This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on June 13, 2008.
This post comes from Jennifer Lovchik, the Teen Services Librarian at Bellingham Public Library in Washington. She has recently put on her first Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament and it was a rousing success. After sharing her story with the LibGaming discussion group, I asked if she would be willing to share it here as well.
So with that, take it away Jennifer (and thanks for the great post)…
I scheduled the tournament on a Saturday from 1 to 5 and we ended up with over 40 people, 30 of whom registered to play in the tournament. I had the main tournament game play projected on a screen and then had a TV in the back with open play for those not competing. I don’t know Brawl well, so I relied heavily on a couple of my regular gamer teens to help me with both logistics and set-up/breakdown. In fact, he brought his Wii and game since I still haven’t unlocked [all of the characters/arenas in] the library’s version (we used the library’s system for open play). What follows is a rather long description of what I hashed out prior to the tournament with notes on how it actually played out. Forgive my longwindedness, but I hope that some of it may be helpful.
I worked out a rough schedule, and surprisingly it was pretty accurate:
- 12:15 to 12:45 – Set up tables, projector, TV, beverages, food, Wii consoles, chairs
- 12:45 to 1:30 – Registration; open play
- 1:30 to 3 – Qualifying rounds (we ended up doing 2 qualifying rounds per person)
- 3 to 3:30 – Qualifying play-offs for ties (we did not need to have any tie breakers)
- 3:30 to 5 – Finals (Top 16)
I had some general guidelines for the tournament that I shared prior to the first bout:
1. Register with your real name and an alias or nickname. During the tournament you will be called to play by your alias or nick name. Remember your alias or nickname. (About half the kids used their real first name and half an alias. They remembered. I tended to get confused and use both. By the end of the tournament, I pretty much had their nicknames down.)
2. No registration after 1:30. (This was no problem since I advertised the tournament start time as 1 PM)
3. You will have 3 minutes to respond when called to play. (Also not a problem)
4. We will play at least 2 qualifying rounds. Qualifying round winners will be determined by adding up the points for each round. Winners from each match will have +5 added to their match score. (This worked, but I think I just lucked out that I didn’t have more ties since the scores were always so close. Next time I may look at using one of the other totals instead of overall points.)
5. The top 16 in qualifying rounds will move on to finals.
6. Prizes for the top 4 finishers. (A local, independent video game store donated prizes for the tournament. I also advertised there, which I know was helpful in drawing such a nice sized group.)
Game play rules:
1. No objects will be used.
2. One map will be designated for the entire tournament.
3. You may pick your own character to play.
4. The scorekeeper will determine when a match begins.
5. Each match is head to head (2 player)
6. Qualifying rounds are 2 minutes each. Finals rounds are 3 stock (lives) to final 3 matches) top 4 and then 5 stock to finish. (I used a standard single elimination chart for the finals with an additional consolidation round to determine 3rd and 4th place. I had the big chart posted in the front of the room and wrote the winner’s name on it after each round. We could have stuck with the two minute rounds for finals and been finished a bit earlier. The tournament wrapped a little before 5 the way we did it.)
Other issues will be resolved as they arise.
Other things I learned:
- About half the kids used the Wii Remote while the others used GameCube controllers. Having the option is a must. (But it makes keeping track of who’s playing which character during the match tricky. At least for me.)
- 10% (3) of entrants were girls
- There is never enough pizza or soda
- Teens have a great sense of sportsmanship (maybe not surprising, but definitely cool to watch)
- 4 hours is a lot of SSB Brawl, even for the players
I never dreamed that everything would go so well. I also can’t imagine trying to pull off a Brawl tournament in less than 3 or 4 hours, unless you know for sure that you will only have a small group of kids.