NOTE: As of 8:20 PM EST on 8/6, the buy-in has officially changed from $20 per player (or $120 per team) to $10 (or $60 per team).
This change should be good to go on the CEVO website, but if you run into any issues with it, post here or PM me.
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I'm going to propose a suggestion and I'd like as much feedback as possible to make a decision by the end of today (or maybe by the end of the week, if necessary).
Currently, the buy-in is $20 (or $120 per team). I'm thinking about reducing the buy-in to $10 (or $60 per team).
Why the suggestion?
Regardless if you're expecting to lose or not, it's half as expensive to participate and not feel like you're putting out as much. The $2000 pot is already pretty good by itself, so changing the buy-in to $10 will still make the final prize pool very good. Don't forget that if you participate in the tournament, you'll still get a prize, regardless of the place that you finish.
What about the people who have already paid on the CEVO website?
Currently, only one person has actually paid. This individual (and whoever else pays before the potential change is made) would get a refund.
Are the CEVO-P teams eligible to participate?
Yes, this is a community tournament, so literally anyone can play. However, it doesn't mean that they will use their actual CEVO-P roster. Again, the CEVO-P teams are not obligated to play with their roster on Saturday. I know some players from those teams have expressed interest in playing with different players for the community tournament on Saturday, but ultimately, they can do whatever they want. I'm not going to disallow them from playing on Saturday, because these same teams were already interested in going prior to the CEVO announcement. You have to expect the biggest NA TF2 LAN to have teams of all kinds of skill levels, regardless if it's a full roster or a pug team.
Why not make the tournament without a buy-in, since the $2000 pot is already there?
The $2000 alone is good enough for players to compete for, but I'm afraid that we'll get an asinine amount of teams if we have free entry, which poses some problems. If we had a tournament full of 40-50 teams, there is pretty much no way that we will get done in a single day. There would be issues with many different kinds of resources, and it would be a giant struggle to get everything done in an orderly fashion. The buy-in assures that the players are actually interested in playing in the tournament. Additionally, this is a Pro-series tournament. All Pro-series tournaments require some kind of buy-in, otherwise it would just be considered a regular tournament and wouldn't follow a competitive format (pretty much all regular tournaments are single elimination with a very laid-back ruleset).
Is the tournament really limited to 20 teams?
Currently, yes. This number can change if necessary, but we needed to put a cap on teams just for the sake of making a floor-plan for tables and power, just to start somewhere. If it becomes apparent that we need to raise the cap on teams, that can be done. There are quite a few people coming to spectate, so don't take the attendee list at face value.
Are you adamant about this buy-in change?
I like the idea, but I'm not absolutely adamant about it. With some of the posts in this thread over the past few days, I've thought a few things over and felt like this might be a good change. If there wasn't a $2000 pot already, then I would still absolutely suggest a $20 buy-in. Instead of making the change without any kind of input, I came here for input from everyone.
So, yeah, give input. :3