Omaha, Nebraska R.B.I. Baseball Tournament

[TbT]

Tentative date set for Saturday May 18th with first pitch at 11 AM.  I'll know by tomorrow afternoon if that date is concrete.

Set up:  Modest $10 entry fee.  Preliminary round of 5 to 6 games with overall records determining top players who will be seeded in tournament.  Based on number of participants, the preliminary round will either be round robin(7 and under) or Pool play (where applicable with random 5th opponent from different pool if needed).  In scenarios with an odd numbers of players such as 11, 13, or 17 a random 5 games will be played.

Tournament: Most common format features top 10 getting in, but up to 12(max) still allows for the top 4 seeds to claim 1st round bye.  Players participating in 1st round, face off in single elimination games.  Best of 3 series play ensues afterwards. 



Tie Breakers for tournament seeding  In round robin play, head to head determines seed.  With 3+ players tie, best runs scored/runs allowed total determines seed. 
In pool play, head to head if applicable, followed by strength of schedule if applicable(when random opponent outside pool is involved), followed by runs scored/runs allowed.
In random opponents scenario, head to head, followed by strength of schedule, and runs scored/runs allowed.   

Team selection process:
In prelim round:  A coin flip determines order of draw and verbal.  Player 1 who wins coin toss, draws out a random team.  Player 2 verbals an opposing team.  Player 1 then has choice of team he wants.  Player 2 then has choice of batting in top or bottom half of inning.
In tournament series play:  Same rules apply, but once teams are used in the series they are no longer available for that series.  The draw/verbal situation alternates between the players before each game.  Meaning whoever drew out a team for game 1, will verbally name a team in game 2, and the process will alternate again for game 3.

Random notes:  Number of overall participants will ultimately determine if payout goes to top 2, 3 or 4 players.   
1st players eliminated are guaranteed at least 5 games.  If possible, players not seeded in tournament will be able to participate in the "best of the worst" tournament featuring single game eliminations crowning the best of the worst players. 

I threw this on Craigslist here in Omaha recently and got maybe 6 or 7 responses.  A couple seem pretty serious about attending.  Hoping to get a couple from back home to make the trip over....Nate Nate Nate included.  I'll flyer a couple of the gaming shops and get some posted at the Brickhouse as well.  Honestly, I'd be happy with 8-12 players for the 1st time.       

[ultimate7]

Nice flyer

Am I the only one that didn't know TBT moved to Omaha

[VEGAS]

Omaha got direct flights from Las Vegas?

[TbT]

Yeah I assume there are direct flights a few times a day.  International airport here in the big O.

[BeefMaster]

Dammit... I've got football tickets that night and baseball practice in the morning, or I would be very strongly considering this.  I could even bring the family along and send them to the zoo for the day.

[Gantry]

Great work TBT, keep us updated.

[TbT]

Dammit... I've got football tickets that night and baseball practice in the morning, or I would be very strongly considering this.  I could even bring the family along and send them to the zoo for the day.

When it comes to having a bad ass Zoo, there's Omaha and everyone else.

[TbT]

So I dropped 10 bucks to promote this on facebook.  Supposedly got 1,000+ people to see it, but then got a message later that night as it was pulled down due to the image (the flyer) having more than 20% text.   Whatever.  Supposedly I didn't lose any of my budgeted 10 bucks, and can still use it to promote another post.  I'll just redo the flyer with only images, and then just add all the details into the post.   

[BeefMaster]

Given that fact that my Facebook feed is 90% filled with people posting text as images for no real reason, it seems bizarre that they'd regulate your images' content when you're paying them to show it to more people.

How many people you got signed up so far?

[TbT]

Given that fact that my Facebook feed is 90% filled with people posting text as images for no real reason, it seems bizarre that they'd regulate your images' content when you're paying them to show it to more people.

How many people you got signed up so far?

Eh, myself, and Nate cubed are in!     I also got 3 or 4 local guys that are currently on the maybe list, and that's it so far.

I got a decent amount of craigslist interest via email when I posted it a month ago.  Told them when the date was set, I'd email back.  Sent out about 10 emails last week, and got no fkn responses.  Dropped the flyers off at the bar tonight, and also a couple bigger card stock posters to display.  I'm going to hit Craigslist again a few more times in the closing weeks.

