**Announcing the Results for the Anime Castle SSF4 Tournament:
1 Arturo Sanchez : $192.50
2 Andre Lambert : $55.00
3 Rahsaan Dusuau : $27.50
4 Bradley Hall
5 Zack Sabay
5 Red Ranger
7 Sean Yearwood
7 Ricardo Bounte
9 Lil Evil
9 Lihn Nguyen
9 Mike G
9 Aristotle Stathatos
13 Ballin Ranger
13 Kevin Velasco
13 Lloyd Peralta
13 Brandon Dang
17 Miguel Iajara
17 Chris Vega
17 Kazuma
17 Sean Matthews
17 Oscar Vilchez
17 David Cunningham
17 Edwin Adames
17 Rio-Cash
25 Diego Velarco
25 Brian Ngai
25 Winrich Sy
25 Riaan Taveras
It’s sad to see such a store as Anime Castle stoop to a level where even the host is forced to tell players bad news. If I was a manager in any store and permitted people to host any type of tournament, regardless of entries and environment, I would be more reasonable to try and compromise so everybody’s happy.
It’s also sad to have a host be threatened to have a tournament shut down due to lack of all the electronics used inside Anime Castle. That threat tells all of the players, me, the host (AntiShoto), the supporters, even those that won the top 3 inside the tournament, as well as the staff members present inside the store, look worse than the threat itself. Not to mention that the threat was imposed to me by one of the staffers due to the fact that players refused to play it due to the severe lag and execution problems to say the least. I had to mention this to all the players in the
tournament, because the situation couldn’t be avoided and had to lend everyone’s ears so they know just how much of an impact this threat can change not only the presence of everyone, but also the future tournaments as well.
If someone were to crash the tournament and enter in without permission nor validation of both the host and staff, it’s one situation. But, this goes beyond the line of respect, because it is the same LCD television used for the last tournament and people were also complaining about the shoddy performance of it. The result? No Change, except a new Bose LCD television which basically had players of all levels hooked, leaving that horribly lagful Samsung out to dry. And still more complaints big enough to make special orders of the entire Hokuto No Ken TV Series (1983-1988) ordered TEN TIMES in one week look small.
Anime Castle had enough time to make preparations since I, the host, have made suggestions to not only Bill, the manager, but was also seen by Anime Castle’s staff weeks before the tournament came through. Alas, no response was given back, no call from Anime Castle (Yes, their store has my # in case if anything), neither a reply from anyone. So, it was thought that the store would have everything ready from then.
Wrong. The tournament started tardy to assure more people arriving before 4p.m., whilst people played casuals through, and asked the staff to start right before 4 p.m to hopefully finish before the deadline. It finished at around 8:40ish at best, because of the usage of the Bose LCD monitor rather than the Samsung, and lots of people were not only vexed, but also disappointed to hear what had to be done so the tournament is finished as soon as possible.
I, for one, feel insulted. Why insulted? Because, for starters, we’ve had A- tournaments finish late and people enjoyed it, B- players ask for better LCD T.V’s to be used in future tournaments, and C- no “push” from the staff of Anime Castle nor management at all. So, why now? Why insinuate to a lower level of professionalism that had to be explained about it in front of the staff as well as the players? Was is necessary? Absolutely not. That’s why I didn’t even talk to management after the tournament because of the fact of having a lose/lose situation (lose as in use the Samsung LCD or shut down tournament/ Lose, because people are forced to play in hard conditions and community morale is dropped severely).
As mentioned to the staffers, having to bring up this type of threat to the entire community, players and everyone involved, shows the true colors of Anime Castle’s in terms of giving everybody a chance to play their favorite games. It’s not only bad for business, it makes us think twice of even entering the store for another tournament again. And, as much as I hate to break the ice of all of this, it even forces me that the more problems arise, the less customers and players arrive for a major turnout, meaning close to not having tournaments at all down the road.
I won’t ask for any apologies, as mentioned to the staff, from anyone since it’s too late to do so. I will, however, ask Anime Castle to listen to everyone’s comments and let them decide which action is best accordingly before other places host tournaments near our vicinity.
Until then, I thank everyone for coming, and I look forward seeing everyone in the next tournament. Keep practicing, and we await your return,
warrior!
-AntiShoto-**
