This thread is a bit off-beat, but I think it will be fun. It's a respect thread for every comic tournament ever run on KMC, and also a respect thread for the winners.
I'll be posting links of battles, synopses of the tourneys, and will have comments from the winners (when possible). Other fun stuff will ensue. My hope is that it will become an area to discuss past and future tournaments, as well as an area to catalog past tourneys. Everything we need should fit on Page 1, and I've allotted extra slots(posts) for future tournaments.
Also, if you have anything to add to this thread, please PM me with it and I'll try my best to work it in. However, we don't need links to every single battle or tiny minutia. I'm simply trying to give an accurate overview of the tournaments.
Anyway, here we go. The tourneys are listed chronologically:
General Comments:
For two of the tourneys (III and IV), we had additional matches (or enough round-robin style matches) to determine places beyond first and second. For the street-level amalgam one (IV) we went to 5 places. Still, from a field of 12-16, with many of them seasoned vets, notoriety of any kind is impressive.
Below I have some general statistics on entrants, then listed participants in the order in which they have received tournament accolades.
Updated through XVII. All figures on participants are best estimates based on available data.
....
Number of Participants in KMC Tourneys:
Members: 92
Counting Repeat Entrants: 209
Winners: 11
People Who Have Placed: 22
Most Entries:
Scoobless - 10
Blair Wind - 9
Leonidas - 8
Digi, King Kandy - 7
Charlotte Debel, K Von Doom, Smurph – 6
Notable Participants:
Catalogs winners, runners-up, and other notable tournament participants.
General Comments:
I didn't know this existed originally. It was started about a month before I became a member.
But in any case, this tournament started it all here on KMC. Props to Evangel for coming up with the rules from scratch. I'm sure it wasn't perfect, but it was more than anyone else had thought to do up until that point.
General Comments:
Following the trend of Evangel's tourney, ScarletSpider set up his own, and it continued to generate interest in tournaments.
Champion Comments (from Scoobless):
This takes me back to my first week as a member of KMC, in fact my first match was exactly 7 days after I joined. I had never been on a comic forum before let alone played any tournaments, so I had no idea what I was doing (as you can see if you click on the Crazyspinz vs. Scoobless link above)
This tourney was shortly after the events of Graviton's appearance in Thunderbolts (#56 or so) where he owns pretty much everyone. I used that appearance for all it was worth during the tourney. The reason I drafted him in the Superman level draft was because he could affect the entire battlefield at any time, simply by increasing the gravity I could take out everyone at a lower power level ... and by reducing the Gravity I incapacitated Doomsday without having to engage him.
The main reason for selecting graviton was to eject everyone into space ... I found out what "No BFR" meant during my first match ... dammit -
Overall not the best tourney format (as 4 of your 7 characters are almost useless) but it was still fun.
General Comments:
This tournament, to me, was loads of fun. It took forever to finish, because Evangel had computer troubles midway through and Nataku had to take over. But some cool things took place. Nataku and stormfront had a 20+ page epic battle that ranged from intelligent debate to outright flaming/bashing. Scoobless and DigiMark had a battle of hilarious names as "General Kinky" faced off against "Flash Thordon". And amalgams became the fad following this tourney. It was also the tournament that was largely responsible for getting me the notoriety I needed to become a Mod (which happened in the middle of my match with Scoob).
Khell and long pig utilized individual characters well (Majestic and Dr. Strange, respectively) but it was Flash Thordon's well-rounded power that eventually won the day.
Champion Comments (from Scoobless):
My second tourney on KMC, better format, harder matches, tougher debaters ... frankly I was a little surprised to win this one, not that I didn't have a kick ass amalgam (It's Flash Thordon FFS) but because everyone else also had tough characters. Long Pig maybe should have won but he seriously underused his creation (Dr Strange, Absorbing Man, Barry Allen I think) He fell back on only Strange's power almost completely ignoring the abilities of the others.
Digi thinks 50% of my win came from my name choice ... maybe it did ... The other 50% probably came from my unashamed posting of my Thordon picture in every possible thread where I could get away with it ... you have to admit that it's pretty freakin' sweet for MS paint with zero experience at photo editing.
