Re-Assigning Judges for a Paired Round

The Re-Assign Judges tool places judges again for events that are already paired in a schedule block. It removes the current judge assignments for those events and assigns a fresh set, using the same rules FTN uses when you pair a round. The pairings stay exactly as they are. It's one of the advanced pair/section tools.

When to use it

You paired a round without judges, such as a round robin.
Judge availability changed a lot after pairing, and you want to redo the judging for the whole round.
You want a different number of judges per section, or you need to turn double flighting on or off.

To swap one judge, use Change Judges instead. To remove one judge from a section, see Deleting a Judge Assignment.

Before you start

Expect almost every judge to move. FTN treats the current assignments as rounds already judged, so it rarely puts a judge back on the same section. This tool redoes the whole round. It isn't a way to fix one section.
Every paired event in the block gets new judges. Right now FTN only accepts the form when every event listed for the block is checked (see Step 1).
Run it before judging starts. It doesn't send or pull eBallots, and it doesn't move results (see What happens to eBallots and results below).
Check your judge schedule. FTN only uses judges who are scheduled for that block and set to judge the event. You set the schedule under Entries > Judges on the Scheduling tab.

Where to find it

Go to Admin > Pair/Section > Advanced and click Re-Assign Judges.

Pair/Section Advanced page with the Re-Assign Judges tool highlighted

Step 1: Choose the schedule block and events

Pick the block under Schedule Block. FTN lists every event that's paired in that block. If nothing is paired there, you'll see No paired events found for this schedule block. Each event has three settings:

The checkbox next to the event name. Click Check All to check every event. If you leave one unchecked, FTN stops with Event options were submitted for events not selected. Click Check All and try again.
Judges/Section: how many judges each section gets. FTN fills in the event's current panel size, or 1 if it has no judges yet. Type a new number to change it. If you enter 0, FTN keeps the current number.
Double Flight: check this if the round is double-flighted, so each judge can take two sections, one in each flight. FTN checks it for you when the round was paired as double-flight. It only affects how judges are placed, not the pairings.

Click Review Changes. Nothing is changed yet.

Re-Assign Judges page with a schedule block selected and three debate events checked, showing the Judges/Section and Double Flight settings

Step 2: Review the changes

The review page shows the Schedule Block and the number of Selected Events, plus:

Affected Pairings: the number of entry spots in those sections (two per debate, counting a bye)
Affected Sections: how many sections will get judges
Projected Judge Assignments: sections times judges per section, bye sections included

Under Events In Scope, each event is listed with its Judges/Section and Double Flight setting. The page doesn't name judges. You'll see who got which section after it runs.

To change something, click Back to Step 1. Otherwise, tick I understand this will re-assign judges for all selected events in this schedule block. and click Start Reassignment. If the box isn't ticked, FTN shows The confirm reassign field is required.

Review Changes page showing the schedule block, counts of affected pairings, sections and judge assignments, the events in scope, the confirmation box and the Start Reassignment button

Step 3: Watch the progress

The re-assignment runs in the background. The Re-Assign Judges Progress page starts with Queued. Waiting for a worker to start Re-Assign Judges. and updates on its own every few seconds. When it's done, the message reads Re-Assign Judges complete. and a Summary appears:

Changed Sections: sections that now have a different set of judges, out of the total
Unchanged Sections: sections that kept the same judges
Judge Slot Changes: judge spots that had a judge before and now have a different one. Spots that were empty, like a round robin's first judges, aren't counted.
No-Alternative Sections: one-judge sections where FTN found at most one judge who could take it. If this isn't 0, look those sections over.

Re-Assign Judges Progress page at 100 percent with the summary of changed sections and judge slot changes

If something goes wrong, you'll see an error message instead of the summary, and the judges stay as they were. If you start a second run for the same block while one is still going, FTN shows A Re-Assign Judges run is already in progress for this schedule block. Redirected to live status.

To see who was placed where, go to Admin > Pair/Section > View/Edit.

How FTN picks judges

It follows the same conflict rules as regular pairing: no judge from an entry's own school (unless the event allows it), judge strikes and conflicts respected, and no judge with an entry they've already judged (except in debate elims set to allow it).
Priority judges are used first and low-priority judges last. Otherwise FTN prefers judges who have judged fewer of the rounds they owe.
Congress parliamentarians in that block keep their chambers and aren't used as judges.
If no judge fits a section, it gets the zz-bye judge. Debate byes get zz-bye too, since they don't need a judge. To fill a zz-bye slot, see Pushing a Judge or Parliamentarian to zz-bye.

What happens to eBallots and results

Nothing is sent and nobody is notified. FTN doesn't email judges, and it doesn't send, cancel or delete any eBallots.
Judges who keep their section keep their eBallot.
Judges moved off a section can't use that section's eBallot anymore, whether it was sent, accepted or already submitted. The link shows an Invalid Judge Entry page that tells them to contact the tournament director. Let those judges know.
New judges don't get eBallots automatically. Send them from Admin > Pair/Section > Ballots (see Printing Paper Ballots or Sending eBallots). FTN only sends to judges who don't already have an eBallot for that section, so nobody gets a duplicate. If you printed paper ballots, print them again.
Results already entered aren't moved or deleted. They stay with the judge slot (Judge 1, Judge 2) in that section, not with the person who entered them. Once results are coming in, use Change Judges instead.

What FTN doesn't change

Pairings, sections, rooms, results, Congress parliamentarians and other schedule blocks stay the same. Each run is recorded in the Audit Log as Judges Reassigned, with the block and the number of events. It doesn't appear in the Change Judges Judge Change Log.

Placing judges after a round robin

The Pair Round Robin tool creates matchups only. To add judges, run Re-Assign Judges once for each round robin block. The round robin event shows Judges/Section set to 1 because it has no judges yet. Change it if you want panels. The bye in each round gets zz-bye, so no judge is used for it. If other events are paired in the same block, they're re-assigned too, so do this before you send ballots for that block.

Undoing it

There's no undo. The old assignments are removed and FTN doesn't keep a copy to restore. Running the tool again gives you another new set of judges, not the old one. To put specific judges back, use Change Judges.