It was a great tournament.
I loved the finals and all should be applauded
LatinPecWarrior (deleted member)
2021-03-18 16:58
Unfortunately, real life priorities takes precedence over cyber fighting and this was the case on my part. Trust me, I would have loved to been able to continue cause I would've kicked everyone's ass (including SuperBoy) but I had to bail after the first round.
Price (deleted member)
2021-03-17 16:50
Great follow up and great organization.
The comments and observations are insightful.
I enjoyed it.
The only thing I might add or suggestion is to potentially define the types of matches. This tournament definitely leaned toward pro. The majority of matches and wrestlers preferred pro style matches. I didn’t see much submission style. I know as the organizer you don’t have control over what style people would do but maybe in the future as we do more of these, we segment the tournament by fight styles. There could be a pro. A submission. NHB and even dice match tournaments.
Great job though and good luck to both finalists. You earned your spots!
The Chatfighter's Cruiserweight Tournament has been my first venture out into tournament organizing. When we officially launched back on New Year's Day I was so incredibly nervous! Would I be able to get the 64 people I was hoping to get? Would I be able to get a sufficient number of Alternates for the holes i knew would pop up during the event? Would there be a lot of backstage fighting about results? Would there be any interest in the event at all as it went along? I felt pretty confident in my abilities but I was worried that my first tournament would be a failure. However, I feel like this event has gone off more smoothly and easily than I could have ever dared to hope. In my opinion i believe it has been a thorough success, much as the first tournament here was. While a lot of people will credit me with hosting a successful event I do not really deserve full credit for this event's success. Tech and the CF Admins put in A LOT of work and A LOT of time behind the scenes. Planning for this began way back in September of 2020. I cannot tell you how much credit Tech and the Admin team deserve for this. Without them there's no way this would have ever happened! The true stars and heroes of this tournament though have been the participants, AND THE ALTERNATES, who put on a fantastic show and were, mostly, able to handle victory with humility and defeat with grace. This event's success is their success first and foremost and they deserve all the credit for making it happen! As a first time event organizer I did learn several things that I think would be helpful for future organizers to know. The things I learned hosting this event are:
1. A week is more than sufficient time to allow for initial sign ups. During sign ups though i should have stated that only the first 64 applicants would make the bracket with those coming later signed up as Alternates. I meant to to do this but somehow overlooked it. Oops!
2. Regrettably, inter-gender match ups just don't seem to work. Future organizers should probably resign themselves to having single gender tournaments.
3. Taking time zones into account seems to work and seems to help enable participants to actually meet their deadlines. We had an OUTSTANDING 84% completion rate in the opening round, 56% completion rate in Round 2, 50% completion in Round 3, 75% completion in Round 4. Future organizers should consider retaining this method of organizing their bracket/groups as best they're able as it enabled at least half of the matches in every round to be completed. with an overall completion rate of 73% (including the yet to be done Championship match which WILL BE completed)! This method of matching folks up is a bit more time consuming on the front end. But it WORKS!
4. Having Alternates is essential. Hopefully several from each timezone represented in the Tournament. These folks will prove invaluable in plugging holes that occur when people inevitably withdraw/dropout/never show up. Make sure you have as many alternates as possible. They'll make operations easier. I hoped to get 20 and when i got a few more than that i thought it might be to much. I ended up contacting nearly all of them.
5. People will sign up who really don't have the time to do it. Don't ask me why. Have a plan for dealing with this. I was making mine up on the fly because I hadn't anticipated this. This was also a cause for many of the TKOs that occurred. If people let the organizer know in advance "hey, i'm really only available on the weekends/during the day/during the week/etc." it MIGHT help avoid those issues as people with similar limitations can be paired together. Obviously moving into later rounds it could become problematic but if an organizer is willing to deal with that issue then participants being up front about their availability can be helpful. I think ideally though people who have limitations on their time should think about if they really have the time to dedicate to these types of events because it does create issues when folks hit their limit on participating. If you can't make time for every round you really shouldn't participate as you end up taking a spot that someone else with more flexibility could've been able to fill.
