A couple of things I wanted to say:
First off a HUGE thank you to Fine Yoshi Pie for taking over basically all of the TO duties for the first half of the tournament while I was playing in doubles. This tournament would not have run without you and you're an incredible asset to the smash community. If you ever decided to run your own tournament series in the future I have no doubt whatsoever in my mind it would be a fantastic experience for everyone involved.
A big thank you to Lil_Devil55 for helping with payouts, and for everyone else who helped TO in any way, whether it was helping call matches, find players, designate stream matches. I can tell that you guys are all invested in this tournament series and that means a lot to me. I could not be happier to have started something that so many people enjoy and have a stake in. You guys are all awesome.
Another big thank you to Fine Yoshi Pie for starting the Ontario Smash 64 YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5B979na7JCK9lfb4DxNlJg Here you can find VOD uploads of Flaoc 10. I had no idea he had started this project, as vod uploads are something I started a year ago under Canada Smash and quit from burnout after the channel had a security compromise. He wanted my permission before continuing to do VOD uploads of previous Flaocs. This is a huge time commitment for him to be undertaking so give him your kudos.
This is one of the best things to happen to our community in a long time.
Thank you to Truth for bringing a separate stream setup so Brawl and 64 could each have their own stream without having stream time at the expense of each other. I wanted both games to get exposure from the viewers who prefer watching each one without having to take up too much space from each other virtually, and this was the way to do it. Thank you to all of our commentators who stuck it out on both setups, you guys rock.
And a BIG shoutout to everyone who donated to help B Link out with his medical expenses, especially Revan and YBOMBB, who donated the entirety of 1st and 2nd place payouts for 64 singles, as well as YBOMBB's half of his 1st place payout for 64 doubles. This community is incredibly generous and full of kind people and I could not be more proud to be a part of it.
GGs to everyone today, I can see that our scene for 64 is improving like crazy and there's no stopping us. I can also see that Brawl is still alive and well here with a lot of incredible talent. You should all be proud of yourselves today, no matter how you did, because you're part of something awesome and you're only going to keep getting better.
Some clarification on some decisions that were made today:
64 and Brawl doubles were both round robin for different reasons. We did not have enough people to run pools in 64, so I wanted doubles to be round robin so all of our first-time players could still get a lot of games in even if they went 0-2 in singles. Brawl hasn't had a doubles tournament here since probably last Fall, so I wanted all the Brawl players to finally get a chance to have doubles matches with each other.
I understand that this held up singles bracket and some people had to drop out, and for that I apologize -- this was also impacted by the fact that the secondary stream was having some equipment issues and the A&C staff were very busy and sometimes could not help us for up to 20 minutes, and a lot of people who entered doubles were involved in the setup of this (plus it involved having to swap two TVs on opposite sides of the room which would not have been possible during bracket). Plus having only one computer for two people to seed and run four events kind of slowed things down. In actuality there was very little overlap between 64 and brawl, and the delay in starting singles was 90% due to the doubles bracket format, stream issues, and lack of TOing equipment. This (along with 17th place having too many contenders) also meant that we had to forego tiebreaker pools. I apologize to all of you for this negatively impacting your experience here.
Moving forward into the future:
First and foremost I would like to still continue having Brawl as a side event with its own stream at future Flaocs for the time being, provided that it does not further interfere with the running of 64, since this is originally a 64 series and Brawl's inclusion is still experimental at this point. That being said, I have decided to run all future events according to the following format rules:
- Any singles event with 32 entrants or more will have qualifier pools, a pro bracket, and an amateur bracket.
- Any singles event with 8 to 31 players will be a straight double elimination bracket.
- Any singles event with 7 players or less will be round robin.
- Any singles event with 8 to 20 people inclusive will have tiebreaker pools. (That means if we have 32+ people who are divided up into pro and amateur bracket, a decision for tiebreaker pools will be made separately for each bracket.)
- Any doubles event with 5 teams or less will be round robin.
- Any doubles event with 6 teams or more will be straight double elimination.
- Any singles or doubles event with 9 entrants/teams or less will have winner-takes-all payout.
- Any singles or doubles event with 10 or more entrants will have 60-30-10 payout.
From having run these tournaments for about a year, I think that this format will be the best tradeoff I can see between getting your money's worth for your entry fee, and also being able to run the event on time. (Plus, 8-way tiebreaker pools for 17th place would take way too long to finish.) I want to see if under these rules if we can feasibly run singles and doubles in both games without it coming at the expense of either community before I make a final decision on whether or not to continue indefinitely.
Other notes on equipment:
- I will start bringing my ipad again for anyone who wants to help update bracket.
- I now own 3 keyboard adapters and 2 gamecube adapters for N64. If I can manage to get these all in working order by next Flaoc, equipment will be less of an issue than it has been in the past. That means Nero, Unreal, and AK will be able to spend less time swapping controls.
I also will no longer be allowing people to text me or message me on facebook to try to get into bracket without actually being at the venue. The reason for this is threefold:
1) I don't check my phone when I'm playing doubles.
2) It is your own responsibility to arrive on time. That means checking the TTC websites for weekend closures and planning accordingly, or doing whatever you have to do.
3) Adding people into the bracket late requires re-seeding, which also messes up location-based seeding. Seeding is not easy and requires a lot of consideration and collaboration between tournament organizers. Please don't force the TOs to re-do their work a billion times just because you came late, this further holds up bracket and is not fair to everyone who came on time.
I may make some exceptions for extenuating circumstances, but this is really getting to be too much.
Also, last note to brawl players: I know friendlies are hype and all, but
please stop screaming during 64 grand finals! I thought this was really disrespectful to Revan and YBOMBB, especially since Brawl is still brand new to this series. Hype is fine but sometimes it goes a little overboard. I don't want the 64 community to have to start having second thoughts about agreeing to share the venue with Brawl, since I really want both communities to continue to thrive while under the restriction of scarce venue dates.
And finally: Please help me out by telling me who played what characters
