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MVG Sandstorm - Why Smash Tournaments are Crazy

AlphaZealot

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Following yesterday's catastrophe at MVG Sandstorm, the below article from April 20, 2014 (exactly 1 year ago) is being re-published. MVG Sandstorm, a major event in Arizona that featured Project M, Super Smash Brothers Melee, and Super Smash Brothers Wii U, ran into a host of problems. Among them was power being shut off during the Melee finals mid-match, the Project M Grand Finals not being played at all due to time, controversy over Mew2King and Zero's Smash Wii U team name, and controversy over Mew2King's decision to drop out of Melee after being seeded 5th in the bracket. Most spectators at home also likely noticed the sub-par stream quality as the venue's internet could not sustain a connection. The stream itself was saved when D1 volunteered his 4G phone for bandwidth.


Below's article touches on why some of these problems are more prevalent in the Smash community than in other gaming communities. While many new players have already labeled Sandstorm as the "worst" tournament ever, such a characterization would be unfair. Multiple large events have had to shut down to play finals in other venues (usually hotel rooms), more than a few events have had to run using 4G phones before, and let's not forget about Apex 2015 where the entire tournament moved 45 minutes away from the original venue and an entire tournament day was lost. Through it all though - Smashers persevere.

___

Yesterday, Fight Pit IV ran past midnight as the day-long Super Smash Brothers Melee tournament saw over 170 entrants. So late did Fight Pit IV go, that the venue had to clear of spectators and there was even the threat of having the police called in order to vacate the premises. While this may seem unusual for those who are just entering the Smash scene, this is actually not an unexpected or rare occurrence since Smash tournaments operate under different variables than other scenes.


Shout outs to Duck for forfeiting Loser's Finals so that the tournament could finish!

"Smashers derive their very existence from an overwhelming need to get together and play in person - once this is accomplished little else matters."

Why Smash Tournaments are Crazy
  1. Smash Tournament Organizers don't cap attendance and nearly every attendee is a player. This means the structure of the tournament needs to satisfy most players - and not spectators.

  2. Smash tournaments are open to all - they are not invite only for only a select number of "teams" or players who essentially are there to put on a show for a spectating audience.

  3. Smashers are notorious for not registering online, making preparation for tournaments a 'best guess' - this means planning (and advertising) to operate Round Robin pools that may be difficult to run if attendance is very high.

  4. Smash tournaments require setups (CRT + Gamecube/Wii + game) and the ideal minimum ratio for operation is 1 setup per every 4 players. This is very difficult to achieve and often only partial setups show up. Not enough setups slows down the pace of the tournament.

  5. Smashers love to play friendlies - since every person attending is a player, once they are eliminated, players will often play friendlies on setups that should still be getting used for only tournament matches.

  6. Smash tournaments are run on a shoe-string budget. They are nearly entirely grassroots, which means tournaments can be run in houses, bars, and gaming centers. However, one of the most popular places to operate are schools (colleges) or church facilities - these facilities are usually free or cheap, but it means the venues shut down at specific times without negotiation.

  7. Smashers are accustomed to operating in conditions that players from others communities may find unprofessional. This means playing and finishing tournaments in apartments, hotel rooms, even the back of a car. Smashers derive their very existence from an overwhelming need to get together and play in person - once this is accomplished little else matters. Indeed, while the conditions can even be borderline harsh, the shared experience of making it through 10, 14, or 20 hour days with tournaments ending after midnight builds memories and, even, overcoming a shared hardship.

  8. Imagine the commitment and dedication it takes to have a community where over 1,000 LIVE tournaments occur in a year that hasn't seen support from the games developer or publisher. The only major force to operate consistently in the Smash community has been MLG - and outside of their events every other tournament is an entirely community driven effort with little or no sponsorship, put together by TOs just scraping by and putting on an event for the love of the game and community.
Some Notable Tournaments and Late Finishes (Melee and Brawl)
  • Tournament Go - the Matt Deezie series that launched the community - held 100+ person tournaments in a house
  • Game Over, in 2003, finished at a players apartment
  • BOMB3, in 2004, finished in the hallway after the main room closed
  • COT4, in 2008, finished in an apartment with radio-style commentary in place of a livestream
  • Genesis 1, in 2009, finished in a hotel room
  • WBST3, in 2009, finishes in the back of a car
  • Fight Pit IV, in 2014, finishes in an empty venue as two the best players in the World compete for victory



The parking lot makes a great emergency venue!
 
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TopKek.GG

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Awesome article. I thought Sandstorm was pretty good despite its problems.

I hope they will learn from this and move forward with even better content and tournaments.

GG MVG
 

allshort17

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None of this is good though or valid justification that tournaments like Sandstorm are poorly run. 2 is something throughout the FGC, not just Smash. 3, 4,and 5 are problems with the players. We need to make it easier on TO's by pre-registering, bring in equipment, and not hogging set-ups. 1 is a problem with tournament staff. It sucks to say, but sometimes the tournament staff can't play. Hire/get volunteers to help run the tournament or at least alternate which tournament staff members play each tournament. 6, 7, and 8 just all say we're grassroots and have to make due with what we have. Again, that's no positive nor is it a justification for poorly run events.

I feel like this is suppose to be an empowerment piece for the Smash community. But if anything, it just show problems, both within and outside the community, that we have to face.
 

RobinOnDrugs

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One of the tournaments was finished in the back of a car.

That's just creative!
 

Nixon Corral

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This has really turned into an unfortunate witch hunt. And to be fair, I'd be pissed under the circumstances too. But I hate to see any of the parties involved as stressed and strained as they are.
 

