How we run tournaments

Owwmykneecap

I blame strekken.

Azza

Bring back the dictatorship I say!

The Hound

Bring back Sheriff Lobo

Scavenger XIII

Owwmykneecap wrote: »

I blame strekken.

SFxT ruined the FGC, killed the dinosaurs and cancelled Firefly. :mad:

ayjayirl

Owwmykneecap wrote: »

I blame strekken.

I see where you are going..... sort of. But that was kinda my point. When i started - or at least when I got involved, it was SF...... with a Marvel side note. Thankfully Marvel seemed to compliement the scene but the more and more games that came out and the longer it went on, it just seemed to fracture it a bit.

@Shoes - A more structured approach to the committee was put forward when the original committee setup. I think what we did was what could have been done at that time and the next step is for a more formalised way of running the community. I do remember putting forward the idea of writing articles of association, or basically, the whats, whens, who's etc.

I do feel, without any disrespect to the lads, we need a new vote for a new committee - just to freshen it up and also to be more inclusive and maybe evolve it on a bit. Could very well be the same guys who get it, but unless we have the AGM, the vote, the monthly or quarterly meeting its difficult to get momentum.

Not sure about a bank a/c, surely a pillow under a mattress is fine for the monies we are talking about . Revenue, bank fees, etc.

@Mackdaddi - good stuff. The problem of who does what and how can we support each other in that is still present though. This is where the fundamental problem is. There are a few who do and loads who don't. I really am not having a go. Lots of people talk but there its always the regular few who actually do it. This needs to expand in order to grow cause it is unfair and people will be pissed off constantly being the only ones. As for sponsorship - good idea, hard to get especially given our size. I tried to get some for each of the EVO Quals but my requests mostly feel on deaf ears. We nearly had Capcom giving us prizes this year but alas it feel through. Good idea, but not as easy to get as you might think.

randomselect.ie - This is something we need to address. The website needs constant content updates. Really these responsibilities should be managed by the committee. i.e. theres a webby guy on it that co ordinates it but we should be all committed. The series of knowing me knowing you was class but it should be for all community members. Also, all the vids shoul dbe on it. YT can archive, but there should be a vids section imho

Sorry bout the length, I'll finish up with a mental and radical idea........ What if we had a yearly/monthly fee to join the FGC? I know, the neigh sayers will come out in their droves on this one, but I am really not talking anything big and it would facilitate planning and allow the purchase of equip, rental of venues in advance (we could even pre-book and have a proper schedule). We got 80 people registered for the EVO quals on the website. Say we have 100 or so in the community and all put 20 quid for the year..... That'd buy all/most of the equip necessary in the first year and contribute towards other expenses as well. I know this idea will meet resistance but I think it could really be to our benefit.

Doctor DooM

ayjayirl wrote: »

I see where you are going..... sort of. But that was kinda my point. When i started - or at least when I got involved, it was SF...... with a Marvel side note. Thankfully Marvel seemed to compliement the scene but the more and more games that came out and the longer it went on, it just seemed to fracture it a bit.

Actually when you started playing it was BB, but the point still stands

ayjayirl wrote: »

@Shoes - A more structured approach to the committee was put forward when the original committee setup. I think what we did was what could have been done at that time and the next step is for a more formalised way of running the community. I do remember putting forward the idea of writing articles of association, or basically, the whats, whens, who's etc.

I'd agree mainly, although I don't think you're ever going to get people writing official articles of association and whatnot. At the end of the day, most people just want to play video games, and their helping out with other tasks is to ensure there are further opportunities to play video games!

ayjayirl wrote: »

I do feel, without any disrespect to the lads, we need a new vote for a new committee - just to freshen it up and also to be more inclusive and maybe evolve it on a bit. Could very well be the same guys who get it, but unless we have the AGM, the vote, the monthly or quarterly meeting its difficult to get momentum.

Completely agree.

ayjayirl wrote: »

Not sure about a bank a/c, surely a pillow under a mattress is fine for the monies we are talking about . Revenue, bank fees, etc.

