Planning for Soulcalibur V Nationals 2012...

This is just a preliminary plan. Nothing has been decided yet and we don't even know if Namco-Bandai is planning anything. But if they are not, we need to have our own.

I have not had much discussion with others interested in running Nationals; but I was hoping to get support from Idlemind, AkazukinChaCha, Hates, and Neorussel. In efforts of transparency though, I'm posting my ideas publicly and hoping for approval, criticism or ideas from the tournament community.

So these are my initial ideas... Most have been determined based on past history...

• 8 regional events, open to NORTH AMERICAN players only!
  • North East America
  • South East America
  • North Central America
  • South Central America
  • North West America
  • South West America
  • Canada
  • Mexico + Caribbean
• We're only doing 8 because when we tried to do 16 in 2009, it was way too much; there were tournaments very close together while other regions had nothing close. The idea for this was to split the regions based on population; this time we are splitting straight geographically.
• Any North American player can attend any regional; so Caribbean players could enter the South East tournament if it's easier for them to get to. The same goes for Canadian players and Northern tournaments, or Mexico and South West tournaments.
• The top TWO players from each regional tournament will qualify for nationals.
• Players who have qualified at a regional, may defer their position to the next ranked player of that event. So if the player got 2nd at a regional and can't make it to Nationals; they can give their position up to the person ranked 3rd. No one below 4th may earn a deferred qualifier position.
• Once a player has earned a qualifier position (even if they deferred their position), they may not enter anymore regional qualifier events. For instance, if a player gets 1st at an event, and then defers their right to the 3rd; even though they are no longer qualified for nationals, they may not enter another event. This rule is specifically in place to prevent bracket rigging.

Each regional tournament has to charge $25 per player... All $25 goes to the National Funds.

• $15 of that $25 is reserved strictly for the Nationals pot and will not be used for anything else.
• The remaining $10 will be reserved for helping ALL Nationals qualifiers with their travel expenses. This does not mean it will FULLY pay for travel expenses; if this $10/25 fund reaches it's limit, qualifiers will be required to pay for the rest. If the $10/25 covers all travel expenses in full and money is left over; the excess will be added to the $15/25.
• Regional tournament organizers MUST use TIO to run their event... no paper brackets!
• Regional tournament organizers must send their funds to the National committee by cashier's check / money order within 1 week of the event, as well as send in their TIO file.

There will be a minimum of 2 months between the last qualifier and the Nationals exhibition; which will most likely be at Summer Jam 2012; in order to help qualifiers better schedule their travel situations. There will still be a regular tournament at Summer Jam open to all players, but the National exhibition will be open to qualifiers only; there will be no last chance qualifier. Obviously, during the minimum of 2 months layover, there will be EVO.

At After the Nationals exhibition; I would like to have an International Exhibition.

• The International Exhibition will be the best North American player, versus the best player from other regions. I don't care how the other regions come up with their best player; if they want to run their own Nationals series, they can; but that will have nothing to do with ours. Hell, if Europe wants to pick their "best" player randomly from a raffle out of hat... they can.

 

YEAH!!!!

 

So wait? Which US tournaments will EU players like me me able to enter?

 

So wait? Which US tournaments will EU players like me me able to enter?

Please read the last paragraph.

 

16 players at Nationals actually helps get straight down to business. Looks good.

 

As long as everyone involved follows the rules, that's a solid plan. Hope it works out.

 

Some things about this I like, some things I definitely don't like. But when I have a little more time to articulate I will post them up so we all can have a community discussion for sure.

Most important thing to me, is choosing the right people to run and organize their regionals. This always seems to be a problem, be it- lazy, distracted, uncaring or straight up shady- we always seem to have people milling around with agendas and opinions different from the community's consensus and it always leads to problems. We should only allow people with good track records that are proven to be able to handle this responsibility even be CONSIDERED for this. Do not appoint some player-organizer because of their 'board popularity' or simply because they live in an area we have trouble finding people for.

Also- has Namdai even hinted at wanting to run their own nationals? Would they want to support ours? Even a tiny bit of official support for their biggest market would go a long, long way. So maybe Filthie can let us know his stance?