{Digi's editor's note: maybe not 50%, since it was a legitimately powerful amalgam, but it sure as hell didn't hurt}
.....
IV.
Tournament:
Modified Street Level Amalgam Tourney
Host:
DigiMark007
Entrant List:
8BitChris
Dizzle
Dr. SpiderHulk
EsteemedLeader
Jinzin
Jplatinum
Khellendros
K Von Doom
LaminatorX
Long pig
Nataku
Newjak
Scoobless
Solidus Snake
Stormfront
Zachrivard
Winner:
Jinzin
Runner-Up:
long pig
Other Places (if applicable):
3rd LaminatorX
4th Khellendros
5th Scoobless
General Comments:
We really tried some new things with this tournament. Some worked, others didn't, but it was a necessary step forward. We had in-thread voting instead of a poll. We allowed non-comic characters to be chosen, which made things interesting. There were Jedi Knights, warriors from sci-fi TV shows, book characters (Drizzt for one), and others. I also allowed some "over-the-cap" people in, then lobotomized certain powers so that they were under our limits...not the best way to handle things, but it was my first time hosting a tourney. It worked out in the end though.
Also, check out the bonus round. It's a hoot! Since the people involved weren't going to be entered into the finals, I allowed them to "trade" picks with others to make their amalgams more potent for the bonus round. And the battle locale, if I may say so myself, kicks ass. Newer members may not get the joke, but it was still a cool fight.
Entrant List:
Adam Warlock
Blair Wind
Darkcrawler
DarkUrizen
Deadpool909
Dman2008
Ethereal
Grey Fox
Illadelph12
Khellendros
K Von Doom
Long Pig
Roughrider
ScarletSpider
Scoobless
Stormfront
Winner:
Blair Wind
Runner-Up:
Scoobless
Other Places (if applicable):
N/A
Winning Team:
Duplicate Boy
Powerhouse
Wendigo (Earth X)
Crystal
General Comments:
Dizzle did main duty for this one, with help from SS. I want to say this is the first tourney where we started using pre-set judges, but I'm not sure. I think maybe it started about midway through this tournament, and became the standard for tourneys.
Blair and long pig found that duplication would be effective for this tourney, and they squared off in a bizarre first round match that led to a few new restrictions. But Blair carried that momentum to a tourney win, upsetting all sorts of tourney vets (long pig, Khell, Scoob) on his way to becoming a feared name himself.
Champion Comments (from Blair Wind):
What can I say about my first win in a tournament, which also happened to be my first tournament ever?! Well, it was a challenging experience, that much is for sure. I faced some of the best debaters here and won. It was an extreme surprise for me. I started off by facing long pig, and thought right away I would lose. However, I didn't and soon moved on to what I still think was my hardest battle: Illadelph. Now if you ever feel like reading the fight, Illadelph was owning me until the very end. Its the truth, and what I like most about it was that we ended up being friends after it all. In fact he helped me behind the scenes with all my other matches, including the first one. To this day we still help each other out when it comes to tactics and such. One small side note, that I will always remember, is that my grandfather died during this match. Moving on to the next fight, I found my one true KMC rival. I tried being nice, but the guy is...well lets just say me and him don't exactly get along all to well. I went up against Khellendros. I won, 'nuff said. I then went on to face the multi winning tournament champion: Scoobless. Now to understand how I won, let me explain. For the other few matches I was running extremely low on scans. I had maybe two or three courtesy of xmarksthespot and King Mungi. I then found a treasure trove of scans in Leonidas. So I was tactically being given help by Kahn and Illadelph, and being given scans by Leo, Mungi and X. I then went on bravely to face the tournament king, and came out on top. I had won, and it was the biggest shock I have ever had on KMC. Thank you everyone who helped and voted, and thanks to the hosts who made it happen.
Little things I found funny:
-Digimark ALWAYS voted against me
-My name on the thread was ALWAYS second
-I had no idea who Crystal was until Xmarks told me, "Just pick her!"
