Tournament organizer
Tournament organizers (TOs for short), sometimes also known as tournament directors, are the individuals responsible for performing a variety of key functions necessary to make competitive Smash tournaments and ongoing community participation a success.
Overview
While not necessarily the founder or face of a tournament, the TO is the person that is expected to make the tournament run smoothly. It is always a good idea to have someone organize a tournament, as a definitive leader to make decisions and handle issues are always beneficial. There can be more than one for a tournament, but that is not recommended as it can lead to miscommunications and errors in oversight.
Responsibilities
An organizer's duties can vary widely depending on the community and the goals of the tournament. However, they can include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Booking and arranging a venue for large tournaments.
- Organizing the tournament bracket and seeding players appropriately.
- Clarifying and enforcing the rules laid out for the event(s).
- Maintaining consistent leadership and order to ensure the tournament runs smoothly.
- Recording tournament results and making those results available afterwards for participants.
How to become one
There are several ways to become a tournament organizer. The simplest way to become a TO is to start a tournament and elect yourself as the organizer. While this guarantees the position of organizer, it will have next to no impact on the success of the tournament itself. Another way is to be appointed or hired by the founder of a tournament. Larger tournaments are known to contract organizers in this way. However, at least a basic amount of knowledge and experience is expected, making the job not beginner friendly. Organizers can also form crews specifically created to organize tournaments. This will be more appealing to owners and increase the chances of being hired.
Forums like SmashBoards have systems, such as labels or icons, that denote the user being a organizer. Users wanting to get this denotation will have to be approved and may need to apply for a membership beforehand.
Other Information
While it is not impossible for the organizer to be a participant in their own tournament, doing so has many implications. There could be accusations of rigging the tournament if the organizer does well and an issue occurring while the organizer is playing will cause problems. It is safest to participate as a spectator only.
Anyone with a complaint will go to the organizer to have said complaint resolved. It is important that organizers have skill in talking to people and diffusing tense situations, as many will inevitably happen.
