Tournament Organization in your area: Organizers and Players come together!

Tournaments & Events
1

So, I made a post following an article on the CGS site regarding Evo 2K8 not being friendly to new players or spectators interested in the event and some very insightful posts by Zerodotjander, and said that people should step up and do something in their area to host more small events and tournaments that show our willingness to accept new players into our community and help them learn/introduce them to the community.

I see a lot of inconsiderate treatment of new members to SRK all the time, as it seems every 2008 member (as it was for 2007 members last year, and 2006 the year before that, which i experienced) has negative reputation and get flamed left and right if they are not premium. Why not simply enlighten new members on how to improve instead of telling them how much they suck? Why ostracize 3/4 of the new people in the community?

Though the article was short sighted, and some replies were equally misguided, I believe it really hit a point that needed be touched upon:** Our scene is extremely inclusive,** and it is one of the main reasons our community is such a niche group.

In the Pacific Northwest, a single man reenergized the entire scene after the glory days of the arcades and fighters died: Zach Preppard a.k.a. Preppy. After years of holding bi-weekly tournaments and poker nights at his house open to the fgc, no new players were coming, people who were regulars stopped by less often and less often all the time, and despite new additions because of the new ST scene, it still seemed like a less open/full house until one person was motivated enough to dream up and start planning the first major regional tournament in years: Brentobox. This one person reenergized the NW scene again, and opened many eyes that hadn’t taken notice of our scene before now.

My thoughts on this: Why can’t this happen more often, and in more places?

So, I encourage anybody who wants to put together a tournament in your area to step up! If you’ve got free time, think up ideas for holding a local event to play your favorite fighters, and hold small tournaments on the side. Many geeky stores will love these types of events to get free publicity and attract more customers, so ask what your local electronic shop/comic shop/arcade owners think of this type of event, or see if you can start a club at your school for it!

Here you can talk about what the state of your local fighting game community is like, and everyone can share ideas on how to start events and make it grow! Post up, people!

2

It’s pretty easy really. Having started a Mississauga group with a good friend of mine. It starts with the dedication to video games. Do you really want to put in the time necessary? The work and the patience involved? If you’re down with it, all you need to start a scene is a space to use, a system and your controllers. Initially, it was really just meant for myself and our tight group of friends just to hang out and chill. But, then it became more.

We came to SRK and found that people nearby had the same love for fighting games that we did. We reached out to them and they came. We spread the word through Anime Conventions and Local Tournaments and gradually we became a place where people would want to come to play. The GTASF has its own established community, but there was nothing really in Mississauga. But, now, we welcome some of best Smash players in the GTA for casuals every week.

You certainly can’t do everything yourself. But all it takes is an idea. You don’t know how much it can grow from there. Get a couple of dedicated friends together and you can grow a scene anywhere. Be friendly, be welcoming and never turn anyone away. Don’t forget the bring the hype. Always start with fun before the serious competition. Remember that’s there always somebody looking for somewhere to play.

G3, We bring the hype! :tup:

3

I’m definitely planning to get something started in South FL to get things re-energized around here. Right now there’s really only a small group in Broward and a smaller (and maybe dying) one in Miami. There’s been some renewed interest recently and so I’d like to try to get everything back in gear with a tournament at my university. We’ll see how things play out!

4

I urge promoters to try a variety of formats including:

Random 2on2
Besides being just plain fun a random 2on2 also gives intermediate guys a chance to (maybe) get more tourney matches in than they might otherwise. If someone’s just getting started and they’re going two and out every time, getting randomly paired up with KOFiend or whoever they can at least get a few more tourney matches under their belt. Same goes for people who normally play game X a random 2on2 can entice them to try game Y.

Regional Battles
Locals vs. out-of-towners or whatever. Have entry fee be low/zero and team size flexible that way you don’t get stuck bickering on forums re: who should be on the team. We’ve done a couple of these for ST and they’re great.

5

I want to really help the scene in my area as well as far as contributing to the organization of events/tourneys and recording matches to post up on Youtube or such of different gamers. This is a really good thread, and I will be re-visiting it after I gather my resources for something of this sort.

edit: Actually I realize my area, which seems to be considered MD & VA, already has some things in motion:

-monthly C3s
-PAGG tourneys

What I would want to do is maybe have a solid place for sessions and/or small tourneys to give players the chance to get some quality experience before these larger events that would require them to travel a bit farther. This would help local up and coming players level up at ‘home’ to be able to bring more competition to other traveling gamers. Just a thought, but as mentioned, there are plenty of venues that would support something of this caliber as it would be really good for publicity.

I realize the biggest obstacle to growing the scene are dependent upon players’:

  1. time/schedules
  2. financial situation
  3. transportation

I would like to set something up where I can help in the 2nd, but moreso in the 3rd area mostly. 1 is the reason we post events early enough for people to plan for it, and some ppl just won’t be able to make it. 2 is really up to the individual gamer and what they are doing and/or experiencing in life. There are ppl who are kind enough to maybe sponsor 1 person’s attendance at an event and I think this is a good idea on occasion…maybe even make the reward of a small-tourney full sponsorship to a larger tourney? 3 is where I would like to take care of my personal situation to maybe one day own some sort of transportation service (starting simple by just getting my own suv/van first, and then maybe upgrading to an RV dedicated solely to traveling to and fro tourneys while letting local players get the chance to experience large gatherings of gamers). Something I’ve been thinking about a bit…

6

This is probably among the more important things. Just having a place to get together regularly is key to having an active community, which comes first. Without an active local community, there’s no growth.

There are two ways to go with this (and being able to do both would be great):

1: Holding regular get-together’s at someone’s house.

This creates a regular, friendly group of players that are comfortable with each other and open to helping new players learn and really helps people share their wealth with the local community, whether that means helping others carpool, bringing food for people, providing housing for out-of-towners, being there whenever someone wants to get together for games, or just contributing their knowledge and experience with games, tournaments, travel, electronics, etc. Overall, this method helps create a close-knit and friendly group, but doesn’t do that much for bringing in new players.

2: Using a public center for regular gaming

This could be multiple things- The student lounge at the college everyone is attending locally, a school club with their own room, the local bowling alley/arcade, comic shops, game stores, etc.
Being a public place, this will get new players every year, wherever it is, but this also usually means the overall attendance will be inconsistent, and could cost people more money to play than they think is necessary. If possible, try and hold small tourneys at the local mall arcade every now and then, and advertise like mad! Through these tourneys, new players can be introduced to the established community, and the larger community online.