GB DOTA 2 Tournament 2nd Edition, Management Recruitment

What is this and who are you?

Last year, myself and Bruno impersonator @cheappoison, ran a fairly successful Giant Bomb Community DOTA 2 Tournament.

A year and two "The Internationals" later, I'm bringing it back. Yet in a different format, beginning with the management aspect of the tournament.

This post will mainly detail the recruitment of our management team. There'll be some information and detail at the end of this post regarding the tournament itself if you're only interested in those bits.

A reason

Before going into the practical aspects of this post, allow me to explain my standpoint. Last year's event, while rewarding and fun to make, was periodically a horror-show from a scheduling perspective. At the time, only Cheap and I were setting up games, myself taking on the bulk of the task (Cheap did great work, though). We had players, casters, judges from a large variety of regions, preferences and general decency.

Between shouting at folks for wanting to pull out at the last minute (after weeks of planning), and being up to our kness in gay fanfiction starring yours truly (yeeeeep), the situation overwhelmed us, and we burned out.

We completed the tournament in a spectacular fashion, with the winners of the tournament facing of against the Daily DOTA crew (and crushing them), yet the desire to build another tournament any time soon had all but evaporated.

Cheap and I both agreed on one thing above everything else, more tournament staff next time.

The "Rules"

And with that, I am opening applications here on the forums for anyone to participate as a judge, planner, caster, Meepo enthusiast, artist (for graphs or tournament art or what have you). I only have a few requirements, and they are as follow;

• Supply me, via this thread or PM, with your current time-zone, a generalization of your availability, as well as what kind of role you'd like to fulfill.
• Human decency. Any form of demeaning behavior, racism, sexism, will lead to an immediate exclusion from the tournament. Zero tolerance.
• Once you make a commitment, you keep it.
• No playing favorites with the teams.
• No casting/judging/planning a match involving a team that you, yourself, have joined for the duration of the tournament.
• The desire to make this fun for everyone involved. Everyone.

In the light of these rather strict guide-lines, I do want to point out that some silliness is welcome, even encouraged. As long as it's in good humor, and not in detriment to folks or the tournament.

I realize that it might not seem all that enticing to manage things, but despite the overwhelming amount of work, Cheap and I had a lot of fun doing so. It was a good chance to do something for the community, and it resulted in some pretty great times. I will try to find some reward for folks who participate managing, even in small ways, but for now, let me just say it'd be appreciated by myself and anyone who gives a shit about this tournament.

And now for the Tournament Information

I'm sure that by now, you've noticed that there isn't much concrete information regarding the tournament proper, and here's why. Last year's tournament was a nightmare in terms of directing participating teams so that they had time to play Bo3s at the same time, with a caster and judge attending. With this in mind, I'd like to run a set-up similar to that of this year's International, with a Round-Robin system of Bo1s that don't necessitate the same amount of supervision to pave the way for a more organized, compact, and well-put together set of finals.

Now, while this is my desire, it simply can't happen if we don't have enough teams participating. So, while I strongly believe we'll have a sufficient flood of people interested, the exact format of the tournament will only be presented in the aftermath of the sign-ups.

A Time-Table

Speaking of which, as well as addressing a time-frame, which I realize is a crucial factor for anyone participating. I mean to hold this thread open for about a week to a week and a half. At the end of this week, I mean to open the sign-ups to interested teams. Additionally, I'll create a sister-thread to "the sign-up one" for people who are looking for a team. That way, hopefully even the lone wolves will be able to participate and maybe make some friends.

I'd hazard a guess at the tournament beginning two weeks from as of this message, with the round robin stage occurring over the course of a week, and the finals hopefully over a weekend, plus a day or so.

Skill-Brackets and misc.

Another subject I will discuss depending on the amount of teams available is "skill brackets". Last year, we held two separate tournaments, one for the newer players, and one for the more experienced. The lower bracket ended up getting a lot less attention, and as such, will need to be supported among the community to happen this year. If not, we will blend the brackets with a handicap system for the newer players to ensure a fair, and fun time, for everyone involved. Further details will come once we have a head-count.

