Once again, we would like to thank all our sponsors, players, and fans of the Evolution Championship Series for all of their dedication, and kick ass hype they brought to the World Finals this past weekend in Las Vegas. Without you guys, none of this would be possible.
If you have any feedback or comments that you would like to share, we would love to hear them. We are always looking for ways to improve the event and make the attendees happy.
Thanks!
I just want to say that it was awesome! Thanks for everything! I had no issues, and from my end as a participant, it went perfectly, and I want to say thanks for doing everything really efficiently this year!
Thanks for putting up another amazing event, this definitely had to be the funnest thus far!
For feedback, I really enjoyed the pool system, it was pure genius IMO. Please keep using it!!
Criticism, please do away with paper brackets. We are in 2011, the fact that we have no clue who we are going to play against is really frustrating. By now people would expect some sort of online bracket system from EVO like most other majors have been adapting.
First of all Mr Wizard: A big thank you to you and all the Evo Staff for such an awesome and hype EVO that u guys pull off. The only minor problem is probably not enough chairs at Final…J/K :).
But on a serious note about a minor request: is it possible for next year’s Evo to be hosted at a hotel slightly closer to the Strip, or better yet on the Strip itself? This way its easier for everyone to do other stuff (sight seeing, gambling etc) when they’re not at Evo venue for whatever reason (after first 2 days of Evo are over, for example), not to mention it actually build more hype as more people (normal tourist) will have a chance to see what HYPE is about.
And I agree with 801Strider, the pool idea is perfect, but like Strider said, is it possible to release the full bracket one day in advance so we know who to play in the pool? Once again, thank you for your hard work and as a first time Evo attendee, I will surely be back for next year.
Let’s start with the great things:
1) THE STREAM: It was high quality, I loved the commentary, and the pacing was great with little waiting for action.
2) THE POOL PLAY: Smaller pools with less waiting was an excellent idea. This also made it so when certain elite players were playing in their pool on the stream, you could see many of their matches against a variety of players in a short amount of time.
Things that need a bit of work:
**1) THE PAYOUT SYSTEM. **Assuming the EVO website is still up to date, it seems this event is still only paying out the top 3 people. I believe if this event wants to continue to maintain the excellent momentum and goodwill it has built up in recent years this must change. If the top 3 are payed out in a 1600-man tournament that means the 0.2% of the participants get paid. If the top 8 get paid out, that means 0.5% gets paid. I believe the average or newer player will never believe they have any chance to scale the mountain which over time will decrease the player base. I think the pay scale needs to be expanded to include a wider number of players which I believe will be a motivator to up the level of play and maintain EVO attendance.
This event is starting to draw comparisons to the WSOP where they pay out the top 10% of players regardless of the size of the field. I realize they are paying $10,000 a piece so they have a bit more to work with for prize money. I love the expandable payout system, the more players, the larger number of top players get paid. I feel this tournament has reached the level where they can at least pay out the top 32 in a 1600-man tournament (the top 2%) or even top 64 (the top 4%).
One more thing I would like to add to this point, I am calling complete BS on people claiming players a playing just enough to get paid. You know what is an even better motivator then money? More money. If I have a chance to increase my winnings with a victory, you can bet your life I’ll be playing my ass off.
**2) TOURNAMENT ENTRANCE FEES: **Let’s (at least) double this to $20 per tournament and start playing for some real money. Let’s face it, the vast majority of attendees spend a ton of money flying in from great distances, hotel, food, and gambling. $10 or more per tournament is nothing. PEOPLE if you want to see this change, let the organizers of EVO know. Now is your chance to voice your opinion.
-wes
everything was great but i enjoyed caesars as a venue a lot more than Rio. pools were fast and smooth. staff was quick and friendly. the delays were minimal for all events. thanks guys!
The stream was probably the best since I’ve started watching streams.
I do agree with the implementation of the poker payout system, as I believe that it would encourage others to actually get into top 32 and up.