There's a pretty good local sports radio show here in Omaha in the afternoon.  I'm going to email those guys to see if they can help promote this someway.  Either through FB and twitter, mention on the radio, or have me on as a guest.

A gaming store I go to will put my flyers up, so in the next couple weeks it will be getting a lot more exposure.  Hopefully it doesn't totally bomb.
I think I'll craigslist Des Moines, and Lincoln as well.  If I can't find 10 fuckers for this, then skynet might as well just take over now, and humanity can just say fuck it. 

[TbT]

Email interest is picking up and I'm getting some people saying they are definitely in.  The bar has their flyers.  Early next week, I'm going to hit the gaming stores and see which ones will promote it for me. 

I did a promoted a post about it  for $10 on facebook.  I got some nice responses, but it was from guys in Illinois, California, and New York that were bummed it's not in their area.  I don't have many/any Omaha likes on the TB-vs-RBI facebook page, so the post really just had a national reach.  I got a slug of new likes for the page though, and the post itself got people talking and sharing it on their timelines. 

I will say this, that if you are promoting an event and have lots of FB friends in your area, it seems like it will reach the target audience.  I'm going to approach the bar owner about promoting it on FB.  Of his 1,000+ likes, most of them probably live in or near Omaha, and it will target them and their friends.

[TbT]

Less than a week away.  Hopefully the turnout is alright.  Same ol same ol.  I get emails via craigslist, but no follow up on whether or not they are attending.

It must have been tough on bitches who used to advertise "body rubs" on craigslist.  Always wonding if the john was gonna show.

[fknmclane]

Hope it works out well. At the very least I'm sure it will be a really good time, even if you only have half a dozen. Start somewhere.

[TbT]

We had 5 today.  A trio of 3 who are regulars at the bar had seen the flyers in the bathroom.  Another guy was forwarded the info via facebook.  It sucks that my buddies who I wanted to come to really give it a pop in overall number didn't make it, but with just 5 it was pretty easy to run.

We played Cotut style rules.  I won the preliminary round robin going undefeated.  There was another guy that was on my level.  A 3rd was pretty close.  And then there were the other 2, who weren't very good.

I eventually lost to the # 2 seed in the championship round, 3 games to 1.  The nut kicker was losing a 13 inning NL vs AL game which put me down 2-1 in the series...I lost on a grounder that should have been ruled a foul, hit down the 3rd base line ending the game.     That's RBI though, and shit happens.

The next game was Boston vs Detroit...by the rules it was his turn to have choice in the match-up.  A couple mistakes to the big bats of Boston and I lost 3-1.  The last game on deck would have given me choice of team in the MIN/NY match-up.  Had I forced a game 5, I would have felt good about that game.  I had already beaten him in a MIN over NY game earlier in the day. 

It was fun and we'll probably shoot for another one this fall on a Sunday.

[TbT]

Some picks while setting up the night before





Goddamn Limpbizkit was playing that night at Sokol, which is a block away from the Brickhouse.  Had a bar full of people popping in to the back room there to see what was going on with the Nintendos and RBI as I was setting up.  Had some guys play for an inning or two in a few instances.


And a pic below while some of the action was going on early in the event.....



The guy in the blue was the winner...coincidentally he was wearing a RBI shirt. 

[Turd]

Keep running them man. They will grow every year. We need a Madison Tecmo size turnout!

[TbT]

There's some plans in the works to do some thursday night RBI.  Its dollar draws after 9 PM at the brickhouse. 

[Gantry]

Great job TBT, keep it up.  Makes me think a Chicago based tourney at Archies could get some legs. 

[BeefMaster]

Great work, TBT.  If you do another one, keep us in the loop... Omaha would not be a difficult trip for me to talk the wife into.

[Titleist 20]

Hey! That's me in the blue shirt!!! Great tournament, I had a lot of fun and it was cool to meet other RBI enthusiasts.  I had a real hard time not striking out against TecmoBowl Terror...you throw some wicked curves that had me looking like a fool.  Hopefully more people show up next time.