Malice, great post. I'd like to touch on your points and hope for illumination on some more of your plans.
1. We need a group to handle the organization. That way, one person is not overwhelmed and there can be some accountability. You can start now to look for volunteers so that there is plenty of time to organize it.
The people who have the tenacity to pull off these kind of things already know this is the best way to do it, many voices in unison, always contend better than a single voice, especially on accountability and relation.
2. I think we should do away with regional qualifiers. I feel the issues that occurred this year will happen again next year if they were still in place. Unless SC5 or some DLC miraculously comes out for SC4 between now and December, the turn out won't be as high as it was for this year. There was a large discrepancy with the amount for the national pot. I don't know who was to blame for that, but that should have not been the case. Either hold those accountable for not transferring the money or cough up some receipts.
This statement is dicey. I like where your head is at, but we'd need to really look at the levity of the situation that regionals provide.
-Basically regionals give us the opportunity for many regions to host tounries they would normally not, get competativeness going in their scene and prep close by cities to travel and rival one another.
-Regionals create (or are SUPPOSED to)a constant reminder that this is all leading up to a grand finale, and the hype theoretically should stay consistent as many try but few win these coveted placements.
-Regionals, by good design~ help finance the final pot, and in some cases, travel expense to top placers. The problem comes in with lower than expected turn outs and organizers without their eye on the ball, taking their sweet time sending funds or addressing problems. This type of crap can be eliminated.
-Regionals to compete for an
exclusive spot in the best of the best tournament; separate a 'championship' from a 'major'. Without qualification there is less motivation to stay focused on your game, and keep others focused if there is just a once a year event anyone can attend and compete in. Just another major.
-Regionals separate the boys from the men so to speak. Meaning not only does one need to conquer on a regional level, but must do so again against the next level of competition. Players earn their spot, rather than having some crazy happenstance prevent them from being optimal on a given day once a year. Besides it also helps establish hype and favorites for each region, keeps shit talk (of the healthy and friendly variety) going between players and their crews, which every fighter needs.
Every Major happens just once a year, that doesn't help differentiate them, and it shouldn't be a determining factor in the perceived quality of the event we are hosting, Nationals needs to be more than a major. Or it's just another tourney.
So to that I just ask that we don't hastily dispose of the proven regional format, JUST because this years was lackluster and kinda messed up. It's done and gone, we can improve and move on.
Please give me more info on why you think ditching regionals is the way to go...
3. Here's what I would like to see. The tournament should be held in a major metropolitan city. I would like to see it held on the East Coast, preferably in Philadelphia for several reasons.
We have an international airport and plenty of hotel rooms in the city.
Philadelphia is easy to get to and very easy to get around in.
The East Coast has the larger SC community and Philadelphia is right in the heart of those communities. You would have a good amount of people that could help out with the logistics such as picking people up from the airport and housing if someone is too broke to get a cab or a room somewhere. I don't think it makes much sense to hold a national/intl. tournament somewhere where there isn't a high concentration of SC players unless you guys love having 1 person drive people around.
There's plenty to do here. We got history and culture out the ass, you won't go broke coming here, restaurants and bars all over that are easy to get to, and plenty of clubs to go to.
We already have tournament organizers here.
God bless you for trying. But I'd rather not make a hasty move on this either. Arguably, I have been to many more Philly tournies than most non-Philly residents here. I am sad to say I have very FEW fond memories of any events held there.
I LOVE BIG E. That guy is my dude and he has done great things for players on the EC.
But...
-Philly venues are always dirty, shabby, overpriced and near nowhere good. (just goin off the ones that exist in the past UP, NEC, MarchMadness, SummerJam ect.)
-Many cities have great locations by the airport. Philly selection in that area, is ...in my opinion, less than favorable.
- I guess I am a minority, but the food in Philly kinda sucks. When I can get a better cheesesteak from a mom & pop shop in Buffalo, NY better than a fabled Philly one for half the price...it just goes down hill from there.
-It is true that most of my bias opinion comes from the areas surrounding UP and NEC, I take it what you have in mind is not these areas?
-Travelability applies to any cities clustered up there- Baltimore, DC, Philly, Pittsburgh, Newark, NYC, Dover, Arlington. Any city is easy to travel to, Philly's inner workings certainly aren't the easiest to navigate I have seen, even in the cities just mentioned here.
Now look, it just looks like I am being negative and 'don't know how it is'... BUT IM NOT! I just put those comments out there as a frame of reference. I want you to prove to someone like me, that Philly is worth traveling to, because, just trading opinions on 'what good stuff & food is' won't solve problems or help give us a solid plan. I just want to be given a reason to give Philly another chance, based on past experiences compared to current.
Jaxel and I have access to free venues by us, free equipment and large active communities around us too. What will Philly offer that we can't?? To make all the right things happen to get Nats going there, that is also better than other options?
We can't have a high cost venue (free is much better), it can't be ghetto (Philly Holiday Inns ewwww) and it has to be convenient for all, not just locals.
What are your suggestions Malice?
5. It would also help going forward to have a high head count which would be done by having people to just come and compete. That way you can show Namco or potential sponsors that we had x number of people participate and maybe more willing to provide support/sponsorship.
Just sounds like a major to me. Namco officials have already stated to me that they do not sponsor offline events for SC. They would only consider an online national tourney (ala the G4 thing I was apart of sponsored by them and GGL). Their bottom line is numbers and increasing the casual sales base. Hard reality there... But if you got some magic to work, I have some emails and numbers you can call for Namdai.
The best they offered me was some posters and a media kit (a few demo discs, stickers and t-shirts). Besides, cash is a nono, they'd only offer prizes of product (ie. psp bundle with namco games, or a ps3, the game we are playing collectors edition, ect ect)
It could sure be a hyped major, but the lack of exclusivity would make it hard to hype as a championship, why not just refer to Evo for that then? What would seperate this from any other major? Who would be crowned champ? It's not always about headcount.
6. If you have the tournament where everyone just shows up and competes, you could do other things like hold a team tournament and or have a team with the best people from each country to battle it out. Plus you will have alot more people that is able to meet and mingle with the other members of the community. You could do silly shit like a hold a tournament with no B button if you want. You could also hold other tournaments since people play more than one fighting game, plus it could server to attract new players to Soul Calibur if they come for that particular tournament but stay to see SC4 played on the highest level. But basically, do things to add some muthafuckin hype.
'Other shit', does not a Nationals make. Again, all you are describing is a major, one that may not even be as big as Evo in terms of SC turnout (if they have it this year, there is a chance! They liked us a lot this year). How does having a bunch of side crap, make it a better nationals? Remember, we are looking for the difference between just a major and a national/international championship.
I am not saying you are wrong, I just wanna make sure we cover all angles of your ideas. Frankly, I like a lot of them.
I am glad you gave your opinion. Let's work out some ideas here so we can move forward with making some solid plans
thanks for getting it started Malice.
cha cha
