The ABC's of tournament hosting

[nealdt]

Brought to you by All is Brawl

So.

This forum is obviously rife with threads for tournaments. But when's the last time we had a thread about running a tournament? I can't remember, so I thought I'd compile 26 tips for tournament organizers and list them here. These are just my opinions, of course, but I like to think I have a bit of experience running tournaments.

I'd love to hear tips from other tournament hosts as well... Kishes? GAUNTLET guys? Zane, WoZ, TA, Mages, crazy Europeans, anyone? Give us what ya got.

Anyways....

ADVERTISE. Create a thread in your regional zone forum, or in Tournament Discussion if you're expecting a large (50+) turnout. Make your post easy to read. Spell-check it. Make sure you use proper grammar. Don't make your audience struggle to get the information they need. Use colors and bold/italics sparingly, and only to highlight important information like addresses, start times, and special rules. Large tournaments can benefit from posting threads in regional zones asking for help with equipment and housing.

BE ON TIME. No one else will. If you open the venue at 8AM, be there by 7:30. Decide on a time to start your first event and then tell everyone to show up an hour earlier. It's the only way you'll ever start on time.

COMPUTERS ARE YOUR FRIENDS. Bring a laptop to the tournament and find a piece of software to help run it. Tournament Maker 2 is a popular choice, but there are superior alternatives. Download the software ahead of time and make sure you know how to use it. Bring speakers and a microphone if you have a soft voice. Also consider bringing a second monitor -- most laptops (and PCs with dual-head video cards) will let you mirror your display onto the monitor, so your players can view the bracket without crowding around the computer.

DON'T TAKE MONEY FROM THE POT. The only time it's OK to take money from entry fees is to pay for venue costs. The electricity cost of running one TV for 10 hours is negligible, so don't use your utility bill as an excuse to charge money. You aren't running a tournament to make money -- unless you actually are, in which case there are FAR better things you could be doing to that end -- you're running a tournament because it's FUN.

EXPLAIN THE RULES. Make sure everyone at your tournament understands the rules, from counterpicking to random stages to double blinds; having printed rule sheets available at each station is also effective. This is especially important for non-standard brackets like round robin pools. And be sure to apply the rules equally to all players. If someone gets screwed in a set because they were told a different set of rules -- especially if they were told by a staff member -- then the set needs to be replayed.

FIND HELP. Running a tournament is beyond the abilities of a single person. Ask for helpers before the event and make sure they know you'll be counting on them. Helpers can assist you in collecting entry fees, monitoring stations, preventing friendlies from taking over, running pools, announcing matches, setting up, tearing down, and reporting scores.

GIVE PLAYERS A CHANCE TO REVIEW THE BRACKET. Ask them to alert you if they play one of their friends or crewmates early in the tournament. While you're under no obligation to change such a scenario, it really isn't much work and will make them much happier. No one likes to play their friends in a tournament. Some software programs will automatically create a bracket so players from the same location don't play each other; figure out if yours does and use it if you can.

HOST SMALLER TOURNAMENTS BEFORE GOING FOR THE BIG TIME. Don't try to run a regional bonanza without throwing a smaller local tourney first. You'll learn more than this thread could ever teach you and people will learn to respect your name as a tournament host. Respected hosts get the big turnouts and the hot chicks (it's true).

INTRODUCE YOURSELF. Make sure everyone knows your name and what you look like; the best time to do this is when taking signups. Ask the name of everyone you don't know and tell them yours in return. It's as good a first impression as any, and someone who likes you off the bat will be much more forgiving when you yell at them to stop playing friendlies later on.

JOKE AROUND. Try not to be completely serious all the time. You're running a video game tournament, so have some fun. This will also make people like you more.

KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE MONEY. Do not leave it in a public place. Your pocket works fine, but a locked cashbox hidden somewhere is better. Keep prize pots separate (don't mix teams and singles entry fees). Don't give the money to anyone you wouldn't trust with your first child's life.

LABEL YOUR STATIONS. Give them numbers and reference those numbers when announcing matches. NEVER TELL SOMEONE TO "just find somewhere to play." Try and keep track of who's playing where, and which stations will be open soon -- the right computer program can help with this.