Me too, see again point of people wanting to play the vidja games.

ayjayirl wrote: »

@Mackdaddi - good stuff. The problem of who does what and how can we support each other in that is still present though. This is where the fundamental problem is. There are a few who do and loads who don't. I really am not having a go. Lots of people talk but there its always the regular few who actually do it. This needs to expand in order to grow cause it is unfair and people will be pissed off constantly being the only ones. As for sponsorship - good idea, hard to get especially given our size. I tried to get some for each of the EVO Quals but my requests mostly feel on deaf ears. We nearly had Capcom giving us prizes this year but alas it feel through. Good idea, but not as easy to get as you might think.

randomselect.ie - This is something we need to address. The website needs constant content updates. Really these responsibilities should be managed by the committee. i.e. theres a webby guy on it that co ordinates it but we should be all committed. The series of knowing me knowing you was class but it should be for all community members. Also, all the vids shoul dbe on it. YT can archive, but there should be a vids section imho

All agreed, except the vids do already filter up on to rs.ie.

ayjayirl wrote: »

Sorry bout the length, I'll finish up with a mental and radical idea........ What if we had a yearly/monthly fee to join the FGC? I know, the neigh sayers will come out in their droves on this one, but I am really not talking anything big and it would facilitate planning and allow the purchase of equip, rental of venues in advance (we could even pre-book and have a proper schedule). We got 80 people registered for the EVO quals on the website. Say we have 100 or so in the community and all put 20 quid for the year..... That'd buy all/most of the equip necessary in the first year and contribute towards other expenses as well. I know this idea will meet resistance but I think it could really be to our benefit.

And what do we do if people don't pay? Don't let them play in tournaments?

Azza

Well my view on the matter is as follows. Inferno needs to be as good as it can possible be to keep people coming back and interested.

We need double the number of set ups. 8 in total. That should be our first investment with any community money. 4 community monitors, Xbox's and disc's for the 2 tournament games.

When we have 8 set ups. We run 4 for the tournament and 4 for casuals. The new monitors should be lagless and used as tournament monitors (and support lagless recording), while the current ones should be used for casuals. In the very long term we should consider replacing the current monitors as well as well but for now I would not rate it a priority. Recoding equipment should come after that. While recording games is great and all, the prority should be on ensuring people who attend get good value for money by getting to play lots of games.

Split the casuals set ups between the 2 tournament games (i.e. 2 for Marvel and 2 for AE2012).

Enforce the current casual rules of best of 3 winner stays on unless there is no one in the queue behind. If the winner stays on for 2 rotations of the queue he steps down and goes to the back of the queue. (he does get a pat on the back though or else he is told he is cheap for playing Cammy!)

Keep the event to two tournament games. Don't use the additional set ups for more tournament but have them set up for plenty of casauls. I feel Inferno at the XGC was better value for money due to getting to play alot of casuals (also is was all SF4 and no Marvel but thats purely a personal preference). If people want to try different games we can do a poll about what other games might be popular and alturnate one of the two tournament games.

Another investment I would like to see is cushions and possible a few additional chairs (even fold up ones), quite alot of standing around at the Exchange (although alot of that is people wanting to watch matches). The chairs are very uncomfortable for long sessions as well. This was another thing I prefered about the XGC. While it was cramped at least you could sit down for most of the time.

I'd personally be willing to invest in say 2 set ups straight away and have them for the next Inferno if there was some agreement that I would be payed back within a few months from the community pot. Once I got payed back I could do the same for the other 2 set ups.

As for running it, we need earlier annoucements and more flexible dates. We need to be able to gauge if a large number of people are free on certain dates, no point running Inferno if hardly anyone is going or a date when the TO's can't actually attend! Obvious low attendance has the knock on effect of putting people off. I'm not going if such and such player is not going. Some people also have long journeys but don't mind going if other people are traveling with them.

Keep the entry fee the same as is. €10 is pretty reasonable. It is unfortunate that traveling can be quite expensive but thats out of our hands. Would not be against a special introuductory rate of €5 for first timers to an Inferno. Pre-pay via paypal gets you a small discount as well (as Mackdaddi suggested)

As for a prize pot, I'm open to pretty much anything. We can countine allocating prize pot 60/30/10 or we could just give a small amount to the top 3 (like €30/€20/€10)and pool the rest for equipment.
After we get all the equipment we need, we could start pooling the prize money towards a big yearly event (like Evo qualifier or Dreamhack tor Cannes or whatever) where we are certain all the funding is in place and we are not relying on people showing up on the day to ensure we have the cash to fund the prize. We could possibly look at scraping more expensive to fund events like the Evo qualifier and be perhaps able to fund 2 trips to closer European tournaments. Any event like this should be planned many months in advance with plenty of time to chase sponsorship.
I do believe tournaments should have more at stake than braging rights. There needs to be something to cause tension and pressure when your playing.

