Guide for Organizers

1. Open the homepage and click Sign in at the top right.
2. The fastest way is with your Google account – one click is enough. Alternatively, register with email and password.
3. When registering by email, you'll receive a confirmation email. You can activate your account either via the link in the email or by entering the included 6-digit code.
4. On your first login, a short welcome wizard guides you through your basic details (name, dojo) – it only takes a minute.

A wizard guides you through a few steps:

1. Click Create tournament.
2. Basic data: Enter the tournament name, organizer, and host, and choose the style(s). You can conveniently format the description in the text editor (bold, lists, links, etc.).
3. Location & time: Enter the venue, city, and country as well as the start and end date. These fields are required so your tournament can be found easily.
4. Schedule: Set the arrival and start times.
5. Disciplines: Create your competition classes right away (see chapter 3) – or add them later.
6. Publish: Finally, decide whether the tournament is saved as a draft or published right away.

As long as a tournament is a draft, nobody but you can see it. It only becomes publicly visible after publishing.

A "discipline" is a single competition class, e.g. Kata children male 8–9 years or Kumite youth female -50 kg. For each discipline you define:

• Type: Kata (forms performance, judged by referees) or Kumite (sparring).
• Age, gender, and – for Kumite – weight class.
• Rule set: Choose the matching preset.
• Participant number format: The platform assigns short, automatic participant numbers.

Rule set presets

The rule set automatically controls match durations, point assignment, and the scoring screens on competition day – you don't need to worry about the details.

The number of judges for Kata is 5 or 7. This is also the panel size and determines the number of flags, the scoring columns, and the trimmed-score value (how many of the highest and lowest scores are dropped from the calculation). You set the default for the whole tournament in the settings; individual disciplines can deviate from it in the Referees tab (see the "Referees" chapter).

If two classes overlap (same age/gender/weight), the platform warns you.

1. Open your tournament and select Open registration.
2. From now on, dojos can register for your disciplines.
3. You can set a registration deadline – after that, no new registrations are possible.

The phases of a tournament

Draft → Published → Registration open → Registration closed → Draw → Competition → Completed

The Manage participants area gives you a full overview. There are tabs for Dojos, Starters, Teams, Disciplines, and Registrations. A metrics bar at the top shows the most important figures at a glance (dojos, starters, teams, disciplines, outstanding amounts). The view also works on smartphones: long lists load incrementally via "Show more", and you open detail areas by tapping.

Viewing starters and teams

As the organizer, you see all registered starters and teams here. Participants are recorded exclusively through registration – dojos register their own starters themselves and pay the entry fee. Only paid participants take part in the tournament. There is no manual creation or editing of individual starters by the organizer (this prevents unpaid participation). You still assign participant numbers with a click, and you report absences as described below.

Reporting absence instead of deleting

A starter who has already paid cannot simply be deleted. If someone doesn't show up, you mark them as absent instead. The platform remembers who reported it and when, and automatically excludes the person from the draw.

Anyone marked absent is missing from all their disciplines — both individual and team. They're also no longer counted anywhere: not in the split across fighting areas, not in pool sizes, not in byes.

If someone doesn't show up on competition day

Reporting absence in the dojo area only works before the tournament. On competition day, there are two additional places for this:

• "Starters" tab — the competition management marks each starter as absent there or reverses the marking. Unlike in the dojo area, it doesn't matter here whether they paid: whoever isn't in the hall isn't there.
• At the fighting area — when skipping a match, the app asks for the reason: "Kiken (forfeit)" or "Did not show up". Only the second option additionally marks the starter as absent. The distinction matters: Kiken is the forfeit of someone who was there.

This is important for the results: A starter who is neither scored nor reported absent counts as "not yet up" — and the discipline therefore remains incomplete (see "Results & medal table").

An absence can be reversed as long as the person has not yet been scored. After that it can't: their match has already been decided and the opponent has advanced.

Teams: A Kata team needs all 3 people — if one is missing, the team does not compete and is not drawn. A Kumite team needs at least 2 fighters; it then fights 2 against 3, and the missing person's bout counts as a Kiken for the opposing side.

If you want your participants to pay the entry fee online directly during registration, you set up payment processing once. Don't worry – you don't need any technical knowledge for this. This guide walks you through everything step by step.

Setting the entry fee per discipline

Set the entry fee for each discipline – separately for individual starters and teams. You do this when creating or editing the discipline (see chapter 3). If you don't want to collect any money online at all, simply leave the fee at 0 – registration is then free and you don't need the following steps.

Fee tiers: early bird, late registration, tournament day

Many prospectuses don't list a single price but several – depending on when someone registers. That's exactly what the fee tiers feature does. You'll find it in the tournament settings and in the discipline defaults, each in the "Fee tiers" block; a toggle switches it on and off. It applies to the whole tournament: the discipline's entry fee stays the base price, the tiers only add to it or subtract from it.