-I had originally thought Wendigo would be my greatest asset, later on figured out that Duplicate Boy was the best pick I had ever made!
-I got my nickname, B-Dub, from this tournament because I picked Duplicate Boy. Illadelph started it, and now everyone uses it.
......
VI.
Tournament:
Herald Team Tournament (Partners)
Host:
DigiMark007
Entrant List:
Accel
Adam Warlock
A.J.
Batdude123
Blair Wind
Darkcrawler
DevilLance
Grey Fox
Khellendros
K Von Doom
Leonidas
Newjak
Psyquis
Sam Z
Superherovandal
TheKahn
General Comments:
As with most tournaments, we did some new things. 4 judges were used in each battle for the first time, and the poll acted as a tie-break. It was also the first "partner" tourney, and each team member could only debate for 2 characters, so you needed both people to be solid to win.
Leo and Kahn proved that gimmicks don't always take the day. They paved their way to the title by simply drafting the most powerful team in the tourney, then using them well.
General Comments:
Evangel's second go-around at a tourney went from drafts to completion in about a month. Bumpy at times due to fluctuating interest, but it was still fast, fun, and efficient.
Scoobless gained an unprecedented third title. And in a bizarre set of circumstances, Loot and Scoobless actually met three times in the tourney!
Champion Comments (from Scoobless):
Basically the same format as the first tournament I entered, so I had some idea of what was going to happen this time around. Didn't want to use the same team again (as I think I was lucky not to face the Surfer or someone similar the first time) So this time my heavy hitter was Quasar (Wendell Vaughn, not the useless chick using the name these days) I figured I'd use Quasar to armour up my other guys and beef up the arrows of my two Hawkeyes 616 & Ult (who I drafted because I'm a Hawkeye fanboy)
Of Course this turned out to be worthless as Evangel came out with some "no using one character to amp others" rule after the tourney had already started.
Like Digi said, I had to face Loot 3 times during this tourney (still not sure why though) He did have a decent team which he headed with the Surfer, so after the first time we fought I knew I'd have to come up with a different tactic to get past him again, which I did, barely, ONLY to find out I had to face him again in the final ... which meant yet another completely different strategy.
Not the most fun tourney ever, a lot of arguing between myself and Evangel, she asked if I'd like to forfeit on more than one occasion which took most of the fun out of it for me. I wont be entering any of her tourneys again after this one.
General Comments:
It was a slow-moving tourney, but methodical and thorough. The under-Thanos limit gave participants more room to play around with, and guys like Surfer, Thor, and Quasar went from being the best picks (in the past herald tourneys) to merely normal picks, as team-wreckers like Mangog, Despero, and The Keeper found their way into the mix.
Power copying, with characters such as Black Alice, Super Adaptoid, and Space Phantom, also became a popular (and powerful) trend for the tournament.
Champion Comments (from DC/BW):
Blair Wind:
So what can I say about my newest tournament win? I can start of by saying I am very glad I got the partner I got in DarkCrawler. What I brought in creative ideas, he matched with mathematical numbers and scans. I was the abstract to his logic, the yin to his yang. Ok, so maybe it was not that extreme, but I think we made a very effective team. We both knew how to think outside the box, and still consider the logic behind what we were doing. We applied tactics and strategies that seemed to defy the imagination, and I think it served us well. We went on to our first match, and were sorely disappointed when the opposing team made no effort in the least to oppose us. We moved on to the team composed of Pr/Rewmac. We tried a very unique and interesting tactic against their team, and we won. We then went on to the finals to face Digimark/Scoobless. Now you have to understand, this final was composed of some of the greatest tournament combatants, having one tournament winning vet and one experienced contender on both sides. Scoobs and I had both won a tournament before, and both DarkCrawler and Digimark had participated in tournaments before. It was a slobber-knocker to be sure, and the judging had me on the end of my seat. It was a thrilling ride, and I am glad I had DC at my side
Little things I found funny
-Everyone thought we were the most powerful team, when I was thinking that Darth/Bran had the most dangerous team.
