Looking to start a Brawl scene in my small town.

[Battletanx_Commander]

Well like the title says, I am looking to start a scene since it is difficult for me to travel to tournaments due to my job so I thought instead of traveling to tourneys bring the tourneys here.

For starters there is a community center in town, which just opened up in January, that I am set on using due to its convenience and the fact food restaurants are nearby. Due to my forgetfulness, I forgot to ask about whether food & drink were allowed in the building (I am assuming it is) along with whether I can rent out one of the rooms for more than six hours. The rental fee for the main room is $25 /hr, rooms 4 & 5 (1088 sq ft) at $20 /hr and room 3 (450 sq ft) for $15 /hr. I was leaning toward either room 3,4 or 5 since the main room is a little too costly in my opinion. Thus, the main reason I am posting this thread is to gather information on whether this venue would be a good place to start along with tips from other TOs since this is my first attempt at such an adventure and I want to be successful in doing it.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Life]

Obviously get the food/drink and six-hour things sorted.

From there, though I'm no authority on the process, I'd recommend picking a date and setting up a hypothetical attendance topic, figure out about how many people will attend/setup (considering all attendees may not be in the thread) and calculate a venue fee. Then once you've got the numbers, go for it.

Now if only I had a comparable place...

 

[Battletanx_Commander]

Well, food & drink are permitted but I just found out that you cannot collect money or admission fees on the premises at any time. :|So that kinda' puts this venue out of the picture. The only other venue that I can think of is about 2-3 miles out from town with no food nearby although it has much more freedom with rules. There is also the local PlayNTrade but they have a small store. Being in a small town has its downsides. >.<

 

[Matt07]

I don't have much insight, but good luck!

I'm quite interested in starting a scene in a relatively small town as well, let me know how it goes .

Anyways a key point in getting people to go for any event is through word of mouth. So basically advertise it through Facebook, or possibly Twitter. Also make posters print them, and paste 'em anywhere you can go.

At least that's my take on it, hope I helped.

 

[Kinzer]

If the issue is a venue, try and find one closest to the center of town. Believe it or not, some people are not willing to drive anymore than 30 minutes despite a scene in the same city. If that cannot be arranged, do these on a long but regular basis such as monthlies. Havign them as weeklies or bi-weeklies in some cases is all too hectic for some people and it's just better to have one date that everybody can make it to.

Your next issue will be house rules. See how much the business owner wants for this. If they're asking for a $5 venue fee, charge that separately and find a way to get creative with the actual event prices and events. Some business owners will be interested in figures, so if you can get those, by all means; use those to discuss the possibility of making the venue fee lenient the first time around with the promise/guarantee that more attendants will show in the future.

After that, publicity. Talk to people you know. Not just people who you know or think would be interested, but everybody. Ask them to discuss the possibility of this with people they know. Of course going on the internet helps too.

It starts off very small, and you might have to make some sacrifices if you want it to take off. I wish you the best of luck, and if you need to ask anything else that you think will help, feel free.

 

[-Ran]

1. Use Facebook and create a group for your region for Smash Brothers. Post when the events are.
2. Check with colleges in your area. Many of them will have a video games club that has Smash players in it that are unaware of the local scene.
3. Utilize free amateur brackets for players that enter the singles event. Players outside of top one-third get to play an a secondary tournament, where first place gets their entry fee back. If your state has an accurate Power Ranking for your players, and utilize that.
4. Attach to anime conventions/clubs. Talk with everyone that you see that is playing Brawl.
5. Be nice to new players. Seriously, don't be rude and three stock them. Teach them in a noncondescending way. The goal is to make them want to come back, not to turn them off from the franchise.
6. Connect with the other fighting scenes in the area, and attempt to steal a few of their players. >d
7. Play Smash in a visible area at least once a week with friendlies, such as at a Lan Center, game room at a college campus, and so forth.
8. Encourage competition between players of like skill levels.
9. Print up fliers and post them around heavy traffic areas. [Gamestores, etc]

Don't let someone's first Smash tournament be this way:

1. Gets bracket ****ed. You're the new guy, so you get to play our best player!
2. Three stocked by the best player who is warming up.... Twice. If you're lucky, the best player will switch to a low tier and embarrass you.
3. Has one honest shot at a match against an even skilled opponent in Losers. If they lose, they're done for the day.
4. For most of the matches the player has, being socially stunted like most gamers, they are done wordlessly. With sparse conversation and salt on fresh wounds, the new player leaves after being there for an hour.
5. They never find out that Brawl is 10% tournament and 90% social.

Do all of that, and you should be able to start up a decentish scene.