So you want to host a NS2 tournament? (A guide)
laberge
Join Date: 2012-11-19 Member: 172454Members
Join Date: 2012-11-19 Member: 172454Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Extensive tournament organization advice!</div><b>Hi NS2 community,</b>
<!--coloro:#ADD8E6--><span style="color:#ADD8E6"><!--/coloro-->I’m writing this guide for those who are interested in running a tournament but have had little experience organizing one. I hope this has tips that will help you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away. I use examples of League of Legends, CS and Starcraft events as they've had time to refine many aspects of tournament play.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Tournament Type</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<!--coloro:#ADD8E6--><span style="color:#ADD8E6"><!--/coloro-->To begin, here’s a quick overview of the most popular formats:<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
<ul><li><b>Single elimination Tournaments</b>: Teams have 1 chance to succeed. A single loss will result in elimination from the tournament.</li><li><b>Double elimination Tournaments</b>: Teams are able to lose twice, before falling out of the tournament. Teams which lose once are placed in a “loser†bracket where they have a second chance to continue in the tournament.</li><li><b>Round Robin Tournament</b>: Teams play one another in a set number of rounds (1,3,5) and their wins/losses are tallied into a score to determine which team played the best overall. This is common in divisional qualifiers where the winners of each Round Robin compete in a Single/Double Elimination Bracket.</li><li><b>Seasons / Leagues</b>: Multiple tournaments that lead to playoffs.</li></ul>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Registration Format</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<ul><li>Teams sign up as a pre-formed team with "X" number of players required</li><li>Captains Draft Players sign up as individuals. Captains are picked from the pool of players. They then take turns picking players into their team. This a great way to build a community oriented event.</li></ul>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Planning</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<!--coloro:#ADD8E6--><span style="color:#ADD8E6"><!--/coloro-->The first step to creating your tournament is to shell out the basic details of the event<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
<b>Basics</b><ul><li>Do you want to create a website, a flyer, or any promotional materials?</li><li>Where do you want to promote the tournament?</li><li>How much time do you plan to invest in the tournament? You will have to dedicate a significant amount of time to ensure everything works and runs as smoothly.</li></ul><b>Tournament Date</b><ul><li>Give at least 2 weeks of registration time and a few days to get yourself organized prior to the event</li><li>If you’re going for prizing/sponsors, think about 6-8 weeks in planning time</li></ul><b>Number of teams</b><ul><li>You’ll want to set them in multiples of 8 to make bracketing simplest – ie. 8, 16, 24, 32.</li></ul><b>Prizing</b><ul><li>I strongly suggest avoiding spending your own money on prizing for your first tournament and simply focus on trying to ensure everything runs smoothly</li><li>Reach out to local companies if you’re hosting a LAN tournament/party</li></ul><b>Follow up</b><ul><li>Try to find a way to ensure that all players were treated fairly and they had a good experience. There’s nothing worse than having a team or player slander your event if they felt mistreated.</li></ul><b>Recurrence</b>
<ul><li>If you felt your tournament went smoothly, you can always set a recurrence for it. Small tournaments with 12 teams of less can run weekly. For anything larger, consider bi-weekly or monthly.</li></ul><b>Rules</b><ul><li>It’s really important to have a set of rules outlining requirements and code of conduct from players and teams</li><li>Rules are absolutely necessary if you’re giving out prizes, there’s potential for disaster if there are conflicts which cannot be resolved through rules</li><li>Rules are designed to be preventative, meaning they are designed to answer questions before they are asked, avoiding conflict amongst players.</li><li>An in depth example is <a href="http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=2766828" target="_blank">Riot’s Official Season 2 Tournament Rules</a> or <a href="http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/Competitive_Rules#Overview" target="_blank">SC2 General rules</a>, you likely won’t need to go into this much detail, but it never hurts! If you run a LAN event, you'll have to consider a whole different set of rules, check out <a href="http://www.wcg.com/6th/2010/games/rule_2010_gf/WCG_2010_GF_CS_Rules_ver_1.1.pdf" target="_blank">WCG's CS rules (PDF)</a> for examples of Live event rules.</li></ul>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Marketing</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<!--coloro:#ADD8E6--><span style="color:#ADD8E6"><!--/coloro-->Next step comes to actually getting the word out about the tournament you’re hosting. There’s many different ways to promote your tournament; it just comes down to how well you have your messaging prepared. Here are some tips on how to stand out:
<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--><ul><li>Be unique, create a fun name and follow through in every way.</li><li>Tales of the lane is a great example of this: <a href="http://www.talesofthelane.com/" target="_blank">http://www.talesofthelane.com/</a> They have a unique logo, name, and followed through with a consistent theme (this is a League of Legends tournament)</li><li>Write a clear description of the event, how you register, and how to get in touch with the organizer.</li><li>It’s absolutely necessary to have an email which people can easily reach you at, or even a Skype account, in case any issues arise before, during or after the tournament</li><li>Design a logo, or a banner</li><li>Stream the tournament and highlight the players in it</li><li>Create an event on your Facebook fan/group page</li><li>Keep promoting the event leading up to the closing of registration.</li></ul>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Running the tournament</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<ul><li>After registration closes, you’ll want to seed the teams. Matchups between teams of similar skill level make for a better stream casting/viewing experience.</li><li>The days leading up to the tournament are generally when issues occur, as teams may substitute players, drop out or simply not show </li><li>up. These issues have to be dealt with as they come and you should expect them to occur. Have backup plans.</li><li>Create a chat room or a common place to be able to connect with the team leaders and help them coordinate their team. For most games, you’ll also need to coordinate the creation of custom game rooms.</li><li>Once you’ve completed running the games, you’ll need to report the scores to your players and viewers.</li></ul>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Follow up</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<ul><li>Following the tournament, ask your members about their tournament experience and if they’d like to be a part of another tournament. </li><li>Creating recurrence in your tournament is a great way to provide players with a consistent event so they can continue to play competitively.</li></ul>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Tools</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--><ul><li>A tournament management system can save the organizer a lot of time as it removes the process of creating the brackets manually while keeping teams organized. A good example of such a website is <a href="http://battlefy.com/tournament/" target="_blank"><b>Battlefy</b></a>!</li></ul>
<!--coloro:#ADD8E6--><span style="color:#ADD8E6"><!--/coloro-->Speaking of Battlefy, I should mention that I’d love you guys to give the site a try and provide me with your thoughts on it. I wrote this guide for two reasons, I've spent a lot of time working with organizers and observing some of their mistakes, and I also wanted to share our tournament site with everyone!
