Suggestions/Improvements for next years Evo

Evo Championship Series
1

Hi! I’m an avid SF gamer from the Philippines(ASIA:wgrin:). As much as I’d like to, going to EVO is pretty much out of my pocket’s reach. I’m happily content watching the live stream.

So, pretty much I’m from the outside looking in. Matches were good. The athmosphere and vibe was pretty much hype. I had to rate this years EVO between A- and B+.

However,

STAGE

-the main stage main stage and how it was set up was like looking at a barebones set-up fight stick, with the wires and nuts sticking out. At least, thats my point of view from a stream viewer.

HOSTS/HYPEMEN

-no disrespect to the tournament organizers, the Cannons. Hosting should have been done by someone else, they’ve done everything, leave the hosting to S-Kill or someone else.

ROUND GIRLS

-not actual round girls, not like raising placards in between rounds like boxing, but a pretty face to look at between sets. see video for reference [media=youtube]c6uMb3eMQFk]YouTube - Royal Rumble [27 January, 2009[/media] Like put some eye candy in there between sets. Sexy babes are in every sport as a sideline for a reason, basketball,football etc=cheerleaders, boxing/mma=roundgirls. etc etc

HEAD TO HEAD SETUP

-some of the players look uncomfortable playing side by side againts their opponents. A head to head would look more exciting to look at, plus players can do the ultra dance without the other person seeing you and getting salty. [media=youtube]JsgRnBazeSY[/media]

LIGHTS

-the stage was too dark from a streamers view. Get Juicebox to do the spotlights next year, then we will get to see some funky spotlight action when someone does an Abel ultra on the big screen.

CHAIRS

-those chairs look like something my grandma would use, but thats just me.

Hopefully, the EVO oragnizers gets more sponsors next year so they could spruce things up a bit.

2

The Hypeman was great.

“And now, HE’S THE PRETTIEST GIRL ON SRK… GIVE IT UP FOR TAATSUU!!!”

You round girls suggestion will get so much fucking hate.

head to head setup would be great actually.

The chairs were property of cesars. And your grandma must be pretty rich.

3

smoother streaming. lol

s-kill was good but they need to have better setup on who is announcing not the musical chairs thing

and better translators it was terrible any time they had to use the ones they had.

4

I am actually very much in favor of the head-to-head setup. It’s not necessarily as if you couldn’t have two setups in the same way as there were at EVO this year, just the opponents sitting across from each other instead of next to each other.

Outside of that, a lot of the stuff is either debatable only by people who were there (lighting), or is something that will rapidly degenerate into idiocy and trolling (ring girls).

5

I like people getting salty on tourneys lol

6

lets be honest, you can’t have the same 3 guys sitting at the commentary table for 3 days straight with not break. They’re going to need to eat, drink, piss, shit and sleep.

Add to that that just about all of the commentators were also competitors in the tournaments. So they can’t very well commentate while they’re playing.

Evolution is for the players by the players. And those players have to play. If they don’t play then you’ll get lots of commentators like sessler who don’t play the game. Don’t understand whats going on and it’ll be even more upsetting for the stream/tv audience.

7

The setup of LA fight club was head to head. I much prefer that way like Tekken Crash!

8

I disagree with a lot of your post, but I can understand how it might have looked from the stream. You are misunderstanding a lot of things, I agree with the head to head kind of, I don’t see any problems with the current layout, but that might be cool. Things like the hosts and chairs are great how they were.

I can make one BIG, BIG, BIG suggestion that I found to be the only problem with my first EVO.

I found the pool organization to be a bit iffy. I was hearing people being DQ’d like crazy, and I couldn’t blame them. We were honestly expected to stand in one spot for a good 6 or so hours while we wait to hear our names. I think an easy and very satisfying solution for everyone would be this: On the main screen, make a small bar on a side of the screen, like, move the game to the left a little and show a small document or something on the right side. On that bar, display people’s names who are being called, so you can sit and watch the games happen in comfort, and it’s not a hassle to check if you’re up, you’ll just see your name there. Any other suggestions to add to that?

9

if people don’t want to wait in their pools then they get DQ’d. I patiently waited in my pool area waiting for my name to be called. Once I was eliminated (quickly thanks to all the DQs to people who didn’t show up) then I did whatever I wanted.

10

It would be pretty awesome if there was some sort of visual notifier for match announcements in pools.

11

  1. Better transitioning between the on-screen brackets and the matches would be a plus. Way too often the bracket would disappear and be replaced with match footage RIGHT when the “FIGHT!” logo flashes up. Character select does add buildup and hype. (from what ive seen anyway.)

  2. Head to head setup. Not only would it be better for competitors, but its just flat out more awesome. Why would anyone NOT want EVO to be as awesome as possible? Thats the way I see it anyway. /shrug

  3. Issues with the lights. Im sure the lights flickering, dimming, and getting brighter at random spots was an issue with Caesar’s somehow, but i think its kinda obvious that not having to deal with that next time would be spectacular.

