TO Handbook: PM me your Skype name to join the Handbook Skype Chat! Looking for DBAs

[OkamiBW]

I've got characters written down for Melee 'and' Brawl for the last tournament I ran.

 

[*Cam*]

We came up with a system to record all the matches at a tournament (for Brawl) that is pretty effective. I thought other TOs might be interested to hear about it.

We make sure all the setups have numbers, and we get a group of sd cards that also have numbers on them. We put on all of them a hack that has infinite replays and forces players to save the replay after a match. For friendlies, we tell them to save them to the wii. For tournament matches, the sd card. The specific hack doesn't require homebrew and can be accessed on any unhacked wii. All you have to do is put the sd card in and go to stagebuilder.

My friend Ingulit made a program that we'd be willing to share that helps the TO keep track of who played at what setup and at what time. All you have to do is enter the names of the two players and the setup #. The program saves the times, player names, and the setup #'s all in a notepad file for the whole tournament. The time on the wii doesn't even have to be correct; all that really matters is the order if you do it right. It helps to erase the replays from the sd cards before each tournament so you know that all the replays are from that specific tournament.

Before we leave the venue, I just collect all the sd cards and save the files to my computer. Soon after, I put them on our dropbox account so a group of uploaders can get to work on them.

It's really not hard to run by any means, and it doesn't slow down the tournament. You just have to make sure that 1) you have enough sd cards to work with and 2) you tell players which setup to play on. I recommend buying a bundle of sd cards that you keep with you as a TO. You can get by with 7 or 8 for 30 man tournaments. I would go up to 10-12 if you get closer to 40. I wouldn't borrow sd cards. Borrowing sd cards caused us a lot of grief at one point because people's cards would get lost or their personal hacks erased.

An added bonus to doing this is that you can always find out what characters someone used at a tournament.

 

[sirlaser]

This method w/ SD cards look quite effective, but it might only work for Brawl because playing a GC game in a Wii disables all non-GC functions IIRC, which includes the SD slot.

 

[*Cam*]

This method w/ SD cards look quite effective, but it might only work for Brawl because playing a GC game in a Wii disables all non-GC functions IIRC, which includes the SD slot.

Yes, unfortunately it only works for Brawl.

 

[Vyke]

I like this thread a lot. I just only wish I had the resources or motivation to host tournaments in my area consistently.

 

[tarheeljks]

Might be interesting to start recording what characters are used as well.

agree, did this at the last two san jose locals. character/stage/count for quarters and on

edit: i like the feedback form. i would add an area asking how many setups a player can commit (tv, cube/wii, power strips, etc)

 

[thesage]

How long should I estimate a best 2 out of 3 set should take? I'm trying to make a timetable for my tournament right now. I think 17 mins should be good.

 

[KrIsP!]

Brawl or melee? Melee would be like 15 max in most cases, brawl would be like 15 minimum.

 

[OkamiBW]

When I get a chance, I'll post a couple pictures I have. I did the postboard bracket + printed out pool sheets thing and it worked well.

 

[Juggleguy]

At Melee locals, use a 10-minute per-set average when calculating how much time pools will take. At Melee regionals and nationals, bump that estimate up to 12 minutes. I don't know about Brawl.

 

[Mogwai]

I disagree. Allocate at least 20 minutes per set. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

 

[Juggleguy]

No. Using a worst-case time estimate for pools matches doesn't make any sense. If I estimated 20 minutes per set at my tourneys, I'd be misled into thinking they'd all have to be two-day events. You should use a slightly-worse-than-anticipated estimate; over 80% of sets at Melee locals go just 2 games, so 10 minutes per set is a good, safe estimate.

 

[OkamiBW]

Does 2 sets factor in the time it takes to set them up on a TV (maybe trying to argue about waiting for an open TV), picking everything (cpicking, etc.), reporting scores, etc.? I feel like it might be more like 12-ish, even with games usually being 2-0's.

 

[KrIsP!]

Pools are usually assigned to groups of tvs no? And since it's pools there's not a lot of cpicking time taken and most of the games would end in 3-4 minutes...but then again I did say 15 minutes just to find a good middle so nothing can go wrong.

 

[Juggleguy]

Yes, Okami, it factors in downtime between matches.

All I'm saying is: if your estimate of time required per set is a whopping 20 minutes, then you're doing something wrong at your tourney. Something like not assigning a pool captain to gather members of the pool around the correct TV(s), not getting everyone's attention before announcing pool assignments/locations, or simply not being assertive enough in your threats to DQ tardy players.

TOs need to focus their efforts on putting resources in place to ensure a robust, minimal-risk schedule, instead of catering the tourney around the laziness and tardiness of the community.

