I really think something should be done for pool play. Especially for superSF4. The guy running our bracket told us that he ran the morning pools. And I could totally hear it in his voice. And when he’s trying to name off that many people. And the people in the back can’t hear him. It was pretty easy to get dq.
Then by the time he got to the bottom of the sheet. I notice i still didn’t get my name called after 2 hours of standing there. I was trying to ask if I was even on there, and I kept getting told to “hang on”. I waited trying to find a good time to ask. And when I thought I did. Got the same answer. Finally someone swamped out with him so he could rest. I asked the new judge to see if I was even on there. He checked and I had a bye. WOW!!! that would’ve been nice. I was holding my piss for 2 hours because I didn’t wanna risk the chance of DQ!
Only real issue I had was with the pools. Those poor judges had a ROUGH time announcing names. It was so loud in there that you could be standing 10 feet from the guy and unless he shouted it in your direction, you wouldn’t hear it. So I definitely second getting judges megaphones. They don’t have to be bullhorns but just those small 6-8" plastic megaphones. Cheap and easy to transport/stack!
Head-to-Head would be nice but that makes it more difficult to keep the no button check set up going. The stream needed better on screen info. The score count Spooky-style(just edit the names with “Daigo - 0”, “Ricky - 1”), Tourny round info between the super bars (winners/losers, pool, round etc).
Electronic or Online bracket for sure. The pools play was a complete disaster and one of the most unorganized hot messes I had seen in my life. It was my first EVO and it was quite shocking to see the way the pools were being run despite the 50+ dollar entry fee. I mean can you at least spring for a megaphone for these guys? I know asking for a laptop,PDA or big TV to display brackets for these guys is maybe a bit much but even something as simple as announcing the names and games for the pools should have been a simple matter. There were absolutely NO notifications of ANYTHING that were going on. How easy would it have been to simply announce at each pools the names of each person and ask for a check in or inform them of byes? The fact that you had to stand around for 2-3plus hours at a time so as not be DQ’s was pathetic as it gave you NO time to see the other events, booths or you know PLAY some damn fighting games which I though was the point of EVO. I was actually glad after I was done so I could finally walk around and see other games and check out the BYOC action. Hell I spent more time playing SSF4 in my room because it was tough trying to get to a game on the floor!
I will say that despite the mess the pool organizers did am AMAZING job given the impossible task that they had to do so props to them especially judges at SSF4 Pool E and HDR pool B.
I get that the nature of the event is out of a homegrown tournament but when you get the point where you charge 50+ per attendee and know that you have 2000+ registered ahead of time and have the money in hand try to spend the money where it will have the most positive impact on where it matters which is the tourney itself. I would gladly pay 100 bucks or more to have a very smooth running tourney with proper notifications and announcements. Twitter was the best recommendation I saw so far in this thread.
Oh and don’t user Caesars again as that place has to have the most confusing layout of any casio on the strip. I finally was able to sort out where everything was by the third day and I felt like a dumbass taking 5 different routes to the ballroom everyday.
It would also be nice to have the player names visible on the big screen, since there was certainly some confusion during the Daigo vs. Afrolegends HDR match.
I liked Evo at the Rio last year, what was everyone’s thoughts on Ceasar’s? How were the rooms, the prices and the food around it. Did you guys like the location at the strip? Only problem with the Rio was its distance from the actual strip itself~ but I liked the ballroom and the rooms were great and well priced.
I also think the pools were a mess with too much chaos. Nobody could hear anything and there was so much confusion on what was going on with so many people waiting around.
I think the pool stations were too close to each other. They should had been spread out more. Maybe having them back to back, instead of a line across the walls. So like poll L and M are farther apart.
I think electronic brackets would help a lot to help everybody know what is going on.
Maybe split the bracket into L-A and L-B etc. So I know you are going to do the top part of the bracket first so I can come back later if I am at the bottom of the big bracket. Because as it stood, you didn’t know if you were at the bottom and had to stand around for hours for them to get to your name.
