Once you’ve been announcing for a while, it’s possible your team makes the post-season, and when that happens, it’s tournament time.  There are instances in which the highest seed hosts a game, both teams host at least one game (series), or games are played at a neutral site.  There are some tournaments which are invitational tournaments and though they may still have champions, it’s not considered as important a championships as a league championships.  Tournaments are still fun to do as you get to see a lot of different teams at one time.

Tournaments are usually a little more scrutinized and have a few more rules for announcers than regular-season games.  We’ll take a look here at some of the various rules that you may be in for, and how to handle them when they arise.

Introducing a Tournament

When you start your welcome for a tournament game, you’ll use your basic welcome, but add the tournament at the beginning

”Good morning/afternoon/evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to [facility name] for the [year] [tournament name].  In tonight’s [round] match-up, the visiting team, [seed], [insert team’s full name] will take on the [seed], [insert year along with home team’s name].”

For a baseball tournament, your announcement should sound something like this.

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Northern High School for the 2012 Virginia High School Baseball League Playoffs.  In today’s first-round match-up, the visiting team, the #4 seed, Franklin Colonials will take on the #1 seed, the 2012 Richmond Knights.

If the home team has won the league and are the top seed, then you can announce that in place of #1 seed.

“…will take on the 2013 Leighton Division Champion, Richmond Knights.”

If you are announcing a neutral-site tournament game, your welcome will be a little different.

”Good morning/afternoon/evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to [facility name] for the [year] [tournament name].  In tonight’s [round] match-up, the visiting [insert team’s full name] and the [insert year along with home team’s name].”

For a baseball tournament, your announcement should sound something like this.

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to SYA Park for the 2012 Virginia Youth Baseball League State Tournament.  In today’s round-robin match-up, the visiting team will be from District 12, the Clarke County Crushers.  They will take on the home team, from District 7, the Albemarle Falcons.”

Some tournaments feature a round-robin portion to decide who plays in the final tournament.  This is more common in youth sports to allow teams who came a long way to be guaranteed a certain number of games played.  Once you are in the elimination portion of the tournament, you will announce how the teams got to where they are when announcing the starting line-ups.

“It’s now time for the starting line-ups for today’s game, first for the visiting Franklin Colonials, the #4 seed who advanced to today’s game with a 6-3 win over Danville in the play-in round.”

As the tournament progresses, you will list their wins and losses (if a double-elimination).

“…who advanced to today’s game with a 5-4 win over Tallahassee, a 14-1 victory over Orange and a 5-2 loss to Citrus City.”

Once you get into the various rounds of the tournament, you will tweak what you are saying when introducing each game by way of the “round”.  Most people may know it’s the championship game by the time you get to the final game, but it adds to the atmosphere to have the announcer project it over the sound system.

Highest Seed Hosts

When the highest seed hosts, it means the team with the highest seed will be hosting the game.  The seedings are usually based on regular season record within the conference or league in which the teams play.  The winner of the game will most likely advance to the next round, or play the next day in another game if you are playing a series.  These are keys to note, because you will need to know when or if the next game will be so you’re prepared to announce that for the fans.  You’ll want to have an idea of the tournament bracket going into the game so you know that the winner of this game will take on the winner of Team C vs. Team D and where the game could take place and when.

Next Game EXAMPLE A (Your game Fairmont vs. Southlawn)

“Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of today’s game will take on the winner of Westbranch and Leesburg tomorrow at 4 p.m.  Should Westbranch win their game today, they will host the tomorrow’s game.  Should Leesburg win their game, the winner of this game, Fairmont or Southlawn will be the host tomorrow.”

Next Game EXAMPLE B

“Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of today’s game will take on the winner of Westbranch and Leesburg.  Should Fairmont win today’s game, they will play tomorrow right here at 4 p.m.  Should Southlawn win, they will travel to the winner of the other semi-final game at 4 p.m. tomorrow.

After the game, you will know who at least one of the two teams advancing will be.  Even if it isn’t the team you are announcing for, it’s still respectful and shows sportsmanship to announce the other team’s game, their opponent and time if known.  Even if you don’t know who they’ll be playing or where, you can still announce that they are playing “tomorrow” or whenever they play again against either the other two opponents at a time and site to be determined.  If there is a tournament web site or a central location people can find the results, direct people there.

