Evo, behind the curtains (props and oops)

Thanks to all the competitors who came to Evo 2005. This “props and oops” thread will shed a little light on some of the issues you all had. But first, some props!

MrWizard and s-kill for taking the reigns this year and handling the 6-months of planning before the event. There’s a ton of behind the scenes work to every Evo, and these guys did a fantastic job. Despite a few glictches, our experiment with the MLG went very well, and we hope to work more closely with them in the future.

EVO staff and volunteer judges once again worked long and hard to finish the tournaments on time. The staff gives up pretty much all their “fun” time during Evo to run brackets, setup game stations, fix A/V issues, and fight the dozens of other fires that crop up over the weekend. It’s a thankless job, but once again they did it extremely well. Thanks to all volunteer tournament judges for taking time out of your game-time to run tournament pools. An extra shout out goes to “Stephanie,” who ran CvS2 pools literally all day Friday, non-stop.

3s players for turning out in droves. The 3s tournament had 340 players, which is just insane. You guys really, really, really like Third Strike.

Duc Do for injecting life back into Marvel and proving that there’s more to that game than crack-induced Magneto rushdown. No props whatsoever for anyone who plays Spiral next year. Get off Duc’s nuts.

Kuni Funada for babysitting two dozen Japanese players.

Random White Guys NKI and DSP for making top 8 in ST.

Seth Killian for predicting Random White Guy domination in ST. It’s in the program, read it!

The players for (mostly) behaving like adults and just having a good time. No props for booing Halo players – you should know better. No props for the few bad apples that couldn’t resist breaking the law, thereby putting the whole event at risk (yes, The Law can shut us down over that kind of crap).

Ok, enough with the props. Here’s my personal dissection of Evo2k5 and some of the issues we encountered. Overall I think the event ran very smoothly. We finished 7 tournaments and 4 special events (2 exhibitions, 2 movies) on time, nobody died, and most players had a good time. Of course, there are always glitches – my job is to identify them and make sure that they don’t happen next year. So here they are, as I see them:

The friday morning line. Yeah, so here’s what happened with that. Our original plan was to have 800 copies of the schedule, so players could just walk in and take one. Then Friday morning, one of GVR’s copiers died, so we could only print around 20 copies and distribute them around the hall. We will fix this with a better pool system next year (more on this later). The video waiver also should have been handled online for pre-reggies.

Pool scheduling sucks. The problem with our current pool system is that it requires all 5 players to show up to a particular place at a particular time. A single late player can hold up a pool, which will hold up the whole schedule. This is why 3s had to be moved to one game. We did lots of advanced calculations before the event to determine how many TV’s we would need to finish 3s on time. Then two things happened: hella more 3s players showed up (the '05 tournament was 50% bigger than '04!!), and we underestimated the inefficiency of getting the pool players together. We actually had enough 3s stations to run all the pools 2/3 games, but we couldn’t find enough pool players to use all of them. The pool system we use in '06 will fix these issues.

These were the two major issues that we will address next year. There were lots of smaller issues, like the layout of the TVs, but those are obviously fixable. Thanks again for everyone that turned out for Evo '05.

I would like list a few of the names from the volunteers who helped run the Pools and semis, namely Todd from San Diego, KillerKai, Eric Williams, Ranma from Texas, and Stephanie.

Kai ran MvC2 for about 5237986537863425 hours, and never complained, barreled his way through it. Todd ran CvS2 for a huuuuge long time as well, and never flinched. Eric came to Evo to visit and to watch, and we completely drafted him into running Pools, and he was more than happy to help out. And Ranma single-handedly ran the entire CvS2 semi’s, and without that help, I dunno if CvS2 would have ever finished on time!

But I have to give honorable mentions to Stephanie. When we asked for volunteers, she came up to me and said, “I’ve run small tournaments before… I can help out.” I know running Pools is thankless and really beats you up pretty badly. Most walk away from running Pools mentally and physically drained, so I wasn’t sure if she would be able to take on CvS2 Pools. I actually hesistated giving her the job. But I should have never doubted, 'cause she rocked that Pool like a pro. Thanks again, Stephanie.

I know I’ve missed other names as well. I think Duc even ran some pools when we needed help. But definitely much love and much appreciation for those that helped out.

  • James

Don’t forget Buktooth, who also babysat tons of Japanese players, spent over 600$ for a rental car (out of his own pocket) and had hardly any time to do anything on his own during the day.

Buktooth pwns all. Stand strong that shit down.

James Chen and the other guy running the brackets (sorry I forgot your name) -

Despite the brackets being weird (lucky in my case for getting that far), good job for putting up with a bunch of rude asses. I felt bad to see you guys go through that.

And whoever let me use their sticks. Thanks.

K that’s it. bye bye

-Andrea

Hey, you forgot me Ink! BOO!

good job staff!

buk is a hoe.

No prob james. Thanks for the smoothie. Just glad i could pitch in. But i think a large amount of the marvel bulk also got taken care of Tinh, Duc, and ShinJN as well. Duc especially, handling 4 different pools at once. Overall, i was just glad i could do something other than whore my cash away in the casino. I’ll be more than happy to pitch in again if i come next year.

Hey this is Stephanie. Thanks for the props, and it was entirely my pleasure. Good luck to everyone next year, and sorry about what happened to the 2/3…

can you really say that working with MLG went very well when so many many people are complaining about it? :razzy:

As always, the staff and all the helpers have made Evo an overall success. I would like to thank everyone that helped us run the tournament. Without the effort, determination, and endurance, we would never have finished everything.