There'll also be more details on the subject of Rewards, after I've spoken to mods and staff on the site.

I've put a fair bit of thought into this, and if there's one prevailing theme here, then it's that I want to make it better and bigger than last year. Any suggestions, and advice from you guys is more than welcome. After all, this is a community tournament!

That said, friends of site members can freely participate without being a member themselves.

If you have any questions/suggestions, feel free to ask me here or in PM, though preferably here.

To repeat myself, THERE WILL BE ANOTHER, MORE DETAILED THREAD ABOUT THE TOURNAMENT!

Thanks, guys!

Ironic use of the word "humbly"

I'd finally humbly request this, or the proper tournament thread (the one to come), to be high-lighted on the community spotlight and/or mentioned to your friends/duders. Last year, we had a lot of people come late to the party (almost double the participants), despite us having advertised in every way we could think of. And the more people sign up, the more fun this will be for everyone. (Except for me if I end up managing this alone.)

Edit: I'll fine-tune this post over the days to come, I wrote it from a tablet as I'm on vacation until Thursday, 31st.

I also really wanted to put "Hyper" in the thread title. Damn limitations.

Got told to bump this so...

Yup.

Edit: Ow right that abomination, I vaguely remember something like that! Quick everyone flock to your 'girlfriends' to make a team!

Last year's tourny was fun - especially well casted too. I'd be up for another.

Turns out DOTA was just a fad. It's officially over guys, pack up, no-one cares anymore.

This guy got it!
It is all Heroes of the storm and smite from now on!

I have four other dudes so there's a team for you.

I could cast, if you don't mind someone just talking absolute nonsense for the entire game.

I'd be up for helping out behind the scenes with seeding and setting the teams up.

PST (Available 17:00-02:00 (5 PM to 2 AM))

I'd be down to help with whatever you need, at the very least record and edit the games into a reasonably well edited video. Also I'd like to form a team or join one.

Central/NA usually around 4pm-midnight

Alright, it seems like we're slowly picking up steam here. I'm going to contact each of you folks ( as well as reply to the standing messages in my inbox) over PM to talk to you more in depth about the roles you'd like to fulfill, and then more about the tournament proper once we've exhanged Steam IDs, ensured we're on the same page, etc.

Once we have a few more people lined up, I'm going to set up a specified PM conversation here on the site, with all the admins participating, regarding tournament stuff so that we all can chime in/talk to each other.

That said, we still need more folks. Casters, tournament admins, "artists". There's room a-plenty, so come on in.

I'd like to help out with the tournament, I loved watching it last year. I should be able to help any time after 7pm EST, but don't stop that from you sending me a message on here or on Steam at any point before then.

I guess not many people use it, but would it be a good idea to update the Giant Bomb guild in-game info tab about organizing the tournament and needing help? If not just mention it in the guild chat in-between some games in the evening or find a way to get some duders that users follow on Twitter to mention it.

My only concern is that this seems like it could run concurrently with the Rektreational depending how the scheduling goes.

I'll give this a bump. I had an absolute blast doing last year's tourney as the main caster / a second-tier admin / judge. Unfortunately, due to my internet still being bad, scheduling around my job being a nightmare, general life commitments, and having no real interest in Dota since the last tournament (I haven't played or watched since Diretide last year), I won't be casting this year. I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who supported me (and the tournament as a whole) last year; we had a lot of people that weren't officially involved in any roles but still went out of their way to promote us and help out behind the scenes on occasion when we were shorthanded.

If you'd like to see how the tournament went down last year, here is a link to the twitch archives of the casting.

Bumb^^

But yeah i have a team that would want to play if not i can help out in anyway

What's the time commitment like for the various roles?

I doubt I can help due to real life scheduling instability, but figured I'd check to see if it is a possibility

@slag: Time comittment isn't necessarily so much of an issue as availability is, though that depends very much on what you'd like to, and to which degree. Say, if you'd like to participate casting a set of games or a few, then those would be the hours. If you'd like to help us make graphs for the tournament, or possibly a banner, etc, then those are the hours. As for a judge/admin position, we can very likely assign you to a low-profile job, acting as a mediator between a few teams, or acting as a judge for a few matches. Whatever works for you.

