Central Valley Invitational

[Drex]

What may be the last big Melee tournaments the Central Valley may see... I thought it would be great to do it in the most professional fashion.

I will be organizing a series of 3 qualifying tournaments, and a championship invitational. The first venue is set in stone, as is the finals venue, but for the other 2 qualifiers I am still looking for locations/organizers to host them.

Here is a bit from the official release

LEVEL ONE GAMING TO HOST FIRST OF THREE QUALIFYING TOURNAMENTS
Tournament slated for August 25th, 2007 – 1:00pm



The first of three qualifying tournaments for the Central Valley Invitational on August 25th, at Level One Gaming in Clovis, CA at 1:00pm. The three tournaments will give a total of 6 players an automatic berth into an exclusive, invite only tournament consisting of the top 16 players in the Central Valley. After the three qualifying tournaments, a panel of six will pick the remaining 10 players for the Invitational. Players will be able to compete in as many qualifying rounds as they wish. If the same player(s) takes 1st or 2nd place more than once, the player(s) directly behind them will take the qualifying spot(s). A consolation match will be played if needed.

Entry to the qualifying tournaments and Invitational will be limited to those who reside in the North, or Sacramento Valley (Counties included – Shasta, Tehama, Glenn, Butte, Colusa, Sutter, Yuba, Placer, Yolo, and Sacramento) and South, or San Joaquin Valley (Counties included – San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, and Kern).

Entry fee to the August 25th tournament will be $15.00 per player, $3.00 of which will be going towards the venue fee. After venue fee payouts will be as follows – 70% 1st 20% 2nd and 10% 3rd.

Venues and dates for the following two qualifiers are still in the works, as well as sponsors for those events. The Invitational will be held at Level One Gaming sometime in late November/early December.




For more information on this event or any other events scheduled to take place in the Central Valley you can visit our webpage at www.myspace.com/CVSmash or contact Drexel Lemanski by email or phone.

If you are interested in hosting a qualifier and you are in the counties listed, please let me know, i would like to do 1 pretty deep in the north valley and 1 pretty deep in south valley, as fresno/clovis is pretty much smack dab in the middle of it all.

If you need any more information, you can email me at drexel.lemanski@gmail.com , call me at level one - 559.322.4111 or leave me a message either here or on myspace.

If you do plan on attending the first qualifier please post here and get the word spread... we will need gamecube/wii's for the event so if you plan on brining one of those please post as well. We will however, not be using the big TV's like we have at previous events, we will be using smaller CRT tv's that do not have any delay. We plan on having 12 stations available ATLEAST so we will need atleast that many gamecube/wiis.

 

[The Game II]

I would hope that PowerPlay Gaming on the Yuba-Sutter county lines is one of the stops, as that houses tournaments on a regular basis.

--GCII

 

[Drex]

if you can give me a way to get in contact with the tournament organizers/owners there, i could talk to them and it could be a possibility.

 

[The Game II]

I think the owner/management at PowerPlay do very little. I believe the person running the tournaments is QTP (he's done the last couple).

--GCII

 

[The___cheese]

Why limit it to the central valley though?

Why not allow people to travel?

 

[Drex]

Because there is much dispute about who is the best in the central valley, as every attempt to do rankings has not included all of the central valley. This way we can include the entire central valley and see how big the entire community really is. There are really no stand-out players from the central valley as of now... and we want to change that. Once brawl comes out the community is only going to get bigger, and this is a first step in truly organizing and uniting the central valley smash players. There will be tournaments in the future that players outside of our region will be able to attend if they feel the need to travel and play against what we have to offer, but up until now, there really hasn't been a demand for that... but maybe if we get these tournaments rolling, get some of these players in the spotlight, let people see what we have to offer... that will change.

 

[The___cheese]

Sacramento has an insane amount of smashers lol.

 

[Drex]

and all of sac is ranked under norcal, we have never had a single person from sac show up to any of our tournaments, maybe this will change that.

 

[kamakazi1987]

This sounds like a cool idea to me. now when you say deep south, would a place like Porterville be a good spot?? i am from Porterville, but i would have to find a venue for the tournament. That might be a little bit difficult, but let me know if Porterville would be a place that you would like.

 

[jmic]

This is sweet. If I'm able to go, I'll bring a cube. The 25th is the day after my birthday, hopefully I'll be in town.

