Evo 2014 Feedback Thread

Evo Championship Series
41

Most favorite:

$1 Great tournament hall and awesome motion graphics by whoever that emmy winner guy was
$1 Indie games show case and cool merch
$0.50 Water provided in the halls (though they ran out and didn’t really bother refilling the big jugs on grand finals day)
$0.50 The fan we got with our shirts and badges, really awesome

Least favorite:

$1 The physical guidebook, it was well produced enough, but there was a typo misspelling marvel in UMVC3 as “marviel” in . It was also sorely lacking in useful information. I realize it’s vegas but some warning/info about the $6 dollar bus rides where you have to pay at the machine before boarding would’ve been useful given that we were so far from the strip. Additionally a small directory would be useful for essential things like lost and found and a map of the hotel in addition to the main halls

$1 No local Evo lost and found, having a place for people to return things that they find that’s easier than the existing lost and found at the hotel probably would’ve encouraged more people to return the things they find. [f]At events like this people are inevitably going to lose things](forums.shoryuken.com/discussion/191536/lost-and-found) so being able to know where to go and having faith that others know about it would be helpful. That or have a few more rovers walking around so people can approach them with questions

$0.50 the hotel, it was a nice enough room we got, but hotel-ified tvs made salty suites difficult to do and the plumbing/maintenance was lacking, we called for a plumber to try and fix an issue with our toilet running (wasting water in a desert, plus the noise was annoying) around 9:00pm and it took him 3 hours to get to the room. I’m glad we never experienced black sludge like the user above

$0.50 no skullgirls on main stage. The people at skullgirls were getting a whole lot more hype than the crowd at KoFXIII (which I’m sad to see might be dying)

42

Most favorite:

$2 Main tournament was run pretty darn smoothly. Had no problems with my pools (USFIV, BB:CP and KoFXIII). The side tournament I was a part of (Skullgirls) also went well (other than the Top 16 Top 8 Top 4 which got screwed over by a Tekken exhibition, but that’s not Evo’s fault).

$1 Layout. The exhibition hall and the main hall had excellent layouts. Nothing felt like they got in the way of each other, all the while you could easily see where everything was at from where you were standing.

Least favorite:

$1 Space. Despite what I just said, the place was packed, especially during finals. I fear that if Evo is even bigger next year, it can’t be held anywhere else but the Las Vegas Convention Center. I’m not sure if Evo can afford that, though, so that has me concerned.

$1 Bathrooms. Oh my God people what are you doing to those toilets sweet Jesus mother of Mary Christ holy God. Thankfully there were like three separate bathrooms in the vicinity, but Christ Almighty.

$1 Badge pickups. Okay, hard for me to put this on here as I don’t have any idea how you guys could’ve done it better, but pools nearly got pushed back on Friday due to the time it took to get the badges. Also meant no time for warmups for those of us with the super early pool start times. However, once I got into the actual badge pickup room, it was really well setup. Not sure what can be done to improve this part, but gatta come up with something.

43

This was my first evo and was a blast. As far as evo itself I had no issues it was mainly the hotel and food.

Most favorite.
$1 enough space in both rooms, lots of people but never felt cramped.
$1 presentation quality was amazing. Awesome big screens I could see all the way from the back.
$1 free water was godlike.

Least favorite.
$1 food. I’m not from America so I just figured food would be expensive with not many options at these tourist places.yet it would be nice if the hotel was closer to more food options.
$1 no internet. I didn’t have much problems with the room itself but my phone didn’t have any roaming minutes so I was planning to use internet to stay in touch but $15 a day is crazy
$1 not being able to hook up consoles to the room tv. Running casuals in rooms should not be this difficult. We were sorta lucky since a lot of skullgirls players play on laptops but carrying around a ton of monitors from room to room isn’t fun.

44

This was my 2nd evo. My first one was the one at Paris Las Vegas last year.

Most Favorite
$1 The Evo t-shirt, badge, apps and guide book. This was really cool swag.

$1 The ballroom it self was large and roomy. I loved all the merchandise vendors and the indie gaming section.

$1 Finals day seating was great. This was very well done. The staff did a great job transforming the place in one night.

Least Favorite
$3 The LVH hotel. I hate this place with a passion and will not be back next year if it’s here. Too many problems to list that I had to write a review on yelp. The location is off-strip and taking the monorail was very tiring. Lack of food options because it was in a secluded area. I really hope Evo 2015 was back on the strip.

45

Most favorite:
$3 Great selection of games. You could have more Anime, more Capcom, more Smash, more NetherRealms, more 3D, but instead it was a collection of the best of each category.

