Run a Video Game Tournament
You can run your brackets really easily on Challonge!. If you want print brackets, the brackets I use to run tournaments are here. NKI's favorite brackets are here.

It's actually pretty easy to run a tournament, except for the fact that nobody will show up on time.

  1. Get permission from the arcade, and make sure that the sticks are OK. If the sticks don't work DO NOT HAVE A TOURNAMENT. You will alienate the people you want to show up. Make sure the systems are set to standard arcade settings. Playing on the wrong damage/speed settings is annoying.
  2. Announce it - post on Facebook, Twitter, the MvC2 discord, put up some flyers at the arcade(s), the usual. The only reason I'm here is because I saw a random sign in the mall today: make it easy for people to accidentally discover your tournament.
  3. Day of, show up an hour or so early (before sign-ups begin) so you can double-check everything is working and make sure that anyone who shows up early doesn't just wander off or leave. If you're using printed brackets bring extra brackets, sign-up sheets, pens (for the sign-up sheets), and pencils (for the brackets) just in case.
  4. Make sure people have stuff to do while they wait. This goes for during the tourney as well as pre-tourney. People will get antsy and wander off if they get bored. Try to prevent that. Ideally you have some setups ready so that people can play casuals and warm up.
  5. When they sign up, take the money then. If they don't have money, they can't sign up. Believe me, you HAVE to do this or you're going to be "missing" money even from your best friends. Gather their cell phone numbers if possible now in case they wander off later.
  6. Lay out the brackets. If you're doing it on paper, write in pencil: you will likely need to adjust them. Typically you'll want to seed the top ~4-8 players, and then randomly fill out the rest of the brackets. To randomly give somebody a spot in the brackets, I flip a coin - heads tops of the bracket, tails bottom, and continue the coin flip until the coin has picked their slot. Make sure the brackets are balanced - if one side of the brackets has five byes and the other has none, that's stupid. And putting people from the same region or group in different parts of the starting bracket can be a good plan: people generally want to play new people.
  7. Start! Yell people's names loudly, and try to make sure you have at least the next two matches planned out. People get antsy if they don't know what's going on when, so the more information you can provide people, the better.
  8. DQ people if you have to. It takes a while before you get used to it because it sucks, but you will need to. Give people five minutes if you don't know where they are. I just loudly announce, "BLAH you have FIVE minutes or you will be disqualified!" and then start the clock. Having their cell phone number can make your life easier. Once people get used to having to be responsible, they'll be responsible. They're only going to take advantage of you if you let them.
  9. You're going to have to make some rules up. Write them down for future reference, and stick to your guns if you're sure it's the right thing to do. Allow yourself to be overridden if BOTH players want it, but be aware that other players may find that offensive. Be careful. It's not too tough, but be smart.
Running a tourney really is that stupidly simple. It's like herding cats overall, but it's pretty simple and a lot of fun for you and others. Note that it CAN be a hassle if you want to play too, so make sure you have someone who can run the brackets while you play your own games. Most anyone will be willing to help if you shove the brackets into their hands and tell them what to do.

Typical Rules for MvC2 Tourneys
1: No game-breaking "other player cannot play" glitches such as Gambit/Ruby/Morrigan's nor dead-body bounce stalling, Juggy glitch is fine. Switch glitch is always fine.
2: You keep the same team order if you win.
3: Loser can switch sides if wanted and can also switch any aspect of their team.

You may also find this useful if the machines accidentally got reset:

Unlock All MvC2 Characters
The official CapCom document on how to unlock all characters on US MvC2 arcade board is here (my easier summary of it is found here.) Obot also got me the text write-up of the Japanese steps.

If you're playing on Dreamcast, you can burn a new CD with the updated files to unlock everything without needing a memory card. If you can't do that, leave the game all the time in training mode and redeem your points by exiting out and buying what you can from the shop every couple hours.