How to really get a tournament/scene going?

[Novaremnant]

A few of my friends and I want to get a tournament/smash scene going here at our university, because there's not that much out here in the Erie area. But my problem is that I have absolutely no idea where to start, because I've only been to two so far.

We're thinking of just running Smash 4 when the Wii U one comes out, but only three of us would have full setups and I don't yet know how people will feel about bringing Wii Us and HDTVs compared to the little CRTs and Gamecubes you need for Melee.

So I'd like some input from anyone who's started tournaments on what they did to get started and what they started with. I'd really like to draw some new faces here because there's not that many people into the competitive side to Smash and the tournaments are a great way to meet new people and enjoy the game.

 

[Shadowfury333]

For Skullgirls competitions we generally use 21'' or 24'' Asus monitors (specifically Asus, since they have really low input lag). Here's some Amazon links. These monitors have HDMI inputs, so they should work fine with the WiiU, and if the players are sitting as close as I saw them sit during the Melee side tournaments last Evo, they should see their characters just fine. They are also maybe 5 lbs, so really easy to cart around.

 

[Novaremnant]

That has me thinking, though. Should we just roll with CRTs and go analog? It's certainly an option.

 

[Shadowfury333]

I wouldn't be surprised if Smash 4 is designed specifically for higher-resolution displays, so old 480i/576i CRTs may end up being rather infeasible. I also wouldn't be surprised if most people practising Smash 4 (particularly the newer players, of which the scene you are trying to start will likely consist of in large proportion, given that you are just starting it) are themselves going to be using 1080p displays at home, either TVs or computer monitors, and would be rather annoyed at any TO that sticks adamantly to standard definition CRTs.

Say what you will about CRTs, but the only tables I saw them used at Evo2014 were the Smash side tournaments and one guy in the corner playing CvS (I think). Everyone else was using flatscreen monitors, usually ones similar to the Asus models I linked earlier, and Smash 4 is designed for 1080p, so it's probably easiest to just drop a few hundred dollars on a few monitors and take it from there.

Actually, given that you are talking about people bringing their own stuff, that ties back even more to my point about 1080p displays at home. Bringing their computer monitor is likely the option they'll most readily go for. It's light, it's there, it's easy to replace if something goes wrong, and the image looks best on it to boot.