and breaks

Team, speaker, and adjudicator standings update as ballots confirm, with speaker categories (ESL, novice, and friends) tabbed separately. When the prelims finish, compute the break (standard, institution cap, or AIDA-style rules), look it over, and generate the elimination rounds straight from the released break.

6. Publishing and notifications

Your tournament's public page lists released draws, results, standings, and breaks. You control what's visible with per-surface release toggles, and anonymized tournaments show code-names instead of team names. Draw, motion, and break releases can email participants automatically; the notifications dashboard shows every queued and sent message.