Let me know how you'd like to help, what time-zone you're in, and I'll see what I can do about squeezing you in. It'd also really help if you were to be a bit more specific about how much time you figure you'll have. Toss me a message over PM preferably.

Your help would be very welcome, man.

On a seperate note, some folks have expressed concern with this tournament potentially overlapping with that of the "Rekreational", in which the Daily DOTA gang will be playing. We'll do our very best to ensure that none of our games overlap with those of that tournament, and will, if possible, give a few hours breathing room around any game in which Brad & Co particpates.

I'd have preferred to wait until the Rekreational was over and done with, but as the schedule for said tournament is unclear, and will seemingly last across the month of August, that simply isn't an option as a lot of duders will be going back to school and work soon enough.

I'm here to offer services in helping organize, casting, and hopefully playing =) (I'm looking at you, @fredddi43, let's make a team =D)

My in-game name is Mom's Spaghetti, and I'm in the Mountain Time Zone.

I think i might have some dudes for this, I'm in the GMT time zone.

I would be down to help, I'm not much of a streamer/broadcaster but I'm open to most anything else. You can reach me on here through PM (I may miss it but I will try hard to check my PMs)

I'm in GMT -7:00, I'm available almost any time.

Had fun commentating last year, would definitely be interested in doing that again. Also feel free to give me a shout for all your mod needs around the site.

X

@sweep: Appreciate it, man. It'd help me some if you could gimme' your time-zone, easier for me to keep track of who might be available for what that way. Also, I actually already sent you a PM a few days ago on the subject of this here tournament, so take a gander at your inbox and let me know if I should resend that thing.

@hankrazorbeard: Hah, while I'm very glad to hear that you got some dudes, my friend, what are the dudes for? Do you want to cast, want to help as an admin, or just play as a team? If it's the latter, I'mma' make another thread in a few days that'll be exclusively for sign-ups, tournament info.

I'm going to be creating a PM at this point involving the folks who have, up until this point, signed up to work as an admin for the tournament. If you feel like you ought to be in there, but haven't been entered, toss me a message and I'll see about rectifying that. Also, while we are doing real good in terms of support so far, anyone who wants to help out is still very welcome.

I would like to help if you think I could. I have spent many hours in Dota myself, so do know about the game. I'm in the UK (GMT/BST) and am available most days and into the nights too!

@do_the_manta_ray GB Engineering + Production have a team.

@jslack: Alright, great to hear, man. I'll be opening a seperate thread for team sign-ups shortly, so check that out once it goes live. Best of luck to you guys.

Alright, we're slowly filling up on admin/judge positions here, but could definitely use additional casters and artists. By artists, I mean folks making graphs for the tournament, or just stupid DOTA 2 related art that'd fit in. However, if you still very, very, very much want to serve as an admin/judge, then toss me a message and I'll see about squeezing you in. Could always use back-ups if nothing else.

I'll be opening the team sign-up thread in a day or two, so keep your eyes open, people.

And the Giant Bomb DOTA 2 Community Tournament (Man, what a mouthful), Sign-Up Thread is live! Head over here to read the rules of the tournament and sign your team up.

Oh, and check out our sweet-ass banner.

Hey everyone, I don't post around here much, but last year I casted in this tournament in both brackets and had a lot of fun doing it! I would love to do it again.

My general availability is after 5pm-11pm (US Central time) on weekdays, and pretty much any time on weekends should work for me. I'm willing to cast either bracket.

I will probably be casting via Hitbox over Twitch (my own way of "boycotting" twitch).

Hitbox: http://www.hitbox.tv/HylianSeven

Twitch (just for grins, but unlikely to use it): http://www.twitch.tv/hylian7

Steam Community: http://steamcommunity.com/id/HylianSeven

I'm reopening this thread as we find ourselves with a plethora of teams, and more than a few admins/casters who have, unfortunately, run into some issues in terms of family and work that prevent them from working on the tournament to the same degree as they previously have.

As such, any casters or admins that are interested in helping out, please post a message here or send me a PM. We can absolutely find a way for you to help out.