So You Want to Run a Tournament
This thread is a primer for all of you who are thinking about running a tournament but don’t know where to start. I’m trying to walk a fine line between giving you enough information on the one hand, and giving you too much so you’re intimidated or too bored to read it all on the other hand. Try to bear with me.
Here it is in a few easy steps. Remember, as you’re reading, the number one overriding goal is to have people attend. That is more important than *anything* else.
1. Identify your location: Normally it will be a FLGS (friendly local game store). Many of these have a few tables available for Magic (or whatever) tournaments or some other type of gaming space. If your favorite FLGS does not have much space, or is not conveniently located for other attendees, look around on the internet and see if you can find a different shop. I know the first shop I identified as a good site for tournaments was, without me ever running an event there, soon replaced with a *much* better one, at a great location and with a much better atmosphere. Some shops want you to pay for the use of their space; this is the kind of thing you'll have to weigh into the calculations later. You shouldn't have to lose money to run a 'Scape tournament.
So look around, find a good shop.
If you really and truly have no available FLGS, you may also find space at a public library. I’ve attended one of those, it works. They often have some space. You might have to pay some small amount of money for it; if so, pay for it out of tournament fees.
Get a rough idea of when the shop might be available for your tournament.
2. Put up a thread here in the ‘Scapers Events subforum announcing you intend to have a tournament, and roughly when you intend to have it.
A few words about announcing your event:
2.a. Remember you are reaching out to people beyond those who you already know. I still, after several years of running tournaments near Annapolis, Maryland, have people posting in my event threads that they will come and this will be their first tournament ever.
In order to attract those people, take care to *sell* your event in your thread. Make it sound like it will be fun because it *will* be fun. Make it sound like there will be a good group of people because, if your group is like my group, there *will* be a good group of people there. Remember you are not just writing for your buddies and the guys you’ve already met, but you’re writing for the lurkers who are thinking about it.
The following are things you can pick without consulting with your attendees in the Heroscapers thread, or you can seek their input. Pick some things yourself; seek input on others:
2.b. Now is the time to pick a date. You may wish to consult with your fellow attendees, or if your schedule or the shop’s schedule are rigid you may prefer to have the date already selected. I think Saturday afternoons tend to get more people than Sunday afternoons. Make sure you know what time the shop can let you start and what time the shop needs you to finish.
2.c. Now is also the time to pick a format. Again, you may wish to consult with your fellow attendees, but you also may choose just to pick one. There are roughly 1,000,000 formats. I discourage a novice TD from doing anything too far out of the ordinary.
Most tournaments need about an hour a round. Leave about 30 - 45 minutes for clean up and prizes after the last round, and leave about 45 minutes for setup at the beginning.
2.d. Tournament fees: I do five dollars for each person. Every penny goes to buy gift certificates in some suitable denominations for the prizes for the tournament. Some people do prize tables, but unless you really have some way to get stuff to fill them, I recommend collecting $5 from everybody and getting gift certificates. Collect more if you need it to cover the overhead for using the space.
2.e. C3V/SoV: This is a tricky decision. I allow them at my tournaments, because some of my attendees, including myself, think they’re pretty awesome and they are a healthy expansion of the competitive metagame. There is absolutely a danger that they will turn some people off, though. The wide selection of units added to the canon through the C3V and the SoV have been heavily tested and will not hurt the metagame. There's a link in my signature box, below, to the threads.
I will add as an additional consideration that if you, personally, are not roughly familiar with these units you should consider not allowing them at a tournament. If one of your attendees can answer questions, though, then maybe go for it! Remember, when making this decision, Rule 1: Get people to show up. In my experience, allowing C3V & SoV draws more people than it turns away.
2.f. Maps: Choose good maps. This is important. Playing on maps that aren’t competitively balanced is the single most frustrating thing for me at tournaments. Look at the organizations currently (or recently) approving competitive maps, look at maps that have been used in tournaments before with positive feedback. Look at maps from the masters of competitive mapbuilding. I know it sounds terrible to say because there are so many fine mapmakers with fine maps on this site, but keep your standards high. Remember the good ones and reuse them sometimes.
Get people to bring maps. People won’t want to volunteer right away, but hopefully near your tournament date enough people will volunteer to have enough for your event.
2.g. Remember, we’re still talking about your announcement here on ‘Scapers. Tell people what they need to know about parking and food.
2.h. Pairings and determining a winner:
(1). The traditional method of pairings at Heroscape tournaments is the “Swiss System.” In the Swiss System, take the 16 attendees and pair them against each other in Round 1. In Round 2, take the 8 winners, who are all 1-0, and pit them against each other, and the losers play each other as well. After Round 2, the players will be either 2-0, 1-1, or 0-2. Group them accordingly. There will be a shrinking group of players who are unbeaten; they will be 3-0, then 4-0, at which point (in a 16 player tournament) they will be playing each other for the only 5-0 record and the tournament win.
