How to host a tournament

Step 1: Sign in through the Host door

Hosting uses the same CodeKairo account as playing. Choose Host on the sign-in page and you land on the host dashboard.

On the screen

1. Host — you land on the host dashboard.
2. Your CodeKairo email and password, or Google or GitHub.

Step 2: Create your organization

On the host dashboard choose New organization. Give the official name, the kind — college or university, student club or chapter, company, or community — its website, its city and a line about it.

Use the official name and website: CodeKairo checks them once, before your first tournament can go public.

On the screen

1. The official name.
2. What kind of organization it is.
3. The website — it is what makes verification quick.

Step 3: Draft while you wait for verification

Your organization appears on the dashboard as waiting for verification. You can create and prepare tournaments straight away: they stay drafts, visible only to you and your co-organizers, until the organization is verified.

On the screen

1. The organization's status.
2. New tournament — start a draft now.
3. Your tournaments; each opens its manage page.

Step 4: Set up the tournament

Pick the format — a 1v1 knockout, or an ICPC-style contest with teams of up to three — then the start, the length of each match or of the contest, when registration closes and an optional cap on places.

Who may enter is up to you: email domains (subdomains count), an invite code, your approval of each registration, or any mix. For a contest you can also freeze the scoreboard for the last minutes, and reveal it after the end.

On the screen

1. The format: 1v1 knockout or ICPC-style contest.
2. The start, the length of each match (or of the contest), and when registration closes.
3. Email domains that may register.
4. An invite code, and whether you approve each registration.

The format and the team size cannot change once the tournament is published.

Step 5: Choose the problems

On the tournament's manage page, Problems holds the set. Search the CodeKairo catalogue by name or topic, add up to 15, and put them in order. Each already has hidden tests and starter code in 13 languages.

In a knockout the order matters: round one plays the first problem, round two the second. Players see only how many problems there are until the start.

On the screen

1. Your problem set, lettered A, B, C … — move a problem up or down, or remove it.
2. Search the catalogue.
3. Add a problem to the set.

Press Save problem set when the list is right.

Step 6: Publish and share the link

Once the organization is verified and the problems are set, Publish. The tournament appears on the tournaments list and gets its own page — share that link with your players.

You can still edit it until it starts. Once it is public, a change to its settings goes to CodeKairo for approval, and the tournament is hidden until it is approved; registrations are kept. Until it starts you can also delete it — from its manage page or the dashboard's row — and afterwards only cancel it.

On the screen

1. What stands between the draft and the public: verification, then Publish.
2. Publish — enabled once your organization is verified.
3. Settings, problems and entrants, one tab each.

Step 7: Approve players, or enter the teams

For a knockout, the Players tab lists every registration with the player's name and email domain — never the address. If you approve entries, Approve or Decline each one; you can change a decision until the start.

For an ICPC-style contest, the Teams tab takes a pasted list: one team per line, its name, then each member's CodeKairo email or username. Up to 500 teams at a time, checked as a whole — nothing is saved unless every line is right.

On the screen

1. Each player, with their email domain.
2. Approve or Decline.
3. For a contest: paste the team list.

Step 8: Run the day

At the start everything runs by itself: check-in closes, the bracket is drawn from the checked-in players and matches start and settle — or the contest room opens for every team. From the manage page you can open the bracket, the contest room and the scoreboard to follow it. On a knockout's bracket, open any match to watch both players' code as they type — you can't edit, run or submit anything there.

After an ICPC-style contest with a freeze, Reveal results makes the final standings public.

On the screen

1. The contest room and the scoreboard (for a knockout, the bracket).
2. Reveal results — after a frozen contest ends.
3. Cancel tournament, if you must; players see that it was cancelled.

CodeKairo Battles does not lock the clipboard or watch tabs. For a contest with prizes, run it in a lab with someone walking the room.