Setting up your first Competition in Notch is one of the first things new assignors will learn how to do. A competitions configurations will allow you to easily create games, track payments, and so much more.
Getting Started
First sign into your assignor dashboard here. Once signed in click on "Competitions" at the top of your dashboard. This will open the competitions page as shown. To start configuring your first competition click on the green "New Competition+" button at the top of the page.
Within this new page you will see a handful of required configurations;
Competition Name - This is used to identify your competition for anyone in your group, including Officials.
Competition Type - The drop down offers a selection of different types of competitions. Select the one that fits your competition best.
Payout Format
Notch Pay - Choose this if you want the competition to payout officials & assignors through the Notch Platform.
Offline - Choose this option if you will handle payments for games outside of Notch.
Once you have selected those 3 settings and save your changes the "Competition Sports" section will unlock for you to continue. When your ready, go ahead and click the "+Add Sport" button.
The add sport button will trigger a popup as shown above. All competitions will require at least one sport. However, competitions can have multiple sports if needed such as baseball & softball or dance & cheer. For now we will select just a single sport, baseball, to set up our configuration. At the end of the guide we will circle back and review adding a second sport.
Once you have selected your sport simply click "Next" to proceed. You will then be prompted to "Configure" your sport as shown. Lets take a moment to review these two configurations because they will be important later on when you create games.
Default Game Type - This will be the default game type each game is created with. You can override this default setting when creating games later on.
Enable Self-Request - This setting will allow officials to self request games for your approval. If enabled you can also set a limit to the number of requests an individual can make per day.
When ready, click "Configure Sport" to continue to the next screen.
Official Labels
The "Official Labels" configurations will be used when generating games to add a label for the position an official is working. These labels will be determined by the crew size of each game, with Notch offering a max crew size of 10.
For simplicity, we have a simple umpire configuration of UMP1,UMP2, and UMP3 in our example. When configuring your labels set these to whatever fits your needs. When your finished, simply click "Save and Proceed".
Age Groups
Next up, we will set up our "Age Group" configurations. Lets break down what we have;
Game Age Description - The general description of the age group(s) participating in the competition.
Game Period - Choose from Halves, Periods, or Quarters after clicking the drop down.
Period Length - Measured in minutes, set the time each period will take.
Total Duration (Min) - Also in minutes, set the entire duration of the game.
By default each competition needs to have at least 1 age group configured. To add more age groups simply click the "Add New+" button.
Additionally, you can copy and delete age groups by using the buttons shown below. When deleting age groups please proceed with caution. If deleted by mistake age groups will need to be recreated manually and cannot be recovered.
Levels
In the "Levels" page you will configure the levels for your competition. Like before, each competition needs at least one level. If you need to add additional levels simply click the green "Add Another+" button. When your finished click the "Save & Proceed" button at the top of the page.
Pay Scales
Arguably the most important configurations for the whole competition are the pay scales. These configurations will be used when generating games to determine how much both the officials and assignor(s) are paid. Lets break each field down and review;
Game Type - The types of games this pay scale will apply to. This is particularly useful when separating pay for standard league games vs playoff games.
Age - The age group this pay scale will apply to.
Level - The level this pay scale will apply to.
Crew Size - The max crew size for this pay scale.
Please note, when a game is generated if you set a crew size of 2 in the pay scale the game will generate with only 2 roles, even if the competition is set for a max crew size of 3+.
Official Pay - These columns will determined the pay for each position. By default the system will generate a game with the max number of positions configured in the pay scale. Should a role be unfilled/absent the system will adjust the pay in accordance to the correct pay scale.
Group Assignor Rate - The group assignors rate for their assignment efforts.
Sub-Assignor Rate - The sub-assignors rate for the game.
Other Rate - Any additional fees/charges for the game.
Total Rate - The total of all the rates.
Teams
Were almost done! The last portion of the competitions configurations is setting up the teams. If you plan to import your games via CSV your teams will automatically generate with your import. However, if you plan to create individual games you will need to configure your teams here first.
Competition Users
In this section you can invite Admins and Sub-Assignors to your competition. To invite a new user simply click the "Select Role" drop down to select the user type and either copy the invite link or enter the users email before clicking "Invite User".
Adding Additional Sports
Once you have completed your initial set up you can return to your competitions "General Info" page and click on the blue "+Add Sport" button to add more sports to the competition.
With a new competition created you will now be able to generate games based on your competitions configurations. If you selected 'Notch Pay' when creating your competition you can also view your competitions balance or add funds when selecting balances within the Payments tab in your assignor profile. Once your ready to move on check out our other articles for creating games and inviting new officials to your group!
Remember : There is no limit on the number of competitions you can create so feel free to revisit this article if you ever need a refresher.