Since you’re announcing as the highest seed, typically, these are still treated like home games for the home team and are announced accordingly.  There are some associations who do require the announcers in these situations to be impartial, however fewer and fewer do this each year as the home teams feel slighted that they’ve earned the opportunity to host a game, but they don’t get their home-field advantage.

Keep in mind during tournaments, especially season-ending tournaments, that emotions can run higher than with regular season games.  That’s because some teams are playing to keep playing.  If they lose, they’re out and most teams want to keep playing.

Series

A series of games is typical in major professional sports when teams play a best of three, five, or seven game series to decide who will move on to the next round.  In series, teams typically play at both sites, with the highest seed receiving an extra game should the series go to it’s limit.

First, your introduction will change slightly from the basic announcement above.

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Northern High School for the First Round of the 2012 Virginia High School Baseball League Playoffs.  In today’s third game of the best-of-five series, the visiting team, the #4 seed, Franklin Colonials will take on the #1 seed, the 2012 Richmond Knights.”

It is more conversational to announce to round then the playoff/tournament name.  You may say things like the “preliminary round of the”, “first round”, “second round”, “quarter final round”, “semi-final round” and “championship round” or “finals”.

After you’ve made your welcome, you can announce the series standings, “Franklin leads the series, 2 games to 1.”  If announcing a tied series, ALWAYS announce, “the series is tied at [number] games a piece.”  Announcing, “the series is tied 1-1,” is redundant and poor grammar.

Next Game EXAMPLE A (Your game Fairmont vs. Southlawn)

“Ladies and gentlemen, game two of this best-of-five series will take place tomorrow at 6 p.m. right here at Fairmont.  Game three will see the series shift to Southlawn on Tuesday at 6 p.m.”

Next Game EXAMPLE B

“Ladies and gentlemen, game three of this best-of-five series will take place at Southlawn on Tuesday at 6 p.m.  If necessary, game four will be on Wednesday at 6 p.m., also at Southlawn.”

Remember to announce the “best-of” each time in announcing the series schedule.  Fans may not realize it’s a series, or how many games are in the series.

Neutral Site

Neutral sites can mean a busy day for a lot of people at that site.  You see it come the post season in college basketball when one site hosts 2-4 games in a day and a lot of those people will be there for all of the games.  If you’re lucky enough to be able to be announcing all of the games, remember that these are four separate games and most of the fans will not be there from the first to the last game.

A neutral site will most likely have a host and sponsor host.  If it does, your welcome will change slightly to recognize the host and sponsors.

“On behalf of the City of Salem and the Salem Civic Council, good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Salem Arena for the 2013 Dominion College Athletic Conference Playoffs.  In today’s third game and game number seven on the schedule, the visiting team, the #4 seed, the Swipers of Access College will take on the DCAC champion Jeffers of Lee George University.”

It’s a more conversational tone to welcoming the fans and you should also incorporate it in your closing statement at the end of the game and night.

Don’t allow a laugher of a first game affect your demeanor for the second game which could be a close contest.  One of the hardest parts about announcing as a neutral site announcer is you may not be familiar with one or both of the teams.  Plus, if neither team had a lot of fans travel with them, it’s going to be a quiet arena and the atmosphere isn’t going to be there.  That’s where it’s up to you as the announcer to keep the same enthusiasm as you would for your own team.  It may not be a packed arena, but there are people who made the trip and you owe it to them to give you best.  The players and coaches worked hard to make it to that game, and it’s not time to “take a game off”.

Some neutral site games will also feature the host team playing in the tournament.  High school tournaments typically will have this happen, however unlike in the host sites, you still must be impartial when announcing.  In this case, the team’s play did not dictate whether or not they earned the right to play at home, the game was going to be there anyway, whether or not the team advanced.

An advantage to announcing a neutral site is that the scripts will be the same for each game, for the most part.  There may be special ceremonies during one game, or a certain sponsor for another, but by the end of that first day, you’ll know all the announcements by memory.  That can lead to being complacent, which is not a good thing, ever, in announcing.  Remember, that the people in the stands for the fourth game are hearing the announcements for the first time and the sponsor that paid for those advertisements wants those fans to hear them just the same as the people in the first game.

When announcing a neutral site game, the upcoming games you will announce will include the next game on the schedule, as well as the next game for both teams who are playing.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the tournament continues approximately 30 minutes following the completion of this game as Murray takes on Gattatin in another first-round match-up.  The next game for Mansfield will be tomorrow at 2 p.m. when they play Livingston, while Huntsville plays at approximately 4:15 p.m. against Leesville.”