Episode 20 - Tournament checklist

We run our series on tournament management into the ground end our series on tournament management with a checklist. Cruz was out of electricity and was unable to join the other three peanut farmers, but don't hold that against him. He was willing to stand out on Manhattan's 14th Street with a kite and a key and an extension cord into his apartment, but we begged him not to do it because, well, there wasn't any lightening. That didn't stop him, though.

(Jeesh. This blog is beginning to sound like so many other things I write...)

The link is here.

And here's the checklist:

Get teams registered. We recommend a service like Joy of Tournaments or tabroom.com.

Get rooms from your facilities people. You need rooms for rounds, tab, meals, judges. Make sure there's a place for everyone to congregate. Keep tab close to the ballot table. If necessary, assign a room (key) person, and whatever you do, maintain great relations with your custodial staff. (Bribes won't necessarily be a bad idea.)

Get judges: Hire 5 or 10 totally neutral extras for each division, depending on the size of the fields. Do NOT assume that arithmetic will somehow allow you to sell judges to fulfill hire requests if you haven't specifically hired judges to file those requests. And your judges filling hired requests DO NOT count as extras.

Get tabbers: Don't do it yourself, even if you do it for everyone else. Get someone experienced with the software.

Set up housing. If you're housing people, get a person assigned to this at the earliest opportunity.

Prepare your supplies: computers with the correct printer drivers, printers, extra printer cartridges, four times as much paper as you think you need, tape, scissors

Set up judge lounge. This should be a comfortable spot with lots of good eats and drinks.

Set up meals. You're feeding hundreds of people. Or more to the point, you're assigning someone else to manage the feeding of hundreds of people.

Set up concessions. You can make money selling water. Don't get carried away: kids don't need an assortment. They mostly just want water and a few assorted snacks. Chips aren't a bad idea, btw.

Get finalized data as accurately as possible to tab from registration. A big problem at many tournaments is that table changes inevitably don’t get through to tab. If you're a tournament director, you should probably run registration yourself. It isn't fun, but it's the best way to insure the fewest problems.

Put a process in place for starting and stopping rounds and collecting ballots. You've got to keep your tournament moving. Develop a system proportional to the scope of your event.

(And after you've run it, watch this video; NSFW for vulgar subtitles.)

Episode 19 - Questions from the floor

Continuing our series on tournament management, the Three Bean Salads, with the addition of an extra Bean, answer all the questions that are asked of a tab room during a tournament, and put a few urban forensic legends to rest along the way. Final score: TVFT 3, Dumb Questions 5 — they'll win every time, damn the little buggers! Get the episode here.

By the way, Mr. Palmer will be joining us in the future as a semi-regular. This will keep him out of mischief on Wednesday nights, if nothing else. If you wish to join the show, let us know what you want to talk about, when you can do it, and don't forget to avail yourself of a decent microphone, so you don't sound like Halefoil Cumcut with a head cold.

Episode 18 - Tournament Management Pt 2

Harpo, Chico and Groucho add Zeppo (aka Chris Palmer, the dean of the northeast college circuit) this week to further discuss tournament management. If you only listen to one podcast in the next five minutes, this should be one of them.

Episode 17 - Tournament management

The Three Little Pigs take on running tournaments. Want to do it yourself? Are you that crazy? Get tips from the experts in this episode.

(If you're counting, episode 16 doesn't exist, except for the phantom episode of Not 16. And our special guest this week is not Chris Palmer. What else is not true? Don't ask.)