You will have players tied 4-1 and 3-2 and so on. Traditionally these players are ranked by “partial card scoring,” which is to say the amount of damage they inflicted. If I kill all of your Krav Maga Agents I get 100 points; if I kill 2 of them but 1 survives I get 66. If I kill Kaemon Awa (4 life, 120 points) I get 120 points; if I put 1 wound on him I get 30 points. Add it all up at the end. “Full card” scoring works the same but without any points for wounding things.
There are minor variations. For games that get called on time I have a rule that the winner gets the full value of the loser’s army, even if he or she still has a few units hanging around; otherwise I’m punishing the winner because they ran out of time. Other TD’s give only partial card scoring for winner and loser in the event of a game running out of time.
The tiebreaks at my tournaments are a bit more complicated but I like them more. See the appendix for further thoughts on tiebreaks in my tournaments.
2.h.(2). This post would not be complete without a reference to the “Rolling Rumble” format. That involves games without structured rounds, so people just play whoever is available.
I’ve never run or attended one of these events, I don’t think they’d serve my local group well for various reasons, but they may work for you. I leave it to one of the advocates for that system to post a link & explanation.
3. The event itself:
3.a. Bring maps already constructed, if you can. *Especially* if you’re the tournament director, it is a pain to construct them as you’re preparing to begin the event.
3.b. Have a kldonnelly. At my events, kldonnelly helps with the paperwork. I would be lost without her.
If someone understands how to do pairings and can help, count yourself lucky and say thank you.
3.c. Check in with the shop periodically before the event. That’s important because they need to know how many people to expect. Also, at least once and possibly several times they will not have you on their calendar, and you will have to remind them. Also, if you are clancampbell, they might close without telling you, and you will have to find out at the last minute and move your event to the library. Stay on top of them.
3.d. Have fun. Even if you are by nature a fiery competitive type, set the tone for your event by being relaxed and having a good time.
3.e. Use name tags. You can find them at any office supply store and many drugstores. They make the whole thing more social.
3.f. After our events, I go through the whole list of finishers from the bottom to the top, saying a word or two about everyone, so everybody can get a little round of applause.
Acknowledgements and disclaimer:
I do not claim to be a great tournament director. To the extent that I’m decent, it’s only because clancampbell set a good example for me. Mostly I claim to be an experienced tournament director who took a few minutes to write this down. I encourage others to supplement as necessary, below. Many thanks to kldonnelly, and shaugville before her, for all their help over the years at my occasional events in Savage. Also many thanks to The Family Game Store, in Savage, Maryland, which I highly recommend to any board gamer, Heroscaping or not. Many thanks to all my tournament attendees, ever, for being awesome, and also do drewcula, for tricking me into TD'ing the first time and being my co-TD at it.
This thread is a primer for all of you who are thinking about running a tournament but don’t know where to start. I’m trying to walk a fine line between giving you enough information on the one hand, and giving you too much so you’re intimidated or too bored to read it all on the other hand. Try to bear with me.
Here it is in a few easy steps. Remember, as you’re reading, the number one overriding goal is to have people attend. That is more important than *anything* else.
1. Identify your location: Normally it will be a FLGS (friendly local game store). Many of these have a few tables available for Magic (or whatever) tournaments or some other type of gaming space. If your favorite FLGS does not have much space, or is not conveniently located for other attendees, look around on the internet and see if you can find a different shop. I know the first shop I identified as a good site for tournaments was, without me ever running an event there, soon replaced with a *much* better one, at a great location and with a much better atmosphere. Some shops want you to pay for the use of their space; this is the kind of thing you'll have to weigh into the calculations later. You shouldn't have to lose money to run a 'Scape tournament.
So look around, find a good shop.
If you really and truly have no available FLGS, you may also find space at a public library. I’ve attended one of those, it works. They often have some space. You might have to pay some small amount of money for it; if so, pay for it out of tournament fees.
Get a rough idea of when the shop might be available for your tournament.
2. Put up a thread here in the ‘Scapers Events subforum announcing you intend to have a tournament, and roughly when you intend to have it.
A few words about announcing your event:
2.a. Remember you are reaching out to people beyond those who you already know. I still, after several years of running tournaments near Annapolis, Maryland, have people posting in my event threads that they will come and this will be their first tournament ever.
In order to attract those people, take care to *sell* your event in your thread. Make it sound like it will be fun because it *will* be fun. Make it sound like there will be a good group of people because, if your group is like my group, there *will* be a good group of people there. Remember you are not just writing for your buddies and the guys you’ve already met, but you’re writing for the lurkers who are thinking about it.
The following are things you can pick without consulting with your attendees in the Heroscapers thread, or you can seek their input. Pick some things yourself; seek input on others:
2.b. Now is the time to pick a date. You may wish to consult with your fellow attendees, or if your schedule or the shop’s schedule are rigid you may prefer to have the date already selected. I think Saturday afternoons tend to get more people than Sunday afternoons. Make sure you know what time the shop can let you start and what time the shop needs you to finish.
2.c. Now is also the time to pick a format. Again, you may wish to consult with your fellow attendees, but you also may choose just to pick one. There are roughly 1,000,000 formats. I discourage a novice TD from doing anything too far out of the ordinary.
