Tournament Reliability - Checking in.

[AJ in HD]

Having just finished another organized event at AGE I am reminded of a thread or discussion we had about some way to chart member's reliability to show up for an event that they signed up for in the first place. Our team showed up, but I know we had some issues that delayed the start of the tournament for quite some time that had to do with people not showing up and not giving notice that they weren't showing up (at least to my knowledge). While we're all adults here and real life does intervene occaisonally to interrupt the flow of mayhem we all appreciate and enjoy at AGE I can't help but wonder that there must be some better way to carry on the one night events at AGE.
Instead of calling people out on the forum and having a "bad list" of people that don't show/give notice, I have a proposal that may help to reduce no-shows/no-notice for our tournaments. What if on the day of the event, preferrably during the normal AGE hours (when we're all on the forums posting instead of working []) EVERYBODY that signed up for the tournament must post in that thread that they are "Checking In" for the event. If you don't post, then you don't play. I think that this way if real life gets in the way and you are unable to post in the thread at some point during the day or if something comes up, we all can see that and plan to get a sub at an early enough time so that everybody can play and more importantly start our events on time.For something like this to work, there wold have to be a timed cut-off beyond which if you don't post you don't play. Something like 2 hours before start time or something would seem reasonable.We had a lot of new members for our Halo tournament and I am pretty sure we all viewed it as a success so let's keep up the organization. [y]So am I totally off my rocker on this idea? Do we really even need to have this discussion? I don't know, but it seems like for every one night event we are always waiting to see if people come on because we never heard that they wouldn't...so perhaps putting the onus on everyone checking in will go toward minimizing our delays as much as possible so that our events can progress more smoothly.
Cheers [b]

[Rapida]

I agree,

Jigsaw and I discussed this a little last night, and one thing we thought could work was only letting AGE helpers and event organizers seeing the list. This could be done with a private forum similar to the blogger forum.

I do think we need to get some kind of system if only to help the event organizers plan teams with a mix of people that show and those that don't

[MazzingerZ]

<P mce_keep="true">I think it's a good initiative AJ mainly because just like we all are adults and have lots of different responsabilities that at the last sec might force us not to show up we must also think that those that are showing up are also workers, students, family guys that have booked that day and night in advance to show up in the tourney...it's not like they are showing up because they have nothing to do, only god (and I [])knows how hard it can be to participate in a toruney when your wifeysees gaming asnon-high priority stuff.
<P mce_keep="true">Sorry you lost again,you should organize the toruney so you can pick up Asch or Rapida LOL ([sg]Jig) []

[SuperRabbit]

I really think that the confirmations need to be initiated by the organizers. Putting out a thread where people sign up for event weeks in the future and then have no more involvement and expecting them to remember is a bit much. Sometimes the threads are unclear as to whether or not you are even actually signing up for a specific event.

In the ones I've run or helped with I've had few (actually only one no-show from numerous events) no-shows but we've sent out lots of PMs to remind and reconfirm.

I don't mind the start of a list but would prefer to see more straightforward use of it. You don't show, no tourneys for 3 months. Next time longer...

[AJ in HD]

I just wanted to reiterate that I am NOT in favor of creating a list. Mostly because I don't like the idea of singling people out at AGE.I do however think it is not a huge inconvenience for ALL the participants to post on the day of the event that they will be there. A specific "Checking-In for Tonight's X Tournament" thread should be pretty clear. This way the organizer can look at those that checked-in and confirm the teams or assign subs as required (yeah, subs would have to check-in as well). We should just consider it a boarding pass for the tournament.No check-in? No play. This ties our events even closer to the forums and further goes to at least keep people that join just for events to keep up with the forum if they really are joining this community.

[SuperRabbit]

I lost track of your point in the other posts AJ. This idea I like better.

I really believe that the no-shows come from infrequent members who don't remember about the event. Your idea isn't that different from mine about sending PM's. I've dropped people who didn't respond to PMs to confirm.

I might extend it back a couple of days but I think it may be worth trying...

[AJ in HD]

Yeah, the main difference Rabbit is that it is really pointless to remind somebody if they don't respond. All those that want to participate should simply confirm. The organizer has enough to do without having to keep sending PMs to nag everyone to confirm, especially since sending PMs here is a big PITA.

[jigsawhc]

We did have 5 or 6 no shows and we did have some alterantes available to fill in, but that and a few other things,l like one team's captain having trouble getting is account to recover properly, slowed the start time. I'm not in favor of any kind of list of people who don't show because stuff happens and we're ionly talking about gaming here. But, a day of check-in might work pretty well. In tourney's I run I tend to send out a message over live a couple days before the tourney starts as well as post to the front page, but having a day of check-in that those things point to would be good because then we'd know who had gotten the messages that were sent out.

[WarLokk]

I like the check-in idea. I think its addition will address a couple of issues : the organizers of events being able to pull in subs in time to fill out teams and get things started on time, and also get people for involved in the forums as others have stated already.

This is a great alternative to a "black list." That way we keep things fun and organized without getting out of hand..."I see here that your having some attendance problems Mr. PWNNUBS420, We here at AGE are gonna have to let you go [:P] "

[BORIStheBLADE1]

Man if I new you guys had trouble with people showing up I would have signed up for the alt list. Maybe next time then.