Starting a tournament scene?

[PurDi]

I asked a couple months ago to see if anyone plays in my area. After no one showed interest on my regional boards, I started asking people locally if they've ever played even a little bit more competitively than 4-player-temple-items-on-high matches. Surprisingly, quite a few have, some have have even been to small back door tournaments in their hometowns. Now what I want to ask is how can I start up a tournament (even though I'm not very experienced at the game itself, I have been to some big tourneys though) for beginners and not overwhelm them with rules, and possibly start up a smash scene here?

I was thinking about starting small, as in just people in my dorm one weekend, put up some flyers with pull tabs giving a link to a post made here about the tournament. That post would show the rules, and show what's needed.

Now the next problem is, how the heck do I get set ups? I've got one, but I don't know how to actually get anyone to bring them if there isn't any benefit...

Ideas, suggestions?

(P.S. I don't live in Texas anymore, I know the scene is huge there, but it's definitely not big in NW Arkansas, where I'm at now.)

 

[PurDi]

anyone have any advice?

 

[Rappster]

hey, this is similar to what i have!
the scene in torrance ca is pretty much dead.
so i started holding tournaments at my church, no pay-out, pizza provided.
i got people to bring setups be chargeing $5 for the pizza, but waiving the cost if you brought a setup.
start buying crt tvs while you can tho...

 

[Life]

Pittsburgh Brawl is barely a step past this (thank you /HOPE), unless I'm missing something big.

Almost makes me want to go into a PR career so I can get ideas to get a scene going...

 

[0Room]

I'm in this situation in Boone, NC. However, I went ahead and bought another GC [$30 at most] and melee disc [$15] and memory card [$2] and started collecting controllers from some of my Raleigh/Duke friends.
That way I had 2 setups myself. Always a good idea, especially if you have at least 6 controllers.

PurDi, I'm assuming you're in college, since you're in a dorm, and actually that's really easy to get people interested. Start making posters that say on Saturday [of this upcoming weekend or the next] that there's a tournament coming up, that it's free of charge and that there are prizes for the top 3 people. I went to Walmart and bought some $1 candy [the 12 packs of Hersheys candy bars, similar to the Halloween ones] And gave first first pick, second second pick, third third pick. That's really all you have to do.
Since I've begun doing that, there's about 6 or 7 people from my dorm who have started playing almost every day [granted they've been playing Brawl Minus, but it's a step] and they've actually started ASKING for tournaments. So, try that for a few weeks [I try to make mine biweekly] and see whatcha get.

But you're going to have to travel. Most tournaments will usually be an hour to two hours, but you should definitely start going. Rappster, this is especially prevalent for you, because I can't believe you live in SoCal and can't find a tournament.
All times were taken from your town to the town of the tournament.
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=251621 <--51 minutes from Torrance
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=63672 <--2 hours
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=282201 <---THIRTY EIGHT MINUTES

So what are you waiting for? GO. If you DON'T go, GO ANYWAY. You live in a hotbed of amazing players, and there's no excuse for not going. Then talk to them there and say "Hey I'm going to be hosting tournaments, would be interested in coming?"

PurDi, just start going to tournaments in your area too, and start doing the same thing. It's all about connecting to other players, in one way or another. All you have to do is get started.

 

[PurDi]

Yea, I went to a couple torunaments back in Texas where the scene was hott, but since I'm here in arkansas, the closest anything is at least 2 hours away. And with the college stuff I'm going into, it's a little too far for a tournament.

But the prizes are a great idea! I'm just not sure (since I'm in an honors dorm... :D ) if I'm going to have an overwhelming number of people show up and very little set ups... Any set up advice. I like your idea a lot Rappster, but I'm going to be right next to my dorm's cafeteria, so I don't think people will even come if they have to spend $5 to eat...

 

[Aves]

I realize this is kind of long and maybe boring, but i've had a lot of success building a community from nothing.

I was in the exact same position. Me and like 2 friends really enjoyed playing the game more competitively than most people so i decided to check out the local scene. I live in az, where the scenes actually pretty good, but unfortunately AZ smashers were too advanced for me and my friends.

So i got a local tournament together. I had 16 at the first tournament. I do like one tournament every 2 months, and i've had like 26 at one tournament so far, which are, funny enough, bigger than most professional tournaments in Az (i go to both now). The important thing is to find players at all skill levels. People don't want to attend tournaments where they're going to show up and get ***** by the few players that actually play. So i always have to make sure theres plenty of people who just want to show up and have a good time.

And in my opinion, the most important thing (this is only if you want to have a relaxed and inviting community meant for non ssuper serious smashers) you don't need to charge that much. My first tournament was 5 dollars, and everybody was eager to pay. But the second tournament, nobody wanted to pay five dollars to get their *** kicked by my friend (who was by far the best at the time). In short, i
ve had the most success with turnout when i simple ask ONE DOLLAR per person, this includes singles and doubles, and then i take the money down to the local Fryes and buy 2 litre sodas and chips for everybody. If you want to keep it competitive you could always keep track of tournament placings and have a simple ranking system.



Basically:

Get the word out! Tell everybody you can.
Make the tournaments cheap! People don't want to show up and lose money. They want to have fun.
Promise chips and soda. Video games and unhealthy food go very well together.
Give people lots of chances to play. Do pools before the bracket so everybody gets more games.
Go out of your way to make the sucky people feel welcome.

Hope this helps, again i got a community of about 30 now and we started with nothing. If you're looking for a very serious smash scene, i don't know what to tell you. (we already have that in az). I still think you have to get people to enjoy the game before they want to take it super seriously.

 

[0Room]

Yeah like Aves was saying.
Just get some silly somethings, whether food or prizes or something, and use them.

I don't even charge for my tournaments atm but I will soon.

 

[Vts]

This is what i did and worked out really well.

1. find a venue that has all the gear already or enough space.
2. talk to owner and agree on a venue fee/cost to rent out place.
3. also ask the owner if he wanted to offer drinks/food for another cost
4. put fliers up with a small sign up sheet and have it so sign ups/preregs save some money./ make fliers requesting what games should have tournaments.
5. host the tournament , be kind, and try to keep it pg.
6. have enough time for afterwords for friendlies/party time.
7. wait a few weeks if not month before next one and see if people would want to make it a bi/tri/monthly thing.
8. Don't steal money from the pot. Venue fee is for u and/or the host.

can't think of anything else.

 

[PurDi]

wow, you got enough people to cover a venue fee and a pot?

I think I'll try to work up to that though, I'll use some of the other guys suggestions and hopefully if people get hyped enough, they'll be willing to pay a little bit.

 

[Vts]

wow, you got enough people to cover a venue fee and a pot?

I think I'll try to work up to that though, I'll use some of the other guys suggestions and hopefully if people get hyped enough, they'll be willing to pay a little bit.

venue fee was $5 and the owner was nice enough to put $50 into the pot from venue fee.

then just said no venue fee just come and play.

 

[DtJ Composer]

Try to find a place that will let you host weekly or bi-weekly smashfests. It's the best way to recruit more people and keep them interested; Plus, it allows you to slowly work in competitive aspects without a). overwhelming people who are new to that, and b). boring the people who already understand it.

I run a smash club at Indiana University, and we basically have a smashfest every tuesday in one of the dorm lobbies. Every other week, we have a mini-freetoenter tournament, just to help everyone get comfortable with the environment (then we go out for pizza afterwards ).

Start small, then work your way up to tournaments, then work your way up to traveling.

 

[DtJ Jungle]

i go for the pizza