-Our names ALWAYS came first in the thread
-I got to beat Scoobs...again
-DC and I had so many more buffs it was not funny, we just could not fit them all in.
-Illadelph helped us out, all the while complaining that he should have won the last tournament we were in (in the match against me he lost)
-This quote made my day (I will keep them anonymous, but they were through PM's)
"On review, I can't find enough faults to help you.....Sorry to tell you this, but you're too damned good"
General Comments:
Having survived a failed attempt at a high meta/low herald tourney that involved 4-man teams, darthgoober lowered the character limits some and made a traditional amalgam tourney. As with other tourneys, the veterans showed up in force and had good showings. Scoobless claimed an unprecedented 4th tourney title, and Blair Wind added to his impressive tournament resume. Leonidas, another former tourney champion, made it to the semi-finals in only his second tournament ever.
The defining strategy for this tournament was Scoobless' "Godzilla" approach, simply making Sasquatch so big with Pym's powers that it was nigh-impossible for the other participants to hurt him. If nothing else, it proved to be an interesting visual for the battle.
Champion Comments:
"The Godzilla Plan"
I had a lot of fun with this tourney, I honestly wasn't taking it seriously at first, I wasn't thinking of clever ways to win or what tech I could use, the intention was to keep it simple. I figured the easiest way to amplify a character's physical strength was to use a grower (Hank Pym in this case) if his power can turn a regular man into a class 50+ then it should make an already powerful character practically invincible at this level. A later realisation, that I could use Moonstone's control of her own gravity to access heights Pym could never reach alone due to pressure on his body from his own weight, meant that I could take my finals match one step farther.
lol, I had Bigfoot (named by Digimark btw) destroy 3 of the 4 battlefields he fought on -
Grand Canyon - Destroyed
Death Star - Destroyed
Earth - Destroyed
The only reason the arctic battlefield survived was because I opted to use Pym's shrinking powers for the majority of that match.
Overwhelming offensive power + untouchable defense = tourney win
An amusing fact, this was the second "Iron Man Level" tournament, and both times Iron Man has failed to take a win (last time by me in a final match against BW, this time by BW in a final match against me)
The lesson - Don't select the character that embodies the power cap for the tourney ... you'll only lose.
Oh yeah, another great thing about this tourney was that I got to post pics like these to give people an idea how the matches might go:
General Comments:
Once again breaking new ground, Illadelph started his own board and hosted the tournament away from KMC, though only the battles themselves took place on the alternate board. Teams of 2-3 KMC members, teams of 6 characters making a total of 3 amalgams, and varied and insidious battle locations, made for some wild strategies both during prep and once the battle started.
The semis and finals were a best of 3, so the finals match that the link provides is the final match among them.
{edit}
Ironically, this tournament never finished. I leave it here because the vast majority of it was completed, so it deserves recognition. Tourneys have failed before, but all others were during the planning or draft stages. It remains to be seen who would have won. The 4 teams listed in the links remained, so the champion(s) would have been from among them.
General Comments:
A tumultuous tournament, it saw participants banned from the tournament, mid-tourney entrants, as well as mid-tournament rule changes. However, Evangel devised an interesting point-based system for drafting, meaning that participants could have anything from Batman to Galactus on their squad. Darthgoober won his first tournament, which despite his lack of long tourney experience (1 win prior), many thought was well-deserved based on his debating prowess and ingenuity.
General Comments:
Leonidas earned his second tourney win in a competition that forced players to partner with others from the tourney, then try to work together to win. It created an interesting dynamic, then switched back to head-to-head in order to decide the victor. A mix of amalgams and large teams, including varying prep times, made for a slew of universal-level prep scenarios. Whether or not they were believed varied radically depending on the match, but it made for an electic and entertaining tournament.
General Comments:
Scoob and leo were declared champions by delph after a long break in the action after the semi-finals, though no final was fought (there may have been one semi-final yet to play as well) so it's not being officially recognized. It's a shame, really, because the tournament itself, which featured constant re-drafting and a huge round robin, was a lot of fun.
