Fatmanonice
Banned via Warnings
How To Make and Run a Good Online Tournament
Written by Fatmanonice
Written by Fatmanonice
A Foreword by Stephen King
It was forty years ago when I first read this and, to this day, it deeply inspires me. I have never read anything like this where the author’s passion of the subject is apparent on every line. In comparison, everything I have ever written looks like crap and, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of this manuscript, I not only burned all my original pieces but my house as well with my wife inside. I am unworthy and I fully understood this for the first time when I met Fatmanonice for the first time in 1977. His mere presence inspired awe but mostly mind warping horror which inspired me to write novels ranging in subjects from evil clowns to killer Saint Bernards. I hope this piece inspires you as much as it did me and now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish off a bottle of Jack Daniels in order to quiet those terrifying memories from all those years ago.
Still waking up in the middle of the night screaming and crying;
Stephen King
So… you want to create your own online tournament, eh?
You’ve come to the right place then. In this thread, I will talk about to both make and run a good and successful online tournament. The requirements for creating a good tournament are simple enough:
1. Choose a Theme
This is simple enough even if it’s a standard tournament with no added gimmicks. There are some pratfalls you’ll want to avoid though:
a) Avoid making the theme too complicated and if it is complicated, be sure to provide explanations. Also be ready to answer any questions that people may have. Questions that go unanswered for long periods of time just lead to frustrated people.
b) Avoid anything too obscure especially if it’s your first tournament. From what I’ve noticed, tournaments that involve a ton of character restrictions, final smashes, items, etc are usually not very popular and are usually ignored unless they are made very small.
c) Only do a prize if you’re comfortable doing so. Wii points are the easiest things to do and don’t cost that much. Be sure the prize matches the size of the tournament if you want to attract attention.
2. Set Up Basic Rules
This should go without saying but it’s nice to have a basic outline of what will be allowed. Here is a basic list of things you should include:
a) Number of stock
b) Time limit (if any). The standard is 8 minutes if included.
c) Items if any.
d) How many wins a person must get per set in order to advance.
e) Legal stages)
The standard neutrals are:
1. Battlefield
2. Yoshi’s Island (Brawl)
3. Final Destination
4. Smashville
5. Lylat Cruise.
From there, it’s basically counterpicks which you can decide for yourself but, as a rule of thumb, a majority of online tournaments don’t allow for mostly obvious reasons:
1. Rumble Falls
2.Mushroomy Kingdom
3. 75m
4. Hanebow
5. Bridge of Eldin
6. New Pork City
7. Mario Bros
8. the Summit
9. Big Blue
10. Shadow Moses
11. Spear Pillar
12. Wario Ware
13. Flatzone 2
14. Custom Stages
Stages that are usually not allowed but some people do for special occasins are:
1. Onett
2. Mario Circuit
3. Skyworld
4. Pictochat
5. Port City Aero Dive
If you do allow any of the banned stages, be sure to include a “play at your own risk warning” as to avoid complaints and make sure both players agree on it.
f) Techniques, strategies, etc that are banned for the tournament if any. For example, some tournaments don’t allow infinites or grab releases. Metaknight’s Infinite Demensional Cape is banned across the board so it’s usually a good idea to not allow it as well. A rule of thumb of competitive gaming is “play to win” even if means playing outlandishly gay to get the upper hand within legal limits but you can make adjustments to this if you want. Some people won’t attend tournaments if too much is limited so keep this in mind. Also, be very careful of character bans. As of now, the only character who is argueably bannable is Metaknight so don't discriminate against characters simply because you don't like them.
g) Rules about who chooses the stages. The standard is that the loser chooses the next stage while the first stage is usually played on a neutral stage agreed on by both players.
