Atlas / tournament documentation

Rooms

How to define rooms, import many at once, set capacity and notes, retire a room, and how Rounds and online meeting links use the list.

Rooms are the places debates happen. A tournament's room list is kept in the Rooms section of Setup, the third section in Setup's own rail, at /tournaments/<tournamentId>/admin/setup?section=rooms. There is no separate Rooms screen: the older /admin/rooms address redirects into that section. Use the list to describe the rooms before the first round is prepared, so that Rounds can assign them to pairings and check that a pairing fits.

The Overview screen links to this section. It shows Add the rooms when no room exists, or Add N more rooms when the list is shorter than half the entries rounded up.

Who can use it

Role	What the role can do with rooms
Platform admin	Adds, edits, retires and imports rooms in any tournament.
Organization owner or admin	The same, for the tournaments of the organization.
Tournament admin seat, admin	Adds, edits, retires and imports rooms.
Tournament admin seat, tab	The same as an admin seat. Rooms hold no money settings.
Tournament admin seat, compliance	Cannot open Setup and cannot change rooms.
Coach, competitor, judge, observer	Cannot change rooms. A competitor or judge sees the room name on a released pairing.

Every room action first checks that the signed-in account administers the tournament, and then that the tournament belongs to the organization address the request came through. A failure of the first check shows You do not have admin access to this tournament. A failure of the second shows Unauthorized.

The Rooms section

Control	What it does	Default or limit
Inventory, the room count	A large number and the words rooms across N sites. Sites are counted from the distinct Site values on the rooms.	Zero rooms on a new tournament.
Round 1 needs N concurrent rooms	States how many rooms Round 1 needs for the active entries across all events, then the rooms in reserve or the number short. Congress chambers are counted once each.	Needed is the active entries divided by two, rounded up.
Configured, click a room to edit it	The list of rooms, sorted by Site and then Room. Each row shows an index, the name and, in smaller text, the room number, site, seats, notes and an accessible tag when present. Selecting a row opens it in the form.	Empty on a new tournament.
Import from CSV	A link at the right of the Configured heading. It points at the older Rooms address, which redirects back to this section. It does not open a file picker.	Always available.
Retire, on a row	Removes the room from the tournament. See Retiring a room.	Writes at once.
+ Add a room	Clears the form so the next save adds a new room.	Always available.
+ New room instead	Shown while a room is open. Clears the form without saving.	Shown only while editing.
Editing, then the room name, or Add a room	The heading of the form.	Add a room on load.
Room	The room's name. The placeholder reads Hutchins 222.	Required. Up to 100 characters. Unique within the tournament, ignoring capitals and spaces at the ends.
Site, tagged Optional	The building or campus. The placeholder reads Hutchins Hall. The help says it groups rooms so Rounds can keep a team's walk short; Rounds does not use it that way. It orders the list.	Up to 100 characters.
Capacity, tagged no limit	Seats, counting judges. The placeholder reads 40.	Blank, or a whole number from 0 to 10000.
Notes, tagged Optional	Free text shown in the room picker in Rounds. The placeholder reads Accessible · projector · whiteboard.	Up to 2000 characters.
Add room, Save room	Adds the new room or saves the open one. The button reads Saving… while it runs. After a save the form clears.	Disabled while Room is empty or a save is running.
Add many at once, Bulk import rooms	A box for pasted lines, with the button Import rooms. The button reads Importing... while it runs. See Importing many rooms.	1 to 500 rooms per import.

The room number and the available flag have no field in the form. A room added in the form has no room number. A room edited in the form keeps its number and its available flag. A room added in the form is tagged accessible when the notes contain the word accessible; an edited room keeps its flag. The tag is a label in the list, and Rounds does not filter on it.

Tasks

Add one room:

Open Setup. Select Rooms.
Enter the name under Room. Fill Site, Capacity and Notes if they apply.
Select Add room.

Afterward the room appears in the Configured list, the Inventory count rises by one and the rail row reads the new count against the rooms needed.

