DancingFighterG
[08] Mercenary
Yo, this is DancingFighterG. I've been watching the thread seeing people of the community attack me a person, tournament director and a gamer and I wanted to give everyone a full breakdown of the SC nationals experience and what lead up to nationals. I've been asked by close members of the SC community to give details on what went right and what went wrong with the event. I'm glad to provide that detail. Note, I'm not the type person to point blame on anyone but I think the community has a right to know all that has happen in the background. Throughout this I will show what I know I was responsible for both good and bad but I will also point out things within the process that were either out of my hands, set in motion prior to me or someone dropped the ball. Let's begin:
For those who don't know SC4 Nationals planning started around September of last year. During that time the planning of the event was taking place on caliburforums.com under the hands of set people not including myself. I'm not going to say names as these people know who they are. Now during this planning phase most if not all the regionals locations were locked with protocols on online regionals and LAN regionals all in place. This included the process around money collection, regional dates and locations and time frame overall. During this time the NVGA seen this as an opporturnity to support the SC community in a big way. Those who were doing the intial planning for nationals needed sponsors. As the NVGA we put a lot of emphasis on all our games that we host event for but we know that the fighting game scene needs that extra support compared to communities such as HALO, Smash, etc. With that in mind we decided to donate $1000 to the national pot for SC4 Nationals.
Now during this time frame, around November or so, drama begin to occur on the caliburforums thus in terms of nats it lost it's main director due to difference within the forums and community. With that being said Nationals had no lead or location. It was suggested by members of the community to appoint me to help bring nationals to life. I accepted the responsiblity to do it. During that same time set persons still wanted to be a part of the nationals process thus set persons "stayed" around to "help" with the planning and development of nationals. By this time the following have been decided prior to the NVGA taking over the event:
-Most regional locations
-The amount of money needed to be generated for each regional ($400)
-Beginning schedule for regionals
I mention these items because I know that people had issued with the timing of all the regionals. I personally thought it would be nice to move the regionals together more but it was the original plan from the person running nats to keep this go with this timeline so I and the NVGA went with it.
Solution for next national event: Start regionals later or closer to national event
Now going into 2009 we started hosting all the regionals. Within this time frame we had a couple of issues
-Money not sent to DFG on time
-Regional locations not producing the full $400
-Character arguements (yoda and algol)
-People canceling there trip to SuperCon after ticket was brought
Now I knew based off the locations that were picked prior to the NVGA overseeing the event that certain regionals would not produce enough funds for plane tickets but what really hurt was when the money was late knowing how much tickets will cost. This forced me and NVGA to find funds to compensate for some regionals plane tickets. This of course lead to NO MONEY from the regionals going into the pot and all money going towards plane tickets. I personal added some money in to try my best to get the 1st place qualifiers out to Denver.
We also had the issue of some of the qualifers having there ticket brought but then had to cancel due to job opporturnities and personal matter. Life happens and I will never tell a person to come to an event and sacrifice there ability to live and succeed. The problem with this situation is though that you cannot purchase refundable tickets thus the credit for that ticket belong to that player and it could not be transfered. So because of this money for another ticket for a player or money towards the pot was lost. I tried to work with the airlines to fix this issue but there was no way around it.
Solution for next national: $200 goes to player to buy ticket while other $200+ goes towards National pot
We had some issues with yoda and algol being band. With polls and email exchanges will all the regional directors it came down to both of them being band to avoid a VC situation like SC3.
