Featured tournament : IEM San Jose

The Intel Extreme Masters are back this week end, with two exciting tournaments we will follow and update Live !

image

The League Of Legends tournament is one of the first international event since October LCS World Championship Finals in Seoul.

Western top teams such as Cloud9, Solomid and Alliance will battle for the $50,000 cash prize.

Starcraft II will also be represented with $25,000 , with the whole Korean stars squad including ForGG (who just won Dreamhack Winter), Bomber, HerO, Polt and friends.

We will be following and updating each tournament results, schedules and stream links this week end, with our embedable widgets.

Happy cheering !

[Organizers] 10 ways to introduce Esport

Esport is a tale that needs to be told over and over again. The privilege of the early adopters, one might say.

image

But evangelism is a necessary step for all the non Esport savvy people coming to your events : parents, boy/girlfriend, passing by crowd and of course generalist medias… You name them.

As we’ve been through this “enlighten me” process countless of times – and will do it for a couple thousands more times – here are 10 ways we efficiently used to explain Esport with simple arguments, or just sparkle a light in our audience head.

1. Think of it like the new skateboard

image
Photo : Tony Hawk at X Games

Esports is already big from today’s perspective, but it’s still in infancy if we were to compare with what’s coming in the next 2 years. Think about skateboard, which started as an underground, underdog discipline, before going mainstream.

2. Also think about metaphores

image
Photo : Chess player Alexandra Botez

Event tho they don’t always nail it, metaphors bring a better, smoother understanding. Chess, archery, soccer, poker… Use familiar disciplines to explain yours. Just warn that Esport is never exactly the same.

3. Yes, there are physical prowesses

image
Photo : Starcraft II player Losira

Main critics towards Esports are that the progamers are not “real” athletes in their own right, as they don’t run and sweat. Prove them wrong, talking about A.P.M, Eye / hand coordination and reflexes. Don’t talk about Hearthstone.

4. It is the heir of the 3 largest popular cultures in decades

image
Photo : Riot LCS Finals 2014

Esports = Video Game + Internet + Sports = Here to stay and dominate. Enough said.

5. Talk money

image
Photo : Dota 2 International 4 growing cash prize

Because yes, money talks. People often hang on cold hard cash facts to give credit (no pun intended) to something new to them. The International 4 $10M cashprize, or NaDeShot $1M yearly revenues should do the math (pun intended).

6. There’s variety in the disciplines

image
Photo : Some of ESWC 2014 disciplines

Esport is not about a video game. It’s about a lot of different video games. The depth of Esport disciplines adds to its credibility (more people, more communities, mores styles), as there is a type of game for everyone.

7. You’re on familiar ground

image
Photo : Street Fighter signature move

Esport is a new field for the people you’re talking to, but video games aren’t. Chances are they have already played or seen Call Of Duty or Street Fighter once in their life.

8. Listen to the casters

image
Photo : Professional CS:GO casters

Esport is not only about the champions. The casters are the other stars, bringing insights, help and hype to any event. It’s one of the best way to enjoy Esports without…

9 …You don’t need to understand everything

image
Photo : ESWC crowd

… You to understand everything. Like any sport, Esport is also about the show. Sometimes, you enjoy a crazy move because the crowd is going nuts, or dead silent. Because the casters and the champions are throwing their headsets in the air. Because you’re feeling a chill even tho you don’t clearly understand what’s going on the screen.

10. Just come and watch

image
Photo : League Of Legends Copa Latino Americana

Esports are a very empirical thing. People can’t understand the hype, the excitement, the cheerings and the dramas until they’ve seen it in the flesh. No more talk : invite them to jump in !

Tournament formats : should we stick to the classic ones, or try the new ones ?

At Toornament.com, our team is hard working to offer our organizers community the best, most complete tool to design and manage tournaments.

Lately, we’ve been discussing about the tournament formats we could, or should support. Toornament.com already handle a wide array of simple or complex formats, but some are still even more specific, to be handled the easy way.