Least favorite:
$2 Scheduling. BlazBlue started later for some reason (which would have been fine because it was scheduled too early anyway) and then Smash went way over time. Smash is really an easy fix. Run everything but Losers, Winners, and Grand Finals at another time or on another stream. The rules are set up the way they are by the community for a reason and as such it will take a long time to finish. Just reduce the amount of matches on Sunday and the problem is solved.

$1 Tekken. I don’t know what happened here but the turnout was awful. I don’t know if this was a result of the Tekken community/3D fighter community moving on from the game or feeling it wasn’t worth the trip or what, but something needs to be done to address this if Tekken 7 is going to be at Evo next year. Killer Instinct had more people and not that many people can afford/have access to and XBone. Not sure what happened here, but something needs to change.

46

Most Favorite:
-The big screen and animations. Production value was absolutely phenominal. I loved watching things on the stage and the animations Seth put together were awesome. $2
-Seeing arcade machines there from Super Arcade were an awesome touch, especially for X-Mania. Would love to see more Super Turbo in the future. $1

Least Favorite:
-Lack of preparation for setups. My Injustice pool was pushed back from 10 AM to 2 PM and as a result I had to miss the KI panel in its entirety, which I really wanted to go to. This situation could have and should have been avoided entirely. $2
-Food and drink were way too expensive. While being able to eat at Evo is great, and the Westgate’s Going Green program certainly helped cut costs down, cash only for a meal that should have cost me maybe $10-$12 instead cost me about $17. Next year, it’d be nice to be able to bring food into Evo so I can just run with people to the grocery store and pack food, or food at the venue should cost much less. $1

47

LEAST
$1, Dont get the KOF top 8 announcers back, they were a wet blanket. A friend of mine had never seen a KOF tournament before and they really didnt help me trying to get him into the game.

0.50, Teach I guess new announcers mic etiquette, one of the ST announcers kept yelling at the top of his lungs into the mic to talk to guys on the other side of the cabinets from him. It really pissed me off in the chat, but at least a minute later he learned that mics somehow pick up loud noises loudly and didnt yell so loudly again. Overall there needs to be a more professional style sound set up for the event. Maximilian went pretentiously over the top with his Rico beating Justin “hype”, and the other yelling moments announcers do. You dont see UFO events having their mic’s pickups go out due to stuff. I bet that stuff is expensive, but it Evo is turning more and more into a serious professional event from the looks of it, so it also needs to sound lie kit too.

$1, 3/5 round Ultra top 8…BORING! I know this version(of this version) of the game is 1 month old as when Evo happened, but jeez that gief vs fei long insufferable to watch. Never ever do that again, just stick to 2 out of 3 rounds a game.

0.50 Make Smash matches go shorter. Way too long.

BEST
$3, Try to get companies to donate more money for the prize pots. More money on the line means more passionate top 8’s and more people wanting to spread the word out about companies fighting games so then more copies are sold. BlazBlue was amazing!

48

I live in Vegas so I can’t really post anything about staying in the hotel portion of the WestGate/Hilton. From what I saw, the rooms were a nice size and people were able to set up group casuals easily. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

Most liked:
$1 Venue size - I liked being able to go easily between the front area and the tourney room.
$1 Production/Presentation - Everything was spot on for the stage area.
$0.50 Location - Westgate was 15 minutes from home. Easy travel for me.
$0.50 Plenty of restrooms - I was surprised to see about 4 restrooms within reach of one another. Don’t have to worry about them getting crowded.

Least liked:
$0.50 Crowd control during pools - There were a few times where people were in the way during my matches and putting an arm in the way of the screen. I also witnessed this happen on other peoples matches. I’ve been going to EVO since 2003 and I still think the best thing ever was when the tournament areas were roped off between the player and spectators like in 2004. I would like to see this implemented again. With the venue space being bigger these days, it’s definitely possible.

$1 KOF not on stream at all - There were a lot of really good upset matches that happened during pools/semis (Chris KOF beating Xian 2-0 for top8 just for example) I totally understand that the stream and finals scheduling depends on entrants. I know the KOF players are a little disappointed about the scheduling and I know that the players will try to make it out to more events.

$1 BYOC was a little small, just a little bit.

$0.50 Lack of higher profile matches on main stage (Ultra specifically)

Other than that, I thought this year was planned out well.

49

I watched the stream this year with some friends over Xbox Live. I plan on attending next year, but these are my pros and cons for the stream.