Oh, and one more thing, get some mods on the chats next year, so they can clear the chat every once in a while.
This EVO ran very smoothly. I enjoyed the way the pool system worked, it made things VERY easy and very smooth. Granted when it got to the Quarter-Finals things got difficult with people who qualified in the same day games, AE/MK or MvC3/T6/BBCS:2, since pools needed to be held up. Now I didn’t DQ anyone when it got to that point, unless they just completely left and never came back.
The one gripe I have is how pools were seeded, at least in regards to AE and maybe MvC3, not really sure since I didn’t partake in MvC3.
I remember past EVO tournaments seeded by region, and while I understand some large regions may have tons of players coming out, and there is also seeding points, how is it that out of about 20 Portland Players, 3 are in the same 16 man pool, when there are 91 pools. I feel that if there was a different algorithm or seeding method for regions, that would be a lot better because no one wants to pay a ton of money to do what they would do on a Tuesday night, early in the tournament.
From what I heard though, some of the judges were not informing players where to go upon qualifying, and there were some people coming up to me asking if they were in the pool, when I asked them what the judge at their post pool said, they said they never were told.
Great job and thank you to everyone that set up and ran it.
Smaller pools were a great idea.
The venue was huge so there was PLENTY of space for people, vendors, side games, breathing room, etc.
I checked-in sometime Friday afternoon and was informed that they ran out of badges. I still got a MadCatz lanyard, Evo program, and shirt, so not getting a badge isn’t a big deal. It would’ve been a nice souvenir though. :razzy:
Bigger payout would be very cool too. As mentioned, with 1600+ players, more payouts would make sense, yes?
All in all, a great time!
As a stream goer this year, I have to say, the stream was excellent. Big thanks for making it happen, Mr W.
Even as the final day arrived and SSF4 garnered over a 200,000+ viewers between UStream (including GodsGarden stream), PSN Home and re-streaming to Justin.tv and G4, you guys really kept it together and no drops in signal (other than the uncontrollable net crashes in Vegas during the 2nd day). Shoutouts to Team Sp00ky and iPlayWinner for holding that down, made it really enjoyable for forum goers and stream monsters alike. Also a small shoutout to skisonic for spamming everyone via Twitter to keep everyone updated who couldn’t watch the stream itself and he wasn’t on deck for commentary.
Even from there, maybe even consider putting this on TV one day down the road? I’m sure the guys at G4 would gladly drop a deal with you guys for that. Evo is definitely getting bigger and bigger, and after all of the showboating, hype and madness this year, 2012 is gonna be extreme.
A small suggestion I would have regarding the stream would be seeing if it’s possible to split the main stream (aka Stream One) into two streams, so that every SSF4 and MvC3 match can get coverage and can be viewed. I think that was the only caveat most people had on the stream itself, was not knowing how some people got blown up and defeated off stream. The second stream could be composed of one commentator or none at all-- as long as people’s matches are streamed I don’t think many people will mind at all.
The pools from what I’ve heard was top notch and well planned, so kudos to that as well.
P.S.: Please continue to allow for much zaniness and wacky commentary and camerawork. And continue to put Yipes on deck for the House Mic for Mahvel, he can hype people up like no other.
Thanks!
Negative to pool optimizations - We didnt get to see all the good players on stream. I had no idea what happened to half the top players since too many going on at once. We need more streams maybe?
Other than that, very nice.
evo was amazing
only criticism: 3rd strike exhibition went on for way way way way too long, and was advertised as a grandmaster invitational tournament, when it was a bunch of rusty american guys. now this is no big deal because 3rd strike is very old and likely not many of the players have been playing as religiously as they used to, but a 5v5 round robin was way too much when there was no urien, no yun, and lots of alex. If its an exhibition, its supposed to be entertaining, and after the first what seemed like 6 hours of it the entire ballroom seemed ready to go to sleep - not just the add ridden 09-11 players.
i’m not sure if it speaks more to the current community or the event that half way tru the exhibition, the crowd was chanting “we want marvel”
either way good shit and great event, looking forward to next year
Would’ve been more interesting if the seeding would actually spread out the top players. Japanese players knocking each other out before top 32 and questionable players making it into top 16 (only to get blown up) doesn’t make for exciting final matches.
