The tabletop tournament scene is growing more popular every day. So what does it take to run a good tournament, and should the organizers make profit?
Let’s talk about what it takes to run a good tournament. Should your focus be on making money? Or should it be more about getting people more involved in the local gaming scene?
For a lot of FLGS tournaments are a great way to get people more involved in the local tabletop gaming scene, as well as drawing new people into it. But the prize support seems to be different everywhere you go.
There’s no set rule, or guideline, on how prize support should work. This can become frustrating for a lot of players, especially if they know that ten people each paid $10 in entry fees, but the event is only giving out a small fraction of that in prize support. I’ve been to plenty of tournaments, both at the local and national levels, and I’ve seen it all too many times.
How fair is it that there’s $100 in entry fees, but only $60 in prize support? Tournaments should be focused on growing the community, attracting new players, and giving back to the players that support your store or event. If you have $100 in entry fees why not give back the equivalent, or close to, worth of product (spolier alert: you’re still making margins on the product itself)
Ultimately events create a reason for people to come back and spend more money. After all, if you get new models what else are you going to need? More paint, bases, brushes, basing materials, and more models to go with them if it’s a new army for you.
An easy prize structure to follow is the 4,3,2,1 rule. First place gets 40% of the entry fees worth of store credit or product, second gets 30%, third gets 20%, and fourth gets 10%. You can even change it up so that you only give prizes to the top 3, then give out the 30% prize support to the best painted army for games like Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar. While you’re at it, why not let the players themselves have a choice? Awarding the player’s choice is a great way for the players in the tournament to show support the person they feel deserves some recognition, even if they didn’t win a single game!
This can be something as little as a small award for them to take home so they didn’t leave empty handed.
Now, I completely understand that not every tournament is going to have paint requirements, and there’s a lot of new people getting their feet wet with the tournament scene since the release of Warhammer 40k 8th edition who may not have fully painted armies yet. I’m not saying make it a requirement, but reward the people that took the time to show up with fully painted armies.
Spectators are potentially new players! That’s where I had my first run in with Warhammer 40k. I was at my FLGS and the entire back gaming room was filled with people playing with little plastic miniatures. There was a best painted award for this tournament, and it was obvious some of these people had spent a lot of time on their models. I was completely amazed by some of the armies I got to see that day, and it’s ultimately what drew me into Warhammer and Age of Sigmar.
Tournaments are all about creating a buzz!
If you’ve ever had a chance to attend a national level tournament you see all sorts of different prize support. The most common being boxes of minis, gift certificates, and trophies. I’ve covered some national level tournaments that have awarded a couple hundred dollars worth of minis to first place, then I’ve also seen some only award a $50 Tactical Squad for winners of a whole bracket…. $50 Tactical Squad? Are you serious?!
People want to play these games! Otherwise, they wouldn’t be in the stores looking for new games to play and invest their money in. What better way to draw someone in than seeing a room full of people playing in a tournament, having a great time. Fair prize support is going to keep those players coming back and playing in these events regularly. Are people really going to want to keep playing in tournaments if they feel the store isn’t giving back, and they’re just out to make a quick buck?
You can set up a revolving schedule of one to two tournaments a month. One month could be Warhammer 40k, the next month could be Age of Sigmar, then splash in some Star Wars X-Wing and Armada in between.
It’s all about growing your local community and making it fun for everyone. Talk to your FLGS about running more tournaments, and maybe provide some ideas as to how to fairly handle prize support while you’re at it. Some of these store owners are great, their heart is in the right place, they just aren’t familiar with organizing a tournament as they are too busy running their stores.
So is your FLGS doing it wrong, or right?