 

[Drex]

porterville would be a great venue for a stop, as a lot of the best players in the central valley hail from porterville. kamkazi i suggest getting with shadowcloud and seeing if you guys can get something going.

on a side note, im in negotiation with some pretty decent sponsorships for the tournaments, as far as prizes go that aren't cash, but are tangible.

as of now, jamba juice and bawls are interested in throwing in some stuff... a few other companies are interested but ill save all the surprises for the day of the tournament

I'm thinking that for our north stop, the tournament should be up in the Sac area, so if anyone from up there is a tournament organizer, or knows a tournament organizer who has a pretty large venue available, let me know how to get a hold of them

 

[Zivilyn Bane]

Wow Jake! I can't believe you posted here at smashboards.

Drex, Jake is a guy that I used to play with, and he's trained quite a bit with HugS.

Jake is one of the original CenCal smashers, and used to be one of the best. I'm assuming he's a bit rusty now...

I'm still trying to get something going in Saint Joseph. It's so hard to start from scratch...

=/

 

[Mr. Ganondorf]

Drex you are such a jerk. I'll be going to college in berkeley at the time of most of these tournies. It'll be almost impossible for me to make any of the qualifiers much less the invitational. Coincidence? Lol jk. Maybe I can go to the Sac town qualifier. And maybe I'll have xmas vacation for the championship. BTW, no known smashers from CenCal? ZivilynBane ***** and a lot of ppl knew him. And me too. I just pwned all kindsa face at OC3. Such a fun tourney. Omg. Anyway, I leave for college the 17th. Maybe I'll go play you guys and **** Lit/AEO. Tell him. I wanna MM him with my Ganon. Peace.

 

[shadowcloud]

porterville has no venue
is there going to be cash prizes?

 

[Delphiki]

Yuba City Powerplay (the one TGII mentioned) is about an hour north of Sac, and a place the Sacramentonians have been to several times. It's a good venue for us. Send a message to QTP about hosting it there.

Where (what city) will the championship be held?

 

[Drex]

could you give me a way to get a hold of qtp?

and the championship will be back in clovis... I am not completely sure on how that is going to be ran, and what kind of money is going to be paid out... i've got to talk to some of my "business" associates and see how much money we can kick in to it.. and how much i personally can.

still going steady on picking up sponsors... hopefully soon i can get some to throw cash in to these tournaments rather than just prizes :]

 

[RyNo 86]

So far I've only been to one tournment at lv 1 and I got *****, but why not try my had a one of the qualifiers. I will be able to bring a cube and maybe a wii.

 

[Drex]

www.getyourtournament.com has done a story on this series, if you want to check it out http://www.getyourtournament.com/news/200247.html

 

[Lunchbox]

Man this has got to be a really dumb idea for a Tourney cuz there is no way you'll be able to find the top 16 Smashers in the Central Valley

 

[shadowmage]

hey i wanan join i live in lemoore :s

 

[Mr. Ganondorf]

Dammit drex you're such a noob. Not only are these tournaments after summer's end, the first one is the same weekend as Evo World! Sigh, I only have to pwn at one to make it to the invitational right? One at Yuba City would be great, I was born there, love that place. BTW I was repping CenCal hard at Evo West with my top 8 finish (rofl omfg such a lame tournament, funny story on how the lowly Mr. Ganondorf managed top 8). BTW Lit, I changed my mind after Evo, I've given up on Ganon vs Sheik lol, Doc all the way for that gay matchup.

 

[shadowmage]

lol ^^ hehe

 

[Zoap]

Just Wondering

Just wondering why you chose those select counties? I mean if you were gonna do an only Cencal tourney it'd make more sence to only allow these counties.

But instead for some reason that I cant seem to understand(hence i ask) you chose these counties.

Now your probably wondering well why would I care anyways, well I happen to live in Contra Costa County, which is just to west of most of the counties your allowing. Your also not allowing Monterey San Benito, Santa Clara, Alameda, Santa Cruz, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Mono, Alpine, Calaveras, Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Sierra, Plumas, Solano, Napa, Lake, and many more even though you extend as far north as Shasta. If you could explain why the select few counties are allowed to compete and not all counties then Ill retract this post. But as of right now it looks like your excluding the counties where heavy competition is for some unknown reason, I for one no for a fact that Sacramento and Modesto both identify as Norcal but because they are located in the selected counties they could be Cencal as well. Please just explain this.

 

[MacD]

you know, zoap has a good point, and i would like to hear the answer

i don't know the counties that well, but looking at it, you included a lot of nor cal nor cal, and kern is far south, i don't know what you concider central valley but from the map of accepted areas, i don't see how that is close to central cal concidering some of the counties are at the top of the state

thanks zoap for bringing that to my and probably others attentions

 

[park5150]

amen zoap [peach=cheap lol]

Now your probably wondering well why would I care anyways, well I happen to live in Contra Costa County, which is just to west of most of the counties your allowing. Your also not allowing Monterey San Benito, Santa Clara, Alameda, Santa Cruz, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Mono, Alpine, Calaveras, Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Sierra, Plumas, Solano, Napa, Lake, and many more even though you extend as far north as Shasta. If you could explain why the select few counties are allowed to compete and not all counties then Ill retract this post. But as of right now it looks like your excluding the counties where heavy competition is for some unknown reason, I for one no for a fact that Sacramento and Modesto both identify as Norcal but because they are located in the selected counties they could be Cencal as well. Please just explain this.

yeah. what is this. I agree with zoap.