Three tiers are available, each separately for individuals and teams:

You don't need to maintain cutoff dates for late registration and tournament day – they follow automatically from the registration deadline and the tournament date. Only the early-bird cutoff date is required: without it, the discount could never apply, so the tier stays inactive without a date. Enter all amounts as a positive number – Tourna Event knows that a discount is subtracted and a surcharge is added.

An example: entry fee 12 € per discipline, late registration +5 €, tournament day +10 €. Anyone who registers before the registration deadline pays 12 €. Anyone who registers after that pays 17 €. Anyone added on tournament day still pays 22 €.

The difference between surcharge and discount matters:

• The surcharge is locked in when registering. Anyone who registers on time pays the regular price – even if the treasurer doesn't transfer the money until weeks later. Nobody is penalized for a payment taking a while.
• The discount is granted when paying. Early bird means early money, not an early click: anyone who registers during the early-bird period but pays only afterward doesn't get the discount.

If a dojo later adds another discipline for a starter who is already registered, only that new item is charged at the then-current rate. Disciplines already registered keep their price.

The registering dojo sees the surcharges in the cost overview – as its own line for each item, not just folded into the total. On the public tournament page, the tiers appear wherever the entry fee is shown.

What is Stripe – and why do I need it?

Tourna Event processes payments via Stripe, one of the largest and most secure payment providers in the world. Think of Stripe as a digital cash register: the participant pays during registration, the money first lands in your Stripe account, and is automatically transferred from there to your regular bank account.

Why a separate service? So that your money flows directly to you and doesn't go through Tourna Event. Your bank and ID data is held exclusively by Stripe – a company specialized in secure payments.

• Creating a Stripe account is free. Only fees per payment apply (a small percentage plus a fixed amount per transaction).
• More about Stripe: stripe.com

What does Tourna Event cost me?

Tourna Event is deliberately usage-based – you only pay when money actually changes hands:

• Creating and configuring a tournament and generating the draw: free.
• As soon as participants pay online, Tourna Event retains a small platform fee of €1.00 per registered discipline (each discipline in which a starter is registered counts individually; a team counts as one entry). This fee is automatically deducted during payment – you won't receive a separate invoice for it.
• In addition, Stripe's transaction fees apply (see above).
• If registration is free (entry fee €0), no platform fee is incurred.

Step 1: Open the Stripe settings

Open Settings and switch to the Stripe area. At the top you'll find a status indicator: as long as nothing is set up yet, it says Not connected.

Step 2: Acknowledge the fees

Check the box "I have taken note of the Stripe fees …". Only after that can you connect your account. You can look up the current fees at any time directly on Stripe's site: Stripe pricing overview.

Step 3: Connect your account

Click Connect. A new window opens directly at Stripe. There, Stripe guides you through the setup – it only takes a few minutes:

1. Create an account or sign in – with your email address. If you already have a Stripe account, just sign in.
2. Details about you or your organization – name, address, date of birth; for clubs/companies additionally the organization details.
3. Bank details (IBAN) – Stripe pays out your earnings to this account.
4. Confirm identity – usually via a photo of your ID. This is legally required and protects against misuse.

Once you've completed all the details, you return automatically to Tourna Event. The status now switches to Connected (green) – your account is ready to receive payments.

Test or live mode?

In the Stripe area you can switch between two modes:

• Test mode – for risk-free trial runs. No real money flows here; you can run through the entire registration and payment process with a test credit card number (e.g. 4242 4242 4242 4242 with any future date and any security code).
• Live – actual operation. Here real payments from real participants are processed.

Choosing payment methods

Under Payment methods you determine what your participants may pay with – e.g. card, SEPA direct debit, Klarna, or PayPal. Which methods are actually offered depends on your country and your Stripe settings.

Publishable key (only if needed)

The Publishable key field (starts with pk_test_ or pk_live_) is a public key for card payment. Normally you don't need to change anything here. Only touch this field if you're explicitly asked to.

What participants see

During registration, the entry fee is displayed, and participants pay directly online via the methods you've enabled. Registration only becomes binding after successful payment.

Payout to your bank account

The collected entry fees accumulate in your Stripe account and are paid out from there automatically to your stored bank details (Stripe does this on a fixed schedule, often with a slight delay at first). As soon as a payout is on its way, you get a notification.

Managing your account later

Once your account is connected, the Connect button becomes a Manage button. It opens your personal Stripe dashboard (dashboard.stripe.com) – there you see all payments and payouts and can change your details.

Before going live, you can test your tournament for free and risk-free. In simulation mode, the system generates test participants (no real registrations), and you can try out the draw and scoring. A tournament in test mode shows the "Test mode" badge.

How to start: Open the "Publish tournament" dialog. There you'll find the Simulation mode card with the "Start simulation" button (available as soon as you've created at least one discipline).