Get the bracket runners a megaphone or something. Again, most people couldn’t hear them.
Maybe do the texting thing, to call people to their matches.
With Marvel 3 next year, I just see this getting bigger, and the pools getting worse. I really think electronic brackets with a projector or something needs to be looked into.
Some pools were ran smoother than others, but overall, they were a bit hectic. Megaphones may have helped, but I like the spacing idea a lot better. I thought my pool E was ran pretty well. He told us which round of people were going to go (went with the first round, then one round of winners, two rounds of losers, etc.), about what TIME to come back if we weren’t playing, and he communicated nicely with the players. As oppose to the pool next to us, pool D looked crazy. They let some players play more than others, occasionally one or more setups wasn’t being used, no one could really hear him, and he was DQ’ing a lot of people.
Some pools it looked easier to watch matches than others. Well, it was really just the wall with stations A-F? where it was easier to watch your friends play compared to stations G-whatever.
I didn’t like waiting an hour to three hours just for a match, but with the limited setups and the biggest outcome for EVO, I could understand.
One thing I didn’t like about Caesar’s was that lacked complimentary/free stuff like wifi or coffee.
First off I apologize to anyone who had to deal with me in the afternoon pools because my voice was shot to fuck and I was tired as hell too. (Lesson learned about trying to judge 2 back to back pools.) Also apparently not eating for 10 hours is not a good idea who knew? XP
Secondly a lot of good ideas in this thread and hopefully some of them are considered for implementation.
One thing I would like to suggest is to change the configuration of the pools. Instead 2 side by side tables, have the tables form a “^” and leave the gap in the middle so the judge can stand and shout at people. I think that would help.
Also next year I’m going to bring thumbtacks against to track matches (did this in 2009 and it worked great) and paper to label stations. I suggest other judges do the same.
Hey Binkley, you know those big brackets you guys had. Were those just big poster boards? Could you guys get like dry erase boards next year? Or have that layer of plastic film over the paper, so you can marker over stuff to keep track?
Or if the back was dry erase board, you could use it to write names on it and hold it up to get people’s attention on who’s name you are calling?
I like the “/” idea. The point would be pointing toward the middle of the hall, right?
Pool announcers needed a better way of communicating to players. This could be achieved with a cheap megaphone or assigning times and stations before hand.
Pools needed to be separated from each other with greater distance. The pools were too close to each other.
Put the pool brackets online. If not online, over a local wifi connection. This would cut down on a lot of confusion.
Special booths like the MvC3 booth and the meatbun booth, and central command center needed to be placed away from the pools for more space.
As EVO grows, it will need more space. I think it might be wise to separate to BYOC room into another room.
Give some way for attendees to hear the spectating. It would be nice to be able to hear it over the speakers or over local Internet, or even over a local am/fm broadcast.
Overall, I had a fantastic time at EVO. I’ll be back next year if money allows. I’d like to thank all the volunteers that worked so hard to make it all possible.
I’m really liking the idea of assigning time slots. Waiting to hear your name wasn’t all that bad, but it was really hard to hear by evening pools since the dude announcing my pool was hurting, and the guy that tried to help him’s voice was incomprehensible. If registration was closed earlier next year, and brackets were finished earlier, people could be assigned a certain hour that their match would be played, and after they played, assigned the next hour they will need to be there. Being there for an hour wasn’t awful, but the 4 hours I stood there was pretty rough.
Whilst it is understandable that there was ZERO time on day 1 to hang around, Finals day was much too rushed. There needed to be at least a few minutes between matches for analysis. Whilst it was good to be rid of button checks, I would have liked to see a bit of time in between matches for a recap. It was all a bit too rushed and it didn’t allow for the tension to really build up. It was just straight into the next match up.
The brackets are paper on top of poster boards. The marker on top of plastic is not a bad idea, but I would be worried about smudges, bad writing, tampering, etc though really a judge should be the one holding the bracket at all times. Back being a dry erase board is a good idea, not sure how feasible it is though (do they make portable dry erase boards that big?). I suppose if there was $$$ to be spent Evo could buy some small dry erase boards. (Maybe I will pack that in my judges’ kit for next year if I’m chosen again!)
