I payed out $21 to 4th place in teams... thats more than the entry fee back. I don't see a problem with this. If only 6 teams show up, i honestly don't see why it's ok for 3rd place to get all their money back.
This would be fine if people didn't have other expenses. I just think its better for the top placers to get to as close as breaking even as possible so that they can continue to support other events. Giving 5% more to 3rd place actually makes it quite profitable. For example at mlg if dojo and gness had gotten 5% more they would have made close to a 100$ each paying for what should be over a 1/3rd of there plane ticket.
Most of the time 10% if barely enough to pay for the venue fee and the entry.
If only 12 people show up for singles then 3rd place gets his money back so why shouldn't 3rd place get its money back with 6 teams? Although if only 6 teams show up i think you should only be paying top 2.
@AB: I updated the payouts for Singles and Doubles to ensure that everybody that gets payed will receive AT LEAST their entry fee back. Take a look:
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=279318
thats nice and all but the problem i have with that is that when you get the same turnout for both events your splitting the money between a lot more people in doubles. For a 60+ turn out your paying 16 people in doubles and only 8 in singles. I just don't see any reason to be doing that doubles players already make less money than singles so why are you splitting it among more people?
edit: actually if you have 60 teams and they get 1% they only get 6$ per person.
@RT attendance does matter but you can make it matter less by simply taking away a bit of money from 1st and giving it to other places.