Advertising tournaments to grow the community

[Mew2King]

To get future smash tournaments bigger, don't you guys think that posting every tournament on places like
1) facebook
2) GAMEFAQS
3) allisbrawl

and telling your friends and having them tell their friends would help keep the scene growing? I feel we can get a lot more people than we currently have come to tournaments with the proper advertisements. There are millions of smashers in the U.S. but hardly anyone goes to tournaments by comparison to the %age that play the game. I am sure clever use of advertisement and spreading word of mouth (if everybody contributed) can help out a lot and this is not done enough.

 

[metalreflectslime]

1st Tournament

To get future smash tournaments bigger, don't you guys think that posting every tournament on places like
1) facebook
2) GAMEFAQS
3) allisbrawl

and telling your friends and having them tell their friends would help keep the scene growing? I feel we can get a lot more people than we currently have come to tournaments with the proper advertisements. There are millions of smashers in the U.S. but hardly anyone goes to tournaments by comparison to the %age that play the game. I am sure clever use of advertisement and spreading word of mouth (if everybody contributed) can help out a lot and this is not done enough.

I came to my first tournament and got into competitive Melee from seeing an advertisement on a flyer not on SWF.

 

[Mew2King]

you should tell your friends about smashboards and try to get him and your friends into the competitive community. I know if everyone puts in a little effort we can easily double the size of our scene right now.

 

[Winston]

How do you easily convince people to play a game that takes months for most to learn the basic tech skill for though? And then you spend like 6 more months to a year getting ***** constantly? I wish I knew.

 

[Mew2King]

Evo got 1700 for street fighter. Brawl is easier to pick up than that. Brawl is also extremely popular, and that makes people want to see what they can do at big events or have a fun time at local events. Compared to other games, this game is easy.

 

[Hadster]

Tru Tru

I hosted a few tournaments at my University last year...The first one didn't receive very many people at all, but then when I created a group on Facebook (and my own little site to link people to), and with the help of a few flyers, about 70 people were interested...(and this was melee!).

The players are out there. There are a lot more than we think there are.

And, surprisingly, I am quite sure there are more smashers who do not know about smashboards, than do know about it.

From the advertising point of view, I don't think enough LOCAL advertising occurs.

I found myself that a nice way to get players into the competitive scene was to show them a few really exciting matches on YouTube (cough M2K vs Shiz cough), or some Combo Videos.

Tournaments aren't so hard to host and make appealing anyways...a clever balancing of entry fee with the prize money let me provide unlimited amounts of "free" food and drink for everyone who came...and I never ended up paying from my pocket. There's lots of little ways to help attract players to the competitive scene...and it only takes them one or two good tournaments to get into the scene themselves. A lot of the players who came to my first big tournament weren't that experienced in smash; they had heard about the food and drink, and the prize money, and a player promising to disguise themselves as C.Falcon, and they thought to pop along to have a look. Once they came to one or two, these people who hadn't really been that interested in the game, started to become much more competitive, and more addicted!

 

[Mew2King]

Anime cons with both Melee and Brawl included would be a great addition. Melee should be cheaper generally, or the same price, like 5 dollars then Brawl 5 or 10, but we can get a lot of people. Anime Expo had 5 dollar Brawl entry and 30-40 people on a waiting list past the 128 man cap. About 160 people would have went. With proper advertising, we can easily make a 256 man tournament at an Anime Convention. I really think Anime Conventions are a large key to keeping smash huge, we just have to advertise them here on smashboards, then facebook, allisbrawl, and spread word. We can max out a 256 man bracket by doing this, and include both games possibly.

 

[Winston]

Evo got 1700 for street fighter. Brawl is easier to pick up than that. Brawl is also extremely popular, and that makes people want to see what they can do at big events or have a fun time at local events. Compared to other games, this game is easy.

I was talking about Melee. Melee is a pretty hard game to get into, I feel.

 

[Mew2King]

that's why melee is cheaper

 

[metalreflectslime]

Competitive

The man has a point.

I hosted a few tournaments at my University last year...The first one didn't receive very many people at all, but then when I created a group on Facebook (and my own little site to link people to), and with the help of a few flyers, about 70 people were interested...(and this was melee!).

The players are out there. There are a lot more than we think there are.

And, surprisingly, I am quite sure there are more smashers who do not know about smashboards, than do know about it.

From the advertising point of view, I don't think enough LOCAL advertising occurs.

I found myself that a nice way to get players into the competitive scene was to show them a few really exciting matches on YouTube (cough M2K vs Shiz cough), or some Combo Videos.

