There are a couple of other good tournament guides on here already, but hopefully in this one I have tapped into the tournament knowledge that is around in 2013! The points are in approximate chronological order.
- Decide if you want to run it solo or have help, if the latter see if anyone local to you wants to help organise it.
- Decide if you want to do a one- or two-day tournament, and when you want to run it. Depending on where in the world you are, the tournament calendar will be more or less congested, and your choice of date will affect attendance. As will other non-BB events such as games conventions.
- Find/book a venue, decide on cost, will you include refreshments etc? Do a proper analysis of costs and see how many players you would need to break even, and see if this is practical.
- Decide on a rules pack (team value, skills, special rules, scoring, rankings for the draw, prizes) and write them down, in a pack including contact details, payment details (paypal is good), directions etc. How many games will there be on each day? What will the timings be? Will you have a quirk to your tournament, such as making it progression or having strange in-game effects?
- Get NAF sanctioning
- Publicise widely (NAF, TFF, Cyanide, BB Tactics, local forums, Facebook, Twitter), and be prepared to answer questions.
- Sort out trophies.
- Download Score and do a trial run of the tournament with the scoring you want.
- If it’s a 2-day tournament, will you have Saturday evening entertainment organised? Not essential, but again it’s the highlight of some tournaments for some people.
- You will need an even number of players for a successful tournament – will you be the spare player to make an even number, or will you have someone else on standby?
- Decide on logistics for the day. Will people pre-register their teams? How will you let people know who they are playing against in each round? Most tournaments have a printer, others call out, others have projectors. Have back up plans for as many eventualities as you can, and lots of pens!
- RUN THE TOURNAMENT.
- Get the results uploaded to the rankings.
- Post the final standings wherever you publicised the event, along with any good photos and some sort of tournament write-up. Most tournaments take place each year, and post-tournament attention can be a good draw for people coming back.
- Have a breather…