MIND YOUR MANNERS. Treat your attendees with respect. Treat the owner of the venue with even greater respect, and do everything in your power to protect it from damage. Don't use a microphone unnecessarily while a big match is going on -- hearing weird sounds coming from a PA system can be very distracting. Congratulate winners when they report their victory, and encourage the losers to do better in their next matches. People will respect and listen to you if you treat them well.

NEVER LEAVE THE DESK UNATTENDED. Make sure someone is always at the front desk guarding the brackets. It's very easy for someone to quickly change your bracket or modify the pot size if you aren't looking. Have an assistant standing by for when you have to play your matches.

OPEN EARLY. Everyone wants to play friendlies during a tournament, but doing so slows everything down. So open early and let people get their friendly matches in ahead of time.

PUBLISH YOUR RESULTS. And not a sparse listing on who got first/second/third. Put copies of your brackets online; most tournament software will let you copy a bracket image, which you can paste into Paint and then upload to a website like imageshack.us or imagedump.com. A bracket image will let players see who they beat and lost to, which is much more interesting than what placing they achieved.

QUEUE MATCHES. Put matches in the on-deck circle for each station. As soon as the current match finishes, the players behind them take over while the original pair reports their score. This helps keep the tournament moving with maximum efficiency.

RECORD STUFF. Tournaments that put out videos of matches are just that much cooler. Ask for people to bring VCRs (they're surprisingly hard to find) and gather some tapes. Try to put your best matches on TVs with VCRs. But let someone else worry about starting the VCRs at the right time (you do have a staff, right?).

SEED YOUR BRACKETS. Skilled players hate entering tournaments where brackets are randomly assigned, because doing so makes results much less valid than a seeded bracket. Try to seed at least the top eighth of your entrants -- for a 64 man bracket, this means seeding the top 8 players in order. Group the rest of the players based on relative skill levels (beginners, intermediates, experts). Then create the bracket. Some software programs don't allow you to mix grouped seeding with manual seeding; in this case you should go with groups and manually fix the bracket to the top X players appear in the right slots.

TEACH YOURSELF BRACKET THEORY. Make sure you understand the logic behind double-elimination brackets. Wikipedia is a good place to learn the basics. Pay attention to how first-round matchups are scheduled, how and where players drop into the losers' bracket, and how changing a player's seed moves them around the bracket. In case of a computer malfunction, you may need to continue a bracket by hand; make sure you understand bracket theory well enough to do this.

USE COMMON SENSE. Self explanatory. Should you show that random guy where you're hiding the money? Can you trust the word of Joe Smasher if he tells you he just beat Isai? Is it a good idea to leave the venue while the tournament is still running? Should you make sure to remind players to remove their memory cards after setting up their Cubes? You should rethink your desire to host tournaments if the answers to those questions are ambiguous.

VERIFY RESULTS. Make sure both the winner and loser of a match report to you before moving on, or have a staff member watch the result. Even MLG tournaments have been tainted by improper reporting of results.

WHO YOU BEAT IS EVERYTHING. Try to emphasize to your players that their overall placing is not as important as who they beat or lost to. Someone going against Ken and PC Chris in two consecutive matches would get last place in said tournament. That isn't fair, and isn't as important as the fact that they only lost to the top two players in the nation. Try and convince your players to pay more attention to the Who (they beat) than the What (they placed).

X IS A DIFFICULT LETTER TO USE.

YOU ARE THE BOSS. Players will always complain about one aspect of the tournament or another; stick to your guns and stand by your decisions. Don't let yourself be bullied into a rule change the day of the tournament unless everyone agrees to it.

ZOMG I ONLY CAME UP WITH 24 TIPS. Oh well, I tried .

----

Hope this helps someone...

 

[DoH]

OMG NEAL NOW I CAN BE THE HOSTESS WITH THE MOSTEST!

 

[Scamp]

Right. 5 steps to being a happier tourney-runner.

1: Secure a location

And make sure it's secure. This means you know exactly how much time you have in the place and what your options are should things go long.