Trust me, it’s NS2 approved! You’ll notice both the <a href="http://battlefy.com/chud/112/rns2-team-tournament-1/#/info" target="_blank">/r/NS2 Tourney</a> and <a href="http://battlefy.com/talutha/115/the-sucky-gamer-natural-selection-tournament/#/info" target="_blank">The Sucky Gamer</a> tournaments are being run on the site ;)<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions or like further details on a specific topic.
<!--fonto:Arial Black--><span style="font-family:Arial Black"><!--/fonto--><!--coloro:#F5DEB3--><span style="color:#F5DEB3"><!--/coloro--><!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->TL;DR - CREATING TOURNAMENTS IS AWESOME, BUT REQUIRES WORK. CHECK OUT <a href="http://battlefy.com" target="_blank">BATTLEFY</a>.<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--><!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--><!--fontc--></span><!--/fontc-->
<!--coloro:#ADD8E6--><span style="color:#ADD8E6"><!--/coloro-->I’m writing this guide for those who are interested in running a tournament but have had little experience organizing one. I hope this has tips that will help you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away. I use examples of League of Legends, CS and Starcraft events as they've had time to refine many aspects of tournament play.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Tournament Type</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<!--coloro:#ADD8E6--><span style="color:#ADD8E6"><!--/coloro-->To begin, here’s a quick overview of the most popular formats:<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
<ul><li><b>Single elimination Tournaments</b>: Teams have 1 chance to succeed. A single loss will result in elimination from the tournament.</li><li><b>Double elimination Tournaments</b>: Teams are able to lose twice, before falling out of the tournament. Teams which lose once are placed in a “loser†bracket where they have a second chance to continue in the tournament.</li><li><b>Round Robin Tournament</b>: Teams play one another in a set number of rounds (1,3,5) and their wins/losses are tallied into a score to determine which team played the best overall. This is common in divisional qualifiers where the winners of each Round Robin compete in a Single/Double Elimination Bracket.</li><li><b>Seasons / Leagues</b>: Multiple tournaments that lead to playoffs.</li></ul>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Registration Format</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<ul><li>Teams sign up as a pre-formed team with "X" number of players required</li><li>Captains Draft Players sign up as individuals. Captains are picked from the pool of players. They then take turns picking players into their team. This a great way to build a community oriented event.</li></ul>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Planning</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<!--coloro:#ADD8E6--><span style="color:#ADD8E6"><!--/coloro-->The first step to creating your tournament is to shell out the basic details of the event<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
<b>Basics</b><ul><li>Do you want to create a website, a flyer, or any promotional materials?</li><li>Where do you want to promote the tournament?</li><li>How much time do you plan to invest in the tournament? You will have to dedicate a significant amount of time to ensure everything works and runs as smoothly.</li></ul><b>Tournament Date</b><ul><li>Give at least 2 weeks of registration time and a few days to get yourself organized prior to the event</li><li>If you’re going for prizing/sponsors, think about 6-8 weeks in planning time</li></ul><b>Number of teams</b><ul><li>You’ll want to set them in multiples of 8 to make bracketing simplest – ie. 8, 16, 24, 32.</li></ul><b>Prizing</b><ul><li>I strongly suggest avoiding spending your own money on prizing for your first tournament and simply focus on trying to ensure everything runs smoothly</li><li>Reach out to local companies if you’re hosting a LAN tournament/party</li></ul><b>Follow up</b><ul><li>Try to find a way to ensure that all players were treated fairly and they had a good experience. There’s nothing worse than having a team or player slander your event if they felt mistreated.</li></ul><b>Recurrence</b>
<ul><li>If you felt your tournament went smoothly, you can always set a recurrence for it. Small tournaments with 12 teams of less can run weekly. For anything larger, consider bi-weekly or monthly.</li></ul><b>Rules</b><ul><li>It’s really important to have a set of rules outlining requirements and code of conduct from players and teams</li><li>Rules are absolutely necessary if you’re giving out prizes, there’s potential for disaster if there are conflicts which cannot be resolved through rules</li><li>Rules are designed to be preventative, meaning they are designed to answer questions before they are asked, avoiding conflict amongst players.</li><li>An in depth example is <a href="http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=2766828" target="_blank">Riot’s Official Season 2 Tournament Rules</a> or <a href="http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/Competitive_Rules#Overview" target="_blank">SC2 General rules</a>, you likely won’t need to go into this much detail, but it never hurts! If you run a LAN event, you'll have to consider a whole different set of rules, check out <a href="http://www.wcg.com/6th/2010/games/rule_2010_gf/WCG_2010_GF_CS_Rules_ver_1.1.pdf" target="_blank">WCG's CS rules (PDF)</a> for examples of Live event rules.</li></ul>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Marketing</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<!--coloro:#ADD8E6--><span style="color:#ADD8E6"><!--/coloro-->Next step comes to actually getting the word out about the tournament you’re hosting. There’s many different ways to promote your tournament; it just comes down to how well you have your messaging prepared. Here are some tips on how to stand out:
