Takeover1806
Smash Champion
We basically had about a good 1 h & 30 min conversation on AIM about tournament outcomes & how things changed from back in the day. He explained to me why smash esp. in md/va is not growing or going nowhere, why T.O.'s are being lazy, how he's helped Ohio grow from nothing, the way payouts should be made, etc....
During our convo since he basically helps T.O. the madden & halo community, the madden T.O. asked him to write a guide on how to make there community bigger (they are a very small community for those of you who didn't know).
Since Smash is not nowhere it should be as far as growth, HE IS ACTUALLY WILLING TO MAKE A GUIDE ON HOW TO GROW THE SMASH COMMUNITY & HOW TOURNAMENTS SHOULD BE RUN.
NOW FOR ALL YOU T.O.'S OUT THERE THAT THINK THEY DON'T NEED ANY HELP, IM PRETTY SURE YOU GUYS ARE OPEN FOR FEEDBACK SO PLEASE LISTEN.
The reason Im actually making this thread is to inspire him to make the guide. So what I basically promised is that I will C/P our convo about most of the things we talked about so he will have ideas while making the guide. Now for any of the T.O.'s or anybody that wants the smash community to grow, we just need your support & inspiration to help what would be the stepping stone to smash success.
Here's is the conversation we had about problems md/va is having, problems with of why turnouts are poor, how he brought ohio on there feet, etc.. JUST READ IT lol
alphazealot (1:40:26 AM):
yea the md/va scene is struggling cause you guys need better tourney venues
alphazealot (1:40:30 AM):
$10 venue fee blows
alphazealot (1:40:35 AM):
$5 should be standard
alphazealot (1:40:54 AM):
when im here in the summer im hoping ill be able to hold 1, maybe 2 tournaments
alphazealot (1:41:04 AM):
venue will be <$5
alphazealot (1:41:09 AM):
$5 max
Takeover1806 (1:41:10 AM):
yea it does blow
Takeover1806 (1:41:14 AM):
$10 alot
\
alphazealot (1:41:18 AM):
a **** ton
alphazealot (1:41:32 AM):
phycologicaly the diff between $25 and $30 is huge
alphazealot (1:41:45 AM):
heres what I did in ohio
alphazealot (1:41:48 AM):
to grow the scene
alphazealot (1:41:55 AM):
i started playing a lil over a year ago
alphazealot (1:42:05 AM):
in ohio there were tournaments about every 5 weeks or so
alphazealot (1:42:17 AM):
i found a venue in feb
alphazealot (1:42:23 AM):
started holding my own tournaments
alphazealot (1:42:26 AM):
convinced everyone in ohio
alphazealot (1:42:32 AM):
to accept $10, $10, $5 format
alphazealot (1:42:42 AM):
and 48/22/14/8/4/4 payout scheme
regardless of the size of the event
Takeover1806 (1:42:47 AM):
yea that is really good
alphazealot (1:42:49 AM):
15 people show up
alphazealot (1:42:55 AM):
1/3rd of the people are placing in the money
Takeover1806 (1:43:09 AM):
what players are in ohio??
alphazealot (1:43:38 AM):
me/m2k/shugo/kel/ybm/infern/nope/capem/idk there are a ton now
alphazealot (1:43:40 AM):
basically
alphazealot (1:43:42 AM):
in a year
alphazealot (1:43:51 AM):
we went from like a tournament every month with like 20 people
alphazealot (1:43:55 AM):
to a tournament every weekend
alphazealot (1:44:01 AM):
with like 30-50 people
Takeover1806 (1:44:07 AM):
**** every week
alphazealot (1:44:11 AM):
yea
Takeover1806 (1:44:11 AM):
thats huge
alphazealot (1:44:12 AM):
actually
Takeover1806 (1:44:16 AM):
way better than md/va
alphazealot (1:44:17 AM):
the problem now is we have to many tournaments
Takeover1806 (1:44:52 AM):
only like 20-30 people show up now
alphazealot (1:45:01 AM):
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=246510
Takeover1806 (1:45:05 AM):
I heard ybm beat lain??
alphazealot (1:45:13 AM):
its cause the venue fee is so high and the payouts are only to top 3
if you do top 5 pay outs (so 6 people) just think of this
top 3: maybe 4-5 people can compete for
alphazealot (1:45:51 AM):
spots 4th, 5th/5th? probably 10-15 people can compete for
alphazealot (1:45:58 AM):
like I saw you placed 5th recently
Takeover1806 (1:46:09 AM):
yea that was in jersey
alphazealot (1:46:10 AM):
you wouldhave gotten essentially your $10 entry back for that
alphazealot (1:46:22 AM):
and that would be at like a 20 person event
alphazealot 1:49 am
Takeover1806 (1:51:09 AM):
how do we do that??
alphazealot (1:51:16 AM):
well
alphazealot (1:51:21 AM):
pound 4 should give you guys a boost
Takeover1806 (1:51:25 AM):
kosha boy we did great
alphazealot (1:51:39 AM):
second: expand singles payouts to top 5
Takeover1806 (1:51:47 AM):
the only people that held us back were ally ksizzle adhd
alphazealot (1:51:55 AM):
third: find venues for $5 venue fee, not $10
alphazealot (1:52:03 AM):
drop the C3 venue, its bringing the community down
Takeover1806 (1:52:15 AM):
c3 is a great venue??
alphazealot (1:52:22 AM):
it use to be a great venue
alphazealot (1:52:38 AM):
now you are paying $10 for a tournament on sundays that doesnt even get to start until after 5pm
alphazealot (1:52:41 AM):
that is crazy
Takeover1806 (1:52:48 AM):
no that is just recent
alphazealot (1:52:53 AM):
the owner is robbing md/va blind
Takeover1806 (1:52:56 AM):
it was never on a sunday
alphazealot (1:53:07 AM):
i know, but now it is, and it will probably stay that way
Takeover1806 (1:53:29 AM):
but it did not start that late ever
alphazealot (1:53:29 AM):
i mean i went to the very first c3
alphazealot (1:53:32 AM):
back in the day
alphazealot (1:53:39 AM):
we had the venue all day long
alphazealot (1:53:46 AM):
you could get there at like 10-11am
alphazealot (1:53:53 AM):
and it was a $3 venue fee
alphazealot (1:53:58 AM):
for the first time we did it
alphazealot (1:54:03 AM):
then it was $5 for a bit
alphazealot (1:54:20 AM):
then it was $8 and the owner felt guilty so he promised use "chips and a drink" to make up for the $3
alphazealot (1:54:43 AM):
now its $10, starts at 5pm, no chips/drink, and is on sunday
Takeover1806 (1:54:44 AM):
wow never knew that
Takeover1806 (1:54:51 AM):
yea that sucks
Takeover1806 (1:55:00 AM):
but I was not going to sunday's tourney anyway
Takeover1806 (1:55:06 AM):
I was mainly going to chus
alphazealot (1:55:13 AM):
yea see chu knows where its at
alphazealot (1:55:18 AM):
he knows how to grow a community
alphazealot (1:55:22 AM):
ive copied some of his ideas
alphazealot (1:55:28 AM):
he keeps the costs low so more people can come
Takeover1806 (1:55:42 AM):
yea he does
alphazealot (1:55:42 AM):
keeps the atmosphere friendly, he reaches out to everyone that comes to his tournaments
alphazealot (1:56:00 AM):
so i do the same at mine, i try to shake everyones hand that shows up and i try to let them i know i appreciate them being there
Takeover1806 (1:56:21 AM):
lol yea that is a great strategy
alphazealot (1:56:24 AM):
and i try to make sure they are actually getting a $25 whole-day tournament experience
Takeover1806 (1:56:27 AM):
I realized that a while ago
Takeover1806 (1:56:44 AM):
when he even convinces the not good players to come
alphazealot (1:57:00 AM):
that is how you grow!
