Hidden Mode

When would I use "Hidden Mode"?

How do I create a competition in "Hidden Mode"?

What happens after I create a "Hidden Mode" competition?

Can I enable "Hidden Mode" on a competition that's already gone live?

How do I verify my competitions setup while it's in "Hidden Mode"?

How do I turn off "Hidden Mode"?

Why Use "Hidden Mode"?

"Hidden Mode" allows you to test drive a competition's setup and scoring configurations without notifying users that a competition has been created.

Since Ambition offers so many different scoring and competitor options, you can create a challenge or fantasy competition with "Hidden Mode" enabled and you will be able to view the created competition without it being visible across Ambition and all of the competitors being notified. When a competition is in "Hidden Mode", only users with "Competitions: All Access" permission will be able to view the competition.

Once you've perfected the competition's setup, you can toggle the competition to "live" and the competition will be visible across Ambition.

Create a Competition in Hidden Mode

1. Open the left navigation and click Competitions > Create.

2. Click Create on either "Challenge" or "Fantasy" depending the type of competition you wish to create.

3. During competition creation, update the "Live <> Hidden Mode" toggle, found directly under the "Competition Name" or "Fantasy Competition Name" to Hidden Mode. 

"Live" is the default, so ensure your competition is toggled to "Hidden Mode" before saving.

4. Continue completing the create new competition form.

Learn more about creating a challenge here.

Learn more about creating a fantasy competition here.

What happens after creating a competition in Hidden Mode?

After competition creation:

• only user's with "Competitions: All Access" permission can view, edit, and delete the competition.
• the participants will not be sent an email notifying them they are participating in an Ambition competition, and the competition will not be visible to participants within Ambition. The exception would be if a participant also has "Competitions: All Access" permission.
• the competition will be displayed in the Competitions > Manage Grid with a Hidden Mode label. Additionally, you can filter for just "Hidden" competitions when using the "Competition Mode" filter.

Can I enable "Hidden Mode" on a competition that's already gone live?

Yes! While not advised to be a common practice since a disappearing competition would be confusing for the competitors, you are able to edit a live competition and toggle "hidden mode" on.

If a live competition is updated to be in "hidden mode":

• the competition will no longer appear on competitor's dashboard or be available on the Competition > Overview page.
• only user's with "Competitions: All Access" permission can view, edit, and delete the competition.
• the competition will be displayed in the Competitions > Manage Grid with a Hidden Mode label.

If you choose to create a live competition, enable "hidden mode", and then disable "hidden mode", taking the competition live again, the competition will once again be available for competitors to view on their dashboards or view on the Competitions > Overview page. "Competition Game Started" emails will not be resent.

Verify Competition Setup

Since using "Hidden Mode" is intended to allow you to test drive a competition's setup and scoring configurations, any user with "Competitions: All Access" permission can view and and edit "Hidden Mode" competitions by:

1. Open the left navigation and click Competitions > Manage.

2. Click the ellipses icon, , and View.

If the competition's start time is in the future, you will have to wait until the competition's start time has passed in order to view the competition. Edits can be made to competitions that haven't started yet.

For a challenge where the selected start and end times are in the past, you can view the results of the challenge to, but you cannot edit competitions that have ended.

3. Review the competition's setup and scoring configurations.

Recommended items to verify while a competition is in "Hidden Mode":

Competitors:

• Are the competitors displaying as expected? Ex. Is the competition a "User vs User" or "Team vs Team" competition as expected?
• Are all the correct competitors included?
• Are there competitors in the competition who shouldn't be competing?

Scoring:

• Are all the metrics you wish competitors to compete on included?
• Do the current scores in the competition match your expectation based on the stage of the competition? Do scores seem way too high or too low?
• If using points scoring, do the points per unit need to be adjusted?
• If a longer competition, are weekends correctly included or excluded?

Prizes

• Were the appropriate prizes included?
• If threshold prizes are being used, do the thresholds need to be adjusted based on the competition's current scoring range?

4. After reviewing, make any needed edits. Revisit the setup and scoring configuration as needed.

Special notes about editing:

• Needing to edit the start and/or end time of your competition will require creating a new competition. 
• For fantasy competitions, scoring configurations can only be edited up until the end of the first match up of the season. Once the first games of the season end, scoring configurations can no longer be edited.

Learn more about editing challenges here.

Learn more about editing fantasy competitions here.

5. Disable "Hidden Mode" when you are ready to introduce your competition to the participants!

Disable Hidden Mode

Hidden Mode cannot be disabled if a competition has already ended.

1. Open the left navigation and click Competitions > Manage.

2. Locate the competition that's in "Hidden Mode" and click Edit.

You can filter for just "Hidden" competitions when using the "Competition Mode" filter.

3. Update the "Live <> Hidden Mode" toggle, found directly under "Name" to Live. 

4. Save your competition.

What happens after Hidden Mode is turned off?

After competition has been set to "Live":

• all users in Ambition can view the competition.
• the competitors will be sent an email notifying them they are participating in an Ambition competition. If the competition had been created as a live competition, then had "hidden mode" enabled, and then set live again, "Competition Game Started" emails will not be sent.
• the competition will be displayed in the Competitions > Manage Grid without a "Hidden Mode" label. Additionally, you can filter for "Live" competitions when using the "Competition Mode" filter.