Scrap randomselect.ie and replace it with an Inferno website. This website wouldn't need to be updated as often. It would just need to updated advertising the latest event. After and event is over the results are posted up and any video's from the event embedded into a front page news post. Aside from that the site should also have a profile page for each player with some info like, what county there are from, what their online gamertags are, what games they play, what characters they use, best result at an inferno, a brief biography (could be done in a humerous fashion) as well as embedded videos of them playing at Inferno (like frame-advantage.com does). In addition to that, a few others pages like a map to the venue, rule page, seeding page, faq, contact page, link to IRC etc. Would not be a site about the latest news for fighting games but just an easier to manage more focus site designed to promote and grow inferno. The current non updated site gives the impression of an inactive or dead community. A twitter account and facebook page dedicated to inferno would help as well.

Less Inferno's could encourage the people from further away to travel more and make people want to miss events less. Perhaps every second month with DOC taking place in the months between. Less cost for those traveling more.

Posters and leaflets could help as well. We could drop them in gamestores or into collages or any other area that people could think of that would be appropriate or somewhat related to gaming.
I be willing to fund the first batch of these on a trail run to see if the method is effective at all for recruiting new members. Need someone talented at logo design and art for this.

Thats all I can think of for now.

Cobelcog

Those ideas are okay I guess but I would like to hear chunkis' views on improving the scene

Doctor DooM

Doctor DooM wrote: »

And what do we do if people don't pay? Don't let them play in tournaments?

I was going to post on this yesterday, but I had gone on enough about other stuff all day. If you're gonna have an annual membership fee it has to be optional. It should offer an incentive to pay it for all the regulars who'd likely turn up anyway, and still support the idea of letting occasional droppers in or newbies to the scene come in and pay a once off tourney/event fee, albeit at a higher cost, to see what the craic is.

The idea of annual or quarterly fees is to get your group or organisation some upfront operating capital so it doesnt have to run its financials on a tourney by tourney basis, and can invest and plan things a bit more solidly in advance, and yes, you would need a bank account and possibly PayPal if you want to go that route, or you're asking for trouble. Cash in a pillow is really not a good idea here.

My suggestion on upfront fees would be to figure out realistically the minimum number of events serious players would attend in a year (lets say its 5 for argument's sake) then offer a membership fee that costs about the same as entering 5 tourneys, and comes with 5 free entries into the events of their choice during the year ("special" events aside). In addition to this, membership also gives them 10-15% off the entry fee to any subsequent tourney they they enter after that for the duration of their year's membership.

Other bragging rights stuff like the enhanced profile pages that were posted about (by azza I think) could be reserved for paying members only, as would be any community swag, travel or hotel discounts, or any sponsorship or freebie deals or spoils that might come the group's way during the year based on any PR activity that might or might not happen.

Of course this is all basically to sweeten the deal for people to sign up. That way serious members (who would all be turning up to the major events anyway) can pay in advance and help beef up the group's coffers, and get a bunch of cool benefits and discounts for doing it, but anybody else can still walk in one Saturday and pay to play at the "ordinary punter" rate if they're new or haven't joined yet and just want to check stuff out.

stev0knev022

Alot of good suggestions in this thread, i don't have anything major to add, there is one small thing though, can we please make the winners finals and grand finals of our tourneys be 3/5.

Nutrient

[QUOTE=Doctor DooM;79114381

And what do we do if people don't pay? Don't let them play in tournaments?[/QUOTE]

Nah this idea is grand, just make it an optional donation for people, theres always gonna be people that can't or won't help

10 out of 90 people donating yearly is better rather then forcing people to pay.

Fergus_

I know I haven't been attending much tournaments in the last year but I can say the only major problem I've had is providing casual setups at tournaments, people (myself including) will want to get more value of their money by attending tournaments, it's a little tedious standing around all day waiting for your tournament matches to start, I know it's a problem associated with a lack of setups.

