CUMULATIVE POINT SYSTEM AND SCORING OF AN EVENT BASED ON USER PARTICIPATION IN THE EVENT

An application controls an online auction event. A scoring heuristic generates scores based on user activity during the auction event. The scoring heuristic provides score information about each of a plurality of users participating in the auction event to the application during the auction event and the application provides the score information substantially simultaneously during the auction event to each of a plurality of computing devices for inclusion on a scoreboard display on a graphical user interface (GUI) of each computing device. The scoring information includes a first score for each user participating in the auction event that represents points awarded during the auction of one item in the event. The auction event may include auctions of a plurality of items and the scoring heuristic maintains a second score for each user participating in the auction event that represents cumulative points awarded during the auction event.