Now while regionals was going on one of the things that needed to be decided was where to host nationals. The original location was going to be Tulsa but after talking to Saif, NVGA chapter leader for OK, I decided that it would be better for the game and the community to host the event in Denver with the SuperCon. My reasoning was this:
-More sponsors were willing to support the event
-Bigger Venue
-International airport
-More equipment and overall resources
-More exposure of the fighting game community at SuperCon
Now around the time that regionals were ending people were commenting on the lack of hype for the event due to regionals being so far spread out. Note: Solution has already been posted on that issue. Now with a couple of weeks before nationals there were a lack of confirmation on whether people are attending or not. I gave players deadlines to report to me if they were confirmed if they were going to attend. After that date I brought tickets for those players that took the time to confirm. We also had a online regional that was suppose to happen but never got off the ground due to lack of man power and time to run it. The idea for the online regional was also something that was in place prior to the NVA involvement. I personally don't play online but I knew that it was a viable market. After some time though, even though I recieved emails from people on the online regionals, that it simply was not going to occur.
From there I took it upon myself to suggest a last qualifer at SuperCon. This opened up the tournament too those people who could have one last chance to qualifier. In the end some people liked it while others didn't like it but it did bring in some of the best comp the Soul Calibur community has ever seen. I personally love the decision and I'm glad it worked out for all parties involved including all out of country players.
Now we come to the SuperCon event. There were a couple of issues that people raised.
Venue location - It was to far
Just to give you a quick review about Colorado Cutthroat. Cutthroat puts a lot of emphasis on education. I personally strive to give players opporturnties to find or provide job opporturnities for gamers in my business or other areas of the gaming world. With that in mind, the University of Colorado in Denver is a sponsor for Cutthorat so we host are events at their locations. Also, people from Colorado suggested hotels close to the airport but that is not a option as the location does not have the ability to host something like this and it's in the middle of no where. We specifically picked this campus because it was right downtown. I know people wanted things to do so we picked that location.
Rides for out of staters
I feel that although my Cutthroat crew used all the resources that we had available
-My car
-Egg's car
-Recon's Car
I feel that the ride accomondations were lack lusted at best for us. It definitly wasn't a Colorado scene effort and on behalf of the entire community I apologize for that. My staff did the best we could to accomondate for transporation as much as we can but at the end of day there is only so many cars we have. I communicated to the Colorado community the ride situation but at the end it fell on the people I listed.
Solution for next national: Provide a van with set driver to get people to the airport and get more help from the community to get rides. Note: we can get everyone but we can try our best
DJ in tournament area:
I take complete responsibility for that decision. I've been at events where DJ were and I had no problem with it. Did not know that it would cause such a distraction for players.
Solution for next national: Move DJ's to casual game room
Tournament Starting late:
This situation could not be helped due to the computer freezing and losing the bracket. The tournament software suppose to auto-save during changes but it didn't. Talking to the developers to get this fixed. Also, I took my time to make sure that the bracket was correct and reflected, to the best of my ability, the seedings from all regionals.
More money for nationals:
As I stated before ALL MONEY WAS USED TO BUY PLAN TICKETS. From there we put in $2000 to have a nice pot of Nationals. That's all I and the NVGA could do
Overall, people had a good time but I feel that we could have done a better job to better accomondate to the players and attendees at the event. I personally think that there we too many hands in the kitchen when it came to the process for nationals thus causing inconsistency. I can admit were I messed up and own up to my mistakes. I'm a grown man so I take responsibility for my mistakes and I will work even harder to fix mistakes made. All I can do is get better at hosting national events and I will get better caring the level of quality of tournaments I do throughout the year to the national scene.
People that have attended my events know the quality that I bring and it saddens me that this event wasn't one of them but I believe in what we do, I believe in what I do and I will work to improve events on this level. For those who think that I am a thief or any other negative things make it a point to talk to those who know me for all these years. I'm a man of my word and I do what is right for the community always. If you can't deal with that then I guess there is nothing more to say too you.
On a personal note, for those Colorado players that come out on this forum and try to tear down Cutthroat and those people that put time and effort into making a better community I hope one day you understand that if you care anything about your community fighting and talking bad Cutthroat does not help the community it keeps it divided and weak. Please think about how much you really care about the Colorado community. If you don't care I guess you will continue to do what you do against the community but if you care about making Colorado a great gaming scene take some responsibility, step up and help grow the community for everyone wether you like Cutthroat or not. I'm not going anywhere so it's best to find a common ground Colorado.
