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How do I create an effective results thread? (TOing)

Juggleguy

Smash Grimer
Joined
Aug 16, 2005
Messages
9,354
Location
Ann Arbor, MI
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.


Example snippet: Melee Singles results from The Big House 3

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
 

TheTantalus

Smash Hero
Joined
May 19, 2008
Messages
6,887
Location
Hampstead, MD
Yeah and since then...they've been popping up

I don't summarize the weeklies, no point, but I do have social blurbs about the groups and things for more weekly info.

But all the rankings and data are right there for review.
 

ITALIAN N1NJA

Smash Ace
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3DS FC
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Are the moderators that run the rankings low on staff or are they busy a lot? I noticed there always seems to be a massive amount of submissions in the Queue that take quite some time in order to see the light of day. On top of that, there are submissions that manage to be submitted through the Queue and are then confirmed to be official before other submissions that have been lingering in the Queue. Is it simply because they take priority for some reason or another? I don't mean to sound like a jerk. I'm only curious.
 
Last edited:

Fizzi

Smash Ace
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Feb 14, 2008
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802
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Slippi.gg
FIZZI#36
I absolutely love the embedded Smashboards rankings. Can't wait for everyone to start using it.
 

Juggleguy

Smash Grimer
Joined
Aug 16, 2005
Messages
9,354
Location
Ann Arbor, MI
Are the moderators that run the rankings low on staff or are they busy a lot? I noticed there always seems to be a massive amount of submissions in the Queue that take quite some time in order to see the light of day. On top of that, there are submissions that manage to be submitted through the Queue and are then confirmed to be official before other submissions that have been lingering in the Queue. Is it simply because they take priority for some reason or another? I don't mean to sound like a jerk. I'm only curious.
I'd say 90% of the submissions in the queue are either submitted incorrectly, or missing links to players' Smashboards accounts, which is one of the main requirements for a tournament to get approved into the ranking system. Keep in mind this does not prevent a tournament from embedding the ranking into a results thread.
 

ITALIAN N1NJA

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I'd say 90% of the submissions in the queue are either submitted incorrectly, or missing links to players' Smashboards accounts, which is one of the main requirements for a tournament to get approved into the ranking system. Keep in mind this does not prevent a tournament from embedding the ranking into a results thread.
I agree with what your saying to an extent. But I've seen a good deal of brackets that have missing links to smashboards profiles. Here is a perfect example of one. There are a good number of rankings to be claimed that are not, yet it is still approved. I'm aware that as long as the placements are finalized, players can claim their rankings accordingly. I'm only disproving one of y our points.
http://smashboards.com/rankings/shuffle-v-pm-singles-bracket.494/event
 

Juggleguy

Smash Grimer
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Ann Arbor, MI
I agree with what your saying to an extent. But I've seen a good deal of brackets that have missing links to smashboards profiles. Here is a perfect example of one. There are a good number of rankings to be claimed that are not, yet it is still approved. I'm aware that as long as the placements are finalized, players can claim their rankings accordingly. I'm only disproving one of y our points.
http://smashboards.com/rankings/shuffle-v-pm-singles-bracket.494/event
Oh, linking every player's Smashboards account isn't expected at all. Just the top few placings (let's say, top 4 for a local and top 8 for a regional and above).
 

ITALIAN N1NJA

Smash Ace
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Oh, linking every player's Smashboards account isn't expected at all. Just the top few placings (let's say, top 4 for a local and top 8 for a regional and above).
Point proven. I was only curious about the brackets submitted is all. So if a venue isn't as you say "professional" then will they're bracket not count upon submission?
 

Juggleguy

Smash Grimer
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Point proven. I was only curious about the brackets submitted is all. So if a venue isn't as you say "professional" then will they're bracket not count upon submission?
I don't know what venue and professionalism has to do with Smashboards Rankings at all. All they ask is that TOs submit their events correctly and link at least the top few placings to the respective Smashboards accounts.
 

TreK

Is "that guy"
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Aug 27, 2008
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That's kind of out of topic but :

Streamers
Please
Make youtube playlists of the events you've put on your youtube channels.
 

Warchamp7

Site Owner
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I break a Melee disc everytime someone posts results without submitting to Rankings
 

Gtown_Tom

New England Melee TO
Joined
Nov 1, 2013
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302
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Derry, NH
I liked the article. The hope for the rankings is that everyone will be comfortable using it before long - which clearly isn't the case now. If it was, I wouldn't have had to upload TNE and FP4 into the system myself.
 

#HBC | Mac

Nobody loves me
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HEY JUGGLEGUY

you stole the thunder from my thread

how will i ever feel accomplished in life now
 

♡ⓛⓞⓥⓔ♡

Anti-Illuminati
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
1,863
Tiopro needs to be updated (to also work on OS X) and integrated with Smashboards.com to make this process automatic.
 

♡ⓛⓞⓥⓔ♡

Anti-Illuminati
Joined
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Messages
1,863
I mean, the process really isn't hard as it is now. You just upload your TioPro file and it grabs the info.
I was not aware of this. It would be great to have full integration though to that you could post the thread straight from the app with correct formatting and everything.
 

pidgezero_one

((((((((((( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) gotta go fast!
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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.
So much this... biggest pet peeve about results threads. Damn
 
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