3. Set Up Things That Help You Stay Organized
If you’re going to be running a tournament, you’ll need some things to help you stay on top of things:
a) A schedule. Provide the days and hours at which the tournament will take place. If possible, provide a time table to show the times in different regions or at least a link to one. I’ve come to notice that the most successful tournaments are done within a day or two. Be very careful about trying to create tournaments that are to last more than a week because people who are not regulars will usually lose interest. Ideally, you should give one week’s notice before a 16 man tournament and two for a 32 man tournament. From there it’s up to you but I’m the only person who has run multiple successful 64 tournaments and they are pretty hard to organize except during the summer, “holiday” break (for you political correctness Nazis), and at the beginning of school semesters until about the second month of classes.
b) A signup roster. Have people leave their name and you can choose other sign up requirements like friend code, selected characters (based on your rules), banned stages (mostly done in offline tournaments), etc. Also be sure to mention in the title of your thread how many people you want in your tournament and keep it updated to show how spots are left.
c) Brackets. These don’t need to be made right away but should be posted as soon as you can. There are a lot of free bracket makers online so be sure to google them if you don’t feel comfortable making your own. The smallest bracket sizes are usually four people while the largest are 16. Be sure to set up different divisions if you get more than 16 people.
d) Provide a chatroom for your players to easily communicate with their opponents and you during the competition.
e) Provide updates when you decide to change things. Be sure to include them in different colors and provide a date by them so they catch the reader’s eye. If the update is really important, increase the size of the text, use colors, and consider using bold or italics.
Update 12/3: I ate a sandwich and it was very tasty.
Okay, so now you know the basics of setting up a tournament but you still feel like a failure at life, right? Well, you should; all of us tournament directors have come to peace with it a long time ago. Anyways, here are some general things for successfully running a tournament. I will be outlandishly sacrerelgious and call them the “Ten Commandments.”
The Ten Commandments of Online Tournament Directing
1. Remember Your Own Tournament
This may seem like stupid advice but it’s downright hilarious how many people I have seen who have flat out forgotten that they have made a tournament after being gone for only two or three days. Also, you’ll definitely want to show up the day of your tournament. If you can’t make it, simply re-schedule. If you’ll be late, make a note of it and try to find someone reliable who will watch things over while you’re out. As a courtesty, don’t try to be gone longer than a round.
2. Become Familiar With Your Players
Play against them, know who they main, and don’t be afraid to give advice or even receive it. Really, this board is filled with a lot of great and dedicated members of the Smash community . There are also a lot of jackoffs too but God help me if they’re still not enjoyable to be around. Forming strong bonds with your players will usually result in regulars.
3. Don’t Be a Douchebag.
Be fair and don’t be biased towards certain players especially if they use certain characters. If a problem arises, try to judge fairly and to the best of your abilities. Forgive people if they don’t show up, don’t black list people if they use certain characters like Metaknight, and don’t piss and moan if you lose. Also, keep in mind that you don't have to tolerate other people who are being douchebags. If someone's being excessively arrogant or whining like a chiququa shot in the face, kick them out if they're really starting to get on your nerves and everyone else's. Despite this, don't abuse your director powers.
4. Send Reminders Before Your Tournaments.
Obviously, the number one reason people don’t show up for tournaments is simply because they forgot. My rule of thumb is usually to send reminders a week in advance.
5. Don’t Attend Your Own Tournaments if Your Connection Sucks or if You’re Not Comfortable Doing it.
You don’t want to hold things up so if you think you’ll just end up slowing things down, don’t participate as a courtesy to the other players.
6.Encourage Your Players to Send PM’s to You if You’re Not Online and They Have a Question.
Going through all the posts of a thread sucks so just have people send things to you unless you plan to be on frequently (meaning at least four hours on average a day).
7. Keep to the Schedule and Make Sure to Show Up Early.
If you can’t, like I said earlier, make a note of it so that it’s obvious to all the combatants.
