Member Tournament Proposals [TCG]

[Water Pokémon Master]

Want to run a member tournament? We’re here to help you make that happen!

All member tournaments must be approved by the Activities staff in advance of the following month. You have until the 21st of the month to post your tournament here. If you post your proposal later than that, we will not consider it.

If your tournament is approved, it will be posted with all other member tournaments on the front page of PokéBeach at the beginning of the month so our readers know they’re happening! You and your tournament won’t get much more exposure than that! And if your tournament meets certain conditions, it will even award PokéBeach tournament points!

To propose a member tournament, you must post the tournament's opening post in this thread. You must also post your tournament’s timetable and when you would like to start and finish it.

Preconditions for Hosting a Tournament
When creating a tournament, you understand and agree to all of the following conditions:

• There should only be as many member tournaments as there is demand to play them. If there are several tournaments going on at once, including on the front page or in real life, it’s possible your tournament will not be approved or that it may be saved for a later date. The staff does not want a forum full of empty tournaments, so do not go through the effort of creating a tournament if it looks like people are going to be busy with ones that are already in the pipeline.
• Your tournament should not compete with our front page tournaments. For example, if we are doing a Multi-Tier tournament on the front page next month, don't create the exact same thing (assuming there isn’t demand to play both). Make yours “different” than the ones on the front page so they have their own appeal to members.
• You must be freely available for all days your tournament will be running so that you can answer PMs from the tournament players, post rosters, collect logs, settle disputes, etc. This is crucial not only to your tournament, but the reputation of PokéBeach - we don’t want to advertise a tournament on the front page that the host isn’t going to run. Running tournaments is generally not a “breeze,” nor is it something you can just do “on the side,” and those who do not seem to understand this will not be allowed to host one.
• You cannot host more than one tournament at a time, nor can you post more than one tournament proposal at a time.
• In the spirit of the no-show rules we have for our front page tournaments, if you abandon your tournament or fail to keep up with it, you will be banned from making a tournament for life. Furthermore, you will be barred from playing in all PokéBeach activities for one year, including TCG One and our Showdown server. Do not make a tournament, agree to host it, and then fail to show up.
• You have to be in good standing to run a tournament. If you often make trouble on the forums or have a history of not presenting yourself professionally, you will not be approved.

The Tournament & Thread
Your tournament must be easily understood by the community. Take pride in how you present it, especially since visitors on the front page will see it! Every detail should be spelled out in your opening post and presented in a professional manner:

• Presentation - Your post should be clean and organized. Adapt the format of the tournaments we post on the front page to fit your style. You should have an opening banner that evokes the “theme” of your tournament. If you need help making a banner, visit our Smeargle's Canvas forum. If your tournament has a quirk or something "fun" about it, make that a highlight of your opening statements. Make your post look good!
• Player Cap / Timetable - Most member tournaments must allow 5 days per round to give players enough time to meet and complete their matches. Also, no tournament should run longer than 5 weeks. Both of these factors usually equate to 5 rounds per tournament with 32-63 players max. Use our table on the Activities page to determine how many rounds / players your tournament has. Make sure your participants are aware of the time commitment, how long each round will last, your overall schedule, when they have to turn in their pairings, etc. This way your participants know EXACTLY what they signed up for and how all the time factors work.
• Format - What format is used to battle in the tournament? Standard? Expanded? Unlimited? Something else entirely? What about the tournament format? Is it Swiss? Single elimination? Best of 3? Do you have a certain theme or gimmick to your tournament? Make sure to explain every detail so there is no confusion. Even if something seems obvious to you, it may not be obvious to a newer player, so explain every detail (within reason) or your tournament may not be approved.
• Player Responsibilities - The winner of each round must send their battle logs to both yourself and [email protected]. Be sure to state this in your post and provide your e-mail address or another means for them to send their logs to you.
• Player Penalties - Make sure to include our player penalties for being a no-show, cheating, and dropping. These apply to all tournaments no matter how "fun" or "competitive" they are, so please free to copy and paste those rules from our Activities page into your post.
• Make sure to also tell us when you would like to start and finish your tournament.

After you make your post, the Activities staff will send you a PM within 3 days either approving your tournament, denying it, or asking you to fix something. Make sure to be on the lookout for this PM - if you do not answer it within a faster-than-average time, it means you're too busy to be running a tournament in the first place! Once you and your tournament are approved, we will add you to a PM chain so that we can best schedule the start of your tournament in a slot that fits your schedule, everyone else's schedule, and works with whatever else is going on the following month.

