Just going to chime in here and share some of my 12+ years of tournament going experience.
If it continues to be held at SFSU, you have to consider the some of the type of people the sf community consists of. There are people that like to drink, smoke cigs/weed and go to tournaments. It happens, you can say it’s prohibited but it’ll still happen and will ultimately go back to the organizer and the event. Possible shutdown of the dojo.
But, what can you do to possibly prevent these problems?
The alcohol issue- I know from experience of running an organization at CSUS alcohol IS allowed at official organization events. So have you thought about turning the dojo into an official SFSU organization? There are some things you have to do before hand and proper checking of ID is definitely required. At CSUS, the requirements to form an organization were very low, just 10 student members ratio of official student members to non-student members were like 8:2. You also get money FROM THE SCHOOL for food, shirts, equipment, etc.
The Drugs issue-If you open the flood gates to the entire community there is a high chance that you’ll have to deal with this. But don’t get me wrong, expansion is a great thing but I feel the way it’s currently growing is great. Also, you should tap into the student community first. I’m sure people already living in the dorms are more willing to walk downstairs to play than people on the other side of the bay. This way, they are also held responsible for their actions on school grounds(better behavior). So try posting fliers around the school; dorms/food courts/rnc especially and invite other organizations to attend the meetings and in return attend theirs.
Streaming:
There are other things needed for streaming besides what it seems like you have so far: xbox, computer, and capture card. This will allow you to send video to wherever your stream is connected if you have a GREAT connection and if you want to plat on a computer, however, it will not have crowd sound, commentary, and streaming software that will compress high quality video for you prior to upload it (BTW, Wirecast costs $450 per license). You’ll definitely need a splitter (will split the audio video from the xbox and allow it to go to both a TV and the capture card). Other things you’ll need to do a budget version of a typical stream: mics(commentary and crowd noise), audio mixer(adjust volume between said mics and game sound),and additional cameras/webcams. I have an i7 MBP that I’d gladly bring when I attend and maybe a copy of Wirecast.
Where can you get the money for the equipment?
Weekly $1-$2 entry tournaments where EVERYTHING goes towards the event are a great start. Also, allowing rebuys will raise more money and allow for runbacks in the middle of the tournament. It’s all for fun anyways, right? It’s not so much that it’ll break the bank for college students but it’s good enough that over a few months you’ll have a decent amount to buy streaming equipment. It’ll also provide entertainment for people just there to watch and not really playing yet as they can see the ‘better’ players towards the finals. Image 16 people sign up. (16x$2 = $32[potentionally more with rebuys!]) x 10 tournaments = $320 dollars for equipment. Running tournament brackets is so easy nowadays. Just use any of the programs out there designed for it and plug and chug.
So basically, my advice is to fully establish yourself as a group/organization/club/whatever that is capable of doing things on your own before you reach out to expand to entire sf community. Get the things needed do the streaming, then getting the word out will be a lot easier.
Just my $.02