It's also the first tourney to feature an audio writeup (courtesy of yours truly). I regret to say that I can't get the links to work anymore, but it was a lulz-worthy stunned audience as I unveiled them.
Champion Comments:
....
XIV.
Tournament:
High Herald Team Tourney
Host:
Batdude123 and TheKahn
Entrant List:
Blair Wind
CharlotteDebel
Darthgoober
Galan
Id
JaketheBank
King Kandy
King Mungi
Kris Blaze
Leonidas
OmegaVision
Philosophia
Pr
Psycho Gundam
Smurph
xJLxKing
Winners:
Leonidas and Galan007
Runners-Up:
King Kandy and Id
Other Places (if applicable):
N/A
Winning Team:
Thor
Nate Grey (X-Man)
Beta Ray Bill
General Comments:
With a small group of dedicated participants (no first timers, a tourney first), a lower power level than most tourneys, and very little prep, Leo spearheaded a neatly efficient tournament that was simple but exciting.
Champion Comments:
- I won. Woo.
- I got one of my fanboy crushes a tourney win (Spidey). Now I only have about 5 others that "need" to win a tourney (that likely never will).
- I did it entirely with Spider-Man related characters (in the final, at least). It wasn't really by design, but I'm a sucker for themes so it made the team cool.
- There were redrafts in the tourney, and I actually drafted my favorite team at the beginning of the tournament (Spidey, Moon Knight, and Cpt. Boomerang Jr.). I also used Black Panther briefly. But as much as I wanted to keep my original team (I loved Boomer as a draft pick), giving my opponents a chance to adapt to me while I did nothing was too much of a risk.
- PG is a clever guy who will likely compete for a title in any tourney he enters. It was fun facing him.
- In past tourneys I've done signatures, team names, team songs, audio writeups (perhaps my most outlandish addition), and generally went for too much pagaentry. In one of delph's tourneys, I drafted upwards of 20 people via multiple redrafts just to play around. This tourney, I researched and debated. That was it. The result was that I wasn't burnt out by the end, as I've been in the past, and I think it showed in my performance.
_____________________________
XVI.
Tournament:
High Meta Amalgam Tourney
Host:
Curryman (and others)
Entrant List:
Abhilegend
Leonidas
Tijay
Psycho Gundam
Sin I Am
Charlotte DeBel
Id
Chipguy
Digi
Beatboks
General Comments:
Like many latter-day tourneys, this was plagued with judging no-shows, drop-outs, and an MIA host in the later rounds. Despite this, it finished (barely). Id gained his first tourney win with a tourney busting amalgamation that pulled numerous powers from Rogue's history into play.
General Comments:
After a longish hiatus from tourneys - with a few of the mini-tourneys (listed below) in between - this ended up being a relatively smooth experience that saw Scoobless crowned for an unprecedented 5th time.
In the wake of tournaments that haven't finished, Battlezones (detailed in the post below) have become more popular, as have mini tourneys. My definition for mini-tourneys is any tournament that has fewer than six (6) participants. Or tournaments that feature a single match.
There have been a few attempts at these kinds of tournaments. They are listed below:
I. One Power Tournament (2015)
Host: Blair Wind
Winner(s): A 3-way tie between Smurph (Existere), Digi, and Styletime
Winning Characters: Respectively, Animal Powers, City Control, and Telepathy. Since this was a powers tournament, we technically didn't draft characters, though we used certain characters as our primary template (Animal Man, Hawksmoor, and various telepaths)
The original premise involved a number of "teams," some of which are now defunct, but the basic idea is a format by which you can create and regulate your own tourney-style matches.
Anyone and everyone is encouraged to pursue this if you want debating experience, and I'd also recommend reading the guidelines for tourney directors below, since it might help you form rules for your Battle Zone match.
Championship Belts
In recent years, a variant of the Battlezone has occurred. Dubbed "championship belts," each power tier has a WWE-style belt up for grabs. The winner of challenge matches holds the belt until they willingly vacate the belt or someone else beats them. Here's the original thread about it: http://www.killermovies.com/forums/f105/t563991.html
Currently, several belts are open, and several others can be challenged. The list below may not be entirely up-to-date, but reflects my best knowledge at the time.
