The Schedule for Global Finals dictates when teams will perform both their Team Challenge (TC) and their Instant Challenge (IC).


A series of decisions determine the layout of the Global Finals schedule.  The key factor in selecting a schedule for Global Finals is the number of teams that will compete.  This estimate controls the following about the schedule:


  1. the number of days of competition
  2. the number of rooms of both TC and IC competition  (this dictates the number of appraisers needed to score the tournament)
  3. level of physical contact of attendee
    This was a new factor introduced with COVID.  In an effort to reduce the likelihood of transmission, DIHQ introduced the idea of a team's IC following closely after their TC.  Previously, the common practice was to hold TC on one day and IC on another.


To deal with these variations, the Global Finals schedule is based on a scheme.  The scheme chosen dictates:

  • the number of days of competition
  • the length of each competing team slot (typically 15, 18 or 20 mins)
  • when the day starts and ends


The scheme is then used to create the TC and IC competition rooms.


At this point teams can be placed in the schedule.  This can be done either by an automated scheduler and/or manually.  When doing the scheduling, team input needs to be taken into account:

  1. when the team will arrive and depart
  2. whether a team member (kid) is on more than one team
  3. whether a team manager is managing more than one team
  4. whether team siblings/friends are associated with more than one team
  5. medical needs


Much of this input is collected from registration information (eg 1-3).  Teams can add schedule requests that scheduling will also try to take into account.


A preliminary schedule is then publish to the teams for review.  Feedback is then used to further refine the final schedule. This final schedule is used to initialize scoring of the tournament.  There may be further changes, but they are treated as errata and not reflected in the scoring system.