Battles
A battle is a head-to-head challenge. Instead of everyone working toward a shared target, two sides race on points between a start and an end date. When the end date passes, the side with the higher score wins.
The two formats
A battle is a challenge with one of two challenge types:
| Challenge type | A side is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Head-to-head (person vs person) | One named user | Two AEs race on meetings booked this month |
| Head-to-head (team vs team) | One Salesforce Public Group | EMEA vs NA on pipeline hygiene this quarter |
Both formats work the same way. A person battle is simply a battle where each side has one member.
Setting up a battle
Create the challenge in the Challenge Builder and pick one of the head-to-head types. A person battle shows two people pickers (Participant one, Participant two); a team battle shows two team pickers (Team one, Team two). A battle has no goal metric or target. The builder shows a Scoring section instead.
The builder refuses to save a battle when:
- Either side is missing, or both sides are the same
- The sides do not match the type, for example a person on a team battle
- There is no start date or end date, or the start is not before the end
- A person is not an active user
- A team has no active members
- The two teams share a member, who would be competing for both sides at once
- A team has more than 2,000 members
The team pickers stay empty until an admin adds Public Groups on the Teams card in Novigem Admin > Settings > General. The builder points you there when no teams are set up yet. See General settings.
A battle only resolves while its status is Active. Under Linked rules only, its rules also only award points while it is Active.
Scoring
Scoring Mode
Scoring Mode decides which points count toward a side’s score:
| Mode | What counts |
|---|---|
| Linked rules only (default) | Points from rules linked to this battle. Rules linked to a battle only award points between its start and end date. |
| All points earned | Every point the side’s members earn between the start and end date, whatever earned it. No rules need to be linked. |
A Linked rules only battle with no linked rules will end 0–0 as a draw. The builder warns you about this. Link at least one rule, or switch to All points earned.
The winner’s bonus points never count toward the battle score, so an ended battle keeps showing the score it was decided on.
Team scoring
A team battle has to combine its members’ points into one side score. Team scoring decides how:
- Average per member (default): the side’s total divided by its number of active members. This compares teams of different sizes fairly.
- Total points: every member’s points added up. This rewards the whole team’s output, so it favours the bigger roster. The builder warns you when the two teams are different sizes.
A person battle never asks the question: a side has one member, and both modes give the same number. Under Average per member, the battle card also shows the team’s raw points total beneath its score.
Who counts as a team member
Only active users who are direct members of the Public Group count. Members of nested groups or roles inside the group are not included.
Team membership is resolved at scoring time, not at the start of the battle. Someone who joins a team mid-battle contributes their points from the whole battle window, and someone who leaves stops contributing entirely. A side’s score can therefore jump, up or down, the moment the Public Group changes. This is by design: the group as it stands is the team that competes.
How a battle ends
Nothing ends a battle in real time. The nightly job (see Scheduled jobs) looks for Active battles whose end date has passed and resolves each one, so the result lands within about a day of the end date. Run Now on the Scheduled Jobs screen runs the same job.
Battle resolution is paused while the Enable Rule Engine kill switch in General settings is off. A battle missed during a pause resolves on the next run once the engine is back on.
Each battle ends in one of three outcomes. In every case its status changes to Ended.
| Outcome | When | Reward |
|---|---|---|
| Win | One side has the higher score, or the scores are level and the tie-break separates them | Every member of the winning side |
| Draw | Scores are level and the tie-break cannot separate them | None |
| Void | A side has no active members left when the battle resolves | None |
Tie-break and draw
If both sides finish on the same score, the side whose first scoring entry in the battle came earlier wins. The battle is only a draw when that is level too, for example when neither side scored at all.
Void battles
A battle is voided when either side resolves to nobody: in a person battle, a participant was deactivated; in a team battle, every member is inactive or the group was emptied. Nobody wins by an administrative accident.
One member leaving a team is not a reason to void. The team competes with whoever is left.
The winner’s reward
On a win, the challenge’s completion bonus and completion badge go to every member of the winning side, once each. The bonus is paid in full to each member, not split across the team. The awards are protected against duplicates, so a re-run of the nightly job never pays twice.
The winning side’s name is recorded on the challenge in Winning Side Name.
Telling the winners
Each winner gets a Chatter post on their profile, that @mentions them and reads “won the challenge name battle score-score!”. It is controlled by the Battle Won toggle under Novigem Admin > Settings > Notifications, which is on by default, and also needs In-App Notifications on. Inactive users are skipped.
A battle win does not send an Award_Granted__e event, so there is no celebration overlay. Battles resolve overnight, when nobody is on a page to see an overlay. The Chatter post is waiting for them the next morning.
Where reps see battles
Battles appear in a Battles section at the top of My Challenges, not as regular progress bars. A rep sees a battle when they are one of its two named people, or a direct member of one of its two teams. It shows up as soon as the battle exists, before either side has scored.
Each battle card shows both sides with their scores and a status badge:
| Badge | When |
|---|---|
| Leading | The battle is running and this side is ahead |
| Tied | The battle is running and the sides are exactly level |
| Winner | The battle has ended and this side won |
| Draw | The battle has ended with no winner, after a draw or a void |
Ended battles stay on the list for 30 days after their end date, then drop off.
Common pitfalls
- Leaving a Linked rules only battle with no linked rules: it ends 0–0 as a draw
- Expecting a winner on the end date itself: the nightly job declares it, so schedule the job
- Picking Total points for teams of different sizes: the bigger team has a built-in advantage
- Expecting nested groups to count: only direct members of the Public Group compete
Related
- Challenges: challenge types, goal pace, and who takes part
- Challenges builder reference: all fields explained
- Lightning Components: the battle card in My Challenges
- Badges, Ledger