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Admin Guide

This guide is for the head table staff member running ASJudge Mission Control.

If you want a one-page handout for event day, use the Admin Guide Card.

Your job​

You are responsible for keeping the platform accurate and available for everyone else. In practical terms, that means the admin role controls staff accounts and passphrases, team imports and team portal codes, rubric permissions for judges, facilitator and queuer arena assignments, the live arena schedule, voting and score visibility settings, projector mode, and award setup. If ASJudge is the digital control room for the event, the admin is the person making sure the switches are set correctly.

What you will see​

After login, the admin lands on the main dashboard with links to Judging Overview, Arena Scheduler, Manage Awards, and View Award Results. The main page also includes staff account creation and editing, team import and editing tools, team access codes, toggles for congeniality and public score visibility, and projector controls.

Before doors open​

Before doors open, your goal is to make sure the system is ready before anyone else depends on it. Confirm that the team list is correct, print team QR cards or access codes if they are needed, and create all judge, facilitator, queuer, and safety officer accounts. Then go through each staff account and make sure the names, roles, permissions, and arena assignments are correct. It is also a good idea to open Arena Scheduler and confirm that the seeded arena order matches the event plan, check that each facilitator and queuer has an arena assignment, leave congeniality closed until you actually want teams voting, and decide whether public scores should start visible or hidden.

During check-in​

During check-in, the admin role becomes more hands-on. You may need to help staff log in with passphrases, verify that judges can see only the rubrics they should score, and make sure facilitators and queuers land on the correct arena dashboard. You may also need to help teams who lose or mistype their access code, though it is best to regenerate a team code only when truly necessary.

Managing the live schedule​

The schedule is driven by live arena actions. The admin can correct or override those actions, but should normally let facilitators own their arena timing. Admin schedule controls are most useful when a facilitator is locked out, the wrong arena was assigned, a slot must be moved to a different arena or order position, or a mistaken Start, End, or No Show needs to be corrected.

In general, it is best not to fight the live process from two places at once. If you are correcting an arena, tell that facilitator first so the two of you do not accidentally work against each other.

Managing judges​

For standard judges, the most important admin action is setting allowed rubrics correctly. Pit judges may need design and notebook, arena judges may need navigation and sensors, and some judges may have all rubrics. If a judge says they cannot see the scoring area they need, permissions are the first thing to check.

Managing public visibility​

Two settings matter a lot here: the Congeniality Voting Window and Public Score Visibility. Congeniality should only be open when you are ready for teams to vote, and public scores should be hidden if leadership wants standings withheld until later in the day.

Projector control​

The projector can be switched between Holding, Schedule, Scores, Awards, Podium, and Farewell. This makes it possible to support the room without having to touch the projected browser tab directly.

Awards workflow​

ASJudge supports both automatic and manual awards. In practice, that means you open Manage Awards, assign judges to the manual awards, and then near the end of the day confirm that those judges have actually submitted their votes. After that, View Award Results is the place to review the final list. Automatic awards update from score data and congeniality data, but manual awards only resolve correctly once the assigned judges have done their part.

If something goes wrong​

If a staff member cannot log in, first check that the passphrase was entered correctly, then confirm that the account exists and has the right role. If a team cannot log in, confirm the six-digit code before regenerating anything. If schedule data looks wrong, check whether a facilitator pressed the wrong action and use Reset or the scheduler tools only after you understand what happened. If scores appear to be missing, start with the judge's rubric permissions and then confirm that the form was actually saved.

What matters most​

The admin role is less about scoring and more about system integrity. When the event gets busy, the priorities stay the same: correct access, correct schedule state, correct visibility settings, correct award setup, and quick support when staff get stuck.