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Key Personnel
Head Judge
Designate one person to be the Head Judge for your entire tournament. This person's only responsibility should be managing lane judges and providing second calls during live matches. Head Judges should always be fullY certified for all disciplines you are hosting (WATL/WKTL).
Having one person designated as the Head Judge is important for multiple reasons:
Lane judges know who to defer to with any questions
Lane judges know who to call for a second opinion
Throwers know who is making second calls and that the calls are consistent for the entire event
Other staff are not pulled from their duties to make second calls, therefore slowing down your tournament
You can designate an experienced employee/volunteer as Head Judge, or bring in someone from another venue to fill the role for the weekend.
If you'd like to set up a meeting with the WATL Head Judge, Tabitha Carroll, to go over best practices for your tournament, email tournaments@worldaxethrowingleague.com to request.
Lane Judges
Ensure that you have enough Certified Judges to meet WATL requirements
National - 1 Certified Judge per lane in use.
eg. a facility running 10 lanes for the tournament must have at least 10 Certified Judges staffed for the event
Regional/Local - 1 Certified Judge per 16 throwers
Certified Judges must be actively working sanctioned events to count towards the Judge requirement minimums. Participating throwers who are Certified Judges, but are not actively working the event, are not counted towards this minimum requirement.
Hold a meeting with all judges before the start of the tournament to ensure that everyone is up to date on all rules
Review topics such as:
Foot faults (what part of the line in your venue is "lava")
Scoring/using the App (instruct Judges to ALWAYS confirm the winner with throwers before they leave the lane, so the wrong person is not pushed through the bracket)
Number of warm-up throws
Lane assignments
Specific rules of the current discipline
For larger events, having a schedule for the judges is also helpful. This ensures judges are rotating through and have ample break times.
Resources: How to Judge, Tournament Rule Book for Judges
You can print the QR codes for these resources to hang in each lane, or have these images printed on business cards for all your judges! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SOIQb0wSEynr_Culb0MaiOOF_4MBsVCH?usp=drive_link
All judges should review the rules in full before the tournament.
Please show your Judges the following information before the tournament starts
Judges should ONLY ever play the match assigned to their lane. They should not grab matches under the Added Games section, only under the Now Playing section for their assigned lane.
It is the Bracket Manager’s responsibility to push Added Games to the Now Playing section.
No Judges, under any circumstances, can edit the bracket, seeding, or scheduled games.
Custom matchups cannot be created; doing so will generate ghost branches of the bracket and disrupt the flow of the tournament.
No Judges, under any circumstances, can edit the Seeding or Check-In sections of the tournament. The only section Judges should be using are the matches assigned to their lane.
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Use monthly APC for affiliate discount
Pit Crew
Designate a group of staff responsible for keeping up with board changes and drawing fresh targets as needed.
It is recommended that the same person(s) make all the target boards for your event to ensure consistency in target quality.
Best practice tips:
When Killshot boards are no longer viable, they can be redrawn on the backside as bullseye boards (if the board is in good enough condition to be a bullseye board), and vice versa, bullseye boards can be flipped and transformed into Killshot boards.
Tournament boards will be changed more often that your normal event/walk-in nights. Save the tournament boards for your regular customers to get the most life out of them.
Have a board changing "cart" set up for your pit crew to easily sawp boards out. This could be a hand cart, dolly, wagon, etc. Have drills, extra screws, crowbar, mallet, tape measure, stencil, and extra pens/markers handy on the cart.
Bracket Manager
The Bracket Manager should be a dedicated staff member who is solely responsible for managing the brackets.
Bracket managers will:
Help check throwers in
Not in the App! If your tournament is doing check-ins it is in a separate roster or system. There are no check-ins in the App for tournaments.
Directing throwers to their lanes via verbal announcement (smaller events) or PA system (larger events)
Matching players/teams up to lanes on a dedicated master laptop/computer
Lane management cannot be done well via tablet
Monitoring upcoming matches to ensure no thrower is waiting for too long for a match
Be advised that the app does not necessarily order matches in the best way they should be played. Please refer to the Bracket/Time Management page for more information on how to push matches in the correct order.
Important Supplies
Tablets
Tablets
Update and test your tablets 1 week in advance of your tournament
Ensure that you have enough as many tablets/devices as you have lanes running matches
It is always a good idea to have 1 or 2 extra in case of technical issues or short-lived batteries
Paper Backups
Having paper backups for every match is essential in case of technical issues such as app connectivity issues, loss of internet connection, or hardware issues.
Feel free to make your own, or use our template that can be printed here.
Paper backup scorers can be appointed from your staff, or you can use volunteers. The backup scorers simply record the scores called out by the judge officiating the match via tablet/device.
If you have to use paper scoring due to an issue in the app, please make sure to keep ALL scores to be entered into the App at a later time.
Paper scoring is only allowed with the direct approval of a WATL official
Target Boards
Extra Boards
A stock of pre-drawn boards, specifically bullseye boards, will speed up the board-changing process between matches.
Save Killshot boards to be flipped and reused on the other side or bullseye boards if you run low on wood.
For larger tournaments, having a dedicated board team (Pit Crew) monitoring lanes and changing/drawing boards as needed will help things run smoothly.
Accurate Fault Lines
Accurate Floor Lines
Make sure that all marked fault lines are consistent throughout your entire venue
i.e. is the front or back of the line the fault? This needs to be the same for every lane
Refer to this document for tips on painting/taping the most accurate fault lines
Judge Kits
Optional: Judge Kits
These items are not required, but are recommended to ensure your Judges have everything they need to succeed.
Stylus (great when using smaller screens)
Flashlight (some stylus come with built in flashlight)
Measuring device (clear rulers, calipers, measuring tape or tailor’s tape)
Snacks/water
Pop sockets or cases with handles for tablets (ensures Judges are comfortable all day when scoring)
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