With the new fighting games coming out (some are already out right now), there has been questions as to how these would be in the tournaments, how would they fit with the already stable line-up that is usually seen in tournaments, etc… etc. I hope this thread has answers, raises some questions, and allow input from the readers. I believe that this thread is important, so please take the the time to read and/or reply.
By 2009, there will be a whole slew of fighting games coming out, many that are looking to be very good. From what I count, the list is almost 30! I’m going to list the games, when they come out, and what console they will be on ("—" means that its only for Arcade release for the moment):
Game List for fighters of the future
Akatsuki BLITZKampf AC — Released (PC port has release, but is dated)
Arcana Heart 2: Sugoi — Released
Battle Fantasia (PS3/X360) Released
BlazBlue (PS3/X360?) 2009
Castlevania Judgment (Wii) Nov 18, 2008
Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World (PS2) Released
Fate/Unlimted Codes (PS2) December 2008
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (PS2/Wii) Released
Melty Blood: Actress Again — Released
Monster AC (PC) Released
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (PS3/X360) Nov 16, 2008
Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 (Wii) Released
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm (PS3) Released
Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny — TBA
Sengoku Basara Cross (PS2) Released
Senko no Ronde 2 — 2009
Soulcalibur IV (PS3/X360) Released
Street Fighter IV (PC/PS3/X360) February 2009
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) Released)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3/X360) November 2008
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (Wii) December 11, 2008
Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion (X360/PS3) Fall 2009
The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match (PS2/X360) Released (PS2)
The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match (PS2) 2009
The King of Fighters XII (X360/PS3; not confirmed); 2009
Toshinden (Wii) TBA
Touhou: Scarlet Weather Rhapsody or Immaterial and Missing Power (PC) Released
Virtua Fighter 5 R — Released
Old vs New
Taking at small glance at this list, a few of these fighters are considered broken, or don’t have a lot of support. With that out of the way, let’s consider the old tried and true vs. the new games. I believe that its time to take the new games up (as long as they aren’t broken and stupid); the old games have had their time, and they are some of the best, most competitive fighters in the history of video games, but as Sabre put it best, there is something for almost everyone in these new games… it might not be the exact replica, and it might take a while to digest, but there are some features already that can be seen in the new games that were in old (TvC has Snapbacks, SF4 seems to have lots of link combos, similar to CvS2). It is up to the people whether they want to play the new games, or stick to the old ones (maybe both), which brings up another point.
One-Day, Two-Day, Three-Day tournaments
For tournaments, each second is crucial to organization, time that is not used properly is going to add up quickly. With a likely influx of new players, there is going to be more pressure on the tournament organizers in terms of how many games they may host at the tournament, which has the clashing of the old vs new games. Tournaments that run only for one day, are going to have to decide very hard which games they will host (which could depend on popularity, or region, or other factors). Tournaments that run for two days or three days (the Majors) have somewhat of an easier time deciding which games they will host, although with the Majors, brings more players, which means lots of stress to organize the tournaments. Final Round 2009, is already experiencing problems with this, where they had to cut a couple games, due to lower turnout, and the higher than expected number of people competing at the event; I wouldn’t be surprised if for Final Round 2010, many of the older titles are let go (at least the less prevalent ones).
Communities coming together
I think some may bring up a point that some of these games can be held by their own communities, and I think that is an ancient concept. There is no benefit for excluding games (unless you are trying to save time), due to a community. These are of the same genre, different games, but the same genre. I think we can learn a lot by having different communities together in the same tournament, even if they usually play one game, and are only there for that one game. In the past, there were wars between SF3 and SF2, Marvel and SF, 2D and 3D fighters, Smash and traditional fighters. We can’t have this bashing affect the decision on which games should be in tournaments. You have the right to not like (or even hate) a game, but it shouldn’t affect judgment. There will still be community run events, which isn’t a bad thing at all, but we should continue to strive for having communities come together.
Planning ahead of time
With the expected rise in the number of tournaments, there is likely to be conflicts in the scheduling for tournaments. This can already be seen in the Pacific South Region, where there are constant SF4 tournaments happening, or in the Final Round and Showdown Championships fiasco that has happened for 2 years now (which the latter wasn’t even a problem with planning, but other reasons that I don’t want to go into). If it is a small local tournament, then I don’t think it is a big deal, but for tournaments that have an expected turnout, or regionals, then it is important to discuss with the areas in the region when you are planning your tournament ahead of time, and also to discuss with other communities that might be planning their tournaments at the same time as yours. Maybe, you might both join powers together, and the tournament will get good feedback.
Advertising
Because there will be an influx of new players coming in, there are going to be many that are interested in tournaments, but they don’t know where to go, other than online. It’s important that we steer these people in the right (or I should say, “tournament”) direction. I have seen people who played, and were actually pretty good, but they didn’t know there were tournaments for the longest time, because the only advertising that goes on is at SRK, or other community driven events. While it might be true that some will have a scrubby attitude, those players have two choices, either stop going to tournaments, or change the attitude, pretty simple. There are a lot of players here that had a scrubby attitude, but they adapted.