6. I'm not sure what happened in Round 3 but there were A LOT of TKO's in that round from people just not responding. Half of those matches resulted in TKOs. I found that disheartening and pretty annoying honestly. I'm not sure what more, if anything, could've been done to get those matches completed. Though perhaps it was the result of the issue described above.
7. On the subject of TKO's as an Organizer I did find it frustrating to be reliant on Tech and the Admin team to make TKO advancements. I know the site and the Tournament structure are always "works in progress," and one of the things that would be very helpful in a future update would be the ability for organizers to make TKO advancements. I know heading into Round 4 i think it was we were waiting a week or so for those TKO adjustments to be made. Giving the organizer the ability to make those advancements would certainly help avoid those types of delays in future events.
8. Speaking of organizer's tools that would make things easier. Future tournaments should have a way for an organizer to write 1 message and blast it out to all of the participants. While I did eventually find a way to do this easier and faster as we went along, at the beginning it was certainly very tedious and time consuming to send 80+ messages rather than being able to write everything up 1 time and hit "send."
9. Speaking of messaging issues, I know at the very beginning there was confusion about the auto-blast message that went out to all of the participants. I was unaware that would be sent out as it was one of the things got overlooked in my discussions with the Admins. I know there are A LOT of things to keep track of in the beginning and as discussions between the Admins and the organizer proceed in the months (yes MONTHS) leading up to a Tournament launch. Perhaps having a "Tournament Launch Checklist" might help avoid that issue in future events?
10. I also noticed that the "community involvement" aspect seemed to be lacking in this event compared to others. Perhaps that was just my feeling. I know I made regular updates to the Rumble & Roar newsletter regarding Tournament Award nominations as we went along but I never noticed those seeming to gain much traction or response. In fact, most guys i mentioned them to seemed to not even know the string existed! Given that, I don't know if future organizers will have better success in engaging the site community or if there was a way we could have made the Rumble & Roar and Fan Commentary strings more accessible and visible? I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on this as i think seeing people interact with the field and match results as they come in can be really interesting and help build the excitement of the tournament.
11. The most important part of being an Organizer in these events is communication. Following up. "Herding cats." Be sure you're communicating with your participants at the beginning of the event, setting expectations and laying out clear rules and timelines so nobody's confused as to what their deadlines are or what's expected of them. You should expect that nobody will read the timelines or your rules so be ready to answer questions about them anyway. Follow up at the beginning of rounds, reminding participants of deadlines, explaining any snafus or glitches along the way (they will happen, don't panic just deal with it), and finally ideally you should be checking in at least once during a round. I did this when we were getting close to a round ending just to remind folks of the upcoming deadline. Ideally you check in with messages and also with DMs when you see them on. If folks know you're following up they're much more likely to be active participants.
12. On that note, you have to be present. Cyber Tournaments are marathons, not sprints. They take WEEKS not days. If you're really only around intermittently or you rarely check your messages, then organizing isn't for you. You need to be around as much as possible (especially in the early rounds) to answer questions and help troubleshoot. You can't follow up or facilitate communication if you aren't present. If you're not engaged you can't expect your participants to be engaged.
13. You also can't be biased. You can't play favorites and you can't treat your friends or people you may not completely like any differently than anybody else. If you're not willing to potentially lose a friend or two because you enforced your event's rules, then this role isn't for you. You have to be willing and able to remove yourself from your relationships with the participants and be willing to enforce your rules objectively and evenly. This may sometimes mean ruling against a friend or in favor of a participant you think isn't as good as some of the others.
I'm also very interested in everybody else's thoughts, ESPECIALLY IF YOU PARTICIPATED. What did you think went well? What could be improved? Was there anything you didn't like structurally? I appreciate everybody's input on this event and look forward to hosting again in the future! Thanks again everybody, well done!
GREGORY PAYNE (deleted member)
2021-03-19 08:11It was a great tournament.
