My First Year as a TO
LINK to the Google Doc (It’s a little easier to read)
1) Try New Stuff. Innovate from the default.
This year has made many people in many industries audit their norms. Coming from outside the FGC, I challenged a ton of norms -- by accident more than anything. Our first tournament didn’t have cash prizes. We ran it Round Robin. We brought in pizza and coffee. We hosted post tourney drinks.
A year later, I hear from a lot of the guys that those things defined a lot of our vibe from the start. It made us unique but also endeared us to a lot of folks who still hang with us.
If you have a wild idea for format, don’t be afraid. Try something different because:
2) Worst case, we play the game. So just play the game.
No matter what happens, I always told Kiks, one of my admins, -- worst case, we just hang out and play games. If that’s not enough for you, honestly, you might be in the wrong business.
3) Something will go weird. Not wrong, just weird. Be prepared to handle the weird.
Our first event, I had two guys pay and then no-show. They didn’t need refunds or anything; they just never showed up and said keep the money. Our fourth tournament we expected 12 guys for Street Fighter and got 25 instead. Our fifth tournament, the venue was being renovated and “wouldn’t be available until two hours after our scheduled time.” Right before our 6th tournament -- well. Covid.
I don’t consider most of these “bad” (COVID being the major exception). Doubling your entry? That’s amazing! At the same time -- these things can, do, and will happen. You have to be confident that when they happen you’re the person for the job. You have it in you to make the call, so make the call (something I still struggle to do sometimes).
That said, contingency plans don’t hurt.
4) People don’t play the game for the game. They play for the people.
Don’t be misled. People, myself included, will say all sorts of things to act like community and warmth and friendship and general anime/pokemon/disney goodness don’t matter to them playing fighting games. But it does, and unless you’re a top contender, this is why people come back. Many people have told us the appeal of getting to hang out afterwards at a bar (pre covid) or feeling like family when they got in.
Build a tiny but big fighting game family. Ultimately, that’s why people come back. Help people connect with others. We’re the FG ---> C, after all.
5) Burnout is real, and honestly, it usually happens because of money.
When I ran League tournaments, before I did FG’s, I burned out REAL quick. The buy in for players was high at $25 per player. The prizing was accordingly high at triple the buy in. That said, I felt a lot of players walked away without money or even having made friends/met people (see above). I usually incurred a loss after gifting money to casters & others who helped. I was left with a hefty venue bill. Additionally, it took me long hours to prep for the event AND run it during the day.
Needless to say, by the end, I was pretty spent. I stopped doing them because it was hard work which I didn’t mind, but it cost me hundreds of dollars to put them on. I was burning out, so I stopped. Ultimately neither the community fell apart as a result because no one ran League tournaments.
With non-prizing locals --- not only did we break even on the venue -- we felt like we had the money to go bigger the next time. We could buy equipment like better monitors and better recording gear. We could buy more food & snacks. We could look into bigger venues. We weren’t pocketing the money -- we were putting it back into the community. We just wanted the event to grow and to create an even better experience for the community. And feeling like we could do that without bankrupting our personal accounts felt really good.
I’m not saying all locals should be non-cash-prizing. I think there’s a huge place for both in the scene. But what I am saying is that -- if the community, NOT YOU, but your community, doesn’t get the benefit of the investment, you as the organizer could burn out, and the community will ultimately be the ones to suffer for your disappearance when you no longer have the time/money to do this.
6) Say Thank You.
No one had to come to your local. They could’ve spent the weekend running ranked online, eating pizza, drinking beer, while watching Crunchyroll repeats in the background. But they didn’t. They spent not only money, but their afternoon/evening/weekend to be here -- the spent their time. A resource you don’t get back. Honor their time, and players will honor yours.
7) Players will treat you the way you ask to be treated. You, as the TO set the culture.
This is super Oprah -- but you give permission for people to treat you a certain way as a TO. From the moment people register to the moment they leave, you are giving them information about you and your standards.