 

[HyugaRicdeau]

I think any sort of political boundary is ultimately a completely arbitrary way to separate things like this in the first place. It would seem more relevant to take into account where the people who have gone to Cencal tourneys live, as opposed to basing it off of some lines that some guys who died 100 years ago happened to draw one day. I know you are trying to base it more or less on the definition of the valley, but why let these lines define what that is instead of the community?

 

[Zoap]

Ok so my post just got deleted but I'll try to resumarize what I wrote lol.

I realize what your saying Sheridan and I completely agree that allowing only a select few due to location is a dumb idea. But if we go by the simple standard of who attended these tournaments, you end up with Mango, DSF, DC, BTZO and more being excluded due to the prior county lines(see map 2). Now I know that Cencal does not get to travel much and when they do its only a select few. So why limit this tourney down? If anything if you wanted to help the Cencal scene you should not only allow outside players to attend but ENCOURAGE it. Granted that Cencal has some very good players who more than hold their own against both Norcal and Socal but I'm sure they wouldn't mind some more outside competition. If I'm incorrect in this statement I will retract it and appologize, but if my oringinal question as to why those counties are allowed, yet some counties(even those with players that do attend Cencal tournies) were excluded then I'll be more than happy to leave this thread be to take its course and such.

PS. None of this against you Sheridan, and I would just like to clearly state that I do not think that it should just be limited to the counties I highlighted in the first map, but was more using an example of if it were to be a cencal only tournament those would be the most logical counties(location wise).

 

[jmic]

Hmm, it'd be weird for me too. I live both in San Mateo and Merced counties, depending on the season, due to school. Would I still be able to compete?

 

[HyugaRicdeau]

Ok so my post just got deleted but I'll try to resumarize what I wrote lol.

I realize what your saying Sheridan and I completely agree that allowing only a select few due to location is a dumb idea. But if we go by the simple standard of who attended these tournaments, you end up with Mango, DSF, DC, BTZO and more being excluded due to the prior county lines(see map 2). Now I know that Cencal does not get to travel much and when they do its only a select few. So why limit this tourney down? If anything if you wanted to help the Cencal scene you should not only allow outside players to attend but ENCOURAGE it. Granted that Cencal has some very good players who more than hold their own against both Norcal and Socal but I'm sure they wouldn't mind some more outside competition. If I'm incorrect in this statement I will retract it and appologize, but if my oringinal question as to why those counties are allowed, yet some counties(even those with players that do attend Cencal tournies) were excluded then I'll be more than happy to leave this thread be to take its course and such.

PS. None of this against you Sheridan, and I would just like to clearly state that I do not think that it should just be limited to the counties I highlighted in the first map, but was more using an example of if it were to be a cencal only tournament those would be the most logical counties(location wise).

I agree with all of this. Your definition of Cencal counties makes sense from a purist point of view. Of course then Deep Norcal is in Cencal haha. I'd throw in Kern there too, and I suppose Marin, SF, San Mateo, and SLO since the map seems to be latitude based. Anyway, that's a moot point regardless so let's not debate it.

But yeah, I mean I don't think it benefits anyone to keep this tourney geographically exclusive unless you're sick of DSF (and Deep Norcal to a lesser extent) taking your money :/

 

[Zoap]

^ This man is a genius. Sheridan we should smash sometime during the week. I dont go back to school till the 16th hit me up some time.

 

[HyugaRicdeau]

DBR is coming to my place Saturday. If you can make it (and I don't have too many people coming over already), see if you can tag with one of them, bring Pierre and THE SNAP if they want to go.

Hi-five for hijacking this thread btw.

 

[Zoap]

awesome will def do my best to be there ill check wit da snap and brotha pierre.

 

[Mr. Ganondorf]

Woot for cool NorCal ppl hijacking this thread! I also agree that Drex's choices of counties are a bit befuddling. If this is a tournament to decide who is best in CenCal, exclude SoCal and NorCal. If this is a tourney to improve the CenCal scene and to see how CenCal does against the best, invite everyone.

