it varies from person to person, my own experience isn't as vast as others as got into the offline scene 2 years ago...but within that time I've experimented with several things:
1) I'm not a crowd person...at all...if the event is small then fair enough, however I tend to be slightly intimidated by larger numbers...that said I've learned to get around it by simply ignoring or rather 'forgetting' that there's all these people and there's all this noise once I start playing. However it makes me a little uncomfortable if people 'make it known' if they're behind me spectating.
2) Noise is a massive factor for me also....I need to be able to hear the game, I've tried playing loud music and listening to headphones etc...it serves as a distraction or something I HAVE to fiddle about with, so I unwittingly end up paying more attention to these as opposed to focusing on 50-50's Viola's running with at that time...not to mention I'll end up ripping them off my ears mid-game anyway
during my time at SFO we were stationed quite a distance away from the Guilty Gear and Street Fighter groups, so I was calm and collected and didn't have to worry about much...however as soon I reached Winners Finals/Grand Finals the pressure was already piling on because the sensation was new to me and I didn't want to botch it...which turned it into one of those situation where as soon as you started thinking about it and trying to prevent it, you become your own worst enemy...but if that wasn't enough, the tourney was on a Sunday and I had no accommodation, so I absolutely HAD to get in there and finish things as quick as possible.
Pulling from all that I tend to prefer quiet/secluded areas or at least small enough so that I don't feel pressured by a crowd...or with enough experience to get over tourney nerves.