Qualifying for PokéBeach Tournament Points
Member tournaments can potentially grant PokéBeach tournament points if they meet certain conditions. If you want your tournament to apply for points and think we will approve it, you must include this in your tournament proposal. If your tournament does not end up meeting the requirements, we will simply edit it out. For a tournament to qualify for points:

• Your tournament must be competitive in nature, in the Standard or Expanded formats, and stay somewhat close to the rules and standards we use for our front page tournaments. Tournaments that are less skill-based will not award tournament points.
• A tournament can only apply for PokéBeach points if it begins with at least 16 players.
• There are many examples of competitive Standard/Expanded tournaments that are a bit more fun than usual, but still competitive in nature. Examples: switching your deck every round, having a side board similar to Magic where you can swap out 10 cards every game, everyone has to use a T1 deck, a tournament where you can use 1 card from outside the format, you have to finish each turn in 60 seconds, or you have play 4 copies of a silly card. These kinds of ideas may qualify for getting PokéBeach tournament points. And we're sure you have better ideas!

Organizer Responsibilities
You can skim this section for now to get an idea of what you are required to do, but you must know these policies forwards and backwards before your tournament starts. All organizers must follow these policies exactly or risk invalidating their whole tournament and chances to run one again.

• 24-48 Hours Before Tournament - Once your tournament is approved and scheduled for the following month, please post your tournament thread 24-48 hours before it is scheduled to start and then immediately PM an Activities staff member. This way we can get final looks at your thread and then get the link ready for the front page. If you do not do this 24 hours before your tournament is scheduled to start, we will consider you a no-show organizer and you will receive all the penalties associated with that.
• Registration Period - During your tournament’s registration period, you must begin to enter members into your tournament roster. We suggest you use Challonge.com to prepare your roster (you should sign up for it before you ever post your thread). Once registration is over, post the pairings and let the tournament commence!
• During Rounds - During all rounds, your responsibilities include:
  • Entering wins/losses into Challonge. Members will PM you their results and battle logs.
  • Posting the rosters for each round, of course!
  • Compiling a tournament report, which lists how many players signed up, how many players showed up to each round, any no-shows, drops, or byes, what you learned about running your tournament, any player feedback you received that you think we should know about, and anything else you think is note-worthy. This doesn't have to be too complex.
  • Working with no-shows / drops / byes / other match issues. This is the stuff you really need to pay attention to:
    • No-Shows and Byes - Each round lasts 5 days. After 2 full days, a member must PM you if they’ve attempted to contact their opponent and their opponent has not responded. Upon receiving this PM in your inbox (even if you see it later), you will automatically award that player a bye and drop their opponent from the tournament. Even if the offending member responds to the original member after the PM was sent, the opponent will still be dropped, even if both players agree to hold their match or do in fact hold their match. It is not the original player's responsibility to determine that the match will still go on with their offending opponent, as we do not want to reward slow behavior or set a precedence for allowing it.
    • No-Show Excuses (Before Round Ends) - If a member PMs you with an excuse for why they were a no-show (before the round has ended), you must immediately include an Activities staff member in the conversation (if one has not already been included). Except in cases where a member simply did not show up and you never heard from them, it is not your responsibility to determine if that player should be penalized or dropped if they send you an excuse - it is the Activity staff’s. If there is still sufficient time to complete the round, and the Activities staff member determines the offending member's excuse is valid, the Activities staff member may instruct both players to finish their match. However, this is only if the other opponent agrees to it and has the time to finish it. If he or she agrees to letting the offending member battle him or her, and the match is completed, the offending player can remain in the tournament. However, if the opponent decides they do not want to make the time to battle the member, or for some reason the match does not get completed, the offending member will be dropped from the tournament and the original member will still get a bye (even if the second attempt at a match does not commence at the fault of the original member).
    • Dropping - After the first round, players are allowed to drop from any subsequent round as long as they notify you after they finish their match and before you compile pairings for the next round. As in, "between" rounds. If they do not notify you during that window (as in, during a round that you paired them in), they will be considered no-shows.
    • No Reporting / Logless Reporting - If neither opponent alerts you to who won the match before the end of the 5th day OR does not provide proof of their match with logs, both players will be considered no-shows and dropped from the tournament, even if they did in fact complete their match.

Now that you've read everything, feel free to create your own tournament! If it's clear you didn't read this thread, your tournament won't be approved, so be sure to read it thoroughly. And feel free to "like" tournaments in this thread if they sound interesting to you. Have fun!