Run your discipline · Boulder carnival

Boulder carnival mode

Carnival mode is a streamlined boulder format for casual, high-volume events — gym throwdowns, festivals, and fun comps where many climbers self-score or move quickly across lots of problems. This page covers when to use it and how it differs from standard boulder.

When to use carnival mode

Team-mode by default

Every carnival competition is organised around teams. Solo athletes are not supported in this format.

Carnival mode shines for casual, high-volume events. Gym throwdowns, festivals, and multi-station competitions run smoothly here because the format keeps climbers rotating and judging relaxed. You set up categories and routes once, import your teams, and the system handles the rest. Use carnival when you want a fast-paced, low-friction event where everyone climbs the same problems. Do not use it for IFSC-style ranked competitions or any event that requires strict per-attempt scoring history.

When to skip carnival

If you need individual rankings, strict per-attempt judging, or formal competition results, use standard boulder instead.

Carnival setup

Set up a carnival

Setup follows the same rhythm as standard boulder, with a few carnival-specific toggles.

1Open /boulder/carnival/setup and configure competition-level settings. You will set the default team size, how many tops count toward standings, the attempt penalty, and the tiebreak rule.
2Create your categories and routes. Assign enough problems for your expected volume and distribute them across stations.
3Import your teams and athletes at /boulder/carnival/import. The bulk importer handles team rosters automatically.
4Set the judge passcode. This works exactly like standard boulder and protects the judge page from accidental edits.

Default scoring settings

The system defaults to a team size of 4, takeBestN of 5, and an attempt penalty of 0.1 points per extra attempt. Tiebreaks go in this order: highest team total, then most tops, then the per-position sumByRank comparison (each position compared in descending order, best first). You can adjust all of these in setup before importing.

Carnival import

Scoring and judging

Judges open /boulder/carnival/judge, pick a station, and see the active routes. They record attempts, zones, and tops per athlete per route using the QR-code scan-and-go flow or the judge passcode. The system handles all math behind the scenes. Because carnival is team-mode, the leaderboard ranks teams. Each team contributes their best takeBestN scores. Extra attempts on a counted route lower that route's contribution by 0.1 points. Tiebreaks go to more tops first, then lower sum of per-route ranks. You monitor progress from /boulder/carnival/chief. The chief view aggregates data across all stations in real time, so you can see which routes are finished and where bottlenecks are forming.

Carnival judge Carnival chief

Results and scorecards

Live standings appear at /boulder/carnival/leaderboard. The board sorts by team, automatically applying the tops-then-sum-of-ranks tiebreak rule. Results publish to the competition hub once you close the event. Open /boulder/carnival/scorecards to generate the official record. This page opens your browser's print dialog — you can save it as a PDF from there, but it is not a dedicated PDF generator.

Carnival leaderboard Carnival scorecards