M5-Magfest 2007- 1/4-1-7/2007 MD/DC/VA Planning thread

Regional Matchmaking Atlantic North
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Hey everyone. I just wanted to let everyone know that MAGfest, the Music and Gaming Festival, is coming to the DC area for its 5th installment. As you all know, Magfest’s motto is "It’s all about the gaming"
Which is pretty cool. They get a huge space, have 24-7 gaming open from Thu till sunday, have a videogame concert, and also have tournaments in just about every game.

The tournaments is where we come in. I’ve expressed interest in coordinating and managing the tourneys at Magfest 2007. M4 had 750 people attend in Roanoke, VA. The move to the DC metro area should shoot up attendence to 1250-1500. That’s alot of gamers, with the potential for some nifty prizes (ask Jwong about m4, he got some cool stuff) And a bunch of them play fighters casually. Pad warriors, if you will. Having good tournaments with good players at these events is the best way to grow the scene, IMO.

A couple of things about Magfest: it’s not a tournament per se. You pay one pass (for a day or weekend), and that’s it. You can play in as many tournaments you want.

Two, is that previously, it’s been much more casual, and not competitive at all. I would like to up a little competitive aspect, w/o sacrificing the original spirit.

I’m envisioning for many games, qualifying tournaments thursday-saturday, with the final 8 on a big stage/big screen ala evo style. With a potential crowd of 1000-1500 gamers, that could be quite a spectacle.

In order to do this kinda thing, I need some help. Brenden has expressed alot of interest in doing this, but we need:

  1. Serious gamers (that’s you SRK) willing to come to the event (hint: preregister http://magfest.org/ )

  2. People willing to help out. We will need a staff of about 30 people. If you have a game you like 15 hours of assisting Magfest gets you a free badge. That’s about a 40$ value. w00t.

Other things that need to be ironed out is the format. Having 1500 gamers around who can enter any game poses some logistical problems to get to a final 8. My idea is to have multiple single elim tourneys where the top one or two qualify. I’m open to other ideas to handle that many people who may or may not be there at that particular time in a fair way.

Post here!

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For any funding or whatever Magfest needs, Team Sidewinder is willing to help. Please Feel free to contact me Via PM

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I’m down. :tup:

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question: are the staff able to play in these tournaments? because i think it would be pretty crazy trying to help run everything while playing in like 3 tournaments…

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so you’ve gotta pay hourly?

Seems kinda confusing.

I would of attended last year but there was a whole fiasco w/ Empire saying it was cancelled. But it really wasn’t and the truth was that the Empire had backed out of their deal.

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no you dont pay hourly, are you high? lol :smiley:

ur supposed to pay for getting in for the weekend… i have been to two of these, both times with the empire there, unfortuantely not a lot of marvel was played because there are so many damn games there its crazy…

ill do what i can to help, but the date is sooooooo far away that i cant promise anything…

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probably was. I know that I’ll show up atleast for one day.

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No, you don’t pay hourly. If you volunteer for the event, “working” 15 hours gets you a free badge. (there are rewards starting at 5 hours too).

And Alex, you can play in tournaments and help out. I’ll have to check it out w/ brenden, but maybe it’ll be you would just help out w/ other tourneys.

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M1 was in Roanoke, the other 3 were in Charlottesville, VA. Also M1 was run by Joe Yamin(sp), the other 3 were run by Brendan I forget his last name. Also M1 was good the others sucked (can’t speak for M4 though, I didn’t go).

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Question:

If there were two fighters there that could get guaranteed sponsored money, which ones would get the highest turnout? Im talking in the realm of $1k to first, $500 to second and $250 to third? I’m trying to make that happen what do you all think?

I would assume 3S would be one…Im kicking around the idea of Marvel Slash or Smash…I have to get a high turnout (thats why Im considering SMash). The problems Im having is that Marvel almost never gets more than 16 people around here, Slash may have legal issues due to its non-US formatting, Smash seems like the best bet in terms of turnout but I would RATHER do one of the first two.

Let me know.

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m2 was in williamsburg. m2 was alright. not enough comp really.

and i’ll go to m5 if there is a turn out.

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are you gonna have double elim for major games, or will it depend on how many people decide to enter?

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Magfest is a great event. Highly reccommended to any gamer.

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Me and my crew are going no matter what…So cory bring your ass so that i can bet youuuuuu in some slash!!!. Anywho at m5 are there gonna b any Snk games in the tourny???.

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I think it would depend upon how many enter but I would assume we have time seeing as how its a multi-day event…24/7. But no one has answered my question…which fighter do you think would gather the largest crowd if the prize payout was 1000 500 250?

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Gotta quick question…what do you do at magfest? i mean as far as fighting tournaments go i know that part but what else do you do? i dont know why im thinking rave…

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Yeah…I was at the first Magfest way back when I still played 3S on the Dreamcast on my crappy Mad Catz pad and DOA3 was my other main fighting game. Times have changed since then and I haven’t touched DOA since that random ass 10 person tournament at VTYME. Need a 360 before I can get back into the scene since no one plays 2.5 anymore. I hear Helena is rape now which is good cuz she’s always been my fav and the fact that she sucked in the older games is why I liked her even more. I may have to mix it up with Zack or Brad if she’s that good.

In any event, 3rd Strike is where it’s at and it’d be cool beans to have an Evo style tournament at Magfest for it. Lookin to get some adequate prizes for the time I put into the game. Plus it’d be good to return to the first video gaming event I ever went to to since the Blockbuster tournament days (where I was like 8 at time, lol).

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man i had no idea this thread was made. i remember u talking about it goin up to evo east. hmmmm. not sure if im willing to donate my time for 40 bucks. maybe.

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Yeah…at the first Magfest they had a rave/dance room thing goin on (they also had a rave at Otakon) so that’s definitely a possibility. Random cosplaying emos dancing around to electronic music. At normal cons there’s game/art shops, video rooms, obviously a gaming room, dance hall, cosplay theaters, cosplay this, cosplay that and so on and so forth.

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So you want to sponsor games at magfest? Well all games will draw HUGE crowds if they are free to enter (since it should be covered w/ admission)… and would be mostly casual players

Casual player (i.e. magfest/cons) popularity
1.SSBM
2. Any GG
3. Tekken
4. Soul Calibur
5. 3S
6. Alpha 3
7. ST
8. CvS2
9. MvC2

Serious Players (people who will travel for this tourney)

  1. 3S
  2. GG
  3. Smash
  4. Marvel
  5. CvS2
  6. Tekken
  7. A3
  8. ST (old people don’t go to cons)
  9. SC3 (competitively dead)

if you are helping out, your badge will be discounted/ free.