Announcements

Announcements allow tournament organizers to communicate important information to teams and track whether teams have seen and acknowledged critical messages.

Announcements for Organizers#

The page header counts your announcements (Total and Published) and holds the New Announcement button. Each row shows the title, a status badge, the publication date, the audience and the short description; an announcement that requires acknowledgment also shows how many teams have acknowledged it (for example 12/24). Use the search field to find one by name, click Edit to open it, or tick several rows and click Delete to remove them.

Creating Announcements#

To create a new announcement:

On a plan without Team Panel? The sidebar shows a single Team Panel link with a Premium badge instead of the group's pages. Follow it to compare plans.

1. Open your tournament's admin panel

2. In the sidebar, under the Team Panel group, click Announcements

3. Click New Announcement

4. Fill in the announcement details, grouped into six sections. Each section opens and closes from its header, and a closed section's header still shows a one-line summary of what it holds (for example Registered · all 24 teams under Audience):

   Content

   • Title - Clear, descriptive title
   • Short Description - Brief summary shown in lists
   • Content - Full announcement with rich text formatting

   Publishing

   • When to publish - Choose one of three options (see below)
   • Publish Date - Only appears if you chose Schedule for later. Dates and times are in the tournament's timezone
   • Pin to Top - Keep the announcement first in the list

   Audience - who sees the announcement and gets its email (see Choosing the audience)

   • Who - Registered (confirmed teams), Leads (teams whose registration is still open) or Registered and leads
   • Where - All teams, Selected divisions or Selected teams

   Languages - optional copies in other languages (see Languages)

   Acknowledgment

   • Require Acknowledgment - Teams must confirm they've read it
   • Acknowledgment Deadline - Optional deadline, in the tournament's timezone (only shown once Require Acknowledgment is on). Teams that haven't acknowledged get a reminder email 1 day before it

   Email Notification

   • Email the audience when this is published - Emails every team in the audience when the announcement goes live: as soon as you save if you chose Publish immediately, or at the scheduled time. You can also tick it later on an announcement that is already live; it is sent when you save. Once sent, the box is locked and shows when it went out

5. Click Create in the bar at the foot of the page

When you edit an announcement, the header next to its title shows its status (Draft, Scheduled or Published, with the date) and a Pinned or Acknowledgment tag when those are on. Under the title, the Details tab holds the form and the Teams Status tab tracks the teams (see Tracking Team Acknowledgments). Publish now sits in the header until the announcement is live, Delete is in the header's ⋯ menu, and Save changes sits in the bar at the foot of the page.

Choosing the audience#

An announcement is for registered teams unless you choose otherwise. Leads — teams that registered but are not confirmed yet — don't see it.

• Who picks the group: Registered, Leads, or Registered and leads. Each button shows how many teams it holds. Rejected and withdrawn registrations are never included.
• Where narrows it: every team in that group, the teams in the divisions you pick, or single teams you pick by name. Picking single teams is the way to warn one or two clubs during the tournament. The team list shows each team's division, and when a club has two teams with the same name in one division, their contact person (or #1, #2) tells them apart.

The line under Where tells you how many teams the announcement reaches. Only those teams see it in their Team Panel, count towards Acknowledged and can be emailed. A lead that is confirmed later moves into Registered by itself.

Languages#

Open Languages to write the announcement in more than one language:

• Main language -- the language of the title and content above. It starts as your tournament's language.
• Add language -- pick a language and write its title, short description and content. A short description or content you leave empty shows the main text instead.

A team manager reads the copy for the language of their MyCup account; anyone else reads the main text. The email follows the same rule: it goes out in the language of the team manager behind the team's contact address (or the only team manager), with that copy, and otherwise in the tournament's language.

When an announcement has copies, a Read in switch above the text lets the reader pick another one, for example a Portuguese club whose account is in English. The pick is kept while they stay signed in and applies to every announcement and form that has that language.

When to Publish#

The When to publish choice is the first thing in the Publishing section, and it decides everything else:

Editing an existing announcement opens on whichever option it's currently using, so you can move a draft to a schedule, or a scheduled announcement back to a draft, without clearing dates by hand.

Re-saving an announcement that's already live never changes its original publication date.

Publishing Something Early#

Anything that isn't live yet — a draft, or a scheduled announcement whose time hasn't come — can be pushed out immediately with a Publish now button. You'll find it:

• next to the announcement in the Announcements list, and
• at the top of the announcement's own page

On the announcement's own page you'll be asked to confirm, with an Email the audience now box (ticked if you chose to email on publish). The list's button uses the choice saved on the announcement. Either way it becomes visible to team managers straight away, and the button disappears once the announcement is published.

This is the quickest way to bring a schedule forward: you don't have to open the announcement, switch it to Publish immediately and save.