In the end, I love for the SC community has been here ever since I started playing competively in SC since the arcade release of SC2. If you don't like the way I do things, I listen to all but if you simply want to attack my organization and not be constructive towards the fighting game community then I guess I'm done with you.
For those who don't know SC4 Nationals planning started around September of last year. During that time the planning of the event was taking place on caliburforums.com under the hands of set people not including myself. I'm not going to say names as these people know who they are. Now during this planning phase most if not all the regionals locations were locked with protocols on online regionals and LAN regionals all in place. This included the process around money collection, regional dates and locations and time frame overall. During this time the NVGA seen this as an opporturnity to support the SC community in a big way. Those who were doing the intial planning for nationals needed sponsors. As the NVGA we put a lot of emphasis on all our games that we host event for but we know that the fighting game scene needs that extra support compared to communities such as HALO, Smash, etc. With that in mind we decided to donate $1000 to the national pot for SC4 Nationals.
Now during this time frame, around November or so, drama begin to occur on the caliburforums thus in terms of nats it lost it's main director due to difference within the forums and community. With that being said Nationals had no lead or location. It was suggested by members of the community to appoint me to help bring nationals to life. I accepted the responsiblity to do it. During that same time set persons still wanted to be a part of the nationals process thus set persons "stayed" around to "help" with the planning and development of nationals. By this time the following have been decided prior to the NVGA taking over the event:
-Most regional locations
-The amount of money needed to be generated for each regional ($400)
-Beginning schedule for regionals
I mention these items because I know that people had issued with the timing of all the regionals. I personally thought it would be nice to move the regionals together more but it was the original plan from the person running nats to keep this go with this timeline so I and the NVGA went with it.
Solution for next national event: Start regionals later or closer to national event
Now going into 2009 we started hosting all the regionals. Within this time frame we had a couple of issues
-Money not sent to DFG on time
-Regional locations not producing the full $400
-Character arguements (yoda and algol)
-People canceling there trip to SuperCon after ticket was brought
Now I knew based off the locations that were picked prior to the NVGA overseeing the event that certain regionals would not produce enough funds for plane tickets but what really hurt was when the money was late knowing how much tickets will cost. This forced me and NVGA to find funds to compensate for some regionals plane tickets. This of course lead to NO MONEY from the regionals going into the pot and all money going towards plane tickets. I personal added some money in to try my best to get the 1st place qualifiers out to Denver.
We also had the issue of some of the qualifers having there ticket brought but then had to cancel due to job opporturnities and personal matter. Life happens and I will never tell a person to come to an event and sacrifice there ability to live and succeed. The problem with this situation is though that you cannot purchase refundable tickets thus the credit for that ticket belong to that player and it could not be transfered. So because of this money for another ticket for a player or money towards the pot was lost. I tried to work with the airlines to fix this issue but there was no way around it.
Solution for next national: $200 goes to player to buy ticket while other $200+ goes towards National pot
We had some issues with yoda and algol being band. With polls and email exchanges will all the regional directors it came down to both of them being band to avoid a VC situation like SC3.
Now while regionals was going on one of the things that needed to be decided was where to host nationals. The original location was going to be Tulsa but after talking to Saif, NVGA chapter leader for OK, I decided that it would be better for the game and the community to host the event in Denver with the SuperCon. My reasoning was this:
-More sponsors were willing to support the event
-Bigger Venue
-International airport
-More equipment and overall resources
-More exposure of the fighting game community at SuperCon
Now around the time that regionals were ending people were commenting on the lack of hype for the event due to regionals being so far spread out. Note: Solution has already been posted on that issue. Now with a couple of weeks before nationals there were a lack of confirmation on whether people are attending or not. I gave players deadlines to report to me if they were confirmed if they were going to attend. After that date I brought tickets for those players that took the time to confirm. We also had a online regional that was suppose to happen but never got off the ground due to lack of man power and time to run it. The idea for the online regional was also something that was in place prior to the NVA involvement. I personally don't play online but I knew that it was a viable market. After some time though, even though I recieved emails from people on the online regionals, that it simply was not going to occur.
