Below are 5 main rules for success that the King Puff Cup has followed to get to where it is today.
Never Sell Yourself Short
You are capable of living beyond the role that you place yourself in. You’re not just a Dad, you’re not just a new member, you’re not just a mod or a TO. It doesn’t matter. Everyone is bigger, infinitely bigger than the roles they place themselves in. You are capable of reaching a potential greater than anything you could imagine and you think you have a ceiling when it comes to your potential. But the simple truth is...
...There is no ceiling.
Never Judge Someone by Their Username
So, earlier this year my tournament organization, The King Puff Cup, had just hosted our first tournament. We didn’t really have anyone that was really gifted at communication and only one that was a consistently reliable caster. But we were getting these posts on our tournament topic from this kid named Dipshit that no one really thought much of at the time. The posts heavily criticized us but in a reasonable, constructive fashion rather than outright negativity. And then he was saying he wanted to cast and at first we were like ‘surely he’s just trolling’ but he kept at it. It took a while for us to get our heads out of our asses, but we ended up taking him up on the offer.
Fast forward to today, and Dipshit is one of our best casters and is even administering the organization right beside me, handling the majority of our official communication. So at the end of the day just remember…
...anyone can do anything, no matter what you may at first think of them.
Never Become Complacent
In The King Puff Cup, we’ve always tried to be innovative. We started off just trying to mimic Hearthstone Tournaments’ Conquest ruleset, and that didn’t work out so we tried mimicking Elements’ rulesets and rules in general, and that worked better. Then we went ‘okay, we have a solid foundation for something great, let’s improve it’. Since then, we have gradually refined that ruleset more and more with each tournament. It has really helped us create a solid identity and we have been able to take that same mindset and apply it to other areas of the organization. From recruiting and casting all the way up to how we handle administration and communication, it has all been reimagined since the beginning.
It’s really fun to make a huge improvement to the organization, and then people think they have you figured out. Next, you follow it up with another big improvement, and then they freak out about it again. They get used to it. And then you improve even more than the last time and blow them all away again! It’s an extremely exciting cycle to be a part of.
Take Risks, But Include Others In The Decision
Even as you make big improvements, ensure you don’t exclude anyone’s view. Everyone from the top performing elemental to the new kid on the block should be able to get their word in. And while there will be decisions that are excluded from this rule, what’s important is to keep it in mind even while making those choices. For example, recently in the King Puff Cup, we surveyed all our past tournament participants to get feedback on our last tournament rulesets. Originally, we wanted to settle on one ruleset and stick with it, but the feedback reflected that people really liked having different rulesets, not the same one all the time which would get boring. Ultimately, we took both into account and now alternate between a standard ruleset one week and a fun ruleset the next. By including others, we made a wiser decision.
Keep The Future In Mind
When making these decisions always look to the future. Consider if your current structure will survive expansion of the overall organization and its events. Shoot for the best you can possibly achieve. Do this by asking yourself questions like: ‘will this be usable if we double our participant count? What if we triple it?’ and ‘if I look back logically on this a year later will I be proud of this decision and the effort I put into it?’. These aren’t always going to be easy questions to answer. That’s the beauty of it! By asking yourself hard questions you’ll find yourself putting more into what you do. Do this and a better future will always be yours to create.
