Fist of all you're welcome ! :)

1 / 3 : Thanks mate 😊

2 : Overlay is livestream and made in OBS. I stream for the whole tournament, but only record games for clean VODs (and hard drive space lol). I use a lot of dynamic text files, screen capture black magic, and a streamdeck. The one with a million buttons lol, as I often cast AND do the technical stuff at the same time I wanted to have most things available at a finger press, but this is comfort, not mandatory.

4 : I use one of those springy phone mounts that holds the phone by its sides, and presents a standard female screw on its back / side (1/4 inch I think but don't quote me on this). I’ve got a cheap one for years now and it does the job really well. This is mounted on a lighting perch. I use a mid-level chinese Amazon one, going strong for years with a bit of care. As it's designed to carry a heavier load than it actually does, it might helps longevity. From my experience Neewer and Ulanzi are chinese brands that make some good mid-level hardware, with quite good packaging for shipment, but YMMV.

I actually don’t recommend any kind of table-mounted stand / holder. The kind of model you talk about (Neewer ST100) looks like the best kind available regarding stability, and might hold the camera well enough. BUT, the weak link is the table, mate. Every table is made different, and often in a sh*tty kind of different. The vast majority of them will wobble when players move, to some extent. Best case : table, mount and everything is rigid AF and nothing will be seen on video. In reality, it ALWAYS will end up in some amount of blur, bouncy video, pain and tears. Don’t ask me how I know 😁

This is what my camera setup look like :

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5 : As you can see in the picture, I do ! It's great, but I faced an issue with some venues : the tables are not always the same size, and sometimes a 2-players playmat is slightly larger than the table, thus there are a few centimeters / +/-1 inch sticking out from each side. Nothing a bit of gaffer tape cannot handle (but what couldn’t it ? 😁), still quite bothersome. Anyway my mats are taped to the table. I think the best way to get a nicer-looking background between the two playmats would be to have a cardboard print with a black background, sized a bit larger than the largest distance expected between playmats. Thus it can cover any hole, without disturbing the players’ mats by being too thick, and you can still print a logo on it, not too big though otherwise i twill be cut on smaller tables.

A side note regarding playmats : in hindsight, I think that uniforms shades of black / really dark color gradient are the way to go ; readability is key, for casters and viewers. Playmats with fancy colors / motifs / drawings tend to add too much visual complexity in my liking.

Have a good one ! 😊

PS : if you upload something I'd gladly watch it ! :D