Takeover1806 (1:57:12 AM):
but lately our community has been falling
Takeover1806 (1:57:31 AM):
that is why we had to go to out of state tournies for about a straight month
alphazealot (1:57:45 AM):
wow
alphazealot (1:57:53 AM):
did you check the link i sent you?
Takeover1806 (1:58:03 AM):
this was back when virdian & kosha boy
Takeover1806 (1:58:05 AM):
yea i did
alphazealot (1:58:14 AM):
oh thats the other thing
alphazealot (1:58:18 AM):
you guys arent posting brackets
alphazealot (1:58:27 AM):
or hyping full results
alphazealot (1:58:36 AM):
a lot of the mid-low level players
alphazealot (1:58:50 AM):
they really care just about seeing how they did in comparison with other people and they want to see improvement
alphazealot (1:59:11 AM):
if to's are lazy and don't post the brackets on AiB they are missing a huge way to keep newer players connected with the community
Takeover1806 (1:59:24 AM):
yea you are right
Takeover1806 (1:59:30 AM):
about 2 weeks ago
Takeover1806 (1:59:34 AM):
bolt had a tourney
alphazealot (1:59:36 AM):
cause AiB also opens up things like cross-linking results of your past tournaments (a "tournament resume") and also has the ladder and basically facebook for Smash
Takeover1806 (1:59:56 AM):
only teams happened
Takeover1806 (1:59:58 AM):
no singles
Takeover1806 (2:00:03 AM):
no brawl+
Takeover1806 (2:00:08 AM):
bad weather
Takeover1806 (2:00:10 AM):
late times
Takeover1806 (2:00:15 AM):
eveybody was dissapointed
alphazealot (2:00:19 AM):
mm
alphazealot (2:00:22 AM):
that is the other thing
alphazealot (2:00:24 AM):
we dont do melee
alphazealot (2:00:34 AM):
i still love melee
alphazealot (2:00:38 AM):
but having melee + Brawl
alphazealot (2:00:45 AM):
means both tournaments are not the experience they should be
alphazealot (2:01:06 AM):
things run late, the melee players insult the brawl players, try to get new brawl
players to quit before they can even get their feet wet, etc
alphazealot (2:01:45 AM):
and yea, here are the tournament experiences ive had in md/va in the last year
Takeover1806 (2:02:13 AM):
yea you are right
alphazealot (2:02:16 AM):
Crit Hit 4.5: super crowded event in a house with a venue fee, about 10 set ups for 60 people
Takeover1806 (2:02:25 AM):
thats what chu has been trying to do
alphazealot (2:03:12 AM):
chudats xmas biweekly: 5 melee players *****ed that they wanted melee, chu listened so he said melee would happen in the morning, day of the tournament 60 people show up but only 15 people enter melee singles and 5 teams
alphazealot (2:03:19 AM):
brawl doubes doesnt start till 4
alphazealot (2:03:28 AM):
brawl singles, which everyone showed for, doesnt happen
alphazealot (2:03:30 AM):
there were 7 setups
alphazealot (2:03:46 AM):
melee was on 1-2 tvs the whole time, includeing while the brawl tournament was going on
Takeover1806 (2:03:55 AM):
when was this??
alphazealot (2:04:03 AM):
this was his xmas biweekly last year (2008)
alphazealot (2:04:06 AM):
2008
alphazealot (2:04:11 AM):
umm
alphazealot (2:04:16 AM):
after that lets see
alphazealot (2:04:17 AM):
oh
alphazealot (2:04:20 AM):
cot4 (not really md/va)
alphazealot (2:04:59 AM):
crowed, 29 set ups for 250 people, Melee had 4 set ups and if they had given 3 to brawl on saturday every pool could have been run for brawl instead of 3 pools (like mine) starting on sunday (and so only 5/8 people in my pool showed up)
alphazealot (2:05:04 AM):
umm
alphazealot (2:05:53 AM):
oh i did a C3 in April, wasn't bad, about 30 people, I got $10 for 4th place (beating Meep/Esoj I forget who else, lost to Candy/G-reg, stupid snake!)
after that i went to a md/va circuit in the summer, again $10 venue fee, 50 people showed up, there were only 6 setups, and there was no room at all to move around
Takeover1806 (2:08:58 AM):
yea I was dissapointed in the md/va circuit
alphazealot (2:09:03 AM):
the best event
Takeover1806 (2:09:04 AM):
there were like no setups
alphazealot (2:09:05 AM):
i went to
alphazealot (2:09:09 AM):
was run by tantalus
alphazealot (2:09:14 AM):
it was the one that you and i played at
alphazealot (2:09:23 AM):
i had my venue fee waved for set up
alphazealot (2:09:41 AM):
tant actually ran the tournament and called matches and got that stuff played
alphazealot (2:09:52 AM):
and there were decent amount of setups for the number of people
Takeover1806 (2:10:09 AM):
where was this at??
alphazealot (2:10:13 AM):
oh wait
alphazealot (2:10:13 AM):
****
alphazealot (2:10:20 AM):
im confusing that, with the c3 that we played at
alphazealot (2:10:57 AM):
yea nevermind, regardless, the event was in MD in frederick, it was some gun/hunting lodge
alphazealot (2:11:01 AM):
i thought u were there for some reason
alphazealot (2:11:47 AM):
point is: every tournament ive been to in md/va has not really both worth the money
alphazealot (2:11:50 AM):
except for 1
alphazealot (2:12:01 AM):
most are either crowded
alphazealot (2:12:06 AM):
or start to late
alphazealot (2:12:08 AM):
or
Takeover1806 (2:12:11 AM):
yea i was there the gunclub
alphazealot (2:12:11 AM):
the worst
alphazealot (2:12:14 AM):
not enough setups
alphazealot (2:12:21 AM):
like
Takeover1806 (2:12:26 AM):
yea the worst part is the setups
alphazealot (2:12:29 AM):
for my tournametns at wings and brew pizza
Takeover1806 (2:12:34 AM):
no chance for friendlies
alphazealot (2:12:34 AM):
ive held 5 now
Takeover1806 (2:12:40 AM):
run late
alphazealot (2:12:42 AM):
and ive had: 8, 8, 9, 10, and 7 setups
alphazealot (2:12:56 AM):
for 24, 26, 32, 24, and 20 people
alphazealot (2:13:04 AM):
and that is because I cap the event
alphazealot (2:13:05 AM):
lol
alphazealot (2:13:19 AM):
the ohio circuit champs
alphazealot (2:13:26 AM):
i had 12 setups for 33 people
Takeover1806 (2:13:35 AM):
you are a great T.O
alphazealot (2:13:49 AM):
and i dont even give discouts for venue fee
alphazealot (2:14:07 AM):
its just: bring setups so the tournament runs well and we have a great experience
alphazealot (2:14:20 AM):
most TOs dont realize you start running your tournament when you make a thread
alphazealot (2:14:31 AM):
anyone that says they can come i keep track of
alphazealot (2:14:39 AM):
anyone that says they can bring a setup i put down
alphazealot (2:14:49 AM):
when people see a list of 30 names and 2 setups, they naturally step up
alphazealot (2:14:58 AM):
most TOs dont take that extra step
alphazealot (2:15:13 AM):
they just put up a thread and then show up the day of the oturnament and take what they get
alphazealot (2:15:29 AM):
this summer ill do my best to get my old venue in MD
alphazealot (2:15:37 AM):
where my crew ran BOMB 1-4.