Outside of “groups-to-bracket” land, and other leagues, exist some tournaments with a twist, whether they use a unique structure, or mix in several of them. Here are the most notable cases :

The upcoming MLG Colombus Open – 25K Series works as following :

  1. The Tournament will support as many as 144 Teams with 16 Teams starting in Pool Play and 128 Teams starting in the Open Bracket.
  2. The tournament starts with the Open Bracket, pitting against each other 128 teams in a classic Best Of 3 Double Bracket fashion.
  3. The 4 remaining teams in the winner bracket enter the groupstage of the Championship, joining the seeded teams. The 4 teams in the loser bracket are place in the Championship double bracket, straight in the Loser bracket round 1.
  4. The groupstage results will place teams according to their final place : 1st and 2st go to the Winner’s Bracket quarter finals, while the 3rd, 4th and 5th will end in the Round 3, Round 2 and Round 1 of the Lover Bracket.
  5. From there on, the tournament follows a Best Of 5, Double Bracket Format.

image

Another (in)famous example would be The International 4, Valve’s very own Dota 2 tournament :

  1. Four regional qualifications were held. The winners go to the Playoff Phase 2. The seconds go to the Playoff Phase 1.
  2. The Playoffs start with 19 teams : 11 invited, the 4 regional qualifiers winners and the 4 regional qualifiers seconds.
  3. The Playoff Phase 1 pits the regional qualifier seconds against each other in a Single Bracket. The winner gets to go to Phase 2.
  4. The Playoff Phase 2 works like a championship, where all 16 teams play all each other. The leading teams get access to the Main Event Upper Bracket. 3rd to 10th goes into another Playoff. 11th to 16th are eliminated.
  5. Teams ranked from 3rd to 10th play in two brackets, where the lower seeded starts to play. The winner advances to the next match, against a higher seed and so on. The winner of each bracket gets to the Main Event Upper Bracket, 2nd and 3rd access to the Lower Bracket, when the last team is eliminated.
  6. (Fast ?) Forward to the Main Event, where the final 8 team fight there way from the Upper and Lower Bracket, in a double elimination fashion. Matches are Best of 3, Grand Final is Best of 5.

image

Complex, exotic format seen here can also be found in other major tourneys, like Dreamleague.

“Traditional” discipline also use sometimes out of the box formats, from NBA (conferences) to NFL (teams do not play the same amount of matches) to the Volley ball World Championship, which no less than 3 groupstage phases, to single bracket semi-finals.

Goals differs, from geographic or time constraints to the will to generate more matches, give more chances for an underdog to face a champion…

image

In our interview with Konstantin Schmidt, the Rush Esport Center founder saw in Esports an opportunity to experiment with new formats. Potential trade off would be to sacrifice efficiency to innovation.

Do you think Esport tournaments should comply to efficient and proven formulas, or take new approaches ? In the meantime, we’ll keep on offering more and more format, and can create custom ones, if you need them !

Toornament interviews, with Konstantin Schmidt : “Minor issues will always occure, you just have to be ready to resolve them quickly.”

We happy to start on our blog a serie of interviews focusing on Esport tournament organizer. Whether they run local, friendly tourneys, online leagues or big, pro events, organizers always have a great amount of experience and tips to share.

Let’s start today with Konstantin Schmidt, founder and owner of Rush, a new breed of E-sports place in Germany. He’ll share with us his views and advices on everything Esport organization. Let’s fire the questions !

image

Hello Konstantin, can you introduce yourself to our readers ?

My name is Konstantin Schmidt, I am 23 years old and the founder of Rush e-sports center. Rush e-sports center is the first of it’s kind in Germany aiming to make E-Sports available to a wider audience by hosting tournaments for everyone on a regular basis.

What are your favorite tournament formats and why ?

A group stage played in double-elimination followed with a double-elimination KO stage. Why? We have teams with far ranging skilllevels. We feel this gives less skilled teams a fair chance to go far within the tournament.

image

As a tournament organizer, what are the main challenges and issues you have to face ?

