nirvana edit: As this thread has produced such quality replies, i have reclassified it under Articles
I have been competing in several tournaments in this community and i love the feel, the energy and the excitement from the competitions
the tournament hosts in this community have been doing so well and contributing so much, I truly admire them and I want to thank all of them starcraft would be pretty boring laddering the whole day hahhaa
Because of that, I am interested to host a tournament of my own, nothing fancy, just a casual amateur tournament for average casual players to participate in certain unique competitions with "fun" rules and "fun" maps in them.
So my question is, how do i get started in hosting a tournament? any advice or tips or rules i should follow?
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PapaBigBelly.588
Previously known as ArousalPerMinute
Just open like 20 tabs and fill each of them with other successful tournaments and just look over the format, headings, layout, etc. until you form in your mind what makes a good event. Also use contacts to increase coverage or notify key players. Just posting on a forum about it that will get buried in a few hours will probably not be spotted by top players unless they have good management doing it for them.
Also, getting casters on board can be challenging sometimes so start that quite early. Once you get to know the casters better you can leave it until last and even just announce it on the day if you are confident they will show up. For events just starting out, you may find many casters are quite bogged down already, but look around at some of the lesser known casters and find some that you like - it can be a chance for both of you to start something good!
A prize is always great, even if it's just a community tournament you can get some prizes that have no financial value, but have sentimental value. For example, an achievement or forum signature or something like that. Also if you can set up some kind of interview with the winner it's a lot of fun and makes the player feel more like they have achieved something.
So for now look at a bunch of tournaments until you decide on a format and base for your tourney - for example you might want to host a single elimination on SC2SEA, or a group tournament on challonge, etc. Once you know what type of tournament it is and who may be playing, line up your caster, state your prize (if any) and spread the word! n_n
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Brendan "TAdeL" Ferguson Clan TA | Twitter | YouTube
Last edited by deL; Wed, 16th-Mar-2011 at 10:03 PM.
deL posted up a pretty good post re: creating a tournament, and I've gotta admit he covered most of the points!
To add a few of my own; all you need is an idea and the rest will fall into place. First draft up your idea; as well as the layout of your tournament. Following that look into speaking to Nirvana (if you're planning on running it through sc2sea) and the various SEA streamers.
Following that; create a final copy of your detailed tournament thread and include a tournament banner and outline your prize(s) if you choose to have any as well as including things that will generally help the people playing; akin to the FAQ we see attached to a majority of the sc2sea tournaments to help the players who are new to participating in tournaments at sc2sea.
Assuming all has gone well thus far, post up the thread with some time for people to notice it; both on sc2sea.com and the SCII battle.net forum and then open the sign-ups (which is done through sc2sea.com) on the day of the tournament to ensure there are no, no-shows or anything which could delay the tournament.
After all that organisation has been taken care of; you've got to understand that the first hour to two hours of a tournament is quite hectic; when I was hosting the BSG as an 128 player event for the first two hours I would have several messages popping up in my SCII client; so macro skills definitely come into play, haha! Although after the initial "rush", it does get a little more quieter.
And lastly, just a tip regarding organising things for the streamer; try to not have them waiting excessively long for a game. One tip I give to people who ask me how to improve their tournament-hosting is to 'queue-up' games, i.e. invite the streamer into a Ro64 game, while asking a second Ro64 game to delay their game; then invite the streamer into that Ro64 game while holding a Ro32 game for when the streamer finishes in that game.
Ultimately if you manage the above well; you can keep the brackets moving at a normal, similar speed and can control when brackets are moving too fast by adding certain games to the queue.
The most fun I've had with SCII was tournament organising; however I've recently begun focusing more-so on laddering but if you want any help or advice; feel free to PM me.
whoa did del actually make his first really helpful quality post on sc2sea? this calls for celebration!!
along with what del and sky have said, if you have the spirit and dedication, before you start it would be extremely important to decide if you want to help a community site to run tournaments or if you wanna host something on your own.
ive seen a few amazing dedicated individuals who have stopped (yoz opens for e.g) beacuse at the end of the day it was too much time for them, wasnt enough support or the sponsor money issue. and working together as a community by pooling resoruces together really helps things out.
you also have to consider the market for your tournament, like if you host a new BSG, why would they join yours over a long running established one with no support/exposure. ive seen quite a few other bsgs or exhibition events have really little support and not go well and its not because of the organiser but because the market is already built up and established somewhere else.
so if u can find an untapped market perhaps for 2s(apparently this didnt go as well) or 3s or FFAs and it takes off it will be awesome. only attractive reason at the moment for people joining a new tourney imo would be the prize money at stake, i have seen how response for ichors $20 was intially not good but they have increased their prize so lets see how that goes. and basically anyhting over $100 instnatly gets everyone joining.
and yea i think thats mainly the problem with hosting tournaments on your own at the moment, you would need to find a good sponsor first and if u cant u need to find an untapped market. and well helping out already estalbished sites means you dont have to do all the work and the stress is taken off, and u get lots of expereince / support easily with two key elements - the prize pools and traffic (pple knowing about and joining) already been taken care off
Exactly what DeL, Nirv and Skybreaker said, but remember it requires alot of dedication and hard work. I thought it sounded easy at first, but it really isn't. But after awhile, you'll get used to it and it'll start feeling easy (:
Oh if you want some people like to have a clear set of rules. You have to set your own standards about how the tournament is going to be policed and moderated with regard to cheating, lag, disconnects, glitches, wrong maps, people not waiting for streamers, etc.
