How to Host Your First Heroscape Tournament

[caps]

Rolling Rumble is great and works nicely with odd numbers and a whiteboard.

[Dad_Scaper]

Cap, could you dig out a link for him, please? I can't go digging at the moment.

[caps]

Rolling Rumble.

The idea is actually pretty simple, all the text is just Ollie going off on possible extra rules and conditions.

[elvenwizard9]

With eight attendees, (two who were supposed to come were no-shows, but God is good. Two who were unexpected showed up!) I feel comfortable saying that this tournament was a great success. I want to host another one... Looking at my calendar for June, July, and August. Early June seems like the best bet, and I don't know what I'm doing in July or August.

I only planned on having four rounds of the tourney, with the time allotment, but we got in a whopping five! Even with the imposed 50-minute time limit for each game, most games were finished before time was called, as our top two were extremely efficient at dispatching their opponents' armies. Also, one game went on for the whole time limit, but only 60 and 70 points worth of units died in each army! Hilarious.

I learned a lot and see the flaw of my modified rolling rumble system now, which is the reason I went 5-0 (with a VIPER army!) yet still placed third. However, I can't go into detail. I may get in a more comprehensive report of my tourney later today if I finish this job early... If not, I won't have time till next week. Anyway, I'm glad it was a success. Thanks for the help and encouragement, guys!

[Dad_Scaper]

Let this be a lesson for all the readers out there: It can be done, even when God's own agents on earth tell you to buzz off.

I've been waiting all day to hear from you, EW, I'm glad it went well.

[caps]

I look forward to hearing more about how the tourney went down. I'm really glad it was a success!

[Tornado]

Sounds great. Looking forward to he details.
Are you going to challenge MS for the title of Viper King?

[elvenwizard9]

At it again - any tips on advertising? I have some neat little fliers and I want them to get attention. Where should I put them?

[Dad_Scaper]

Hmm. You're looking for walk-up players? Are you at the library again? If you're looking for locals, you should start at the library itself. That's what I would do.

[elvenwizard9]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Hmm. You're looking for walk-up players? Are you at the library again? If you're looking for locals, you should start at the library itself. That's what I would do.

I did last time, too, and got one walk-up player (awww yeah!). I just wanna reach out to the community, ya know. I've been too busy to hit the library this week - didn't have the fliers till after I reserved the room and haven't been back since.

[Dad_Scaper]

Added a brief section to the second post explaining about the difference between doing what I'm discussing here and, as I see it, preparing to TD an online event instead. Hint: It's really different.

[Dad_Scaper]

Bumping this portion of the second post in the thread because of a conversation I was having in the wrong place with @kolakoski . Kol, who I think of as a friend of mine and I hope he thinks the same about me even though I haven't seen him in too long, is an advocate for "Delta" pricing. In Delta pricing, units have had their prices modified to balance them competitively. Major Q9 costs 210 (or whatever) instead of 180; Khosumet costs 45 (or whatever), and so on. It's a fine project & I applaud it. If I remember correctly, some time ago @CornPuff and others in the Pacific northwest ran an event with it, and I hope it was a big success.

I won't do it, though. I don't think I would *ever* run a Delta event. Do I think it's a bad format? No. But the people who attend my events are not students of the game. Most of them are not on this site at all, and of those who are, I'm the only regular who posts frequently. (Unless @Robber comes back? Magic 8 Ball says "Chances are slim."). If I ran an event in which every participant would be forced to recalculate the value of everything, I strongly suspect I would turn many people away. And that I will not do.

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

[R]emember, young padawan, Rule #1: The number one priority is get people in the seats. The goal is *not* to build the perfect tournament format and wait, like a burrowing spider, for your prey to come near your event so you can leap out into the hall, grab them, and pull them down into your hole so you can demonstrate the genius of your format/customs/whatever.

* * * * * *

When you are dealing with people face to face, think about who you want to attend. What their expectations are. Are you communicating with them effectively. I have a number of younger players in my local scene, and a number of players who are not on heroscapers.com or do not have large collections. I would not run a Take 2 event, because those players will likely feel intimidated as they prepare and exhausted by Round 3 on tournament day, from dealing with all the possibilities and extra brain power involved in that format. It doesn't work for my people, I wouldn't do it. Not because it's a bad format, but because I am in the service of my people. If your people are all heroscapers.com regulars, and that's what they want, go for it.

These things are terribly important, for the face to face competitive scene to remain viable. Make your events memorable, make them welcoming, and make them something people want to come back to again and again. It doesn't matter if you have implemented the perfect format, if you are scaring off the members of the congregation whom you most want to convert.

* * * * * *

Rule 1, and all that.

So. @Taeblewalker is making the trip down from NYC on 10/18/14; I hope @chas , @Sherman Davies , and/or kolakoski will be able to join him. But I won't be running a Delta event, because for me, for my peeps, it violates Rule #1.

In the past, others have suggested that my opinion that Delta (or whatever) wouldn't work for my group is wrong. I'm open to that argument! But I want to see you, dear reader, put your money where your mouth is. Demonstrate that it'll work by running the events, and I'll read about them, and then I'll decide for myself.