Right, so first off I guess I'm kind of late in posting this haha, still less than a month after the event.

Anywho, I wanted to just write out my thoughts on how this MWC went, and some of the thoughts that I've written down about how I might be able to improve things next time. It's probably just going to be a dump of the list of notes that I took one day, not really any sort of paragraphs.

Getting people to play

• Be more shameless or obnoxious about advertising
  
• Try out buying an ad on /r/starcraft?
  
• We had several no-shows, how can we try to mitigate that, or what can we do if a lot of no-shows happen?
  
  • Maybe 1-2 more reminder emails to the registered players; keep in touch with the players better?
    
  • Should the bracket be set up a few days in advance, like it is now, or should I just have it set up the day of? This would make the bracket a bit more "clean", less walkovers, more fair bracket
    
  
  
• Consider more of a social media presence? Facebook page, a website, something else?
  

Reflection on the changes we made from MWC2

• We had a 3 person casting team this time, with me generally just observing. I think it went pretty well, I'll have to watch some of the VODs to see if I could improving my observing, finding the balance between following what the casters are saying and pointing out things they might be missing.
  
• Removed the "grudge match" aspect - it wasn't used last time anyway. Kind of a "meh".
  
• Added a "badge" system for the top finishers per league (bronze, silver, gold, etc). As only 4 people ended up actually showing up to play, this didn't come in to effect. I'll keep it around for next time, and try to advertise it better or explain it more concisely.
  
• Trying out self reporting again - still derped. I don't think there are any platforms that do it the way I was looking for. Sam had a good thought to have a Google Form for players to report through, and then an admin could just review those responses every now and then, instead of slogging through the general chat for the tournament. Will definitely try this out.
  
• Ranked seeding this time instead of random seeding. I think overall it should be better. Again, with the small turnout for this tournament it wasn't really noticeable, but it should be better next time.
  
• Actually getting on the TeamLiquid calendar. This was a huge bonus to the viewership, maintained a solid 60+ viewers for a really unknown tournament with a low player pool. Getting on the TL calendar will stay a top priority for things to do for every tournament.
  

Planned changes for next time (MWC4)

• Invite some popular Midwest SC2 players - Destiny, Winter, puCK? Destiny commented about wanting to sign up last time but was too late. Might have been just a joke but hey, might as well give it a shot haha.
  
• Change match reporting to use a Google Form instead, as mentioned above
  
• Attempt some more or different advertising, Reddit ad, something else?
  
• Probably create a Facebook page for the tournament. Might have low use, but diversifying the social presence is probably pretty good.
  
• Revise the description on the "top finisher by league" badges. Push it a little more for lower-league players. We've had a hard time getting returning sub-Master players, maybe this will help.
  
• Consider starting a more frequent event, maybe even with little or no prize pool. A number of players and viewers have expressed interest in seeing us do more events, so I'll see what I can come up with. I don't think I would try a weekly/bi-weekly Midwest only tournament, but maybe something where it's open, but force play on the NA server. We'll just have to see.
  

Anyway, it's likely that nobody will see this but since I wrote it all down on paper before, I might as well keep it around on the Internet. Cheers!