I loved the finals and all should be applauded
LatinPecWarrior (deleted member)
2021-03-18 16:58Unfortunately, real life priorities takes precedence over cyber fighting and this was the case on my part. Trust me, I would have loved to been able to continue cause I would've kicked everyone's ass (including SuperBoy) but I had to bail after the first round.
Price (deleted member)
2021-03-17 16:50Great follow up and great organization.
The comments and observations are insightful.
I enjoyed it.
The only thing I might add or suggestion is to potentially define the types of matches. This tournament definitely leaned toward pro. The majority of matches and wrestlers preferred pro style matches. I didn’t see much submission style. I know as the organizer you don’t have control over what style people would do but maybe in the future as we do more of these, we segment the tournament by fight styles. There could be a pro. A submission. NHB and even dice match tournaments.
Great job though and good luck to both finalists. You earned your spots!
Starfox
2021-03-16 18:47The Chatfighter's Cruiserweight Tournament has been my first venture out into tournament organizing. When we officially launched back on New Year's Day I was so incredibly nervous! Would I be able to get the 64 people I was hoping to get? Would I be able to get a sufficient number of Alternates for the holes i knew would pop up during the event? Would there be a lot of backstage fighting about results? Would there be any interest in the event at all as it went along? I felt pretty confident in my abilities but I was worried that my first tournament would be a failure. However, I feel like this event has gone off more smoothly and easily than I could have ever dared to hope. In my opinion i believe it has been a thorough success, much as the first tournament here was. While a lot of people will credit me with hosting a successful event I do not really deserve full credit for this event's success. Tech and the CF Admins put in A LOT of work and A LOT of time behind the scenes. Planning for this began way back in September of 2020. I cannot tell you how much credit Tech and the Admin team deserve for this. Without them there's no way this would have ever happened! The true stars and heroes of this tournament though have been the participants, AND THE ALTERNATES, who put on a fantastic show and were, mostly, able to handle victory with humility and defeat with grace. This event's success is their success first and foremost and they deserve all the credit for making it happen! As a first time event organizer I did learn several things that I think would be helpful for future organizers to know. The things I learned hosting this event are:
1. A week is more than sufficient time to allow for initial sign ups. During sign ups though i should have stated that only the first 64 applicants would make the bracket with those coming later signed up as Alternates. I meant to to do this but somehow overlooked it. Oops!
2. Regrettably, inter-gender match ups just don't seem to work. Future organizers should probably resign themselves to having single gender tournaments.
3. Taking time zones into account seems to work and seems to help enable participants to actually meet their deadlines. We had an OUTSTANDING 84% completion rate in the opening round, 56% completion rate in Round 2, 50% completion in Round 3, 75% completion in Round 4. Future organizers should consider retaining this method of organizing their bracket/groups as best they're able as it enabled at least half of the matches in every round to be completed. with an overall completion rate of 73% (including the yet to be done Championship match which WILL BE completed)! This method of matching folks up is a bit more time consuming on the front end. But it WORKS!
4. Having Alternates is essential. Hopefully several from each timezone represented in the Tournament. These folks will prove invaluable in plugging holes that occur when people inevitably withdraw/dropout/never show up. Make sure you have as many alternates as possible. They'll make operations easier. I hoped to get 20 and when i got a few more than that i thought it might be to much. I ended up contacting nearly all of them.
5. People will sign up who really don't have the time to do it. Don't ask me why. Have a plan for dealing with this. I was making mine up on the fly because I hadn't anticipated this. This was also a cause for many of the TKOs that occurred. If people let the organizer know in advance "hey, i'm really only available on the weekends/during the day/during the week/etc." it MIGHT help avoid those issues as people with similar limitations can be paired together. Obviously moving into later rounds it could become problematic but if an organizer is willing to deal with that issue then participants being up front about their availability can be helpful. I think ideally though people who have limitations on their time should think about if they really have the time to dedicate to these types of events because it does create issues when folks hit their limit on participating. If you can't make time for every round you really shouldn't participate as you end up taking a spot that someone else with more flexibility could've been able to fill.
