Talk Fantasy Football

1 Metal block dice
5 Color block dice (i.e. color images on solid background)
1 Embroidered patches, for ironing onto a shirt or dice bag or hat
7 Hard plastic mini case, suitable for carrying 1-2 teams in pre-cut foam, with tournament logo
1 Lapel pin with tournament logo
1 Coin with tournament logo on front, scatter table on back
1 Stickers
10 Deck of inducement cards (assuming they were illustrated and nicely designed and not just the ones from the rule book)
5 Star Player trading cards
1 Shot Glass with tournament logo
1 Coffee mug with tournament logo
1 Key chain
1 Can coozies
5 Dice bag with embroidered logo
1 Silicon wristband (similar to Livestrong bands) with tournament name/date
1 Collapsing wooden dice tower
1 T-shirt with logo
1 Polo shirt with embroidered logo

Been fairly ruthless here but basically there's a lot of stuff that would be "meh" (1), a couple of cool things (5), then you have the useful case and the cool AND useful inducement cards.

Sounds like there's a lot of consensus right now about:

Hard plastic mini case
Color block dice
Star Player trading cards
Key chain (with throw in template)
Coin (with scatter template)
Coffee mug
Deck of Inducement Cards

Others are a bit hit or miss. I'll see what I can work up on those items first.

I thought I could share what I offer for my event here in Australia. I run a big event (well, big for here anyway!), and I always try and offer my players something new and different as part of the gift packs.

This year I'm giving out:

1. Tournament coin (I do this every year, same coin design, different plating).
2. Lapel pin of the logo.
3. Set of purple/yellow Aussie Block Dice
4. Set of six bottle cap tokens styled after old world beers.
5. A custom dice bag with a zip.
6. A custom card game called Eucalyptus Brew.



In the past I've offered a variety of other gifts, leather dice cups, various custom miniatures, custom d6, bottle opener/dog tag, printed rulebooks and dugouts, that kind of thing. I've always received very positive responses to our gift packs, and I take it as something of a challenge to try and top my previous years effort!

Here are some closes ups of current and past gifts:

A great looking goodie bag there. How much is your tournament entry fee?

TheDancingClown wrote:A great looking goodie bag there. How much is your tournament entry fee?

+1

Donuts are also always well received!!

The tournament entry fee is $40 AUD as an early bird, rising to $50 a month before the event. Not sure how that compares to overseas, but here it's fairly standard, cheaper by about $15 from our Major (which as part of a larger convention has little control over ticket prices) and perhaps up to $10 higher than other, smaller events.

We normally get somewhere around the 70-80 player mark, and I plan for 100 gift packs. Some I give away to other tournament organisers, and the others I sell after the event to recoup some costs. Australia is a big place, and not everyone can make the trip to Euc Bowl every year, so there is always demand for those extras from players who can't make the trip.

The big difference is that we run the event purely for the sake of the event, it's not a fundraising exercise for a gaming group or club. Not that there is anything wrong with that at all, but it means I can funnel all of the funds into the event itself and it's been evident for some time that one thing all players appreciate is nice giveaways. I like to think even if you have the worst losing streak of your life you still won't walk away feeling like you lost out.

glowworm wrote:

TheDancingClown wrote:A great looking goodie bag there. How much is your tournament entry fee?

+1

Donuts are also always well received!!

I don't do donuts, but I do head out to Costco before the event and buy a few large bags of lollies. I put them in big bowls near the admin desk and people come and help themselves when they drop off results etc

Virral wrote: The big difference is that we run the event purely for the sake of the event, it's not a fundraising exercise for a gaming group or club. Not that there is anything wrong with that at all, but it means I can funnel all of the funds into the event itself and it's been evident for some time that one thing all players appreciate is nice giveaways. I like to think even if you have the worst losing streak of your life you still won't walk away feeling like you lost out.

I would say this was standard.

sann0638 wrote:

Virral wrote: The big difference is that we run the event purely for the sake of the event, it's not a fundraising exercise for a gaming group or club. Not that there is anything wrong with that at all, but it means I can funnel all of the funds into the event itself and it's been evident for some time that one thing all players appreciate is nice giveaways. I like to think even if you have the worst losing streak of your life you still won't walk away feeling like you lost out.

I would say this was standard.

Not here in Australia, although it is improving. Most of the more established tournaments are either part of a convention where a lot of the proceeds go to the organisers for the venue, overhead etc or are run by a league or gaming group with a fundraising focus.

Our Major for example, CanCon, is part of the Canberra Gaming Society's big yearly event (funnily enough also called CanCon) and more than 80% of the ticket price goes to the convention organisers. Some of the other long established events like MOAB and Leviathan are similar, and a few of the smaller events are run by the local leagues where I *believe* that one of the goals is fundraising for the league although obviously I'm not privy to how they spend their cash (and I don't begrudge them in the slightest let me be absolutely clear!)

That was pretty much the only way it happened when Euc Bowl was established ten years ago. Nowadays we have many more smaller events that aren't fundraising focused, but at the time it make EucBowl different and players appreciated the increased prize and gift pools that came from it which has helped us to grow and gain reputation to the point where Euc Bowl is the biggest event in the country, followed fairly closely by CanCon.

Darkson wrote:
0 - Hard plastic mini case, suitable for carrying 1-2 teams in pre-cut foam, with tournament logo - already have a case, don't need another one

You can never have enough cases.