What you can test:

• Generate test data – fills a discipline of each discipline type (Kata individual/team, Kumite individual/team) with fictitious participants.
• Draw and scoring – fully playable through for these active disciplines.
• Payment – up to 3 test registrations via Stripe in test mode.

What's locked in test mode: actual publishing, publicly opening registration, and the unprotected list export.

Once you're done testing, you have two options in the same card:

• End simulation – turns off test mode. All test data is deleted; you can test again later.
• Go live – permanently switches the tournament into real operation. All test data is deleted, and simulation mode can no longer be activated afterward. This requires a fully set up Stripe account in live mode.

1. Once registration is closed, open the draw/brackets area.
2. Generate the draw – the platform automatically distributes the starters into the brackets (with many participants, also across multiple tatamis/fighting areas).
3. Check the result. If everything fits, click Publish draw.

Only after publishing do participants and spectators see the match pairings.

Multiple fighting areas, finals & repechage: For very large classes, the preliminary rounds run separately per tatami; the winners then meet in a shared final. Depending on the rule set, there's additionally a match for 3rd place or a repechage with two bronze medals. Under DJKB, the losers of the tatami finals automatically receive 3rd place. You don't need to worry about these details – the draw builds them to match the chosen rule set.

Changes after publishing

Two things take a load off your mind here:

• Scored disciplines are protected. As soon as the first score exists in a discipline, its draw can no longer be accidentally overwritten – even "Regenerate draw" leaves it untouched and tells you how many disciplines were skipped for this reason. This means ongoing or finished results are never lost. Everything remains freely changeable up to the first score (including late registrations and absences). If you really need to redraw an already-scored discipline, this only works deliberately, with a double confirmation – the existing results are deleted in the process.
• Notify dojos specifically. If something has changed in an already-published draw, you can use the "Notify dojos" button (in the "Draw outdated" notice) to inform registered dojos via push – without having to redraw.

Public bracket view & tournament book

After the draw is published, the brackets are viewable without registration – ideal for sharing or posting. Via the tournament book/print area, you export all brackets bundled as a PDF (tournament book) in the tournament's branding. You adjust the look of the brackets in Settings → Design.

In the Schedule tab, you plan the course of competition day: which discipline runs when and on which fighting area (tatami)? Complemented by award ceremonies, breaks, and free blocks like arrival.

Generating the schedule automatically

1. Open the Schedule tab and click Generate schedule automatically.
2. The platform distributes all disciplines across the day based on your start times, the number of fighting areas, and the participant counts – sorted by age group and bundled: first the preliminary rounds, then the final, then the award ceremony for each group.
3. The estimated duration of each block is based on the number of participants and learned average times – the more tournaments you run, the more accurate the estimates become.

The automatic schedule is conflict-free: a starter competing in multiple disciplines (up to four) is never scheduled on two areas at the same time.

Adjusting by hand

• Move: Drag a block via drag-and-drop to another time or area.
• + Entry: Manually add a discipline/pool (with search by name or ID), an award ceremony, a break, or a free block.
• Placing a final: Via the Areas button you decide whether a final runs across a single area or is split across multiple pools (parallel = faster schedule).
• Changes only take effect once you click Save.

If the platform finds an overlap when saving or generating (the same starter scheduled twice at the same time), a warning appears at the top and the affected blocks are highlighted in yellow. Move them to a different time or area.

Two views are available: the pool timeline (columns per area) and the agenda (chronological list). Via Print / PDF you create a printout for competition day.

Referee planning (demand, staff, bottlenecks) is not here, but in its own Referees tab right next to the schedule – see the next chapter.

Publishing: "When am I up?"

Once the schedule is set, switch on Published at the top. On the public tournament page, the Schedule button then appears, opening the view in a new tab.

Participants and coaches simply search for their participant number or their dojo there – and immediately see "Your appearances": which discipline runs when and on which area, including an "Up next" marker.

In the Referees tab, you plan the officials for competition day. It has two views: Demand (how many referees you need and when) and Staff (who's coming, when, and at which pool).

Staff: creating and inviting referees

Usually you first only know how many are coming – the names follow later:

1. Create your referees in bulk: enter a number and click e.g. "Create 20 referees". Placeholder entries are created ("Referee 1" through "Referee 20").
2. Once the names are known, rename the entries individually – directly in the list. This works as long as the invitation is still open. Once a referee has accepted, the name is locked and comes automatically from their profile.
3. Use the envelope icon to invite a referee by email, optionally with a personal message. After acceptance, their registered name appears automatically. You can withdraw an open invitation at any time.
4. Delete entries you no longer need via the trash icon.

Declined invitations stand out in red – so you immediately know you need to plan a replacement.

Arrival and departure

By default, every referee is considered present all day (checkbox All day). If someone is only there part of the time, uncheck it and enter arrival and departure – with date for multi-day tournaments, otherwise just the time.