 

[OkamiBW]

Yeah, I suppose 10 minutes is a good estimate. I was just considering erring on the side of caution. But, for sure, 20 minutes is way too high of an estimate...especially for an average.

Also, I know that debate is dead, but 2-1's vs. 2-0's...don't 2-1's technically count in Pools as a 3-way tie break sometimes?

 

[thesage]

Ok thanks guys. I'll go with the estimate of 15 mins per set.

 

[Exdeath]

Something that I want to start doing is making a pre-register form for locals and creating pools beforehand, while allowing room to add in players later (e.g. new players). This takes more time from your life, but can easily save enough time to run an additional round of tournament sets on the day of the tournament.

 

[bertbusdriver]

Curious as to the issues surounding NYTE. Looks like melee side of things was very unsmooth based on complaints in related threads. AFAIK based on the thread, Nicknyte had personal issues to attend to, co-TOs didn't step up, and the players themselves did not take initiative to make the tournament go faster either? Not pointing fingers as I wasn't even there. Just curious what went down and how all those things could have been prevented.

Seeing as how there were only 33 entrants for melee, and so many of them have been involved in the community for so long, I would have thought the tournament would be a near-guarantee to run smoothly...

 

[Fierce Deku]

Quick note on the sign up form the OP was asking for feedback on:

It'd probably be good to include a field for All Is Brawl account name in addition to Smashboards account name, as well as making All Is Brawl a check box for How did you hear about this tournament? It's a pain that people are divided between the two sites but there are definitely plenty of people who only use one or the other, so it'd be valuable to gather info on both.

For How did you hear about this tournament? you could also maybe add an option for having heard about it at another tournament specifically.

Looks like some really great stuff here, I'll definitely come back and read this more thoroughly later!

 

[OkamiBW]

Pictures from the last tournament I hosted using the suggestion someone gave awhile back.

Spoiler

 

[metalmonstar]

That is really good okami. Was that the biggest paper you could get? I wonder how much it would cost to maybe get a large dry erase board or maybe an easel with a wheel of paper. If it is not to much it might be a useful investment.

 

[OkamiBW]

That is really good okami. Was that the biggest paper you could get? I wonder how much it would cost to maybe get a large dry erase board or maybe an easel with a wheel of paper. If it is not to much it might be a useful investment.

Yeah, I possibly could've gotten a larger one if I went to STAPLES or something, but this was the easiest for me to obtain.

 

[bertbusdriver]

I'm surprised no one ever *****ed at me for deciding to do a 48 man bracket for SMYM. I thought people would be annoyed that losers of 1st rd winners would face people who lost in 2nd rd winners... I guess it only screws you if you win 1st rd winners then lose 2 matches. In which case you're probably not placing high enough to care.

The upside was that the numbers worked out really well for 16 pools (3 make it out of pools of 5 or 6), and I was able to give 1st rd byes to the top player in each pool. Unfortunately I think not everyone knew about the 1st rd bye, so some top players still sandbagged in pools, which caused a few imbalances in the bracket. At that point I feel things are out of my hands though. I can't seed the bracket in such a way that contradicts the pools placings...

 

[Juggleguy]

I don't think too many people prioritize the complete accuracy of placings 17th-33rd. It sucks that people who won a game in winners aren't "guaranteed" a higher placing than 33rd, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[*Cam*]

I just ran Swiss for the first time on Saturday. The players at the tournament liked it, but it was a pain to run as a TO, mainly because TiO doesn't support it. Pools are definitely easier and faster.

 

[metalmonstar]

Kind of makes you wish Tio was open source so someone could just add it in for us.

I know Scar has been pretty busy but has anyone been able to connect on the skype chat? This really isn't something we should just let fizzle out.

 

[metalmonstar]

Just trying to keep this alive since it is a pretty important topic. I have been on skype a couple of times, but I haven't really seen anyone on.

Tomorrow I am holding a small gaming event, if non tournament goers show up I will try to inquire on their thoughts. Maybe holding local gaming events at libraries could be a good way to open up the scene a bit.

 

[Fierce Deku]

Hey, thought I'd throw my name out here if there's anything I can do to help. I've only got a couple tournaments under my belt as a TO but I'm on skype a lot if anyone wants to talk about stuff. Someone PM me and I'll reply with my skype contact if you want (I'm not really sure who all could add me to the group and who is busy and wouldn't notice).

Oh and metalmonstar, I set up a non-tournament smashfest type event with the intent of it being a weekly thing, but only one person to showed up. My current thinking for getting that going is to run a bigger more hype tournament, and then advertise the smashfest things at the tourney. If either of us figure out any good advice for getting a non-tourney thing like that going we should let the other know. I think they'd be really helpful for jump starting a community where not a lot of people know each other yet, and it's a more feasible way of keeping people engaged than one/a few people trying to run a full fledged tournament really frequently.

