So, we covered some of the basics on how to create an L5R scene (for more info see my post here). As we already talked about, a defining moment in the evolution of your L5R playgroup and your own personal growth (or L5R addiction), is your first major tournament.
First of all, lets take a look at some prerequisites for running a major tournament (by the way, major tournament is a subjective term, and is relevant to your playgroup size- it might be as few as 20-40 people, or it might be huge ala Spain or France or parts of the US). These are:
a) a player base of at least 20 people.
b) having trained both yourself and your playerbase in tournament play beforehand (running swiss round tournaments, experimenting with top4 or top 8 finals etc etc)
That's about it. I could have written a slew of other things, but I want to stress that most of the obstacles to running a major tournament, are in your mind (if you are willing to put the time and effort into it, running a large L5R tournament is not that hard- hell you can play L5R which is definitely not the easiest thing to do so you are more or less set).
Now, given that we are talking about a first tournament, I will break things down a great detail, so you can use this as a checklist for running the thing. So without further ado:
1. Planning phase:
If this is your first major tournament, you should really plan ahead for it. Especially if you want people to attend who are not part of the local tournament scene, you should give them heads up so that they can plan accordingly. Personally, I would suggest starting planning 3-5 months in advance.
2.Choosing your TO team:
You might be one of those lone wolfs, who can multitask well enough to handle everything by yourself (or you might be a raging control freak who wants to do everything in a specific manner). Even if that is the case, I would humbly suggest you not go this alone. The key to your first event, is to minimize the possible things which could go wrong. The chances of things going wrong increase if you try to handle too much by yourself, or if you involve too many people. Which brings me to my next point: you might be one of those people who wants to involve everyone. This is also a very bad idea, since this is a sure way for miscommunication to ensue (and nasty fights were too many people want to have a say in things). In my personal experience a core team of 2-5 people can run any event provided they can properly communicate with each other and respect each other enough to know who can handle what. Musts include someone who can handle swiss pairings and a Judge who knows the rules. Personally, I would also suggest someone who is comfortable with being social with players, because imho the social aspect of the tournament is also very important.
3. Choosing a date:
This is a factor which will greatly define the success of your tournament. The date is hugely important, and should be given careful thought. Your first tournament needs to have the support of your gaming community. You need to pick a date where almost everyone of your playgroup will be able to attend (here you need to get 40k commissar on your playerbase arses- gamers have a tendency to commit to things at a drop of a hat only to remember that they can't attend leaving you high and dry, so make sure you stress the importance of them attending and showing their active support to their L5R community). Facilitate things by making sure the date you choose does not coincide with midterms, other local gaming events, nearby Koteis, GENCON or any other major events which would cause people to have to pull a no show.
Another important factor, which people might forget, is when the next expansion is coming out. For instance, planning an event a few days after the release of an expansion but before it is legal might cause no shows because people will be too busy (or will have spent lots of money) with the new set, or an event a few days after a new set might be very successful or doomed to failure depending on card availability and various other factors. So, if possible, try to steer away from such dates for your first tournament (when you are a jaded veteran you will be able to deal with the vagaries of fate- for now just try and limit the things that can go wrong).
Checklist:
-Overview of available dates
-Checking that there are no events which might interfere with your tournament (gaming events, release of a new set, etc etc).
-Discussion with local playerbase
-Discussion with nearby playerbase who might be attending
-Choice of date
4. Choosing a venue:
Again, a very important factor, one which will effect both attendance and how good a time your players will have. Also, this is a tricky parameter, since it also might have to do with how much money you will spend, so be careful. How do you choose a venue? Well that has to do with what your goal is for your tournament and what you can afford to spend on it. A logical goal is to think that you will have an attendance which will exceed your local player base, and based on your promotion of the event and the feedback you have had from other playgroups, you will more or less know the number. A quick note here: this is where you need to put a bit of work in. You will be surprised at the deals you can find (especially off season), for hotel conference halls, in university campuses and other places. Talk to people you know, and you will be surprised at the suggestions you might be given (one of the nice things regarding L5R players is that they tend to come from different environments so chances are there are people in the L5R scene, or related to someone in the L5R scene who might help you).