6. I'm not sure what happened in Round 3 but there were A LOT of TKO's in that round from people just not responding. Half of those matches resulted in TKOs. I found that disheartening and pretty annoying honestly. I'm not sure what more, if anything, could've been done to get those matches completed. Though perhaps it was the result of the issue described above.
7. On the subject of TKO's as an Organizer I did find it frustrating to be reliant on Tech and the Admin team to make TKO advancements. I know the site and the Tournament structure are always "works in progress," and one of the things that would be very helpful in a future update would be the ability for organizers to make TKO advancements. I know heading into Round 4 i think it was we were waiting a week or so for those TKO adjustments to be made. Giving the organizer the ability to make those advancements would certainly help avoid those types of delays in future events.
8. Speaking of organizer's tools that would make things easier. Future tournaments should have a way for an organizer to write 1 message and blast it out to all of the participants. While I did eventually find a way to do this easier and faster as we went along, at the beginning it was certainly very tedious and time consuming to send 80+ messages rather than being able to write everything up 1 time and hit "send."
9. Speaking of messaging issues, I know at the very beginning there was confusion about the auto-blast message that went out to all of the participants. I was unaware that would be sent out as it was one of the things got overlooked in my discussions with the Admins. I know there are A LOT of things to keep track of in the beginning and as discussions between the Admins and the organizer proceed in the months (yes MONTHS) leading up to a Tournament launch. Perhaps having a "Tournament Launch Checklist" might help avoid that issue in future events?
10. I also noticed that the "community involvement" aspect seemed to be lacking in this event compared to others. Perhaps that was just my feeling. I know I made regular updates to the Rumble & Roar newsletter regarding Tournament Award nominations as we went along but I never noticed those seeming to gain much traction or response. In fact, most guys i mentioned them to seemed to not even know the string existed! Given that, I don't know if future organizers will have better success in engaging the site community or if there was a way we could have made the Rumble & Roar and Fan Commentary strings more accessible and visible? I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on this as i think seeing people interact with the field and match results as they come in can be really interesting and help build the excitement of the tournament.
11. The most important part of being an Organizer in these events is communication. Following up. "Herding cats." Be sure you're communicating with your participants at the beginning of the event, setting expectations and laying out clear rules and timelines so nobody's confused as to what their deadlines are or what's expected of them. You should expect that nobody will read the timelines or your rules so be ready to answer questions about them anyway. Follow up at the beginning of rounds, reminding participants of deadlines, explaining any snafus or glitches along the way (they will happen, don't panic just deal with it), and finally ideally you should be checking in at least once during a round. I did this when we were getting close to a round ending just to remind folks of the upcoming deadline. Ideally you check in with messages and also with DMs when you see them on. If folks know you're following up they're much more likely to be active participants.
12. On that note, you have to be present. Cyber Tournaments are marathons, not sprints. They take WEEKS not days. If you're really only around intermittently or you rarely check your messages, then organizing isn't for you. You need to be around as much as possible (especially in the early rounds) to answer questions and help troubleshoot. You can't follow up or facilitate communication if you aren't present. If you're not engaged you can't expect your participants to be engaged.
13. You also can't be biased. You can't play favorites and you can't treat your friends or people you may not completely like any differently than anybody else. If you're not willing to potentially lose a friend or two because you enforced your event's rules, then this role isn't for you. You have to be willing and able to remove yourself from your relationships with the participants and be willing to enforce your rules objectively and evenly. This may sometimes mean ruling against a friend or in favor of a participant you think isn't as good as some of the others.
I'm also very interested in everybody else's thoughts, ESPECIALLY IF YOU PARTICIPATED. What did you think went well? What could be improved? Was there anything you didn't like structurally? I appreciate everybody's input on this event and look forward to hosting again in the future! Thanks again everybody, well done!
Foxy