A tournament goes live the moment you create it. What changes as you set it up is how much of it there is to show.
Before you start
You need a Scoryboard account. Anyone can create a tournament. Only the owner and the admins can change one.
The two states you will see most
Open Tournament in the sidebar to see every tournament you own or help run.
A tournament with a format shows that format under its name, here Round Robin. A tournament without one shows only the game type. That label is the quickest way to tell a tournament you have finished setting up from one you have not.
Open a tournament that has no format and its Format tab still asks you to pick one.
Nothing is scheduled yet. Choosing a format is what creates the groups and generates the fixtures.
What everyone else sees
Every tournament has a public page. It shows the date, the kick-off time, the teams, the groups, the venues and the format.
Your setup screens are not on this page. Visitors get the read-only tabs: Info, Participants, Standings, Matches, Leaderboard and Chat.
What you will see
A tournament is published from the moment you create it. It becomes live when its first match starts, and completed when you set a winner. You do not publish it yourself and there is no draft to come back to, so give it a name you are happy for people to see.
If it does not work
The list says you have no tournaments. It shows an empty count for a moment while it loads. Give it a second before you create a second one by mistake.
You cannot find a tournament you were added to. The list shows tournaments you own or administer. If someone added your team, look under Teams instead.
Your format is missing from the card. The format only appears once you have saved it on the Format tab. Opening the tab is not enough.