I like the straight up region splitting and the pot distribution. We definitely want to get a quality stream and quality promotion out of this.

I definitely don't see why Summer Jam would be the venue of choice for the finals, what made this decision and why should I accept that as a player? What track record do they posses that would make this the optimal setting for nationals? Will the magnitude of our event be downplayed by them being a Major, above being the location for SC5 Nats? Our biggest stage should not have us being a sideshow to other games.

What will the community here on this board do to help promote this? We can't settle for 20-30 man turn outs leaving $200-300 in player travel pots, that wouldn't make a dent in ONE player's travel expenses, let alone 2. Nationals should be something that is worth attending, we need to create incentive above a $200 travel voucher and a $2k finals pot, that will make this game seem like bush leagues (which most other FG players think this game is anyways).
In other words, what kind of other fundraising/promoting will we be doing? Do we have some sugar daddy who is gonna give us a Pot worth traveling for, let alone tuning into a stream and watching?

food for thought.

cha cha

 

I definitely don't see why Summer Jam would be the venue of choice for the finals, what made this decision and why should I accept that as a player? What track record do they posses that would make this the optimal setting for nationals? Will the magnitude of our event be downplayed by them being a Major, above being the location for SC5 Nats? Our biggest stage should not have us being a sideshow to other games.

cha cha

Agreed 100%

 

In other words, what kind of other fundraising/promoting will we be doing? Do we have some sugar daddy who is gonna give us a Pot worth traveling for, let alone tuning into a stream and watching?

food for thought.

cha cha

i got $100 on it.

and yeah, idk about summer jam. if we are taking candidacies, i wanna throw DEV in the hat as a possibility.

TO's that i would support to run this event:

jaxel/idlemind (KOGA/FSAK)
ShinBlanka (Final Round)
Dr. Dogg/Jedirobb (DEVASTATION)
Hubbs/eric (NEC Series)

no offense to everyone else, but outside of them i won't be giving financial support.

 

I definitely don't see why Summer Jam would be the venue of choice for the finals, what made this decision and why should I accept that as a player? What track record do they posses that would make this the optimal setting for nationals? Will the magnitude of our event be downplayed by them being a Major, above being the location for SC5 Nats? Our biggest stage should not have us being a sideshow to other games.

That is a good argument... but at the same time, BigE's tournament series has always shown a TON of support to "sideshow" games; more than any other tournament series I've seen. Mortal Kombat has it's own room, Anime fighters have their own room, and 3D fighters get their own room. BigE is doing a lot for us at NEC and I expect the same for Summer Jam and Winter Brawl.

You can say that BigE's tournaments are mostly 2D oriented, but that's because ALL tournaments are 2D oriented right now. 2D is popular; in the SC2 days, NEC was probably the biggest 3D tournament in the country besides EVO. The only reason 3D is a "sideshow" right now is because 2D is stupid popular right now.

Yes, Summer Jam is a major... but if you ask me, this is a good thing. More people means more spectators; if SC5 is huge, that can actually help propel the event, instead of downplaying it. So why Summer Jam? It's a good location, the hotel is well suited for travelers, and it's expected date fits perfectly within the regional/national timeline.

Besides that, what is the downside of a major SSF4/UMvC3 tournament going on in another room? You're afraid of getting downplayed by them? Do they really matter to us? They are not going to watch our game anyways. But if we want to be "legit", we need support from them... and we can't get that by running our own event. Not to mention we'd have massive venue costs.

 

and yeah, idk about summer jam. if we are taking candidacies, i wanna throw DEV in the hat as a possibility.

TO's that i would support to run this event:

Dr. Dogg/Jedirobb (DEVASTATION)

no offense to everyone else, but outside of them i won't be giving financial support.

No offense, but after the shit that was pulled at Dev this last year, I can't support those guys doing anything. As much as I love Phoenix and the venue, and the fact that it's a hell of a lot closer to me I still can't support that. Those guys promised us the world and regardless of whatever ANY excuse they or anyone else can come up with they failed to show us any respect. We were an after thought. Granted we are a smaller community and there were larger things afoot but what was told to us and how they represented themselves beforehand, came up a lot better than how they actually treated us there. I am just of a mind that if someone tells you they're going to do this or that and promise you the world, when they fail to even show you any semblance of respect they're not to be trusted.

