Help with security at tournaments

[NinjaGrinder]

Hi, everyone

As some of you know, I've been running tournaments for UMK3 (since 2003) and sometimes for SF, KOF and whatever people play the most here. So, recently, with the "all night long" events, the attendance kinda blew up and we've had events for like 100 people.

The last SSFIV/T6 tournament that we ran was ok (18 for tekken, 40 for SSFIV) and everything has being taken care of, but the security. Some fucker(s) have had the nerve to steal from us, mostly wires and pirated games lol but a couple months ago a fightpad was missing and in the last event (dec 19th) someone stole a stick!

Could any of you guys please tell me some tips for this matter? some of you have gone to big events like SB, and EVO, so any knowledge or advice will be very useful. Thanks and if this isn't the right place for this thread, feel free to move it.

 

[Lucky Day]

Unfortunately even at big events here, stuff is bound to get stolen. And it usually happens when people aren't careful.

The most important part is communication to the people coming that they need to hold on to their stuff at all times. Make everyone who donates equipment write their name on the item, or on a piece of tape and put it on the back.

Make sure you tell everyone not to leave anything in their cars or out in the open at any time.

The tourney organizers should never have any equipment out that's not being used as part of a setup either. At SB, we have a big room in the back that is locked at all times, and only the organizers are allowed in to retrieve equipment.

If you can't provide a safe place for people to store their stuff, make sure they know they need to bring backpacks.

It doesn't hurt to have someone watching doors at all times either.

There are a lot of other little things to do, but it's really about just making everyone accountable for their own items.

 

[Lucky Day]

Also, if this is stuff being stolen from the actual tournament equipment, that's a problem too.

I would say you could probably check equipment in and keep a log of who owns what.

And then don't allow anyone to leave with any consoles or controllers until the very end of the tourney when you're able to watch over and make sure nobody is grabbing anything.

 

[Shock]

When there's so much stuff laying around, it's very hard to keep track of at times. There have been tournaments I've been to where numerous items were stolen but that's only happened a couple times that I'm aware of, and there were huge responses to that each time. Fortunately, nobody wants MK stuff hehe. Cameras are always an option but that can be annoying and expensive. You can designate a couple trustworthy players to each area, and make sure that at least one of them is there are all times. For me, I'm always doing random equipment checks as I make rounds watching matches and what not and I also memorize every stick, pad, system, TV, etc for my group or anyone who joins our group and we now have like 4 to 5 guys in charge of our section since we run 3 to 4 games, so we're covered. I don't mind doing this but a lot of times this takes a good portion of my time at the tournaments.

It's all part of being the host I suppose but I would say that it's everyone's responsibility to not leave their stuff around. Sometimes you put it down and forget, but that's not being careful. We had someone leave their stick with our stuff the entire time on Sunday and when we were packing up, found them and made sure it got back to them. Also, we tend to make sure we have a setup where we make sort of a pit of stuff behind a table that's hard to get to and in plain view at all times while people are playing, so anyone going back there and rummaging through stuff who shouldn't be, is very noticeable. and would actually get in the way of the setup at times. These are just things I do for our stuff, I can't speak for the rest. If there are 500 players at a tournament, chances are there are 500 sticks and pads, 30 consoles, 30 TVs. Smaller flat screens are easy to swipe when no one's around before and after setup, but making sure there are people always at every station. During gameplay it's hard to steal anything major.

 

[NinjaGrinder]

Thanks a lot, guys, your advice was very much appreciated. I will do all that and to clarify, the stuff that's been stolen is from the tournament. Extreme conditions demand extreme responses lol

Thanks again