An invited referee is allowed to change their own times – and only these. This keeps your planning up to date without you having to chase people by phone.

Pools and head referee

You can assign each referee to a fighting area (pool) – manually via the dropdown or with one click on Auto-assign. The assignment is a planning aid, not a requirement: what matters is that enough referees are present at all times, not who stands at which area. On competition day, the table crew (scorers) may therefore still change the pool assignment.

The Head referee checkbox is a qualification ("this person can be head referee"), not a fixed position. There can and should be several qualified people per pool: the role rotates between disciplines among the qualified referees of the pool – never during an ongoing discipline. If a pool has none or only one qualified person, the list flags this, since rotation isn't possible then. In the scoring board, the acting head referee appears with a name and a head-referee marker.

Demand: are my referees enough?

The schedule requires a certain number of referees simultaneously at any given time – disciplines run in parallel on multiple areas. The Demand view shows both in one chart: the demand from the schedule and the presence from the arrival and departure times. Where demand exceeds presence, there's a bottleneck – it's highlighted and listed with a concrete time window, e.g. "10:20–11:05 – 4 referees missing".

In the same view, you set the target and minimum number per discipline – or adopt the tournament default. For Kata, the target number is also the panel size: it determines the number of flags, the scoring columns, and the trimmed-score value (how many of the highest and lowest scores are dropped). That's why only 5 or 7 are possible. For Kumite, the number is purely a planning figure with no effect on scoring.

What an invited referee sees

If someone accepts your invitation, they get their own, streamlined view of your tournament in the dashboard: the tabs Overview, Brackets, Schedule, Referees, and Results. In the Referees tab they see the full list with the times and pools of all colleagues – they may only change their own arrival and departure times. Everything else is read-only for them. They see no starter data, no registrations, and no payments, and they cannot score.

Referees are automatically notified via push when the schedule or their pool assignment changes – and on the day before the tournament, a message reminds them of their start time and pool (see the "Keeping an eye on notifications" chapter).

On tournament day, you score matches directly in the app – ideally on a smartphone or tablet at the fighting area.

1. Select your active tournament and open mobile scoring.
2. You see all disciplines with their status (e.g. not yet drawn, in progress, partially done, completed).
3. Select a discipline, start the next match, and enter the score:
   • Kumite: points for both fighters, penalties, match end. The rules are stored according to the rule set.
   • Kata: flag decision or point scoring by the referees – depending on the mode.
   • Team Kumite: the encounter runs as a sequence of individual bouts between the teams; each bout is scored individually. If it's tied at the end, a tiebreaker bout decides.
4. Use Refresh to get the latest status at any time, in case scoring is happening in parallel on another area.

Every completed match automatically advances the bracket.

Who scores at which fighting area

At the start of the tournament, staff are assigned to the fighting areas: once you take an area, you stay there – even across multiple days. You can't additionally take on a second area; only the tournament management can move or release you. That way, no one accidentally jumps between areas.

• Several people at one area: you're allowed to share an area (the table crew alternates, substitution). At the top of the scoring header it says "At the table: …" with everyone assigned; whoever is currently scoring is highlighted. A colleague takes over via Continue here.
• Overview: in the pool overview you see, per area, who is assigned to it – including for other areas (view-only). You can't take over other areas; a hint shows you which area you're assigned to.
• Tournament management: owner, co-organizer, and tournament admin can release an entire area or remove individual scorers.
• Wrong area? If you accidentally took the wrong area and haven't scored anything there yet, you can give it back yourself via Leave area. Once the first match is scored, only the tournament management can do this.

Disqualification (Shikkaku): release by tournament management

If you apply a Shikkaku penalty at the mat and end the match, the opponent wins immediately. What's new: a Shikkaku is more than the lost match. It bars the starter from the discipline – no repechage, no placement; under WKF, even from the entire tournament. Because this carries such weight, the ban only takes effect once tournament management confirms it (four-eyes principle).

• Automatically recorded: As soon as you end the match with Shikkaku, the app creates the ban as "awaiting confirmation". The match result (opponent wins and advances) applies immediately.
• "Confirmation pending": A red notice appears above the scoring screen. If someone with management rights (owner, co-organizer, tournament admin) is at the device, they confirm directly with Confirm. If nobody is on site, a push notification is sent to tournament management.
• Four-eyes: Confirmation must come from someone other than the person who recorded the Shikkaku.
• Only then does the ban take effect: The starter drops out of the repechage and placement (no 3rd place for the Tatami-final loser, no medal). Hansoku, on the other hand, is only the lost match – the starter remains regularly in the competition and may enter the repechage.

Tiebreak kata: when the score is tied

In DJKB point scoring, the highest and lowest referee scores are dropped, and the rest are summed. If two starters are then tied, the rule (WKO C 4.1) applies in this order:

1. The lowest dropped score is reinstated and counted.
2. If that doesn't help, the highest dropped score is additionally added in.
3. If it's still tied, a tiebreaker is required: those affected perform again.

