How to run a cup > warsownews.net - your #1 news page for war§ow news, articles, guides, cups and files

Current Articles | Categories | Search | Syndication

How to run a cup
on Monday, August 27, 2007 :: by soh-lokirulez @ 1:06 PM
5416 Views :: 5 Comments ::

This guide is about running a competition. The basics of planning a cup, announcing it and running it.

You want to run a competition. That's cool. But consider some things first: a cup is a lot of work. You need a page or cup script, you need time to write rules and news, ask players/teams to sign up, think about the mappool, choose a tourney system and gametype (!) and be online in irc when the matches are played and players/teams dunno how to tie their shoes (find a server), give server details to coverage, collect demos, write news after the cup.

Planning

First you should ask yourself some questions:

What gametype should be played (duel, tdm (2v2/4v4), clanarena, ctf, race)?
When should the cup happen (date and time, duration)?
How many players/teams could sign up (4-32)?
Groupstage? Single-Eliniation? Double-Elimination? A mix of those?
Which maps in mappool?
How to let people know?
Who can help me with the cup?
How to present the cup? Coverage questions

Let's say you chose a duel competition with 8-16 players played on a single evening on Sunday, 16th of September. You decided to use the CDC3 mappool (wdm2, wdm3, wdm5, wdm6, wdm11, wdm14 and wtest15) and a Single-Elimination with best-of-three. Since you hope for 16 players you can calculate the time you need only for matches. You have 16 players SE that means you have 4 rounds (1st round, quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals). A match can last 20 or 30 minutes but you add 5 minutes to every possible map because players need time to find each other, get on server, short breaks, map picking process, timeouts etc. 45 minutes for each bo3. The cup will last at least 4x45 minutes = 180 minutes. We add another 20-30 minutes for generating brackets and breaks between matches for demo/screenshot uploading, getting coverage partners on server. A total of 200-210 minutes aka 3,5 hours.

Your cup should have a short check-in phase 20-30 minutes before first round in your irc channel. People confirm their spot showing their online status. So give a 5 minute warning before the first round starts. You need to gather demos and write news after the cup. This can take another 20-30 minutes. 4-4,5 hours for one cup. Have fun!

Cup page

Now we planned the event we gotta set up a bracket system. There are two good ones the market, both free, that are used a lot. These are putty bracket system by putty and phpTourney by A. Beisler. I'd say putty bracket system is your first choice. It's easy to set up and use. You need a web package (server would be even better) with FTP/ssh access, php and mysql db. I won't explain how to install putty bracket system or phpTourney here. Both ship with a readme. Upload and install the bracket system, login with admin access and set up mappool, Single-Elimination, best-of-three, 16 players and open signups. Let some guys signup and run a test. Edit and delete matches to learn the cup script. Write a news.

Announcing your cup

This is a part a lot of people do wrong. You can spam the irc with "my 1v1 cup on sunday, signup on http://xyz.com" but that wouldn't work best. You need to give people details about the cup and ofc a reason why they should play. Players are interested in following details: Date, time, duration, mappool, international/non-international cup, tourney mode, signup list and prizes.

So you first write a announcement that could look like this:

We are proud to announce the "xyz 1v1 cup" on [Date:time] where people from [international/non-international] will meet in a [Slots] [Tourney mode] cup. The mappool contains all maps that are played on the CDC3 LAN competition in Enschede. (If you can offer prizes that would be the place to name your sponsor and ofc the prize itself.)

Date: Sun, 16th of Sep
Time: 18:00 CET (check-in 30 mins earlier)
Gametype: duel
Tourney mode: 16 players, Single-Elimination, bo3
Mappool: wdm2, wdm3, wdm5, wdm6, wdm11, wdm14, wtest15
Coverage: #mychannel
Cup page and signup: http://www.yourpagehere.com

Players from all over Europe have already signed up:
[List of players you asked before you made the announcement and that have already signed up.]

We use a check-in system so please be available on #mychannel 10-15 minutes before 18:00 CET. [Coverage partner xyz will be covering the event. Tune in on http://coveragepartner.com.] Good luck and have fun!

Now you spread the word on various warsow forums: warsow.net, warsow-arena.de (german), warsownews.net. Post news on warsownews.net, bolted.nu and maybe ESReality.com or ask other people to do so for you . Read the comments carefully (ignore the trolls) and see if the mappool fits most players needs and how the signups go. Create a meaninful topic in your #channel like "xyz Warsow 1v1 duel cup on [Date:time] - Signups open: [www.yourpagehere.com] - Want to cover the event? Want to help out? Query [yourircname]!" . Then spread the word in IRC, too. Don't spam too often and don't repeat all 30 minutes when the cup is one week away. Have your stuff ready before 18.00 CET because most users are online in the evenings and check news sites and irc then.

Getting coverage

Next questions on your list: Who can help me with the cup? How to present the cup?

Talk to active and interested people in the Warsow universe and ask for their help in the cup. Various tasks: get demos from servers and players, take screenshots, write match reports, spectate matches and enter results, etc.

Coverage partners
You can host your own irc livebot and that's a good start. But you might want more: There are audio and video casters that can shoutcast your matches. Talk to A_Spec of quadV.com and masta of own3d.at for technical help. If you have a very good signup list you can even talk to GIGA eSports and GameSports. They have both audio and video.

After the cup

The cup went fine and everybody is happy. Your work isn't over yet. You need to grab demos from the finals (at least, better have semi-finals and other exciting games, too) and upload them somewhere. Warsow related demo hosters: Challenge-TV.com, warsownews.net. You can zip and send them to me via sendspace.com so I can put them in the warsownews.net file repository. If you ran a series of cups you could even get sub-directories and your own access.

After collecting and uploading the demos you need to write a conclusion news. That's like a winner ceremony. Talk about the winner, the grand finals, how the cup went, where people find demos/screenshots/shoutcast and if there will be another cup and when. Update the forum posts you made and tell who won and provide a link to your conclusion news. Read comments carefully to get feedback. Plan the next cup. :)

Comments