2: Stick to a schedule and common sense rules

You don't need to have anything set in stone as far as tournament progression goes but you really should have a plan based on how long of a tourney you think you're going to have. Also, make sure people know when they're going to play and that there are punishments for leaving the tourney area without telling any staff member.

3: Pre-everything

If your tournament is big it's an excellent idea to have a pre-registration, which won't give you an exact number but should help a lot with 2 above. Also have brackets or pools ready to go the day of the tourney. Don't make someone leave their 4-player game to draw pools. That's not cool.

4: Provide room

Make sure the layout is such to minimize accidents. Specifically it's nice if people don't bump into you when you're playing or walk in front of the screen. I've seen this happen at several different console tourneys. If you have a big match happening, put it on a TV where a large crowd can watch without affecting other matches.

5: Have a little fun

Like Joke Around, yes? Remember that while you're trying to be a good host, the attendees should be trying to be good guests. And if you're going to enter the tourney you're hosting, it's a good idea to have someone who's reliable run it in your stead. You can't oversee things while you're playing.



I don't really know where these five steps lead. Probably to seven more steps. Those will come later?

 

[KishPrime]

The biggest thing that frustrates me is when the host won't decide anything for himself and feels the need to take a poll on everything. Date, rules, pot distribution, what events to run, etc. Asking for input is one thing but some people simply refuse to step up and take responsibility for their own tournament. Not much to add, a very thorough list.

Except...

XYLOPHONE is an instrument that KishPrime plays. If you want to be a good tournament host, you have to have one of these in the back room.

 

[VilNess]

Fun read!
Thanks!

 

[omegawhitemage]

The only thing I can think to add is to make sure you have some way to emphasize the importance of matches being played on time. We use our DQ rule and enforce it strictly to make sure that everyone knows things need to keep moving at a brisk pace. However, I'm sure there are other ways to do this, this is just the way that works best for us.

EDIT- The Mages DQ Rule is applicable when a player is late for a match and it goes as follows:
2 Minutes Late – Warning
4 Minutes Late – Loss of first match of set
6 Minutes Late – Loss of set

 

[Banksya]

why do you need to remove memory cards

 

[Bailey]

Good **** Neal very helpful. I never thought of posting the Bracket itself good job pos re.... Nevermind..... *sobs*

 

[Warrior of Zarona]

Arr. I do all of these already.

Great job for the post! It'll help out everyone else who ever wants to host something.

Oh, I did have some inquiries though.

I'm starting to learn how to do brackets on paper. I've helped do so for KOTC, I used it as backup for Smashtality, I was forced to do it for Killer Fleet's 64 man bracket, and now I do so for my biweeklies. The reason is so I can have a better understanding of how brackets actually work.

It's easy to do once we get it going, but I have few questions about the seeding.

The way I have pools setup in my biweeklies are usually pools of 8, and people tally up the number of stock they can take off the opponents in their pool. Assuming we're working with a 32 man bracket and we have 32 people participating, that's 8 pools of 4, with 4 stocks each match and a maximum number of 24 stocks one can take. The pools are, for the most part, randomly assigned. The way I usually handle things is that I take the top 16 players with the most points and spread them around. Is that what you would recommend? Also, in which placements should I seed them exactly? I have a way of doing them, but I want to make sure it's the correct way.

Second thing. If the numbers are uneven - let's say we only had 31 people, and one of the pools has one less person than all the other pools, how would we go about seeding these players? The first thing I thought of is giving the 3 man pool a "bye," meaning they score 4 free stocks each. Would that be considered fair, or should I use a different system for pools for this?

Thirdly, extending from the second problem, is if we have more than 32 players. Let's say 33. So now we have one pool that has one more over the other pools. Should I give all the other pools four free stocks each, and then take the player with the least amount of points and eliminate him to fit the 32 man bracket? Or, again, is there a different and perhaps easier method?

I think that about does it.

 

[nealdt]

Banks: they're small, inconspicuous, and very easy to steal or accidently take. I've lost two memory cards at my tournaments and know of plenty of others that have gone missing at events all over the country. Besides, having owners remove their memory cards lets you very easily...