Best:
$1: I liked the multiple streams. It made it feel more like a

As a stream watcher, this was a huge disappointment for me. I saw pretty much every other game on schedule at least had semis and top 8, but KOF was top 8 only. I really wish Capcom had kept the third stream in order to allow for more screen time for every game.

50

But there was a Lost and Found :confused:

51

Most favorites

•Water stations, $1
•Spacious venue, $1
•Presentation was awesome and the screen layouts on the big stage were nice to look at, $1

•Least favorites

•LVH - this hotel sucks in so many ways, period, $1
•Overpriced food - the local cafeteria in between the exhibitors room and the main stage was way too pricey and a total rip-off, $1
•Tournament schedule - I felt the organization was a disaster. First day of pools was delayed, pools got too crowded because so many pools had to use other stations since they were behind, finals day was WAY behind schedule (feel bad for people on the east coast and Europe watching on stream). Please get rid of those useless awards/presentations in between games or at least shorten them to save time.

52

Most favorites:

The space was large $1
Enough waters for people $1
The TV screens $1

Least favorite:
Location of the event $1
The foods $1
Tournament setup $1

53

Overall, I’d like to say Evolution ran pretty smooth this year and I only have 2 complaints and that’s the ps3-360 change and the KoF13 commentary. While the 360 change is good for street fighter IV and marvel, it had a negative swing for some other games, mainly Injustice. So overall, while it’s kind of a nit pick, I figured I’d throw it out there. Now the KoF commentary, in my opinion, was very bland and made it very hard to get into enjoying the KoF top 8. I really do hope you guys don’t remove KOF off of next year’s roster (even though it’s almost inevitable), but if you do decide to keep it, I think Juicebox Abel and Hellpockets should do next year’s top 8 if, by chance, KOF13 will return. Also, I’m concerned with the Anime side of Evo next year (hopefully 2015 will be my first evo) since we have P4AU and GGXrd coming up this year along with BBCP being well received at this years evo. Obviously something will have to give and I would just like to say that I think P4AU and Xrd should have their chance to shine next year. However, only time will tell if the games will be able to sustain themselves. On BB, that will be up to you guys. Just keep in mind it was behind the big 3 (sf4, mvc3, and ssbm) and had the highest pot in the tourney. Overall, it was great as a spectator and I hope I’ll make it out next year.

54

Pros:
$1: Having two separate ballrooms (small ballroom for booths, main ballroom for Evo) was awesome
$1: Evo main stage/screen looked phenomenal this year
$1: Free water!

Cons:
$1: Not being on the strip, there was next to nothing within good walking distance from the LVH
$1: Matches being choosen for on stream during USF4 Quarters/Semis. Every good match was happening away from main stage.
$.50: WHY DID SMASH BROS TAKE SO LONG
$.50: Marvel top8 was so loud my ears nearly bled.

55

I’ve been to every Evo since 2006. I also live in Las Vegas. With that background, here are my thoughts:

Pros:
$1: event space. Westgate desperately needs a renovation (which is just starting) but the physical layout and space worked the best I have seen in years. There was actually ALMOST enough space this year (the secondary hall was overcrowded at times, which could be improved on by expanding it to include the room that was used for panels, and moving the panels to elsewhere). But overall, this worked better than in many years prior.

$1: the production values. Great intros, cool new screen for visuals, quick player intros. Looked very professional, the best yet.

$0.50: the art showcase. Cool idea, expand upon it. Every attraction added makes it easier to bring guests, which helps expand the event and appeal to new players.

$0.50: expanded BYOC sections (there were actually two, although one was not labeled). BYOC is so important to the community, I was glad to see a recognition of the need to improve.

Cons:
$1: lack of separation between pool matches and players standing around. This is seriously an issue that threatens to directly affect matches. Create an area near all the pools, supported by a velvet rope or some type of divider, where only the two players and judge are allowed to be -everyone else waits behind there, a couple feet from the players, unless and until it is their turn to play. This would have been easy to do, given the space available this year.

$1: scheduling issues. Some folks have complained about certain games (Smash) running long, delays with awards, etc -those were NOT the main issue. The problem was not starting on-time each day. If the first pools are supposed to start at 8 AM, logic would dictate that the hall must open around 7:30 or 7:15. Blazblue also started late on finals day. Starting on-time is key, as the downtime accumulates. Also, to eliminate the setup time in between games on Sunday, consider having a second setup on-stage and some sort of technical solution that can allow the feed to be switched easily between the setups.

Tl;dr: don’t cut anything (including awards -those were great) or add more “padding” to the schedule, just start ontime and use time efficiently.