alphazealot (2:16:04 AM):
which basically grew the melee scene back in the day, we had like 20/30/70/100+ people
Takeover1806 (2:16:27 AM):
if you can get 50+ people Ill be happy
alphazealot (2:16:32 AM):
oh
alphazealot (2:16:37 AM):
itll happen
alphazealot (2:17:10 AM):
back then
alphazealot (2:17:13 AM):
for the 100+ man tournament
alphazealot (2:17:15 AM):
we have over 40 setups
alphazealot (2:17:36 AM):
again, i kept a list of who was bringing setups and i kept telling people to bring them, and i kept an attendence list
Takeover1806 (2:17:49 AM):
ohh yea that reminds me
alphazealot (2:17:52 AM):
more setups at a 100man tournament in 2005 than a 250 person tournament (cot4) in 2007
Takeover1806 (2:17:53 AM):
is it possible to have a melee tournament the same time as brawl
alphazealot (2:18:30 AM):
possible?
alphazealot (2:18:31 AM):
yes
alphazealot (2:18:34 AM):
should you?
alphazealot (2:18:35 AM):
no
Takeover1806 (2:18:41 AM):
with alot of setups
Takeover1806 (2:18:49 AM):
bring more people
alphazealot (2:18:53 AM):
you thinking of pound 4?
Takeover1806 (2:19:02 AM):
no not like pound
alphazealot (2:19:15 AM):
the problem with running melee and brawl
Takeover1806 (2:19:17 AM):
like an regional or local tourney
alphazealot (2:19:25 AM):
at the same time or at the same tournament
alphazealot (2:19:33 AM):
is that in the end both tournaments end up getting ****ed
Takeover1806 (2:19:53 AM):
how??
alphazealot (2:21:43 AM):
the brawl players see: Melee players *****ing about their game, Melee players who got venue waived taking setups for Melee friendlies that could be used to runt he Brawl tournament faster, Melee getting favortism cause most of the TO's are old school and prefer it over Brawl (aka genesis, first national brawl tournament, you could not even watch the finals because the tournament ran late...essentially because instead of taking Melee set ups and using them to run brawl faster, they just keep letting melee friendlies go on, then on top of that the projector was Melee all day long and so brawl had only 1/3rd the hype cause all there was to watch was a 40 ince screen
alphazealot (2:21:59 AM):
most of this is true in reverse as well
alphazealot (2:22:08 AM):
melee will run slower then it should cause you need to use set ups for brawl
alphazealot (2:22:27 AM):
some brawl players are ***** to melee players (to a lesser extent, but there are some)
alphazealot (2:22:50 AM):
logistically speaking Brawl takes about 1.5X as long to run as melee
Takeover1806 (2:23:13 AM):
**** i feel bad for brawl
alphazealot (2:23:33 AM):
which means that based on resources you shouldn't be spreading it 50/50 and hoping they finish at the same time
alphazealot (2:23:53 AM):
if you want to run melee and brawl and have them end at roughly the same time, you need to split the resources about 35/65
alphazealot (2:24:06 AM):
(35 for Melee, 65 for brawl)
alphazealot (2:24:10 AM):
well no
alphazealot (2:24:15 AM):
dont feel bad
Takeover1806 (2:24:34 AM):
yea that is what I was thinking
alphazealot (2:24:37 AM):
i mean i use to help run the halo 3 tournaments for MLG and now I'm their head ref for the Madden Challenge
alphazealot (2:24:51 AM):
A halo 3 single game takes almost 15 minutes
alphazealot (2:24:58 AM):
a "set" can last almost an entire hour
alphazealot (2:25:02 AM):
and that is just 3 games
Takeover1806 (2:25:23 AM):
wow amazing I did not know you do other games
alphazealot (2:25:26 AM):
for madden, just to get the game started (people have to set audibles and such) takes about 12-13 minutes
Takeover1806 (2:25:29 AM):
that is super long
Takeover1806 (2:25:56 AM):
wow at madden start-up
alphazealot (2:26:04 AM):
with setup time + game time a single game in madden takes about 45 minutes on saturday when quarters are 3 minutes long and an hour on sunday when they are 4 minutes long
Takeover1806 (2:26:13 AM):
I know the players should know there audibles a head of time
alphazealot (2:26:17 AM):
they do
alphazealot (2:26:19 AM):
but
alphazealot (2:26:23 AM):
you cant save them
alphazealot (2:26:30 AM):
so they have to set them each time they play
alphazealot (2:26:48 AM):
and then madden 10 is stupid with how the audibles work, it takes forever just to scroll through the list
Takeover1806 (2:26:56 AM):
even that they should only take a max of up to 5 minutes
alphazealot (2:27:11 AM):
imo brawl running long is actually a good thing because it means more bang for your buck
alphazealot (2:27:16 AM):
each player gets 5 minutes to set their audibales
alphazealot (2:27:28 AM):
most players actually need more time then we allow them
alphazealot (2:27:54 AM):
cause they set tons of audibles cause madden at high level is crazy you dont actually run plays from your playbook you basicalyl just run audibles the whole game
Takeover1806 (2:28:13 AM):
wow I still wish I played madden competitevely
Takeover1806 (2:28:19 AM):
yea i know audibles all day
Takeover1806 (2:28:24 AM):
thats how you do it son
Takeover1806 (2:28:27 AM):
lol
alphazealot (2:28:27 AM):
lol
alphazealot (2:28:34 AM):
well
alphazealot (2:28:44 AM):
madden has a very small competitive community
alphazealot (2:28:57 AM):
and ive talked with their TO's and im trying to get them to slowly change
alphazealot (2:28:58 AM):
in madden
Takeover1806 (2:29:00 AM):
wow seriously??
alphazealot (2:29:08 AM):
people wont go to your tournament unless
Takeover1806 (2:29:12 AM):
i thought the madden community is expanding
alphazealot (2:29:13 AM):
-You guarantee your payout
alphazealot (2:29:27 AM):
-The payout is a lot, and usually only to 1st
alphazealot (2:29:27 AM):
lol
alphazealot (2:29:46 AM):
they esestially only pay out to 1st place, sometimes to second. the idea of even 60/30/10 is not common in madden
alphazealot (2:29:51 AM):
so their underground community is super small
alphazealot (2:30:09 AM):
all they really have is the madden challenge then a few super hyped underground tournaments a year
Takeover1806 (2:30:13 AM):
wow for madden being huge that is insane
alphazealot (2:30:19 AM):
I KNOW
alphazealot (2:30:24 AM):
and its because of how they run their tournaments
alphazealot (2:30:29 AM):
Smash, we got it right early on
alphazealot (2:30:40 AM):
we dropped the guaranteed payout BS a long time ago
alphazealot (2:30:44 AM):
and just went with pot splits
Takeover1806 (2:30:45 AM):
yea that is why I moved to the smash community
Takeover1806 (2:30:59 AM):
well im lying but that is great
alphazealot (2:31:09 AM):
then we went away from the 70/20/10 model in the traditional fighting games and switched to the 60/30/10 model
Takeover1806 (2:31:13 AM):
that is why I think we can be the biggest game community
alphazealot (2:31:15 AM):
OH
alphazealot (2:31:17 AM):
POOLS
alphazealot (2:31:19 AM):
jesus
alphazealot (2:31:23 AM):
i cant believe i forgot
alphazealot (2:31:26 AM):
this is the biggest thing
alphazealot (2:31:33 AM):
at every tournament I go to in ohio
alphazealot (2:31:34 AM):
we do pools
alphazealot (2:31:36 AM):
every
alphazealot (2:31:37 AM):
single
alphazealot (2:31:38 AM):
tournament
Takeover1806 (2:31:44 AM):
how??
