Idea for first Australia StepMania Tournament

[Hazelle]

Hello fellow Stepmania goers/ FFRers!

Tarrik and I need your support and shared passion of Stepmania to get our idea going. We want a first-ever Stepmania tournament to be held in Austraila – where Tarrik resides. First, let us give you a short (lol) summary of our plan:
We will first need to think of how the tournament will be held.

WHO WILL BE ALLOWED TO COMPETE?
Will it only be the more skilled players allowed to enter? Will it be anyone and all to enter? Will it be anyone in between?
At first, we thought any and all players would be perfect – any recognition of this tournament would be great. We could split it into 3 simple categories – beginner, amateur, and skilled (Or whatever they will be labeled as- Division A, B, C, or 1,2,3..etc. ) However, the only reason why people go to watch tournaments is to see the best perform and watch them in awe, so we’re a bit stuck on who to host for this tournament.

The second thought is: how will we know the skill level of these people? I’m sure there could be a trial pack that could be made to get a taste of their skill level and they could send in the vids of them playing. (Of course there will have to be a part of them introducing themselves, and showing them as well as the screen of them playing).

THE TOURNAMENT ITSELF:
Third thought: What about the songs/step files that will be held in the tournament? We’re thinking it’d have to be a completely new and never seen before pack. We’re thinking the trial pack will be similar enough to the tournament pack so the skill levels will stay relatively stable.
Also – will people have to bring their own laptops? We’re thinking yes…we’re not made of money!! xD

And that’s just the tournament's songs and who will play. There is also other things to think of: where it will be held, how it will be advertised, and the specific date(s). There are also the try-out vids people will have to take with the trial packs. Also, entry fees, prizes, and other things which we haven’t addressed in this post.

We understand that the first tournament will be very small, so we don’t need that big of a hosting place. (Unless the tournament page on facebook suggests otherwise..as well as phone calls, emails, whatever)

WHY DO THIS?
The reason for posting this, is that we would like to get this idea into reality! Please give feedback (whether negative or positive) about this idea.

E-sports itself is growing so huge in the past few years, so we figured why not make SM a part of this growth? We think it’s a fantastic idea and if enough hard work and passion is put into this, then this will be successful no doubt!!

Thanks so much!


-Tarrik & Bri

[Hazelle]

On second thought - we should ask if this is even legal. If we give the tournament an entry fee, we're essentially making a profit off of Stepmania and the music included, right? I wanted to see if I could contact someone about this for either it's legal or illegal...but the Stepmania site does not have any copyright information whatsoever, as well as contact information. Sure, there's a list of people who work on the programs, but that doesn't help if I cannot contact anyone. That usual copyright mark you see at the bottom of webpages...it's not there on Stepmania's.
This is so far all I have found:
http://www.stepmania.com/wiki/Create_Songs

If you scroll down, it gives a link and a description.
"This search tool accesses search engines that identify websites that either contain metadata of or a link back to a Creative Commons license..."
http://search.creativecommons.org/

I don't know - I just don't know how to approach this whole dilemma...