The app does this on its own. As soon as everyone has performed and a medal rank is contested, the notice "Tiebreaker kata required" appears in the scoring view and on the hall monitor, and you get the Score tiebreaker kata button. Those affected then perform once more, as with a normal appearance; their regular points remain intact — the tiebreaker kata only determines the order. If it also ends in a tie, another tiebreaker follows.

Until this is decided, the discipline counts as not completed: no placement, no medal table, no certificates.

Only medal ranks are tied-broken. Further down, tied competitors share the rank (e.g. two 5th places, followed by 7th place).

If you've assigned people to pools in the Referees tab, the judge cards show the names of the assigned referees instead of plain numbers; the acting head referee is marked. On smartphones the fields are narrower – the last name is shown there, and you see the full name when you tap the field. If no referees are stored, the fields remain numbered – scoring works the same way in both cases.

Via the live ticker, coaches, parents, and spectators follow what's happening on the fighting areas right now – and above all, when it's their turn. It requires no login and updates itself automatically.

There's a card for each fighting area. Its state is shown at the top: Running, Break, Waiting, or Done.

The ongoing match

For Kumite, match time and score are front and center, along with both fighters and their dojos. The colors match your tournament's rule set: for WKF/DKV, AKA (Red) vs. AO (Blue); for DJKB, AKA (Red) vs. SHIRO (White). They come from the draw, so they're already set before the match is called.

Warnings appear directly next to the respective fighter and are color-coded by severity. If someone is one step away from disqualification, the card specifically points this out.

For Kata, the announced kata is shown prominently on the card. In point mode, a scoring table appears after each performance: the individual referee scores, the highest and lowest struck through, plus the total score. It stays visible until the next starter is up. If a flag decision ends in a tie (Hikiwake), the match is repeated – the card then shows round 2 and a note that a decision is now required.

Between two matches, the card doesn't stay empty: it shows the next pairing with dojo, or – if the area is done for the day – the placements of the last discipline.

Showing only certain areas

From three fighting areas onward, filter chips appear at the top. Tap the areas you're interested in – e.g. only Pool A and Pool D. You can select as many as you like; the chip's color also reveals where a match is currently underway.

Your selection stays saved, even if you close the ticker in between. A notice reminds you that a filter is active; Reset shows everything again. If something's happening on a hidden area, the ticker reports it and you can show it again with one click.

When does it continue?

If you've published the schedule, the ticker shows the start time for each upcoming discipline. If an area falls behind schedule, it recalculates: then it shows est. and the estimated time instead of the planned one. That way the stands see when things really get going, instead of relying on a plan that's long outdated. Without a published schedule, the times are omitted.

Results and medal table

The Results tab shows the placements of every completed discipline, alongside the medal table by dojo. The dojo counted is the one someone is registered under; a team medal counts once for the dojo, not once per member. Shared third places are marked.

The tab becomes visible once you've published the draw – before that, a corresponding notice is shown there.

On the big screen

With Fullscreen, the ticker expands to the entire browser window – handy for a laptop at the stands. For permanently installed screens in the hall, there are the monitors (see the next section).

If there are screens in the hall – at the fighting areas, at the tournament management's table, or facing the stands – you can control them from your own spot. You don't need this: if you haven't set up any monitors, nothing changes for you.

Setting up monitors

Open Settings → Monitor and create an entry for each screen:

• Name – how you'll recognize it, e.g. Monitor Pool A or Tournament management.
• Assignment – Tournament management (shows the overview of all fighting areas) and/or individual fighting areas. If you assign exactly one area, the monitor displays that area large; if you assign several, it cycles between them.

Every monitor gets its own display URL and a QR code. Scan the code on the TV, tablet, or projector laptop – the display then runs continuously, without login. If you delete a monitor, its URL becomes invalid.

The Tourna Event animation briefly plays with every screen change. Urgent announcements and the "last call" skip it and appear immediately.

What a monitor at the fighting area shows on its own

You don't need to control anything there:

• Before the first match, the discipline's starter list scrolls through slowly – participant number, name, dojo. This lets starters and coaches see who's called while attendance is being checked.
• During competition, the ongoing match or the current kata starter with the score.
• If the table crew hits pause, the pause screen appears. "Resume" brings the display back.
• If the area is done, the monitor shows which discipline runs there next.

Controlling from the tournament management table

In the tournament you'll find the Monitors tab. There you see every configured screen with a small preview and can switch it:

• Automatic – the normal case (see above).
• Welcome – tournament name, date, and location, "Tournament starting soon".
• Break
• Message – free text with a heading. For common cases there are templates to click: "{Name} please report to tournament management", "Lunch break until {time}", "Award ceremony for {discipline} is now taking place". You only fill in the blank.
• Starter list and Logo only

Override all screens: For announcements everyone should see – e.g. an award ceremony –, you set the same message with one click on all monitors. A red banner reminds you to end it again; if desired, it ends automatically after a few minutes. When you end it, each monitor returns to the state it was in before – not automatically to Automatic.