alphazealot (2:32:15 AM):
cause our TO's arent lazy and we know that unless you are one of the top 5-8 players there, pools is essentially what you look forward to
alphazealot (2:32:17 AM):
MD/VA use to do pools
alphazealot (2:32:35 AM):
use to, not anymore, which is another reason for shrinkage
alphazealot (2:33:07 AM):
Actually: I dont want to call people like chu/tant lazy, they arent, these statements dont apply across the board
alphazealot (2:33:31 AM):
logistically speaking pools is very simple, if you have 32 people you should do 4 pools of 8 with top 4 advancing
Takeover1806 (2:33:34 AM):
well I think you should give them tips
alphazealot (2:33:40 AM):
give each pool of 8 two tvs
alphazealot (2:33:56 AM):
maybe we should just C/P this convo to somewhere haha
alphazealot (2:34:12 AM):
and yea since i have the time the madden TO's asked that i make them a thread on how to grow their community
alphazealot (2:34:22 AM):
maybe I should do that for smash to
Takeover1806 (2:34:29 AM):
yea you need to
Takeover1806 (2:34:35 AM):
I think if you do that for smash
Takeover1806 (2:34:50 AM):
then our community will def grow
Takeover1806 (2:34:54 AM):
if you need my help
Takeover1806 (2:34:57 AM):
I got you
alphazealot (2:35:08 AM):
yea
alphazealot (2:35:12 AM):
inspiration
alphazealot (2:35:16 AM):
is my biggest problem
alphazealot (2:35:22 AM):
its hard to sit down and write out guides and such
Takeover1806 (2:35:30 AM):
you are not lying
alphazealot (2:35:34 AM):
if i get inspired i can wrte for hours
Takeover1806 (2:35:40 AM):
I dont even know how you guys do it sometime
alphazealot (2:35:44 AM):
if im not feeling it i just procrastinate
Takeover1806 (2:36:21 AM):
even though I am new to the community you are easily if not the top T.O.
Takeover1806 (2:36:44 AM):
but how come smash does not have a sponser
Takeover1806 (2:36:48 AM):
like other games do
alphazealot (2:36:55 AM):
well, dont say that, you havent been at an event ive run yet lol
alphazealot (2:47:51 AM):
kk
alphazealot (2:47:55 AM):
oh
alphazealot (2:47:57 AM):
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=252077
alphazealot (2:47:59 AM):
and
alphazealot (2:48:20 AM):
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=208631
alphazealot (2:48:28 AM):
those are the two venues im gonna be using in ohio
alphazealot (2:48:33 AM):
for the next 6 months
alphazealot (2:48:45 AM):
and those are two touraments i ran in dec (dec 5th and 12th)
alphazealot (2:50:42 AM):
the OC Champs I had 3 contests for people
contests are always nice/easy
Signature contest: best sig gets free entry to tourney
alphazealot (2:51:25 AM):
the signature is basically your tournament, and its done to promote the tournament around smashboards
I did an "amauter teams" contest
which was I just gave $10 to the team that had never placed in the top 3 before
alphazealot (2:52:00 AM):
one of the guys on the team had never won money, ever
he was very happy just to get $5
alphazealot (2:52:44 AM):
then there is this guy (also a very good TO) named the Kiest, he made this thing called the obsticle course, its a side contest to enter for $1
alphazealot (2:52:47 AM):
very entertaining
alphazealot (2:52:52 AM):
gives people something else to do
alphazealot (2:53:05 AM):
he took the idea from another TO in ohio named Nope (also good)
alphazealot (2:53:24 AM):
Nopes crew (springfield) did something caled the "ripn" challenge at their MW circuit champs
alphazealot (2:53:45 AM):
the gist was, $1 for 3 tries, whoever got the highest KO total in cruel brawl won a new controller
alphazealot (2:54:12 AM):
then you gotta look at things like planning an event
alphazealot (2:54:15 AM):
like this: Schedule with 8 TVS
-Double elimination doubles bracket
-8 pools of 4 with 2 people advancing into a 16 person double elimination singles bracket
11:00AM: Doors open-registration for singles and doubles begins
12:00PM: Registration closes
12:30PM: Doubles bracket - WR1
12:54PM: Doubles bracket - WR2 & LR1
1:18PM: Doubles bracket - LR2 & WR3 (2 tvs available for free play)
1:42PM: Doubles bracket - WF & LR4 (5 tvs available for free play)
2:06PM: Doubles bracket - LR5, WF continue & pools 1 (2 tvs), 2(2 tvs), and 3(1 tv) start
2:30PM: Doubles bracket - LF & pools 1, 2, and 3 continue play
2:54PM: Doubles bracket - GF & pools 1, 2, and 3 finish
3:18PM: Singles pools - pools 4 (2 tvs), 5(2 tvs), 6(2 tvs), 7(1 tv), and 8(1 tv) begin play
3:42PM: Singles pools - pools 4 (2 tvs), 5(2 tvs), 6(2 tvs), 7 (1 tv), and 8 (1 tv) continue
4:06PM: Singles pools - pools 4 (2 tvs), 5(2 tvs), 6(2 tvs) finish - 7 (1 tv) and 8 (1 tv) continue
4:30PM: Singles pools - pools 7 (2 tvs) and 8 (2 tvs) finish -(4 stations available for free play)
5:00PM: Singles bracket - WR1
5:24PM: Singles bracket - WR2 & LR2
5:54PM: Singles bracket - LR2 & WR3 (2 tvs available for free play)
6:18PM: Singles bracket - WF & LR4 (5 tvs available for free play)
6: 42PM: Singles bracket - LR5 and WF continues (7 tvs available for free play)
7:06PM: Singles bracket - LF (7 tvs available for free play)
7:46PM: Singles bracket - GF (7 tvs available for free play)
8:45PM: tear down and pack up - then we can all eat dinner at wings and brew to discuss the event
alphazealot (2:54:59 AM):
Then you gotta tell people how to park, how to get to the venue, how to get their tvs into the venue, and most importantly, where and what is expected for food
alphazealot (2:55:16 AM):
very, very few of these things are done on a regular basis in MD/VA anymore
alphazealot (2:55:29 AM):
most of them though back in like 2005 when I was a TO in the area were quite common
Takeover1806 (2:56:41 AM):
wow amazing
alphazealot (2:56:59 AM):
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj128/alphazealot/BrawlStats.jpg
That is the end of our long convo & man that was alot to cover...
