As far as I was aware this tournament/event idea was to raise awareness of IWF and entice people in as part of a continuous recruitment strategy, which goes beyond the initial hit.
Soon as you introduce external rewards such as money or a real replica Championship belt to the winner, it opens up a whole bunch of issues. Suddenly this internet roleplaying game takes a real slant and that is hard to control. Your decisions as far as judging and even bracketing will be under heavy scrutiny (assuming that money is offered only to the winner) and bad feeling is easily created, which then taints the fed for the future. If your Wrestler X makes it to the final against Wrestler Y and you lose, which you consider to be unfair, what's the impact? Somebody else is enjoying your $150 or whatever the prize is, you don't join up as a permanent member and the fed receives bad publicity because their judging is suspect as you'll have plastered it all over social media and recruitment sites such as roughkut.
I would air on the side of caution when considering external rewards because once that's out there and more to the point the effects of it are out there, it's extremely difficult to claw back.
As far as it being seen as a waste of time, that goes back to what I was saying about it being part of a long-term recruitment strategy. If we can demonstrate a progression route following the event, that will be seen as appealing, not just a "thanks for the cash, see you next year". ideally, you want the winner to join up and become the case study for recruitment. One of the reasons roleplayers don't join new feds is the worry that they'll tread water in nothing angles for weeks or months before integrating properly into the fed. Demonstrating progression removes that barrier. Personally, I don't think in-character in-fed rewards should be dismissed so readily as they carry a lot less future difficulties than your external stuff.
Subject: Future Idea 
Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:40 am
