Tournament Organizer Roundtable #2: Creative juices

At one point, Ken Schulz was worried about attendance to the Linda B Schulz Memorial APBA Baseball Tournament.  Nice turnout!

The first time around with our nine tournament organizers, I asked them about the origins of their respective tournaments.  If you haven’t read their responses, you really should check out Tournament Organizer Roundtable #1: Tournament origins.  It was a great “meeting of the minds”.

This time, I thought I would inquire about what makes each of their tournaments different or special and what did each organizer do to take ownership of their tournament.

This time, the question was:

What are some of the creative methods you implemented to make your tournament different from all the rest?

…once again, here are their answers:

Skeet Carr – APBA Game Company National Tournament

“We made no efforts to make them any different from all the rest. Quite frankly, we didn’t really know how the others were run.”

John Cochrane – Robert Henry Memorial Tournament

“I make no pretense of a level playing field; everything is shaded the kids’ way. From the beginning, in any tie for playoff qualification or seeding, if the tie was between a BGC kid and an adult, the kid won the tiebreaker.

In the second year, based on an idea floated by another good friend, Randy Coryer, we arranged divisions so there would be five division winners and three wild cards in an 8-team playoff, and made adults ineligible for wild cards regardless of record. This resulted in a majority of kids in the playoffs each of the last two years, a kid as finalist in 2014, and two kids as finalists, dictating of course a kid as champion, in 2015.”

Ron Emch – Glass City APBA Baseball Tournament

“I didn’t feel like I was experienced enough to try and change a tried and true format. Plus, of all the folks that I knew were putting on tournaments, I was definitely the least experienced in APBA baseball land, so I went with what had been successful to date.

I did, however, use the random error and unusual play chart, and the advanced fielding option in my tourney. I first got exposure to these at the Minneapolis tourney. When I came home from that, I immediately implemented both of them in a replay I had started. I felt they added a lot to the basic game for very little added time and complexity.

That being said, neither Greater Michigan, nor Pittsburgh implemented them. I was a bit concerned that it would add length to the tourney, but in the end, I had such a strong conviction that they added more to the game than the time involved. Plus, we’re talking about experienced APBA players. In the end, I think it worked out great. I had many comments from folks who said they enjoyed those 2 features. I had printed out and laminated the random error and unusual play chart so that they could be taken home with the players, if so desired.

I also printed out a 10 out HR Derby chart and invited players to bring their favorite HR King. I think there were 7 or 8 guys that tried their luck with that. Last thing was to offer everyone a chance to to the the Toledo Mud Hens game that night. I thought it would be a fun way to finish the day.”

Jim Fraasch – Twin Cities APBA Baseball Tournament

“We really were not looking to make our tournament "different" as these regional tournaments were just starting to take off.  Our main agenda was the make the tournament open to anyone who could make it to the Twin Cities for full day of rolling dice, meeting new people and sharing stories.  Our tournament offers the participant to select any APBA issued MLB team from 1901 to present day.  We eliminate the new championship team from being selected in any future tournament.

Besides playing the Basic Game with the "Advanced Rules", we also implemented the Random Error Card and Unusual Play Card from the old APBA Journal.  We also implemented a system to reduce the Bases Empty Errors made by Fielding One 2B, SS and 3B, by adding a one-die reroll.  Several of the guys who play in our tournament have begun using these features in their own solo projects because they work so well.”

Geoff Giordano – APBA Football Club Tournament

“Venue and interactivity. We also resurrected what I understood to be a similar format as the original ‘70s APBA competitions, which featured special guest speakers.

First of all, what better place to play a football board game tournament than at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton? Not necessarily easy to get there, of course, but the price was right, the staff were incredibly accommodating and excited about our event, and the after-play access to the exhibits was a no-brainer. In terms of future venues, I’ve scouted numerous cool locations — anything from muscle-car and military museums to NFL stadiums — and also explored regional tournaments to engage more APBA football players out West, down South and in the Midwest.

Perhaps more unique was our goal of being more interactive for those who could not attend in person. For instance, we broadcast some of our experts’ presentations via StageIt. The live streams didn’t draw much notice this time, but we did dial in Denny Hodge down in Florida to walk us through the incredibly detailed football scoresheet he has created for APBA in particular but for football board games in general. We also asked Jerry Zajack (left, with his custom Green Bay Packers dice roller) of the Ohio-based National Card Football League to demonstrate the NCFL’s Skype-based play  which was demonstrated by playing a few downs with one of the NCFL’s remote members.  Had we had larger turnout and been able to follow our complete game-play schedule and stricter timetable, I would have broadcast at least the championship contest between Wells’ 1984 Forty Niners and Greg Barath’s 1999 Rams.

Being a lifelong journalist and news desk editor/front-page editor, I make sure to maximize the effectiveness of all our social-media channels. As far a I know, the AFC is the first page to live Tweet an APBA tournament, which we did in Lancaster in 2012 (unfortunately, I believe I failed to preserve those Tweets when fine-tuning personal and business Twitter accounts). We kept up the Tweeting during the AFC’s Canton event in 2013. Given the NCFL’s easy-to-use mode of play — which I sampled more fully in their recent non-league competition in which my 2007 Pats finished second to Mike McCune’s 1989 Niners, 30-24, in the championship — incorporating Skype-based tournament games and demos would be a next step for future AFC tournaments.”

Jim Saska – Chicagoland World Series APBA Tournament

“At the time Doug and I set up our first tournament, there were no other regional tournaments in existence as far as I know (summer of 2013).  There was only the annual national tournament down in Georgia.

Doug and I both agreed that we felt that we wanted to have a limited set of rules so that there would be a little more freedom to bring the team to the tournament that you really wanted to manage.  So that’s how we decided to structure our first set of rules for that tournament.”

Ken Schulz – Linda B Schulz Memorial APBA Baseball Tournament

“Our tournament is pretty similar to the others we see.  There are a few differences as the winner receives a plaque that will have past champions on it as well.  This year the winner also had the option to choose free tickets to the Pirates game that Sunday at PNC Park.

Our rules are a combination of Michigan, Chicago, and Minnesota.  To my knowledge we are the only tournament that retires both the champion and runner up each year.  Goodbye 77 Phillies and 27 Yankees!”

Doug Schuyler – Chicagoland World Series APBA Tournament

“Being creative is really cool.  I gotta say there are so many things you can do to make things fun.  Honestly, Joel Pike came up with the idea for our tournament in July 2016 (taking a team and adding a FANTASY player from that same team from another era).  The idea took off like wildfire!

I have to give credit to people like Jim Saska, Joel Pike and Richie Z… we have all worked together to make these things fun!  People come from all over the country for this tournament.  We have people coming from California and Canada this summer.  People always thank me after the tournament but I thank them because THEY are the ones who make it so fun!”

Rich Zawadzki – Greater Michigan APBA Baseball Tournament

“Honestly, I was not looking to be “creative”. My view was, after driving 500 miles round trip to the Chicagoland Tourney, that it was location (in Michigan) that made the GMABT different.

I guess if I have a niche, it is organization. Many of the guys that attended the tourney complimented me on how well the tournament was organized, and thus, how smoothly it went.”

So much more!

You will find the past two Tournament Organizer Roundtable interviews and all future ones at this link.  Thanks again to all nine guys.  Tom Zuppa quipped that they made a great lineup.

Roundtable #3 coming soon!