Tournaments aren't so hard to host and make appealing anyways...a clever balancing of entry fee with the prize money let me provide unlimited amounts of "free" food and drink for everyone who came...and I never ended up paying from my pocket. There's lots of little ways to help attract players to the competitive scene...and it only takes them one or two good tournaments to get into the scene themselves. A lot of the players who came to my first big tournament weren't that experienced in smash; they had heard about the food and drink, and the prize money, and a player promising to disguise themselves as C.Falcon, and they thought to pop along to have a look. Once they came to one or two, these people who hadn't really been that interested in the game, started to become much more competitive, and more addicted!

I got into competitive Melee from reading a Nintendo Power Article on Wavedashing and watching Shined Blind from Zelgadis.

 

[-Ran]

1) Use Facebook and create a group for your region for Smash Brothers. Post when the events are.
2) Check with colleges in your area. Many of them will have a video games club that has Smash players in it that are unaware of the local scene.
3) Utilize free amateur brackets for players that enter the singles event. Players outside of top one third get to play an a secondary tournament, where first place gets their entry fee back.
4) Attach to anime conventions. Talk with everyone that you see that is playing Brawl.
5) Be nice to new players. Seriously, don't be rude and three stock them. Teach them in a condescending way. The goal is to make them want to come back, not to turn them off from the franchise.
6) Connect with the other fighting scenes in the area, and attempt to steal a few of their players. >d
7) Play Smash in a visible area at least once a week with friendlies, such as at a Lan Center, game room at a college campus, and so forth.
8) Encourage competition between players of like skill levels.

But really, this is what happens when a new person enters the scene for their first tournament:
1) Gets bracket ****ed. You're the new guy, so you get to play our best player!
2) Three stocked by the best player who is warming up.... Twice. If you're lucky, the best player will switch to a low tier and embarrass you.
3) Has one honest shot at a match against an even skilled opponent in Losers. If they lose, they're done for the day.
4) For most of the matches the player has, being socially stunted like most gamers, they are done wordlessly. With sparse conversation and salt on fresh wounds, the new player leaves after being there for an hour.
5) They never find out that Brawl is 10% tournament and 90% social.

 

[Mew2King]

that's why there's pools -.-

 

[Jim Morrison]

But really, this is what happens when a new person enters the scene for their first tournament:
1) Gets bracket ****ed. You're the new guy, so you get to play our best player!
2) Three stocked by the best player who is warming up.... Twice. If you're lucky, the best player will switch to a low tier and embarrass you.
3) Has one honest shot at a match against an even skilled opponent in Losers. If they lose, they're done for the day.
4) For most of the matches the player has, being socially stunted like most gamers, they are done wordlessly. With sparse conversation and salt on fresh wounds, the new player leaves after being there for an hour.
5) They never find out that Brawl is 10% tournament and 90% social.

Looool this was exactly my tournament. It was also my last Brawl tournament, then I went to a Melee Tournament and I actually had fun.

 

[ranmaru]

I'm thinking of becoming a t.o in the future, so I will keep this in mind.

Also, I got into competitive smash because a friend, at a college lounge said "Hey there's a tournament at _________, you should go : ]"

I was like, nah, I'm not GOOD. He said I didn't have to be good, or something. But yeah, word of mouth helps too.

And flyers.

 

[EPsilon933]

I think there's a lot of non-tournament players out there who watch tournament videos on youtube. In all the tournament videos I have on my channel, I always write the date and location of when/where the tournament happened, and I include smashboards links to the tournament thread, results thread, and the videos thread related to the tournament. I think every tournament video recorder/uploader does this now, so it's nothing new.

I also spam/advertise my videos on other forums for Smash Brothers, such as:
http://www.wiichat.com/super-smash-bros-brawl-forums/
http://www.mlgpro.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=28
http://www.brawldomain.com/ (before a mod warned me to stop)
http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/1629/
http://boards.ign.com/nintendo_wii_lobby/b8270/p1
But it's kind of difficult to keep doing this on other sites because I get almost no (positive) responses from these guys, ever.

About 2 years before I joined the competitive Smash scene, I was a die-hard fan of watching Ken beast on everyone on youtube. That's how I learned about the tournament scene and I know it applies for many others out there.

 

[GwJ]

I'm gonna host a local Brawl tourney senior year this year during school and hot ****, I'm putting flyers in every hallway at my high school.

@Zant: The NSider forums work too. I noticed a few SWF players actively discussing there and they host online tourneys by AiB's rules. There's some good people there apparently.

 

[EPsilon933]

@Zant: The NSider forums work too. I noticed a few SWF players actively discussing there and they host online tourneys by AiB's rules. There's some good people there apparently.

