Judging

Please note that it is the expectation that all judges keep their cameras on (sound muted) while they are judging, if possible.

Judges who are on standby or who thought they were scheduled for a round but didn't receive an assignment should go to the Judges' Lounge and wait there as the round is starting. We will pop in there to ask for folks to cover rounds as we discover missing judges or tech issues. Having an available pool of standby judges is critical to the tournament running on time, so please wait until judges are released. You will absolutely be a hero if you can take a ballot when needed!

To access the rooms judges will log in to their Tabroom account and check their dashboard. Upcoming rounds will be listed with a small blue camera icon where a room number would usually be. Simply click that icon to enter your room. You will be able to select how you want to watch the round, speaker view or gallery view. For Duet you will need to do gallery view to see both competitors at the same time. Judges also have the ability to mute others in the room if needed.

There are some options to the right of the pictures, Info, File Share, Timer and Contact. The Contact tab is where you go if you have any issues. Fill out the email and send it off. Tab staff will receive it and work to correct the problem.

Judges may need to split their screens in order to see the round and the ballot at the same time. Or if they have two devices they could fill the ballot out on a separate screen. Another option is to jot down any thoughts you have on paper and then transfer that to the ballot after the round is over. Please know that you can put ranks/win/loss and points in first and save the ballot and go back to put in your comments if time is short.

Here are a few tips for linking your Tabroom account and filling out ballots online.

Tabroom.com Online Balloting -- Judge Instructions

TO LINK YOUR ACCOUNT

1. Sign up for a Tabroom.com account if you don’t already have one. Go to Tabroom.com and click “Sign Up” in the upper right hand corner. Fill out the info, especially your cell number & email if you want automatic updates pushed to your phone.

2. The system will bring you to a large welcome screen. Click on “Link your account” under the Judges heading. If you already had a Tabroom.com account, click on “Link your account to a judge” under Your Account on the lower right.

3. If your account name is the same as what we have entered in the system spelling-wise, you should see the option to link yourself to a judge record that is connected with your school. If you are a tournament hired judge, you’ll be listed as Hired. If your name does not show up from the search, check the spelling on the tournament’s judge list linked off of Tabroom.com, and look up how your name is spelled; there may have been a typo, or a nickname was used.

If someone else has claimed your judge record already, you will not be able to link your account; if you think this is the case, contact your tab room staff and they can help you out.

4. Click “Claim Judge” next to the appropriate judge record. Once you do this, you’ll need to be approved by a tournament admin, but once that happens you will get text or email updates for your pairings, and you will see your online ballots as they’re assigned to you.

TO VOTE ONLINE

Once a round has been posted, going to the Tabroom homepage for your account (click on your email address on the top right if you’re lost) will list your pending and past ballots. Once the round you are judging begins, click START ROUND next to the right round. You will see your ballot, with space for comments below and an online timer at right.

You may submit comments or an RFD under the results; clicking Save RFD under here will save your comments without submitting results; the RFD will also be saved when you submit results. You can also sent comments to specific speakers by choosing them from the menu at right; but save any RFD first before doing so. For congress, each speech will give you a chance to record points for that speech, the topic thereof, and comments specific to the speech.

Once the round is done, enter the scores needed (win/loss, ranks, points). You will be asked to confirm your ballot; please review the results and confirm. You cannot change results after confirmation, though you can edit/add feedback until the tournament is done. Then you’re done!

You will see your past ballots on your Tabroom home screen during the tournament, so if you notice an error let the tournament staff know and they can fix the ballots for you.

Here is a link to some more information.

Judging Tabroom Help