This page outlines the features the Resource Area provides Officials to aid in running a DI Tournament.  These features are targeted at:


  • Regional Directors and Regional Challenge Masters running a Regional Tournament
  • Affiliate Directors and Affiliate Challenge Masters running an Affiliate Tournament


This page describes common steps in the life of DI tournament including how the Resource Area supports these steps.  See the Tournament Checklist page for an order list of features including links to detailed descriptions of how these features can be used.


Prior to the Tournament


  1. team buy team numbers
    Team numbers can be purchase from the summer before tournament season until a deadline imposed by the Region or Affiliate.  A team number supports a team of up to 7 kids participate in the program and attend a tournament to show their solution.

    The Resource Area tracks team challenge choice, clarifications, online forms and team managers (all of which are useful to those running a tournament).

  2. teams are organized into affiliates and regions
    Smaller affiliates might have a single tournament for all the teams in the affiliate.  Larger affiliates are often divided teams into geographic regions with a regional tournament scheduled for each region.
    In the end, we have a collection of teams that will participate at a tournament.  The number of teams will dictate the number of challenge sites needed for the teams to perform and the number of appraisers that will be needed to judge the teams.

    The Resource Area tracks the region and affiliate of each team so you can get a list of teams expected at your tournament.  Coupling this with the team challenges chosen, the person scheduling the tournament has much of the information needed to create a schedule of team performance times.  The Resource Area will also provide this schedule to the DI Scoring Program if requested.

  3. sites are procured to run tournaments and tournament dates are set
    This typically happens months in advance of the tournament.  The site will need enough venues to accommodate the scheduled teams.

    The Resource Area requires you create a tournament that contains the includes the date and location of the tournament.

  4. appraisers are recruited and organized into appraiser teams
    Affiliates use a variety of techniques to recruit adults to appraise the tournament.  These appraisers will need to be organized into teams that will judge the scheduled teams.  The Rules of the Road require that the appraisers judging a particular level of a challenge be the same for all teams in that challenge-level.

    The Resource Area supports building appraiser teams and selecting the items in a challenge each appraiser will score.  The Resource Area can provide this information to the DI Scoring Program.  If your tournament uses mobile scoring, this information is needed by the Mobile Clients to control which teams and score items each appraiser sees.

  5. instant challenges are selected
    The Officials running Instant Challenge at your tournament will select the instant challenges they want to use in each instant challenge room and gather the supplies needed for that challenge.  The IC rooms are defined by the tournament schedule.

    The Resource Area lets you select the instant challenge used in each IC room from the regional and affiliate instant challenges supplied by DIHQ.  This information along with the team and appraiser information can then be used to initialize the DI Scoring Program.   If your tournament uses mobile scoring, this information is also needed by the Mobile Clients to control which teams and score items each appraiser sees.

  6. score sheets are printed
    Both Team Challenge and Instant Challenge have a variety of forms that can be used to score the tournament.  If your tournament is not doing mobile scoring, you will need copies of these forms to convey appraisers scores to the Score Room.  If your tournament is using mobile scoring, many of these forms can be eliminated as the Mobile Client will capture an appraiser's scores for the DI Scoring Program.  There are forms such as worksheets that are not handled by the Mobile Client and thus will still need to be printed.

    The Resource Area provides a variety of score sheets including blank sheets and score sheets with team information pre-filled out.  Both regional and affiliate Instant Challenge packets are also available in the documents area.

  7. the DI Scoring Program is initialize
    The DI Scoring Program is the gold standard for scoring your tournament.  It collects all the individual appraiser scores and combines them to produce Raw Scores that can be shared with the teams and the final tournament rankings.

    Most tournaments have Score Room leads that provide the computer hardware and expertise to score the tournament using the DI Scoring Program.

    The Resource Area can work with the DI Scoring Program to initialize it with the teams and appraiser assignments it needs to score the tournament.  If you are using mobile scoring, the DI Scoring Program interfaces with the Mobile Clients each appraiser uses to enter their scores.


During the Tournament


The day of the tournament typically starts with a certain amount of setup.  For example, the Instant Challenge appraisers learn the challenge they will be appraising.  The Score Room hardware is likely setup.  If the tournament is mobile scoring, all the appraisers need to launch the Mobile Client and see what they will be scoring (there might be some adjustments needed).


If your tournament is mobile scoring, the Resource Area provides features to assist appraisers in getting "logged-in" and to monitor the tournament throughout the day.


Appraiser rooms then start following a cycle of seeing teams as dictated by the schedule.  The Resource Area supports this cycle of appraising teams as outlined below.


  1. appraisers review the team supplied materials
    For Team Challenge, the team needs to supply their Tournament Data Form, Expense Reports, Prep Checklists and any Team Clarifications to the appraisers.

    If your tournament is using Mobile Scoring, all this information will be supplied to your appraisers either through the Mobile Client or the Resource Area.  If your tournament is using paper, teams can use the Resource Area to print copies of these materials.

  2. appraiser observe and score team
    If your tournament is mobile scoring, appraisers use the Mobile Client to record scores.  Officials can monitor the scoring using the Resource Area.

  3. raw scores and sticky notes are shared with team
    Historically, the DI Scoring Program prints out Raw Scores that can be shared with the team and Sticky Notes can be printed with score sheets.  If your tournament is Mobile Scoring, Raw Scores and Sticky Notes are generated by appraisers using the Mobile Client, viewed in the Resource Area and emailed to team managers.

  4. track teams
    If your tournament is mobile scoring, the Resource Area lets you see which team have been scored and those that have seen their Raw Scores. In the case of Instant Challenge, you can also use the Resource Area to track teams as they check-in, enter the IC rooms, and leave Instant Challenge.


After the Tournament is over


Tournaments typically culminate in an awards ceremony where the work of all teams is acknowledge and the winners advancing to the next level of competition is announced.


  1. tabulate the tournament results
    The DI Scoring Program tabulates the tournament results and provides print-outs that are useful for announcing winners at the awards ceremony.

  2. advance winning teams to next level of competition
    The DI Scoring Program can share the winners of the competition with the Resource Area.  This dovetails with the setup procedures for the next level tournament.