# What is “Tournament”?

A tournament is a container for a series of contests run over a period in a recurring programme, with its own leaderboard and rules for how contest results combine.

Also called: programme tournament, contest series

SSociana team·19 Oct 2026·2 min read

## Tournament in detail

Recurring programmes need structure above the single activity. In Sociana's hierarchy, a tournament sits at the top, holds one or more contests, and each contest accepts submissions within defined rules. Think of a year-long ambassador scheme as a tournament, with a contest each month and quarterly and annual leaderboards summarising the results. The organiser decides how contest scores roll up, whether participants register or are enrolled, and how long each stage runs. Tournaments suit HR, compliance, sales and community programmes where behaviour should be repeated and reviewed rather than celebrated once. They connect to approvals, because contest submissions can be reviewed before counting, and to rewards, because period winners can be recognised or points issued. Mobile dashboards give programme owners user-wise submission views while a tournament is running. The word does not imply sport: it is a scoring container, and a compliance quiz series can be a tournament.

## How Sociana uses it

Tournaments are the top layer of the tournament → contest → submission chain in the points and competitions module, reportable by period in dashboards and exports.

## Example

A recurring ethics-ambassador programme ran quarterly and annual leaderboards across a series of contests.

## Questions

What does a tournament contain?

One or more contests, each accepting submissions under rules, plus leaderboards that summarise results by period such as quarter or year. In Sociana's hierarchy, a tournament sits at the top, holds one or more contests, and each contest accepts submissions within defined rules.

Is a tournament only for sports?

No. It is a scoring container, so a monthly compliance-quiz series or a KPI submission programme can be run as a tournament. A tournament is a container for a series of contests run over a period in a recurring programme, with its own leaderboard and rules for how contest results combine.

How do results roll up?

The organiser sets how contest scores combine, and period leaderboards, such as quarterly or annual, summarise them for participants and sponsors. The organiser decides how contest scores roll up, whether participants register or are enrolled, and how long each stage runs.

## Keep reading

[Recurring employee programmes](https://sociana.in/event-types/employee-programmes/)[Contest](https://sociana.in/glossary/contest/)[Submission](https://sociana.in/glossary/submission/)[Competition](https://sociana.in/glossary/competition/)

[Back to Glossary](https://sociana.in/glossary/)

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Canonical: https://sociana.in/glossary/tournament/
Publisher: Sociana by Alien Brains Private Limited (https://sociana.in/)