For a first run, use a small custom contest: twelve participants, two semi-finals, and six finalists. This makes the allocation, qualification, and final vote easier to follow than a full international field. No download or account is needed. Keep temporary site storage enabled and use the same tab throughout the contest.
1. Choose a format
Open the simulator and choose PLAY. Select a custom format and set the final size to 6 with 2 semi-finals. Leave custom automatic qualifiers and custom voting groups off for this example. Select jury and public voting with the standard Eurovision-style scoring option. Leave complex mode off while learning the basic sequence.
These choices mean the twelve participants form the voting pool and six places are filled through the semi-finals. With no automatic qualifiers and two equally sized semi-finals, each semi supplies three finalists. Other configurations can produce different targets; the allocation screen shows the targets used for your actual field.
2. Select twelve countries
Continue to country selection and deselect any existing selections if necessary. Choose twelve countries individually. For example: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, and Austria. The names identify entries in this fictional contest; choosing a real country does not import its official competition result.
The continent buttons toggle whole groups, while Select All and Deselect All affect the entire field. Check the selected count before continuing. If Continue is disabled, read the message below the grid: the final size and any mandatory automatic qualifiers impose minimum requirements.
3. Review entries and ratings
The preparation page generates fictional song and artist names. Each entry has a jury rating and a public rating. Larger values give that entry more weight when the voting engine chooses rankings. They are strength inputs, not betting odds: a rating of 500 does not mean a 50% chance of winning.
For a balanced first contest, leave all ratings at their starting values. To create clearer favorites, increase a few entries' ratings or use Randomize Odds. The Max Diff input limits the difference between each entry's randomized jury and public ratings. A value of zero makes the two equal; manual changes are still your choice. The randomizer uses ratings between 100 and 1000, while manual inputs allow values from 1 to 1000.
Choose View Odds to Win to see the app’s rating-based forecast. The percentages are a comparison of entry strength, not measured winning probabilities, and do not account for qualification. Continue through Odds Reroll to see any performance changes, then open the semi-final allocation.
4. Run the semi-finals
The allocation divides the selected field into semi-finals. Review the groups and qualification counts, then start the first semi-final. Follow the controls to reveal qualifiers and inspect the voting breakdown. Continue through the remaining semi-final before opening the Grand Final.
Different runs can produce different rankings. Even with equal ratings, the random draw of votes will usually separate entries. If you return to a result page directly in a different browser or after clearing site data, that browser has no contest to display; start again from the simulator.
5. Reveal the final
The final scoreboard begins with the qualifiers. Advance the voting to reveal jury points and then public points. Once the reveal finishes, open the full results. The result views separate totals and voting matrices, so you can examine which voters supplied an entry's points.
Explore the scoreboard and voting matrices in this tab. A new contest replaces the current run. The web edition does not save records or offer export/import.
Next, read how the voting model works or check an annotated points example.