The problem with having the “/” setup point towards the middle is power (people are gonna trip over cords I think). The ideal way would be to do it that way but if that couldn’t be done I think having the setup point the other way would still be an improvement as the judge’s voice can hopefully carry better that way.
(Note I’m not in any way affiliated with setup or anything, I’m just a guy who volunteers to judge.)
I was the judge for Tekken 6 in the morning, and coming from a judge’s persepective I felt that it ran somewhat well. I was told to hold off on some of the players for the stream, which really delayed my bracket and made it really difficult to get matches onto the stations. Only until after I came and the found the players directly did they understand my situation and did their best to get the bracket done in time for semifinals (props to FiltyRich, Bronson Tran, and Aris for hearing me out and understanding).
It was in the morning, so there were lots of missing people (it happens). The players at my pool told me they didn’t have a problem hearing me. Some even said they wished I had done Street Fighter pools, as they told me a few horror stories such as judges being very protective of their brackets and not showing it to anyone, barking and yelling at players when they asked simple questions, and being very difficult to approach.
I also had a problem with one of the tournament organizers yelling at me when he kept asking when the match was over – I can’t help it if the players are not done with their matches yet. I didn’t take it personally, just found it a bit unprofessional.
I agree with most of the suggestions posted already. I’d also add:
-Clearly labeled TV stations for each pool.
-Some sort of division between the audience and the players (like a line they can’t cross).
-A placard to place the bracket instead of letting judges hold it.
Big shout outs to Justin for assisting me with the pool. Not everyone had assistants, and you were extremely helpful. Thanks a lot, friend.
I thought the poster boards were just fine. Dry erase boards cost significantly more, especially if you consider how many tournaments are running throught the event.
I used my pen to mark off completed matches. Just put a check on those who are playing, and after they’re finished mark it off with an X to avoid confusion. Using paper and post-it notes is a bit cumbersome, imo.
Evo gets better each year. The main screen setup this year looked very professional. However, there were always people walking/standing in front of the screen during matches: players, camera crew, Cannon bros. etc.
If the screen could be placed higher, or move the player station farther away from the screen, it would add to the professional look and feel that Evo has been moving towards over the years.
The pools were a total mess. It was difficult hearing the judges call out names for matches and you had to wait hours between your matches. It was very fatiguing and I got to a point where I wanted to forfeit my match because standing around for hours in hopes you didn’t miss your name and got DQ’d was frustrating. Not enough ways to get warm ups in between matches either so you went cold turkey between your matches. I pretty much gave up on the pools. Megaphones and stuff wouldn’t have helped because you would have every judge fighting over each other with megaphones. You need a central place to display the brackets of the pool and a means to SMS/text the match times to people’s cells. Costly yes but very helpful and would help organizers greatly. The amount of DQ’s happening was just monstrous. As for the streamed matches it would have been nice to hear the commentary on site.
More chairs during semi-finals, 80% of the crowd had to stand, and standing for 6 hours sucks.
I like the idea of having commentary during semi-finals and finals, also, the semifinals needed to have the electronic bracket up there, it was really hard to tell who was playing who
more merch booths! I would have bought a ton of stuff if it was available for me to browse through, no triumvir shirts? running out of te sticks on day 1? not enough stick sacks? cmon people this was your chance to make some cash! I bet they lost many thousands in missed sales because of the lack of availability.
just flat out more space, it was so crowded and chaotic that it was impossible to tell what was happening ESPECIALLY in the pools, I wasn’t competing but my friend was and good lord he had a rough day figuring out when to be where. ( i second the megaphone idea, those poor judges looked stressed out).
girls tourney should have finished on day 2 before the semis imo.
despite these little issues it was Overall an awesome experience, two major thumbs up. It could still be better though and I imagine every year it does improve bit by bit so I can’t wait until next year.