Blair Wind had a clever idea to form a "tourney" around actually crafting a comic book, including the pitch, story arc, etc. It didn't quite finish, but still produced a lot of interesting work. All relevant threads are posted below, and are worth a look:
Here is where people can show off their tournament signatures. Send them to me and I’ll add them (nothing made after the fact, however....these have to have been used during a tourney). The brackets indicate which tournament the signatures are from.
I. Overview
II. Expectations & Gaining Interest
III. Establishing Rules
IV. Drafts
V. Judges
VI. Battles
VII. Final Comments
I. Overview
A lot of people think they have great ideas for tournaments. Some of them are right. Some aren't. But few of those know how to run a tournament well, and the end product is that we have tournaments that fall apart for various reasons, or if they finish they do so in a less-than-efficient manner. This is the product of having participated in, hosted, judged in, or observed nearly every tourney ever run on KMC. Each tourney differs in the details, but a lot can be done to standardize the approach of the director in order to streamline the process.
II. Expectations & Gaining Interest
Expectations: First and foremost, be prepared to field a ton of PM's, and to send out just as many. If you aren't on every day, and can't see yourself responding to 5-10 PMs a day, and can't maintain steady upkeep for many weeks that most tourneys take, don't do it.
Gaining Interest: 1. Ideally, talk to a mod first. There may already be a tourney in the works, or they may veto your plans for a tourney if there isn't enough thought put into it yet. Next, make an introductory thread. Lay out the general format of the tournament, but leave the particulars open to change and discussion. Gauge interest, pool tentative entrants, and hash out the particulars of the rules. 2. Make a sign-up thread. In the opening post, stress that each participant will have to commit to the tournament, which may include months of drafts and battles. PM those who don't seem as active to ensure their participation. Drop-outs kill tournaments. Do whatever possible to avoid them. 3. Ideally, sign-ups and final rule changes should take 1-2 weeks.
III. Establishing Rules
1. The Obvious: establish what prep time you will have, announce battle locations in advance (ideally) so that players can review them (often, an advantage could be conveyed by some locations that you might not see). Place limits on speed, strength, overall power, energy projection, healing, etc. etc. etc. Also a post count limit for each member who is participating. 10-12 posts per match is probably a reasonable maximum.
Also, an appearance minimum for drafted characters is strongly recommended. As in, don't allow a character who has only ever appeared in 4 comics. If they're being drafted, chances are they have a few great showings and no bad ones. It's hard to fight that sort of thing, or even get a definite power level for them. 10 comics is a safe minimum, though it can be altered at the host's discretion.
2. The Loopholes: listed below are some common loopholes that are used to create power combinations that are far beyond others at a particular power level. Establish a rule for each one, or be prepared to deal with them.
- Duplication: set a limit or ban it outright. Probably shouldn't be around at less than a herald level anyway.
- Constructs/Summoning: similar to duplication, set a limit or ban them outright. You can also make it so that constructs/summons have to be at or below the tourney limits.
- Power copying: this goes for both the draft picks as well as constructs/summons.
- Time Manipulation: usually best to stay away from this entirely. Time travel is a power few would want to see implemented in tourneys.
- Matter Manipulation: Is it allowed on the opposing team? On anything else (weapons, environment, etc.)? Not at all? Again, goes for constructs as well.
- Speed Force: Allow it at your own peril, at any level.
- Information Retention: Do characters retain knowledge from past matches? Particularly important in regards to power copying, but in other ways as well.
- Meshing Limit: Applicable mainly to amalgam tourneys, but also for power amping that can occur between two people. Is it allowed? Can characters be amped beyond tourney limits? Can participants access banned powers through meshes (speed force, matter manip, etc.) or not?
- Do feats by the character count if they are in comics that come out after drafts? Some tourneys have said yes, others no, others with the stipulation that they are only valid if they are consistent with the tier/level the character was originally drafted at. No herald feats for street levelers, in other words.
