How do you organize an esports event?

Choose a game that you are interested in, and have genuine willingness to take time and immerse in the scene. Each game has very different personalities of player base and audiences. Go see other tournaments first to get a feel of how is the crowd like and how are players like. A tournament has to fit with the culture of the scene.

While selecting the right title is vitally important,the why is equally so. Why is this event taking place and what is the aim of it. It is an organisation trying to build their community, a publisher organising a major event, a government trying to position themselves in the market or a brand trying to integrate into a community. Each have their own approach and budgets and that determines the title and format. Once you have the above worked out, the format becomes much easier to determine. Different titles takes different approach. For example, in our experience, round robin works well in sports titles while double elimination works well for top tier esports like CSGO, Dota and LOL.

One of the effective ways of promotion is actually through the staff crews and players who are participating in the event. This indirect promotion establishes bonds and trusts through people, not through a business entity or organizational entity. This kind of promotion, word of mouth, helps to get the word out to a variety of populations and desire to participate again next time in a more organic way.

After organizing esports tournaments for 2 years, I think the most important things are: 1. Administrator: The person who handles the paperworks and registration. They answer questions in Discord before and after matches. Sometimes double as score keepers/backet recorders. 2. Lobby hosts/checkers: Some games require a host to be there for teams as they set up and have any questions or problems during the game. They need to be well versed in rules and be a refere unless you have another person for that. 3. Producer: If you have broadcasts/streams, you need a producer there to manage the production team. 4. Event manager: For in person events, you need someone to manage all catering, venue, onsite contracts, vendors, and issues.

Besides surveys, go on X or Reddit to search for what others are saying after the tournament. The Esports scene is very outspoken about experiences and usually, there are perspectives already online afterward. For live events, do evaluate the cost of attendance from traveling and lodging to tickets for the event, and the average dollar spent by the attendees in the venue. Also consider the time it takes to travel from the airport, and metro station, to the event site. This is important so that next tournament you can decide whether to hold it at a location with a similar budget for attendees or needs to be somewhere cheaper to help increase attendance.

Also do research on sponsorship rules for each game. Sometimes game companies are directly involved in sponsorship rules, some does not. Depending on tournament size, some can get community license and some needs a more a extensive license.