A college esports tournament fails in boring ways. The bracket is a screenshot in someone’s gallery. Two teams have the same name. The final starts ninety minutes late because nobody checked that the room has enough bandwidth. The prize pool was announced before anyone had paid the entry fee.
BGMI and Valorant are different games. The job of hosting them on a campus is the same: a format you can explain in one paragraph, a roster you trust, and a room that can actually run the matches.
This sits inside a larger fest as often as it stands alone. The wider plan is the college fest playbook.
Pick a format you can finish
College schedules are short. A format that needs two full days will collide with classes.
BGMI (squad battle royale)
- Classic squads of four. State it on the registration page so people do not show up as a trio arguing for a substitute.
- A short open qualifier, then semis and a final in the same weekend if the field is under about 20 squads.
- Publish the map pool and the points system before anyone pays. “We will decide points on the day” is how finals turn into fights.
Valorant
- Five-player teams. One substitute, named in advance, or no substitutes. Write that rule down.
- Single elimination is easier to run in an evening. Double elimination is fairer and needs more PCs and more time.
- Bo1 until semis, Bo3 for the final, is a common campus shape. Say it on the page.
If you cannot name the format in four lines, you are not ready to open registration.
Write the rules before you open payment
Put these on the event page, not in a caption the night before:
- Who may play: your college only, or invited colleges. ID check at the desk.
- Roster lock: a date after which names cannot change.
- Device rules for mobile: whether emulators are allowed. Decide this before the first match, not during it.
- What gets a team disqualified: no-show after a stated number of minutes, abuse in voice chat, impersonating another team.
- How disputes work: one referee, one decision, no committee in the corridor.
- Prize split, in rupees, and when it is paid. If the prize depends on entry fees collected, say so.
You are not writing a publisher rulebook. You are writing the five arguments you do not want to have at 11 p.m.
Registration that survives the final
Take teams, not a pile of individual sign-ups you will sort later.
- A captain who pays and is the only person you message.
- Teammate names and in-game IDs as custom questions on the form.
- College name, and a phone number that works on the day.
- Entry fee collected when they register, if there is one. Chasing fees after the bracket is published does not work.
On Tunyt, team registration is part of the event: a captain, members, custom questions, and a QR ticket for check-in. That is the same flow as any other paid fest ticket, including UPI at checkout. Details are in how to sell tickets online in India.
The room, the network, the referee
- PCs or phones. For Valorant, count machines including a referee PC. For BGMI, decide whether teams bring phones and hotspots or you provide them. Borrowed phones die.
- Network. A classroom Wi-Fi that works for email will not carry a lobby of squads. Test a full lobby on the same network the day before, not with one person.
- Power. Extension boards, labelled. A final that dies because a board was kicked is a hosting failure.
- One referee who is not also playing. They start lobbies, record results, and own the clock.
- A public bracket pinned in the event WhatsApp group and on a screen outside the room. Update it after every round.
Check-in on the day
Open check-in 45–60 minutes before the first lobby. Scan each captain’s QR ticket, match the roster to the IDs on the form, and close check-in at a published time. Teams that are not in the room do not get a lobby.
Volunteers at the door should not also be seeding the bracket. Split the jobs. The scanning setup is in QR code tickets and event check-in.
After the final
- Announce results in the room and post them the same hour.
- Pay prizes the way you promised. Delaying a student prize pool is how your tournament does not happen next semester.
- Send a short note to sponsors with match photos and the number of teams that actually checked in.
Ready to open the roster?
Create the tournament, take team registrations, and check captains in with a QR code before the first lobby.