In which we contemplate the tin

If you ask me, the hardest thing about running a virtual tournament of any substance is going to be trophies. In theory, it's simple enough. 

• You figure out a budget
• You'll pass the cost along, of course, but you'll have to know what that cost is
• And it includes trophies, packaging and postage
• You study mail packaging
• You obtain trophies that you can easily package
• You mail them to the winners

Yeah. Simple enough.

In the normal run of things, going into a tournament you have a good idea, based on past performance, of how many trophies you will need. But past performance might not be a good indicator of our upcoming virtual season. Of course, a good rule of thumb is get the most you might need, and put neither dates nor division on them, just Groundhog Invitational Semifinalist or Chipmunk Challenge Quaterfinalist or whatever. That way, you can mix and match divisions, even speech and debate, and any leftovers are good to go for next time. But make them nice. It's bad enough that we're not anywhere in person; at least if people take tin it should be nice tin worthy of display. Remember, a lot of school administrations measure the success of their forensic dollar investment by the weight of the tin that comes home. Act accordingly. 

I would recommend acrylic, and flat. This makes them lightweight, and packable. Also, you can put really nice designs on acrylic for not much cost. 

I'd go with one size for all levels if it were me, i.e., same size for quarters and finals. Then you buy up as many envelopes (the stuffy kind) as you need into which they will fit. And remember, some schools will win a lot.

If I were you, I'd look into stamps.com. Or you can go spend a few weeks after the tournament at the post office with the clerks there posting the envelopes one at a time...

And here's the hardest part. You do have to mail them. You have to find someone to sort them, stuff them and ship them. Let's say you have 3 divisions of PF all breaking to doubles. That's 96 trophies, times two. And then there's all the other divisions. (Actually, you might want to do medals for doubles people. Medals are cheap, and quite popular.)

Oh, yeah. Where are you going to get the mailing addresses? No, they're not in tabroom. And what about programs that won 17 trophies?

That is going to be fun. But if you're prepared, and have a good team on it, it's doable.