In-person tournaments include a schedule of when teams are expected to perform their team challenge and instant challenge. The scheduler for the the tournament assigns times for each team such that the team challenge performance and their instant challenge are far enough apart so the team can do both.  Teams often have additional constraints such as

  • when they need to arrive and depart the tournament
  • relationships to other teams whose performances should not be at the same time as theirs


The scheduler learns of these constraints from schedule requests.  Some schedule requests such as arrival and departure time are entered by the team.  Others such as team members (kids) or team managers on multiple teams the scheduler can figure out on its own.


Generating schedule requests are covered in subtopics of this topic.


This topic covers the concepts behind schedule requests including:

  • the types of requests the system understands
  • the priority applied to the types of schedule requests



Scheduled Times


A team typically has 2 scheduled times:

  • time of their Team Challenge presentation and the room where they will present
  • time of their Instant Challenge presentation

For teams this information is only displayed when the schedule has been published. For officials, the times listed are the current times.  If the schedule has not been published, these time might change based on further scheduling.


Schedule Requests


The Resource Area categorizes requests as follows:


  1. a time request (entered by the team)
    • our team cannot arrive at the tournament before a specific time
    • our team needs to leave the tournament at a specific time
  1. a kid (team member) request (automatic)
    • a kid on our team is also on the following teams at this tournament
    • the scheduler uses the kids on each team to figure this out
  1. an other request (entered by the team)
    • this is for a request that does not fit in the other categories
    • the scheduler figures out the priority of the request
  1. a tm (team manager) request (automatic)
    • one of our team managers is also managing other teams at this tournament
    • as the Resource Area knows all the team managers, you don't need to enter these requests
  1. a family request (entered and automatic)
    • our team has siblings on the following teams at this tournament
    • we'd like to be able to see the other teams at our school
    • kids that share a common contact-email the scheduler figures out on it own


As you might expect, all of these do not necessarily carry the same weight.


  1. most schedulers honor time requests provided they are reasonable
  2. kid requests are likely the most important requests to handle
  3. other request are analyzed individually by the scheduler
  4. teams are expect to have backup plans for busy team managers so a scheduler does their best
  5. family requests typically have the lowest priority


Depending on the mix of requests at a tournament, schedulers do their best to meet requests, but it is not always possible.


Both team managers and tournament officials can enter schedule requests.


Team managers can enter requests from Tournaments=>my tournaments as explained here.


Tournament Officials access to schedule requests is discussed here.