He also wanted me to post this
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tWStKQ2xpdQGtM-XEAGBMBw&single=true&gid=0&output=html
Im tired as hell so Im going to sleep asap but make sure everybody reads & supports this thread
During our convo since he basically helps T.O. the madden & halo community, the madden T.O. asked him to write a guide on how to make there community bigger (they are a very small community for those of you who didn't know).
Since Smash is not nowhere it should be as far as growth, HE IS ACTUALLY WILLING TO MAKE A GUIDE ON HOW TO GROW THE SMASH COMMUNITY & HOW TOURNAMENTS SHOULD BE RUN.
NOW FOR ALL YOU T.O.'S OUT THERE THAT THINK THEY DON'T NEED ANY HELP, IM PRETTY SURE YOU GUYS ARE OPEN FOR FEEDBACK SO PLEASE LISTEN.
The reason Im actually making this thread is to inspire him to make the guide. So what I basically promised is that I will C/P our convo about most of the things we talked about so he will have ideas while making the guide. Now for any of the T.O.'s or anybody that wants the smash community to grow, we just need your support & inspiration to help what would be the stepping stone to smash success.
Here's is the conversation we had about problems md/va is having, problems with of why turnouts are poor, how he brought ohio on there feet, etc.. JUST READ IT lol
alphazealot (1:40:26 AM):
yea the md/va scene is struggling cause you guys need better tourney venues
alphazealot (1:40:30 AM):
$10 venue fee blows
alphazealot (1:40:35 AM):
$5 should be standard
alphazealot (1:40:54 AM):
when im here in the summer im hoping ill be able to hold 1, maybe 2 tournaments
alphazealot (1:41:04 AM):
venue will be <$5
alphazealot (1:41:09 AM):
$5 max
Takeover1806 (1:41:10 AM):
yea it does blow
Takeover1806 (1:41:14 AM):
$10 alot
\
alphazealot (1:41:18 AM):
a **** ton
alphazealot (1:41:32 AM):
phycologicaly the diff between $25 and $30 is huge
alphazealot (1:41:45 AM):
heres what I did in ohio
alphazealot (1:41:48 AM):
to grow the scene
alphazealot (1:41:55 AM):
i started playing a lil over a year ago
alphazealot (1:42:05 AM):
in ohio there were tournaments about every 5 weeks or so
alphazealot (1:42:17 AM):
i found a venue in feb
alphazealot (1:42:23 AM):
started holding my own tournaments
alphazealot (1:42:26 AM):
convinced everyone in ohio
alphazealot (1:42:32 AM):
to accept $10, $10, $5 format
alphazealot (1:42:42 AM):
and 48/22/14/8/4/4 payout scheme
regardless of the size of the event
Takeover1806 (1:42:47 AM):
yea that is really good
alphazealot (1:42:49 AM):
15 people show up
alphazealot (1:42:55 AM):
1/3rd of the people are placing in the money
Takeover1806 (1:43:09 AM):
what players are in ohio??
alphazealot (1:43:38 AM):
me/m2k/shugo/kel/ybm/infern/nope/capem/idk there are a ton now
alphazealot (1:43:40 AM):
basically
alphazealot (1:43:42 AM):
in a year
alphazealot (1:43:51 AM):
we went from like a tournament every month with like 20 people
alphazealot (1:43:55 AM):
to a tournament every weekend
alphazealot (1:44:01 AM):
with like 30-50 people
Takeover1806 (1:44:07 AM):
**** every week
alphazealot (1:44:11 AM):
yea
Takeover1806 (1:44:11 AM):
thats huge
alphazealot (1:44:12 AM):
actually
Takeover1806 (1:44:16 AM):
way better than md/va
alphazealot (1:44:17 AM):
the problem now is we have to many tournaments
Takeover1806 (1:44:52 AM):
only like 20-30 people show up now
alphazealot (1:45:01 AM):
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=246510
Takeover1806 (1:45:05 AM):
I heard ybm beat lain??
alphazealot (1:45:13 AM):
its cause the venue fee is so high and the payouts are only to top 3
if you do top 5 pay outs (so 6 people) just think of this
top 3: maybe 4-5 people can compete for
alphazealot (1:45:51 AM):
spots 4th, 5th/5th? probably 10-15 people can compete for
alphazealot (1:45:58 AM):
like I saw you placed 5th recently
Takeover1806 (1:46:09 AM):
yea that was in jersey
alphazealot (1:46:10 AM):
you wouldhave gotten essentially your $10 entry back for that
alphazealot (1:46:22 AM):
and that would be at like a 20 person event
alphazealot 1:49 am
Takeover1806 (1:51:09 AM):
how do we do that??
alphazealot (1:51:16 AM):
well
alphazealot (1:51:21 AM):
pound 4 should give you guys a boost
Takeover1806 (1:51:25 AM):
kosha boy we did great
alphazealot (1:51:39 AM):
second: expand singles payouts to top 5
Takeover1806 (1:51:47 AM):
the only people that held us back were ally ksizzle adhd
alphazealot (1:51:55 AM):
third: find venues for $5 venue fee, not $10
alphazealot (1:52:03 AM):
drop the C3 venue, its bringing the community down
Takeover1806 (1:52:15 AM):
c3 is a great venue??
alphazealot (1:52:22 AM):
it use to be a great venue
alphazealot (1:52:38 AM):
now you are paying $10 for a tournament on sundays that doesnt even get to start until after 5pm
alphazealot (1:52:41 AM):
that is crazy
Takeover1806 (1:52:48 AM):
no that is just recent
alphazealot (1:52:53 AM):
the owner is robbing md/va blind
Takeover1806 (1:52:56 AM):
it was never on a sunday
alphazealot (1:53:07 AM):
i know, but now it is, and it will probably stay that way
Takeover1806 (1:53:29 AM):
but it did not start that late ever
alphazealot (1:53:29 AM):
i mean i went to the very first c3
alphazealot (1:53:32 AM):
back in the day
alphazealot (1:53:39 AM):
we had the venue all day long
alphazealot (1:53:46 AM):
you could get there at like 10-11am
alphazealot (1:53:53 AM):
and it was a $3 venue fee
alphazealot (1:53:58 AM):
for the first time we did it
alphazealot (1:54:03 AM):
then it was $5 for a bit
alphazealot (1:54:20 AM):
then it was $8 and the owner felt guilty so he promised use "chips and a drink" to make up for the $3
alphazealot (1:54:43 AM):
now its $10, starts at 5pm, no chips/drink, and is on sunday
Takeover1806 (1:54:44 AM):
wow never knew that
Takeover1806 (1:54:51 AM):
yea that sucks
Takeover1806 (1:55:00 AM):
but I was not going to sunday's tourney anyway
Takeover1806 (1:55:06 AM):
I was mainly going to chus
alphazealot (1:55:13 AM):
yea see chu knows where its at
alphazealot (1:55:18 AM):
he knows how to grow a community
alphazealot (1:55:22 AM):
ive copied some of his ideas
alphazealot (1:55:28 AM):
he keeps the costs low so more people can come
Takeover1806 (1:55:42 AM):
yea he does
alphazealot (1:55:42 AM):
keeps the atmosphere friendly, he reaches out to everyone that comes to his tournaments
alphazealot (1:56:00 AM):
so i do the same at mine, i try to shake everyones hand that shows up and i try to let them i know i appreciate them being there
Takeover1806 (1:56:21 AM):
lol yea that is a great strategy
alphazealot (1:56:24 AM):
and i try to make sure they are actually getting a $25 whole-day tournament experience
Takeover1806 (1:56:27 AM):
I realized that a while ago
Takeover1806 (1:56:44 AM):
when he even convinces the not good players to come
alphazealot (1:57:00 AM):
that is how you grow!
