Improving our Community (ATL South Logo?)

[Aglow]

I still need to get homebrew on my wii, and recording equipment. I know there are tutorials for it, but some help IRL would be nice: I don't want to **** up this wii. I think I will begin by hosting monthlies, and advertising them at my USF campus. This will pull in a lot of newer players who think they are the best thing since Moses, and hopefully keep them excited to learn. I will also be trying to grow the "smash club", a small group that never got off the ground last year. We could get some Student Government funding, and put it towards making it to Atlanta : D

 

[exarch]

@ Pappy: Fantastic, I'm looking forward to it. I think it shouldn't be much longer than 5-10 seconds (if I was doing it it'd be 5) simply because long intros bore me. I'm watching to see the match, not to see the intro.

Raven brings up a good point. How can we make ourselves approachable as a community so we gain all the new members possible? (Also I don't think we will be doing much better than keeping every 1 or 2 out of 10 new people who attend a tournament; smashers are rare people.) Having legitimacy to our tournaments, and being friendly in friendlies is a great place to start. Everyone's had different experiences in this department, so finding out from many people what stuck them on smash would be extremely enlightening.

 

[dashdancedan]

We should have a community like Teamliquid with VODs and player ranking and tournament discussion.

 

[thegreatkazoo]

A lotta good stuff happening in the thread, which I will add more onto a little later.

 

[ZIO]

I can make intros. I've got decent experience with the Sony Vegas Pro. All I would need is someone with some audio experience to help make an easy 10-15 second tune.

No need to make the intro long. Or fancy.

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

Everyone that's actually interested in improving the Florida/Southern community should read this thread, if they haven't already.

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=259102

 

[Purple]

It would probably be best to have multiple animators and such, that makes you and me Zio. Audio is really just a matter of goldwave cutting and fading out, which isn't that hard to do, i can tell you how to. Drum and bass music sound like good music for intros?

 

[Dark Sonic]

There are a couple points of that AZ convo that I really think could help our community grow.

1. Larger payout scheme. Coming from me this will probably be seen like bias, but I think AZ made a pretty good point. The top 3 spots at any given tournament are very hard to break though, and it's a little disheartening to go to a tournament knowing full well that you have virtually no chance of placing into the money. At least in CFL, it's pretty much guaranteed that Hbox and Colbol will get first and second (not necessarily in that order), so it's pretty much just a fight for third. With larger payouts, more people could compete for "money spots," and there'd be more incentive for "top 5" placement.

2. Pools. Going along with the previous point that most players won't be placing into the money, I don't really think they're getting as much as they could out of that 15$ entrance fee. That guy that only got to play 2 sets and got dead last paid the same amount as the one who got 8 sets and won the tournament. All we need to get pools done is a little organization (heck, we could've done pools at sword dancer's tourney. We had more than enough setups for it). We regularly bring a good amount of setups, we just need to cut down on the friendlies while the tournament is going. I like AZ's system of slowly adding more friendly TVs each round of the tournament. By having TVs dedicated to friendlies, players will be less inclined to sneak in matches between tournament sets, which can save a very large amount of time.


3. Full results (including brackets). It may not seem like a big thing, but I personally like to check what placement I get at tournaments and compare it to previous placements and placements against other players. It's really not that hard to just save the bracket as an image and upload it after the tournament is over, and if the TO doesn't feel like figuring out who placed how high based on the bracket...I'm sure one of the entrants would be happy to do it.


That's my take on what could make going to tournaments a better experience.

 

[Purple]

3. Full results (including brackets). It may not seem like a big thing, but I personally like to check what placement I get at tournaments and compare it to previous placements and placements against other players. It's really not that hard to just save the bracket as an image and upload it after the tournament is over, and if the TO doesn't feel like figuring out who placed how high based on the bracket...I'm sure one of the entrants would be happy to do it.

This also helps power rankings be less biased and more accurate.

 

[azianraven]

Pool would be straight up ballin. 2 sets of melee fly by so fast.

I think alot of players would enjoy that not just because you get your money's worth of matches, but also you get more matches with the same pressure and intensity a tournament match gives. Quite frankly, you can play all the friendlies you want to up your game and are free to mess up, but nothing measures up to an actual match where a mistake can cost you a stock and you are forced to play at an optimal level in order to succeed.

 

[exarch]

The couple of people working on intros, I think it would be a good idea to have an ending brand screen (like the nike check at the end of commercials,) to maintain something uniform for the introductions.

We could use a melee/brawl sound effect along with it. I think having the consistency would be really good for what we're trying to do.

Loving the input y'all.

 

[ZIO]

I suppose we can do a little something at the end of the video.


And, if you want to do bass and drums, go ahead. Just make two separate tunes. I don't know how to do it, so I'll leave it up to you.

