k thanks for that, cause the only formats i've seen/attented were battle roads/citys which were free but had booster pack prizes for the winners, prereleases constructed/booster draft which you pay for your cards but i think there were door prizes, and one with an entry fee that got you a booster pack and winner got like 1-2 boosters, think the entry cost covered the boosters given with enough left over for the prize packs
I think you mean sealed instead of constructed.
constructed = you bring your own 60 card deck
limited = the TO provides (sells you the) cards from which you build your deck. There are two sub-categories - Sealed, where you just open your packs and build a deck or Draft, where you pass cards around the table, then build a deck from the pool of cards you collected.
In Washington, it seems that $3 or $5 tournaments are common. The TO charges $3 to $5, then uses all the proceeds to purchase packs from the hosting store. These are then divided between the winners in each age group. I do it proportional to the number of players.
Suppose that a $5 tournament has 15 players - 3 Junior players, 5 Senior players and 7 masters. And the store sells us 24 packs for the $75. I'd look at this as roughly 1.5 packs per player, and I'd round up in favor of the younger age groups, and down for the Masters when it comes to dividing up the booty. So that would be 5 packs for the Juniors, 8 packs for the Senior division, and 11 packs for Masters.
I'd give out:
Junior: 3 packs for first, and 1 to 2nd and 3rd place,
Senior: 5 packs for first, 2 packs to second and 1 pack to 3rd.
Masters: 6 packs to the first place, 2nd gets 3 packs, and 2 for 3rd.
Another option, that might bring in more players is that everyone gets one pack. In this case, I'd go:
Junior: 3, 1, 1
Senior: 3, 2, 1, 1, 1
Masters: 4, 2, 1,1,1,1,1
If you sanction your tournament 14 days in advance PUI will either send you three pins that say "tournament winner" or 3 POP packs to give out as prizes.
If you are running tournaments in a store, talk to the store owner/manager about what fees to charge and how they want the prizes given out. Although it is a good idea to have some plans when you meet with them.