Takeover1806 (1:57:12 AM):
but lately our community has been falling
Takeover1806 (1:57:31 AM):
that is why we had to go to out of state tournies for about a straight month
alphazealot (1:57:45 AM):
wow
alphazealot (1:57:53 AM):
did you check the link i sent you?
Takeover1806 (1:58:03 AM):
this was back when virdian & kosha boy
Takeover1806 (1:58:05 AM):
yea i did
alphazealot (1:58:14 AM):
oh thats the other thing
alphazealot (1:58:18 AM):
you guys arent posting brackets
alphazealot (1:58:27 AM):
or hyping full results
alphazealot (1:58:36 AM):
a lot of the mid-low level players
alphazealot (1:58:50 AM):
they really care just about seeing how they did in comparison with other people and they want to see improvement
alphazealot (1:59:11 AM):
if to's are lazy and don't post the brackets on AiB they are missing a huge way to keep newer players connected with the community
Takeover1806 (1:59:24 AM):
yea you are right
Takeover1806 (1:59:30 AM):
about 2 weeks ago
Takeover1806 (1:59:34 AM):
bolt had a tourney
alphazealot (1:59:36 AM):
cause AiB also opens up things like cross-linking results of your past tournaments (a "tournament resume") and also has the ladder and basically facebook for Smash
Takeover1806 (1:59:56 AM):
only teams happened
Takeover1806 (1:59:58 AM):
no singles
Takeover1806 (2:00:03 AM):
no brawl+
Takeover1806 (2:00:08 AM):
bad weather
Takeover1806 (2:00:10 AM):
late times
Takeover1806 (2:00:15 AM):
eveybody was dissapointed
alphazealot (2:00:19 AM):
mm
alphazealot (2:00:22 AM):
that is the other thing
alphazealot (2:00:24 AM):
we dont do melee
alphazealot (2:00:34 AM):
i still love melee
alphazealot (2:00:38 AM):
but having melee + Brawl
alphazealot (2:00:45 AM):
means both tournaments are not the experience they should be
alphazealot (2:01:06 AM):
things run late, the melee players insult the brawl players, try to get new brawl
players to quit before they can even get their feet wet, etc
alphazealot (2:01:45 AM):
and yea, here are the tournament experiences ive had in md/va in the last year
Takeover1806 (2:02:13 AM):
yea you are right
alphazealot (2:02:16 AM):
Crit Hit 4.5: super crowded event in a house with a venue fee, about 10 set ups for 60 people
Takeover1806 (2:02:25 AM):
thats what chu has been trying to do
alphazealot (2:03:12 AM):
chudats xmas biweekly: 5 melee players *****ed that they wanted melee, chu listened so he said melee would happen in the morning, day of the tournament 60 people show up but only 15 people enter melee singles and 5 teams
alphazealot (2:03:19 AM):
brawl doubes doesnt start till 4
alphazealot (2:03:28 AM):
brawl singles, which everyone showed for, doesnt happen
alphazealot (2:03:30 AM):
there were 7 setups
alphazealot (2:03:46 AM):
melee was on 1-2 tvs the whole time, includeing while the brawl tournament was going on
Takeover1806 (2:03:55 AM):
when was this??
alphazealot (2:04:03 AM):
this was his xmas biweekly last year (2008)
alphazealot (2:04:06 AM):
2008
alphazealot (2:04:11 AM):
umm
alphazealot (2:04:16 AM):
after that lets see
alphazealot (2:04:17 AM):
oh
alphazealot (2:04:20 AM):
cot4 (not really md/va)
alphazealot (2:04:59 AM):
crowed, 29 set ups for 250 people, Melee had 4 set ups and if they had given 3 to brawl on saturday every pool could have been run for brawl instead of 3 pools (like mine) starting on sunday (and so only 5/8 people in my pool showed up)
alphazealot (2:05:04 AM):
umm
alphazealot (2:05:53 AM):
oh i did a C3 in April, wasn't bad, about 30 people, I got $10 for 4th place (beating Meep/Esoj I forget who else, lost to Candy/G-reg, stupid snake!)
after that i went to a md/va circuit in the summer, again $10 venue fee, 50 people showed up, there were only 6 setups, and there was no room at all to move around
Takeover1806 (2:08:58 AM):
yea I was dissapointed in the md/va circuit
alphazealot (2:09:03 AM):
the best event
Takeover1806 (2:09:04 AM):
there were like no setups
alphazealot (2:09:05 AM):
i went to
alphazealot (2:09:09 AM):
was run by tantalus
alphazealot (2:09:14 AM):
it was the one that you and i played at
alphazealot (2:09:23 AM):
i had my venue fee waved for set up
alphazealot (2:09:41 AM):
tant actually ran the tournament and called matches and got that stuff played
alphazealot (2:09:52 AM):
and there were decent amount of setups for the number of people
Takeover1806 (2:10:09 AM):
where was this at??
alphazealot (2:10:13 AM):
oh wait
alphazealot (2:10:13 AM):
****
alphazealot (2:10:20 AM):
im confusing that, with the c3 that we played at
alphazealot (2:10:57 AM):
yea nevermind, regardless, the event was in MD in frederick, it was some gun/hunting lodge
alphazealot (2:11:01 AM):
i thought u were there for some reason
alphazealot (2:11:47 AM):
point is: every tournament ive been to in md/va has not really both worth the money
alphazealot (2:11:50 AM):
except for 1
alphazealot (2:12:01 AM):
most are either crowded
alphazealot (2:12:06 AM):
or start to late
alphazealot (2:12:08 AM):
or
Takeover1806 (2:12:11 AM):
yea i was there the gunclub
alphazealot (2:12:11 AM):
the worst
alphazealot (2:12:14 AM):
not enough setups
alphazealot (2:12:21 AM):
like
Takeover1806 (2:12:26 AM):
yea the worst part is the setups
alphazealot (2:12:29 AM):
for my tournametns at wings and brew pizza
Takeover1806 (2:12:34 AM):
no chance for friendlies
alphazealot (2:12:34 AM):
ive held 5 now
Takeover1806 (2:12:40 AM):
run late
alphazealot (2:12:42 AM):
and ive had: 8, 8, 9, 10, and 7 setups
alphazealot (2:12:56 AM):
for 24, 26, 32, 24, and 20 people
alphazealot (2:13:04 AM):
and that is because I cap the event
alphazealot (2:13:05 AM):
lol
alphazealot (2:13:19 AM):
the ohio circuit champs
alphazealot (2:13:26 AM):
i had 12 setups for 33 people
Takeover1806 (2:13:35 AM):
you are a great T.O
alphazealot (2:13:49 AM):
and i dont even give discouts for venue fee
alphazealot (2:14:07 AM):
its just: bring setups so the tournament runs well and we have a great experience
alphazealot (2:14:20 AM):
most TOs dont realize you start running your tournament when you make a thread
alphazealot (2:14:31 AM):
anyone that says they can come i keep track of
alphazealot (2:14:39 AM):
anyone that says they can bring a setup i put down
alphazealot (2:14:49 AM):
when people see a list of 30 names and 2 setups, they naturally step up
alphazealot (2:14:58 AM):
most TOs dont take that extra step
alphazealot (2:15:13 AM):
they just put up a thread and then show up the day of the oturnament and take what they get
alphazealot (2:15:29 AM):
this summer ill do my best to get my old venue in MD
alphazealot (2:15:37 AM):
where my crew ran BOMB 1-4.
