First time tournament... Few questions?

[Fev]

Standards:

Bracket type. What is more commonly used, single elimination? Or Double? I read sometimes it is based on the number of people, but like I said, I am very new to this.

Rule set.
Stock: 3
Items: Off
Certain levels banned, certain set for random (to be determined later for Brawl)

Hosting at home. So I have my own house, but I worry of the danger of hosting with so many people. I believe I have the space, but what are peoples experiences with hosting from home?


Read the ABC's of hosting tournies, but still, looks like I still have a few questions.

[Fev]

Anyone ; )?

[S623]

Just wait. People will post eventually.

Typically, tournaments go with 4-stock matches timed at 8 minutes each, unless there's some kind of time constraint.

[Naybewon]

If there's 20 or more people, in my experience it's been double elimination (so the losers go into the losers bracket and fight their way up to the top of THAT) At the end, the winner of the losers bracket has to fight the winner of the winners bracket and have to win 3/5 times (whereas the rest of the rounds have been the best 2/3 times).

Stages with random effects or things that change gravity/speed/accuracy or can kill you for no reason are generally off, no items, 4 stock and 10 minutes.

[Fev]

I'll always wondered, but haven't asked yet. Why is the common stock setting 4? 3 not enough? Even when doing best out of 3?

[S623]

... I don't know. Hmmm, I'll have to look into that.

[Fev]

More noob questions:

1) I see there are neutral stages and counterpick ones? I assume the neutral stages are the random select ones, but whats the counterpick business =p?

2) Double blind character selection? I can't seem to get a detailed explanation of how this works?

3) Locked characters? Are you able to change characters between matchs? Rounds? Or ever? I can see the jacks of all trade picking counter characters for each round.. And well, not sure if I agree 100% to that =/.

[Naybewon]

1.) 4 man has been the standard for as long as I can remember. I think it has something to do with having enough lives to keep it short and enough lives to where you can accidentally suicide maybe once and still come back for the victory if you're good enough. With just 3 stock that isn't nearly as doable.

2.) Neutral stages are like you said, randomly selected. "Counterpick" (again, just from my experience in tournaments) goes like this: Person A vs. Person B. Person A won match. Person A has to keep their same character to fight the second round (hoping to get the best 2/3 of course) and Person B gets to change either their character OR select a stage. Choosing to select a stage is considered Counterpicking.

3.) Double blind character selection generally works for the first round of a match (because the winner of the first match has to keep their same character, of course). "Double blind" means that upon the first match, both Player A and Player B report which character they'll be using, independently of one another BEFORE the match starts. That way Player A doesn't know who Player B is going to use in the first round, and vice versa. Makes for a fair first round.

4.) I think I answered your last question about changing characters already. The winner of the first round has to keep the character they chose, while the loser of the first round gets to change either their character or the stage. HOWEVER some tournaments don't even USE double blind (many players are so confident with their characters that they really don't care who their opponent picks) and they also don't enforce the "only the loser can switch characters" rule. So really it's up to you, the person holding the tournament.

Hope that helped :)

Edit: Unlockable characters are always ok to use in tournament play. When you said "locked characters" I wasn't sure if you meant the characters that are available only when you first get the game or if you meant are you locked into the character you choose. ^_^