8. Deal With No-Shows Accordingly and Fairly.
Don’t send them hate mail or pee on their bed sheets, that’s just rude. If someone doesn’t show up, simply disqualify them and advance the people who are actually there. If both opponents don’t show up, flip a coin to decide who advances if you decide not to use on-the-spot replacements (which is pretty hard if you’re not too well known). Sometimes people end up having last minute plans so don’t hold them that accountable for it especially if it’s something like their power going out or their internet connection suddenly going to crap.
9. Encourage Your Players to Become Familiar With Each Other.
This is a community so treat it as such. It’s great practice and chances are your combatants will be butting skulls multiple times in the future especially if they attend more than one of your tournaments.
10. PROVIDE PLENTY OF NOTICE IF YOU DECIDE TO CANCEL YOUR TOURNAMENT OR CHANGE THE PRIZE (IF YOU PROVIDE ONE).
Few things piss people off more than these two things so be careful about it. Also, don't just abandon your tournaments ESPECIALLY if they have already started. This is one of the big reasons why making a schedule and trying your best to stick to it is important. IF YOU HAVE TO SHUT DOWN YOUR TOURNAMENT, FIRST CHECK TO SEE IF ANYONE WILL BE WILLING TO TAKE OVER IT FOR YOU ESPECIALLY IF A PRIZE IS INVOLVED. IF NO ONE CAN, SEE IF THE PARTICPANTS CAN MANAGE IT THEMSELVES IF THERE IS ENOUGH PEOPLE. IF NO ONE CAN OR IF THE NUMBER OF ACTIVE PLAYERS HAS SEVEREALLY DROPPED, THEN CLOSE YOUR TOURNAMENT WITH A NOTICE BOTH IN THE HEADING AND THE FIRST POST. YES, CAPSLOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL!
Just for the heck of it, I’ll add some extra things you can do. The more important things are in larger text so be sure to pay close attention to them.
11. Check to see how many tournaments are currently in progress. Be aware that you're not the only person out there who is trying to have a tournament. Ideally, there shouldn't be more than 4 tournaments in a single weekend. This is also why it's a good idea for you to plan your tournaments at least a week in advance.
18. Make an effort to use good sentence structure and grammar. Posts that are hard to read turn away potential players especially if your opening post consists of a single paragraph with laughably bad spelling.
224. FAQs are great if you don’t want people to ask the same questions over and over again.
387. Be aware of your schedule beforehand. If you think you’re going to be busy on the weekend, reschedule the tournament for a different weekend.
666. Ideally for tournament directors, you should be on par in skill with your high ranking players but, if you’re not, don’t worry about it but focus on eventually reaching that point. With this being said, you should try to be decently knowledgable about the game if not only a single character.
853. Make sure you have a plan B if your internet connection goes down like a library or a friend you can depend on.
747. (I went backwards? How on Earth? Madness!). Encourage people to invite their friends, relatives, siblings, pets, pizza delivery guys, personal assassins, etc to attend in order to quickly fill up your brackets.
1000. If the load is too much or simply want to share the experience, don’t be afraid to get a co-host.
OVER 9000!!!!!!. Chances are your first tournament will suck and you’ll usually not get too many people and/or a lot of people won’t show up. It happens so don’t let it bother you too much.
Some Retardedly Big Number. Lag is one of the pains of online play but you should keep in mind that competitive play is still fully possible with it. When problems arise with lag, deal with them accordingly. If you're the one dealing with mind numbing lag, just drop out; you've got nothing to lose anyways. From what I've noticed, most people have decent connections where problems will be minor so unless the lag is completely God awful, insist that your players stay the course unless one of them would prefer to drop.
If you were one of the people who was too freakin’ lazy (and fat) to read the whole thing, here’s an adbridged version… just kidding but, seriously, if you’re serious about doing online tournaments, you should read through this even if it takes 2 or 3 sittings. (This is only a little more than 2000 words, you can do it.) Still, thank you for reading this and best of luck creating your own fantastical online tournaments in the future.
Dictated, Not Read
-Fatmanonice
Very good read! 
I've noticed that this usually happens a lot for tournaments that try to go really out there with their themes.