Yes my thoughts exactly. :tup:
You know all that went great, so I’m not going to bother writing a book on how awesome Evo was this year.
Registration Fees:
This has been addressed and explained on the WUSRK podcast, but I think many people wouldn’t have objected if it meant a larger pot for Top 3 or payout for top 8/16/32.
$10 per game is cool, but personally I wouldn’t have mind paying a slightly lower registration fee and a bit more per game, because it would mean a larger pot.
I would like to see registration be at least $10 cheaper and entries per game to rise to at least $15 - $20.
Tournament Brackets:
I really like how fast we were able to run through pools and it seemed very effective, however… It seemed like many brackets were stacked with many killers in them and only two of them escaping, while some brackets had no one in them. I don’t know how the brackets were fabricated, but I would like to get a better understanding on how they were made. It would have been great to see more top player evenly spread and then fighting out in later pools.
… nothing major or anything really negative.
-Rotendo
Smaller pool is great idea.
Online real time bracket will definitely generate a lot more hype for stream.
I also support the idea of higher entry fee ($20) and deeper payout.
Multiple streams for different games is great.
I suggest having more games and have the finals of less popular games finished on a different day (fri for BB/TK6, sat for 3s/Tk x Capcom, Sun for MVC3/SF4/MK) to accommodate more games to the EVO lineup
It would also be great if EVO can grant wifi access to approved side games like SF2 / MVC2 / VS / CVS2 / GGXX so side tourney organizers can provide a self-serviced stream to fans.
Other than that, as a viewer from home, this EVO is great!
First off, EVO was awesome but I do have some feedback for you guys.
I don’t know if this is in your control or not, but there should be way more chairs for the event. At least 100 people were standing or sitting for the MvC3 and AE tournaments.This is definitely crucial since there were not enough chairs at Evo 2K10 as well (I’ve attended both Evo 2K10 and 2K11). I would bet money that Evo2K12 is gonna be even better. Thus, it would behoove the audience if you guys brought in way more chairs.
Second, you know how the streams put up the names of the players? It would be really helpful if the projector screens at the actual event shows the names of the players as well.
Another suggestion is maybe you guys can have two projectors set up on the side walls of the ballroom; one projector on each side? That way, the people in the back can just look at those. Don’t know if that’s a feasible option though.
In regards to the commentators, only the stream can hear them. As a fan of e-sports, I would love it if the commentators could be heard at the actual Evo event. The StarCraft II community features commentators that both the live crowd and streamers can listen to. I would love it if the FGC employed this same method.
This was my first EVO and it was great.
The only thing I didn’t like was that long boring 3rd Strike Tournament that happened right when the MvC3 finals were supposed to start, according to the schedule. That thing went on for way too long and seemed completely pointless. Plus my flight was leaving that evening so I didn’t get to see any of the SF4 thanks to having to watch a boring 3rd Strike tournament. At least I got to see the MvC3 finals which is what I wanted to see most anyways.
People need to listen. The staff shouldn’t have to tell people 5+ times to get the fuck out of the aisle. It’s a fire hazard. End of story.
And a lot of people were being disrespectful when Ono was trying to talk to us before finals. Some douche even had the nerve to yell “Speak english” at him. Highly disrespectful. A friend and I were actually the ones who yelled back “Shut the fuck up” to him and then that awkward silence happened before Ono started again. That shouldn’t have happened. When someone is trying to talk to someone, especially an audience, you shut the fuck up and be respectful.
Mainly my only gripe with EVO is listed above. A lot of people there were very disrespectful towards the staff and other people watching top 8.
I had fun at EVO as always. Can’t wait to come back next year. Maybe then some people will have learned some god damn manners.