Equivalent word which represents 'Team' or 'Individual'
I am developing a coding contest project with multiple contests. The participants can be a team or an independent individual, depending on the contest setting. I want to define only one model for the participant which could understood as a team or an individual.
Is there a word that can be used for team and participating individual?
Update
I am thinking to chuck the idea of implementing whole project based on smart team management complicating it whole and decided to implement separate team management and complicating that.
But I would be very happy to change my mind if I could get a word, maybe even in some other language for this.
It depends on how strictly you want to adhere to grammatical standards.
The most grammatically correct word that comes to mind is party: merriam webster gives the definition "a person or group taking one side of a question, dispute, or contest."
I think colloquially competitor or contestant might be acceptable.
I think you would be fine simply using the word "Team", and specifying in each contest's rules the "Team Size", which could be "1", "1 or more", "2-4", or any other range you care to name.
Either a team or an individual may make and submit an entry for judging in the contest. In doing so, they would become entrants. The dictionary definition of entrant is singular, but you could use entrants to describe all of the participants and entrants when referring to those behind a single entry.