Guide for Participants (Competitors, Judges, Observers)

How do I create an account on Yaatly and affiliate with my Organization?

Your Organization Manager (typically a coach, president or club leader) will email you an invitation to join Yaatly and affiliate with your Organization. Click the link in the invitation and follow the instructions to join your organization.

Respond to your emailed invitation to join your Organization

How do I participate in an event?

Your Organization Manager will receive an invitation to an event from the Tournament Director. When they accept this invitation, they'll be able to invite your Organization's members to RSVP. You'll see the RSVP option on your personal homepage:

Members RSVP for Events to which their Organization has been invited

Once you RSVP, you'll be able to enter the Event to participate in the tournament.

What if I want to attend an event but I'm not affiliated with an Organization on Yaatly?

Sometimes you may want to attend an Event without inviting your whole Organization. Hired judges, observers, alumni, recruiters and others often attend events without the team. To do so, they'll need the invitation URL invitation for the Event from the Tournament Director.

With the invitation URL, any individual can join the event as an unaffiliated individual by selecting "Join as an Individual" on the invitation landing page.

What do I do once I've entered an event?

Once you're in the Event Lobby, you will probably head to the Auditorium for a general assembly for all tournament participants or to your team's Lounge--a private room only for members of your Organization. You can also find the Tournament HQ in the sidebar as well as the ability to create social rooms that are available to all attendees.

To know where you'll go to compete, you'll need to wait until the Tournament Director makes the posting available. Typically, this happens 15-20 minutes before the round begins.

How do I know where to go to compete?

When it's time for your round to begin, the posting/pairing will be available in the Lobby. You'll be able to find your team name or your individual name in the posting (or search for it in the page using "ctrl-F"). Once you've found it, you can select "Enter Room"

Enter your room directly from the posting

Enter your room directly from the posting

Next, you'll need to select your role in the room:

Entering a binary debate room

Entering a 4-team debate room

If you're competing in IEs, you'll choose your role based on where you're listed as a speaker in the round.

You can adjust your status in the Speech rooms to let your judge know if you're Ready, Double-entered (DE) or Triple-entered (TE)

What do I do now that I'm in my competition room?

Debate rooms have a number of tools available to the participants, including camera and microphone on/off buttons, a sidebar with room chat, members list and topics available, an in-room timer controlled by the judge, private preparation rooms for competitors and deliberation rooms for the adjudicators.

Competitors in IE rooms can adjust their status (to indicate if they're triple- or double-entered or ready to compete), they may use their microphone to talk with the judge before they take the floor and, when they're ready, they may take the floor to compete.

When it's your turn to speak, take the floor!

Or join in the debate!

Judges in IE rooms have many of the same tools available to competitors, but also have the ability to set the room timer and to split the screen for duo events involving two competitors.

What are best practices when preparing to compete online?

1. Check in with each speaker to make sure that the video and microphone are working well.

2. Mute yourself when not speaking.

3. Minimize cross talk. Talking over others muddies audio and makes you and other hard to hear.

4. Plan to handle disconnections. Although rare, connection problems do happen. Consider exchanging cell number or other means by which to connect in the round chat room.

5. If you have trouble connecting, try turning off your video. When connection issues happen, turning off the video may help.

6. Make a note of contact info for the Tournament Director and your Organization Leader in case you have an issue connecting to Yaatly.

You can get more tips on competing online in our Guide to Competing Online.