Change a room:

Open Setup. Select Rooms.
Select the room's row. The form heading reads Editing and the room's name.
Change the fields, then select Save room.

Afterward the list shows the new values. A pairing already seated in the room keeps the room name it was given, so renaming a room does not rename the room on a released pairing.

Retire a room:

Open Setup. Select Rooms.
Select Retire on the room's row.

Afterward the room leaves the list. When a pairing that has not been debated still sits in the room, a message names how many, and the room stays.

Add many rooms:

Open Setup. Select Rooms and find Bulk import rooms.
Type or paste one room per line, in the order name, number, building, capacity.
Select Import rooms.

Afterward a line under the box reads Imported N rooms. and the box clears. When any line is refused, nothing is imported and the message names the line.

Importing many rooms

The box takes comma separated lines. It does not take a file, and it does not read a header row: the first line is treated as a room. A line has up to four values, in this order.

Column	Stored as	Default or limit
1, name	The room's name, as in the form's Room field.	Required. Up to 100 characters. Not already in the tournament and not repeated in the paste.
2, number	The room number, which the list shows beside the name.	Optional. Up to 100 characters.
3, building	The Site, shown in the form as Site.	Optional. Up to 100 characters.
4, capacity	Seats, as in the form's Capacity field.	Optional. A whole number from 0 to 10000.

An import takes 1 to 500 rooms. A longer list is split into several imports.
Blank lines are skipped. Row numbers in messages count the lines as typed, so a skipped blank line does not shift them.
Values are split at every comma, so a name that contains a comma cannot be imported. Quote marks are not interpreted.
Imported rooms have no notes and are not tagged accessible. Open the room afterward to add notes.
The import is all or nothing. One refused line stops the whole import, and nothing is added.
The example in the box reads Science Lab 1, 101, West Hall, 30 on one line and Library, 202, Main, 24 on the next.

Capacity

Capacity is optional. A room with no capacity has no limit, and a pairing is never refused for it. Capacity counts everyone who must be in the room: the speakers on both entries, one or two for each, plus the judges. A pairing that has no judge yet counts as one, because a judge is coming. Observers and coaches are not counted.

A capacity check runs when a pairing is given a room by name in Rounds and the name matches a room on the list, ignoring capitals and spaces at the ends. A name that matches no room is accepted with no check. A room that is too small is refused with a message that gives its seats and the number needed.

Retiring a room

Retire deletes the room from the list. The room is refused while any pairing that is not completed and not a bye still points at it, matched by the room's link or by its name. A pairing that was already debated, and a bye, does not block a retire, and the name on those pairings stays as it was written. A retire is recorded in Records.

How Rounds uses rooms

Where	What Rounds does with the list
Prepare next round	Gives each pairing that is not a bye the next room, in the order the rooms sort by name as text. Only rooms that are available are used. Capacity is not checked at this step. When there are fewer rooms than pairings, the later pairings get no room.
Prepare an elimination round from Breaks	Gives each pairing that is not a bye a room, largest capacity first. A room with no capacity sorts last, and ties go by name. A bye takes no room.
Room field on a pairing	A free text field with up to 200 characters, offered with the available rooms from largest to smallest and their seat counts. A name that is not on the list is accepted, so a borrowed office or a hallway works.
Changing a room	Needs a Reason for change. Selecting Save room opens a confirmation reading Change the room? Affected competitors and the judge may need a room update. A change to a released pairing sends a notice to both sides and every judge in the room.
The release check	Blocks a pairing with the finding No room assigned. and a second pairing that shares a room with a finding reading the room's name followed by is also used by another pairing this round. The check does not count the debates against the rooms.
Recommended fix	When the console proposes a fix for a missing or shared room, it picks a room from the list that no pairing in the round holds.

A bye is a round in which an entry is not paired and receives a win. It uses no room, and Rounds refuses a room change on it with the message This pairing is a bye and does not use a room.