STANDARDIZE RULES BEFORE STARTING. Send an assistant around the room a few minutes before starting an event. Have him take a memory card pre-initialized with the correct random stages. He/she should kick people off stations (unplugging controllers is an effective way to do this; you come off as a man of action rather than a bothersome whiner) and insert the memory card, reset the Cube (don't have to power it off), and set up time limits and friendly fire options. Take the memory card and move on. This way you're 100% sure that all stations have the correct stage lists and rule sets before starting.

WoZ: I've never tried using stock taken for pool rankings. I've only heard of people using MLG style (2 games per set, number of individual wins determines rank -- I call this "total of" results in tio) and Kish style (best of 3, set wins determine rank with about 198532872 other rules for doing tie-breaks). In those two systems, the performance of other pools does not affect your pool -- each pool creates a 1/2/3/4 seed and then those seeds are arranged in a new bracket. Your system is a little ambiguous, and I'm not sure if rankings are all in-pool or if you sort EVERYONE in order of stocks taken and give seeds that way.

I really recommend keeping rankings within the pool if you don't. Then you don't run into issues with fewer/extra people in a pool throwing off results. It's also easier to seed a bracket from those pool results; there are algorithms for doing so that will pair top-ranked finishers against bottom-ranked finishers and ensure maximum separation between players from the same pool. tio does this when advancing players from a RR to a DE bracket. It's a little hard to explain, and the best way to see it might be to take tio, make a RR bracket and add enough entrants to have 4 ppl in each pool. I'd name them 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, etc, assign them to each pool based on the first number, and then fill out the results so the players rank in order of their second number. Then advance them and examine the bracket.

 

[Warrior of Zarona]

All right. Ranking in pools is better then, but I'll probably keep the stock count.

So I'll take a look at tio then and see how it seeds the players.

 

[kuyariel]

I have two questions:

What makes a good venue?
-and-
How would you get a hold of said venue?

 

[omegawhitemage]

A good venue is a fairly large room that can hold as many people as you expect comfortably! It also needs to be able to hold an amount of tv's that will be suitable to the crowd you are expecting.

The best way to get a venue is just to scout potential places, then approach the owner with a good clear plan of what you want to do. Make sure to sound as confident and professional as possible, it makes your life so much easier if you do.

 

[SamDvds]

Wow this was very helpful...thanks...my team mate and I have hosted 2 tourneys so far but we didn't have any guide like this so we basically just winged it. One thing i can say from experience is MAKE SURE U HAVE THE TOURNAMENT SOFTWARE DISK cuz we had 2 end up doing hand brackets...the owners of the venue only had swiss elimination software so that didn't really help.

 

[nealdt]

Expanding on what whitemage said about venues:

Good potential venues include garages, church-owned rooms (typically only rented to church members, and obviously not on sunday), school buildings (they might have a problem with entry fees & payouts, tho), cheap motel meeting spaces, and arcades. Confidence is a must when approaching a venue owner, but you also need to be very straightforward about what you want to do. Make sure they understand there will be televisions brought in, and don't lie about the number of expected attendees.

Other venue features to look for besides space include audio/video setups (an integrated public announcement system will work wonders), sufficient power outlets, access to chairs and tables (definitely don't want to bring your own), and fast food outlets in the vicinity.

 

[Master WGS]

Very awesome, nealdt. Very clear and informitive.

 

[Rapid_Assassin]

One thing hardly mentioned but is very important is organization. The hosts of a tournament have to organize well to avoid disasters. This includes, but isn't limited to knowing where everything is kept, running according to a schedule, being knowledgeable about the rules of your own tournament, etc. The best tournaments I've been to were all very well organized.

Also, dont' be afraid to kick people off of stations if you need them for tournament matches. This helps speed up the time it takes to run the tournament dramatically.

 

[Randall00]

That pretty much covers everything anyone needs to know to run a tournament. Implementing each of them however always has its own issues that you have to improvise with. Anything can happen at a tournament and experience is really the best teacher. Running a small local tournmaent before the regional bonanza is the best point to take away from the whole thing.

Respected hosts get the big turnouts and the hot chicks (it's true).

Of course, this is why I have taken the bells and whistles approach to tournament hosting. Thus, in addition to having good organizational skills, you also have lots of pretty graphics, comprehensive standings, loads of videos and not much in the way of free time.