Most tournaments need about an hour a round. Leave about 30 - 45 minutes for clean up and prizes after the last round, and leave about 45 minutes for setup at the beginning.
2.d. Tournament fees: I do five dollars for each person. Every penny goes to buy gift certificates in some suitable denominations for the prizes for the tournament. Some people do prize tables, but unless you really have some way to get stuff to fill them, I recommend collecting $5 from everybody and getting gift certificates. Collect more if you need it to cover the overhead for using the space.
2.e. C3V/SoV: This is a tricky decision. I allow them at my tournaments, because some of my attendees, including myself, think they’re pretty awesome and they are a healthy expansion of the competitive metagame. There is absolutely a danger that they will turn some people off, though. The wide selection of units added to the canon through the C3V and the SoV have been heavily tested and will not hurt the metagame. There's a link in my signature box, below, to the threads.
I will add as an additional consideration that if you, personally, are not roughly familiar with these units you should consider not allowing them at a tournament. If one of your attendees can answer questions, though, then maybe go for it! Remember, when making this decision, Rule 1: Get people to show up. In my experience, allowing C3V & SoV draws more people than it turns away.
2.f. Maps: Choose good maps. This is important. Playing on maps that aren’t competitively balanced is the single most frustrating thing for me at tournaments. Look at the organizations currently (or recently) approving competitive maps, look at maps that have been used in tournaments before with positive feedback. Look at maps from the masters of competitive mapbuilding. I know it sounds terrible to say because there are so many fine mapmakers with fine maps on this site, but keep your standards high. Remember the good ones and reuse them sometimes.
Get people to bring maps. People won’t want to volunteer right away, but hopefully near your tournament date enough people will volunteer to have enough for your event.
2.g. Remember, we’re still talking about your announcement here on ‘Scapers. Tell people what they need to know about parking and food.
2.h. Pairings and determining a winner:
(1). The traditional method of pairings at Heroscape tournaments is the “Swiss System.” In the Swiss System, take the 16 attendees and pair them against each other in Round 1. In Round 2, take the 8 winners, who are all 1-0, and pit them against each other, and the losers play each other as well. After Round 2, the players will be either 2-0, 1-1, or 0-2. Group them accordingly. There will be a shrinking group of players who are unbeaten; they will be 3-0, then 4-0, at which point (in a 16 player tournament) they will be playing each other for the only 5-0 record and the tournament win.
You will have players tied 4-1 and 3-2 and so on. Traditionally these players are ranked by “partial card scoring,” which is to say the amount of damage they inflicted. If I kill all of your Krav Maga Agents I get 100 points; if I kill 2 of them but 1 survives I get 66. If I kill Kaemon Awa (4 life, 120 points) I get 120 points; if I put 1 wound on him I get 30 points. Add it all up at the end. “Full card” scoring works the same but without any points for wounding things.
There are minor variations. For games that get called on time I have a rule that the winner gets the full value of the loser’s army, even if he or she still has a few units hanging around; otherwise I’m punishing the winner because they ran out of time. Other TD’s give only partial card scoring for winner and loser in the event of a game running out of time.
The tiebreaks at my tournaments are a bit more complicated but I like them more. See the appendix for further thoughts on tiebreaks in my tournaments.
2.h.(2). This post would not be complete without a reference to the “Rolling Rumble” format. That involves games without structured rounds, so people just play whoever is available.
I’ve never run or attended one of these events, I don’t think they’d serve my local group well for various reasons, but they may work for you. I leave it to one of the advocates for that system to post a link & explanation.
3. The event itself:
3.a. Bring maps already constructed, if you can. *Especially* if you’re the tournament director, it is a pain to construct them as you’re preparing to begin the event.
3.b. Have a kldonnelly. At my events, kldonnelly helps with the paperwork. I would be lost without her.
If someone understands how to do pairings and can help, count yourself lucky and say thank you.
3.c. Check in with the shop periodically before the event. That’s important because they need to know how many people to expect. Also, at least once and possibly several times they will not have you on their calendar, and you will have to remind them. Also, if you are clancampbell, they might close without telling you, and you will have to find out at the last minute and move your event to the library. Stay on top of them.
3.d. Have fun. Even if you are by nature a fiery competitive type, set the tone for your event by being relaxed and having a good time.
3.e. Use name tags. You can find them at any office supply store and many drugstores. They make the whole thing more social.
3.f. After our events, I go through the whole list of finishers from the bottom to the top, saying a word or two about everyone, so everybody can get a little round of applause.
Acknowledgements and disclaimer:
I do not claim to be a great tournament director. To the extent that I’m decent, it’s only because clancampbell set a good example for me. Mostly I claim to be an experienced tournament director who took a few minutes to write this down. I encourage others to supplement as necessary, below. Many thanks to kldonnelly, and shaugville before her, for all their help over the years at my occasional events in Savage. Also many thanks to The Family Game Store, in Savage, Maryland, which I highly recommend to any board gamer, Heroscaping or not. Many thanks to all my tournament attendees, ever, for being awesome, and also do drewcula, for tricking me into TD'ing the first time and being my co-TD at it.
Last edited:
... Joseph Sweeney! 