- People will find other loopholes. Count on it. Be ready to make decisions on them. And it doesn't hurt to simply make a "no loophole" clause in the rules, then invoke it to ban a potentially exploitive strategy. Or establish a total power limit, when other specific limits may not cover it.
3. Neutering:
Example: Matter manipulation is banned in this scenario. Let's say a character is drafted who meets all requirements, but can matter manip. The participant asks if they can use the character, just minus any matter manip. powers. You say yes. At this point, a precedent is set that can be dangerous. Let's also say the speed cap is at Mach 10. Now, someone can presumably draft the Flash and have him operating at exactly Mach 10 at all times. That may be an exaggeration, but if allowed, characters can and will be drafted that are beyond the caps. At that point, you give yourself the headache of establishing what is and isn't allowed, but for each character. Far more frustrating and time-consuming than making the rules once. It's also hard to keep judges aware of all of the neutering in such a scenario, so judging might be compromised.
Moral of the story, stay away from this if possible. You'll likely have to be the jerk during drafts, but an all or nothing approach is far better than bending the rules for such draft picks.
4. Don't change rules mid-tourney. It's bad form. Ambiguity may occur and a decision will need to be made, but make sure you let participants know that they should contact you with any "iffy" tactics beforehand to establish a rule on it. In fact, putting something to this affect in a sign-up or draft thread is a great idea. That way, they can't complain if they get ruled against later in the tourney.
IV. Drafts
1. You'll get 10-15 PM's a day concerning potential draft picks (or anger at your decisions). Be ready. This is by far the busiest time for a tourney host. 2. Usually a week is good for each round of drafts, with a day or two in between each draft. Establish a stopping day when you make the thread. 3. People will switch picks to counter the picks of others. Set a final date when picks can no longer be switched out. 4. Allow discussion and disagreement to occur, but stress that it must be kept civil. After a character has been contested for an ample period of time, weigh the evidence and make a decision. Establish it as final once it is made, or more chaos and argument will ensue. Read all posts in the draft threads (or other tourney threads) to make sure you understand each character that is being contested.
V. Judges
This is perhaps the most overlooked aspect of hosting. You need judges. Lots of them. Dedicated ones. Knowledgable ones. And you need to follow up on the judging. Ideally, have a steady rotation of judges so that there aren't just the same 4-5 people judging every match. To do this comfortably, you'll need no less than about 10 potential judges. Some will be more active than others, but as many competent judges as possible should be worked in.
Contact them early. Ideally during early drafts, once you know who isn't participating. Then PM them again when they are to be judging. Let them know to give their vote within no more than 2-3 days after a match ends, and ideally within 24 hours of it ending. One of the most unforeseen methods of slowing a tourney to a crawl are judges who don't vote in a timely manner. 2-3 days is a maximum. Let them know that you expect this, and if they can't do it, thank them for informing you and get a new judge.
VI. Battles
I've found that about 4-5 days is a nice amount of time for a battle. Enough time for participants to get a fair amount of debating in, and it leaves 2-3 days for judging so that you can stay on a roughly week-long cycle. Keeping things moving is key to maintaining momentum and interest. And part of the pressure is on you to keep judges steadily informed of their duties so that things continue to progress. If they aren't judging on time, it slows everything down, and the host is at fault just as much as the negligent judge(s).
Two matches a week is standard. More or less depending on tourney size.
Follow matches at least loosely. Chances are you'll be making 1-2 rulings during the matches themselves. You have to be around often, or else participants may not know if a tactic is legal or not for an entire match. If it isn't, one person's entire match may be for nothing. That kind of frustration makes unhappy participants.
VII. Final Comments
Try to enjoy it. It's a lot of work, but can be rewarding. But be prepared, and be active every day. Those two things are the biggest aspects of running a successful tournament.
Some tourneys won't have to deal with everything I've talked about. Every tourney director should find something to aid them, however. Ignore what isn't applicable and apply what is. If a tournament director actually follows through on these things, rather than simply nodding in agreement then doing their own thing, tourneys will run far more smoothly.