I’ve been a stream monster for awhile now and I enjoy watching FGC majors as much as I do watching major sports events. That being said, I see a NEEEED for organizers to level up (no pun intended) and update the standards so that FGC tourneys can progress. So I found it imperative to get some ideas out there that might reach organizers - and maybe with the help of you folks spreading it around, could get us all a more exciting tournament experience to watch! These suggestions are more to do with “Finals” than anything else really.
First and foremost, set up the finals (top 8 or 16) to be face2face vs side-by-side setups. I’m referring to the actual physical setup of the station. This would eliminate button listeners, body language readers and/or distractions, and (most of all) the annoying laughing and giggling amongst two roommates who are going to split the pot. Most japanese tourneys already do this - probably for the same reason. I don’t know that we’d see different results…but we might??
Reset brackets for finals (top 8 or 16). The brackets should be created from player random draw on the finals day just before the start of the finals. Obviously, keep the losers in losers and winners in winnders, but reset them. This would force players to concentrate on their own gameplay as opposed to studying a matchup the night prior to the finals. Another words, if my next opponent is Balrog, I will stay up all night practicing against said character. That’s fine in a one-vs-one money match, but in a major tourney, I want the champ to be someone who was ready for anything!
Organizers, if you have a website dedicated to the tourney, PLEEEZE have a touney bracket update and results section on it. I mean c’mon. You make an awesome trailer, hype it up, included anything and everything in the site… then when the tourney starts, nothing. If I get back from somewhere and need to check what i missed - ooops - can’t do that. Find a way to keep those sites active and UPDATED til a little after the tourneys, would ya???
Player interviews. I know it’s been done and it hasn’t always turned out very good but I think it needs to continue. Players will start to get used to it and interviewers would get better at it and hopefully would eventually turn less awkward. But just record a quick interview prior to the event finals with each player and we could get their thoughts onstream instead of just hearing commentators yap yap yap during button check, etc. It’s a little less important but would enhance the stream monster experience, I think.
Finally, team tourneys. One thing. Make the team pick the complete team order prior to starting the first match. This would actually make it interesting instead of counter-picking throughout the set - which to me is a lot less interesting. If a team has Yun, you KNOW the other team will use their Zangief. However, it would take more strategy and “yomi” for one team to try to setup their team so they would succeed regardless of the order of the other team. Follow me?
Well, that’s my take and I’m hoping some of the ideas catch on. I know it’s just a few changes - that’s because I don’t really have complaints about 99% of the stuff! But these few changes would step things up a bit. Ever since lock down, major tourneys online have been one of my enjoyments. So I wanted to throw my two cents in here just in case an organizer is listening. Peace
Japanese tourney’s do this because that’s how the cabs are set up, not because it’s “more fair” or eliminates “button listening” or body “language reading.”
And what exactly is wrong with practicing against expected matchups. Being smart and learning to anticipate match ups is part of good tournament play. If anything, it allows players to bring out lesser used secondary characters as counterpicks when they know that they can swing certain matchups in their favor. Randomized brackets simply encourages people to use high tiers just so that they have a higher number of favorable matchups.
Being able to pick team order mid-set allows for the team to make on the fly adjustments that could possibly swing disadvantaged sets in their favor. If not, all you’ll see is every team running the same optimized order, 2nd best player starts (to try to get early wins), weaker players as “mines” in the middle (to wear down the opposing team), best player as anchor.
Also, what exactly is wrong with counter-picking? That’s just playing smart.
I’ve been a stream monster for a while to, find some locals you will have a different outlook on how tournaments should be run, except for time that has gotta be fixed.
This pretty much sums why we can’t take any of your ideas seriously.
If you have not organized a tournament, or helped to organize one, hell, even attend a tournament you can’t simply understand how much work it takes
Also, for some of your ideas, is also clear that you don’t have a clue about competitive play.
Once the tournament starts people are busy, you know running the tournament. I don’t want to be too blunt, but no one is thinking about your stream monster ass once they start running around a venue losing their voice trying to locate people for their matches.
This isn’t really on the tournament organizer. I can’t even remember what god awful event that was where they interviewed the players before each match. but it was almost enough to make you turn the stream off.
Thats just a variation of a blind pick but for a team, that already and has always existed, its just that no one ever chooses to use it. You can literally ask for blind pick every single match of every tournament and no organizer is going to deny you, but people don’t take that option; just like 90% of players don’t take the round on a controller disconnect even though they can.