alphazealot (2:16:04 AM):
which basically grew the melee scene back in the day, we had like 20/30/70/100+ people
Takeover1806 (2:16:27 AM):
if you can get 50+ people Ill be happy
alphazealot (2:16:32 AM):
oh
alphazealot (2:16:37 AM):
itll happen
alphazealot (2:17:10 AM):
back then
alphazealot (2:17:13 AM):
for the 100+ man tournament
alphazealot (2:17:15 AM):
we have over 40 setups
alphazealot (2:17:36 AM):
again, i kept a list of who was bringing setups and i kept telling people to bring them, and i kept an attendence list
Takeover1806 (2:17:49 AM):
ohh yea that reminds me
alphazealot (2:17:52 AM):
more setups at a 100man tournament in 2005 than a 250 person tournament (cot4) in 2007
Takeover1806 (2:17:53 AM):
is it possible to have a melee tournament the same time as brawl
alphazealot (2:18:30 AM):
possible?
alphazealot (2:18:31 AM):
yes
alphazealot (2:18:34 AM):
should you?
alphazealot (2:18:35 AM):
no
Takeover1806 (2:18:41 AM):
with alot of setups
Takeover1806 (2:18:49 AM):
bring more people
alphazealot (2:18:53 AM):
you thinking of pound 4?
Takeover1806 (2:19:02 AM):
no not like pound
alphazealot (2:19:15 AM):
the problem with running melee and brawl
Takeover1806 (2:19:17 AM):
like an regional or local tourney
alphazealot (2:19:25 AM):
at the same time or at the same tournament
alphazealot (2:19:33 AM):
is that in the end both tournaments end up getting ****ed
Takeover1806 (2:19:53 AM):
how??
alphazealot (2:21:43 AM):
the brawl players see: Melee players *****ing about their game, Melee players who got venue waived taking setups for Melee friendlies that could be used to runt he Brawl tournament faster, Melee getting favortism cause most of the TO's are old school and prefer it over Brawl (aka genesis, first national brawl tournament, you could not even watch the finals because the tournament ran late...essentially because instead of taking Melee set ups and using them to run brawl faster, they just keep letting melee friendlies go on, then on top of that the projector was Melee all day long and so brawl had only 1/3rd the hype cause all there was to watch was a 40 ince screen
alphazealot (2:21:59 AM):
most of this is true in reverse as well
alphazealot (2:22:08 AM):
melee will run slower then it should cause you need to use set ups for brawl
alphazealot (2:22:27 AM):
some brawl players are ***** to melee players (to a lesser extent, but there are some)
alphazealot (2:22:50 AM):
logistically speaking Brawl takes about 1.5X as long to run as melee
Takeover1806 (2:23:13 AM):
**** i feel bad for brawl
alphazealot (2:23:33 AM):
which means that based on resources you shouldn't be spreading it 50/50 and hoping they finish at the same time
alphazealot (2:23:53 AM):
if you want to run melee and brawl and have them end at roughly the same time, you need to split the resources about 35/65
alphazealot (2:24:06 AM):
(35 for Melee, 65 for brawl)
alphazealot (2:24:10 AM):
well no
alphazealot (2:24:15 AM):
dont feel bad
Takeover1806 (2:24:34 AM):
yea that is what I was thinking
alphazealot (2:24:37 AM):
i mean i use to help run the halo 3 tournaments for MLG and now I'm their head ref for the Madden Challenge
alphazealot (2:24:51 AM):
A halo 3 single game takes almost 15 minutes
alphazealot (2:24:58 AM):
a "set" can last almost an entire hour
alphazealot (2:25:02 AM):
and that is just 3 games
Takeover1806 (2:25:23 AM):
wow amazing I did not know you do other games
alphazealot (2:25:26 AM):
for madden, just to get the game started (people have to set audibles and such) takes about 12-13 minutes
Takeover1806 (2:25:29 AM):
that is super long
Takeover1806 (2:25:56 AM):
wow at madden start-up
alphazealot (2:26:04 AM):
with setup time + game time a single game in madden takes about 45 minutes on saturday when quarters are 3 minutes long and an hour on sunday when they are 4 minutes long
Takeover1806 (2:26:13 AM):
I know the players should know there audibles a head of time
alphazealot (2:26:17 AM):
they do
alphazealot (2:26:19 AM):
but
alphazealot (2:26:23 AM):
you cant save them
alphazealot (2:26:30 AM):
so they have to set them each time they play
alphazealot (2:26:48 AM):
and then madden 10 is stupid with how the audibles work, it takes forever just to scroll through the list
Takeover1806 (2:26:56 AM):
even that they should only take a max of up to 5 minutes
alphazealot (2:27:11 AM):
imo brawl running long is actually a good thing because it means more bang for your buck
alphazealot (2:27:16 AM):
each player gets 5 minutes to set their audibales
alphazealot (2:27:28 AM):
most players actually need more time then we allow them
alphazealot (2:27:54 AM):
cause they set tons of audibles cause madden at high level is crazy you dont actually run plays from your playbook you basicalyl just run audibles the whole game
Takeover1806 (2:28:13 AM):
wow I still wish I played madden competitevely
Takeover1806 (2:28:19 AM):
yea i know audibles all day
Takeover1806 (2:28:24 AM):
thats how you do it son
Takeover1806 (2:28:27 AM):
lol
alphazealot (2:28:27 AM):
lol
alphazealot (2:28:34 AM):
well
alphazealot (2:28:44 AM):
madden has a very small competitive community
alphazealot (2:28:57 AM):
and ive talked with their TO's and im trying to get them to slowly change
alphazealot (2:28:58 AM):
in madden
Takeover1806 (2:29:00 AM):
wow seriously??
alphazealot (2:29:08 AM):
people wont go to your tournament unless
Takeover1806 (2:29:12 AM):
i thought the madden community is expanding
alphazealot (2:29:13 AM):
-You guarantee your payout
alphazealot (2:29:27 AM):
-The payout is a lot, and usually only to 1st
alphazealot (2:29:27 AM):
lol
alphazealot (2:29:46 AM):
they esestially only pay out to 1st place, sometimes to second. the idea of even 60/30/10 is not common in madden
alphazealot (2:29:51 AM):
so their underground community is super small
alphazealot (2:30:09 AM):
all they really have is the madden challenge then a few super hyped underground tournaments a year
Takeover1806 (2:30:13 AM):
wow for madden being huge that is insane
alphazealot (2:30:19 AM):
I KNOW
alphazealot (2:30:24 AM):
and its because of how they run their tournaments
alphazealot (2:30:29 AM):
Smash, we got it right early on
alphazealot (2:30:40 AM):
we dropped the guaranteed payout BS a long time ago
alphazealot (2:30:44 AM):
and just went with pot splits
Takeover1806 (2:30:45 AM):
yea that is why I moved to the smash community
Takeover1806 (2:30:59 AM):
well im lying but that is great
alphazealot (2:31:09 AM):
then we went away from the 70/20/10 model in the traditional fighting games and switched to the 60/30/10 model
Takeover1806 (2:31:13 AM):
that is why I think we can be the biggest game community
alphazealot (2:31:15 AM):
OH
alphazealot (2:31:17 AM):
POOLS
alphazealot (2:31:19 AM):
jesus
alphazealot (2:31:23 AM):
i cant believe i forgot
alphazealot (2:31:26 AM):
this is the biggest thing
alphazealot (2:31:33 AM):
at every tournament I go to in ohio
alphazealot (2:31:34 AM):
we do pools
alphazealot (2:31:36 AM):
every
alphazealot (2:31:37 AM):
single
alphazealot (2:31:38 AM):
tournament
Takeover1806 (2:31:44 AM):
how??
