Skip to content

Core Concepts

Tournament

A tournament is the top-level container. It holds:

  • organization
  • bowling center
  • tournament-wide handicap settings
  • registration cutoffs
  • caps
  • events
  • tournament-level side pots

Event

An event is a competition inside the tournament, such as singles or doubles.

Events define things like:

  • team size
  • entry fee
  • prize and expense allocation
  • self-registration
  • divisions at the event level
  • format and stages

Squad

A squad is a scheduled playing time for an event.

Squads can have:

  • a start time
  • a registration limit
  • bowlers or teams
  • side pots tied to that squad

Stage

A stage is a competitive phase inside an event.

Simple events often have one main stage. Advanced events can have multiple stages for qualifying, cuts, brackets, or finals.

Session

A session is the schedulable unit inside a stage.

For Stage 1 in simple flows, BowlBoard often derives sessions from squads. Later stages can have their own session timing.

Team

A team belongs to a squad in a team event.

Teams can have:

  • a captain
  • a name
  • confirmed members
  • pending invitations

Bowler Records

BowlBoard can track a bowler at more than one scope:

  • tournament level
  • event level
  • squad level

That is why some pages work on overall tournament bowlers while others work on one event or one squad.

Credits And Caps

Publishing uses credits unless the organization has unlimited credits.

The tournament can also have a director bowler cap, so the effective cap may be the lower of:

  • the credit-based cap
  • the director cap