how to run a tecmo weekend(s)

Purpose

Purpose:  This post contains guidelines for a successful weekend of Tecmo, resources that will put you into the right frame of mind, and the general rules that will keep a gaming weekend on track.  Where as most Tecmo tournaments are MAN vs MAN brackets with seeding based on pool/group play beforehand (and using customer matchups) . . . our southeast Tecmo weekends are more about emulating a bit of the old school Tecmo feel and punctuating Man V Man games with season implications.  Basically each player will select a team, those teams will be set to MAN and then players will then speed game an entire season of Tecmo into one weekend.  This shit is not for those weak of heart, it is part endurance, part skill, and depending on your pick method part luck.  It is best suited for a small group of good friends who have either rented a place or can crash at one person's house.

Background:  We've been running these Tecmo weekends since 2008.  We came up an played in a 2013 Tecmo tournament in New York and a few of us can hang pretty well with some of the more popular players (I beat Mort in our pool game for staging if that counts for anything), but really the strength of this type of event is that you get way more variation and asymmetry.  Newer players may just be trying to make the playoffs, other players may be trying to set single season records, etc.  We've been playing this roughly once a quarter since our friend group has mostly consolidated to one state (after college, jobs, war, etc).

Logistics: Players should designate who is cooking which meal (or what will be ordered ahead of time).  If playing with more than four players you will be hard pressed to finish in one weekend. 

Procedure:  The following section outlines our procedure, it has some good resources/rules and is an entertaining read.  Feel free to change at your leisure for your setting if you have a Tecmo weekend.

Reading from the Book of Big Red

While players mill around chatting and catching up - when Tecmo is about to start the organizer (or person with the highest level of literacy - should read an excerpt from the Book of Big Red).

Relevant link: http://www.leonardite.com/tecmo/main.html

Scouting

Players should review the Paul Schulzetenberg GAMEFAQ from 2000 and utilize this guide for team picking.  Upon drafting your team a designated jagaloon will read your team's overview from the FAQ.  

Relevant link: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/587686-tecmo-super-bowl/faqs/6416 

Handicap Pick

In a handicap selection players will be placed into Tiers based on their Tecmo ability by the organizer.  In general we use the tiers to define a typical field goal advantage per tier (ie tier S+ vs a tier A team is like the first player has a 6 pt advantage).  If there a multiple players within a tier a random lottery will be used to select the order of selection.

Random Pick

In a random pick system (our favorite), each player will select a random team (we actually machined 28 tokens with a CnC machine for a blind draw).  Since it is a random draw order does not matter.  If playing multiple seasons with the same players we remove previously selected teams until all team have been played.

Division Pick

This system maximizes what we call . . . Dude on Dude action - or Man V Man games during a season.  All players should pick teams within the same division.  This will mean each player will play each other opponent at least twice resulting in a wild regular season.  If players desire a chance at a Man V Man super bowl - the players should be equally distributed across two divisions, one in each conference - preferably who play their interconference games against each other.

Playbook Selection

Once drafted, each player will have a maximum of 10 minutes to select their playbook.  This playbook may be changed once between week's 8 and 9.  This second playbook change must take no longer than 5 minutes.  For first time players this time limit requirement is waived and they may change their play books after weeks 4, 8, 12, and/or 16. 

Play Tempo

After all teams and playbooks are selected teams will be set to man and the season will commence.  At the end of each game a player will take a picture of the blue "game summary" screen.  Play will immediately continue to the next "man" match.  Players will then use the image to enter stats into the master playbook without slowing down gameplay.  Gameplay will then proceed without breaks unless listed in this guideline.  Players will be woken up if sleeping.  Remember that SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK.  It is estimated that games will take 20 minutes per game.  With Six players the estimated play time is 36 hours.  This translates into 8, 20, 8 (hours) of gameplay on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. 

Lurching

In MAN v MAN matches players may not engage in lurching.  Lurching is the act of selecting the NT/DT and immediately diving on the play snap.  This is not permitted.  Please see the following video for lurching rules: 

Substitutions

Players may not place WR's in the RB position unless all available running backs are injured.  Some typical examples would be placing Jerry Rice as the 49ers running back.  Other substitutions are permitted (ie putting the backup QB in, putting the backup RB in the primary RB slot, etc).