My suggestion about this step would be as follows: sit down with your TO team, and determine a budget for the tournament (in our case, we decide how much we are willing to spend on the tournament, take the worst case scenario of attendance, decide what the entrance fee to the tournament is and see how much money we will are comfortable on spending on the tournament- others who want to break even or make money off the tournament can just take their expected attendance, plan for the entrance fee they will charge and see how much money will be available, and plan accordingly). Once you determine the budget, and subtract money required for prize support (for more see below) you know how much you have to spend on your venue. As to the creature comforts the venue needs to have, you know your player base better so I will leave that up to you. However, I would suggest that the venue has semi decent tables (aka not minuscule so that you can actually play L5R) and decent air conditioning (eau de gamer leaves much to be desired, especially after 6-8 rounds of swiss).
Also, make sure that the venue you choose is accessible to those coming (ie if you know that none of your playerbases have cars and move via bus or metro, plan the event somewhere near stations).
Checklist:
-Determine budget
-Determine suitable locations
-Contact location management
-Possible discussion with player base
5. AEG haranguing:
If this is a Kotei, this might have already occurred (in general the points here are done simultaneously and not concurrently). AEG are VERY decent when it comes to helping TOs out with tournaments. If you persuade them that you are sincere about what you are doing, they will step up (the amount of support we have had for our tournaments ranges from amazingly decent to awesomely amazing). However, they can be at times a bit disjointed in sending things to you. This is why you, oh most wise of TOs, decided to start planning for your tournament so early. You will be able to discuss things with AEG, plan for tournament support, and get it sent to you ahead of time, so you don't have to scramble. Also, if you are aiming at a storyline tournament this is a must (examples of available tournaments: http://www.l5r.com/2011-winter-court-season/ ) and frankly you should aim for a storyline tournament for your first major tournament.
Checklist:
-once you have the details set and before publishing the tournament, send AEG an email (or our good friend Nicola Bongiu). Discuss your aims, the possibility of a storyline, and see how they can help with prize support.
-Wait for a response, and see where the conversation takes you.
6. Spirit of the tournament:
All great tournaments have something of their TOs and their player bases in them (I firmly believe in L5R metaphysics, especially as analyzed over huge amounts of food and alcohol after/during tournaments). When planning for your tournament, you should think about the "feel" you want it to have. What do I mean? Well for instance, the Ruby Championship is about L5R excellence. Mouzaka is about using L5R as an excuse to have a roaringly good time and having fun. Spanish tournaments are about manlove (you know it Pablo). And the list goes on. Different people like different things in L5R. You should think about what you and your playerbase likes in L5R and try your tournament to reflect that. If you remain true to your vision of L5R, your tournament will be the better for it.
7. Promotion, promotion, promotion:
The goal of your first major tournament should be to introduce your player base to the wonders of large tournament play. This means taking them out of their shell, and having them play with people from outside your player base. That means, that your goal should be to have an X amount of players from outside your group. What is X? Well that depends on how many you think you can get away with. This is where the social aspect of TOing comes in. You need to mercilessly target people and persuade them that coming to your tournament will be fun and good. You should have aimed and gotten a storyline tournament (which always attracts players), you should state that this is the first major tournament (people who play L5R are suckers for finding excuses to travel to new places and playing L5R) and plaster the internetz with details about your tournament. Additionally, if you have gotten to the point of thinking of such a major tournament, ideally you will also have travelled to other places to play L5R. This means that (given that you are not a raving psychopath or at least that you do not practice it in front of other L5R players), you will know players who will be interested in attending your tournament (target the poor TOs in other regions- generally they love getting away and actually playing the game instead of getting lorded over by players :)). Also, flyers or posters could get attention for your event.
Finally, remember the internetz is your friend. If you can make a site for your tournament, it would be good. If this is too much hassle, you can settle for a facebook group on it, posting it on the aeg forums (there is a section for events) and generally plastering it in forums.
Personally, I would suggest personally pestering people via email or phones (every extra player who comes to your first event counts).
Checklist:
- (optional): attend other L5R events in other regions, meet players, insidiously suggest that sooner or later they should come over to one of the events you will be hosting
-(optional): make a tournament poster
-Post in the alderac forums in the event forum.
-Post anywhere in the internet you can think of relating to L5R.
8. Prize Support:
There are numerous approaches to prize support both in terms of the cards given out as prizes, as well as for the top spots.