 

[*Cam*]

I don't want this thread to die. It's given me some good ideas in the past, like good schedules, swiss brackets, and amateur brackets. After heading Alabama's organization of TOs for a year and running 10 tournaments in 5 different cities, I feel pretty confident in giving some more feedback for running local tournaments.

It's been said before, but TOs really are the backbone of the community. Given that, new TOs should understand that they have to play an active role besides just hosting events. For example, I still recommend a TO invest in a website for your state or area. Ours has worked out pretty well in indexing important information and creating hype for our players.

Having a deep connection to the local community also can make it easier for you as a TO. I understand that a lot of TOs get fatigue from running tournaments, and I used to get the same thing honestly, but I don't anymore. I don't get exhausted because I found help. I don't know who does this already, but everyone who hosts regular events should do it. The secret to finding help was contacting other organizers in the state or area.

Now, in AL we have a particular advantage because the top organizers are already in an organization together, but regardless of that, all the AL TOs got together and came to an agreement that we would all run every event together as a team. That means instead of 1 to 3 people running the tournament, we have 12 helpers with a head TO making the decisions. This is so useful; I really can't stress it enough. Everyone has learned how to run TiO, how to take money, how to sign people up, how to call out matches. It lets us all have a chance to go play and practice before the tournament starts. It also has made us all more organized and given us more experience in running efficient events. Looking back, I can't imagine that we used to have 2 or 3 people running an event alone.

The other secret to this is actually letting other people help you. As TOs, a lot of us are self-starters and don't like to trust other people with important tasks, but doing it all yourself is horribly inefficient. Train different people to do it (under supervision) and see which people you think you can trust to get it done. If you do what we did, other TOs are extremely reliable because they have experience and because they want to help make the event good. Delegating was probably the hardest skill I ever had to learn, but it was also the most useful.

Speaking of cooperation with other TOs, be sure to talk and schedule your tournaments far in advance with other organizers, and try not to put them only a week apart. AL has gotten to the point where we schedule our events months in advance and each one is 2-3 weeks apart. It's glorious actually because we don't have to compete with each other later, and it guarantees we don't go too long without a tournament. We are currently scheduling events for September through November. The main thing to take away is that you can schedule farther than a month ahead of time, and it makes sense to coordinate with other people in the state or region who host events that draw the same players.

Finally, don't let anyone **** with your schedule once the event has started. I'm sure other TOs can confirm, that people will sweet talk you, guilt you, and try to get you to postpone Brawl singles or doubles or that Smash 64 side tournament for "just 30 minutes." This is a trap. I had an organizer once, nice guy btw, who postponed Smash 64 until all the players for it showed up. It was supposed to happen at 10:30 and ended up starting at 12. Everything else started later as a result, and we almost got thrown out of the venue for going over. My rule has and probably will always be, if you are late, you have to call ahead, and I will only give you a 15 minute grace period because you called ahead. If an event doesn't have enough players, offer to do a round robin tournament with the players who are there, and if they aren't interested, just cancel it. Players will arrive late, they will go out to eat and forget that they are holding up the tournament, they will decide that they are going to bottleneck pools by waiting to play all their matches at once. All of these things make tournaments go past time and ensure that you get kicked out of the venue before GF is over. If you want to finish, you have to be a bit of a hard*** about these things. As long as you gave them the schedule, they shouldn't be able to blame you for starting the tournament at the correct time without them.

ALSO, I have a few fundraising experiments I want to run during our 3rd season of tournaments in AL. I'll have to get back to you guys with how they go. The main goal for me is raising gas money for our players to go to larger OoS tournaments and possibly for people from OoS to come to ours. One idea is to have a fun side event with like a $4 entry and no pot, purely a fundraising side event like Project M or Mid Tier tournament. Another idea is to take 10% of the pot out of each of our 5 tournaments during the season in order to raise money. Finally, we talked about contacting the fighting game community and letting them set up tournaments at our events as long as we get a small percent of the pot and their players pay venue fees like everyone else. Any leftover venue fees could go to said gas fund. We will probably try all of those ideas and see which ones are the most successful.

 

[metalmonstar]

I had that little event back in June. Didn't turn out as well I had hoped. One thing I found, and most of you won't be surprised, but gamers are shy. I figured if you gave them an non threatening environment they would open up a little more or at the very least just play games are there own silently. No such luck though, they would rather stay away then hang out with people even if they are wearing a mario shirt. I did learn some stuff from the event. I think it is important to bring new people into the scene gradually. Shock factor has not worked at all so far in my experience. Hopefully I will get the chance to keep looking into the issue and finding out what can be done to make events more accessible and fun. One of my next ideas was to move away from events to small house parties. Like city wide Game clubs. I will keep you all posted.