How do you run a Rock Band Tournament?

[Topher]

I've been trying to figure this out for awhile (forgive me if it's been covered before, search failed me). I can't come up with a foolproof method for scoring of any sort. It's obviously much harder than doing a Guitar Hero competition which I've had experience working before.. How would it break down, how do you handle differences in difficulty. Any and all questions that can be answered on the matter would be fantastic.

[Topher]

I've been trying to figure this out for awhile (forgive me if it's been covered before, search failed me). I can't come up with a foolproof method for scoring of any sort. It's obviously much harder than doing a Guitar Hero competition which I've had experience working before.. How would it break down, how do you handle differences in difficulty. Any and all questions that can be answered on the matter would be fantastic.

[nipps]

it can be run the same as a gh tournament with two bands competing heads up against each other. best score wins. difficulty should be open.. expert players earn more points. so play expert if ya want. not that hard to run/. i ran a tournament that has a thread in here... from way back that i ran in nyc.. if you can find it, it has my rules and specific things allowed.
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[nipps]

it can be run the same as a gh tournament with two bands competing heads up against each other. best score wins. difficulty should be open.. expert players earn more points. so play expert if ya want. not that hard to run/. i ran a tournament that has a thread in here... from way back that i ran in nyc.. if you can find it, it has my rules and specific things allowed.
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[nipps]

found the link to the rules and stuff
http://p34nut.bklynite.com/rockband/
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[nipps]

found the link to the rules and stuff
http://p34nut.bklynite.com/rockband/
_________________

[Serges]

I've handled RB competitions in a bunch of different ways, depending on the end result you're aiming for as a host. A few methods I've come up with that seem to work are as follows:

LEAGUE OPTIONS

This, by definition, is a competition that spans multiple events and allows competitors to accrue points over time, in some manner or another. The most simple league option I've run was a full-band league (meaning that up to 4 people could be involved in a band). Basically, each band would have opportunities at each event to play songs and score points. There are no restrictions on difficulty, instrument choice, or number of people in the band at the time (meaning bands could play with a missing member, or add a permanent member up to 4 at any time). The only restriction on song choice would be that no given band could play the same song for points more than once.

This type of league tracks cumulative score over the course of the league, and rewards teams who execute higher difficulties and proper song choice strategy. (Some songs have more potential points than others, after all, and no band will be able to play EVERYTHING due to time restrictions.)

I also ran a 2-man-band version of this, with a few twists. It was a 6-night competition, both band members had to be present (no fill-ins), and each week the duo had to play a different combination of instruments (G+B, D+V, G+V, D+B, G+D, B+V).


TOURNAMENT OPTIONS

Here is where it gets tricky. A tournament is basically a singular competition, traditionally done with an elimination format. The fundamental problem to overcome here is how to handle song choice, since songs can't be normalized to some sort of point scale (and believe me, I've tried.)

One way to deal with tournaments is to make competitors square off, same song, same difficulty, same instrument. This works fine for a solo instrument-specific tournament, but doesn't transfer as well for multi-player or multi-instrument. Of course, you could have each person or group separately play the same song parameters, but if (and I can't stress this strongly enough) there is any kind of audience involved, this is a TERRIBLE option. No one wants to hear the same song over and over again.

One way to get around that for a multi-instrument tournament is to set up a 1-on-1 bracket format, and randomize song choice, instrument, and difficulty for EACH match. You can of course tailor the difficulty requirement as necessary. But again, this really only works for solo events, since there's no good way to set up simultaneous multi-band situations.

If you want to run a multiplayer tournament, the solution I've used is borrowed from the World Series of Video Games. When they added GH2, they chose to determine tournament advancers by bringing in 3 expert judges to rate various aspects of the performance. SCORE DIDN'T MATTER. This is a good solution if you want a lot of variety available in your event, and I've used it successfully to host league finals. Just make sure song choices are predetermined and don't overlap, to avoid that song duplication problem (I used a draft system, personally.)

Hope this helps.
_________________

The only downside to hosting Rock Band competitions is not being able to enter them...

[Serges]

I've handled RB competitions in a bunch of different ways, depending on the end result you're aiming for as a host. A few methods I've come up with that seem to work are as follows:

LEAGUE OPTIONS

This, by definition, is a competition that spans multiple events and allows competitors to accrue points over time, in some manner or another. The most simple league option I've run was a full-band league (meaning that up to 4 people could be involved in a band). Basically, each band would have opportunities at each event to play songs and score points. There are no restrictions on difficulty, instrument choice, or number of people in the band at the time (meaning bands could play with a missing member, or add a permanent member up to 4 at any time). The only restriction on song choice would be that no given band could play the same song for points more than once.

This type of league tracks cumulative score over the course of the league, and rewards teams who execute higher difficulties and proper song choice strategy. (Some songs have more potential points than others, after all, and no band will be able to play EVERYTHING due to time restrictions.)

I also ran a 2-man-band version of this, with a few twists. It was a 6-night competition, both band members had to be present (no fill-ins), and each week the duo had to play a different combination of instruments (G+B, D+V, G+V, D+B, G+D, B+V).


TOURNAMENT OPTIONS

Here is where it gets tricky. A tournament is basically a singular competition, traditionally done with an elimination format. The fundamental problem to overcome here is how to handle song choice, since songs can't be normalized to some sort of point scale (and believe me, I've tried.)