Also in regards to people not bringing in equipment, I don't really see why people are unable to carry anything that will be of benefit to the tournament, whether it's disks, consoles, monitors etc. I usually take my xbox and games and saves/DLC on USBs with me for tournaments and it's usually used and benefits the tournament for the organisers and for the players.

Just my 2 cents, now back to study

Fergus_

Fergus_ wrote: »

...I usually take my xbox and games and saves/DLC on USBs with me for tournaments...

Sorry for the side note, but I saw this done yesterday and didn't know it was possible. Does it require jtag or does it work with any Xbox, and can anyone explain how to do it?

Thanks

1man3letters

stev0knev022 wrote: »

can we please make the winners finals and grand finals of our tourneys be 3/5.

this^ +1

what about losers finals though?

Orim

Deleted User wrote: »

Sorry for the side note, but I saw this done yesterday and didn't know it was possible. Does it require jtag or does it work with any Xbox, and can anyone explain how to do it?

Thanks

Works with any xbox and any USB.

You just need to plug the USB into the xbox and go to storage. You'll then have an option to convert it to work on the Xbox. Once you've done that the USB will work as a memory unit on the Xbox and you can move around your profile and any games etc. on it.

Just be aware that most stuff will only work if the xbox you put it on is connected to Xbox Live.

Orim

Orim wrote: »

Just be aware that most stuff will only work if the xbox you put it on is connected to Xbox Live.

Ok thank you. What about the AE ver.2012 balancing patch specifically, do you need XBL to be accessible for that?

Konata

I just want to re-iterate some points that people have made here that have been standing out to me about the last few tournaments:

1. Earlier advertising. Infernos used to have threads at least 2 weeks before their date but that seems to have slacked off with some threads only appearing 4 days before the event! I think that this really impacts upon attendance as at that stage people may already have made plans for the weekend, unaware that an Inferno was taking place. The solution to this I believe is - as is the solution to many issues - to have a pool of tournament organisers and for it to be clear who is organising the upcoming Inferno. It is then just that persons responsibility to get a thread up and running good and early so that as many people as possible are aware of the event.

2. This leads into my next point - more clarity about WHO is running the tournament. I'm not criticising recent TOs at all, yous have all been awesome. But ye can't be expected to run every tournament every month because... well, believe it or not, yous have lives outside of Fighting Games too :P There's been plenty of suggestions for how to fix this problem - pool of TOs, rotas etc. - and I think it'd make a huge difference in the overall forward planning of an event.

3. Dates. I know that Inferno runs (or is meant to) the first Saturday of every month. However, sometimes that Saturday REALLY doesn't suit. Last Inferno took place on a bank holiday weekend - a time when a greater number of potential attendees than usual would be otherwise occupied. Personally I don't think tournaments should take place on Bank Holiday weekends - from recent events, it's clear that it affects attendance. BHs are easily forseeable and tourneys could be shifted to the week before/after months in advance to avoid a clash.

Those are just 3 things I've noticed in the last few months. I think the most important thing is to set up some kind of system where we have clarity about WHO is organising the tournament and WHEN it's on.

Orim

Deleted User wrote: »

Ok thank you. What about the AE ver.2012 balancing patch specifically, do you need XBL to be accessible for that?

Yeah, you'll need XBL for pretty much anything unless it's on the console you downloaded it on.

I think we need Dave Chappelle to perform at more of our tournaments.

Vyze

The annual membership thing would need to be, as people have said, entirely optional. Say for any "Official FGC" event, if you're not a member you have to pay a €2 extra fee for entry that goes towards kit, whereas members don't need to pay that on the day (since it's essentially pre-paid as part of the membership).

Then you can offer extra incentives to members, like prize raffles or sponsorship to foreign events or something.

Speed Boat

Membership idea isn't a good one.

Just have a community donation day/whip round once a year if you want to raise money like that.

The idea of a membership is cliquey and off putting to new people.

FutureGuy

Here are my thoughts...