Oh yeah, and hot chicks.

 

[SamDvds]

Hey I had a question for some of you on a venue situation. The 2 places I've co-hosted tourneys b4 were at card shops (magic cards etc) and the last venue we found was really nice and had enough room, but the owners are really greedy. They want to get more involved in the smash scene, but they want 40% of the prize pot, which seems rediculous. So I was wondering if any of you had advice on how to tell him thats way too much and no experienced players are gonna come if that much is taken from the pot.

 

[Delphiki]

I just found this thread....and...

IT SHOULD BE STICKIED!!!!!!!!!111!!!! ZOMG

I basically learned everything myself, but if I had this when I started I would be a lot better now. Btw I never thought about telling people to remove memcards. That's a good idea.

 

[_milktea]

This really should be stickied.

I forgot like, half the things that nealdt listed and I'm running a tournament soon.

Thank you neal for writing these tips up, they'll most definitely be resourceful in the near future.

 

[sephirothken]

alright, I shall sticky this thread for now, until another mod doesn't feel that it is appropriate then unstickies it.

 

[AlphaZealot]

Good call Ken.

 

[CAOTIC]

"you're running a tournament because it's FUN."

Worst statement ever.

 

[kamikaze falco]

40 percent of the pot??? that's too expensive. It's better if he charges a flat out price instead of percentages. Too messy . I hosted two tournaments before and from each one I have learned A Lot. For example I didn't know how to run pool XD at my second tourney. So someone experienced would gladly help me out. But each tournament I host again the better host I become.

 

[The Game II]

**** Neal, this is great. When I write my third book (this summer, which will be a how-to on running tournaments), I will try to get a hold of you.

= = =

Anyway, the one thing I wanted to tell everyone is regarding advertising. Absolutely DO NOT just post a thread on here and expect to get the masses.

1. Create fliers and put them up all over. And not just in your hometown. If you live in a multi-city area, then go to all the cities and post them. Ask restaurants to post the fliers if possible. Spend a weekend or two just walking around town putting up papers. Since we're talking video games, try centralizing your postings to schools, restaurants and entertainment centers.

2. Imagine the flier like one of those billboards - attractive and to the point. Few words. Address, cost, the games and the Web site (even if it's just smashboards.com, direct them to whatever sub forum it is)

3. NOTIFY YOUR LOCAL MEDIA about your event. As a newspaper reporter, the one thing I HATE is when kids come up to me and say there was a concert they ran (or were in) and we weren't there to report it. Well, how could we know about it if we didn't see anything about it and you didn't notify us? LET THE MEDIA know about your event. Believe me when I say the media don't see this as a waste of time. If you sell it right to them, they see it as a prime opportunity to add to their newspaper/web site/television newscast.

3a. And when you do talk to the media, have information ready. Have your flier, a short report about your tournament and anything that is related to your tournament. If it's the continuation of a tournament series, that helps because the media will recognize that it's a longtime event. It's much like talking to a venue to ask about running a tournament. Come in confident. If you sell it right, they'll try to make it. You're event is on TV, more kids see it and wonder when the next one is, it's a win-win.

= = =

SamDVDs - You have to look at the bottom line. If the owners are going to be greedy, move on. Find a new place. It won't be an enjoyable experience if you know that the owners are going to take THAT much. About five years ago, I ran a tournament at an arcade and the owner was thrilled. He took no money out of the prize pool. When I asked him about a second event, he wanted 50 percent, I said bye-bye.


--GCII

 

[Scar]

lol You're kind of phenomenal. I was expecting up to J at most.

 

[Sushiman]

Some people I've talked to have tried to persuade me to not host my tournament because of the fact that we're handling money as if it was gambling. How am I supposed to advertise my tournament if I will get in trouble for "gambling?" Is it actually illegal, or have they gotten their facts wrong?

Also, do you guys have any comments on foods and drinks? Where should I sell them and all that jazz.

By the way, that guide is the best! I learned a bunch, and I've already hosted a few tournaments.

 

[Velox]

Woah, awesome write-up! Made me think about a few things.

