EventShell:Brontes Memo Gunning Bakeoff

Synopsis
Taking the gunning bakeoff and splitting it onto multiple ships to save time and sanity for everyone, with a sinking twist at the end and a whole lotta fun for everybody along for the ride..

Full Description
By this event, I was trying to pick up a torch that was snubbed before it began. Amphitrite's gunning bakeoff worked out in the end, but I'm not sure that even the winners went home looking forward to the next one, and this was reflected in the absolute derth of gunning-related events until the Nu Casino (and even that was months before Brontes Memo) I'm not sure if I've succeeded or not, but the format itself does seem to work, and I'll be trying out a refined version on Sage in November.

The 80 participants are split up onto 10 ships of 8 contestants for the first round. Each ship is overseen by an assistant, who is taking logs and helping keep everything running smoothly. The top 3 times from each boat move onto the second round. Meanwhile, the losers can plant themselves on the Loser's Lounge, a GF set up in port with carousing tables and a tournament board to keep them occupied and happy. (An assistant was also on-duty to run some tournaments for trinkets.)

After a second round to determine the finalists, the two finalists boarded war frigates along with the losers who wanted to come along for the sink. They PVPed each other, got into a position from which they can both hit and be hit by the other, and whenever a gun was loaded, it was immediately queued to be fired. Whoever sunk, lost. (And for good measure, we sailed out a sloop to sink the other boat, too.)

Materials

 * 10 war brigs
 * 10 war frigates (We borrowed the nonsinking war brigs and frigates from an islandholding flag that was willing to lend us their defence fleet for a few hours. This is free, but also means all the boats are conveniently in the same place.)
 * 2 war frigates (Unlike the other 20, these 2 will sink. The OMs donated them. Your mileage may vary.)
 * 10-15 assistants (we ended up with 12, only 11 who could be there on the day of. 13 with the host.)
 * A lot of shot (About 1500 of each type, plus some extra for the final round. We were able to buy at cost and spent about 125k on this, YMMV.)

Prize Precedents
We were able to get a familiar for this event as an untested format. Now that it's a tested format, a host of comparable experience may be able to extract better prizes (2nd-3rd-4th-etc.) from the OMs.

Strong Points

 * Organization is something that's come up as part of what made this event so much fun. Because everyone had to read the rules before they were allowed to preregister, everybody knew exactly what they were getting into, so the host and assistants could focus on running the actual event instead of holding peoples' hands and guiding them through the format. This made the entire event quicker, snappier, and shorter, as well as much less stressful for everyone involved.
 * The event was very speedy. Start to finish, about two and a half hours, excluding checkin time. (Amphitrite's bakeoff took five hours, so this is a signifigant reduction. Additionally, most people were free to leave after the first 30-40 minutes, while they were forced to remain on the boat for the duration of the earlier incarnation.)
 * There was a great focus throughout on fun above all else: assistants were free to run their ships as they liked, participants were free to do whatever they wanted until it was their turn at the puzzle, and we did our best to preserve fun for everyone.

Weak Points

 * As there is a heavy PVP element, there is the chance of getting blackshipped, which could be catastrophic. (This actually did happen in the final round due to host error, but was quickly resolved thanks to a near-instant OM reaction.)
 * When you delegate and download authority and responsibility, your delegates may turn out to be unable to rise to the occasion. Extra care should be given to selection of assistants, since there is no way to monitor them once they're actually at sea and the event's running.
 * Additionally, bend over backwards to make sure everyone's chat logs are functioning properly before the event. If one of your assistants doesn't check, they will be the one who turns out to have no logs whatsoever.
 * As always, there will be some hecklers if you get white names. Have canned responses ready and don't waste time on the twits.
 * One assistant had difficulty with their logs, and someone moved on who shouldn't have. This caused a small tartfest and a large blemish on the event. Apollo stepped in to resolve it, but it's a situation nobody hopes to revisit, I'm sure.

Links to Precedents

 * Brontes Memo Gunning Bakeoff (Precious Midnight incarnation)
 * SPECTRE Hits Sage (Current Sage incarnation, happening in November)
 * Nu Casino Gunning Event (Midnight, November of 05)
 * Banana Bonanza (Midnight, September of 05)

Status
You may have difficulty persuading the OMs to allow you to hold this event on Midnight (with formal OM support) in the forseeable future due to the fact that it was run in August. Additionally, Agon would like to reserve the right to attempt it on every other ocean (except Ice, but even that's negotiable) in the forseeable future. If you would like to borrow or use this format, please send him a PM on the forum before you set the gears in motion. (He's at Agon.)