Events and Matches: Create to Publish

Activities are where talent shows up in the system. A workshop, a friendly match, a debate round, a talent show slot — they all move through the same lifecycle: plan → publish → run → record results, with certificates and hub visibility on the other side. Primary admin routes: Events, create event, Matches, and create match.

Casual or competitive — the choice that shapes the rest of the form

The first real decision when creating an activity is whether it's casual ("within entity") or competitive ("with other entities"). This isn't cosmetic — it changes what the form requires:

Casual activities stay inside your own entity — internal practice, a house event, a workshop. Lighter on required fields.
Competitive activities involve a visiting entity — another school, club, or academy — and the form requires it explicitly; you can't submit a competitive activity without naming who you're competing against. Depending on the activity type, competitive also requires things casual doesn't: gender category, an upper age limit, and for some sports, distance or style.

Example: A school's Tuesday practice session is casual — no opponent to name, no age-limit field to fill. The same school's Saturday fixture against a neighboring academy is competitive — the form requires the visiting entity, and won't submit without it.

Creating an event or match

From admin, open Events and/or Matches — your sidebar reflects how your entity uses the terms.
Start a new item from create event or create match.
Choose casual or competitive, then fill in title, time window, venue, and the fields that choice requires.
Attach the relevant groups or teams when the activity is roster-based.
Publish when ready for hub visibility, or keep it in draft while details are still moving.

Example: A weekend cricket league creates Match 23: Thunder vs. Stallions as competitive, links the two team rosters, and publishes — parents follow along via account notifications instead of a phone tree for rain delays.

During the activity

Status reflects reality as the activity moves through its lifecycle.
Scores, placements, or outcomes get entered by authorized admins the same day, while memory is fresh — via matches or match management.
If something changes — postponement, forfeit, a venue issue — update the record before you notify anyone, so every channel says the same thing.

Public participants can follow along on the hub when your entity shares a direct match link (/hub/match/{id}).

After the activity: results feed everything downstream

Results drive certificates, and for competitive activities, sometimes selection for the next round. Late or inconsistent results erode trust faster than any amount of UI polish fixes. See Document Studio for what happens once results are in.

Example: A music guild runs monthly recitals as casual activities. By Sunday night, adjudicators' placements are in the system; by Monday, participation certificates are batch-generated with names pulled straight from user profiles — no manual retyping.

Naming and hygiene

Include the date or round in repeating titles — "Training — 12 Apr" beats forty rows all titled "Training."
Keep result labels consistent with your certificate templates ("1st Place" vs. "First Place") so merge fields don't look inconsistent.
Add a short internal note for the next admin handling the activity — "Rain backup: Gym 2" saves a scramble later.