  4. Improve the intercom system for when you announce stuff during pools. I (and the people i was with) couldn’t hear a dang thing you guys were saying from the melty pools and at the back of the room in BYOC.

  5. Pool’s Judges need megaphones. Nobody in the Melty pools could hear what the judges were saying at all, and vice versa. And they were only like 6-8 feet apart. (Maybe the problem was unique to melty, dunno. That was the only game I played pools in.)

  6. Stream problems. I was actually at EVO, so i didn’t experience them myself, but what ive heard has been horrible.

  7. Sessler. I understand that hes there because G4 is a sponsor, but if you have to bring in people who aren’t experienced with tourney commentary, at least help them research stuff beforehand so they know more about what they are talking about during the matches.

  8. Let the spectators in the crowd hear the commentary during the finals.

  9. The video feed to the big screen got choppy (and sometimes completely cut off), even if it was only briefly. This is obviously a bad thing.

  10. If EVO is going to continue to grow as the years go by, your going to need more space to run the event. That place got freaking cramped at times, specially if you were trying to watch the big screen or play pools near the big screen.

Thats my 2 cents anyways. As an attendee, i thought EVO went off pretty much flawlessly, aside from those problems. The event was definitely good enough that im planning on going again next year.

12

It wasn’t bad at all actually. Problem is people expect to see something as smooth as a recording.

13

Just a few more knowledgeable commentators. Skisonic shouldn’t of had to lose his voice. Along with EVO pool judges it would be cool to get a larger pool of commentators. I’m sure folks like Maj, Valle, or other OGs might be able to give interesting insights.

14

Valle was feeling really out of place in commentary xD he just wanted to get out there as quickly as he could. Good thing Seb showed up (and he should have stayed there for the rest of the even)

15

it was complete chaos in day 1. i landed in vegas at about 8:30am and went straight to EVO my bags and everything hoping i wasnt gonna get DQ’ed. but luckily my pool manager gave me an hour break to get settled in and come back because of the chaos. it was tough to manage everyone in the pool with a 8 point font on a 30x30 board. other than that, i think everything went pretty smooth.

i like how Gamestop hosted their SF4 tourny in San Fran where they utilized the entire stage with the competitors on each side on the stage on their own booth.

16

I was there and I can say that the pool setup was pretty frustrating. Granted I would not have won or even lost out of pool A but the whole read names off of a big piece of paper seems a little outdated. If the tournaments keep getting bigger I wish they would utilize technology, for example: give each person running a pool a laptop and send out twitter updates to those that have cellphones with text messaging. Have someone like me subscribe to the Pool A twitter page and receive mobile updates. send off the mobile update sao vs whoever and then read it out loud for people that feel like standing in the hundred man sausage fest. now that I feel my pocket vibrate I can stop watching matches I am interested in and report for my match. I just wish there was something better than standing in a big group of sweaty dudes and waiting 2 hours for your name to be called by someone with a soft voice. I honestly decided that I would try my best with hakan and if my opponent lost than they don’t deserve to be there because the wait was so painful…

17

150% agree with some sort of electronic pool system. I have back and knee problems due to being fat (my fault) and two major car accidents (not my fault). Day 2, I had to stand for a few hours and could barely hear in my MVC2 pool. By the time I got to play, I was in so much painI played terribly. I had to go sit, then when I didn’t hear my name for a while I found I was DQ’ed, though I was 12 feet away, couldn’t hear jack shit. Luckily, I got to play since the next round hadn’t commenced, but I lost anyway as I still felt like shit.
Also, space concerns are real. People were starting to look like a Japanese subway toward the end. I feel like I shouldn’t have to drag a portable chairalong with my stick, adapter andx whatever else. Just the cost of doing so well.
Lastly, the Evo “booth”/command center needs to be more professionaland take less space. It ate a lot of prime floor space that would have been good for seating. Also, they were selling stuff and we had no way to know besides asking. On that note, bring tons of stick sacks and other practical accessories to sell, they ran out Day 1 morning!

18

There should be some sort of visual aid to see what the current score in games is. My wife, who is not a FG person, had a hard time telling who was in the lead. Some sort of visual aid would have helped with that.

The announcers should be piped in to the event it self, and not just for the streamers. I wasn’t able to make it to Friday’s matches, but I did watch the stream, and the announcers were doing a good job of explaining the action. It would be nice to be able to hear them live.

The competitors should be more easily seen. Most of the time they were surrounded by camera people, and I couldn’t get a good look at them, and I was in th 6th row.

This is all I have for now, but I did want to say that I had a ton of fun at my first Evo, and the organizers did a great job for the most part.

19

Better Streams

First of all fire the people who were in charge of the live Stream that weekend. I am still upset I was unable to see the final match entirely.

Secondly, whoever were commentating on the Tekken matches, do not allow those guys to ever touch a mic again. Those guys were completely biased and unfair. A true commentator should never be biased. Keits(if that is his name, if not I’m sorry) and Skisonic were completely professional and unbiased. When I was watching Tekken and hearing what they were saying I felt like I was in a cheap arcade with people who do nothing but bitch about other players:nono:

20

I think they really need an online bracket.