alphazealot (2:32:15 AM):
cause our TO's arent lazy and we know that unless you are one of the top 5-8 players there, pools is essentially what you look forward to
alphazealot (2:32:17 AM):
MD/VA use to do pools
alphazealot (2:32:35 AM):
use to, not anymore, which is another reason for shrinkage
alphazealot (2:33:07 AM):
Actually: I dont want to call people like chu/tant lazy, they arent, these statements dont apply across the board
alphazealot (2:33:31 AM):
logistically speaking pools is very simple, if you have 32 people you should do 4 pools of 8 with top 4 advancing
Takeover1806 (2:33:34 AM):
well I think you should give them tips
alphazealot (2:33:40 AM):
give each pool of 8 two tvs
alphazealot (2:33:56 AM):
maybe we should just C/P this convo to somewhere haha
alphazealot (2:34:12 AM):
and yea since i have the time the madden TO's asked that i make them a thread on how to grow their community
alphazealot (2:34:22 AM):
maybe I should do that for smash to
Takeover1806 (2:34:29 AM):
yea you need to
Takeover1806 (2:34:35 AM):
I think if you do that for smash
Takeover1806 (2:34:50 AM):
then our community will def grow
Takeover1806 (2:34:54 AM):
if you need my help
Takeover1806 (2:34:57 AM):
I got you
alphazealot (2:35:08 AM):
yea
alphazealot (2:35:12 AM):
inspiration
alphazealot (2:35:16 AM):
is my biggest problem
alphazealot (2:35:22 AM):
its hard to sit down and write out guides and such
Takeover1806 (2:35:30 AM):
you are not lying
alphazealot (2:35:34 AM):
if i get inspired i can wrte for hours
Takeover1806 (2:35:40 AM):
I dont even know how you guys do it sometime
alphazealot (2:35:44 AM):
if im not feeling it i just procrastinate
Takeover1806 (2:36:21 AM):
even though I am new to the community you are easily if not the top T.O.
Takeover1806 (2:36:44 AM):
but how come smash does not have a sponser
Takeover1806 (2:36:48 AM):
like other games do
alphazealot (2:36:55 AM):
well, dont say that, you havent been at an event ive run yet lol
alphazealot (2:47:51 AM):
kk
alphazealot (2:47:55 AM):
oh
alphazealot (2:47:57 AM):
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=252077
alphazealot (2:47:59 AM):
and
alphazealot (2:48:20 AM):
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=208631
alphazealot (2:48:28 AM):
those are the two venues im gonna be using in ohio
alphazealot (2:48:33 AM):
for the next 6 months
alphazealot (2:48:45 AM):
and those are two touraments i ran in dec (dec 5th and 12th)
alphazealot (2:50:42 AM):
the OC Champs I had 3 contests for people
contests are always nice/easy
Signature contest: best sig gets free entry to tourney
alphazealot (2:51:25 AM):
the signature is basically your tournament, and its done to promote the tournament around smashboards
I did an "amauter teams" contest
which was I just gave $10 to the team that had never placed in the top 3 before
alphazealot (2:52:00 AM):
one of the guys on the team had never won money, ever
he was very happy just to get $5
alphazealot (2:52:44 AM):
then there is this guy (also a very good TO) named the Kiest, he made this thing called the obsticle course, its a side contest to enter for $1
alphazealot (2:52:47 AM):
very entertaining
alphazealot (2:52:52 AM):
gives people something else to do
alphazealot (2:53:05 AM):
he took the idea from another TO in ohio named Nope (also good)
alphazealot (2:53:24 AM):
Nopes crew (springfield) did something caled the "ripn" challenge at their MW circuit champs
alphazealot (2:53:45 AM):
the gist was, $1 for 3 tries, whoever got the highest KO total in cruel brawl won a new controller
alphazealot (2:54:12 AM):
then you gotta look at things like planning an event
alphazealot (2:54:15 AM):
like this: Schedule with 8 TVS
-Double elimination doubles bracket
-8 pools of 4 with 2 people advancing into a 16 person double elimination singles bracket
11:00AM: Doors open-registration for singles and doubles begins
12:00PM: Registration closes
12:30PM: Doubles bracket - WR1
12:54PM: Doubles bracket - WR2 & LR1
1:18PM: Doubles bracket - LR2 & WR3 (2 tvs available for free play)
1:42PM: Doubles bracket - WF & LR4 (5 tvs available for free play)
2:06PM: Doubles bracket - LR5, WF continue & pools 1 (2 tvs), 2(2 tvs), and 3(1 tv) start
2:30PM: Doubles bracket - LF & pools 1, 2, and 3 continue play
2:54PM: Doubles bracket - GF & pools 1, 2, and 3 finish
3:18PM: Singles pools - pools 4 (2 tvs), 5(2 tvs), 6(2 tvs), 7(1 tv), and 8(1 tv) begin play
3:42PM: Singles pools - pools 4 (2 tvs), 5(2 tvs), 6(2 tvs), 7 (1 tv), and 8 (1 tv) continue
4:06PM: Singles pools - pools 4 (2 tvs), 5(2 tvs), 6(2 tvs) finish - 7 (1 tv) and 8 (1 tv) continue
4:30PM: Singles pools - pools 7 (2 tvs) and 8 (2 tvs) finish -(4 stations available for free play)
5:00PM: Singles bracket - WR1
5:24PM: Singles bracket - WR2 & LR2
5:54PM: Singles bracket - LR2 & WR3 (2 tvs available for free play)
6:18PM: Singles bracket - WF & LR4 (5 tvs available for free play)
6: 42PM: Singles bracket - LR5 and WF continues (7 tvs available for free play)
7:06PM: Singles bracket - LF (7 tvs available for free play)
7:46PM: Singles bracket - GF (7 tvs available for free play)
8:45PM: tear down and pack up - then we can all eat dinner at wings and brew to discuss the event
alphazealot (2:54:59 AM):
Then you gotta tell people how to park, how to get to the venue, how to get their tvs into the venue, and most importantly, where and what is expected for food
alphazealot (2:55:16 AM):
very, very few of these things are done on a regular basis in MD/VA anymore
alphazealot (2:55:29 AM):
most of them though back in like 2005 when I was a TO in the area were quite common
Takeover1806 (2:56:41 AM):
wow amazing
alphazealot (2:56:59 AM):
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj128/alphazealot/BrawlStats.jpg
That is the end of our long convo & man that was alot to cover...
He also wanted me to post this
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tWStKQ2xpdQGtM-XEAGBMBw&single=true&gid=0&output=html
Im tired as hell so Im going to sleep asap but make sure everybody reads & supports this thread