Article Feedback - Running a Tournament

[sann0638]

Let's start a bit more of a positive thread to share the love! I'm putting an article together about running a tournament, and doing some bullet points. It's in its infancy, but are there substantial bits I've missed out?

• See if anyone local to you wants to help organise it. Some of the best tournaments have a committee of sorts to organise them.
  
  Decide if you want to do a one- or two-day tournament.
  
  Find/book a venue, decide on cost, will you include refreshments etc?
  
  Decide on a rules pack (team value, skills, special rules, scoring, rankings for the draw, prizes) and write them down, in a pack including contact details, payment details (paypal is good), directions etc. How many games will there be on each day? What will the timings be? Edit: going back through old tournament listings, lots of them just have the rules on here, others have them on a dedicated website.
  
  Get NAF sanctioning.
  
  Publicise widely (NAF, TFF, Cyanide, BB Tactics, local forums, Facebook, Twitter), and be prepared to answer questions.
  
  Sort out trophies.
  
  Download Score and do a trial run of the tournament with the scoring you want.
  
  If it's a 2-day tournament, will you have Saturday evening entertainment organised? Not essential, but again it's the highlight of some tournaments for some people.
  
  Decide on logistics for the day. Will people pre-register their teams? How will you let people know who they are playing against in each round? Most tournaments have a printer, others call out, others have projectors.
  
  RUN THE TOURNAMENT.
  
  Get the results uploaded to thenaf.net.
  
  Post the final standings wherever you publicised the event, along with any good photos and some sort of tournament write-up. Most tournaments take place each year, and post-tournament attention can be a good draw for people coming back.
  
  Have a breather...

I will flesh out a lot of the points, especially about rules packs (ooh, might do a collection of rules packs as examples), but any thoughts welcome especially from experienced TOs or ones that have less experience and want to know stuff. So...erm...everyone?

Ta,
Mike

[Darkson]

Make sure you have back-up plans for PCs/printers going wrong (having a laptop blow just before the 1st round sort of embeds that into you!)

Make sure you have paper for the printer - seems obvious, but sometimes the simple things get forgotten.

If possible, and you're not intending to play, try to have a "spare" player.

Know your own rules!

[sann0638]

Know your own rules!

More a "nice to have" rather than "essential"

Good points, thank you.

[Glowworm]

I'll wrote an email to someone who asked about organising tournaments after Crumb-bowl last year....ill try and find it for you.

Best advice, if your running a tournament then run it!! Seems obvious but you cannot get it done by committee, most BBers have no concept of deadlines outside 4 minute turns, so I micro manage every aspect of Crumb-bowl. Ask others for help, but at the end of the day your the one who has taken people's money so your the one responsible for their day.

Oh and make sure you know how many players you need to break even cost wise and panic until you reach that number, don't overcommit, I know at least 1 tournament organiser who was out of pocket by a considerable amount when not enough players turned up to support his tournament. I had 32 (34?) players at Crumb last year and once the dust settled I think I made £18 profit for the league. Start small and build, I'm looking at a date/venue/ format change for next years Crumb, but will see how iit goes, also remember, not everyone who says they'll come will be there!

Have a U.S.P. ( unique selling point) something that attract people's interest, charity theme like Thrud, rules twist like Cam-dub, Donuts like Crumb!! Free dice, free models, BBers love free stuff, doesn't have to be BB related but better if it is....

Do your homework, ( see micro manage above) make sure you can give directions to the venue, local accommodation, know your rule set and be prepared to answer any and all relevant questions, at least sound like you know what your doing!!

Hope this helps, I'll try and dig out the email and sent it over to you.

[lunchmoney]

I dont do committee. I am too much of a control freak

Find a gap in the calender, dont clash with another event. And I dont just mean BB events. Last year I clashed with the Bournemouth Airshow and I think it cost a few attendees.

Set your price to a reasonable amount that the market will bear. Freebie give-aways are good, not essential. Nor are even prizes. Try to get a trophy at least, though

[Long_Bomb]

I would just like to echo what Glowworm has said about having a USP. With so many tournaments out there having a theme to the tournament that makes you stand out in the calendar is important. Ideas such as progressive tournaments or team events make the event a bit different to all the others.

[Darkson]

Make sure there are pens.

[JaM]

Allright, thanks for this thread.

Is there a calendar somewhere (sure there was one...?) with all the European tournaments are on, wich tournament on what date?

Because I want to have a 1 day tournament in Arnhem somewhere October/November. Clashing with the Eurobowl or something else isnt good ofcourse!

[Elyoukey]

Free dice, free models, BBers love free stuff, doesn't have to be BB related but better if it is....

i don't agree on this, bb players don't always like bb goodies. I think making specific boards and dice is not usefull anymore, most bbplayers have already bunch of boards ( i do own about 10 custom boards) and a tera-bunch of dice (i know there is at least 1 player which run a full bb tourney without using the same die twice).

So please think out of the box. Last tourneys i went (namingly Bowl des vignes and Alsabowl) offered wine bottles and i think it is great because you can share with non bloodbowl related persons.

Considering the calendar, there is the NAF website, the full tournament list is available here :
http://www.thenaf.net/index.php?module= ... ournaments
also the nafmap allow you to search the same informations in a more googlemap way:
http://www.elyoukey.com/nafmap

for France we also have a specific website with full calendar and location (depending on where you want to organise your european tourney, you may draw some french players)
http://www.teamfrancebb.com/?q=calendrier-des-tournois

i guess there are similar applications for other countries i am not aware of.


Finally just a thinking as i am no orga, but the comunity is 30+ years old, i think that providing or at least informing about wife/children activities posibilities around the tournament place can help. If your tourney is in a big city or a great place, a player may bring his family (Les Arcs cup is a good exemple located in the mountain the family can go around and enjoy the fresh air for a good week end).
I think that a "coach wife club" could be rised and take contact with the Tourism office next to some tourneys, maybe some discount can be reached (?).. ( althought mixing all wifes in a single place may not be the best idea in this post)

[spubbbba]

Free dice, free models, BBers love free stuff, doesn't have to be BB related but better if it is....

i don't agree on this, bb players don't always like bb goodies. I think making specific boards and dice is not usefull anymore, most bbplayers have already bunch of boards ( i do own about 10 custom boards) and a tera-bunch of dice (i know there is at least 1 player which run a full bb tourney without using the same die twice).

So please think out of the box. Last tourneys i went (namingly Bowl des vignes and Alsabowl) offered wine bottles and i think it is great because you can share with non bloodbowl related persons.

That’s a good point, sometimes it may be better to make the event cheaper or give away non-BB stuff like free food or drinks.

I know a lot of the freebies I see at tournaments have no appeal to me. Custom stuff is much cheaper when bought in bulk so if you can make some awesome dice or models then it’s possible that will attract more coaches and you can sell the extras for a profit. But if the giveaways are ugly then they may end up in the bin and you won’t be able to sell them, thus wasting money.

So probably best not to go too overboard on the goodies straight away.

I’d also add gather feedback to the list. Hopefully you’ll get repeat attendees and happy BBers will help spread the word and maybe bring friends.