A tournament at your party or club night: pools, equipment, and prizes
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
6 min reading time
A game on a table is over after two rounds; a tournament format keeps twenty to thirty people occupied for an entire evening. With three game schedules, material that makes a difference, and a prize structure that works.
At almost every party, there's a game on the table. Two people play a round, three watch, and fifteen minutes later it's unused again. This is rarely due to the game itself. It's because there's no reason to play a second round. A tournament format solves that: you give twenty or thirty people a role, an opponent, and a reason to come back to that table all at once. And you need surprisingly little material for it — a bracket, a scoreboard, and one prize are half the battle.
First choose the bracket, then the game
The format determines how long you'll be busy and how many people have to wait at the same time. There are three that work well at a party or club night.
Format
How it works
Suitable for
Disadvantage
Round-robin
Everyone in a group of 4 plays against everyone
12 to 32 players
More administration
Elimination
Loser is out, winner advances
8 to 16 players
Half are done after one round
Ladder
Continuous challenges, board with names
Unlimited number, coming and going
No clear end time
For an evening where people arrive at different times, the ladder is by far the most convenient: you don't need everyone at once. If you want one clear winner and a moment to honor them, use round-robin with a final. The elimination format is the fastest, but make sure there's something else to do for those who are out in round one.
Calculate your time realistically
Take the average duration of one game, multiply by the number of games in your bracket, and add a quarter for changing players, explaining, and looking for someone who went to the bathroom. Sixteen players in an elimination bracket means fifteen games. If a game lasts five minutes, with setup, you'll be busy for over an hour and a half — just enough for an evening, too long for a two-hour get-together.
What suits your space
Space is usually the real limitation, not the budget. Divide your options into three groups.
On the table, little space. Card games and dice games. A table basketball game for €9.95 fits on a side table and plays in one-minute rounds.
Clear floor space of three to five meters.Beanbag toss (€19.95) and the ring toss game (€14.95) require a lane, not a hall.
Outdoors or in a large space. A petanque set of 7 pieces for €9.95 works on grass, gravel, and even in a parking lot, and you can play with two to six people at a time.
If there's a dartboard, you have the simplest tournament of all within reach; a set of 3 darts costs €4.95, so you can cheaply add a few spare sets. Spare material is not a luxury with darts: darts get lost.
The material that makes the difference
For the game itself, you usually already have something at home. The material that makes a tournament run smoothly is the boring stuff around it.
A visible scoreboard. A piece of paper on the table will be lost under glasses within an hour. Hang a large sheet on the wall and write with a thick marker, so people can see their standing from three meters away. Markers and pens can be found under writing and hand lettering.
Chips as currency. Chips aren't just for poker. They work for any game where you want to keep score without writing: each game won is a chip. Poker chips, 50 pieces in 6 colors cost €9.95, just like the variant with 25 chips in 6 designs. With different colors, you can assign different values.
Multiple card sets. If you're playing a card tournament, you'll want a separate deck at each table. Mini poker cards of 54 cards cost €1.95 per set, so equipping four tables will cost you less than ten euros. For a game that also works for people who don't play poker, UNO Flex for 2 to 8 players (€6.99) is a safe choice. An automatic card shuffler for 1 to 2 decks at €12.95 sounds like an unnecessary luxury, but it really saves time over ten consecutive rounds.
If you want a round with dice in between, then XXL dice for €9.95 are large enough to read from a distance — handy if there's an audience around.
Prizes: one trophy and many small items
The winning ratio: one visible grand prize and enough small prizes to give everyone who wins something. The latter prevents people from leaving after they're eliminated.
The grand prize. A gold award trophy of 15 x 5 cm costs €12.95 and does exactly what it should: it looks good in photos and the winner takes it home.
Small prizes. Something worth a few euros each, in a generous quantity. A keychain for €9.95 or something from the candy aisle works better than one expensive prize that only one person gets.
A booby prize. Costs almost nothing and generates the most laughs. Reserve one and make it a moment.
If you're setting up a prize table for a larger event, it's better to buy twenty prizes worth two euros each than four worth ten: the value of a prize lies in the moment it's awarded, not in the amount.
The evening's playbook
Beforehand. Schedule on paper, fill in names upon arrival, game rules in five sentences on the board.
First half hour. Let people sign up as they arrive. Don't start too early; those who come later and can no longer join will drop out.
During. One person keeps track of the board. Don't do it with four people, because then no one will do it.
Final. Set a time for it and announce it twice. A final with everyone gathered around is the moment the evening culminates.
After. Count the chips, hand out the prizes, take one group photo with the trophy.
Compile your own
You'll find the components for a tournament night spread across a few collections: games for the game materials, gambling games for chips and card sets, card games and dice for the individual rounds, sports for games that require space, and keychains and candy for the prize table. If you're organizing something for an association or team and want to know how much material you need for thirty or sixty participants, send an email to info@verpakkingdeals.nl — we'll help you with quantities and delivery time.
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