"Last call" – when someone is missing

If a starter is missing from the mat, the monitor at that area is of no use: the person being sought isn't standing in front of it. The table crew can therefore call them directly from within scoring on all screens in the hall.

To do this, they select the starter from the list of their own match – free text cannot be sent. The call appears immediately and disappears on its own after 45 seconds; it can also be ended early once the person has arrived. You can see active calls in the Monitors tab and end them there too.

Controlling individual fighting areas

The state is tied to the fighting area, not the screen. In the Monitors tab you'll therefore find a separate Fighting areas section – one card per area.

If you switch Pool B → Break there, every screen displaying Pool B shows the break: the monitor at Pool B in fullscreen, and in an overall overview, Pool B's tile – while Pool A continues unaffected. In the same way, you can give a single area a message or its starter list.

Two things trigger the same break, and that's intentional: the table crew at the mat and you at the control desk. For spectators it makes no difference who paused it.

The screen state overrides the area state: if you set a monitor to Welcome or Logo only, that applies to the whole screen – after all, a welcome screen doesn't belong to a single area.

Who is allowed to do what

• Creating and assigning monitors: hosts and tournament administrators.
• Live control (announcements, break, override all screens): additionally co-organizers.
• Table crew (scorers): don't control the monitors. They have exactly two influences – the pause button and "last call" – and both only affect their own fighting area. "Open monitor" also only offers them their own area.

• As soon as the draw is published and scored, results are generated automatically.
• There's an overview of placements (1st–3rd place) per discipline and a medal table by dojo.
• After the tournament, completed tournaments remain available so everyone can look up the results.

"Still in competition" – why a discipline is missing

Results show only final standings. A discipline only appears once it's truly finished:

• Kata by points: every starter must be scored.
• Kata with flag preliminaries: all finalists must be scored.
• Kumite and knockout: the final must be decided.

As long as that's not the case, the Results tab shows a note like "3 disciplines are still in competition" — the discipline is then deliberately missing from the list and the medal table, and no certificates can be printed for it either. This protects against declaring winners before the last starter has performed.

If a discipline is missing even though it feels like everything has run, it's usually because individual starters are neither scored nor reported absent (see "If someone doesn't show up on competition day").

In the Brackets tab, however, you still see the interim status — it's the working tool of the table crew. There, starters who haven't competed yet show a "—" instead of a score, and medals only appear once the discipline is completed.

Right next to the results, you'll find the Certificates area in the tournament dashboard. Use it to design and print certificates for the placed competitors – individually or in bulk. There is exactly one certificate template per tournament, which is saved for that particular tournament.

The area has four views:

• Templates: choose from 30 ready-made, print-friendly templates (federation, classic, Japanese, modern, kids). Clicking Use opens the template in the editor.
• My certificates: your personal, cross-tournament library. This holds every certificate you've saved to the editor – they belong to you and can be reused for any tournament. Per card you can open (loads it into the editor), rename, or delete a certificate.
• Editor: freely customize the certificate – drag texts, lines, and images into place, change font, size, color, and position, upload your own logo or background image. Via placeholders (e.g. name, placement, discipline, club, date), the actual participant data is inserted automatically at print time. You have two ways to save: Save for this tournament sets the design as the certificate for this tournament (which your co-organizers and table crew also print); Save to my library puts a copy in My certificates so you can open it again for your next tournament.
• Print: here you see the results list (places 1 through the chosen limit). Select individual rows or all, and print the certificates via the browser's print dialog – individually or as a batch. Printed certificates are marked automatically; Hide printed hides them, and Reset marks a certificate as unprinted again.

You don't have to do everything alone. You can grant other people different rights:

• Scorer: may enter scores on competition day (table crew in the live scoring system).
• Co-organizer: may manage participants and settings.
• Tournament admin: has extensive rights for the tournament.
• Referee: the official at the mat. They see the overview, brackets, schedule, referee list, and results – all read-only – and can only change their own arrival and departure times. They may not score. They aren't invited here, but in the Referees tab (see the "Referees" chapter).

How to invite someone

1. Open Roles & access on your tournament.
2. Choose the role and enter the email address.
3. The person receives an invitation link (magic link). After clicking it and signing in, they immediately have the matching rights.

Do you want to inform all registered dojos (e.g. about schedule changes)?

1. Open Send message on your tournament.
2. Write your message.
3. It is sent by email to the registered participants.

Tourna Event has a built-in chat. You can reach it from anywhere via the floating speech bubble at the bottom right — and additionally as a Chat tab in every tournament view. This lets everyone involved coordinate directly in the app, without WhatsApp or shouting across the hall.