Announcement Status#

Announcements can have different statuses:

• Draft - No publish date, not visible to teams
• Scheduled - Has a future publish date, and goes live on its own when that moment arrives
• Published - Visible to the teams in its audience

Tracking Team Acknowledgments#

For announcements that require acknowledgment:

1. In the Announcements list, click Edit on the announcement
2. Click the Teams Status tab under its title — it lists the teams in the announcement's audience, and the number on the tab is how many there are
3. View the status for each team:
   • Whether the email notification was sent, and when
   • Whether the team has acknowledged
   • When they acknowledged
   • Who acknowledged

Sending Email Notifications#

You can notify teams about announcements via email:

1. In the Announcements list, click Edit on a published announcement
2. Click the Teams Status tab under its title
3. Click Send to All Unsent to email the teams in the audience who haven't been notified
4. Or click Send Email next to an individual team (or select several teams and use the Send Emails bulk action)

Emails can only be sent while the Team Panel is enabled. The email links to the announcement in the panel, so while the panel is off the send buttons and the "on publish" checkbox are hidden. Teams that were not emailed stay unsent, so you can send to them once the panel is back on.

Scheduled announcements are emailed on time. With "Email the audience when this is published" ticked, the email goes out within a few minutes of the scheduled time, once. It also goes out when you use Publish now with the email box ticked. If the Team Panel is off when the announcement goes live, the email waits and is sent once the panel is switched on, but not for an announcement that has been live for more than 3 days; use Send to All Unsent for that.

Deadline reminders are automatic. When an announcement requires acknowledgment and has a deadline, every team in the audience that hasn't acknowledged gets one reminder email 1 day before the deadline. Teams that were emailed the announcement less than a day before the deadline don't get a second email, because that email already names the deadline.

Emails are written in the language of the team manager behind the team's contact address (or of the team's only manager), using your copy in that language when you added one; otherwise in the tournament's language.

Emails include:

• Announcement title and description
• "Action Required" alert if acknowledgment is needed
• Deadline information if set
• Link to view the full announcement

Best Practices for Organizers#

Use Clear Titles

• Make titles descriptive and action-oriented
• Example: "Required: Submit Roster by Friday" vs "Roster Update"

Pin Important Announcements

• Pin time-sensitive or critical information
• Unpin old announcements when no longer relevant

Set Deadlines Wisely

• Give teams reasonable time to acknowledge
• Deadlines are in the tournament's timezone
• Teams that haven't acknowledged are reminded by email 1 day before

Track Acknowledgments

• Monitor which teams haven't acknowledged required announcements
• Follow up with teams who miss deadlines
• Use the teams status table to identify stragglers

Announcements for Teams#

Viewing Announcements#

Team managers access announcements from their Participant Panel:

1. Log into the Participant Panel
2. Click Announcements in the sidebar

A red badge on the navigation shows how many announcements require acknowledgment.

You see the announcements the organiser addressed to your team — all teams, your division or your team by name — in your account's language when the organiser wrote a copy in it. If none is addressed to your team, the Announcements page doesn't appear.

Announcements List#

The list shows:

• A Pinned marker for pinned announcements
• Title and short description
• Status badge:
  • Info - No acknowledgment needed
  • Action required - Requires acknowledgment
  • Overdue - The acknowledgment deadline has passed
  • Acknowledged - Already acknowledged
• Published date

Announcements are sorted with pinned items first, then by date. Every announcement that still needs your acknowledgment is always listed; the rest are shown 20 at a time — click Show more for older ones. On a phone or tablet, the ones that need your action sit in their own group at the top. On a computer, the All, Needs action and Pinned chips filter the list.

Reading an Announcement#

Click on any announcement to view:

• Full announcement content
• Publication date
• Acknowledgment deadline (if set)
• Current acknowledgment status

If the organiser wrote the announcement in more than one language, pick yours with Read in under the title. Your choice is remembered while you stay signed in, for every announcement and form in that language.

Acknowledging an Announcement#

If an announcement requires acknowledgment:

1. Open the announcement
2. Read the full content
3. Click the Acknowledge button
4. Confirm in the dialog

The status will change to "Acknowledged". The organizer isn't emailed, but your acknowledgment (and the time it happened) is recorded on the announcement's Teams Status tab, where the organizer can review it.

Overdue Acknowledgments#

If an acknowledgment deadline passes:

• The announcement shows an "Overdue" warning in red
• Teams can still acknowledge after the deadline
• The organizer can see that the acknowledgment was late

Best Practices for Teams#

Check Regularly

• Look for the red badge indicating unread announcements
• Check the dashboard for pending announcement alerts

Acknowledge Promptly

• Don't wait until the deadline
• Acknowledge as soon as you've read and understood the message

Read Carefully

• Full content may contain important details
• Links or attachments may be included

Dashboard Notifications#

Both the team dashboard and the main announcements page show alerts for:

• Announcements requiring acknowledgment
• Overdue acknowledgments

These reminders help teams stay on top of important communications.