My club is going to be running it's first x-wing tournament in a couple of months and I'm wondering if anyone can offer any words of wisdom? Any horror stories of things you forgot to sort out in advance, speed bumps that make for big gaps between rounds, that sort of thing?

Current plan is 16 players, 4x60 minute Swiss rounds and a cut. 15 mins between rounds, We've got cryodex to run it.

Are you running with a seperate TO or one that will also be playing?

As someone who organises tournaments on a regular basis I can recommend the following:

1) Do not play yourself.

2) Make sure you are *very* familiar with the rules and latest FAQ.

3) Prepare *everything* you can think of. Brainstorm with at least one (other) clever/savvy person to find stuff you missed.

4) Prepare for the worst/ hope for the best.

5) Enjoy the ride

[edit]; I can recommend 75 minutes per round. 60 minutes adds to the power of large turreted ships. They need no further boost to their presence in my humble opinion. It takes time to take down all those shields/hull points and 60 minutes is a wee bit short. Just my 2 cts. fly casual.

As someone who organises tournaments on a regular basis I can recommend the following:

1) Do not play yourself.

2) Make sure you are *very* familiar with the rules and latest FAQ.

3) Prepare *everything* you can think of. Brainstorm with at least one (other) clever/savvy person to find stuff you missed.

4) Prepare for the worst/ hope for the best.

5) Enjoy the ride

[edit]; I can recommend 75 minutes per round. 60 minutes adds to the power of large turreted ships. They need no further boost to their presence in my humble opinion. It takes time to take down all those shields/hull points and 60 minutes is a wee bit short. Just my 2 cts. fly casual.

To add to this, I'd also add:

6) Have all participants bring in their fleet-lists for approval before starting, so that no-one accidentally runs an illegal fleet

7) Provide the tournament rules and FAQ directly to people that sign up before the day of the tournament, preferably through an e-mail. Store players without a forum presence might not know that they exist.

8) Contact a local resturaunt, and sell food/drinks during the tournament. One-handed food is great for a tournament, and with multiple rounds folks'll start having difficulty concentrating unless they brought their own snacks. Add a small mark-up, and you'll make a tidy profit as well.

Make sure you have a physical copy of the tourney rules / FAQ sheets, so that any debates can quickly be settled with the proper ruling.

Also, look through the rules section here and familiarize yourself with the common debates that are ongoing, such as what happens when one IG-2000 dies, and the whole Scum Dials crap. Make sure these answers are prepared ahead of time, so players don't think you're just leaning in favor of one person.

And, of course, don't play in the tourney yourself. Conflict of interests. Go and have fun by watching. This is a game as great to watch as it is to play

There are multiple ways to mitigate any conflict of interest that could arise from playing while also TOing.

There comes a point where the event size becomes to large for that, but at lower levels of attendance it isn't an issue.

Additionally the rules do allow for this under a certain tier of event.

Make sure to grab Cryodex 3.9, it auto selects win / modified win / draw based on the MoV you enter.

Consider Streaming, or other ways of using this tournament as an advertising vector.

More players = more fun, after all

75 minutes. 60 changes the game