There is a really good way to track how many tickets are spent on classics instead of for the main tournament, it just wasn’t being used. (Thanks Karl!)
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Can anyone confirm what the pot actually was? I thought open was $4k and classics was $1k - but maybe I’m way off. Perhaps @JPW can weigh in.
I guess all I was saying is it doesn’t seem to line up with the “guaranteed” payout of $6k. I did some pretty cursory, generous math on entries and it looks like around $6k in entries that were actually logged. I would expect there was at least half as many that were just walked away from/scratched. I know about half of mine were.
And to hopefully bring this back on topic a little - I would also hope (expect?) that show entry is subsidizing the tournament in some way (or at least directors time/effort), as I highly doubt top 100 players would come to the show without the draw of the tournament/circuit points.
I can only confirm what the classics pot was. $1000, of which $100 went to the top qualifier(which was not advertised BTW). 1st-4th was $500, 250, 100, 50. You really can’t try to add up the entries vs. the pot at this event. I know for a fact that some entries were comped. I don’t know if this was a small number or a larger number, but there were some free entries being handed out.
Going back to whole transparency thing, this event definitely was not. But it was pretty well run, I had a great time, and I would definitely attend it again.
The number of competitors seemed about the same, (about 70 in the main both years and roughly 60 in the classics both years)
The difference was that this year there were fewer games in both banks compared to 2014 and 2013. There were 5 games in the main, 3 games in the classic (all games count) versus 7 games, choose best 5 for the main and 4 games choose best 3 for the classics. So there were fewer places to distribute 70 competitors. (8 total games versus 11). With every single game counting toward the composite score, there was no game/line that anyone could avoid.
In 2013 there was no classics bank, but still 7 games choose 5. The event had about 70 players.
I wonder about this in other parts of the country. Around here, two big events require the tournament to cover their own costs and run almost entirely independent of the show. The third does not charge any costs however, all proceeds were for charity.
I think there is a value proposition for tournaments at shows, but I don’t know if they’re being presented that way to the organizers. I think the argument is particularly strong if the organizers of the tournament reach beyond the tournament itself and facilitate things such as how-to-play seminars, pinball school, maybe incorporate show sponsors in live streams, not just tournament sponsors.
When I did PPE, part of negotiating what PPE would get from the pool was that I would do a how-to-play seminar and I also recruited volunteers to do “break out” groups after the seminar where attendees went out with a local skilled player for hands-on learning (what is now called “pinball sunday school” at PAGG). When Mads K and I did the seminar the year before, we got the best survey feedback of the show, so they definitely knew the value was there. Additionally, unlike many of their “celebrity” speakers, they didn’t have to buy me a hotel room and per diem, so I was essentially a very cheap way to fill out their seminar schedule. For those “services” they agreed to eat $200 of the tournament’s expenses, which I know is not a lot but it was a start.
As for the tournament drawing attendees who otherwise would not have gone, that’s a bit tougher because I don’t know of anyone who has tried to quantify a typical percentage, or whether the organizers would trust whatever numbers they’re shown. Maybe a place to start is to track the number of fly-in players who play in the tournament? Or request a survey is given to all show attendees, which includes a question like “Other than playing pinball, why else are you here? Check all that apply: Seminars, Vendors, Tournament, Shop for Games, etc”.