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1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of key planning and research tools sufficient to support the effective organisation and creation of a tournament rulebook for a fictitious tournament.

2. Develop specific transferable skills of collaborative planning, interpersonal skills, goal setting, self-management, and group work while applying knowledge of tournament operations.

3. Research and Explore established Esports events to deconstruct the rulebook behind them to justify and rationalise why those rules are created and to identify areas of improvement.

A1. Tournament Handbook – (40%) (LO1 & LO2) 2000 words (group)

This assignment will require the students to work in groups of 4 to create a 2000 word tournament rulebook based around a simulated tournament of their creation. The students will create the ruleset around a set of traditional tournament rule categories – Introduction, Eligibility, Game Rules, Disciplinary action, Tournament Format, Equipment and Officials. This assignment will show that the students have displayed knowledge and understanding of the structure of a tournament ruleset (LO1) while working within a group environment that requires strong communication to make sure the rules make sense together and help establish the tournament. (LO2)

A2. Rulebook Report – (60%) (LO1 & LO3) 1000 words (individual)

This assignment will allow the student to pick an established Esports tournament and deconstruct the tournament by creating an overview of the tournament while analysing a select few key rules from the tournament to justify and rationalise why these rules have been created and what the tournament operators were hoping to achieve through this tournament. This will require the student to research different rulebooks from the industry and choose one to explore further (LO1) but also using the knowledge they have received from the weekly lectures and their own areas of understanding to deconstruct that tournament and be able to identify why it has been created in the way it has (LO3)

By completing these two assignments the student would have been able to show a key understanding of the weekly content covered within the lecturers but also through assignment 1 they will have been able to create their own tournament ruleset and gain important experience in completing that process whilst developing important teamworking and communication skills. In addition, assignment 2 would also allow them to look at industry established Esports tournaments and research and explore their structure which will help them in creating their own tournaments.

In this module you will be tasked with the creation of a tournament handbook for a fictional esports tournament of your creation. You will develop key skills and knowledge about tournament design and tournament operations. You will be given the opportunity to apply competition rules, concepts and theories developed to date and explore how these can be applied to a variety of esports tournaments. You will be also taking an established tournament rulebook individually and deconstructing the rules to rationalise and justify why they have been created and used for that Esports event to show a clear and concise understanding of tournament theory.

Events for esports is a fast-growing industry, with many publishers providing support to event organisers to help continue to grow this marketplace. This has led to more advanced and engaging tournament being created with the planning requiring a multi-layered process that spans across numerous different areas of tournament theory. This is a tournament operations-based module in which you will be given the opportunity to apply the overall theory, learning concepts and strategies developed within the content, to the creation of a tournament handbook for a fictitious tournament of your design while recognising the challenges that different styles of tournaments present. In addition, you will research and explore an established Esports tournament in order to gain an insightful overview of an industry calibre tournament, this will allow you to deconstruct and analyse the key rules of the tournament to justify and rationalise why these rules have been created and what the tournament operators were hoping to achieve.

1 Hour Lecture – 1 Hour Seminar Per Week

Getz, D. (2018) Event Evaluation: Theory and Methods for Event Management and Tourism. Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers Ltd.

Sharples, L., Crowther, P., May, D. and Orefice, C. (2016) Strategic Event Creation. Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers Ltd.

LAW, Y.-Y. and JARRETT, J. (2019) ‘More Than a Tournament: Grassroots Play and Participation at Esports Events’.

Ribeiro, C.C. (2012) ‘Sports scheduling: Problems and applications’, International transactions in operational research, 19(1-2), pp. 201–226. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-3995.2011.00819.x.

Parent, M.M. and Chappelet, J.-L. (2015) Routledge handbook of sports event management. Edited by M.M. Parent and J.-L. (Jean-L. Chappelet.