The stores I've been use a combination of their in-store mats and player's mats. Using mats brought in by players is fine, just make sure you measure them to make sure they are 36"x36" and make sure that mats stay on the same table and that players can't choose which mat they want to play on.

You could also get a 36"x 12,000" roll of Kraft paper at Wal-mart for $50 and just cut out 36" sections and tape it down to the table and then throw it away at the end of the day, that's enough paper for 330 mats.

Our TO got a deal on fabric with a starfield printed on it. The big pain was cutting that whole bolt to regulation size squares.

As TO, dress up as Darth Vader.

Insist that everyone call you Lord Vader.

Force choke people who violate the rules.

It doesn't get any more "extra mile" than that.

On my tournaments every Player got his own clock:

Results and Pairings are shown with a projector.

Special Prices:

https://flic.kr/p/r1yTrV'>[/url]

Extra table for table no 1

certificates for the Players:

Special trophies:

We collect for charity (ill children)

Next tournament 501st Legion attends with 10 People.

Vegetarian Food.

Posters.

Why are thier clocks all displaying different times?

Individual timers. Once you're set up you start without waiting for the others. Works like a charm.

For our Christmas tournament at Critical Hit Games the store owner payed for everyone's entrance fee and gave away over $200 worth of prizes.

On my tournaments every Player got his own clock:

[clipped images for brevity...]

Results and Pairings are shown with a projector.

Special Prices:

Extra table for table no 1

certificates for the Players:

Special trophies:

We collect for charity (ill children)

Next tournament 501st Legion attends with 10 People.

Vegetarian Food.

Posters.

Wowza!

That's an impressive prize pool!

How many people turn up to your events??

Last time 32. On Sunday now 50.

I didn't give away everything you can see. That is what winners can choose from.

Your a great TO! Wish you were around were I live.

We have the laziest game store in the universe here. Just show up no effort whatsoever put into the event.

Pictures from my last tournament this sunday. 50 Players storechampionship. This was a charity tournament, we collected for children with muscular atrophy.

Flickr-Album

This list won:

* IG-88B + VI + FCS + HLC + Feedback Array + autothrusters + IG-2000 title

* IG-88C + VI + FCS + HLC + Feedback Array + autothrusters + IG-2000 title

Here are some sheets I made for the last tournament.

I left one at each table, and had pre-cut along the dotted lines and left each segment attached to the header at 2 small spots only, so they ripped off really well. This allowed players to fill out the sheets and leave them by my laptop when they finished their games.

This worked better than FFG's score sheets that are meant to be 1 per player, since I could hold on to the stack of round result sheets instead of each player keeping hold of their own sheet and me having to run after them to get their results.

Had someone go out for Burgers, so hunger and fatigue wasn't an issue.

As TO, dress up as Darth Vader.

Insist that everyone call you Lord Vader.

Force choke people who violate the rules.

It doesn't get any more "extra mile" than that.

For regionals the store in my area hosting it is converting all of their shorter tables normally used or card games and turning them into miniatures tables. They are adding stands to increase the height of all the tables and adding wooden tops that will extend the tables to be the right length. The Wodden tops are going to be secured in place so they don't slide. Also I know the store owner is trying to get the 501st to come out as well and has some other things in the works as well

Saw it mentioned above. Validate everyones damage deck. Went to a tourney a while back and the TO asked to look at my cards. I had 4 extra in my deck, 3 being direct hits. Looks like your efforts are going to make it an enjoyable day for your players.

I always count my damage deck between matches. And shuffle thoroughly. I almost got my deck mixed in with my opponents one day, and am glad I got in that habit.

Saw it mentioned above. Validate everyones damage deck. Went to a tourney a while back and the TO asked to look at my cards. I had 4 extra in my deck, 3 being direct hits. Looks like your efforts are going to make it an enjoyable day for your players.

I always count my damage deck between matches. And shuffle thoroughly. I almost got my deck mixed in with my opponents one day, and am glad I got in that habit.

Yeah, I count my damage deck after each of my games ever since I ended up with 31 cards...

Just this weekend, after the final game I somehow ended up with 1 of my opponent's cards in my damage deck. Good thing his sleeves were larger than mine or I would never have noticed until the next tourney!

If doing a damage deck inspection (which is not 'necessary' but a good practice regardless), have each player lay out their damage decks neatly by pairs and the 7 directs, then walk around and quickly scan them. This is as opposed to having each player bring you their deck and you manually doing it, which eats loads of time.

Rulings on controversial topics are better, but dice rolls are often better when two players are at odds, even if you are fairly certain about an ambiguous ruling. Siding with one player sometimes leads the other to feel cheated or get a sense of favoritism, which is a major turn off for most players. That's just for ambiguous rulings, like feedback array when in the bumped position or on a rock. Let fate decide, makes everyone feel less salty. That's just for ambiguous or iffy rulings of course.

Awesome thread...this is a big help !