 

[Drex]

I choose the counties I did as they are what are considered to be the Central Valley... I didn't think that this tournament would happen without some tweaking to the counties allowed in the tournament. This is a tournament to show who the best in the Central Valley but some people brought up some valid points. DSF, Mango, BTZO and a few others have traveled more than once to partake in our tournaments here in the fresno area. Also, the boundaries do go a little bit north and maybe they should be a little more east/west rather than just focusing on the valley. Zoap I have met you before (in San Jose, back when ZivilynBane was still around) and you seem to be a very active member in the smash community, so if you have aim or something and you could PM me your info so we could talk, maybe you could help me get this a little more fare to those in the general central cali area, you seem to have put a little bit of time in to those county maps.

I appreciate that MOST of the comments posted were constructive criticism rather than straight out bashing me... though one person did say that you couldn't get 16 players in the central valley, and I think we probably right now, in those counties, have 50+ active smash players... so he's just being ignorant.

If you have any comments, questions, suggestions please let me know. I am doing this tournament based off of what people want, if people are willing to travel and people are willing to partake in these tournaments, then let me know! But if you aren't serious about traveling and getting in on this tournaments, then don't stick your nose in it... No need to make exceptions or change things up or for me to stress out when you are just saying it would be cool but you don't plan on attending.

The first tournament is still on for august 25th... so zoap give me a way to get a hold of you, and sheridan as well, I have seen you travel around quite a bit too... so maybe you guys can give me a little bit more insight than I have as I do not travel as much as others.

 

[MacD]

i am glad to you aren't being stubborn and willing to work with people

i do understand that the central valley is more up and down in the middle rather the extended east and west, but to me, it just seemed like 2 or 3 of the counties were obviously in norcal, i know i am not well travled to tounamnets, but it just seemed like the boundries were a little messed up

 

[Lunchbox]

Yo are not even close to getting the central valley right cuz like Macd said the central valley is through the middle of Cali not extended out to the easter and wester parts with the way you have it set up you mite aswell include all of cali and just make for the Best 16 of Cali

 

[MacD]

Yo are not even close to getting the central valley right cuz like Macd said the central valley is through the middle of Cali not extended out to the easter and wester parts with the way you have it set up you mite aswell include all of cali and just make for the Best 16 of Cali

wo wo wo, don't twist my words, i said i understood some of his reasoning but he might want to consider extending it out to the east and west a little

zoap had reason to want more of the eastern and western counties in there, but i didn't agree with his idea of all east and west

 

[Lunchbox]

Man *** it just do like i said and make it to where you find the top 16 smashers in Cali

 

[HyugaRicdeau]

I think you guys are missing the point.

The first is, why make it a Central Valley exclusive at all? Making it exclusive just tells you how well people in the Central Valley do against people that they play all the time, which is in any case less important than how people do against opponents they've never played (IMO). It also is more motivating to show up to a tourney where there is fresh blood in the scene.

The second is that the definitions of the "valley" given in the first post are essentially arbitrary and given without consideration to what the "central valley community" actually is. Of course, if the first point is recognized, then this one becomes moot.

And as for "Top 16 in CA," this tourney would certainly not be that, because there's no motivation for the major players of Norcal and Socal to both trek there. It would just be top 16 who showed up that day. Not to mention that nobody who knows anything about rankings puts all their stock in one tourney anyway.

That being said, it's not like I don't want this to be a good tourney or anything, I just am unclear about the goals and the M.O.

 

[Drex]

The idea behind this tournament was to once and for all find out who the best in Central Cali is... do you see any of our players ranked, nope... maybe because they dont travel, maybe because they arent good enough... who knows. But people wanted to know who the best is... because there is alot of people claiming "best in the valley". So theres the idea behind it...

I have been organizing and running tournaments for about 4 years now, for the past year, here in california and before that in Gainesville, Florida. I come up with a lot of ideas as far as gaming tournaments go, and I am just trying something to see how it will go.

If players do not wish to make the trip to clovis for the first tournament, then thats ok... thats why I want to have 2 more tournaments in the north and south valley, but maybe.. with enough organization I can make this a little more large scale...

If I can find venues in nor cal and so cal to host a qualifier that feeds in to the championship then I would gladly do that, I just wasn't shooting for that big...

With that said, the tournament will still happen in august, but it has been brought to my attention that it is schedule for the same day as evo world... so maybe we will push it forward or back a weekend...

I want the championship to be something big, I want to put money in to this... I want to make the years of playing smash worth it for a few people... If I do decide to take this statewide, I will take more from each qualifier in to the championship, but I am not sure of that yet.

So if you are a driving force behind norcal or socal smash and you wish to collaborate with me.. please send me a private message... I want to make this as enjoyable for as many people as i possibly can.