My whole thought on actual prizes for RP situations like competitions and the like has always been that they're sort of... secondary? A bonus? As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, the idea shouldn't be that you're participating solely for the reward. Sure, ICly that could be the reason (and thus the prize itself could be an IC - not actually tangible - prize) but it shouldn't also be the OOC one.
The pot for winning the Grindstone is nice, but the main draw is to show off your skills in combat, climb to the top of the ladder in front of an audience, and potentially generate RP. People have made friends, rivals, and probably even enemies through the Grindstone. Started, progressed, or reach plot resolution through the Grindstone. And I feel all of that is far more important than whatever prize is at the top.
With the Chrystal Chronicle reporting on the thing too, you also get the victor and runner-up interviewed afterward. That sort of in-world publicity is also its own sort of prize. And - it may just be because us Overseers started doing it - I like to think that being the Champion of the X Bracket (Arbor, Wash, Bridge, Rock) is kind of a reward in its own right - it's recognition for getting to the top of your own bracket, which is pretty impressive in its own right even if they end up losing against one of the other Bracket Champions. Of course actually becoming Champion is pretty great, but I feel like reaching those other positions (bracket champion or even finalist) has esteem attached to it that doesn't require an actual solid prize.
That said, another good point that got brought up is that these sorts of events are usually run entirely on a voluntary basis. The staff aren't getting any compensation for the work they're doing, and frequently are also the ones funding the prize at the end. If you're running it often enough (like, even just every other week), unless you have quite a stash of gil saved up or have some outside source of funding... you'll end up having to do a lot of extra work outside the event too just farming up the prizes to hand out at the end. That's a lot of effort being put into the event to have someone who just showed up complain because they came up short.
I don't know. Maybe I'm just being rambly and repeating stuff that's already been said but... basically I think the main point of the events is supposed to be an RP thing. The prizes are bonuses being provided by the event coordinators basically out of their own pocket. They can help attract attention and bump up attendance, of course, but they should not be seen as a requirement. As such, the event runners are not obligated to provide more than they want or are willing to provide.
If you don't want to provide a physical runner up prize, there's no obligation to.
The pot for winning the Grindstone is nice, but the main draw is to show off your skills in combat, climb to the top of the ladder in front of an audience, and potentially generate RP. People have made friends, rivals, and probably even enemies through the Grindstone. Started, progressed, or reach plot resolution through the Grindstone. And I feel all of that is far more important than whatever prize is at the top.
With the Chrystal Chronicle reporting on the thing too, you also get the victor and runner-up interviewed afterward. That sort of in-world publicity is also its own sort of prize. And - it may just be because us Overseers started doing it - I like to think that being the Champion of the X Bracket (Arbor, Wash, Bridge, Rock) is kind of a reward in its own right - it's recognition for getting to the top of your own bracket, which is pretty impressive in its own right even if they end up losing against one of the other Bracket Champions. Of course actually becoming Champion is pretty great, but I feel like reaching those other positions (bracket champion or even finalist) has esteem attached to it that doesn't require an actual solid prize.
That said, another good point that got brought up is that these sorts of events are usually run entirely on a voluntary basis. The staff aren't getting any compensation for the work they're doing, and frequently are also the ones funding the prize at the end. If you're running it often enough (like, even just every other week), unless you have quite a stash of gil saved up or have some outside source of funding... you'll end up having to do a lot of extra work outside the event too just farming up the prizes to hand out at the end. That's a lot of effort being put into the event to have someone who just showed up complain because they came up short.
I don't know. Maybe I'm just being rambly and repeating stuff that's already been said but... basically I think the main point of the events is supposed to be an RP thing. The prizes are bonuses being provided by the event coordinators basically out of their own pocket. They can help attract attention and bump up attendance, of course, but they should not be seen as a requirement. As such, the event runners are not obligated to provide more than they want or are willing to provide.
If you don't want to provide a physical runner up prize, there's no obligation to.
~