I'm working on getting things going on a new hl2 gaming community. this community will play different mods throughout the year with tournaments at the end of each mods play period. I would prefer to focus on mods that don't have any servers right now but that wont be all that is played. generally the idea is for the server to have a mod installed for a month to allow clans/players to train in playing the game, then over the course of the following month a ladder tournament is run. if i cant find sponsors the ladder will require a paid entry. the winner of the final match in the ladder will be awarded prizes, or be entered into the next ladder tournament for free. so please give me critique on this idea, let me know if you think this is feasible. also, please list any hl2 mods that you would be interested in playing competitively.
nope. You wont find a community dedicated enough to grind a game and then have to pay for it to actually win anything. Not big enough either.
it would be best to have sponsors provide prizes or I may just pay for them myself, or it could be that you earn double your entry fee for winning the tournament.
Don't let anyone shit on your ambitions. Just do it and shove it in their face when they cry about it later.
If you're going to start adding prizes that are actual money, you'll just get gatecrashed if any of the old mod players hear about it, and they'll wipe the floor with everyone.
If the teams are small enough there will be too many vets for a single team to rape everyone. Might not be fair to all, but that's life for you.
By "old mod players", I mean old players for that specific mod. Look at what happened when we tried to have a Sourceforts Mod night. 2-3 actual SF players ruined it completely by utterly destroying everyone else on the server. We couldn't even attempt to compete on their level. That kind of thing will happen to every single mod if the original players hear about it.
Tru dat, I remember SourceBall, which was a very tiny mod that was absolutely hilarious to play. There was one guy called "TinyBalls" who was absolutely amazing at it, regularly beating a team of five opponents all on his own. Frustrating and amazing to watch :D
I liked that mod. Didn't play it much, but was awesome to just go around and kill people when it was released
I agree that the tournaments would bring out the mods original player base, I think the only way to do it is for the winning team to only win free entry(s) into the next event. this prize would be worthless to someone who only plays that one mod. I also thought it would be neat to make a real world item to prove entry into the tournament, maybe a patch or sticker something cheap but lasting beyond the duration of the event.
a shirt. "I won several rounds with different games in a tournament and all I got was this t-shirt" or something like that. generic but lasting.
Either you make the prize something good and risk the old players comming back or you make it cheap and most no one shows up. I can't think of many people in particular who'd want spend a month learning a new game, a month playing it, then starting over with a new game for some cheap thing. Until it gets established, you'd need real incentives to get people to play, unless you already know a large group of people that'd be willing to do it for the community aspect. How many people are you considering? Some games wouldn't require more than 16 to form a ladder tournament, others would take excess of 128, especially team-based games. If you're running it all yourself, that's going to be pissing expensive for just one server to handle it, maybe even more servers, unless you can get someone to sponsor it. And sponsors don't like sponsoring small-time groups nor do they like sponsoring gaming groups that aren't like professional teams. So either you pay out of pocket or charge a fee. I can tell you right now you're getting nowhere fast if you charge a fee. Ain't no one gonna' pay money to play a dead mod with people they don't know on an unknown server for the chance to win a sticker. Memorabilia isn't worth anything if the event isn't particularly memorable. In the end, it's like trying to break into a market that's locked down. If you're not notable, no one's going to want your product and if no one will buy your product, you won't become notable. If no one knows who you are, no one's going to want to join your tournament (let alone pay for it) and if no one joins, you won't become known. I'm not saying you can't try. I'm just saying that you might be getting in over your head. I've seen a few crazier ideas work, but I've seen far more saner ideas fail.
