Freeze the scoreboard

Freezing stops the scoreboard showing new results for the last stretch of a contest, so that nobody — participants, spectators or commentators — can see how the finish is going. It is configured once, in minutes, and then happens by itself.

Freezing the scoreboard is not the same as freezing the contest. Scoreboard freezing is the setting on this page: the contest carries on exactly as before and submissions are accepted, only the standing stops moving. Freezing the contest is a status change made from the contest header, it restricts submitting, and it is described in Open, freeze, suspend and close a contest.

You need permission to write contests, and the contest must not be finalized — the setting is locked afterwards.

Set the freezing time

1. Open the contest and go to Settings.

2. On the Scoreboard card, open Freezing time.

3. Set the two values, both in minutes:

   • Freezing time — how long before the end of the contest the board stops updating. 60 means the board shows the standing as of one hour before the end.

   • Unfreeze delay — how long after the contest ends the board stays frozen. 10 means the results are revealed ten minutes after the finish.

4. Close the dialog. Settings save as you change them; there is no Save button.

Leaving both values at zero disables freezing altogether, and the Frozen view is then not offered on the board at all.

What the board does then

Once the freezing moment passes, a Frozen view appears in the mode switch above the board, showing the standing as it stood at that moment. Cells whose real value has moved since are outlined in amber with a ? — that is the board telling you a result is pending behind the freeze rather than that nothing happened.

The unfreeze delay decides how long that lasts after the end. It buys the time to run an awards ceremony, or to finish reviewing anything questionable, before the finish is public.

Getting it right

Both values are offsets from the contest's end time rather than fixed moments, so they move with the schedule — including when the Start action rewrites it. Set them while you are configuring the contest, well before the freezing moment arrives.

For a standalone or season board, freezing works differently: you schedule Freeze and Unfreeze at fixed times rather than as an offset from a contest. See Standalone and combined scoreboards.