1) Local events should cater for the local players
I know it might sound obvious but I think this is the main reason we stopped running events in Limerick. Even though the weekends are easily the worst time for many of our own playgroup, we still ran events just in case someone from outside our playgroup wanted to attend. We felt that, as a group, we had to try. If a Tuesday evening is the best time to run a tournament for a playgroup, they should run it at that time. If the first Saturday of the month suits the Galway players, don't run it on another day because it clashes with Inferno.

We need to nurture the local play groups. We can run bigger events during the year where we can all get together as a major community.

2) Inferno and national tournament structure
For whatever reason, Infernos are clearly not the tournament they used to be. I think that they have lost their sheen over the last 18 months and attendances have been poor as of late.

I think we can definitely increase the attendance of these events, but I feel we need to stop looking at Inferno as the monthly Irish tournament. Instead, it should be branded as the monthly Dublin local tournament in the same way as Tempest is the local Cork tournament.

I also feel that Inferno should not be used as a way to seed players for the Evo Qualifier. People outside of Dublin cannot afford to spend 70-80 euro per month to attend these events. There are excellent players in Cork and it is unfair that they are at an immediate disadvantage when it comes to Evo.

I think we have the players and communities to have a great national tournament structure centered around the Evo Qualifier each year.

Each month, there should be a tournament in each of the local groups if possible (Dublin, Belfast, Galway, Cork, Limerick, and any other community that would like to run one). As in point 1, these tournaments should cater for that specific community even if it does not suit neighbouring communities.

In Autumn, Winter and Spring (three per year), there should be a big event which replaces Inferno as our national tournament series. These events would be used for seeding of the Evo qualifier, but would also be great stand-alone events in their own right. As someone that has to pay about 70-100 each time I wanted to attend an inferno, I'd be far more inclined to attend a major event every 3 months.

In Summer, we run our flagship event...the Evo Qualifier. The Wrestlemania of our community. Last year's event was the first tournament where I went "wow-this really feels like I'm at a major event" and kudos should go to all involved.

3) More advertising for tournaments
When we first started with Infernos, we knew weeks in advance when they were on. Now, there are doubts regarding whether they will even go ahead days before they are due to do so. How can people attend an event that they cannot plan for?

4) Randomselect.ie
I think we are all thankful of the effort that people have put into the website, but I do not feel it serves the community as well as it could. The most prominent link on the front page of the website should be for new players. When I say new players, I mean in terms of community interaction rather than skill level. There should be an entire section dedicated to explaining what we do in the community, what we run and when we run it. We could have a map where players can place a pin where they live so a new person can see who is close by. Which leads me onto...

5) Casuals
I think casuals are just as important to our community as tournaments, and I would even say that, in terms of growing our community, they are even more important. In addition to the impromptu casuals that crop up, there should be at least one casual session per month that is heavily advertised with the focus on having fun and attracting new people to the community. There should be at least one "community representative" at these events who can spot a new player and welcome them (community rep would be someone that would be a good spokesperson for the community, someone who would be easily identifiable, someone who would sit and have a few games with the new person, have a chat and get them bedded into the community). I have stated previously that when I first started attending casuals in Dublin, I found the atmosphere to be quite intimidating towards newer players. No one takes notice, no one cares and no one offers games. I *almost* turned around and went home.

6) Make a bigger deal of the little guys
I cannot stress this enough. I am saying this because I have heard the same thing from many people who have attended tournaments in Dublin. I keep hearing this but no one ever says it so I'm going to say it now.

For every player like Hound, Ladnopoka, Bush and Cobelcog (and other top players), we have 5 like me who aren't great but will travel to a tournament because we enjoy the challenge.

Clearly the focus of the events should be on the double elimination rounds but I feel we could do more for the players who don't get out of groups. Why not record the odd group match between two lesser known players? Why not post the group final standings so we can see exactly where we finished?

I have heard the following phrase from 3 different TOs. "Get groups out of the way". I get the feeling far too often that groups are a nuisance to TOs and they really don't care about them so long as they get completed asap.

For the top players who are seeded, groups are a formality. But for the lesser players at major events, groups "are" our tournament. It means alot to many members of the community who will never win a big tournament. If we get to the eliminations rounds, then brilliant but if it doesn't happen, then we've still had an enjoyable day.

It's the difference between 15 at a tournament and 30 at a tournament. The last time I felt this was at the first Evo qualifier.