<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--><ul><li>Be unique, create a fun name and follow through in every way.</li><li>Tales of the lane is a great example of this: <a href="http://www.talesofthelane.com/" target="_blank">http://www.talesofthelane.com/</a> They have a unique logo, name, and followed through with a consistent theme (this is a League of Legends tournament)</li><li>Write a clear description of the event, how you register, and how to get in touch with the organizer.</li><li>It’s absolutely necessary to have an email which people can easily reach you at, or even a Skype account, in case any issues arise before, during or after the tournament</li><li>Design a logo, or a banner</li><li>Stream the tournament and highlight the players in it</li><li>Create an event on your Facebook fan/group page</li><li>Keep promoting the event leading up to the closing of registration.</li></ul>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Running the tournament</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<ul><li>After registration closes, you’ll want to seed the teams. Matchups between teams of similar skill level make for a better stream casting/viewing experience.</li><li>The days leading up to the tournament are generally when issues occur, as teams may substitute players, drop out or simply not show </li><li>up. These issues have to be dealt with as they come and you should expect them to occur. Have backup plans.</li><li>Create a chat room or a common place to be able to connect with the team leaders and help them coordinate their team. For most games, you’ll also need to coordinate the creation of custom game rooms.</li><li>Once you’ve completed running the games, you’ll need to report the scores to your players and viewers.</li></ul>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Follow up</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<ul><li>Following the tournament, ask your members about their tournament experience and if they’d like to be a part of another tournament. </li><li>Creating recurrence in your tournament is a great way to provide players with a consistent event so they can continue to play competitively.</li></ul>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Tools</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--><ul><li>A tournament management system can save the organizer a lot of time as it removes the process of creating the brackets manually while keeping teams organized. A good example of such a website is <a href="http://battlefy.com/tournament/" target="_blank"><b>Battlefy</b></a>!</li></ul>
<!--coloro:#ADD8E6--><span style="color:#ADD8E6"><!--/coloro-->Speaking of Battlefy, I should mention that I’d love you guys to give the site a try and provide me with your thoughts on it. I wrote this guide for two reasons, I've spent a lot of time working with organizers and observing some of their mistakes, and I also wanted to share our tournament site with everyone!
Trust me, it’s NS2 approved! You’ll notice both the <a href="http://battlefy.com/chud/112/rns2-team-tournament-1/#/info" target="_blank">/r/NS2 Tourney</a> and <a href="http://battlefy.com/talutha/115/the-sucky-gamer-natural-selection-tournament/#/info" target="_blank">The Sucky Gamer</a> tournaments are being run on the site ;)<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions or like further details on a specific topic.
<!--fonto:Arial Black--><span style="font-family:Arial Black"><!--/fonto--><!--coloro:#F5DEB3--><span style="color:#F5DEB3"><!--/coloro--><!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->TL;DR - CREATING TOURNAMENTS IS AWESOME, BUT REQUIRES WORK. CHECK OUT <a href="http://battlefy.com" target="_blank">BATTLEFY</a>.<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--><!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--><!--fontc--></span><!--/fontc-->
Comments
1) tie breakers
--how do you determine who plays what side in an elimination tournament
2) servers, ping advantage
-- what server is played on? (eu vs na, marine round on favorable ping?)
-- who gets to choose the tie breaker server, is this also the team that gets to choose the tie breaker race or do you split that decision
3) maps
-- are they player choosen, dictated by the admins (ie veil r1, summit r2, tram r3)
-- are tie breaks played on the same map as the previous game or a new map
Give a lot of thought to these questions. If you're unsure of what to do then ask and the competitive players will give you differing opinions on what we think is best. There have been hangups on these issues in previous tournaments so it is very important for the rules to spell it out clearly and simply.