I tried posting there once, but they see it as kind of unwanted spam if I post all my videos into a single thread/post like this. But they're ok if I make threads about a single video like if something funny or whatever happened in it. Even if I do try to advertise well there, there's a few things stopping me:
1. I don't like watching videos, even Smash stuff. (Oh, the irony)
2. I'd have to dig through all my recorded footage and pick out the best video
3. Every week this summer, except maybe 2 at most, I've been to a tournament, so advertising happens on a weekly basis.

I'd just hate to be an annoying spammer, but maybe I just don't know how to advertise well?


Also, and Smash FaceBook groups I can spam my tournament videos on?

Why do I always listen to people?

 

[professor mgw]

1: I'm sure for newer people, 15$ 20$ 25$ 30$ 50$ etc (plus the cost of food, train rides, bus rides, hotel rooms etc) aren't worth getting your butt kicked for 3-6 minutes, waiting almost a half hour for the losers to start, and then lose again, wasting anywhere from usually like 25$-200$ for fourty minutes worth of getting ***** and waiting to get *****.

2: There aren't enough local tournies (atleast where I live so I'm speaking for myself and for those who can't find any). There was only ONE tournament near me which was hosted by BUM163, it took about 20-25 minutes to get there. Pretty much every other offical tournament was like an 1hour and 40 minutes to half a day away. Newer people don't want to travel far, and when I say far I don't mean far in terms to a brawler who attends tournaments regularly, far to them is like 2-4 days away, that's a regular brawlers far. Someone who is more newer anywhere from a month to like 6 months will probably be willing to travel no more than 30 minutes to an hour, regardless of having a car or not. Me personally, I won't go to any tourney that requires me to stay in the place I'm at for longer than a day (unless its near where I live), and tournament that's over 30$ fee, any tournament that will require me to pay more than 50$ (that includes fee and other stuff) and any tourney that's more than 40 minutes away. Alil cheap, more closer, and I bet you that more people will be coming to tournaments.

Maybe there's just a lack of actual tournaments and them being spread apart. Advurtizang shucks broh.. Unless you place them in imp0ortant websites that aren't only smash related, facebook, youtube, myspace, yahoo, other fighting game forums, Gamefaqs, gamewinners, newgrounds, explore~

 

[-Ran]

that's why there's pools -.-

Sure, pools for larger tournaments when you have enough set ups. Yet, we both know that getting enough Wiis+ tvs isn't always the easiest thing to do. You can run pools, but that'll take a ton of time, which means that you're at a venue longer that you might be welcomed. Last time I ran pools at my event when we had thirty people, the actual bracket didn't start until 5pm, due to a total lack of set ups.

At regionals, pools are seriously necessarily, but you can't expect them at a local scene's tournament due to the constraints I noted.

 

[EPsilon933]

What about a triple elimination tournament if there's a program that exists that can run that? It could be the best middle ground between double elimination brackets only and pools.

 

[SKidd]

I'm 10 years old and recently have started into the smash community. It looks to me as if it is getting smaller.
i dont know if m2k is right or not, but we do need to broaden our community somehow.

Also, my first tourney was a Melee tourney in July. I got knocked out first round, then got knocked out loser's first. Even though I did get to play a lot of friendlies and people, I agree with having pools.

 

[Toneh]

There should definitely be more pools at tournaments. They are the most fun and gives the "not as skilled" players more play time

 

[Mew2King]

You should get discounts for bringing set ups ALWAYS

 

[Toneh]

yeah that too, or else ppl get lazy and dont bring any

 

[ranmaru]

with venue fees and waving them, do you want to waive it COMPLETELY , or just half off? I mean, because you still want to pay the venue. Like maybe instead of $10 it'd be cut to $5, or does that still turn off smashers?

 

[-Ran]

You should get discounts for bringing set ups ALWAYS

Sometimes the venue fee is already small. New Orleans tournaments are run at 2 dollar venue fee, and 10/5 dollars for Brawl/Melee. To give any discounts would lead to the pots becoming much smaller for the winners, or prevent maintaining the venue for the cost that we get it. Even at larger tournaments in the area such as Phase/Hobo, I've never received a discount for my set up, because venues are expensive.

 

[Mew2King]

half off

more or less

 

[ranmaru]

Ah ok, got ya. Thx

 

[AvaricePanda]

Run pools always. Most tourneys I went to were at a house or a venue, but in general venues seem to close at around 10 PM EST. With proper planning this is more than enough time to run pools for a local tournament. IIRC, Alphazealot was able to run 24 man tourneys with doubles bracket, singles pools, and singles bracket that ended around 8-8:30 with time to spare. If there's a very small amount of people (like 20 or so) just run non-elimination pools.