 

Yay! Canada's on the list! It's about time something happens here! I can't wait for 2012! ^^

 

Venue aside, I agree with the set up of the actual event. Very simple -- go to the regional you're closest to, go to more regionals if you want more chances. Forces each region to up their game too out of fear of being "free" (ie: be as competitive as anywhere else).

I leave it to the people with venue experience to decide the place. Summer as a timeframe makes complete sense though.

 

Talking with KDZ... he's alerted me to several issues with these preliminary plans...

1. Any tournament the month or two after EVO is given less respect.
2. EVO is an international tournament. So even if you wins Nationals, the fact that you lost EVO takes credence away from your win.
3. Having Nationals before EVO creates hype with us having a "National Champ" at EVO. The people's champ?

Talking with him though... I kind of agree with him. Tournaments should escalate upwards in importance. EVO is the most important event, thats just the way it is... He also believes that our National tournament should be US only... and should not include Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean. Canada, Mexico and DR should run their own tournaments and send their top player for the international exhibition.

If we did it this way... we would have to split the regional qualifier spots from 2 for each regional tournament to a slight variation:

• North East (3 spots) most likely Philadelphia
• South East (3 spots) most likely Atlanta
• North West (2 spots) Washington?
• South West (3 spots) California?
• North Central (2 spots) Illinois?
• South Central (3 spots) Texas?

 

Canada is pushed aside again... No...(>T.T)>
Oh well, this might make it harder for me to go but I'll still try to go to it.

 

CEO will be happening in June. Jebailey has already stated that SC5 will be a big thing for that tournament.

 

I agree with that post-Evo concern, it was part of a response i was writing lol.

Another quick note here before every troll (ie. most of the site) comes in and starts 'being funny'.-
We really need to learn to weed out trash opinions and views from good ones. Having a public discussion is good and great for everyone to see, however listening to what every asshat on the forum has to say and responding to their demands is not a good way to go. So just be careful who you reply to and stay focused on things that matter.
What happened with our tourney rules and community splintering in 4; over character bans and tourney standards was REALLY embarrassing. This is a chance to learn from that and move in the right direction- leading by examples and sticking to your guns.

sent you a pm Jax.

 

Just a few muses right off the bat:

I am not in favor of having nationals at a major- any major- except if we work something out with EVO. Can we take off the training wheels and run our own events perhaps instead? I can easily think of several excuses and places to run a SC focused major, including a ton of side events with international support, making a weekend out of it. To be 100% honest; having the tournament at a convention (a comicon or anime convention) would be better, at least then we could get a showcase and a guaranteed audience.

I'd also say as the only person here to attempt such a thing in the past... our main problem as a scene is ineffective "event selling" and promotion; not low numbers. Frankly, our collective logistical skill is very low and we need to step our game up.

Last-chance qualifier: this is too important of a draw not to have at the main event. Combined with side events, this is how you turn this from a tournament into an SC focused event.

The time frame before this means it has to be either 2 months before or after EVO because of the nature of the scene perception. So either... late August (end of summer) or April (late spring).

 

having North American countries outside the US compete in this would kinda defeat the purpose of the name 'Nationals'....

....but with that said, I would really like to see how the competition heats up with great players from mexico and canada competing in this. :D

that said, I'll duck out and leave it to the people who have the experience to know how to run this kinda thing.... :)

 

PAX Prime (the Seattle one, not the Boston one, sorry). Just gonna throw that out there.

Late August seems like a great time to host a Soulcalibur final, and with an established venue like one of the largest by-gamers-for-gamers convention, it's sure to draw attention. I disagree with having no last chance qualifier event because, as someone pointed out, they really draw a lot of attention. Plus the amount of attention it'll get and the fact that it'll most likely be vouched for by Gabe and Tycho (Soulcalibur fans in their own right), it makes for a great idea.

But then again, what do I know, right? Never competed in a proper tournament at all. :3