I just wanted to say that even though there was only like 10 of us there for the qualifier. That for my first offline event that I had a lot of fun and will make what effort I can to show up to others.
The difference between online and offline is stark and the overall experience was very enlightening. I really enjoyed it even though I didn’t really win substantially.
Thanks for the experience.
Who showed up? Any videos?
Fudd recorded all three tourneys
Damdai, fudd, zerodotjander?, rambo, immortalbmw, me, rizz, shinjigohan?
There was another but I can’t remember his name
and mars. Lol how’d I forget the guy who read everything I wanted to do.
Yeah, it was a poor turnout, but I’m glad you had a good time anyway, Coth. It’s a testament to the power of arcade ST.
I’m back home now, so I’ll probably start uploading the videos late tonight.
Even if there had been one person it would have been worth it. Hopefully next year there can be more.
I know this probably won’t happen because of how organizing these slots work but has there been any talk of perhaps splitting the qualifiers into three separate regions?
The talent pool for ST here in the US isn’t what it used to be but there are still some very good players around. But I think to get the best team possible, you’re missing out on most of the best players from both East and West coasts.
Big Congrats to Damdai, Immortal, and my great friend Rizone for qualifing to go to SBO to play on the USA team. Also I want to give a huge thanks to mr jason for running the tournament, and Fudd and Zero for recording the matches. Thanks and take care.
Congratulations to the ones who qualified. As for other players, I feel that people who are willing to show up deserve the credit there. All I could say otherwise is that, this year, there hasn’t been that much time to prepare for the travel. Still, some of the ones who traveled were preparing for it even before the announcement. I feel such people are more likely to polish their characters for the finals. Still, competition will be very strong. For instance, the chance of a Hawk getting all his ground advances stopped by normals or hadoukens and all jumps punished by SRK/TU so that he can never start a loop are quite high.
Congrats to Damdai (not like we dont expect him to qualify), Immortal and rizone (ggpo represent!)
I think it’s an interesting idea. So we can top 1 from west coast, top 1 from east coast, and another 1 from the middle of the country.
Mars, many of us were rooting for you… I guess it’s marflash no more. Now you’re marsdash!
maybe but those players have to come out to compete in the first place. The fact that there were only 11-12 people in the first tournament, 8 in the 2nd and 6 in the last is just pathetic. West coast and east coast were welcome to come and 2 ec players did come (damdai and rambo, not sure who else is from the EC though), fudd came from the wc I believe. But if the OG ST heads don’t decide to show up then what can we do? To be honest with the small degree of people entering, people from SF4 might have had a good shot at getting on the ST team. But people don’t support ST nor SF2 here or in the USA.
I wish the winners the best of luck in japan.
hmm… no offense to people living in TN. but maybe because the qualifier could be held in a bigger city?
Also people mentioned that not everyone have the money and time to afford to go to Japan.
If one of the spot is held in west coast, I’ll go and donate my $50x3 to the winners (I know I can’t win or I have the time to go).
But I’m not traveling to TN to do that since I don’t have the time. Fudd on the other hand is willing to go to japan so he traveled from norcal to TN.
I think kuroppi’s idea is good. If there are 3 different tournaments in 3 different locations, I think we can get at least 20~30 in each location (wc ec + chicago maybe)
Even more so if we can run these qualifier during majors (ufgt8, socal/norcal regional, sbr, ect, etc)
We aren’t college kids like we were back in the pre/early EVO days. Most ST players are part of a much older demographic now and a lot are married and have families and are busy with important jobs so traveling cross country to a tournament, just to qualify for a tournament half way around the world is asking a lot of them.
Nothing against Wilson (he’s a friend and I’ve known him forever) and I applaud him for still supporting ST but TN is probably one of the worst places to hold a qualifier because there aren’t any ST players around there aside from Wilson and he doesn’t participate in the tournament. It would be like Japan holding all their qualifiers in Hokkaido or Okinawa. That wouldn’t make any sense at all. And nearly half of entrants were from the same east coast area so why make them travel and spend all that money just to play in a tournament that they’re going to wind up playing against each other anyway?
Having said all that, good luck to Damdai and company! Go team USA! 
Thanks everyone. First tournament vids here: http://frame-advantage.com/event/2011-us-st-sbo-qualifiers-tournament-1/341 courtesy of fudd. He’s been the one recording all the recent ST tourneys ive been to, so subscribe to him! I’ll add 2nd and 3rd tournaments as he uploads them.
I had no chance in any of the tournaments but I still drove down 8-9 hours to get there, and “donated” my $150 for the winners. If traveling to japan for ST isn’t worth your time then it may be time for SBO to stop giving the USA spots for ST. Or drop ST completely like Evo has. The players have spoken and ST just isn’t worth their time anymore it seems.
No wonder there isn’t any SF2 representation at evo this year.
If the qualifier is held in socal I’ll drive 7 hours to support the players too.
Reasons for low turn out
ST / HDR side tournament (not high roller) still draw 20~40 people (final round, ugft, sbr, norcal regional, revelation, ceo)
I’m pretty sure if ST or HDR is still an official game @ majors or EVO, it will still draw good amount of players (of course it will be dwarf compared to SF4AE or MVC3)
I know some of you are frustrated going all your way to TN to support the scene only to find 10 people there… but those factors mentioned above are valid.
“HDR players just need to show up to tournaments!”
“HDR players just need to show up to tournaments!”
“HDR players just need to show up to tournaments!”
“HDR players just need to show up to tournaments!”
Arguably the most important tournament for ST all year, and it gets 10 entrants. I see a lot of excuses but no recognition of the hypocrisy.
Side tournaments at majors still got more entrants than HDR was getting as an official game. But then again, one issue does not justify the other. But yeah, the turnout was low. Still, note that the game has lots of players in Japan, and not many tried the quals when they knew the big names were coming. For instance, check the one Otochun’s team won. It is easy to just speak, but how many would bother to travel to a tournament with no real prize having to face Otochun? Many more casual players get ashamed cos of severe beatdowns. The ones who would, would do so to have a chance to play him, but there they can do it every week, who cares?
I do not see how it helps to complain about that, though. The game did get acceptable turnouts, people just need to keep playing. People should just gather the HDR community, check how many tournaments they can afford to attend, and make them happen. Here, people agreed on 2 tournaments a year, so that’s what is going to be done.
Edit: EVO seems a particular example. There are things that have not been said.
“Side tournaments at majors still got more entrants than HDR was getting as an official game.”
HDR was the second most popular game at Evo with I think somewhere between 300 and 400 entrants, so I don’t understand what you mean?