When I started hosting tourneys I liked to include pre-written rules covering all of these things but after a while it was a lot of work to write them and every situation is different so it was easier to store them in my head and make a call as each problem arose. When you first start out this might not be an option as you are not experienced in dealing with this so you should look over the other rulesets from previous tournaments and compile your own list covering some of the items I listed above and any others that you find.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nirvAnA
whoa did del actually make his first really helpful quality post on sc2sea? this calls for celebration!!
Well finally someone asks something worth helping with ;D Not like I can give people tips on how to be a better player when I am struggling on ladder at the moment haha.
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Brendan "TAdeL" Ferguson Clan TA | Twitter | YouTube
Also ensure you're becoming a tournament organiser for the right reasons. Dont become a tournament organiser to become a better player. It will just take away from your time, although you will see the occasional useful game on the caster's stream.
Just open like 20 tabs and fill each of them with other successful tournaments and just look over the format, headings, layout, etc. until you form in your mind what makes a good event. Also use contacts to increase coverage or notify key players. Just posting on a forum about it that will get buried in a few hours will probably not be spotted by top players unless they have good management doing it for them.
Also, getting casters on board can be challenging sometimes so start that quite early. Once you get to know the casters better you can leave it until last and even just announce it on the day if you are confident they will show up. For events just starting out, you may find many casters are quite bogged down already, but look around at some of the lesser known casters and find some that you like - it can be a chance for both of you to start something good!
A prize is always great, even if it's just a community tournament you can get some prizes that have no financial value, but have sentimental value. For example, an achievement or forum signature or something like that. Also if you can set up some kind of interview with the winner it's a lot of fun and makes the player feel more like they have achieved something.
So for now look at a bunch of tournaments until you decide on a format and base for your tourney - for example you might want to host a single elimination on SC2SEA, or a group tournament on challonge, etc. Once you know what type of tournament it is and who may be playing, line up your caster, state your prize (if any) and spread the word! n_n
Theres a troll in there somewhere... 3 reads and still can't find it.
Well finally someone asks something worth helping with ;D Not like I can give people tips on how to be a better player when I am struggling on ladder at the moment haha.
This is so not deL! trying to win the manner man achievement imo!
theres a troll in there somewhere... 3 reads and still can't find it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by del
just open like 20 tabs and fill each of them with other successful tournaments and just look over the format, headings, layout, etc. Until you form in your mind what makes a good event. Also use contacts to increase coverage or notify key players. Just posting on a forum about it that will get buried in a few hours will probably not be spotted by top players unless they have good management doing it for them.
Also, getting casters on board can be challenging sometimes so start that quite early. Once you get to know the casters better you can leave it until last and even just announce it on the day if you are confident they will show up. For events just starting out, you may find many casters are quite bogged down already, but look around at some of the lesser known casters and find some that you like - it can be a chance for both of you to start something good!
w-i-n-t-r-a-d-e-r-b-e-n-j-i
oh shiiiiiii-
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Brendan "TAdeL" Ferguson Clan TA | Twitter | YouTube
Thanks everyone for helping out and giving their suggestions
I am so happy that you guys have responded with your feedback and shared your experiences with me, and to the community.
Thanks Del for giving a good idea of looking through past tournaments im doing so right now haha
though my idea of a tournament is not really a competitive one, its a more fun-based thing, like something funky not just a 1v1.
Nirvana made a very interesting point about the target market of the competition. This is so true and thanks for pointing it out oh and thanks for the idea of having an FFA hahahah possibly that is what ill try to do.
However the prize is the only problem, i do not intend to have a money prize, but something "sentimental" or a really great achievement like what del has talked about.
I need ideas for the "prize" part of my tournament hahhha because i do not want to give out money lol but what i do want is to give the opportunity to people to experience the competitive thrill, fun and community of Sc2Sea
Im thinking of an FFA competition, at unique maps that are not commonly played on such as the GSL maps. the participants will be split into groups of 4 and play around a map pool and the objective to advance to the next round is to be the first to win twice. This gives more opportunity and more games to play for the participants
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PapaBigBelly.588
Previously known as ArousalPerMinute
Well if you know someone good with graphics you could make a custom SC2SEA avatar/signature or if you know someone who can make youtube videos there could be a highlight video n_n
Alternatively you could offer to make a Liquipedia page about them - if you get all the info I can post it so that it gets published right away.
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Brendan "TAdeL" Ferguson Clan TA | Twitter | YouTube
Wow fantastic ideas deL
it makes me feel to participate in my own tournament if i do decide to host one :P
getting someone good with graphics is a good idea, problem is that this forum doesnt allow images for a signature maybe nirvana can make an exception? : ) hahhaa
I just want my tounament to be unique, fresh, different than other tournaments. Reaching a new "target market" as what nirvana has said. Thats why i do not want to give out prize money, but other sentimental original things
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PapaBigBelly.588
Previously known as ArousalPerMinute
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