There’s no glossing over the fact that running a tournament can be challenging. No matter the size, location, or type, planning and running any sort of live event is a complicated endeavor that will often throw complications at you from places you didn’t expect.
If all of this is true, then why bother hosting a tournament? Because the benefits far outweigh any negatives and can provide you with unique learning situations in critical decision making, problem-solving, and hands-on experience in an emerging industry. Let’s go in-depth on some of the benefits:
It doesn’t matter what interests or backgrounds your students have when it comes to esports. Whether they’re acting as players or student coaches or something else, everyone can find ways to meaningfully contribute to a tournament so that they can enjoy and learn from the experience.
Similarly to how a new football player has to get used to the often rowdy environment of the Friday night lights to prepare for even more important competition later in the season, esports players need to practice performing in high-pressure environments. While a majority of esports competition takes place remotely online, with players in a controlled environment, having large live events at the end of the season is quite commonplace. Setting up events earlier in the season to give players experience on stage can often make the difference between hoisting the trophy at the end of the season and an early exit from a championship bracket.
Once you get into the daily grind of esports practice and competition, it can be easy to forget just how many disciplines make up the esports community. Tournaments are a perfect setting to let everyone, not just the players, flex their newfound knowledge of their respective fields and apply them towards a common goal. The planning and execution stages give students working on publicity, graphic design, and broadcast a chance to take ownership of a great resume-building project.
Just as with any traditional sport, the ecosystem surrounding their competition is often just as important as the competitors themselves. This holds especially true when it comes time for Esports events. Live events for esports serve as an excellent way to introduce new people to the esports environment and reach out to students and community members that can often be uninvolved in other extracurriculars.
Practice, discipline, and experience are all important parts of maintaining an esports program, but motivation and enjoyment can often be overlooked in the day-to-day. Competition is fun; lean into this while gathering support and planning your event. It’s important that we focus on more than just having fun when planning everything out, but when the time comes to execute your plans, make sure you’re having fun.
Now that the reasoning is all out of the way, the next step is to actually start planning the tournament. Live esports events are complex operations that require a mixture of thorough planning and flexible decision-making. It can seem intimidating at first but it’s important to take that first step and get started. Start building your contact list, assemble the event team, and follow along with the rest of the chapter, where we’ll start researching and assigning roles.