Some good ways to advertise tournaments are on places that people are likely to go to, that have an event posting (Craigslist, Myspace, etc…). Posting up fliers around College campuses, or places were you believe might generate turnout, and places where you can put a promo of your tournament on video, like Youtube will help.
Venues
If you hold tournaments at an arcade, then this doesn’t apply, but for console tournaments, getting a venue can be either easy, or very tough. Maybe you want a venue that has good space, outlets, air-conditioning, etc…, or just a place to pay (the local tournaments). Getting a list of hotels, LAN centers, game stores, or even open lots is a good idea, if you don’t already have a consistent place to play. LAN centers are usually equipped with HDTVs, and next generation hardware, so there isn’t a need for players to bring their own consoles, hotels have tons of space to work with, and the staff is usually (though not always) courteous to needs. The ability to play in a venue means to get a list of all possible places to play, then narrow it down to the ones that are the best choices, or will let you play (common sense, really).
Expensive hardware, lending your gear
The new generation is going to be using expensive hardware (not just console, but HD), and I imagine that local tournaments are going to feel a lot of pressure for this. I don’t think this was a problem for this generation, because it was about half-way through the generation, that consoles were being used (around 2003, 2004), and by that time, consoles were going down in price, and didn’t need HDs to look at better. This might take a community effort, where people have to bring in their own consoles (or else it would be very hard to run multiple games). This poses another problem that has been going on for a while now, which is stealing.
Stealing, and how to prevent it
There is not a true solution to stealing, the best way to prevent stealing is to label your gear, make sure its with you at all times (and if this isn’t possible), temporarily give your gear to someone you can trust 100%, someone you’ve known or consider to be reliable (friends, people from the same local area, tournament organizers). Don’t carry around gear that is not needed for the tournament. If your console, or gear is being used for the tournament, then make sure that it is in use, and when it is done, tell the tournament organizer that this console is yours (because you told him it was prior, and it has your name on it, just for verification), and pack it up, and put it in a place where no one will be able to get it (maybe a car). Leaving something in the open for even as short as 10 seconds is enough time for someone to take it away.
Tournament Maker
I’m not quite sure if this has become widely used, but I think its important for people to know that there is a way to run tournament faster, and it is called Tournament Maker. There is no need for paper brackets anymore, all you need is a laptop and the Tournament Maker program. It’s so easy, just put whatever game you are going to play, the style of play (double-elimination), the payout (60-30-10), the people in the tournament game, and you are done (they have brackets already done for you). If you are worried that two great players will meet up early on, or people that travel together meet up early on, then make sure they list their location, so you can spread them out, or you can have a phantom seeding, where you don’t exactly know what order the top players should be in, but you spread them out, so they don’t meet up early on (this will be moot in the beginning, because there are no top players for some of these new games). You can even have multiple tournament games running at the same time.
There was a tournament this year called Gamma Bowl in Green Bay, WI, that happened about a week after the Super Bowl, and the tournament went through about 16 games (That is with starting an hour late, having an hour break, and ending immediately at midnight). The average per game was about 12-15 I believe, with the highest being in the low-mid 20’s for about 3-4 games. It’s possible to run multiple games at tournaments, but you have to be efficient.
Ranking System: TrueSkill
Finally I want to talk about a program that I think should be important for this generation. We are supposed to be evolving, that means that we need to have clear data. What I’m trying to say is that we need an efficient ranking system. We can’t have this “this person is the best, and this person is one of the best”, that’s not professional; there needs to be a Ranked 1, Ranked 2, Ranked 3, Ranked 1 in this state, Ranked 1 in this region, Ranked 1 in this country, Ranked 1,2,3, etc… in the world, etc. What if, for example, you were talking to a representative who wants to know more about a specific game in a tournament, and asked if there was a ranking, would you say “This person is the best, but this person is pretty close to the best, and that person is on their tail?” There is a way around this, and it might not be perfect, but the only way for this system to work is if tournament organizers work together… It’s called TrueSkill.
TrueSkill is a ranking system that is on Xbox Live (and I believe 2DF?), and you may have heard of it. TrueSkill system determines the strength of competition, which is the only way you go up, not by how much you play. TrueSkill has data for your rivals, hardest to play against, rankings (and it is on a point system, so you can see how far you need to go to move up a ranking). TrueSkill is the best ranking system that I have seen so far, but it doesn’t mean crap in the long run, unless people are on the same page. This is a system that needs good attention to take care of. Here is a link that discusses TrueSkill better:
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=146478
Please give your constructive input, whether it is positive or negative feedback (even spelling and grammatical errors, or trying to make this post clear enough), as long as the input attempts to return good things in the long run.