Programs often require more than one stage of judging. Score sets are the foundation of this configuration and enable multi-stage judging. Essentially, a score set acts as a container. It controls the judging mode and defines what judges can see and do.
Each score set holds:
- The judging mode
- The entries included
- Scoring criteria, if applicable
- Assigned judges or voters
- Results, scores, and comments
Every judging stage must have its own score set. This applies even if your program has only one judging stage.
The diagram below shows how score sets act as separate containers for each judging stage.
Each container represents a distinct judging stage. They are independent and do not share results unless you explicitly configure them to.
Example 1: three judging stages
-
Stage 1: Qualifying
- Uses the Qualifying judging mode
- Often used to reduce a large pool of entries
- Judges make pass or fail decisions
- Qualified entries are tagged to move forward
-
Stage 2: VIP judging for shortlisting
- Uses the VIP judging mode
- Requires scoring criteria
- Judges score each entry
- Average scores appear on the leaderboard
- Shortlisted entries are tagged to progress
-
Stage 3: VIP judging for winners
- Uses a new VIP score set
- Uses new scoring criteria
- Prevents Stage 2 scores from combining with Stage 3
- Winners are determined from leaderboard results
- Entries may be tagged as winners
Using this approach, program managers can clearly identify:
- Shortlisted entries
- Finalists
- Winners
- Scores and comments per stage
Example 2: parallel judging stages with different outcomes
Programs may also run multiple judging stages at the same time.
In this example:
- One score set uses VIP judging
- Another score set uses Voting
- Stages run at the same time
- Judges and voters may overlap
- Results remain completely separate
Good to know
- Every judging stage requires its own score set to prevent results from mixing between stages.
- Multiple score sets can run concurrently.
- Different judging modes can be combined in one program.
- Tags are commonly used to move entries between stages.