7) Run Fundraising Tournaments
There are some players that will not attend a tournament unless there is a prize. However, I do feel that they make up a tiny fraction of the community. It's clear that we are in dire need of better equipment and we need to have tournaments that act as fundraisers. All profits go towards funds for the equipment and advertising we need to make our events better.

8) Community Survey
Get onto surveymonkey and get ask the questions that people can answer anonymously. I keep hearing people complaining about things that I never see posted on threads such as these.

AND FINALLY - THIS ONE IS GOING OUT TO EVERYONE.

9) Personal accountability
I'm not going to call out anyone here, but I think this probably the worst thing about our community. The organisers of our big events spend alot of time, effort and money organising these events for the rest of us. They sacrifice alot to make sure we have tournamets to play in. They spend money so that we can have the matches broadcast to other communities, either via streaming or on youtube. They sometimes choose not to play in events so they can run the best event possible.

The very least that we can do is turn up if we said we are turning up.

Posting the day after the tournament saying you were too hungover or you slept it out is not on. If you say you are going to turn up, set your alarm and make the effort. You are letting the community down.

The amount of people who said they would turn up to the last Evo qualifier but who didn't was very dissapointing. I know some people had genuine reasons for not attending (which is fine or course!) but they were in a minority. The organisers of that event deserved a better turnout. It was a brilliant day.

That's it!

Doctor DooM

So here's what I've taken from this so far.

1) Tournaments need to be advertised better. There should probably be a person or people who take time to look out for this, be more fluid with Inferno's timing but more organised in advance. There should be a pool of TOs. We should adopt longer finals. Perhaps we should leave longer between tournaments to make them more "special". We should go to multi game tournaments to keep all the scenes going. Perhaps the best way of doing this is to have a bi monthly SF headlined tournament and a bi monthly marvel, or whatever else proves to be popular.

2)The committee should have more power, be more active, and be more formalised. We should revote on it, and we need to find a way to better fund (perhaps a cut from every tournament, and the odd charity event). As part of this, there should be a fund for prizes at an annual big tournament or two. there should perhaps be a voluntary membership fee of the community.

3)Equipment needs to be bought. Xboxes and monitors. And maybe cushions Casuals are valuable and if possible we should allow for a couple of machines at tournaments. Don't forget the little guys.

4)Something needs to be done with randomselect.

5) Stevo should have to play at 25% health.

Seeing as I am on the current committee, are most people agreed that this is a good set of goals for us to start working towards?

Everyone has given good suggestion in this thread but at this point I think we need people to start offering to help. This is all too much for a couple of people to do.

chopperbyrne

On the announcements for Inferno side of things, I'm often waiting for confirmation from Exchange that the date is booked, which delays me starting a thread.

Other times recently, I've told everyone months in advance that certain dates are booked and then a week before the tournament people start asking can the date be changed, so I've tried to accomodate them, but this again delays the announcement of the tournament.

I personally will likely no longer be able to run (and rarely attend) Inferno, so somebody needs to step up and take over.

I have €465 of the community fund (which I never wanted to look after in the first place) which can be given to whoever is going to look after it.

We should hopefully have the Exchange booked for the 7th of July and the 4th of August, just awaiting confirmation.

ayjayirl

Doctor DooM wrote: »

So here's what I've taken from this so far.

1) Tournaments need to be advertised better. There should probably be a person or people who take time to look out for this, be more fluid with Inferno's timing but more organised in advance. There should be a pool of TOs. We should adopt longer finals. Perhaps we should leave longer between tournaments to make them more "special". We should go to multi game tournaments to keep all the scenes going. Perhaps the best way of doing this is to have a bi monthly SF headlined tournament and a bi monthly marvel, or whatever else proves to be popular.

2)The committee should have more power, be more active, and be more formalised. We should revote on it, and we need to find a way to better fund (perhaps a cut from every tournament, and the odd charity event). As part of this, there should be a fund for prizes at an annual big tournament or two. there should perhaps be a voluntary membership fee of the community.

3)Equipment needs to be bought. Xboxes and monitors. And maybe cushions Casuals are valuable and if possible we should allow for a couple of machines at tournaments. Don't forget the little guys.

4)Something needs to be done with randomselect.

5) Stevo should have to play at 25% health. - He'd still probably win the as...