 

[ZIO]

Also - maybe this topic should be stickied so we can gain some more interest.

 

[Purple]

Do any of you think we should have a emblem particularly for Atl South? For simplicities sake?

 

[Exdeath]

Do any of you think we should have a emblem particularly for Atl South? For simplicities sake?

Maybe a mascot/animal/etc. that resembles the region? It seems to resemble a bird or a stingray to me.

 

[Purple]

There are alot of falcos in the south :x. Or Space animals.

 

[Exdeath]

There are alot of falcos in the south :x. Or Space animals.

Shouldn't it be indicative of the community at large?

 

[Purple]

Shouldn't it be indicative of the community at large?

Then it would just be the smash symbol correct?

 

[Exdeath]

Then it would just be the smash symbol correct?

That would work. I personally think that it should hold some regional flavor as well though.

 

[ZIO]

Then we will throw some watermelon and some fried chicken for the south.

Is that flavor enough?

 

[harriettheguy]

How about a a rich emerald colored smash symbol with some savage war paint smeared in the background? Or a black falcon with warpaint eating soul food?

Everyone loves falcon. He's a meme.

 

[BearsAreScary]

Honestly I was ready to be like "Thanks for the games, peace *****es!", but I think as a combination of the recent **** I've dealt with on SRK combined with the love CS is getting on Dustloop, I'm gonna try to get a lil' something started at Gatech. They may start as just BB gatherings, and may evolve into bigger gatherings, but my goal is to hold a real tournament at Gatech. Not to make any $$ of course, I want this thing to pay for itself. But honestly, I think Gatech is a great place to start for making the ATL FGC scene (yes, I am including Smash in this). Let's look at what we got.

1. There's me, I've been shady as of late, but as you may have noticed, BBCS is my revival into this community. I'm back in, and passionate as ever. My main deal is that I know folks. I know all you Smash folks the best probably, but I know a number of other guys that may be able to help out. I know the sort of underground here at Tech, me and Tong have talked to just about every single person who has played any FG here at the school, and I'm always here to help out. I have played around with SF4, BB, TvC, MB, GG, all 3 smash bros games, and DotA here. I have a rep at the LAN as that ******* who holds up tournaments because I'm always playing a match in something else. I wanna take this to the next level, at least locally (except for the ******* part)

2. There's Micaelis and 4GOD (2 of GA's top 10!). I know Micaelis already hosts Smash gatherings at his place (which I hear is awesome, still haven't been >_<), and that's a fantastic start. You guys know the low-down better than I do, but I imagine if I do most of the ****ty legwork (talking to RHA, GT ACM, blah blah) just to rent out a sweet room for a day, you'll be on board with turning a friendly gathering into a sweet tournament.

3. There's my friend Ben. For those of you who don't know him, he's the guy whose place every single good SF player in GA wants to be at. He hosts pretty regular gatherings featuring many of GA's top SF players, and he's a really cool guy and is keen on getting people to play games they really want to play (he loves everything Capcom - CvS2, MvC2, A2, ST, 3S + [non-Capcom] GG), and used to play SF4 hard, but now just hosts gaming days and helps our scene grow.

4. There's Ivysaur (and the rest of the DL gang!). I'm talking some mad hype on DL, and the [former] CT community seems ready for a resurgance of a non-broken BB. Of course my game is all just talk at the moment, since I'm out of the country and can't really host anything. BB folks, trust me that I'll come back solid But honestly our BB scene is ripe for growth, and I really want it to actually grow so I have people to play against! I also want to get this game on showcase some more, as I believe it has a unique appeal to a certain (Tech nerd) crowd.

Even though that 1st guy is a complete noob, that's at least 3 good people who know how to bring the hype and bring together the community (literally). So let's answer two basic questions:

1) Why Gatech? Our school is smack dab in Metro Atlanta, which means that it's a (theoretically) fair drive for everyone. I know that not everyone can come out every time, and I know that some people loved that Waba was way out on 85 or that USGA is way out on 400, but the fact is that people from EP or whereever else they're from (Umby - my condolences) have a much crazier drive over there. No location is perfect for everyone, but I think a place like our school is a pretty good start. Additionally, if you're not familiar with the kinds of people that inhabit our school, they are nerds. Which means that we not only get the usual appeal of college kids being like "oooo video games" but you get a lot of people who may play (and likely suck) at those games. When tech hosts their little free tournaments, even games like TvC bring out more than 10 competitors. It's a decent starting point, is all.