The chat bubble — reachable from anywhere

Click the speech bubble, and your contact list opens on the left as a tree. At the very top, a search field and a button to add new contacts. Below that, the sections:

• AI — your private AI assistant (see below).
• Direct — your ongoing one-on-one conversations.
• Contacts — your confirmed personal contacts.
• My groups — your own group chats.
• Dojos — the channels of your dojos.
• Tournaments — for each tournament, the channels you have access to.

A colored dot next to a person shows their status: online, away, or offline.

Personal contacts

Personal contacts apply across tournaments — once connected, you stay in touch, no matter which tournament you're currently taking part in.

• Requests: via Add contact, search for a person or enter their email. If they don't have an account yet, we send an invitation on your behalf — if they register later, it automatically turns into a contact request.
• Confirming: a connection is only established once both parties agree. You can accept or decline incoming requests.
• Blocking: if someone bothers you, you can block them — they can then no longer message you. You can unblock them again at any time later.

Private messages & your own groups

• Direct messages: click a confirmed contact in the contact list to message them directly. These conversations are kept permanently.
• Your own groups: via New group you create a private group chat and pull in people from your contacts, dojos, or tournaments. The creator is the admin and can manage members (add and remove) or delete the group via the menu in the header. Every member can leave the group at any time. These groups are entirely private — no host can see them.

Dojo channels

If you belong to one or more dojos, each has a fixed "All" channel. All dojo members also appear as contacts at the same time — so you stay in touch even outside a tournament.

The tournament chat

Every tournament has its own channels under Tournaments for those involved on competition day.

Who has access: every member with a role in the tournament — competition management, scorers, and referees.

The role channels:

• All — every member.
• Competition management — owner, admins, and co-organizers.
• Referees (internal) and Scorers (internal) — only the respective group. The competition management does not read along here; referees can consult undisturbed.
• Referees & management / Scorers & management — for coordination with management.
• Mat staff — scorers and referees together.
• One group per fighting area (e.g. "Tatami 1").

The header of each channel shows who is reading along — so it's always clear how confidential a channel is.

Your dojo in the tournament: if you're registered for a tournament, you automatically get a group with the other registrants from your dojo in this tournament. You only see the people from your own dojo there — not the organization's or internal channels.

The big participant chat: the host can enable a chat for all participants of a tournament. It's voluntary — you join it yourself and can leave it again at any time; by default you're not in it. (To enable it: as host, in the tournament under chat settings.)

Announcements, attachments & AI

Announcements (competition management only): via Announcement you send a message to everyone. It appears for everyone immediately as a popup, which only disappears once marked "Read", and is additionally sent as a push notification to their phone. You can then see who has read it and who is still missing.

Attachments: in tournament channels you can share images and PDFs (up to 10 MB) — such as a photo of a scoring card. Drag the file into the input field or use the paperclip.

AI assistant: right at the top of the contact list you'll find the AI assistant — a private helper for questions about the tournament, rules, and schedule, including creating a tournament from a PDF. Only you see this conversation.

Notifications: new direct messages, group messages, and announcements show up in the bell — but only if the relevant chat isn't currently open. A click takes you directly to the conversation.

Besides tournaments, you can also offer seminars.

1. Click Create seminar.
2. Enter the title, organizer/host, location, and date.
3. Add instructors (with photo and short bio) – instructors already known to you can be found again via search.
4. Specify which grades (e.g. from which Kyu/Dan) the seminar is intended for.
5. Optionally, you can attach the announcement as a PDF.
6. Finally publish – or save as a draft.

Published seminars appear together with tournaments in the overview and can be filtered by location and date.

You can save interesting tournaments and seminars as a favorite to quickly find them again later and be reminded in time. You need to be signed in for this.

• Tap the heart icon – it appears on the event tiles, in the dashboard, and on an event's detail page. Clicking it again removes the favorite.
• Via the Saved filter in the event overview, you show only your favorited events with one click. This filter is independent of the My own filter (which shows the events you created yourself) and can be combined with it.
• In the Dashboard, under My favorites you'll find a dedicated view of your saved events. Past events are automatically hidden there.

Reminders: for every saved event you receive a timely reminder – as a notification (bell) and by email:

• 5 days before the start of a tournament or seminar,
• 5 days before the registration deadline of a tournament (only for tournaments with registration).

You can turn off the email reminders at any time under Settings → Notifications. The notices in the bell menu are unaffected by this.

At the top of the bar you'll find the bell icon. Important notices accumulate there, e.g.:

• new registrations for your tournament,
• upcoming tournament starts,
• reminders for saved events (start or registration deadline approaching),
• payouts received,
• responses to your referee invitations (accepted or declined),
• your own invitations as a referee,
• reminders (e.g. draw not yet published).

You can mark notices as read or remove them. Grouped notices (such as outstanding payments) can be expanded. Email notifications about favorites are controlled under Settings → Notifications.