Be a dictator, and they will rebel. Be a competitive dick, and they will do the same to others. Be a coward, and someone else will have to rise as the leader. Be kind though, and they’ll know that’s the standard. Help others, and they’ll know that’s the mandate. And if they don’t like that, or think you’re cheesy or soft, or want to bully others, then they won’t come back. It’s not their vibe. Good riddance. We don’t need any more bullies in the FGC as we can see from the last year’s wild events. Let them dig their own graves with the others who abused their power by accidentally creating hostile environments.
8) Referrals are the best compliment and the best social media.
Collisions doesn’t formally have social media accounts for a number of reasons. In my personal opinion, social media can be a pretty harmful thing. Let me list just some of the things social media can do:
It can escalate anxiety.
It leads to a lot of wasted time.
It reduces focus and attention to detail.
It creates unrealistic expectations on myself and others.
Time spent talking to no one on social is time that could’ve been spent creating or talking to someone in the community.
I will be criticized forever for this because one day, I bet we’ll have to have one. But ultimately the goal of social media is to invest in people. Social media is for referrals, but people are the ones who ultimately give me that, not their social media accounts.
I know that things are going well when other guys invite people to come with them or to be a part of the group. Likes and RT’s alone don’t get people through the door to grow your local -- people do.
That said, before you invest in your social media accounts, invest in your people -- because ultimately that’s what social media is for.
TL;DR I’m not saying don’t use social media. But what I am saying is, real use of social media is investment of time and resources directed towards a specific goal. Before you start using social media because “we gotta have a social media account” — ask yourself if that’s really the most effective use of your resources towards that specific goal.
9) Numeric growth is overrated. Player growth is underrated.
In just a year, I’ve seen locals ebb and flow. I watched a local run a tournament of 55 people only to never run again. I watched locals proudly tout their large event, and then watched as that local didn’t see those people come back. I also watched a relatively obscure local consistently pull 30+ people per tournament. With a little bit of vision, and a little bit of time, that local could grow into something really great. (that’s not my local by the way, that one is the mighty Dallas Distortion run by the incredible Betadood and his brother Strawberry).
In a time when video games are on the rise, it’s easy to get in on this like gold rushes and dot com bubbles and tech start ups. But it’s those who play the long game who succeed. Grow your community. Grow friendships and players. Don’t seek to grow numbers. Those eventually come with time.
10) One day you’ll be dead, and no one will care about any of this.
STOP IF YOU’RE NOT READY TO HEAR ANIME CHEESE.
Something is wrong with me because I think about this non stop. Maybe once a day BARE MINIMUM. But I imagine: one day, I’ll be old and withered. Everyone I know will be gone, and I’ll have only my memories, if that. The same goes for the people who come to this local.
I hope when that day comes I will think of many things before my last leap into the beyond. Research tells us that people will think of their relationships and good memories. And so I hope I think of my partner. I hope I think of our family. I hope I think of the dogs and cats we cared for. But I know I will think of this local. I will think of what we did in the middle of COVID. I will think of how we grew a local together. I will think of the nights getting drinks and the ridiculous sets. I will think of that time when repairs were being made to the venue we needed immediately. I will think of the random Soul Calibur house party. I will think of the ridiculous coffee grinding in a motel as people play SF. And I will carry that with me to whatever is next.Communities are groups of relationships. And relationships are doing life with people. Games are just really good at facilitating that.
Tl;dr -- Ultimately, I do this so that I have something to think about when I die. Cool.
I hope this helps gives some insight into our local and gives you inspiration and ideas for your own. As much flack as it’s gotten in the last year, I feel that the “FGC” as we know it, is still so young and has so much potential to do so many interesting things as a lot of us as players enter adulthood. As for being a TO, I’ve still got a lot I’m learning, but it was a really cool year in the FGC and I’m CRAZY thankful for all the folks who have shared the honor of riding this out with me. I’m looking forward to the next.