Sunday 2 October 2011

What I learned - hosting a 4v4 tournament.



Well, The More The Moneyer Midlevel Mayhem tournament is completed and The Veneration are the champions! [round of applause!!!!!!!] We had some crazy fun, some tough matches, a lot of laughs and, of course being a competitive tournament, some drama.

The following is NOT intended to be a passive agressive jab at anyone. I know there's been some discussion about doing more 3v3 and 4v4 tournaments in general, and I thought it might be helpful for me share some of the lessons I've learned and the advice I would give to someone who wanted to set up something similar. You may not agree with this advice, and that's fine - it just things I wish I had known ahead of time that would have worked for me and that I wish I had followed myself.

1. You cannot be specific enough. Literally, you can't. How specific you choose to get is up to you, but there will always be something that crops up that you were not able to address. Explain your rules thoroughly, but make clear that any issues that come up outside of those rules are at your discretion to deal with how you see fit.

2. Don't justify or defend your decisions. You are running this show, so make the decisions that seem right to you. Whenever conflicts pop up (and they will pop up), people on one side or another will be annoyed with any decision you made. Explaining it, justifying it, and defending your choice only gives people the idea that they are up for discussion or debate. Let people complain or rage if they feel need to, but don't engage. "I stand by my decision." is all you need to stick with.

3. Be prepared to be the bad guy. No one will be happy with every choice you make when you're organizing a competitive event and are in direct contact with opposing sides, particularly in a game that has a lot of younger players. You need to be okay with people thinking you're the bad guy - and you need to be prepared to see a side of people you did not expect. Don't take it personally (even if it's being made personal).

4. Stress commitment to team leaders. The TMs don't say flaking is a big concern for nothing. Stress right from the beginning that you expect teams to be responsible and prompt as far as arranging matches, showing up for matches, keeping in contact with the team members to arrange matches, etc. Tell them that if they are not willing to commit to doing those things and stick with them, they may want not want to register. Have at least one alternate team for those teams that will flake anyway.


I may edit this post as more things occur to me, but all in all it was great to see people in genereal having fun, and playing a type of match you don't normally get to enjoy in ranked PvP. Thanks to everyone for coming out and supporting their favorite teams, their friends, and the tournament in general! I had a blast.

Also, Happy wizaversary to me! Woot! :)

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the latest updates and tips!

    Speaking of team commitment, I've always wanted to be part of a team, but this has always been a major issue. Most of the committed PvPers are probably beyond what I can handle.

    I can imagine how running a tournament would be difficult. I do have a question - Did you have specific rules as far as spell regulations are concerned? It surely isn't easy to monitor such rules when you aren't part of the match.

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