Tuesday 22 July 2014

Why having Door prizes is important.


Now, typically, a lot of tournaments do not offer “door prizes” as much more than a novelty prize of some type. However, in our tournaments the door prizes are legitimate awards. In GW tournaments you win back your entry fee, or in X-Wing, a whole ship. 

After running tournaments over the past six months, we have received a lot of feedback. It has been a mixed bag a lot of the time. However, that just comes from players having different expectations. One thing that is ever present at our events is that the value of 1-3rd placing isn’t HUGE. Don’t get me wrong, first place is still a considerable prize. However, it isn’t 70% of the entry fee’s piled together. Now, the reality is that there are a large number of players who won’t have commission painted armies, or the latest meta-build. So why should they come to tournaments? Well, for the “soft” (as they have been referred to) prizes! Having random door prizes gives you decent chance of getting something (remember you can’t be eligible for the door prize if you have won another award). At our X-Wing tournament this resulted in you having a 1/10 chance of getting it. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s better than going home with nothing!

Aside from that, it really comes down to having a friendly environment. If you design your tournament to only focus on giving the competitive players the edge, then you will get the competitive crowd. If you design it to have “soft” prizes and scores, you will get the corresponding players. This isn’t to say that the competitive players aren’t welcome, or that those tournaments won’t be enjoyable. It is simply a model in which to promote your events from. 

Anyway! Hopefully we will see you at one of our events!

- Out

6 comments:

  1. could be honorary "prizes" also. where they get some kind of rank or title for next match up [tourney] with X special notes as to what it entails. think best sportsman/army painted/character/conversion and the like. next time you'll likely have more people with painted armies....be creative and the reward/prizes will be as well, that said have fun

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    1. Interesting concept. Maybe if you come first or last three times in a row, you get the fourth tournament free.

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  2. Our local RTT gives the usual 1st / 2nd / 3rd, plus last place on BP's, and then funds permitting, gives out random "wonky" awards like best-painted, or mid-pack on BP's or occasionally a "Hey, you have a really cool army" award.

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  3. I like the idea of door prizes as it gives everyone a chance to win something, even those that bring fluffy lists or are generally not very good players. Creates a much more inclusive atmosphere and there is not so much pressure to win as the prizes are spread around, as well as rewarding those who place.

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  4. Locally we've switched to the top awards being a trophy, and all the product being draw prizes that everyone is able to win... we give each player 10 tickets as their "door prize" for showing up, and they just put whatever tickets they want into the draws for the various prizes. Since doing so our events have kept up a steady stream of casual players, while the more competitive minded still come out for the bragging rights of the trophy. For our smaller one day events we have a local trophy that stays in store, and if you win a top spot in any tourney your name is engraved on it and you get a cool certificate - everything else is draw prizes. We just found over time that about five players were consistently winning all the product which is quite discouraging to everyone else attending - who you actually need to be there to have the numbers to even have the tourney in the first place! So we switched to catering to the majority - the minority still come out too : )

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