Doctor DooM wrote: »

Seeing as I am on the current committee, are most people agreed that this is a good set of goals for us to start working towards?

Everyone has given good suggestion in this thread but at this point I think we need people to start offering to help. This is all too much for a couple of people to do.

I'll be a TO and I really like the idea of 1 or 2 major tourneys with alternating inferDoc structure to regular tourneys. Either way I'll help whomever is on the commitee and run tourneys where I can.

FutureGuy

FutureGuy wrote: »

5) Casuals...
6) Make a bigger deal of the little guys...

Well said! All of the points you made under these two headings were excellent. I love streetfighter, but I'm not at the top level of many of the great players i saw at the last couple of events i went to, and am never likely to be. Getting whooped by great players and learning stuff from it is all very valuable, but playing against players who are of my own skill level or thereabouts in at casuals or in a structured way as part of a community would be a huge, huge draw for me and (i'm sure) lots like me.

At the risk of repeating myself, i really think that new blood coming into any organization regularly (and sticking around) is vital to it's survival, and no group of any kind can afford to have the appearance of being elitist or intimidating if it wants to survive and grow over the long term. If changes are being made to the community, then i think structuring things in ways similar to the excellent ideas you pointed out (community reps, welcome matches, etc, etc) so that new blood can walk in and be as comfortable as possible from day 1 is very important.

Misty Chaos

What I think needs to be done is that dates for tournaments are set in stone. No ifs, no buts. Frankly, catering the whims of members the community is asking for trouble. The simple fact is you're never going to get a date that will please everyone so just go with the date you have.

Having a casual set ups is a good idea though. I remember the last Inferno I was at last year I spent most of my time there standing around as all the set ups were being used for the tournament - not exactly something I envisioned considering I would be travelling for about 10 hours altogether in one day to attend an Inferno!

I can't think of anything else really right now.

K.O.Kiki

BTW, I would like to suggest to the committee to put the money into a post office / credit union account, to help track money in-out.

Kirby

I think Azza's post was an excellent one. I agree with most of it. However less Inferno's is bad. We need to gain momentum again and to do that once a month is needed in my eyes.

I stopped coming a while back for two reasons. And I'll be honest about it. Firstly, not knowing how big a turnout it will get. I know that might seem selfish and by not coming i'm contributing to it but its the truth. Why bother to show up if it's less than a dozen people half of whom I don't even know?

Secondly, it's the casuals. I've brought this up before and been beaten down for it but I still think it's important. It's grand for the elite 5 or 6 who always go deep but most of us don't.

I usually get out of groups no problem and then get smashed in the first or second knockout round. Then you are completely done for the day as all the setups are being used with mainly only 1 or 2 machines for casuals and they have a massive queue.

Frankly I think most people feel this way and didn't think they were getting value and just stay home. Most people love the tournament feel and will go but they want to be able to play casuals when they lose. The XGC was brilliant for this. You arrived at 12 and played untill 6pm. You got brilliant value. As good as the exchange is, most people get in about an hours worth of play. That's not great. It has been mentioned that the majority of people just....stand around not playing. Sure it's great to watch the semi's, finals and grand finals......but the rest of the time the matches are just as scrubby as your own so I think people would prefer to play rather than watch.

So the option is either to get more machines or go back to the laggy XGC. I think perhaps having a reduced prize pool for the next inferno would be a good idea. Use the money to buy an extra setup.

ayjayirl

UberPrinny_Baal

ayjayirl wrote: »

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A little bit eh?

I'm gonna echo Kirby's sentiment that less Infernos is bad. I don't want to miss one, and suddenly have a three month drought of tournament attendance.

Azza wrote:

I'd personally be willing to invest in say 2 set ups straight away and have them for the next Inferno if there was some agreement that I would be payed back within a few months from the community pot. Once I got payed back I could do the same for the other 2 set ups.

I'm surprised this didn't get more attention. It's the kind of pro-activity that I think was the point of this topic. Thanks Azza.

I'd be absolutely in favour of this. So much so I'd be 100% cool with forfeiting my rights on any prize pool and putting as much of my entry fee as possible straight in Azza's pocket until he's paid back.

You might say I'm religiously in favour of having more set-ups :pac: