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How to promote a tournament
- Thread starter Galvanic
- Start date
dmac
Smash Champion
Get people involved in your regional discussion thread. Create a tournament thread specifically for the tournament. Post at allisbrawl.com. Look up some other touneys for thread format and general ideas. Make sure the thread looks official and has proper spelling/punctuation, the better it sounds the better chance you have of attracting more people. Read the stickies at the top of the forum section here and make sure all aspects of the tournament are accounted for too.
Making flyers and posting em around locally is a good idea, but make sure they're in high traffic areas where potential tourney players (coffee shops for younger people, college campuses, local videogame stores). Make the flyer eye catching!
Making flyers and posting em around locally is a good idea, but make sure they're in high traffic areas where potential tourney players (coffee shops for younger people, college campuses, local videogame stores). Make the flyer eye catching!
Playing the role of tournament organizer is not fun (most of the time) and requires a ridiculous amount of dedication and patience. Here are a few tips from personal experience:
The harder you work to bring people in, the more people you'll bring in.
If you post a topic and don't recheck it or answer any questions until tourney day, odds are that anyone who had interest saw your lack of interest and decided they had something better to do.
You'll need to convince people to show up to your tournament, especially if there is no major cash prize. You may need to contribute money to the pot yourself in order to draw people in. Sure, you could hold bi-weekly friendlies, but odds are you're going to have very poor turnouts unless there is something that will draw the players in for more. If you have a group of friends that you smash with, twist their arms into showing up for every single one. I'll much sooner show up to a tournament with 10 people already signed up than 2 with the promise of more.
Another thing you need to remember is that getting to tournaments costs money, and with rising gas prices, teenagers and college students (the majority of Smash players) don't have the funds to finance hour-long or farther trips, so you'd better make it worth their while. Post 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place prizes, even if they're just refunds on entry fees.
Provide the equipment. 1st party Nintendo controllers (if they're Wavebirds, put NEW batteries in each). Wiis/GameCubes. Big screen TVs (This is actually pretty important). The flashier it is, the better. My suggestion is to set up 1-3 off stations for friendlies and 2 main stations for tournament play. Put the two main TVs next to each other, but not in a fashion that will distract any players from their current match. You need to watch all matches going on at all times. You don't know these people who are showing up, and sadly, there are cheaters out there, even if it's harder to do in Smash Bros.
Find a location. Talk to the owner. Get a great deal. If you want big turnout's, your mom's basement isn't going to work forever. Check out churches, dining halls, schools, hotels, colleges, etc. Anything that you could rent for a day relatively cheap. All you need is electricity. Food nearby is a plus.
Be organized - Run a couple mock tournaments. Come up with every scenario where something could go wrong and know exactly how to handle it. Don't expect to play in your first few tournaments unless you have at least two to three other people dedicated to helping you run it. If something happens, you have to be ready to fix it ASAP, whether a system/TV stops working, the power goes out, or the power strips you thought you brought seem to have vanished.
Be prepared for disappointment. Odds are your first few tournaments will have poor turnouts. However, the #1 way to get people through the door is to be dedicated. Even if there are 3 people signed up for an upcoming tourney. Host it anyway and do friendlies/money matches.
Even if you say BYOC, make sure you have enough extra controllers to provide all matches with controllers. You have to be prepared for the worst case scenario, and if you have 2 matches going on at the same time, you want to be prepared if, for some God-awful reason, all 4 of those players' controllers die at the same time.
The biggest tournaments that hundreds of players look forward to every year weren't made famous overnight. A large amount of blood, sweat, tears, and especially money were put into them. Without sacrifice, you can't expect results. Stick it out, and we may just hear about a +1,000 player tournament coming up in your area come next year.
Good luck. You're certainly going to need it.
The harder you work to bring people in, the more people you'll bring in.
If you post a topic and don't recheck it or answer any questions until tourney day, odds are that anyone who had interest saw your lack of interest and decided they had something better to do.
You'll need to convince people to show up to your tournament, especially if there is no major cash prize. You may need to contribute money to the pot yourself in order to draw people in. Sure, you could hold bi-weekly friendlies, but odds are you're going to have very poor turnouts unless there is something that will draw the players in for more. If you have a group of friends that you smash with, twist their arms into showing up for every single one. I'll much sooner show up to a tournament with 10 people already signed up than 2 with the promise of more.
Another thing you need to remember is that getting to tournaments costs money, and with rising gas prices, teenagers and college students (the majority of Smash players) don't have the funds to finance hour-long or farther trips, so you'd better make it worth their while. Post 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place prizes, even if they're just refunds on entry fees.
Provide the equipment. 1st party Nintendo controllers (if they're Wavebirds, put NEW batteries in each). Wiis/GameCubes. Big screen TVs (This is actually pretty important). The flashier it is, the better. My suggestion is to set up 1-3 off stations for friendlies and 2 main stations for tournament play. Put the two main TVs next to each other, but not in a fashion that will distract any players from their current match. You need to watch all matches going on at all times. You don't know these people who are showing up, and sadly, there are cheaters out there, even if it's harder to do in Smash Bros.
Find a location. Talk to the owner. Get a great deal. If you want big turnout's, your mom's basement isn't going to work forever. Check out churches, dining halls, schools, hotels, colleges, etc. Anything that you could rent for a day relatively cheap. All you need is electricity. Food nearby is a plus.
Be organized - Run a couple mock tournaments. Come up with every scenario where something could go wrong and know exactly how to handle it. Don't expect to play in your first few tournaments unless you have at least two to three other people dedicated to helping you run it. If something happens, you have to be ready to fix it ASAP, whether a system/TV stops working, the power goes out, or the power strips you thought you brought seem to have vanished.
Be prepared for disappointment. Odds are your first few tournaments will have poor turnouts. However, the #1 way to get people through the door is to be dedicated. Even if there are 3 people signed up for an upcoming tourney. Host it anyway and do friendlies/money matches.
Even if you say BYOC, make sure you have enough extra controllers to provide all matches with controllers. You have to be prepared for the worst case scenario, and if you have 2 matches going on at the same time, you want to be prepared if, for some God-awful reason, all 4 of those players' controllers die at the same time.
The biggest tournaments that hundreds of players look forward to every year weren't made famous overnight. A large amount of blood, sweat, tears, and especially money were put into them. Without sacrifice, you can't expect results. Stick it out, and we may just hear about a +1,000 player tournament coming up in your area come next year.
Good luck. You're certainly going to need it.