 

[Sandy]

Should I do a tournament with entry fees for a 1st timer like me? Would a SmashFest be the way to go?

 

[stryderhyru]

wow so beautiful and well written its awsome neal xPP and yea wat sushiman said also is it gambling im confused on that consept as well bcuz wat i herd os if u enter a turny and get more money back then wat u payed to enter its gambling O.o true right?

 

[nealdt]

RE: gambling. Games like bingo and bunco aren't considered gambling even though there's often an entry fee and winner's pot. Smash at least has a very strong skill component, whereas the others are entirely luck-based, so there's no reason why you'd ever get in legal trouble for holding a smash tournament. However, many venues (especially schools) do not allow pay-to-play events on their premises; make sure you double-check with the owner of your venue to make sure he/she fully understands the financial details of your event.

RE: food. Not necessary, but always appreciated by players. You can even make a little bit of money off the sale to cover your personal costs. That's one of the very few areas that I approve of a tournament director earning some cash for himself. Just make sure you have trash (and/or recycling) cans available, because otherwise that stuff is gonna end up on the floor.

RE: first-time tournaments. There's no reason why you can't run a successful tournament on your first try, as long as you're 1. comfortable with the software you'll be using; 2. well-known enough that people will come to your tournament (someone with no posting history probably isn't going to get much of a turnout at his $20 tournament); and 3. confident in your ability to deal with problems as they arise.

 

[manacloud1]

hmm letters for x and z

Xerox - Dont forget to xerox copies of the pools, it will make things run much smoother. Xeroxing copies of the tournament rules also help players be well informed.
Zero - zero tolernace for theft and idiots. Kick them out of the venue if it occurs.

 

[indie_dave]

lol @ manacloud's additions and good luck you guys with oc3

 

[ThomaSexy]

Wow Neal! You put a lot of work into this. Good job!! I just wanted to point out one thing. I've been helping Shuffle & Cut run their tournaments a bit, and I've been talking to Mr. X from Nexus and a problem we always run into is that Smashers have little or no respect for tournament hosts. When a match is over, they don't report the results and start playing friendlies instead. When the host asks players to start signing up, they get ignored as everyone continues to play friendlies. When it's last call for sign-ups, players will hand money to their friend and say "Go sign me up" and continue to play friendlies.

My answer to this is that you have to be mean and run the tournaments the same way a manager runs a company. I'm a mellow person, but at my job I have to yell at people and get mad at them in order to get them to cooperate and respect me. I don't like to be mean. I'm not a mean person by nature, but I have to be to get the job done. In tournaments, hosts have to be able to put their foot down. One thing everyone needs to remember is that Smashers are a bunch of kids and as a host, you are basically a babysitter. You have to deal with disobedience, immaturity, and whinning.

Another thing you have to remember is that the vast majority of Smashers are guys with low-confidence. A lot of times we'll call out a match and say "Where is so-in-so?" and he'll be like "I'm here!" but he'll say it quietly in a loud room so no one hears. Last time this happened, I walked out into the middle of the room and I said in an angry and irritated tone of voice, "Are Smashers deaf or what? Where is so-in-so!!" Only then did he say it loud enough for me to hear, "I'm here!" I had to be mean to force him to speak loud enough to answer his call for his match. Then I said, still in my angry/irritated tone of voice "Okay! You have a match against so-in-so! Go play!" From that point on, whenever I called out his matches, he answered loud and clear. Smashers are low in confidence so you have to be mean and aggressive to get these nervous puppies disciplined enough to respect your authority.

I hope this helps.

 

[Sandy]

Can you tell more about hosting a Smash Fest?

 

[nublet06]

Wow Neal! You put a lot of work into this. Good job!! I just wanted to point out one thing. I've been helping Shuffle & Cut run their tournaments a bit, and I've been talking to Mr. X from Nexus and a problem we always run into is that Smashers have little or no respect for tournament hosts. When a match is over, they don't report the results and start playing friendlies instead. When the host asks players to start signing up, they get ignored as everyone continues to play friendlies. When it's last call for sign-ups, players will hand money to their friend and say "Go sign me up" and continue to play friendlies.

