And so it begins...

So, I've had the urge to have a Rockband tournament for a while now but never had the reason or funds to do so to the magnitude that I want (for those of you who have been directed here and aren't exactly familiar with Rockband, here's a link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm3jrYtz8tE). Today it struck me. Why not have a Rockband tournament for a charitable organization? Whenever I think about doing something for a charity, Special Olympics is the first thing my mind comes to due to the fact that my nephew Shae has and probably will again be in them. So, here is my mission:

To set up and carry out a Rockband tournament with all proceeds going to the Special Olympics!

Before I get into the specifics, let me share with you my vision. I want a concert-type setting. By this I mean I want each band member to have individual monitors to watch the note/words and also have a giant projection screen behind the band showing the audience how they are doing while they band faces them. This is different from most Rockband tournaments because they are usually facing the TV with the audience behind them. I also wanted every band, regardless of difficulty level, to have a shot at the top prize. I don't necessarily want it to be head-to-head elimination style tournament, but if that's not possible, it's alright.

Alright, so, first on the agenda is funds and cost. To get funds I would need to save for a while and NOT take my trip to Canada this summer or I could find some sponsors. Since the sponsors thing would be fast and wouldn't involve my money, I think I'm going to go with that. I've never done anything like this before but I'm guessing you have to have a proposal of some sort. So, I have to tabulate my costs and find out exactly how much it's going to cost me. So before we go to individual things, let's break it down into categories.

1. Prizes
2. The rig (what I like to refer to as the "Performance Apparatus")
   
3. Advertisement

It seems like there should be more categories that that but that's all I can think of right now. So, prizes. I really want the grand prize to be a gaming system, preferably and Xbox 360. The 2 problems with this are the fact that it is expensive, and you can't split it 4 ways. My second thought is all of the Rockband instruments, customized. I would also like to have commemorative T shirts for all participants. That shouldn't be a problem as I know someone with a heat press.

The rig will be pretty expensive, or not depending on how I do it. As I stated above, I want to have a giant screen in back and have every musician have their own monitor. The screen would be easy as we could use something as simple as a sheet. The monitors I could probably scrounge up in the for of old small TVs people aren't using anymore. The projector may be a problem but I might be able to find someone who is willing to rent or lend one.

Advertising shouldn't be too much of a problem either as most of the gaming community in this town has few choices when it comes to merchandise. Strategic word-of-mouth and some fliers should do nicely.

So there it is, the beginning of my dream. Please comment all you want. Suggestions are encouraged. More to come.