2) You trying to compete with Min and Haywood?! Trying to steal them tournament goers?! No. I want these gatherings/(hopeful!) tournaments to be something that the players want. I want a scene that is run by the players, with other players setting things up and running brackets. I've seen complaints here and there about the way tournaments should be run, but in my mind, if you have the equipment, actually RUNNING the tournament is the easy part. You just have to stay there and stay focused. I've been to countless Smash tournaments where I knew more about how the bracket was running than the TO did. But all that nonsense aside, it seems like the pissing contest (which surprisingly has not ended yet) between those two can remain as it is. I want to create something which GA (and hopefully OoS) want(s), where we play games we want to play and constantly challenge ourselves to get better.

Any thoughts? Open to questions/flame wars.

 

[Umby]

Are you actually concerned about the Smash community in general or just GA's community? It seems to me like the communities in general areas (in both Melee and Brawl) are only going to be as strong as their collective states make them. Evidently some states are stronger/weaker communities than others for various reasons.

edit: Just waking up to find out how many pages this thread had. Too black to go back and read them.

 

[Purple]

Are you actually concerned about the Smash community in general or just GA's community? It seems to me like the communities in general areas (in both Melee and Brawl) are only going to be as strong as their collective states make them. Evidently some states are stronger/weaker communities than others for various reasons.

edit: Just waking up to find out how many pages this thread had. Too black to go back and read them.

My OP was based towards the smash community entirely (considering this was going to be posted in UB), or to a lighter extent (since I posted it here) the ATL South community

Then we will throw some watermelon and some fried chicken for the south.

Is that flavor enough?

The problem is that's only the deep south (Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana), I don't think other places would care for that reference.

Good post

It sounds like with those list of people we could have our own community ran combo-breaker of sorts :O! That's probably a bad example considering it's not trying to overpower Haywood or Waba in any way. However maybe all of these people and some tournament organizers should get something started?

 

[exarch]

I'm thinking something similar to that? Outside of AR and TN, every state borders the gulf/atlantic. Plus the fact that we're named the Atlantic South, I think using some kind of water as a symbol w/ the smash ball would be good. (That's a wave around the smash ball fyi.) (Please don't use that exact image.)

Any other ideas would be good too, that way we can pick the best of them. CF w/ soul food would be funny, but I think it'd fit more in the first 10 seconds. I think we want something classy/ic, that will become as recognizable as other brands. I see the emblem needing 2 parts: 1 to identify us with smash, and the other to identify our region.

To ID us with smash, the smash ball seems like the most logical. But MasterHand is another possibility. There's probably other things we could use too. (Suggestions?)
IDing us as a region, we could use something to do with the ocean. Maybe soul food of some kind. Definitely need more alternative suggestions here.

Lol Masterhand with a fried drumstick.
Smash ball rising over the ocean.
A bible with the smashball on the cover instead of the cross. you know the biblebelt?(risk offending lots of people)
Just trying to get more ideas down.

[collapse=To Bears & Umby]Bears: Sounds like you've got a good starting plan. Biggest think to fight for now is a venue, from what I can tell.

Umby: We're talking about in general, how any individual can improve their local community. Obviously some areas will be bigger than others, but it's not solely based on population. Jacksonville has a very small community for such a big city, and Orlando's community is bigger than Atlanta's.

Spoiler

I'd suggest reading the thread; it isn't that long, (though there are some wall of texts posts--they tend to be good posts,) and it'd be worth your reading. If you already have read it then nevermind >_>

[/collapse]

 

[Exdeath]

SWF bringing out the post **** haha.

What about Master Hand holding a Smash Ball? Maybe have the silhouettes of Fox and Falco standing back to back and shooting lasers with a Smash Ball/Master Hand holding a Smash Ball in front or something? I know that someone already suggested Falco, but just putting up something like a plain picture of one character is boring. When choosing a character, keep generally popular characters (e.g. Mario and Pikachu) in mind, rather than going with what is competitively popular or what is recognizable most among the community (e.g. Captain Falcon).

Why I mentioned the spacy silhouettes is because something stylish and interesting is more likely to be appealing, and in addition to that, the silhouettes can help to prolong focus on the picture (I forget what this term is called in advertising). Something that is often stylish and interesting (especially in the South) is guns.

Keep in mind that this symbol should have universal potential. It should be able to precede videos, be posted at the top of local flyers. Because of this, it should refer to distinctive gameplay; characters that people who don't already attend tournaments might play; characters that potential sponsors might see and think "untapped goldmine." If sponsors see Smash as a cheaper way to advertise with popular franchises like the previously mentioned Pokemon and Mario (even if it might not be the case -- Smash itself has a large consumer base if Brawl's sales are any indication), they are more likely support Smash.

 

[Moses.]

Daaaang quintuple post. Thomas does not **** around.

 

[Purple]

lol, SWF doesn't mess around with posts.