My answer to this is that you have to be mean and run the tournaments the same way a manager runs a company. I'm a mellow person, but at my job I have to yell at people and get mad at them in order to get them to cooperate and respect me. I don't like to be mean. I'm not a mean person by nature, but I have to be to get the job done. In tournaments, hosts have to be able to put their foot down. One thing everyone needs to remember is that Smashers are a bunch of kids and as a host, you are basically a babysitter. You have to deal with disobedience, immaturity, and whinning.

Another thing you have to remember is that the vast majority of Smashers are guys with low-confidence. A lot of times we'll call out a match and say "Where is so-in-so?" and he'll be like "I'm here!" but he'll say it quietly in a loud room so no one hears. Last time this happened, I walked out into the middle of the room and I said in an angry and irritated tone of voice, "Are Smashers deaf or what? Where is so-in-so!!" Only then did he say it loud enough for me to hear, "I'm here!" I had to be mean to force him to speak loud enough to answer his call for his match. Then I said, still in my angry/irritated tone of voice "Okay! You have a match against so-in-so! Go play!" From that point on, whenever I called out his matches, he answered loud and clear. Smashers are low in confidence so you have to be mean and aggressive to get these nervous puppies disciplined enough to respect your authority.

I hope this helps.

you dont have to be mean.

ive run a few tournaments at my place and all you have to is be funny. sometimes you can use profanity and everyone laughs but you just have to be direct. being mean is that last thing you should do.

i just yell out "WHERE THE F*** IS SO AND SO" but im smiling and everyone knows im joking around. it gets the job done and things run smoothly

 

[Randall00]

Interesting. Well yeah, of course you don't have to be mean. You also don't have to be mean to run a company, but if yelling at people and getting mad at them is what you consider "getting the job done," I guess that's why there's companies with customers that don't respect what they're doing.

It is very elitist and non-communal to even entertain the notion that all smashers are a bunch of whining kids (when neither of those variables are true) or people with low-confidence (when an individual's level of confidence has nothing to do with properly running a tournament). You have to be realistic about running tournaments. You can't wish to be famed and loved by all the smashers that come over (which is what seemed to be implied by "respect"); they're here to smash.

So no, it didn't really help, but interesting insight anyway!

 

[ThomaSexy]

I understand why people would disagree with me, but I stand by my opinion. Although, I guess I shouldn't say you have to be "mean" but more like, "assertive." It's not necessary to be rude and call people names or cuss, but just let them know who's the boss and rule with an iron fist. At my job, one department has a really nice manager. As a result, the people under him slack off and fool around and don't do their job. They walk all over the manager because they know he's soft and they won't get in trouble. In the department with the mean manager, everyone does their job and work gets done. They know who's in charge and they won't slack off in fear of what the consequences might be. They're there to make money and not to fool around afterall. So I see it the same in Smash. Everyone goes to tournaments to play in the tournament, not necessarily to just play friendlies. If the tournament host is soft, they'll disrespect him and walk all over him. But if he is assertive and aggressive, they'll respect the rules more and end their friendlies when it's time for a real match.

But I do understand why people would disagree with me.

Oh! And that thing about them not having confidence, that's one of my observations from tournaments I've been to. Maybe it's a little harsh to talk like ALL Smashers are like that, but a lot of them, from what I've seen, are. I just get annoyed when you're in a room with 10 tvs full-blast and 60 bodies in there all talking and making noise and then you call out a match like "So-in-so has a match against Jon Doe! WHERE IS SO-IN-SO" and they basically WHISPER "I'm here."

Trust me. I do understand why anyone would disagree with me though.

On a side note: It makes no sense why women totally fall for the "bad boys" and "jerks" instead of the good guys and nice guys. We may not understand why, but it is 100% true that most girls fall for those kind of guys. Being one of those bad boys myself, I understand why they fall for us better than Mr. Nice Guy does. So it makes sense to me that nice guys would disagree with me.

Trust me, I understand why nice guys would disagree with me on this.


Do you catch my drift and subliminal messages?

 

[h1roshi]

this is a very good guide. so far ive held just one tournament of my own and it was pretty freakin succesful, but there were some tips here that i will keep in mind. definitely informative...peace

-hiroshi