X_Tide
Smash Rookie
TL;DR If you don't care about the context, skip to the questions at the bottom.
Hey guys, I'm an amateur smasher that goes by 'The Crossecutor' and I play a lot in Provo, UT and in Texas. I'd like to talk about some of the logistics around major tournaments.
Last December MT and his team organized and hosted Forte 2 at the University of Texas at Austin. I could rant for hours about how incredibly well and smoothly the event ran. One of the most impressive things, however, happened not even during the actual event, but in the months of planning beforehand.
On their Facebook event page months before the actual event, they organized a long list of smashers who offered to open their homes to host the people traveling from out of town, provided their contact information, and posted links to local hotels with their prices and distances from the venue and to flights and busses. They made the whole process very low-stress.
Now allow me to sound like an entitled ***** for a minute. Tourney Locator is hosting Aftershock the weekend of the 28th in Dallas/ Fort-Worth region. Tourney Locator has done a ton for the smash community by providing very professional coverage of many fantastic events and continuing to support Project M when other big-name streamers have stopped. All that being said, they and the DFW community, compared to other regions, could, in my opinion, step up their hosting game a bit. Four days before registration ends, after the venue fee has already raised in price, we get some non-committal information about available housing. There are large carpools of players from SoCal, Houston, and probably elsewhere who don't know where they will be staying. This puts many of us in an uncomfortable situation in wanting to go but not knowing how much the trip will cost if we end up having to pay for a hotel.
So I have a few questions I'd like to discuss about all this:
-1. At the national level, should housing arrangements be made by the Tournament Organizers or should the players make them themselves?
-2. Is it fair for players to expect housing availability for majors (or am I just being a brat for being frustrated)?
Obviously, at tournaments the size of Apex and EVO paying for a hotel room is all but mandatory, but these events aren't quite that big yet.
-3. As Smash gets bigger the events grow in size, quality, and price. However, the average smasher does not necessarily have more money to spend. Can anything be done to alleviate this disparity, or should it just be accepted as an unfortunate fact of life in this new era of smash?
EDIT: So Juggleguy tore me a new one on Reddit, and I now see how I deserved it. Let's all remember to show our gratitude to those who open their homes to strangers and to be a part of a community that fosters such hospitality.
Hey guys, I'm an amateur smasher that goes by 'The Crossecutor' and I play a lot in Provo, UT and in Texas. I'd like to talk about some of the logistics around major tournaments.
Last December MT and his team organized and hosted Forte 2 at the University of Texas at Austin. I could rant for hours about how incredibly well and smoothly the event ran. One of the most impressive things, however, happened not even during the actual event, but in the months of planning beforehand.
On their Facebook event page months before the actual event, they organized a long list of smashers who offered to open their homes to host the people traveling from out of town, provided their contact information, and posted links to local hotels with their prices and distances from the venue and to flights and busses. They made the whole process very low-stress.
Now allow me to sound like an entitled ***** for a minute. Tourney Locator is hosting Aftershock the weekend of the 28th in Dallas/ Fort-Worth region. Tourney Locator has done a ton for the smash community by providing very professional coverage of many fantastic events and continuing to support Project M when other big-name streamers have stopped. All that being said, they and the DFW community, compared to other regions, could, in my opinion, step up their hosting game a bit. Four days before registration ends, after the venue fee has already raised in price, we get some non-committal information about available housing. There are large carpools of players from SoCal, Houston, and probably elsewhere who don't know where they will be staying. This puts many of us in an uncomfortable situation in wanting to go but not knowing how much the trip will cost if we end up having to pay for a hotel.
So I have a few questions I'd like to discuss about all this:
-1. At the national level, should housing arrangements be made by the Tournament Organizers or should the players make them themselves?
-2. Is it fair for players to expect housing availability for majors (or am I just being a brat for being frustrated)?
Obviously, at tournaments the size of Apex and EVO paying for a hotel room is all but mandatory, but these events aren't quite that big yet.
-3. As Smash gets bigger the events grow in size, quality, and price. However, the average smasher does not necessarily have more money to spend. Can anything be done to alleviate this disparity, or should it just be accepted as an unfortunate fact of life in this new era of smash?
EDIT: So Juggleguy tore me a new one on Reddit, and I now see how I deserved it. Let's all remember to show our gratitude to those who open their homes to strangers and to be a part of a community that fosters such hospitality.
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