Hostin A Tournament - Any Tips?

[Firstaidguitar1]

Hey guys...I have a tournament scheduled for May 23 at 7:00 PM. I plan on splitting the group (which is now up to 24) up into pools of 4, and then let a select few enter the "Playoffs" in a double elimination bracket to decide the winner.

Website is at http://www.southeastsmash.weebly.com


Any critiques on the format? If so, please be easy on me. It's too late to go back : /

Also, I really want to focus on going as quickly as possible with it all. It's looking like it can take a long time if not done correctly. Any tips on that?

Thanks again guys.

 

[Firstaidguitar1]

Also, thought I would throw out some issues I have been dealing with in my head...would love advice on these.

* I'm splitting up into pools. Lets say I get a number of contestants that is NOT divisible by 4? I plan to separate the pools by random distribution (not by skill or anything). But If I get a number like 29, there will be one pool with 5 people in it compared to the others, which have four. I don't quite know how to handle this at the moment.

*Who should I let enter playoffs? Of course, the winner of each pool. But do I throw in a wild-card, like in MLB? Also, do I seed the playoff entrants? If so, how would I do that?

*How many people should I let enter the double elim playoffs? I want it to go by quickly, but not too quickly that a winner is not actually the best man winning.

 

[SpongeBathBill]

I realise you just said it's too late to go back, but my first piece of advice would be to not start so late. I mean ideally you should not be starting in the evening at all :s

 

[Firstaidguitar1]

Yeah, well a lot of the guys coming out have work and such : /

I'm already taking off work early as it is.

Next time, though, I'll make sure to watch that.

Do you think we'll be able to finish by midnight?

 

[SpongeBathBill]

Ah, I understand. Also if your goal is midnight that certainly changes things, I was thinking people would be expecting to get out of there by like 9 or 10

I think you can totally make that goal if you keep things tight and make sure to stay on people's ****s to get their matches played through ^_^

 

[Firstaidguitar1]

Another question:

I plan on playing in the tournament. I have like 5 guys, including me, who would help me out with whatever needs help with. I trust them completely.

How should I split up responsibilities among my team?

 

[RipN]

What you should do is just run 6 pools of 4 and use that as seeds for your bracket. 24 man is a small tourny that is easily ran.

Playing in the tourney is no problem. Just talk to your "crew" and when you have a match have somebody man the bracket.

I ran the Midwest Circuit Event C4 Galore which had 96 people in it and it only took about 6-7 hours. So a 24 man should be no problem.

Use TIO (google it) and it will set up your bracket and your pool play for you, it's an awesome program and it's free.

 

[Firstaidguitar1]

Yeah, I've been messing around with TIO a little bit as of late. It really is awesome.

Thanks for that advice, RipN. I do plan on using pools of four,though the amount of pools is going to depend on the turnout. Right now we are up to 27 contestants. How would you handle the "odd man out" gig with a number of entrants NOT divisible by 4?

 

[SpongeBathBill]

I believe in that case practice is to just have a pool with a different number of competitors than the others. It's practically guaranteed to be bad luck for somebody, and you'll get pool johns, but idk of any other solution.

 

[Firstaidguitar1]

Yeah, I understand. Hmm. I don't know.

How would I decide the pool that man goes into?

 

[omegawhitemage]

First: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=95636

Second: tio is a must, make sure you know how to use all it's features including station manager. It's a huge help.

Third: Find a knowledgeable TO in your area and ask them as many questions as you can think of. This topic is good and all but meeting someone and learning first-hand is the best way to learn.

 

[SpongeBathBill]

How would I decide the pool that man goes into?

Does it really matter? You'll be distributing the competitors throughout pools randomly anyway, right? I would just make the bigger bracket the one closest to the bottom of the board.

Of course your computer program may just do all of this for you, making this post of mine a little pointless

 

[kirbyraeg]

I think something a little better as far as managing bracket numbers better would be to have 4 pools of 6 (instead of 6 pools of 4), with the top two advancing to the brackets; by doing that, you'd have a nice 8-man bracket to work with after pools which would be easier to set up and run.

Also, since you're running the tournament, you really have to try your best to get people's matches going on time (otherwise people will mostly play friendlies until told what match they're playing for tournament), this can't be stressed enough, lol.

as far as having a couple extra people, just add them to any pools you can, tbh there's no good way to fix having an odd number of competitors other than making sure that they play and fit in...

 

[kigbariom]

This is what I was telling people in another social group for small tourneys
1.) Use Tio Tournament organizer if you aren't already. It's the best.
2.) Don't be afraid to disqualify someone if they don't show up to their match, unless you have plenty of free time.
3.) Make sure you have a lot of food, and fast. They will massacre the venue, you should see my house after a 30 man.
4.) Always have something for people that aren't in matches to do, like another TV or two for Mario Kart or Melee.
5.) Double elimination is the most solid form, that will be easy on tio.

I've been hosting many many many 20 man tourneys for all sorts of games. Mainly smash though and those are things you should keep in mind.