Run a bingo

What it is

In a bingo, every entrant (a player or a team) gets a board of tiles. Each tile is a task from a pool you write. Entrants complete tasks and send evidence, and you approve it to fill the tile. The site counts completed lines and marks a board that is completely full.

Worked example: a weekend bingo on a 5x5 board for four teams of five, with a pool of 30 tasks.

Before you start

• Pick a board size. 3x3 (9 tiles) up to 7x7 (49 tiles). Bigger boards need more tasks and more reviewing.
• Write your tasks first. You need at least as many as the board has tiles. A text file with one task per line can be pasted straight in.
• Solo or teams? Chosen when the event is created.

Create the event

1. On the Calendar tab, press Schedule Event.
2. Fill in the name, Starts At and Ends At.
3. Set Event Format to Bingo Board.
4. Set Participation to Solo Participants or Team Based.
5. Under Bingo Board Settings, choose the Board Size.
6. Decide on Hide Tasks on Tiles. See Hide tasks on tiles.
7. Under Initial Task List, add tasks one at a time or switch to Bulk Add and paste them.
8. Press Schedule Event.

Bingo events can't be created from Discord. They need the website's form.

Add your tasks

Open the event and press Manage Tasks.

1. Under Add Bingo Tasks, paste your tasks into Bulk Import, one per line.
2. Press Save Tasks.
3. Check Board Requirement. It shows the board size beside the number of filled tasks, in green once you have enough.

The Master Task Pool lists every task. Press edit on one to reword it.

Write tasks so a screenshot can prove them: "Get a Nex: Angel of Death kill" is easy to review, "Do some bossing" isn't.

How boards are dealt

A board is dealt at the moment an entrant registers, from the pool as it stands then.

• With exactly as many tasks as tiles, every board has the same tasks, each in a different random position.
• With more tasks than tiles, each board gets a random selection from the pool. Boards then differ, which makes it harder to copy another team's plan.
• With fewer tasks than tiles, boards come up short.
• Empty slots in the pool are ignored.

Finish the task pool before registration opens. A board isn't dealt again after its entrant has registered, so tasks added later don't reach boards that already exist.

Tasks that complete themselves

A task can be tracked instead of needing a screenshot. Press Track automatically on the task and choose what counts. See Tracked tasks.

Settings explained

Hide tasks on tiles

• Off: each tile shows its task. Entrants click the tile to submit.
• On: tiles show numbers only, so nobody knows where a task sits on their board. Entrants submit from the Task List under the board instead. This stops teams from choosing tasks purely to finish a line.

Restrict board visibility

Off, anyone can look at any board. On, a board is shown only to the team it belongs to, the hosts and staff. Viewers must be logged in with a verified account.

The rest

Get people registered

Members press Register on the event. For how team registration works, and how to build the teams yourself, see Teams and registration.

Boards stay locked until the event starts. Before that, entrants see "Bingo boards will be revealed when the event begins".

While it is running

• Approve evidence. Submissions wait under Pending Approvals on the event, or on the Review Submissions page. See Review submissions.
• Look at any board. The Boards list on the event shows every entrant with their number of completed lines. Click one to view it.
• Fill a tile yourself. Open the entrant's board, click a tile and use Verify / Submit.

In Discord

• /event board posts a board as an image. Add an entrant to choose whose.
• If the event has its own channel, the bot posts its reminders, start, end and standings there.
• If teams have their own channels or threads, each team's submissions, approvals and board updates go to theirs. Members can post a screenshot there to submit it.
• /staff event submit sends in evidence on a team's behalf.

Channels are set up in Set up Discord for events.

When it ends

The boards stay on the event page as the final result. Record winners and prizes under Event Notes in the attendance panel.

Common problems

"Board Not Generated". That entrant registered while the task pool was empty, so no board could be dealt. Fill the pool first, then remove and re-register them.

Entrants can't find their tile. Hide Tasks on Tiles is on. Point them to the Task List under the board.

A team was deleted by mistake. Deleting a team removes its tiles and progress for good. Register the team again and re-approve what they had done.

Two teams have very different boards. That is how a pool larger than the board works. For boards with the same tasks, trim the pool to exactly the number of tiles before anyone registers.