From there I took it upon myself to suggest a last qualifer at SuperCon. This opened up the tournament too those people who could have one last chance to qualifier. In the end some people liked it while others didn't like it but it did bring in some of the best comp the Soul Calibur community has ever seen. I personally love the decision and I'm glad it worked out for all parties involved including all out of country players.
Now we come to the SuperCon event. There were a couple of issues that people raised.
Venue location - It was to far
Just to give you a quick review about Colorado Cutthroat. Cutthroat puts a lot of emphasis on education. I personally strive to give players opporturnties to find or provide job opporturnities for gamers in my business or other areas of the gaming world. With that in mind, the University of Colorado in Denver is a sponsor for Cutthorat so we host are events at their locations. Also, people from Colorado suggested hotels close to the airport but that is not a option as the location does not have the ability to host something like this and it's in the middle of no where. We specifically picked this campus because it was right downtown. I know people wanted things to do so we picked that location.
Rides for out of staters
I feel that although my Cutthroat crew used all the resources that we had available
-My car
-Egg's car
-Recon's Car
I feel that the ride accomondations were lack lusted at best for us. It definitly wasn't a Colorado scene effort and on behalf of the entire community I apologize for that. My staff did the best we could to accomondate for transporation as much as we can but at the end of day there is only so many cars we have. I communicated to the Colorado community the ride situation but at the end it fell on the people I listed.
Solution for next national: Provide a van with set driver to get people to the airport and get more help from the community to get rides. Note: we can get everyone but we can try our best
DJ in tournament area:
I take complete responsibility for that decision. I've been at events where DJ were and I had no problem with it. Did not know that it would cause such a distraction for players.
Solution for next national: Move DJ's to casual game room
Tournament Starting late:
This situation could not be helped due to the computer freezing and losing the bracket. The tournament software suppose to auto-save during changes but it didn't. Talking to the developers to get this fixed. Also, I took my time to make sure that the bracket was correct and reflected, to the best of my ability, the seedings from all regionals.
More money for nationals:
As I stated before ALL MONEY WAS USED TO BUY PLAN TICKETS. From there we put in $2000 to have a nice pot of Nationals. That's all I and the NVGA could do
Overall, people had a good time but I feel that we could have done a better job to better accomondate to the players and attendees at the event. I personally think that there we too many hands in the kitchen when it came to the process for nationals thus causing inconsistency. I can admit were I messed up and own up to my mistakes. I'm a grown man so I take responsibility for my mistakes and I will work even harder to fix mistakes made. All I can do is get better at hosting national events and I will get better caring the level of quality of tournaments I do throughout the year to the national scene.
People that have attended my events know the quality that I bring and it saddens me that this event wasn't one of them but I believe in what we do, I believe in what I do and I will work to improve events on this level. For those who think that I am a thief or any other negative things make it a point to talk to those who know me for all these years. I'm a man of my word and I do what is right for the community always. If you can't deal with that then I guess there is nothing more to say too you.
On a personal note, for those Colorado players that come out on this forum and try to tear down Cutthroat and those people that put time and effort into making a better community I hope one day you understand that if you care anything about your community fighting and talking bad Cutthroat does not help the community it keeps it divided and weak. Please think about how much you really care about the Colorado community. If you don't care I guess you will continue to do what you do against the community but if you care about making Colorado a great gaming scene take some responsibility, step up and help grow the community for everyone wether you like Cutthroat or not. I'm not going anywhere so it's best to find a common ground Colorado.
In the end, I love for the SC community has been here ever since I started playing competively in SC since the arcade release of SC2. If you don't like the way I do things, I listen to all but if you simply want to attack my organization and not be constructive towards the fighting game community then I guess I'm done with you.