One way to deal with tournaments is to make competitors square off, same song, same difficulty, same instrument. This works fine for a solo instrument-specific tournament, but doesn't transfer as well for multi-player or multi-instrument. Of course, you could have each person or group separately play the same song parameters, but if (and I can't stress this strongly enough) there is any kind of audience involved, this is a TERRIBLE option. No one wants to hear the same song over and over again.

One way to get around that for a multi-instrument tournament is to set up a 1-on-1 bracket format, and randomize song choice, instrument, and difficulty for EACH match. You can of course tailor the difficulty requirement as necessary. But again, this really only works for solo events, since there's no good way to set up simultaneous multi-band situations.

If you want to run a multiplayer tournament, the solution I've used is borrowed from the World Series of Video Games. When they added GH2, they chose to determine tournament advancers by bringing in 3 expert judges to rate various aspects of the performance. SCORE DIDN'T MATTER. This is a good solution if you want a lot of variety available in your event, and I've used it successfully to host league finals. Just make sure song choices are predetermined and don't overlap, to avoid that song duplication problem (I used a draft system, personally.)

Hope this helps.
_________________

The only downside to hosting Rock Band competitions is not being able to enter them...

[jerridthomas79]

^^has some good pts.
No one wants to hear the same song over and over...

I have started up a new business - www.rockoutproductions.com - featuring Rock Band Karaoke.

I will be hosting and MC'ing a RB tourny at this place, and the format I'm going to use is:
ROCK BAND TOURNAMENT
**********************
Guitar - Double Elimination bracket
Vocals - Double Elimination bracket
Drums - Double Elimination bracket

Full Band - Will take all entries and bracket them as well.
Will have each match-up take their turn playing the same drawn song (so you will hear the same one twice)
Each band member will be able to choose their difficulty, obviously higher skilled players will benefit by being able to play expert, but my tourny is at a bar, where you will find lots of Easy/Med players (i know this from GH tournies past)
Double Elim is the way to go on these too...
for one, it keeps a team around longer, making more money for the host venue (aka: the bar) - and two, no one wants to just play once.

That's my set up.

I'm also going be pulling from my "CROWD FAVORITES" playlist for most of this - a list of all the really fun songs, that people select during karaoke, and in general really good tunes.
I will not be having people play shit like Visions, because the vast majority of people there enjoying the tourny won't want to hear that crap.

You are probably not doing this at a bar, so - thinking of something stuff might not apply.

The Other method i used with an old GH tourny i ran (right after GH2 came out) was an NFL style - people played pro-faceoff and accumulated wins/losses. It was an all-day thing, so people got to play 4 songs each, and then had top qualifiers (4-0) who skipped the WILD CARD playoff round (a bye week basically), and the 3-1 records played winners of the 2-2 records, and single elim all the way through, with song difficulty ramping up each round.
_________________

Visit www.rockoutproductions.com to see what all the buzz is about

[jerridthomas79]

^^has some good pts.
No one wants to hear the same song over and over...

I have started up a new business - www.rockoutproductions.com - featuring Rock Band Karaoke.

I will be hosting and MC'ing a RB tourny at this place, and the format I'm going to use is:
ROCK BAND TOURNAMENT
**********************
Guitar - Double Elimination bracket
Vocals - Double Elimination bracket
Drums - Double Elimination bracket

Full Band - Will take all entries and bracket them as well.
Will have each match-up take their turn playing the same drawn song (so you will hear the same one twice)
Each band member will be able to choose their difficulty, obviously higher skilled players will benefit by being able to play expert, but my tourny is at a bar, where you will find lots of Easy/Med players (i know this from GH tournies past)
Double Elim is the way to go on these too...
for one, it keeps a team around longer, making more money for the host venue (aka: the bar) - and two, no one wants to just play once.

That's my set up.

I'm also going be pulling from my "CROWD FAVORITES" playlist for most of this - a list of all the really fun songs, that people select during karaoke, and in general really good tunes.
I will not be having people play shit like Visions, because the vast majority of people there enjoying the tourny won't want to hear that crap.

You are probably not doing this at a bar, so - thinking of something stuff might not apply.

The Other method i used with an old GH tourny i ran (right after GH2 came out) was an NFL style - people played pro-faceoff and accumulated wins/losses. It was an all-day thing, so people got to play 4 songs each, and then had top qualifiers (4-0) who skipped the WILD CARD playoff round (a bye week basically), and the 3-1 records played winners of the 2-2 records, and single elim all the way through, with song difficulty ramping up each round.
_________________

Visit www.rockoutproductions.com to see what all the buzz is about

[Serges]

Interesting point with the NFL-style league. That's something I had never thought to implement, though most of my events are band-centric.

Side note: how do you pull off the multi-display setup? I currently use 2 displays at my shows: CRT (=lag-free) for performers, and LCD (usually owned by the venue) for audience.
_________________

The only downside to hosting Rock Band competitions is not being able to enter them...

[Serges]

Interesting point with the NFL-style league. That's something I had never thought to implement, though most of my events are band-centric.

Side note: how do you pull off the multi-display setup? I currently use 2 displays at my shows: CRT (=lag-free) for performers, and LCD (usually owned by the venue) for audience.
_________________

The only downside to hosting Rock Band competitions is not being able to enter them...