Discord is a chat and audio/video conferencing app widely used for hosting online quizbowl tournaments.
Download Discord from here. Discord is free for all users. It has a paid option called Nitro, but we’ve found that this doesn’t offer any advantages for quizbowl tournaments.
Note: You must be at least 13 years old to create a Discord account.
Always use the downloaded desktop app. Do not use the version of Discord that runs in your browser. This version has inferior audio and generally leads to more issues.
Discord updates frequently. It’s a good idea to boot it before the tournament so you’re not stuck waiting for an update.
You’ll have one Discord account. However, you’ll often be joined to multiple Discord servers (one for each tournament, plus non-tournament servers like the Quizbowl discussion Discord). On each server, you can set a different display name. For tournaments you’ll want to set this to your real name and affiliation (i.e. school).
The tournament director will create a server and then send a link to the server to players, coaches and staff via email or some other form of communication.
Discord divides up servers into channels. Channels can be either text or voice + video. A tournament server usually has a combination of text channels for general announcements, staff discussion, and game rooms. Plus a separate set of voice + video channels for game rooms.
Once you’ve got Discord installed, you’ll want to set up your audio settings to be ready for online quizbowl. Click here for a guide on how to do that.