Spectator-Friendly Tournaments?

Current Fighting Games Fighting Game Discussion
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NOTE: I checked out the Tournaments forum and it seemed more suited to tournament announcement than tournament discussion. I apologize if I got that wrong and this thread would be more appropriate in the Tournaments forum.

Okay, I know that this is going to sound odd to a lot of you. I love the fighting game scene, but I’m a spectator - I love watching top-level play and following the competitive FG world, but not having any competition I don’t play very often and certainly not at a tournament level. On most occasions I would choose to watch others play over playing myself. I wanted to see a major in person for a long time so I went to SoCal Regionals a couple of weeks ago and had an absolute blast. I didn’t enter any tournaments except for the free TTT2 tournament since $70 is a lot of money to spend entering a competition you know you can’t advance in. I spent the whole weekend playing TTT2 and SCV casuals and watching the AE2012 and UMvC3 finals on Sunday. Watching the finals in person was an incomparable experience and I’d love to experience that excitement again.

I work at an airport, and one of the perks I get from that is free air travel to anywhere in the country. This is how I was able to go to SoCal Regionals from my home in Massachusetts. Geography is not an issue. I really want to check out another tournament, but Clockw0rk told me that SCR becomes more like a convention every year - with that in mind, I’m guessing that most tournaments don’t offer as much as SCR does for non-competitors. Can anyone offer suggestions for upcoming tournaments where I could have a great time as a spectator, not entering the competition but watching and playing casuals? Or would most events leave me standing around with nothing to do if I’m not playing competitively? I’m thinking about GVN Winter Brawl since a friend of mine lives nearby. What do you guys think?

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EVO.

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That’s a given, my friends and I are going to EVO.

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It depends, what are you looking to do while you are at the tournament?

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Pretty much every tournament I’ve been to has matches to watch, and casual stations. What more do you want?

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I think a majority of tournaments supply this…I don’t know any tournament that doesn’t.

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Season’s Beatings, Final Round, NCR have consistently been incredibly, incredibly hype.

EDIT: Also, you should TOTALLY hook your new best friend ‘throwing is cheap’ up with some airfare.

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EVO had panels and SCR had people cosplaying, So if hes looking for that most tournaments aren’t at that point right now, if you want to enjoy high quality matches and people in the community there are a bunch of Majors to go to, but If hes looking for an cosplay contest he may be disappointed at Winter Brawl.

NCR is a bit of a show recently with all of the nazis and people running around in their underwear.

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I’m not looking for anything like that, I didn’t even stop playing TTT2 to photograph the cosplayers at SCR. I just want to play casuals and watch the finals with a really hype crowd on a big screen.

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Then you’ll find what you want at any tournament

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Final Round is easily one of the most hype tournaments