In regards to everybody’s perceived “whining” and whether or not they get a lack of respect from PZ or myself. It sounds as if everybody wants PZ to be Stargate. Ya know what, if everybody really felt that way, then why the hell didn’t you guys support it more? It died because people stopped going, stopped wanting to spend money out there. You HAD the perfect arcade to replace all your parts and etc to your hearts delight, and you all killed it. So forgive me if I don’t feel any sympathy because shit isn’t replaced daily for you guys. Was everything working at the Regional? Asides from the short button on CvS2, which they tried to replace numerous times? I care about shit working at major events, because those happen to be the days that we actually support PZ.
Those that have been to their bi-weekly car meets know that they already get close to the same amount if not more business twice a month during those meets, that we do every other month, if that. Including Showdown 06, we’ve held about 5 Regionals. So for 5 days out of the what 298 days we’ve past this year we were “supporting” PZ?
For tournaments, I always ran tournaments at what I thought were good venues. Is there any other place out there that would allow us to hold games we want to have, and stay open as late as we would need to? How many other arcades out there even have CvS2 or 3rd Strike or the latest Guilty Gear? People may not want to hear that they are whining, but everybody was definitely spoiled by Stargate. Make no mistake, PZ is not Stargate, but then again NO other arcade was either.
In light of people’s perception of me on this thread, and what not, I’ll only make this response. For over 7 years now, I’ve been in this scene, I didn’t create the scene in Houston, but me and Javi helped push it to become recognized nationally, and in a small way internationally with the help of everybody here. I’ve never claimed to be the sole reason for any of this, and I’ve sacrificed alot of things in my life to keep this scene alive without asking for much in return. For those questioning my ethics and morals, has there ever been an issue from my tournaments or events where money was stolen? In my 7 years of running tournaments, that has NEVER happened. So I do find that to be extremely insulting. I’ve donated and invested most of my savings into Showdown year after year just to break even. I’ve been through 2 relationships because of my dedication to this scene. I’ve gone through 4 different jobs because I’d rather put more time and effort into trying to improve this scene. And after 7 years, if this is the perception this scene and this community has of me, it makes me wonder if I was a fool and wasted my time. Years ago I had made a post saying I was going to retire from running tournaments for good. My plan was to work fulltime and work on a life with my gf at the time. But she insisted that I should do what I’m passionate about, my close friends told me the same. So now it comes to this.
PZ is not Stargate, so that leaves us with a problem. They can’t cater and be like SG, so they should do what they do best, run a business. The FGC scene in Houston doesn’t really amount to much in terms of overall business for PZ. So expected them to heed your complaints and daily equipment replacement is probably out of the question. After Showdown 2007 I will officially only handle events directly tied to Showdown from now on. This will include 4-5 Regionals and Showdown Championships. Javi told me when he had retired from running Regionals that it was time for the community to step up. Perhaps I was the coddling parent and didn’t want to undo the training wheels. But I guess now is the time to see who will step up and take over. If you all want this scene to grow, if you want it to continue, then people need to change straight up. Major League Gaming was ready to up and support Tekken and possibly other Fighting Games, but the ignorance of the players pretty much denied that from happening. Now Halo 2 and Smash Bros are making the money they gave out at Evo, per event! You want to be taken seriously? Ya’ll need to act seriously! You want respect? You need to give and earn respect! You think showing up once or twice a month and spending $10 or whatever really amounts to dictating your word over “anime fanboys” who show up and out spend your monthly expense per week or even per day? Money and support are the sole reason anybody will do anything for somebody else. In my opinion ya’ll haven’t done much save for a handful of individuals.
I’ve said my peace on this, but I’ll be at PZ most of this weekend and on Sunday if peeps still need to get at me.
Chris
