Rock Band Tournament Rules

[baldwind1976]

Hey everyone,

Wanted to tap into the collective knowledge. We are getting ready to
have our first Rock Band (XBox) tournament in May. I have played the
game, but have never tried to run a tournament. I wanted to get a
sense, from those out there who have, what you have found the best
rules were that you used and more importantly how you scored the bands
in the competition. I plan on using a standard bracket for seeding so
I wanted to get a sense of how to determine the winners and those
eliminated in each round

Any advisement/suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Doug Baldwin
Systems Administrator
Cranbury Public Library
609-655-0555
bal...@cranburypubliclibrary.org

[Jim Peterson]

Hi Doug,

I see two way to do it:  1.)Battle of the Bands. Let the contestants pick bandmates and then assign one or two songs (time may be a factor for you). The band that does the best (overall score + number of stars + collective percentage completed (all members' percentages averaged)), is declared the winner.

2.)Individual competitions. Simply keep track of who's done the best at a particular song, scoring as above for bands.

Keeping all bands/individuals to one or two songs helps level the playing field for everyone and helps prevent any one person or band from using a song they are particularly good at playing. Additionally, choosing songs from the 'Bonus' section of the game tends to introduce songs that no one has played/heard before.

Good luck!

Jim Peterson Technology Coordinator Goodnight Memorial Library 203 S. Main St. Franklin, KY  42134 (270) 586-8397 www.gmpl.org Library Technology by jimmythegeek!

[Eli Neiburger]

Hi Doug, how are you? Here's how we've done it. It's turned into a
very popular event and has displaced guitar hero in our tournament
lineup.

1. Sign up 4-player bands. Each band must pick a name, this is half
the fun.

2. Announce bands that are recruiting players to match up players who
don't have a band.

3. Allow "Vocaltar", meaning allow 3-player bands where one player
players guitar and bass while singing (requires mike stand)

4. Go through the list of bands twice. Bands can play whatever song
they like at whatever difficulty they like, with one exception: overly
long songs are banned. It's hard to find a list of rock band songs
with duration so we usually just say "long songs are banned" and the
players adhere to it.

5. Record each band's top score for however many chances they get if
time allows more than 2 passes.

6. Take the top 4 or the top 2 bands onto elimination depending on
time remaining. We've done both allowing the top band to set the song
that all bands must play and letting each band choose their best song
for the finals. Both work out well.

We then award prizes to all 4 players of the top 2 bands.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

-eli

[Beth Gallaway]

Hi Doug,

There is a model for Rock Band Tournaments in the Librarian's Guide to
Gaming: An Online Toolkit!

PIMA County Library System, AZ
http://librarygamingtoolkit.org/pimarockband.html

Another Rock Band Tournament model is being edited, and should be
posted by the end of the week :)

Beth G.

[Matthew Morrison]

Haven't done a Rockband Tournament, but I've held a few Guitar Hero tournaments where these rules should apply to Rockband as well.

1. Both players/teams agree upon a song to play.
2. Scoring is based upon the highest score, in terms of total points.

One more piece of advice; I would make sure that all of your advertising for the event note the following...

1) any applicable age limits (I had to let a 9 year old into my teens-only Guitar Hero 3 tournament because the signs didn't specifically state it was 12-18 only)

2) note that all the band members must be present and ON TIME in order to enter. I had to deal with a surly mother at my last tournament who was shocked - shocked, I say! - that we actually started the tournament shortly after 2 o'clock when half the people who signed up didn't show and we had just enough people to do an 8 person tournament instead of a 16 person tournament - something which was agreed to following a vote of all the people present. Her defense was "Well, last year when they did this, it started half an hour late!" My response? "I wasn't here last year ma'am and I try to insure that my programs start at the time advertised." Since then, I've made sure that a "start at the time posted" rider is in all my signage.

Matt Morrison
Teen Services Librarian
Burleson Public Library

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