The benefits of running pools for new players is that they get to spend more time playing serious matches. Someone won't want to spend $30 for the day only to lose two singles sets in a row and go home discontent. Pools allows for more playtime of competitive matches, it allows for people to see how they stack up against various players, and it's also a bit more lax, so it's easier to break out socially. Pools will make an event for a new person, or really anyone, more fun, more memorable, and not as seemingly as a waste of money.

Food close-by should always be an option, but food at the venue is more comfortable because you aren't as worried about holding up brackets/tourney time. At the first tournament I went to, the TOs got Little Caesar's Pizza and some bottled water and charged a dollar a slice for pizza. Easy and convenient.

Having more set-ups always makes the event run smoother. Some TOs said they didn't give people incentives for bringing set-ups yet they still had enough, but if you can provide discounts for people bringing discounts IMO you should. Also, cheap things like raffles to win a new controller are nice.

There's a lot more things I could say but IMO what makes people stick with the community and the competitive scene is just how the tournament experience is. Maybe you get last seed in your pool and lost both of your bracket matches, but what's probably going to convince you to come back and spend $30+ again is if you had fun or not.

 

[KoSa!]

If the scene gets really huge nintendo might take notice and actually do things to help out with the scene. Instead of trying to hide it they will see that the competitive players are the ones playing this game years after the release. Imagine nintendo hosting a tournament for this game, but people find it hard to take a game seriously that has nintendo characters hitting each other in it.

Getting people who aren't good at the game to watch Brawl is going to be difficult. First they get owned then they watch people run the clock half the time. But Melee is a really fun spectator sport,wombo combo for instance was exciting for non smashers and was an internet sensation for a while.

So should we make the jump back to Melee to help the smash community?

 

[ranmaru]

Yes, jump back to it. Maylay <3

 

[KoSa!]

Yes, jump back to it. Maylay <3

I love melee and I sucked at it. I loved watching matches in those days from pools to brackets to GF. But for brawl I usually skip to the WF,LF,and GF. Unless my DK brothers play =]

 

[ranmaru]

I love melee and I sucked at it. I loved watching matches in those days from pools to brackets to GF. But for brawl I usually skip to the WF,LF,and GF. Unless my DK brothers play =]

I love melee too, and I'm ok at it just not good enough to place, as a doctor mario. But even so, I will keep trying to get better. : ]

Pfft, I was playing friendlies while GF were on lol.

 

[KoSa!]

LOL, I feel like I wasted money if I didn't see the match in person.

 

[metalreflectslime]

Another way to get new people to the Melee scene would be to host more locals. SoCal is hosting their 2nd Arcadian tournament (a tournament where ranked players are banned / can't use a high tier). Some ranked players complain, so my suggestion would be to host a separate tournament in the same venue for ranked players. NorCal should step it up and hold their own Arcadian tournament.

 

[EPsilon933]

Another way to get new people to the Melee scene would be to host more locals. SoCal is hosting their 2nd Arcadian tournament (a tournament where ranked players are banned / can't use a high tier). Some ranked players complain, so my suggestion would be to host a separate tournament in the same venue for ranked players. NorCal should step it up and hold their own Arcadian tournament.

Nice idea

 

[Winston]

To those who are saying pools are necessary at small tournaments to increase playtime, that's what friendlies are for!

You say pools are better because it allows the new player to play more "serious" matches, but if they're the kind of new player you describe (i.e. easily gets ***** by everybody with tournament experience) I don't see how getting 2-0'd 4 times instead of 2 times is going to be any more fun/helpful for them. Instead, they could be playing friendlies in a more casual setting during that time, which still helps them improve and is probably more fun.

 

[metalreflectslime]

Smash tournaments should run Swiss. I have been telling TOs to run Swiss for Smash tournaments for years. Swiss is better than pools because you play more people at your own level than in pools. Most TOs don't want to run Swiss because they are afraid to try new things and afraid of things they do not understand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss-system_tournament

 

[KrazyKnux]

GS2...

though I would like to see another tournament run that style. Sounds like it'd be fun.

 

[person701]

From the advertising point of view, I don't think enough LOCAL advertising occurs.

This. I've been a smasher since 06 but due to lack of competition in the area and how generally far tourneys are from my area, I'm kinda cut out. Last tourney I went to I was there all day after a 1 hour and 40 minute drive... of course running two other games in the same venue and having a concert inside the venue prolly wasn't the smartest thing for the TO.

But yea, locals. There's nearly nothing around here and not many places come to mind if I wanted to grab a venue to start a tourney. Clermont sucks. <_<

*prays someone in my area reads thins*