$1: not having all necessary DLC/content in the pool setups -this did not impact me personally, but that is definitely a major problem, and again, one that could have/should have been easily avoided. Evo is a great event -it doesn’t need these types of obvious, unforced errors against its reputation.

But again, these are just suggestions to make Evo even better; I know many people work very hard to make the event a reality. I always have a great time and cannot wait until next year. I would even be happy to help out with some of these things next year, if given the opportunity.

56

Pros

-Lots of walking space $1
-huge expo hall with lots of vendors $1
-free water $1

Cons

-washrooms were kept in awful condition. Overflowing toilets, no paper towels, huge swimming turds and every single soap dispenser empty for long periods of time. You’d think that at a huge event such as this the staff would be on hand to take care of this shit. Pun sorta intended. $1
-bad hotel location, off the strip and with poor food options. $1
-bottom of the main projector screen difficult to see over people’s heads during finals. No indicator on the screen saying if s match was in winners or losers bracket. No bracket shown on screen to show the place in the tournament st which the match is taking place. $1

57

This was my first time attending EVO, so I may be riddled with inexperience. With that in mind…

Favorites:
-I LOVED that there were two separate ballrooms: one for the tournament stations and one for all of the misc stuff including casual stations, merchant locations, promotions, indie panels, etc. Is it always/usually like this? Some people here complain about the space, but at least there were two different rooms across a hall from one another to at least partially address that. I felt the space was quite nice, for what it was.
-I liked the water and the really good AC. Other conventions charge $4 for a bottle of water, on average. Complimentary water coolers were the greatest convenience I know and appreciate.
-The free fans and use of headphones were also really nice, though I suppose that was only thanks to the sponsors EVO got this year.

The meh things:
-Since I didn’t stay at the hotel the event was hosted at, I couldn’t help but be a bit ignorant about where things were on the first day. Where the event was held (didn’t know the hotel had convention halls to the side), unfamiliar with where stuff was in the event, etc. I got lost looking for registration, which I dunno if that happened to people. Even asking for directions, I was lost and ended up all the way behind the casino before bothering someone to lead me to it. I assume all risks when I book outside of the actual event’s hotel, and after the first hour of being lost, I became familiar with everything. No big deal, just part of my experience; I’m a generally clumsy person regardless.
-Pools indeed got messy when everyone participating gathered around one station along with any friends or fans, especially in the case of big-name players. I had trouble watching a lot of fights (and to a lesser degree, walking around) as spectators fanned out to get the best viewpoints. I was mostly worried about the players, as judges often would stand in one place (I wouldn’t disagree with them not moving about in such a crowded area) and shout for roll call to no avail or response. I don’t hold this against the organizers, as, with the nature of this event, not much can be done about it. If you can’t get a good look at a player’s match, after five minutes of shoving and feeling bad about rudely cutting off someone else’s view, you either get over it or leave to not make it such a fire hazard.
-While the convention rooms were actually great, the hotel wasn’t. I was lucky enough to look up reviews of the LVH, and they were so bad that I ended up booking a room at the Springhill Suites just across the street. For about the same price, along with not having to pay a “resort fee”, I had a really good room.

Least favorites:
-Worst thing HAS to be during finals where the stage lights (orange) on top of the projector screen BEAMED down on the audience, and wouldn’t turn off. I understand they were probably used to show off the crowd or something, but it was entirely excessive. As far as I’ve rewatched, no more than the first block of the crowd even gets shown at all. The lights were blinding and put me and a good others sleepy or dazed during watching. I wouldn’t necessarily mind this, since this sort of stuff happens all the time at concerts and other events. But my eyes were already worn down by three days of watching matches on every possible screen in the venue. I just wished that at least they’d turn the stage lights looking down at the audience off during the matches. Looking at last years’ event, it doesn’t seem like this happened (just look at the crowd in Marvel top 8 2013 compared to top 8 2014). I wasn’t there, so I can’t account for it, but it definitely seemed darker, which would have been more pleasant to the eyes of everyone in the venue. If you have to have lights for visibility, the giant EVO structure situated on the ceiling was nice, and maybe some ambient lights pointing AWAY from the audience’s faces - at least during the games. Softer lights are better.

Speaking of putting money to things, during finals I was willing to go find and bribe/yell at a stage manager into turning those stage lights off. Am I exaggerating? Am I the only one really affected by those stage lights?

58

The two hall set up was great, made the event much more enjoyable. I would hope this size venue (square footage wise) becomes the standard in the future, especially if attendance grows.

Also, please leave a corner designated to MvC2. Thanks for not shutting us down.