Tournament Day Best Practices
This is a collection of best practices that have been accumulated by users of Kihapp in tournaments around the world.
If you have your own best practices to share, please get in touch or write a comment below!
Going Scouting
Whenever possible, visit the venue beforehand for some advance intel. At the very least, check mobile phone signal levels, power outlet locations, and the quality of the Wi-Fi, in case there is any.
There are usually differences in signal levels between mobile operators, depending on circumstances like how close their towers are to the venue.
You can use OpenSignal to run speed tests and consult coverage maps collected from tests run by others.
Online Connections
Don't trust venue Wi-Fi alone. Using a Wi-Fi connection provided by the venue is usually risky, as dozens of people using it at the same time can render it slow and unreliable.
If possible, officials should have a dedicated internet connection for Kihapp – that is, a connection that isn't shared by the competitors and audience.
A cellular connection doesn't have to be very fast to be useful (though faster is better of course). Using Kihapp doesn't transfer a lot of data - in normal circumstances, 1 GB per area per day is more than enough.
The recommended setup is a 4G or 5G wireless router: it takes in a SIM card and creates a Wi-Fi network that serves all the devices in the area. Depending on the router and the location, you may also be able to serve multiple areas from one router. This also depends on whether you use judge devices: the more devices you use, the safer it is to have multiple routers.
In a small tournament, or as backup, sharing a connection from a smartphone also works. On the iPhone, this feature is called Personal Hotspot; on Android, it's Tethering and Portable Hotspot. Phone hotspots are more fragile than routers, though: the phone tends to belong to someone who moves around, and a phone sharing its connection drains its battery quickly. If you go this route, keep the phone plugged in and at the officials' table.
If you use more than one wireless network, configure your devices to connect to more than one. This way, each device will automatically fall back to a secondary connection if their primary one becomes unavailable.
Software Tips
The recommended browser for using Kihapp is Google Chrome. Firefox and Safari work too.
Kihapp runs well on current versions of Windows, macOS, and Linux. For judge devices, Android is recommended.
Turn on all your devices the day before, on a good Wi-Fi connection if you can. This gives every laptop, tablet, and phone a chance to download and install pending updates early, instead of on tournament morning over a cellular connection. It also allows you to check the batteries work and you know all the passwords.
Operating system updates can kick in unexpectedly, take a long time to complete, and transfer hundreds of megabytes of data. Once your devices are up to date, pause updates for the tournament weekend – see Pause updates in Windows and Software Update settings on Mac. (After the tournament, don't forget to turn automatic updates back on.)
Also make sure Chrome itself is up to date. Normally, Chrome downloads and installs updates automatically. Sometimes, however, Chrome needs to be restarted for updates to take effect. To check if your Chrome is up to date, open the page chrome://settings/help.
Printing and Hard Copies
Always keep printouts of your draws and the competitor list. Hard copies protect you against problems with software and hardware, as well as power cuts and battery drainage.
Make initial printouts already on the day before the tournament, and make sure the printer has plenty of ink and paper. Consider having a backup printer.
An on-site printer allows you to keep your hard copies up to date whenever draws need to be changed. When choosing a printer, consider printing speed and reliability. In many cases, it's a good idea to turn on a "Fast draft" mode or similar. If you're planning to print competitor certificates, a glossy, thick paper usually works best. Check beforehand that your printer can handle the paper.
At the area, treat hard copies as the "primary truth". Record winners in the hard copy first, and in Kihapp second. This is a good way to make sure hard copies are up to date.
Each printed-out draw has a version number that helps you figure out which printouts are still current. Any changes to the draw will automatically increment the version number, and it is also visible at the operator scoreboard. At the category list, you can sort categories by last modification to quickly refresh your hard copies.
