Juggleguy
Smash Grimer
Many TOs recently have fallen into the habit of not making a comprehensive results thread, or not making one at all. If you've ever had to scour the Internet to find something as simple as who placed top 8 at a tournament, you know this to be true. Failing to make a results thread is a dangerous behavior that has poor side effects on community growth -- how can we expect casual players or prospective attendees to care about an event that can't even make time to properly communicate its results?
The bracket image is a staple of results threads due to its concise ability to tell the story behind a tournament.
Results threads are important for several reasons:
* Archival: allows you to build a storyline and understand attendance trends now, and allows you access to a wealth of history and data later
* Professionalism: impresses your tournament brand upon prospective attendees or even sponsors for future growth
* Prestige: creates weight to the results beyond just the monetary gain, because a community that cares about results is more motivated
* Promotion: offers a platform for you to promote future events and projects to those who have missed out on previous installments
Here are a few things to add to your next results thread to make it more effective:
1. The Essentials
Include the tournament name, date, location, events, number of entrants, and top placings. You'd be surprised at how often this information gets missed. There's nothing more frustrating than looking back on an incomplete results thread and not even being able to tell when or where the tournament happened.
2. Social Media Links
Post links to the Facebook event, original Smashboards thread, YouTube channel, Twitch stream archive, website, and any other associated social media outlets. It is extremely important to increase accessibility to your tournament in order to keep casual attendees and spectators in the loop.
3. Written Summary
Write a blurb that summarizes the headlines from your event. Tell readers about how this was the region's biggest tourney in months, or about how this marked the return of an exciting old-school attendee, or about how this kicked off a local summer circuit. There's a story behind every tournament, no matter how insignificant it may seem.
4. Smashboards Rankings
Upload your tournament to the Smashboards Rankings database and embed it into your results thread. Documentation is so important for all the reasons mentioned above: archival, professionalism, prestige, and promotion. See Warchamp's introduction to Smashboards Rankings for a quick how-to on using the system.
5. Full Pools Results
Treat attendees equally by posting full results, including all pools results from below the bracket cutoff. Give recognition to all the attendees who showed up to support your tournament, not just the ones who advanced out of pools. This requires a good amount of extra copy-and-paste work on your end, but it's the least you can do.
6. Bracket Images
Upload the bracket images or link to the place where they exist. These are often the only source of information about who beat whom. If uploading an image, make sure to use a reliable host so your results thread can stand the test of time. It's no use looking back on a results thread full of broken images or links.
7. Follow-up Links
Provide a link to your regional Facebook group and follow up with your players for feedback. Even if you're the best TO in the world at recruiting new attendees, it may all be for nothing unless you can retain them. Make sure you hear them out after the tournament, and provide information about how to get more involved.
8. Descriptive Title and Keywords
Use a descriptive title and keywords. You'd be surprised how many clicks to results threads come from a simple Google search of "[insert tournament name] + results" from Internet users. Because of this, make sure the title is descriptive in order to optimize your post's ability to come up through search engines.
Examples of good results threads:
SWEET XIII
HF-Lan 4
Smash @ Clarendon
There may come a time when we have the luxury of an automatic thread generator app or a comprehensive events database, but until then, take the extra steps to ensure your next results thread is an effective one.
--
Juggleguy is a national tournament organizer, Melee It On Me team member, and Smashboards contributor. You can follow him on Twitter: @JuggleRob
The bracket image is a staple of results threads due to its concise ability to tell the story behind a tournament.
Results threads are important for several reasons:
* Archival: allows you to build a storyline and understand attendance trends now, and allows you access to a wealth of history and data later
* Professionalism: impresses your tournament brand upon prospective attendees or even sponsors for future growth
* Prestige: creates weight to the results beyond just the monetary gain, because a community that cares about results is more motivated
* Promotion: offers a platform for you to promote future events and projects to those who have missed out on previous installments
Here are a few things to add to your next results thread to make it more effective:
1. The Essentials
Include the tournament name, date, location, events, number of entrants, and top placings. You'd be surprised at how often this information gets missed. There's nothing more frustrating than looking back on an incomplete results thread and not even being able to tell when or where the tournament happened.
2. Social Media Links
Post links to the Facebook event, original Smashboards thread, YouTube channel, Twitch stream archive, website, and any other associated social media outlets. It is extremely important to increase accessibility to your tournament in order to keep casual attendees and spectators in the loop.
3. Written Summary
Write a blurb that summarizes the headlines from your event. Tell readers about how this was the region's biggest tourney in months, or about how this marked the return of an exciting old-school attendee, or about how this kicked off a local summer circuit. There's a story behind every tournament, no matter how insignificant it may seem.
4. Smashboards Rankings
Upload your tournament to the Smashboards Rankings database and embed it into your results thread. Documentation is so important for all the reasons mentioned above: archival, professionalism, prestige, and promotion. See Warchamp's introduction to Smashboards Rankings for a quick how-to on using the system.
5. Full Pools Results
Treat attendees equally by posting full results, including all pools results from below the bracket cutoff. Give recognition to all the attendees who showed up to support your tournament, not just the ones who advanced out of pools. This requires a good amount of extra copy-and-paste work on your end, but it's the least you can do.
6. Bracket Images
Upload the bracket images or link to the place where they exist. These are often the only source of information about who beat whom. If uploading an image, make sure to use a reliable host so your results thread can stand the test of time. It's no use looking back on a results thread full of broken images or links.
7. Follow-up Links
Provide a link to your regional Facebook group and follow up with your players for feedback. Even if you're the best TO in the world at recruiting new attendees, it may all be for nothing unless you can retain them. Make sure you hear them out after the tournament, and provide information about how to get more involved.
8. Descriptive Title and Keywords
Use a descriptive title and keywords. You'd be surprised how many clicks to results threads come from a simple Google search of "[insert tournament name] + results" from Internet users. Because of this, make sure the title is descriptive in order to optimize your post's ability to come up through search engines.
Examples of good results threads:
SWEET XIII
HF-Lan 4
Smash @ Clarendon
There may come a time when we have the luxury of an automatic thread generator app or a comprehensive events database, but until then, take the extra steps to ensure your next results thread is an effective one.
--
Juggleguy is a national tournament organizer, Melee It On Me team member, and Smashboards contributor. You can follow him on Twitter: @JuggleRob