Evo Staff
Once again guys, we did it. Year after year, we deliver and I’m happy to work with you guys. It’s always nice to meet up with the homies and rock the house.

Helpers and Judges
Thank you for sacrificing your time to help the poor old men running the event. lol. MvC2 judges, good job. We finished the pools just a little after dinner time. Next time use both stations! Makes running through that pool much quicker. lol. CvS2 judges, you are super troopers. A boring game to judge, but you guys stuck it through. Tekken judges, good stuff on getting everything done before anyone else! I love it. ST judges, good job on keeping the old school alive, even with a shitty PS1 port. 3S, good job on managing the hoards of new 3S players. #R judges, I didn’t follow you guys, but excellent job nonetheless.

Players
Props: Thanks to those that stuck it through the horrible time scheduling and thanks to those for showing up for your pool / bracket games. MvC2 Players; I never had fun running an MvC2 bracket before. Thanks for the help and support by calling your friends to show up.

No Props: Thieves, trash dumpers.

Thanks to inkblot for shedding some light on the Friday morning stuff, I was really wondering wtf happened.

Yo, where you the guy that fixed my stick? If so, thanks again, man. I never did get your name. I had the stick with that had the fierce and roundhouse buttons reversed in 3s.

inkblot,

Don’t tell me you forgot Cigarbob?

He was the guy that spent over 80 hours making that cabinet that was ps2 and supergun compatible, with the interchangeable JAP and USA sticks. Remember, he donated his stick to have numerous side turneys, and you used his cabinet for 3S 5 vs 5, and ST and 3S finals. Not too mention him lugging it around, putting it onstage, and with not so much as a dollar asked. He did it because he loves SF.

AS James Chen said, his stick, “should be in the Street Fighter Hall of Fame.”

-Vic

When cvs2 brackets started, I remember waiting around about an hour with 10 or so other people watching only 2 of the CVS2 TVs being utilized. I knew there was no way in hell this would be finished in one day, so I decided then to kick that shit into high gear and help the guy who was running the CVS2 tournamnent. Not to be an asshole but if it wasn’t for me CVS2 would have either not finished that day, or would have had to gone to single match which everyone hates.

Also a suggestion for the next tournament would be wireless mics. Even though the staff area was 20 steps away, it was blocked by 60 people, so I had to walk around them to get there. Also, the TV placement was horrible. I had to rearrage them in order to have more space for the players. There were times when only 1 of the 4 TVs in the middle were used because a popular match was being played, meanwhile I have 4 guys waiting to play their match. Also, a big fuck you goes out to all the people I called who decided that they’d would watch their friend or someone else play rather than play their game. I know you fuckers heard me. Not only are you holding up the tournament, but you’re making your opponent stand around for 10+ minutes. It’s extremely disrespectful. If I had the authority I would have DQ’ed quite a few of you idiots.

Anyways, done ranting. Great tournament… Great location… Good job everyone.

Dude, are you David? OMG, that bracket was crazy! Tell me you’re coming to Texas Showdown next year so you can help me with CvS2! I’ll buy you a steak or something! :lol:

RoninChaos, that would be me. It’s no problem, I was there to help everyone. Glad I got your stick working the way you wanted it. Hope it serves you well!

Ha, yea that’s me. That bracket was pretty nuts. I’m only used to running full or expanded 32man brackets, 128 is nuts. I’ll probably go to Texas Showdown if the other players here are going.

Texas Showdown sounds like gs Dave, lets hella go FROM THA STREETS!!!

I haven’t had time to post until now so I guess I’ll post in here:

Thanks to every single person that ran a pool, I know I will hella forget someone and instead of listing them out - just know that we really do notice and appreciate everyone who helps out.

Watson - what can I say, always down and always around. You even won qoute of the tournament. I heard about limo/buffett - thanks.

Jaha - one of SRK’s secret weapons. Man doesn’t get enough recognition for all the dumb shit you do and help us with.

Cigarbob - oh my god…for something we didn’t even plan on, you came through and helped clutch out Evo this year. Me and this man go way back (black and white VHS TZW vids) and I’m hella glad to see you still around and helping out.

Justin - for entertaining me during dinner. I think you have officially become my favorite 3s player :slight_smile:

Duc - For stepping up to the plate after Justin lost and winning that shit. You 2 are the b4/evo champs and no disrespect to Yipes - but I’m hella glad that if Justin couldn’t win, you could.

Chris Chou - we gotta stop going to each other’s tournaments and helping to run them. If anyone knows what kind of headaches we endure, this man does.

Bronson: I <3 Duy.

Ryan Hart: Man…until recently I never know long of a trip it is for you to come over and just play videogames. I’m sorry I didn’t get to see you when I was in London and I’m glad to see you are still owning fools up in the games you play.

Ruin: What can I say…we were you in your hood and you made it fun.

Buk/Kim: I know how much work it can be babysitting Japanese and you guys did an awesome job.

Hung: Fuck you for the 151.

Victor: Thanks for taking care of me due to the 151. Shady viets can’t be trusted.

Hsien: 87952 * 94673 = GOGOGOGO!

This is becoming too damn long and me just babbling. Just know that we really do appreciate everyone helping out.

Derek

P.S. Fuck PSI! If the shit you pulled fucks up the hotel…