Tournament Standards and Participant Rights

1.   A tournament participant deserves to be treated professionally.  Phone calls and emails need to be returned quickly, and questions need to be answered.  Treat someone the way you would prefer to be treated, while standing up for what is right. 

2.   Teams have the right to have basic expectations met before, during and after every tournament.  Accurate team lists will be updated leading up to the tournament.  The schedule and prize pool will be released the day after the deadline.  Schedules need to be kept on time, with minimal delays. Sunday schedules will be available two hours after the completion of the final Saturday game. Final results and champion photos will be posted within 48 hours of the completion of the tournament.

3.   Teams of all levels should be treated by the same standards.  There should be no disparity in regards to the enforcement of deadlines and entry fees.  Officiating and scheduling should be consistent between A and B brackets. All styles will be represented in marketing, photography and recognition.

4.   You deserve to know what the rules are and to expect them to be enforced consistently.  Tournament rules will be posted, as well as weather policy and tiebreaker procedures.  Officials will be professional and well-trained, and rules questions will be handled quickly and correctly on site by the tournament director.

5.   There should be a prize at every tournament.  The prize should be based on the total number of teams playing, and encourage growth of the tournament.

6.   However, prices should be kept down to encourage more teams to play.  Since most teams in each tournament will not win a prize, pricing the tournament to encourage as many teams as possible to participate is more important than a larger prize for the winning team.

7.   Teams shouldn’t have to play the same teams over and over. Saturday pools should be set up avoiding matchups pitting local teams against each other.  Sunday schedules should avoid early rematches of Saturday games.   This allows teams to face more and different opponents.

8.   Having more teams in a tournament is always better.  Tournament points should be based on the number of teams participating.  This discourages the higher level teams from poaching players from smaller teams, eliminating the competitive possibilities of those teams.  It also encourages higher level teams to support smaller teams to attempt tournament play.

9.   Teams should be able to choose what level they play, but the B teams should be able to play B teams in the elimination process. Teams should be given the option of playing in whatever level they choose.  However, prizes should be different enough to keep the A teams in the A bracket. The tournament setup should avoid dropping A teams to the B bracket, and B teams deserve the opportunity to play a full schedule on Sunday against equivalent talents.

10. Teams have the right to get as much value as possible out of each tournament.  We should offer multiple styles of play, and encourage teams to play the different styles, by scheduling to avoid conflicts between games.  We also will guarantee teams advancing to Sunday, in order to avoid wasting hotel reservations.