The problem these days is Strat and now strat is ending it has become an ideal time for tournaments, but the problem has been the prize money given out, its rather low and thus people are not motivated to play, not saying its the peoples fault who organise the tournament as its very kind of them to offer prize money and looms, but 1 LP and some money split between 5 people is never ideal.
This is the point where the devs come in, larger prize pools supplied by the devs would for one kick start any tournament and get people interested, but these days everyone has looms and money in abundant.
This is where other sorts of prizes come in, Real money (is this allowed?) this may be extravagant for something like c-rpg as the player base isn't really large enough, but it would be good to start now and have some practice in preparation for melee battlegrounds, which if goes well could be huge for tournaments.
If you get this tournament anywhere near completion and set up well, (i wouldn't mind helping) i will pledge £25 on the activity during the tournament.
What i would be interested in, is a collective gear cost rather than an individual, and then no armour restrictions, so you could either distribute the moeny evenly between all the player or have one tank and then one peasant, would be interesting.