by Grizzly 28th April 2014, 11:50 am
Not supporting this. Sorry, but I've seen site-wide tournaments fail. A lot. The only tournaments that have worked smoothly without any sort of failure were those that functioned on the smallest possible denominator. I can pretty much guarantee that something like reaching the finals between 10+ contestants will not happen. It just can't. Especially on a site like this.
What I can suggest is reducing the amount of people participating to the smallest possible number to make this a guaranteed success. Because honestly, failing site-wide events is the worst thing that can happen to a site's atmosphere and story.
Next thing. There HAS to be a designated person to follow the fights, read them and step in, in case something unruly and/or unfair should happen. Now, some people may think that it's stupid to let one person's opinion rule over a whole tournament. But it's the only method that really works. If someone with experience does the job, there should be no problem. It's simply that people often don't want to realize the fact that they may have just got themselves in an inescapable situation or their opponent's skills in the given circumstances encompass their character's traits and strengths. This is often the case, and in fights the Gary Stu's and Mary Sue's come out like nowhere else.
Last thing that has to be done in my opinion. I understand that a thing like the Grand Magic Games would be set out for some of the newer members to step in and make themselves known to the rest of the rp community. While some people who have joined as new members have experience, others do not. Those that generally don't have experience and/or are just not that good at rp combat and similar things should have the courtesy to not attempt anything great. If a tournament should be set out, then it should have a certain standard concerning skill and quality. 2 paragraphs with 3 lines each often don't cut it in fighting topics and the process of a fight, something in which two characters would actually put utmost precision and accuracy into, gets disrupted.
I mean no offense to any certain kind of players or the newer members that are simultaneously new to rping. I am simply of the opinion that IF this would be an idea, there are certain requirements that have to be met otherwise my instinct tells me that such a site-wide tournament will fail. Battle Moderator(s), skilled rp'ers and good content are what you want. I have brought forth my arguments in several discussions about rp combat and site-wide tournaments and I have gotten a "I'm taking it too serious. It's supposed to be fun. Not something stressing or work.". Yes, it's supposed to be fun. But it's also supposed to be fun to read. And if it is not, then people will lose interest in the tournament, the members participating will lose motivation because no one follows up to care and the tournament will fail. (this is how the last 2 tournaments I've seen failed)
Righto, that's it. I would like to hear the opinion of others on this topic and perhaps on my words.
PS: To clarify once more. I'm not saying it's a stupid idea, I'm simply saying requirements have to be met or failure is probable (from my experience).