My days as a tournament organizer were amazing when I was running the “Campbell” series tournaments in NorCal. Over the course of the two years, I saw the series go from 14 entrants to 70 entrants at Campbell X (this was large in 2011/12, I swear!). With other obligations and goals taking higher precedence, I haven’t organized a tournament in a while, but I still contribute in whatever ways I can. It’s easy to take all the credit, but these tournaments wouldn’t have been as successful had it not been for my peers who were more than willing to lend hand to ensure that the whole process goes smoothly. Many players used to approach me asking how they could help, so I figure writing in this blog would be a good idea.

Here are some great ways you can help:

Promotion/Bringing People in.

1. Telling your friends who play Smash to come.
– Even though we use Smashboards, Facebook, and Reddit as forms of communication, there are many potential players that still don’t know where to find these tournaments. One big way to help is to let your local community, school, dorm room, etc… know about what tournaments are coming up. Refer them to a Smashboards forum thread or link them to a Facebook events page and give them the information they need (Where, when, etc…) so that they can plan to come

2. Create “Hype” Videos
– Back in 2009, Brandon, “HomeMadeWaffles” Collier would create videos to advertise upcoming tournaments. These short 1-2 minute videos did actually bring quite a few players into the tournament scene. Although this may take some work, you never know who this may reach out to.

3. Carpools
– Lots of people still need rides in local areas. If you are driving an empty car or need a ride, it’s always smart to post in your local facebook group that you can provide rides for people nearby. This saves on gas money, so it is a win-win for everyone.

Logistics

Pre-Tournament
1. Create the Event Page or Smashboards Event
– Although I think every tournament organizer should do this already, sometimes tournaments aren’t documented on smashboards or on facebook. This can be mildly annoying to do for every tournament, but is always necessary. See if the TO needs help doing this
2. Help Setup
– Lend a helping hand to the people that need to bring CRTs/game systems or who are moving furniture around the room (chairs/tables)

During the Tournament

1. Being on time
– With multi-game tournaments and larger turnouts, it’s becoming much more difficult to finish a tournament on time. Although the Smash community tends to be overly generous and inclusive, creating unnecessary delays causes instances such as Bar Wars 2 to happen in which the Top 5 wasn’t played out for Melee Singles. This is a lose-lose situation for everyone

2. Letting the TO know where you are
– This sounds silly, but there are many instances in which players will leave the venue to get food without letting the organizer know. As a simple request to help everyone, let the TO know if it’s an appropriate time to get food before leaving the venue. This saves everyone headaches

3. Report matches immediately
– This lets the TO know that there are open setups to call more matches and advance the bracket quickly

4. Not playing friendlies when bracket matches need to be played
– This is common courtesy, but if a tournament is running, the priority should always go to finishing the tournament.

5. Help run pools/brackets
– This is one of the biggest ways you can help a tournament finish on time. Local tournaments can always use people that are “pool” captains and ensure that all the set-ups are used for tournaments in the most efficient manner as possible. During bracket, finding players to play their matches on open setups can help a TO significantly.

6. Stream/Record
– Tournaments can always use more recording setups. Even bringing a laptop with a capture device can capture a larger portion of matches that aren’t on the main stream. Eclipsing Binary from NorCal is amazing with his handy cam to make sure he can record amazing matches

7. Stream Match Runner
– Sometimes streams can have down-time. A person that can mindfully keep track of the schedule and put matches on stream queue can help prevent this and make sure that high profile matches are always on stream

8. Cleaning up trash
– If you see trash or have a soda/to-go box, be mindful and throw it away even if it isn’t yours. The truth of the matter is Smashers are really filthy in terms of cleanliness. TOS often have to clean up bags of leftover trash after every tournament.

9. Talk to the New Players
– It’s a difficult experience for many to leave their comfort zones to go to a new environment. Even simple small talk goes a long way in retaining new players and making sure they have a pleasant experience.

Post Tournament
1. Results threads

– Sometimes it can be stressful to put result threads up immediately. A great help to a TO would be to help create the results thread if the TO is busy with logistics and closing down the tournament
2. Youtube Videos/Post-Editing

– This is a commonly underappreciated job. It’s time consuming to splice videos down to portions and then upload them to youtube. Splitting the job among multiple people and uploading to the same channel could alleviate some of these burdens
3. Thank the TO

– As a former TO, the ratio of criticism to praise was rather high. If the TO did a great job, let them know. It helps their morale and attitude to keep running tournaments. If there were things that needed improvement, let them know in a gentle manner with constructive criticism. Often times, it can be really stressful to have people nitpick at some minor things when 95% of the tournament went smoothly.

MIOM|Tafokints