I would strongly suggest a more egalitarian approach to distributing boosters (ofc some people disagree). In addition to the promos and whatever else you give upon registration or the first round, I would strongly suggest that you not then give all your swag to the top 4 or top 8, but rather further distribute a chunk of it to the players still there at the end of the last round. There is a number of reasons why this is better rather than throwing all the prizes at the top players. First of all, in general and with few exceptions, those ending up in the top places in tournaments, tend to be more heavily invested in the game, which means that they tend to actually have the rares required to play it. Thus, they are in it to win it, and the fact that they came in first is by itself the most powerful incentive (that is not to say however that you should not think ahead for something special for them- see below). Secondly, by rewarding those players that stuck it until the end of the swiss, you are providing an incentive for people who would have dropped (which might effect tie breakers- and also it is my belief that in your role as a guide to your playgroup you should make them see that even 'casual' play in tournaments allows them to hone their L5R skills, something which is often lost as a point to those dropping in tournaments). On the other hand, you should have a special prize for the winners, a memento which will allow for feel good memories in the future. I would shy away from katanas, because frankly after a while and if you attend and place decently in tournaments (or so I have heard :)) you tend to have more Japanese cutlery than you know what to do with. Cups, trophies medals, scrolls and whatever you can think of and is catchy can be had at very affordable prices and are easily accessible via the internet or even in your local environment. Also, if you have the time and effort to put into it, you can come up with inexpensive brickbracks for all those attending. In the Europeans, we had small ancient Greek tourist keep sakes (okay I know they are generally cheesy but we did try to find some tasteful ones) to give to participants, which were dirt cheap.Again, I urge you to plan ahead and think outside the box -you will be surprised at what you can come up with. Also, I would strongly urge you to have top of Clans prizes, even if it is something small. Personally, I believe that L5R tournaments should (and do) leave you with a nice buzz when facing real life afterwards, and it is your duty as a TO to try and spread this to as many people as possible.
Checklist:
-How much prize support do I have?
- How much will I be giving away simply for attendance and how much will be left?
-How will I distribute the rest between attendees at the end of Swiss, top of whatever?
-Can I arrange something for top of Clan?
-What will my prizes for first/second/third/whatever place be?
9. The final touches
You have things well in hand. Now, you should run things in your mind, to see if you have a clear picture of what will occur in the tournament. Do you know what software you will be using? Have the people which will be operating used it before? Do you have enough computers, a backup etc? How many rounds will you be doing? Will there be a food break? Could you possibly arrange for the venue for food (in hotels for example)? Can you have deliveries made? Cut to top 16/8 whatever? Will you be having side events? When? What type? Note that an excel with times could help you see what is run where pretty easily. For instance:
Passive or active judging? 5 min warnings? 40 or 45 min rounds? Best of 3? Etc etc
When all is said and done, you know what is occurring what (even us Greek TOs who are know for reveling in chaos, generally have a pretty firm grasp of what will be occurring when and how, if just to know what we are currently doing in another fashion than the one planned:)).
10. Gempukku ceremony:
We all have our per psychosis/projects/obsessions whatever. Well this is mine. Remember I talked about the L5R tournament feel good vibe? There is a possible exception. As you well know, L5R has a STEEP learning curve. Your first experiences in L5R (unless you are a wunderkid or something), especially your first tournament, are the equivalent of a curb stomp (what is that you say, you have never played against LSC before? etc). Getting thoroughly stomped for a whole day tends to put a damper on the whole feel good vibe. So how to go about making the experience a bit more enjoyable?
Well, at registrations, or at the first round, make an announcement and ask about players who have started playing L5R in the last year (or six months depending on how frequently you hold tournaments). If you get any takers, call them up to the TO booth, announce their names and their Clans, give them a little something (even if it is just a booster, a rare or whatever) and have the tournament give them a round of applause. This accomplishes two things: a)it makes them feel good (obvious) b) it actually shows more experienced players who is new to the game which will generally make them behave a bit nicer to them, enhancing their experience in the tournament (not so obvious).
I would strongly urge you to do this in your tournaments. New L5R players are a good things to have, and I firmly believe that helping them get into the spirit of things is possibly one of the most important things for a TO to do.
Well folks, I am sure that there are tons of more advice I could be giving, and I am sure that if you have comments that they will show the things I forgot to mention, but I think that this is a good place to start.
Comments and suggestions, as usual,
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