Running an Online Competition

An Online Competition is a fully judged competition without a live event day: dancers perform on video instead of on stage. Registration, sections, scorecards, fees, results, and certificates all work exactly as they do in-person. The differences are that every entry carries a performance video link, and judging happens remotely inside a judging window you set.

There is no venue, no schedule, no tickets, no check-in, and no music playback. The videos bring their own audio.

Creating an Online Competition

1. From the Organizer Dashboard, click "Create Event"
2. Choose the Online Competition card
3. The wizard shows the competition steps minus the live-event ones: Venue, Tickets, Info, and Music are hidden

Three Basics fields work differently for online events:

The event type is fixed at creation, and battle performance types are not available. Online sections use standard scorecard judging only.

Online competitions can be publicly listed like any competition. Studios and dancers find them and register as usual.

Entries and Performance Videos

Registration is unchanged: studios (or independent dancers) register, add dancers, and create entries. Each entry has one extra field: a Performance Video link.

• Supported hosts: YouTube, Vimeo, and Google Drive (Drive sharing must be set to "Anyone with the link" so judges can watch)
• Videos can be added or replaced until the Video Submission Deadline; after that only you (the organiser) can change a video, and once an entry has been scored its video is locked for everyone
• Where the video host reports a duration, it's checked against your performance-type time limits automatically; otherwise review manually
• Entries without a video aren't judged: they're marked "No Submission" and excluded from results, so they never hold a section back
• The platform re-checks video links during the event and emails you a digest if any go dead or private; judges can also report a video that won't play for them, which emails you immediately

Your Entries tab and the studio/dancer portals show a per-entry video status, so everyone can see which entries still need a link before the deadline.

The Judging Window

The event's status advances automatically from the dates you set (in your timezone):

1. Registration closes at the Video Submission Deadline. Videos freeze
2. Judging opens on the Judging Opens date. Assigned judges are emailed and can start scoring
3. Judging closes after the Judging Closes date. Scores freeze and results can be published

Judges score in their own time and in any order: they browse sections, watch each video in the judging interface, score on your normal scorecards, and can revise their scores freely until the window closes. By default all judges score all entries; for large events you can assign judges to specific sections from the Judges page.

Judges with unfinished scoring get an email reminder 48 hours before the window closes, and you're emailed when it ends.

Need more time? If a judge has not finished, click "Extend judging by one day" in the results banner on the Event Dashboard. Each click moves Judging Closes one day later (to tonight, if the window has already closed) and reopens judging: judges can score and change scores again until the new close, judges who still have entries to score are emailed the new deadline, and entries that received a video after the close return to judging. You are emailed again when the extended window closes. The button is available until you publish results.

Adding a judge late: new judges can join until the judging window closes. A late judge is given every section, and sections that were already complete reopen so the new judge's scores are counted.

Tracking Judging Progress

The Event Dashboard has an online-only Judging Progress tab showing each judge's scored count, percentage complete, last activity, and who hasn't started. A section's results can only be published once every entry in it has been scored by every assigned judge, so use this view to nudge stragglers while the window is still open.

Entries paused for unpaid fees: if you hold entries back from judging until their fees are paid, no judge sees them. The Results page completeness banner leaves them out of the expected scores and says how many are paused, so the totals match Judging Progress. The banner reads "judge scores across N entries", where N is the entries judges can actually score.

Results

Online results are always released manually, in one step:

• The "Publish Results" button on the dashboard unlocks once the judging window has closed
• If a section is still waiting on a judge, extend judging by one day instead of publishing without it; once results are published the window cannot be extended
• Publishing releases all fully-scored sections at the same time. There is no per-section or live reveal
• After publishing, studios and dancers see scores, placements, feedback, and certificates in their portals exactly as for an in-person event, and you can still edit scores where needed

Publishing and Tokens

Publishing an online competition uses the same event tokens as live events. There is no separate online token. Event days and tickets don't apply (your dates are a judging window), so any tier publishes an online competition; what the tier sets is the event's performance-entry allowance (e.g. Bronze up to 150 entries, Silver up to 500). Pick the tier that fits your expected entries. If entries outgrow it, you can upgrade the event to a higher tier from the dashboard for the price difference.

What Online Competitions Don't Have