League Hosting Tips

[tullster]

I thought this would be a good topic to start so we could share League hosting ideas & tips.

We hosted for the first time recently and had a lot of fun preparing and having the gang over. I totally understand that hosting a league night may not be for everybody. But let's throw around some ideas, feedback & thoughts to help any future hosts and possibly sway some folks who are on the fence about hosting.

I'll start with a list of my thoughts. I'm sure I'll miss a few things, so feel free to pile on!!

Let's assume that each League meeting has 15-20 guests...

Games - At least 4. They don't need to be the latest or greatest, they just need to all be good running 4 player games. To me, nobody's collection is that much better than the next guy's... They're all special in their own way. When we hosted, I was surprised how much everybody loved playing Escape from the Lost World!

Food - For our party, I cooked up 2 dozed Brats, 20 Burgers and put 'em in 2 medium "crock pots" or cookers with beer & onions so they stayed warm. We had 3 Brats left at the end of the night (just about perfect!). I've heard that about 8 Pizzas work for a crowd that size too. Other things we had in approximate order of popularity where... Sausage & cheese plate - Trail mix - Chips (potato & nacho w/ salsa) - Baked beans (I got scolded for not having a big enough spoon) - Tuna salad. We also had cookies.

Beverage -
Soda - 4-5 12 packs. Pepsi, Mtn Dew, Diet Sierra Mist seemed to go over the best.

Water - 1 case. I screwed up and forgot to get it out (sorry about that!), but I know plain 'ol water goes over good.

Beer - I bought 3 sampler 12 packs from New Glarus, Capitol & Wisconsin Brewery. The lighter beers
went over well, and I'm left with a bunch of dark & porter beers! The 12 pack of Miller lite was
gone!
Next time (and for future reference) I think that... 12 pack of Spotted Cow, 12 Pack of Capitol
Amber (or similar) a case of Miller Lite & maybe a 12 Pack of Pabst would do the trick.

Garbage cans in an easy to find spot, and Can/bottle recycling bins.
And don't forget paper plates & napkins, and maybe a sleeve of solo cups too.

Of course this "inventory" of stuff will vary, but there you go!

[TomGWI]

Sounds about right Steve.

[Eric_S]

Steve,

Do you let guys play extra balls during league play or just plunge them? Any settings changes and/or physical changes to the games?

Eric

[Hilton]

i can probably answer...

I think the vast majority of our league nights the hosts have not done much to change the games from how they normally have them set up. I hosted league immediately following last chance and I put the games back to my normal between last chance and league (ex: put outlanes back to middle settings, put rubbers back on, loosen up tilts slightly).

We typically play extra balls. Keep in mind that 4 4-player games only takes 2hrs at max most times so there is really no need to speed things up. Most of of nights have had 16-17 people out of our 21 show up. We typically start around 6-7 and are done by 9at latest it seems. Then most people hang out and play dollar games till the host is sick of every one.

Per Tully's beer suggestion > we went through mainly dark beers and the miller crap was left for me to choke down. Granted I hosted a sat so I think people were up for a little more partyin and Sundays were good for light stuff

$10 per person paid to the host works out pretty well. We had 17 people at my house and I spent all the donated funds plus a little extra on pizza and beer.

[ralphwiggum]

After last night, I have now hosted Milwaukee and Madison leagues now, and the one thing I can tell you is- know your crowd.

Madison League- 48 beers, 9 large pizzas (thinner crust)- Left at the end of the night? No pizza and about 12 beers.

Milwaukee League- 54 beers, 8 large pizzas (same pizza as Madison League)- Left at the end of the night? Beer was gone in about 2.5 hours and 1.5 pizzas were left over.

For the beer, I only supply what I am willing to drink if there is leftover, so it is mostly stuff like spotted cow, Newcastle, etc... No light beers...


As far as game setups, we leave them pretty stock, but if there is a tournament setting, use it. The is especially important on Gottlieb System 3s where the random award shots can be really imbalanced. We had a scenario a few months ago in Milwaukee league where the award was "catch high score" and Neo got the win because that shot essentially gave him 23 million points. Had that been turned off, he would have taken third on it (our of three).

[tullster]

I set my games to factory, then free play and add-a-ball settings when at home and left them that way for league. Check 'em for level and they're good to go.

For the Pizza, from what I've seen (at Tim's & Hiltons) Is tried & true... a couple cheese, several sausage & several Pepperoni. I'm sure it's tempting to get deluxes' and combo pizzas, but not really necessary and would add to the cost.

$10 per person is just about right. I noticed Tom & Eric's league has $10 with half going to the host & half going to trophys etc? You might want to re-think that... Make it $15 with 10 going to the host? Or have it be BYOB.

Unless you guys don't drink or eat like us down here!

[DeaconBlooze]

I wonder how much the carpooling played into how much beer was consumed. That, and we lost a couple of brave beers to the cold.

[ralphwiggum]

I wonder how much the carpooling played into how much beer was consumed. That, and we lost a couple of brave beers to the cold.

I didn't even think about the carpooling thing, the Milwaukee league definitely had more groups carpool then Madison. I just figured I was doing better in the Milwaukee league because I was playing a bunch of drunks.... We did lose three beers initially to the cold, but at 1:30, we only lost two, because the third one was warm enough to give it a proper good night burial down my gullet...

[ralphwiggum]

.

$10 per person is just about right. I noticed Tom & Eric's league has $10 with half going to the host & half going to trophys etc? You might want to re-think that... Make it $15 with 10 going to the host? Or have it be BYOB.

Unless you guys don't drink or eat like us down here!

Tully is spot on with this one. I buy local "fancy" pizzas- in that they are stone fired pizzas. Even having basic flavors mixed in with a few specialties (BBQ chicken, Meat Lovers, Tuscano)- The pizzas were $125.00. Beer was another $70, soda was about $25 (I have a soda machine, just basing this on empties), and misc. snacks were about $25. Grand total is about $240-ish or so. Even if I got the $5 Little Ceasers pizzas, I would have been at $165-ish.

Obviously, do what works for your league, but hosting is some work (cleaning before/after), but really fun. I am really glad I get to share my games with people, and I love going to everyone else's place to see how they have their stuff setup (it is so cool to see the different setups and play different games)

[Hilton]

I agree, hosting is a blast.

Side benefit is that you can drink as much as you want when you host


Visiting others collections and game rooms also provides inspiration to make my game room nice someday.

[ralphwiggum]

Side benefit is that you can drink as much as you want when you host

Can you imagine league at Ken's house in this scenario?

[Hilton]

Side benefit is that you can drink as much as you want when you host

Can you imagine league at Ken's house in this scenario?

I would consider loaning him a game for a weekend just so he can host

[Ken]

I'd be wasted even before you guys showed up. And there would be no food or beer. Liquor and weed only.

Man I can't wait to host!

[Hilton]

count me in!!!!

[ChrisS]

"F" you guys for making league sound so fun.


chris