Superbat

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April 2014? (trolling) Lol nice Post by the way. good read. Get it on like diddy kong
 
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Ripple

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Genesis finished in a hotel room? What? There are videos of that clearly not being true
 

Saikyoshi

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As much as I'm against Melee's continued presence, if the power outage was an act of deliberate sabotage as it's starting to look like according to the investigation, that... that was a **** move. There's such a thing as "going way, way too far", and whoever did that certainly crossed that line.


"Don't hate us because we're autistic"
I already hated M2K enough so that I couldn't possibly hate him any more than I already did, but I expected better from Zero. Yeah, this is enough to make me forgive the Melee players booing his victory at EVO.
 

FoolishPaul

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The simple fact that we all unit and have such a huge community without any support from the compnaies that create the game is amazing. We for get funding from activision, we don't have a tour like capcom, we don't have cash pots as big as dita and league. But yet here we stand. I will say that I like watching other fighting game tournaments but the second they bad mouth Smash, they're getting blast zoned ya feel me. I love all of you.
 

allshort17

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I already hated M2K enough so that I couldn't possibly hate him any more than I already did, but I expected better from Zero. Yeah, this is enough to make me forgive the Melee players booing his victory at EVO.
You misunderstand, the TO gave them that name. It was an inside joke, according to the TO, but they did not enter the tournament under that name.
 

EpixAura

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As bad as the event was, there were without a doubt some of the greatest matches we've ever seen played there. I can't be too upset with the tournament when Westballz makes it to Grands and Leffen gets styled on.

"Melee will carry." - Mango
 

Zebkeet

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As much as I'm against Melee's continued presence, if the power outage was an act of deliberate sabotage as it's starting to look like according to the investigation, that... that was a **** move. There's such a thing as "going way, way too far", and whoever did that certainly crossed that line.


I already hated M2K enough so that I couldn't possibly hate him any more than I already did, but I expected better from Zero. Yeah, this is enough to make me forgive the Melee players booing his victory at EVO.
May I ask why you hate m2k so much?
 
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DaRkJaWs

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Nothing wrong with zero and m2ks team name. Within the alternative economics literature there is a name use to refer to mainstream economics, which is autistic, which means roughly according to Wikipedia: "The term autistic is used in an informal way, signifying "abnormal subjectivity, acceptance of fantasy rather than reality." So they may be making a statement towards the non gaming community that you can't blame them for living life in the fantasy world of smash brothers.

Ok so this probably wasn't what they were thinking, but this can be their official excuse other than that it was an inside joke :)
 
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J.P

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As much as I'm against Melee's continued presence, if the power outage was an act of deliberate sabotage as it's starting to look like according to the investigation, that... that was a **** move. There's such a thing as "going way, way too far", and whoever did that certainly crossed that line.


I already hated M2K enough so that I couldn't possibly hate him any more than I already did, but I expected better from Zero. Yeah, this is enough to make me forgive the Melee players booing his victory at EVO.

LOL, classic Smash 4 fanboy that looks at everything in a negative way, try to focus more on the positives buddy ^_^


With this accidents you can see how amazing the Smash community is; D1 sharing his own Internet, Duck forfeiting Losers's Finals at Pit IV are two great examples that show the passion that us Smashers have for the game. People focus more on the negatives but I invite everyone to look at the heroic actions of some of this players to make our community better.
 

pepi1197

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Nothing wrong with zero and m2ks team name. Within the alternative economics literature there is a name use to refer to mainstream economics, which is autistic, which means roughly according to Wikipedia: "The term autistic is used in an informal way, signifying "abnormal subjectivity, acceptance of fantasy rather than reality." So they may be making a statement towards the non gaming community that you can't blame them for living life in the fantasy world of smash brothers.

Ok so this probably wasn't what they were thinking, but this can be their official excuse other than that it was an inside joke :)
The thing is, they didn't come up with that name nor did they want to use it from what I've seen. It was just a TO being a jack***.
 

rp17000

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Cubelarooso

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I already hated M2K enough so that I couldn't possibly hate him any more than I already did, but I expected better from Zero. Yeah, this is enough to make me forgive the Melee players booing his victory at EVO.
Are you implying we should hate them because they're autistic?
 

Funkermonster

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Eh, whatever. I still had a great time at Sandstorm and was having too much fun to notice most of these. I even managed to take a game off Hungrybox the first time I played him and it was real exciting, meeting him and other top players for the first time made it all worthwhile.
 

SmashGamer112

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Am I the only one here who didn't know this happened. Wow, that seems pretty bad but it couldn't be as bad as APEX 2015's breakdowns.
 

PootisKonga

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Melee put on side stream, PM Grand Finals cancelled because of it

"Melee will always carry"
Gee thanks

Edit: Don't worry, I'm far from mad at Melee, it's the tournament itself that is the target of my ire

Though I personally would have vastly preferred that PM get its Grand Final instead
 
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metalman311

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As much as I'm against Melee's continued presence, if the power outage was an act of deliberate sabotage as it's starting to look like according to the investigation, that... that was a **** move. There's such a thing as "going way, way too far", and whoever did that certainly crossed that line.


I already hated M2K enough so that I couldn't possibly hate him any more than I already did, but I expected better from Zero. Yeah, this is enough to make me forgive the Melee players booing his victory at EVO.
I'm so confused, how do you hate m2k?
 

TheHypnotoad

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So Mew2king said that the power going out was most likely an act of sabotage, and that they know who did it but won't reveal their name publicly. Which is totally understandable, but it is going to eat me up inside not knowing who did it.
 
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