Lightsyde
Smash Champion
For those who don’t know me: my name is Joshua Viverette, have been a part of the NC Smash scene for over 3 years, and have been a part of gaming communities since 2002. Better than I play any game, I direct and organize people and events. Big event management is what I accel at and what I love to do.
In case you don't get it: I run tournaments.
In wake of my Apex preparations, and watching the building hype, as well as SleepyK’s Melee outreach, I've been giving a particular idea a lot of thought: The next large scale North Carolina event.
The Proposal: North Carolina has potential to be home to a really large, really successful coastal, if not, national tournament and I would like to be the person to deliver it to you.
With the proper promotion, timing, incentives, this is fully possible. Apart from being probably the most active player in the state, as well as one of the more outspoken, I have ran 10 tournaments prior to this, 3 of which were nationals and were unparalleled in country wide attendance. Getting people to your tournament is always the hardest part, followed closely by having an adequate venue and reasonable amount of setups. This is because each factor fluctuates widely and depends on the other 2.
As the potential main organizer, I feel confident in my ability to:
-Promote attendance as much as possible, as soon as possible.
-Procure an adequate venue, probably in a hotel or public building.
-Optimize housing to keep the cost of the trip down.
-Macro and micro-manage the entire event, unwaveringly, every step of the way, until the last shout out has been posted.
With that said, let's go over a couple important facts.
North Carolina has one of the most active scenes in the country.
There are very few states that have tournaments every weekend or nearly every weekend, regardless of the time of year. It is a testament to our love and dedication that this happens. Having been a part of communities for different games where tournaments happened every few months, I can stress enough how much of a blessing it actually is. SleepyK touched on this in his Melee Expansion thread, but I want to reaffirm it here: we are improving rapidly. I have been a part of this scene for over 3 years now and I have seen more exponential growth in ability in the last year in mid to higher level play than I ever have before. There is still a lot of catching up to do (especially to densely talent populated regions like NY/Cali/FL) but it is not impossible.
Summarized: We are active, growing, and capable.
While not a failure by any long shot, HERB3 was not the caliber of event it was supposed to be.
HERB in past years has been our major tournament series. It picked up in out of state attendance where the MP Jubilee series left off and it became the hyped up event that everyone looked forward to. HERB2 was a relatively big success and HERB3 was scheduled not too long afterwards and looked promising. So what happened? Poor macro-management and promotion by its organizer(s). I mean no disrespect to Charlie or Brianna; when it came time, they worked very hard on it and in general the tournament itself went well. But Charlie was on his way out as far as activity in the community went and without knowing his exact life situation it is not my place to speculate. The fact is, when HERB 3 time was growing near, the front page had still not been updated with attendance or setups, which is a tell tale sign of general disorganization, unpreparedness, or looming failure. All of things are a good sign for cars from out of state to stay where they are and for plane tickets to go unpurchased.
Because of the mediocre attendance, and also some of the issues at the tournament (the Hbox payout debacle comes to mind), I feel as though OOS will be hard pressed to return. Also, Charlie’s overall inactivity since HERB3 is a good sign that there will probably not be another good one, if at all.
Summarized: Our big name tourney did not live up to the hype and will probably not resurface.
We live in an incredible location for relatively low cost East Coast tourneys for everyone.
One of the things I learned from hosting national tournaments for rhythm games was that North Carolina (Rocky Mount specifically) is the median of the East Coast on I-95. More broadly, North Carolina is directly in between Tri-State and Florida, which are dominant and thriving communities. Aside from Genesis (which was incredibly well promoted), the West Coast is geographically isolated from the rest of the country, so it’s rare that they get out of region attendance. This is reflected by the fact that there is an entire fund raised by their community to get our players out there. The fact is plane tickets aren’t cheap so being in a location which is within a reasonable driving distance for both parts of our coast is an incredible attribute of North Carolina.
Summarized: Due to it's geographic placement and focus, NC has incredible potential for a large scale tourney.
Where:
Raleigh, North Carolina
The triangle is the most densely populated area for Smash in the state, no question. Therefore, it’s going to offer the most for attendance and free-ish housing.
When:
Early April, 2011
Having looked at the major tournament schedule, it seems unwise to plan it before the end of the year (ROM3), as well before (Pound5), so I’m shooting for about a month to month and a half after Pound5. This puts the preemptive date to be somewhere in early April. Slightly later hits college finals, and still later puts it within the next potential Genesis time frame.
Melee, Brawl or Both?
Anyone who knows me knows that my focus is and will always be Melee, so this will definitely be the focus. However, with MLG Raleigh happening later this month, I am interested to see the potential turn out for a Brawl tournament in this part of the state. I have been informed (and attendance reflects this) that it is tantamount to pulling teeth with chopsticks to get out of state attendance for Brawl up, so this is also a factor in the decision making process. The Brawl community on a national level is generally unfamiliar to me compare to Melee, so I would certainly need help promoting it if a Brawl tournament is to come to fruition. Right now, I’m leaving this open ended.
What else?
I’m shooting for sponsorships to get prizes/prize pots up. I have a few potential starting places, but my experience has shown me that these are not as hard to acquire as one might think.
Additionally, if there is enough interest, I would have shirts designed and printed, which would be the first time in NC history unless I am mistaken.
What I need from you:
-Feedback on everything that I have just talked about.
-Volunteers to help run the tournament on the day of. Having a good staff is too important, preferably filled with reliable and experienced organizers (Alex and DJ immediately come to mind).
-Support and hype in endless supply. I have seen NC do this time and time again for our players (on the boards and during matches) and our events, so I know what we are capable of. We are a community of talkers and trolls, so there is no reason why we can’t extend this long reach and notoriety we have to a huge event.