Online tournaments and meeting links

When Where is Online in the Tournament section, a room is a meeting. The room stored on a pairing is then the meeting's https link, and screens show it as Online room followed by its place among the link rooms on the list, for example Online room 2. A pairing's page offers the link to the people allowed to open it.

To prepare links in advance, add a room whose name is the full link, one per debate. Prepare next round assigns them like any other room. A link longer than 100 characters is refused by the Room field.
To set or change the link on one pairing, type the link into the pairing's Room field in Rounds, or open the pairing's room page.
On the room page, the judges seated in the room and the tournament staff may set the link. A competitor may not, because one side could otherwise move the other side's round.
A link must start with https://. Leaving the field empty clears it.
An in-person tournament refuses a link from a room page.

Setting Where to Online also turns on round chat, evidence exchange and the coordination chat on the judge's ballot. Changing it opens the impact review in Setup, which lists each feature that turns on or off.

Troubleshooting

Message	What it means	What to do
Capacity is a whole number of seats, or blank.	The Capacity field holds a decimal, a negative number or text.	Enter a whole number from zero up, or clear the field.
A room needs a name.	The name is empty after trimming.	Enter a name.
A room name must be 100 characters or fewer.	The name is too long, which a meeting link can be.	Shorten the name, or set the link on the pairing in Rounds.
The room number must be 100 characters or fewer.	An imported number is too long.	Shorten it.
The building must be 100 characters or fewer.	The Site or an imported building is too long.	Shorten it.
Capacity must be a whole number from 0 to 10000, or left empty.	The capacity is out of range or not whole.	Enter a whole number from 0 to 10000, or leave it empty.
Room notes must be 2000 characters or fewer.	The notes are too long.	Shorten the notes.
A room named "NAME" already exists in this tournament.	Names are unique, ignoring capitals and spaces at the ends.	Choose another name, or edit the existing room.
The room could not be saved.	The save failed without a more specific reason.	Try again.
That room is not in this tournament.	The room was already removed.	Reload Setup.
NAME still holds N pairings that have not debated. Move them to another room first.	A retire was refused. With one pairing the wording is still holds 1 pairing that has not debated. Move it to another room first.	Change the pairing's room in Rounds, then retire the room.
The room could not be retired.	The retire failed without a more specific reason.	Try again.
Provide between 1 and 500 rooms.	The paste had no lines, or more than 500.	Import up to 500 rooms at a time.
Row N: each row must be name, number, building, capacity.	A line has more than four values, or no name.	Fix that line.
Row N: Capacity must be a non-negative whole number.	The fourth value is not a whole number from zero up.	Fix that line.
Row N: followed by a room message	The server refused line N, with a reason such as a name already in use, a value that is too long, or a capacity out of range.	Fix that line and import again.
Import failed.	The import failed without a more specific reason.	Try again.
NAME seats N and this round needs M. Pick a larger room or raise its capacity on Setup.	Rounds refused a room that is too small for the people in the pairing.	Choose a larger room, or raise the room's capacity in Setup.
A reason is required when changing the room.	The Reason for change field is empty.	Enter a reason.
No change to save.	The room typed is the room already on the pairing.	Type a different room.
Enter the full meeting link, starting with https://.	The text on a room page is not a link.	Paste the full link.
Meeting links must start with https://.	The link uses another scheme.	Use an https link.
Rooms for an in-person tournament are assigned by the tournament staff.	A link was submitted on an in-person tournament.	Ask the tab room for the room.
The judges in this room and the tournament staff set its meeting link. Ask your judge, or use Ping Tab.	A competitor tried to set the link.	Ask the judge or the tab room.
You do not have admin access to this tournament.	The account holds no admin seat that can change rooms.	Sign in with an admin or tab seat.
Could not check your admin access. Try again.	The access check did not run.	Wait a moment and try again.
Unauthorized	The tournament does not belong to the organization address the request came through.	Open the tournament on its own organization's address.