Community tournaments have long been a way for different organizations and communities to do something for players outside of the big tournaments.They can vary in size and even have different rulesets depending on what the group running it wants to do. For World of Warcraft PvP, the pioneer, if you will, of these types of tournaments in the earlier days was GCDTV. Their tournaments were so well run and so popular that they were eventually contracted by Blizzard themselves to run their World of Warcraft esports tournaments. Some of them even have worked or currently work for Blizzard now.
We have seen these tournaments run by big gaming organizations like Method and Liquid all the way down to smaller communities — most notably to me in Oasis because I participated and helped run some of their tournaments.
What I want to talk about is the three different types of tournament formats. We’ll explore the positives as well as the negatives that come with them in relation to tournaments that are put on for public consumption.
These three types are tournaments with a player prize pool, tournaments that are to raise money for charity and tournaments that are basically just for fun with no prize pool or charity goal at all.
Types of Tournaments
Prize Pool Tournaments
So let’s first address the tournaments with a player prize pool, meaning the tournament has winners that receive a cash prize a lot of times for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. This type of tournament is usually very good at bringing in the top talent from around World of Warcraft PvP depending on the size of the prize.
Even smaller amounts will still bring in really good players. This of course is good for exposure for the tournament from a viewership perspective and good exposure for organizations, communities or the individuals running the tournaments. Tournaments with prize pools will also help you retain players to come back and participate in feature tournaments.
Negatively, tournaments with prize pools will usually not be a good place for the average player to participate and experience a tournament environment. Because of the prize pool, as I pointed out above, you get top end players all the way up to pro World of Warcraft players in the tournament. The average player will just get run over and not have much of a chance to compete for any kind of prize.
There have been formats, for instance, where the tournament organizer groups people together which negates some of the inbalance, but it doesn’t fix it completely. I also have not seen a tournament with prize money on the line do it that way yet.
The other problem you can run into is things can get on edge if the tournament has issues as far as it being run because prize money is on the line. So make sure if you are running a tournament with a cash prize you have all your rules and the format in place beforehand!
Even smaller amounts will still bring in really good players. This of course is good for exposure for the tournament from a viewership perspective and good exposure for organizations, communities or the individuals running the tournaments. Tournaments with prize pools will also help you retain players to come back and participate in feature tournaments.
Charity Tournaments
Community tournaments that raise money for charity can be a fantastic way to bring a community together. There are a couple ways to do these. You can either donate some of the proceeds to a charity of choice, or all of the proceeds go to the charity of choice, of which this is the option you see most of the time.
Charity tournaments are a good way to get the attention of the community, bring players together and have a ton of fun. Although you may not also get the attention of all the top end players, if advertised well and far enough in advance you are sure to get some that want to help out. Either way you are sure to get players that want to participate and also can try some fun out of the box things during the tournament as well.
Some of the drawbacks to a Charity event could be that you won’t attract top tier talent. In a charity event that is not always the goal but it can help with exposure, viewership and even donation goals. So even having those people on board can help out a ton. As your community tournaments grow this becomes less and less of an issue because you retain a following, or at least that is the goal.
For Fun Tournaments
A popular type of tournament is a tournament that is just done for fun. No prize pool or other things going on, just players signing up to compete and have fun. These types of tournaments, while not attracting top tier players, will attract players who want to participate in a tournament environment with the pressures of a prize pool looming in the background.
It’s good exposure for those players as well as an audience and can be a good starting point for a small community or individual who wants to start running their own tournaments. It’s also a good way to test different types of tournament formats to see how they play out. All kinds of possibilities with this type of tournament.
Some of the drawbacks to a format like this are finding ways to keep players engaged and coming back. Of course, like mentioned above the likelihood of attracting top tier players especially in the beginning stages of communities or individuals running tournaments is small but not impossible. If a tournament is not well run or well advertised when it has no prize pool or charity behind it, it can have a negative effect on turnout. Nothing will be perfect of course just starting out but optics matter.
It’s good exposure for those players as well as an audience and can be a good starting point for a small community or individual who wants to start running their own tournaments. It’s also a good way to test different types of tournament formats to see how they play out. All kinds of possibilities with this type of tournament.
What Tournaments Mean to the Community
In my opinion, the World of Warcraft PvP community is clambering for more tournaments. Any time a tournament is announced that has good publicity, they always seem to get good participation — especially if prize money or charity are involved.
It is always fun for people to see the pro players in a tournament setting outside of the Blizzard Arena World Championships, and especially exciting to see lesser known players go head to head with them.
I wish this would happen more often, especially during the off season of the Arena World Championships. With the introduction of the solo que mode into PvP, it gives another format for tournament organizers to use. Hopefully more communities and individuals see the opportunity that community tournaments can bring for them and others!
Oasis Community
Looking for a friendly, helpful environment to talk WoW in or to just hang out? Look no further than the Oasis WoW learning community. We do all kinds of content! Raids, Mythic+, arena, and RBGs! Check out oasis_wow on Twitter for more information!
Drustvar.com
Want to see what specialization or gear your favorite player is using? Want to know what comps are being played the most? What are the most popular classes being played? Look no further than Drustvar.com for any information you need! From statistical breakdowns, individual players gear and specializations, to 2s,3s, RBG, and Solo Shuffle rankings Drustvar has everything you need to stay ahead of the game. It’s the player armory on steroids!
Mhortai
Mhortai is a PvP writer for Bonus Roll Productions and an admin in the Oasis WoW Community. He is also an active member of the Technically PvP podcast community and can be found via his twitter or chatting in Bonus Roll’s TPVP discord channel.