Regardless, this is my proposal. Next weekend is prime outreach and promotion time via word of mouth so the more people talk about this the better.
I know it went from a paragraph to an essay, so thank you for your time in reading this.
In case you don't get it: I run tournaments.
In wake of my Apex preparations, and watching the building hype, as well as SleepyK’s Melee outreach, I've been giving a particular idea a lot of thought: The next large scale North Carolina event.
The Proposal: North Carolina has potential to be home to a really large, really successful coastal, if not, national tournament and I would like to be the person to deliver it to you.
With the proper promotion, timing, incentives, this is fully possible. Apart from being probably the most active player in the state, as well as one of the more outspoken, I have ran 10 tournaments prior to this, 3 of which were nationals and were unparalleled in country wide attendance. Getting people to your tournament is always the hardest part, followed closely by having an adequate venue and reasonable amount of setups. This is because each factor fluctuates widely and depends on the other 2.
As the potential main organizer, I feel confident in my ability to:
-Promote attendance as much as possible, as soon as possible.
-Procure an adequate venue, probably in a hotel or public building.
-Optimize housing to keep the cost of the trip down.
-Macro and micro-manage the entire event, unwaveringly, every step of the way, until the last shout out has been posted.
With that said, let's go over a couple important facts.
North Carolina has one of the most active scenes in the country.
There are very few states that have tournaments every weekend or nearly every weekend, regardless of the time of year. It is a testament to our love and dedication that this happens. Having been a part of communities for different games where tournaments happened every few months, I can stress enough how much of a blessing it actually is. SleepyK touched on this in his Melee Expansion thread, but I want to reaffirm it here: we are improving rapidly. I have been a part of this scene for over 3 years now and I have seen more exponential growth in ability in the last year in mid to higher level play than I ever have before. There is still a lot of catching up to do (especially to densely talent populated regions like NY/Cali/FL) but it is not impossible.
Summarized: We are active, growing, and capable.
While not a failure by any long shot, HERB3 was not the caliber of event it was supposed to be.
HERB in past years has been our major tournament series. It picked up in out of state attendance where the MP Jubilee series left off and it became the hyped up event that everyone looked forward to. HERB2 was a relatively big success and HERB3 was scheduled not too long afterwards and looked promising. So what happened? Poor macro-management and promotion by its organizer(s). I mean no disrespect to Charlie or Brianna; when it came time, they worked very hard on it and in general the tournament itself went well. But Charlie was on his way out as far as activity in the community went and without knowing his exact life situation it is not my place to speculate. The fact is, when HERB 3 time was growing near, the front page had still not been updated with attendance or setups, which is a tell tale sign of general disorganization, unpreparedness, or looming failure. All of things are a good sign for cars from out of state to stay where they are and for plane tickets to go unpurchased.
Because of the mediocre attendance, and also some of the issues at the tournament (the Hbox payout debacle comes to mind), I feel as though OOS will be hard pressed to return. Also, Charlie’s overall inactivity since HERB3 is a good sign that there will probably not be another good one, if at all.
Summarized: Our big name tourney did not live up to the hype and will probably not resurface.
We live in an incredible location for relatively low cost East Coast tourneys for everyone.
One of the things I learned from hosting national tournaments for rhythm games was that North Carolina (Rocky Mount specifically) is the median of the East Coast on I-95. More broadly, North Carolina is directly in between Tri-State and Florida, which are dominant and thriving communities. Aside from Genesis (which was incredibly well promoted), the West Coast is geographically isolated from the rest of the country, so it’s rare that they get out of region attendance. This is reflected by the fact that there is an entire fund raised by their community to get our players out there. The fact is plane tickets aren’t cheap so being in a location which is within a reasonable driving distance for both parts of our coast is an incredible attribute of North Carolina.
Summarized: Due to it's geographic placement and focus, NC has incredible potential for a large scale tourney.
Where:
Raleigh, North Carolina
The triangle is the most densely populated area for Smash in the state, no question. Therefore, it’s going to offer the most for attendance and free-ish housing.
When:
Early April, 2011
Having looked at the major tournament schedule, it seems unwise to plan it before the end of the year (ROM3), as well before (Pound5), so I’m shooting for about a month to month and a half after Pound5. This puts the preemptive date to be somewhere in early April. Slightly later hits college finals, and still later puts it within the next potential Genesis time frame.
Melee, Brawl or Both?
Anyone who knows me knows that my focus is and will always be Melee, so this will definitely be the focus. However, with MLG Raleigh happening later this month, I am interested to see the potential turn out for a Brawl tournament in this part of the state. I have been informed (and attendance reflects this) that it is tantamount to pulling teeth with chopsticks to get out of state attendance for Brawl up, so this is also a factor in the decision making process. The Brawl community on a national level is generally unfamiliar to me compare to Melee, so I would certainly need help promoting it if a Brawl tournament is to come to fruition. Right now, I’m leaving this open ended.
What else?
I’m shooting for sponsorships to get prizes/prize pots up. I have a few potential starting places, but my experience has shown me that these are not as hard to acquire as one might think.
Additionally, if there is enough interest, I would have shirts designed and printed, which would be the first time in NC history unless I am mistaken.
What I need from you:
-Feedback on everything that I have just talked about.
-Volunteers to help run the tournament on the day of. Having a good staff is too important, preferably filled with reliable and experienced organizers (Alex and DJ immediately come to mind).
-Support and hype in endless supply. I have seen NC do this time and time again for our players (on the boards and during matches) and our events, so I know what we are capable of. We are a community of talkers and trolls, so there is no reason why we can’t extend this long reach and notoriety we have to a huge event.
Regardless, this is my proposal. Next weekend is prime outreach and promotion time via word of mouth so the more people talk about this the better.
I know it went from a paragraph to an essay, so thank you for your time in reading this.
