Looking to Set Up a Tournament

Hi guys, I’m a UK resident considering setting up a small scale, non-profit, fighting game tournament in the south. It’s only starting out and it’ll probably be the first major event organisation of my life so I’m going to need your help on a few things to get it going.
Basically i need to know what kind of legalisation there is around using fighting games for events so that Capcom or any other companies aren’t on my ass about anything due to my own ignorance.
Secondly i would like to know the best way to structure the tournament, such as layouts - how many tvs/consoles and the ideal way to sort out the players like a tree style entree or what not. I know it depends on the size of the event but any help you can give me on this would be fantastic. Thanks

There were a couple places I could have moved this (Regional…Tournament section…), but I moved it to the Saikyo Board because I think this could be a good beginners topic. How to set up tournaments. What to look out for. How to choose a format. Etc.

I’m pretty sure Capcom is cool about us using their game (at least for now), so really no need to worry about any kind of licensing or anything.
Of course the number of tv/console setups will depend on the turnout you expect to have, but to be honest I don’t have any experience with this. I would like to know rough estimate or rule of thumb, how many setups should one have per number of entrants? Anybody have an idea?
As far as structuring the tournament, almost all tournaments are based off of the double elimination bracket system. Slightly larger tournaments usually have an $5-$10 door fee and then $10 per game you want to enter in (SSF4, Mvc3, MK9, etc.).

Since this is your first attempt at organising a tournament, I’d suggest offering an entry fee discount to any players who bring along a console/monitor.

There’s nothing else I can possibly say that can’t be explained much better in thislink. I wish you best of luck though, Bartemious. The FG scene deserves more attention in the UK.

What I’m doing now, as part of the market research to see if a tournament will actually pay off, is I’m going to set up a small scale fight club of sorts, where people can go every week, just to have some local matches. If word gets around and if it gets popular enough, then might be a good time to set up a tourney.

I have also been wanting to do the same thing up in Nottingham. Renting a community centre is fairly cheap but i will be going with the option of setting up a “Bar Fights” type thing first.

Im sure most bars or pubs will be happy to let you use their big screen if you are bringing 10-30 people that are all coming buying food and drinks. Also, try the neo empire forums as they currently are the largest in the UK for fighting game tourneys.

You should have better luck than me being nearer London, as that’s where the majority of the UK scene is.