Create your first competition

What the wizard does (and doesn't) do

The wizard creates the competition shell — name, dates, location, payment model — and drops you into the dashboard in draft state. It does not set up divisions, workouts, pricing, or your Stripe account. Those come next, on the dashboard, before you publish.

Every answer can be edited later from the dashboard while the competition is in draft. The only one that becomes irreversible after publish is who pays the platform fee — covered in step 4 below.

Starting the wizard

From your organizer profile, click "New Competition". You'll land on a welcome screen — click "Let's go" to begin. The wizard is a tunnel: one question per screen, with Continue and Back buttons. Required fields are flagged inline; optional steps can be skipped.

Step 1 — Name

The public name of your competition. Required. This is what athletes see in listings, on the registration page, on emails, and on the public leaderboard. Pick something recognizable — you can change it anytime from the dashboard.

Step 2 — Dates

Start and end date of the live event. Required. Can be a single day (set start = end). These dates drive the schedule, day numbering for workouts, and what shows in public listings.

If you're running online qualifiers (step 6), the qualifier dates are configured separately on the dashboard — these wizard dates are for the live event only.

Step 3 — Location

Optional but strongly recommended. Three fields:

• Venue name — the box, gym, or facility hosting the event.
• City / Address — type at least three characters and pick from the autocomplete suggestions. This places your competition on the map and powers location-based search.
• Timezone — used for schedule times, score-reveal timing, and email send times. Defaults to Europe/Paris if you skip.

Step 4 — Who pays the platform fee

WOD Lane charges a small platform fee on each registration (€1 + 5%). This step decides who absorbs it:

• Athlete pays — the fee is added on top of the registration price you set. You receive the full entry fee. The athlete sees "price + service fee" at checkout.
• Organizer pays — the fee is deducted from the registration price. Athletes pay exactly the listed price; you net slightly less.

Step 5 — Team payment options

For team registrations, decide whether each member pays their own share or whether the team leader pays for everyone in one shot:

• Allow individual payments — the leader registers the team and each member receives a payment link. Members have 48 hours to pay; automatic reminders go out. A member who misses the deadline has their payment expired; if every member misses, the whole team registration is cancelled.
• Leader pays for the team — one transaction at registration. Simpler, but the leader fronts the full cost.

This is editable from the dashboard. If you only have solo divisions, the choice doesn't affect anything.

Step 6 — Online qualifiers

Toggle whether your event has an online qualification phase before the live competition:

• No qualifiers — athletes register directly for divisions. Simplest model. You can always invite specific athletes to specific divisions later ("finals invites").
• Enable online qualifiers — athletes register for a qualifier first, complete online workouts, submit videos, get scored, and the top performers are invited to the live event. You'll configure the qualifier itself (workouts, dates, video review) on the dashboard.

Editable from the dashboard. You can flip this on later if you decide to add a qualifier round.

Step 7 — Description

Optional. A rich-text description shown on the public competition page — a few paragraphs about the format, the vibe, what athletes can expect. You can skip this step entirely and write it later, or paste a draft and refine on the dashboard.

Confirm

The final screen shows a summary of every answer. Use "Start over" if something is wildly off; otherwise click "Create competition". You'll land on the dashboard, and your competition exists in draft state.

What's next on the dashboard

The wizard creates the shell. To take registrations, you still need to:

1. Add divisions (and qualifiers, if enabled) — define the categories athletes can register for: team size, gender composition, level, base price.
2. Add workouts — create your WODs with their scoring components, then assign each one to the divisions and days where it runs.
3. Connect your Stripe account — you can't take payments without it. The dashboard prompts you with the onboarding flow; expect to provide bank details and business info.
4. Publish — flip the competition out of draft. It becomes visible publicly, and athletes can register.
5. Optional: open the registration window — each division and qualifier has its own registration open/close dates. Leaving them blank keeps registrations closed; setting them controls when the public registration page accepts new entries. Promo codes and custom pricing live on the same screens.

Common questions

Can I save and come back later?

Not from inside the wizard — it's a single tunnel. But the steps are quick (about a minute end-to-end) and everything is editable on the dashboard afterward. If you bail mid-wizard, nothing is saved; restart fresh next time.

I picked the wrong fee payer — what now?

While the competition is still in draft, you can change it yourself from the dashboard's general settings. Once you publish, the choice locks — registrations already in flight depend on it. If you've already published and need a switch, the simplest fallback is to keep the current setup and adjust your listed prices to compensate.

Do I need to publish to test?

No. In draft state you can configure everything and preview the public page from the dashboard. Publishing only flips the visibility switch.