The organization is key, everything simply needs to be on point. A minor delay here and there can cause overall delays of an hour or two. Next to that all hardware needs to run smoothly, the servers need to be running on point.

image

What are your top priorities, motos and tips to built a top notch tournament ?

Set up your gameplan and make sure you can stick to it – this mainly involves the schedule, people hate waiting. At the same time you have to be flexible and prepared for most “hickups”. Minor issues will always occure, you just have to be ready to resolve them quickly. This may be tough for the first 2-3 tourneys, but you get the hang of it. If it is a LAN tourney, entertainment during the breaks is a big plus for most gamers.

image

New business models such as paid registration and crowdfunding may change the way you build tournaments in the near future. Are your embracing those new leads ?

Our whole business is based on paid registration, allthough we try to have tournaments funded by sponsors as much as possible and thus be able to host tournaments for free for our customers. Crowdfunding is something we are looking into at the moment, but have not yet actively persued.

image

We recently saw new tournament format, with complex structures. The International 4 may be the most (in)famous example of this trend. Do you think Esports should explore new formats, or comply to the existing ones, already tested and widely adopted ?

Esports is mainly followed by young people who, as gamers, must be quick to adapt. This combined with the fact that it is a very young sport makes esports probably the best place to try out new things. We ourselves have changed our formats several times over the past months because we just felt we found better alternatives.

Any finals words of wisdom, for the people about to organize their first tourneys ?

Do not underestimate the organization going into these things and give it your best effort. You may feel like it’s a bit too much at times, but once it’s all ongoing and you see how much people appreciate these tourneys, it will be all worth it. And thank you for supporting this great sport!

image

Thanks Konstantin !

If you want to know more about Rush Esport Center, go check their website and Twitter.

If you want to be featured in our Interview series and share your passion for Esport event organization, just contact us !

Introducing Toornament TV

After weeks of development and testing, we’re very proud to introduce Toornament TV!

Toornament TV was tailor made for offline tournaments involving multiple spots (gaming zone, stages…) and public audience.

Offline events involves a lot of stress on schedules and location, each multiplying the other. How to keep you players informed about their upcoming matches ? Your attending audience up to date with the tournaments advancement, the next big match on the big stage ? The answer : a lot of efforts, a lot of staff and a lot of stress. Our answer : Toornament TV.

Tournament TV is a smart, automated public display solution, designed with this key goals in mind :

  • Better understanding of the tournament(s) advancement
  • Dresses up your event with live content : photos, info strips, scores
  • Keeps the visitor informed, entertained and starving for more

How does Toornament TV works ? Well, it can’t get easier than this : the whole system is automated. We’ve designed a smart behaving, setting a wide and relevant set of rules, so that Toornament TV makes the right decisions and displays the right infos at the right time.
The added value is huge : for no extra time or no extra people in your team, your event gets much easier to understand and follow. And much prettier, too !

Here’s a typical use of Toornament TV :

You’re running a mid to large size LAN, with a main stage, a gaming zone and a partner zone
Each spot will attract your participants along with your audience
Main stage needs to show what are the next matches, Gaming Zone needs to show Tournaments advancement and your partners want well, to be visible on your events !
Each spot thus require a dedicated information desk, computer and admin to run it, plus 1-2 additionnal displays
Toornament TV can automatically handle all the informations / display tasks, freeing 3 additionnal admins on your team. Just start it from your Toornament admin options.

Toornament TV requirements are quite simple and straight forward :

– A PC with GPU dedicated per TV (one computer can run several displays with the same info)
– A modern web browser
– A Full HD (1920×1080) display
– A click in your Toornament page

Toornament TV embeds a live info strip, based on a Twitter feed and hashtag. Toornament TV is also customisable through its main elements :

  • Background picture
  • Main layout picture
  • Border color (CSS)
  • Text color

image

You can check it Live on this page and learn more by reading The Toornament TV User Guide (pdf).