Enabling browser notifications (push)

The bell icon only shows notices as long as the page is open. So that important events reach you even with the tab closed – as a real notification from your operating system –, enable browser notifications. There's exactly one switch: if it's on, you get all events relevant to you (draw published, results, new registration, payout, reminders …) as push notifications. Enabling it applies per device and browser.

On iPhone / iPad (iOS)

On iOS, push notifications only work if you've previously added the app to your home screen (Apple's requirement, from iOS 16.4).

1. Open the page in Safari (only there does "Add to Home Screen" work).
2. Tap the share icon and select "Add to Home Screen" → Add.
3. Start the app via the new home screen icon (no longer from Safari) and sign in.
4. Open Settings → Notifications and switch on browser notifications.
5. Confirm the iOS dialog with Allow.

On Android

1. Open the page in Chrome and sign in. (Optional for an app-like feel: via the ⋮ menu, "Install app".)
2. Open Settings → Notifications and switch on browser notifications.
3. Confirm the browser dialog with Allow.

On desktop (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari)

1. Open Settings → Notifications and switch on browser notifications.
2. Confirm the browser dialog with Allow.

After that, you'll get a notification when, among other things, a draw is published, a new dojo registers, someone accepts or declines an invitation, or a Stripe payout is on its way. If you're invited as a referee yourself, push messages reach you when the schedule or your pool assignment changes – and on the day before the tournament, a reminder with the start time and pool.

You can connect AI assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor directly to Tourna Event. Then you handle tasks in conversation – e.g. "Show me my tournaments" or "Create a new discipline" – without clicking through the menus. You'll find the setup under Settings → AI integration (MCP), and it takes three steps.

Step 1 – Create an access key (API key)

Give the key a name (e.g. "Claude Desktop") and click Create key. The key is shown only once – copy it right away and keep it safe.

Step 2 – Copy the configuration for your tool

Choose the tab for your program – the format differs by tool:

• Claude Desktop / Cursor (also Cline, Claude Code): standard format.
• VS Code (GitHub Copilot): its own format.
• Windsurf: its own format.

Copy the displayed block into the mentioned configuration file – the matching file path is shown right below it.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tourna-event": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://tournaevent.com/api/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer te_live_••••••••"
      }
    }
  }
}

Step 3 – Restart the tool

Restart your AI program completely once. After that, the Tourna Event features are directly available in the chat. To test it, ask e.g.: "Show me my tournaments".

ChatGPT and claude.ai (in the browser)

Here you don't need any configuration block. Simply enter the address https://tournaevent.com/api/mcp as a "connector" – sign-in then runs through your normal Tourna Event login. Note: for ChatGPT, write actions are enabled depending on your plan.

If your dojo registers you for a tournament, you can optionally get your own athlete profile – so you can see for yourself which tournaments you're registered for, even if the registration went through your dojo.

For dojos: providing an email when registering

When creating an adult starter, you can optionally provide their email address. It links the starter to a personal athlete profile and later enables inclusion in the annual ranking. As soon as you enter an email, you confirm via a checkbox that the starter (or their legal guardians) consent to this. For minor starters this field is deliberately not available.

For athletes: claiming a profile

Open the "Athlete profile" page and enter the email address your dojo used to register you. You'll receive a sign-in link by email – only after clicking it does your data become visible. This way, nobody can view your registrations using someone else's email address.

After that, under "My tournaments" you'll find all your registrations across all dojos and tournaments – each with date, status, and participant number.

Privacy: you stay in control

• Opt out of the annual ranking: via the switch in your profile, you can object to your inclusion in the public annual ranking at any time.
• Delete profile: you can fully remove your identity and the link to your registrations. Your dojo's registrations remain unaffected by this.

You can reach the annual ranking via the "Ranking" menu item at the top – it's public and visible even without signing in. It shows, over a season (the last 365 days), who has collected the most points – as an athletes' ranking and a dojo ranking (top 100).

The points result from medals won at tournaments:

• Gold = 10 points
• Silver = 6 points
• Bronze = 3 points

Older results automatically drop out again after 365 days. You can search by athlete or dojo and filter by gender, age class, grade, and federation – or click on a dojo to see only its members. The rotating podium at the top shows the leaders of various categories (e.g. best women, best youth, gold collectors).

Via the menu at the top right, you can reach:

• Profile: edit name, phone, birthday, and dojo. Your customer number and email are also shown here.
• Change password: set a new password at any time (for accounts with email/password). If you've forgotten your password, use "Forgot password" on the sign-in page.
• Settings: default values for disciplines, design options for the brackets, and your payout account.
• Delete account: if you wish, you can permanently remove your account here (with a security confirmation).

Unsaved changes aren't lost – the app asks before you leave.

• If you're stuck, use the support form and briefly describe your issue.
• Many actions (saving a tournament, draw, scoring) can be tried out risk-free as long as your tournament is still a draft – ideal for practicing.