The wave idea is pretty slick, along with the fried chicken + master hand, however my feelings of FL and Tn not exactly being fried chicken centralized still stands.

 

[ChKn]

The wave idea is pretty slick

You have to make that an oil wave for people to get where it's from.

How about putting the smashball as the eye of a hurricane?

 

[ZIO]

I like the smashball in the hurricane idea.

And I know just what to do with photoshop to make it. It would be a simple vector image. But, I'm not gonna go do it if y'all are already doing it. Just expressing excitement to the ideas that I'm having. :3

 

[exarch]

****ing crashboards.

Merge post moderation = 2 good.

 

[hungrybox]

It should include some players

to give it more identity

 

[Purple]

Could you go into more detail with what you mean Hungrybox? Also if you're saying that we should have players from our community in our logo, that would mean we need a most notable member of the Southern community, however that would ALSO mean we would need to use the most notable for a specific game.

tl;dr - it seems like too much to muster.

 

[exarch]

Appealing is very important (which is why we shouldn't use what I posted, it looks like an amateur did it, which is true.)

Universality and Permanence are a must. For this reason we should not use individual players, since players come and go.

The hurricane is definitely a good regional symbol. While not all states are well represented by soul food, we are a rather hodge-podge collection in the first place. What we end up using may not fit like a glove on all states in the ATL south. But the more the better. I think we should keep searching/thinking.

The oil idea's funny, but we have to be careful not to ostracize anyone with our logo. Guns would not be the best choice, imo, for this reason. The oil is also only a modern thing, in several years, it probably won't work.

Even small items like Sunglasses or Hiking boots would be good, I just can't think of anything which would really say "ATL South" to me. Sunglasses I think more of WC, boots obviously would be Mt. West area.

Zio, I don't think anyone in here is really making their suggestions into actual pictures. I (and probably the vast majority of others) don't have access to photoshop. I think it's safe to assume you may go ahead and make any one you would like.

If anyone is making their suggestions, be sure to say so in your post, unless you want others to potentially duplicate your effort.

Spoiler

A potential problem I forsee might happen is if we become successful enough with this, Nintendo may have some beef with us using the smashball. That said we can't help but use some symbol from smash as a representative at this stage. If we get big enough to draw nintendo's attention, we will have been more successful than I truly hope currently. I figure we should cross that bridge if we get to it.

 

[Purple]

The main problem I'm seeing is the input of Brawl, Melee, and SSB64 (as small as a community that it is, it should still be recognized). The problem with our region is that our region each has it's own qualities set inbetween it. Florida has the Beach, Georgia and Co. have Soul Food, etc. However I will say that we all have one thing (kind of) in common; heat.

Perhaps a sun of sorts would be a good idea for a logo, since we need to implement the smash ball into our logo, we can make the smash ball the center; giving it a orange hue.

 

[ZIO]

Well, with the vector, I can make something professional looking. :D

EDIT - Don't forget NC has CATFISH!

 

[ChKn]

We should gather up the best X amount of ideas and make the logos for each idea. Whichever one can get the most attention fits the purpose of representing this community as a whole. However, we're going to have to pitch the idea to every state under the logo to get the symbol out there.

The wave logo is a bit too common. The first thing that comes to mind is surfing in Cali or Hawaii.

 

[Umby]

Spoiler

Done.

 

[Purple]

I lol'd

But really, I like the crest.

 

[exarch]

Nice Umby.

Heat is definitely a good suggestion, but difficult to carry out. Maybe if we could do the wavy lines of heat rising it'd get the point across well enough.

Or masterhand on a barbeque.

When I say "smashball" I'm referring to the circle with the two lines, not specifically the brawl smashball. We should keep it more series-centric than the smashball item from brawl.

Agreed with Chicken on the wave... good point about cali/hawaii. Something else involving the ocean would still be acceptable.

Other ideas:
Fishing / Fishing pole
BBQ
Auto-Racing
Alligators/other southern animals
Music-Country/Jazz/Blues/Dixieland. Generally not universal enough to be the ATL South though.

--One of our largest links for our area (perhaps unfortunately) is being the South in the Civil War. Although we do not make up the entirety of what was the Confederacy, perhaps we could appropriately use that to clearly identify which area of the country we are, without risking alienating individuals.

Spoiler

But probably not.

Actually the more I think about it Masterhand being fried on a BBQ would be pretty dope.

Edit:
Smash-Barbeque.
Obviously these aren't the final draft. I tried for simpler color schemes on the right side, so we could just display it on a black/white BG. The one on the left would ideally only be cracked and not 90 degrees open... but I'm working with paint so give me a break. On the right, it's cracked with heat things, cracked open, and closed. The heat lines could/should probably be warped into the bbq itself with a better program.