For many attendees a tournament is more than a competition to determine the best player. As support for fighting games in arcades continues to decline, community organised tournaments have taken their place as the best environment for playing fighting games offline.

This week I’ll discuss the role of casual play at fighting game tournaments. I’ll review the expectations players have regarding casual play during a tournament, and how you can vary your tournament format to meet these expectations. I’ll also review some of the things organisers can do to provide attendees with the best possible casual play experience.

Game On
While everybody comes to a fighting game tournament for their own reasons, the most common reason is to play some games. By signing up for one or more tournament brackets an attendee guarantees they’ll get to play no matter how busy the event might be. However people that only get to play when called up for their tournament matches are likely to walk away from your event unsatisfied with the experience.

A common complaint from players at OHN9 and Shadowloo Showdown 2011 (SS2011) was that they weren’t able to play enough casual games at these events. OHN9 had a lack of setups given the number of attendees, and SS2011 simply didn’t have enough time, space or setups to properly accommodate the large volume of attendees the event attracted. I know at least one Sydney player at SS2011 that only played their tournament matches and nothing else because there was never an opportunity for him to do otherwise.

As Mike Ross says, you need to have enough setups to accommodate the number of players at your tournament. This is obviously important for running your brackets, but it’s also important for casual play.

The Format Factor
Both OHN9 and SS2011 were double elimination tournaments. In any double elimination tournament 25% of the players will go 2-and-out (i.e. be eliminated after two matches). This statistic highlights why it’s so important for tournament organisers to factor casual play opportunities into their plans. If 25% of your competitors leave having only played two matches there’s likely to be quite a few dissatisfied customers once your tournament is over.

One solution is to use a non-elimination format such as Swiss brackets. These give all competitors more tournament matches regardless of how many losses they incur. This worked quite well at the ACL Finals run by Lansmash in 2011, with every competitor getting plenty of chances to play during the event. However the majority of fighting game tournaments are double elimination, so chances are you’ll be stuck with 25% of your players going 2-and-out.

Keeping it Casual
The term “casual play” suggests that non-tournament games can be left to happen organically i.e. without any planning from the tournament organiser. In reality if you leave casual play to chance there’s a danger it’ll be minimal or even non-existent. Here are some things you can try to make your event a great environment for casual play.

• Sourcing casual setups.
  As mentioned last week, Evo leaves casual play up to the players, providing console setups for tournament play only. Evo offsets this by offering free venue entry to all non-competitors and dedicated floor space in the Evo venue where people can play casual games using their own consoles. Other tournaments, including OHN and BAM, make their tournament setups available for casual play when not otherwise in use, whilst also providing space for players to BYO casual setups.

  Whatever approach you decide upon, be sure to give some thought to where any casual play setups will be coming from.

• Setup numbers and game selections.
  When providing setups for casual play, organisers should consider how many players they need to provide for. If you want everyone to have a reasonable chance of playing enough casual games, I’d suggest having 1 console per 5 players. This means 2 people are playing and 3 are waiting at any given point in time. Use your registration data to help estimate attendance so you don’t have to blindly guess how many players to cater for. If you don’t think your tournament setups will achieve these numbers, encourage the community to make up the difference via DIY (with incentives if required).

  Use your registration data to work out the best ratio of games to provide for casual play. For example if 70% of your total attendees have entered SSF4:AE and 30% have entered UMvC3, apply the same ratio when opening up your tournament setups for casual play.

• Player rotations.
  It’s important to encourage players to rotate during casual play. If people camp on setups for long sets and you’ve got 1 console per 5 players, then 60% of the people in the venue are going to be playing less than they’d like to. Make it clear that the loser should move to the end of the queue during casual play (i.e. “arcade rules”), and encourage players to be assertive about getting their fair share of casual play time.
• Running brackets efficiently.
  I’ve already provided advice on how to run your tournament brackets efficiently. By freeing up your tournament setups efficiently you can make them available for casual play more often.

  For example when a bracket has been run down to the last few players, excess setups sometimes sit unused. This is often because people don’t realise the setup is no longer needed for tournament play, or allowing casuals on that setup will be disruptive to the remaining tournament matches. Aim to free up your tournament setups in an organised manner to prevent them sitting idle.

Striking a Balance
It’s important to note that there’s a time and place for casual play. If tournament setups are doubling as casual play setups then players have to accept that there will be less time, space and setups available for casual play while tournaments are being run. Similarly I think it’s perfectly reasonable for organisers to disallow casual play during tournament highlights, such as the finals, in order to create the best atmosphere for these moments.

As long as you provide plenty of opportunities for players to take in some casual matches everyone should be able to get their fair share of game time at your event.

Evo 2011 BYO Console photo courtesy of SNK-Capcom.com.

Feedback and Future Articles
If you have any feedback about this article, or would like to request a subject for a future Bracketed article, you can send me a PM or an email, or make a post in the Bracketed Feedback thread on the OzHadou forums.

]– Ziggy –[