Guide to being an online Tournament Organizer

This is a simple, step-by-step guide to the creation of an online tournament.

First, you need to let people know when it is. Included in this is the following:
-Banlist
-Rules
-Tournament type
-Date and time
-Approximate length of tournament
-Head Judge and Tournament Organizer (normally the two go hand-in-hand)
-Minimum amount of people needed to start

If there is a Tournaments section, it is posted there. If there is not one present, tournaments should be posted as announcements and MOVED when the tournament is completed.

Next. You've posted a tournament. There are two main tournaments that are hosted:

Single-Day Tournaments and Multi-Day Tournaments

Single-Day Tournaments can be facilitated on either Hamachi or IRC. If on either, the Tournament Organizer should be there approximately 30 minutes early to gauge the amount of people.

Single-Day Tournaments have regular allotments for time (40 minutes).

Multi-Day Tournaments will have people already signed up for, and will start directly on the day it is supposed to start. They will have a set amount of days for matches to be played.

In both you should offer a summary of the Tournament. In Multi-Day Tournaments this is easy as matches will also be posted. In Single-Day Tournaments you will need to have them sent to you and making that summary is a little more difficult.

As Tournament Organizer, you will most likely also be Head Judge. This means you will need to have an arsenal of rulings and such in your disposal. I strongly recommend the Yugioh Wikia as it has a substantial amount of knowledge when it comes to cards and rulings.

Disputes will happen. Here's some tips.
-First, keep in mind we're all human. We make mistakes. We could look back at a tournament and realize that a major error was made... do not panic.
-Attempt a reasonable solution.
-Remember to put differences aside when handling disputes. If you don't like someone, don't abuse your powers as a Tournament Organizer to 'get back' at them.

At the end of a Tournament be sure to:
-Post results
-Award prizes (if they are being awarded)
-Post a new tournament (this is normally the time when they're looking for a re-match, and another tournament does that for them)

What you need to facilitate a tournament:
MANTIS

A guide to MANTIS:
MANTIS is the Tournament Software provided by Upper Deck Entertainment. It is mandatory for any and all Tournament Organizers to use for sanctioned tournaments.

ALL ONLINE TOURNAMENTS ARE UNSANCTIONED. No exceptions. You cannot duel someone online for a rank increase for yourself.

When you have MANTIS and first enter the program you will see a screen with "Enroll Player" in the Tab. This is where you add people. Please note that you have to input something in both areas (I find a period works well). Since they do not have real ID numbers, put a check next to the 'Temporary ID' box.

Every single person you get to join a tournament will have temporary IDs. You do not need to resolve these to close a tournament.

After everyone is enrolled, move over to the "Tournament" tab. Click on "Pair Round". MANTIS manually pairs the round for you. Go over to the "Timers" Tab, set a single timer for 40 minutes. At this point, let people know the pairings and start the Timer. (This is only necessary for Single-Day Tournaments)
Continue to pair the rounds until one person is at x-0. At this point, you can either declare a winner or have the top 2/4/8/16 play single-elimination. To make a 'cutoff' select "Playoff" on the Tournaments Tab.

When finished, click "Close Tournament" and you're done. You can view completed tournaments via the "Archive" Tab.

Well, hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask me.

this is useful. thank you for posting. and i'm sure u already know this, but that could've stayed in one post lol.

lol, I was thinking the same thing

While I hate to be objective, I was criticized for posting a bunch of decklists together in another thread. Now that I spread my thoughts out into four posts I am criticized for them not being lumped together.

I cannot win.

um, i'm sorry if you feel that way. but i really have no idea what your talking about with the decklist thing.

Ryan wrote:

um, i'm sorry if you feel that way. but i really have no idea what your talking about with the decklist thing.

It was regarding the Shonen Jump Chicago Decklists. I put 'em all together in a fairly long post. Regardless, I'm not really concerned about it.