Hosting local video game tournaments

C

Cyborger

CAGiversary!
I'm getting fed up with the lack of local video game tournaments in my area. I want to start hosting my own tournaments but I don't know where to start. Are there any legal things I should know before trying this? Here's what I've got planned so far.

- Rent out a room or space in a store or school auditorium.

- Charge $10 entrance fee (per participant).

- Put up a prize such as last month's or the current month's new video game.

- Hold tournaments either every 2 weeks or once a month.

How does that sound? I want everyone's complete honesty and suggestions.
 
Get in touch with the online communities of whatever game that is that you guys play. They have their standard expectations for what to expect, from entree fees to payout to tournament rules.

For example, shoryuken.com forums for most traditional fighting games, smashboards.com for smash.

If its a small tournament, what I would expect is $5 venue fee, $5 or $10 entry fee per game, payout is 60/30/10 or 70/20/10 for 1st/2nd/3rd place.

Get in touch with independent eateries (like pizza places) in town and try to work out a deal with them. A straight out rental may not be necessary and might lead to major losses. Some people in Oklahoma have tournaments at a pizza place there. They take over half the store one or two days a month and most of the benefit comes from the extra business the establishment sees, rather than straight rent money. Public Libraries often have rooms that are free to rent but book pretty far in advance. Universities often have free rooms for clubs.

If your town is small or if it doesnt look like people are going to show, consider hosting weeklies at someone's house first.
 
I had a similar idea. Be sure to come up with some sort of RSVP, as you don't want to waste time, setting up everything, only to find out 3 people attend. I was also looking into the idea of creating some Twitter/SMS platform to send out messages when a local tournament was being held.

Like Dr Mario Kart pointed out, try one at your own house, or at a friends house, with a couple of friends, and see exactly what goes wrong (if anything). A couple friends of mine, and I started a VG Club at our school, and we thought we had everything planned out, but it was nothing like it. A lot of "Umm...excuse me random person...did you pay the fee?", not very comforting.
 
[quote name='Cyborger']

- Rent out a room or space in a store or school auditorium.
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I have friends who run a LAN Party and they rent out a (small) building from the local school. They've told me they have to get insurance for the event so you would have to look into that.

The clean up is also a lot of work, take pictures of everything so they can put everything back in the correct spot, since if the teachers have fits about things being in the wrong place the school might not let them return.
 
The pizza place sounds like a good idea. Also everything else that has been mentioned are good ideas. Check out other websites to see how they run their tournys and also see if you can get some people to help you setting up or bringing items so they are somewhat committed to coming.
 
You would have to have a better prize than one game for the winner if you are charging $10.
 
These are always funny because of the awkardness at first, but then when you save a teammate from dying a special gaming connection is formed. That bond that is formed, is one of the strongest bonds in the universe.









...and then you make a clan, suddenly the bond's gone. *sighs*
 
Thanks for all of your help guys, I think I have a good idea of what I'll need to do. The only thing I have to do know is find a good place to host them and hopefully be able to use it.

You would have to have a better prize than one game for the winner if you are charging $10.
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I'm still a little stuck on the prizes as well. What else would gamers want? T-Shirts? Caps? Free ringtones? (I'm only kidding about the ringtones)
 
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