Overswarm's monthly P:M house tournament - March 16th, 2013 - Taylor Mill, Kentucky

[Overswarm]

Good! You guys need housing?

 

[SoulPech]

there's a 100% chance we would need housing for Saturday Night.

 

[Overswarm]

Cool. I won't have any beds for you, but I have two couches and floor space.

 

[Overswarm]

Also, I turned on the RSVP system up top. Use it!

 

[SoulPech]

RSVP not working atm. keep getting a server error.

 

[Overswarm]

If anyone else is coming (even locals that are lazy about smashboards), make sure you RSVP in some way so we know how much food to get. :B

 

[Master WGS]

Not gonna RSVP yet, but you have my interest. Problem is my car is a clunker that likes to take a lot of gas and is having transmission issues at the moment. And I'm attending PAX East a mere week after this event, and that is not cheap!

If solving those issues doesn't destroy my bank account I might drive myself on over, though I too will need to spend the night.

 

[Overswarm]

Floor space will be available to those who need it as long as they let me know in advance + they don't mind a puppy being in the house. It stays in my room at night, but we have to take it out in the morning so it might get excited and pounce on you. Fair warning. :B

 

[Doctor X]

Floor space will be available to those who need it as long as they let me know in advance + they don't mind a puppy being in the house. It stays in my room at night, but we have to take it out in the morning so it might get excited and pounce on you. Fair warning. :B

...

they don't mind a puppy being in the house

Who minds puppies? Puppies are certifiably awesome and I don't like the idea of you inviting whatever kind of degenerate creature could possibly mind their presence.

 

[SoulPech]

It stays in my room at night, but we have to take it out in the morning so it might get excited and pounce on you. Fair warning. :B

I will snuggle it if it ever pounces me...

 

[Carls493]

I'm wanna go with Pech to this.

Besides, I get to go to Kentucky for the first time!

 

[Overswarm]

Awesome! :D

*prepares for your Wario*

 

[Overswarm]

Week away! Stephanie has decided to make deer chili.

 

[SoulPech]

hype! OS, when is the best time we arrive to your place?

 

[Overswarm]

I'll be there all day, so whenever you want to get there. Tournament doesn't start til noon officially, but me and Dr. X live here, so whenever you get her games can be played. I'll probably sleep in until about 10 though so, anytime after I guess. :B

 

[SoulPech]

So let's say we were to show up around 1-ish you'd be cool with that right?

 

[Overswarm]

Be fine by me. This is going to be a fairly relaxed environment, I'm not sticking to any strict timetable.

 

[SoulPech]

Alrighty, so,

It's gonna be me, Chonce, and Carls. we'll leave tomorrow @ 10am and we'll get there by 12:30pm.

 

[Overswarm]

k. Hoping to have me, Dr. X, TravisD, Tako, and possibly Kassandra here. Ralph Cecil is looking to come up with some greenup but is unsure at the moment.

Either way we should have some fun :B

 

[DtJ XeroXen]

Are there any plans for doing any more of these? I've been really into Project M lately so I wouldn't mind making the drive at least once.

 

[Overswarm]

Are there any plans for doing any more of these? I've been really into Project M lately so I wouldn't mind making the drive at least once.

I would like to, but no one ever posts in the thread confirming attendance and every time I schedule one half the people attending always cancel the day before! This makes for a small event becoming even smaller, so the tournament aspect has to be scrapped and this is irritating. I'd like to do more, but I don't know if I feel like throwing a third one only to hear "maybes" from half the people that can attend and "Yes" that turns into "no" the day before from everyone else.

I might revisit this, but I'm beginning to doubt that Project M will really blossom in Midwest - East. I'll still play for fun, but the majority of players seem to be "I'll go to a Brawl tournament and play this on the side" or "I'll go to a Melee tournament and play in both that and this". When you can't get the people within an hour's drive to attend a small house event for just Project M with free food, housing, parking, and multiple setups already there it does not inspire confidence.

 

[Carls493]

I apologize that my group was an able to go to this even though we said we were.

A birthday party came up and they wanted to go to that, instead. Since Pech was my only ride to this tourney and he was the one of the ones that went to that party, that means I wasn't able to go to this, either.

I was honestly hoping one of them would say something about this before I did right now because besides them, I don't have any other way to get to Kentucky.

 

[Doctor X]

I'm sure you guys got reasons but lemme just say this.

If you want Project M to be big in this area don't flake on tournaments. It discourages TO's for a game in serious need of TO's. >.>

 

[Carls493]

Again, I'm really sorry that this happened with my team. I wasn't expecting the change of plans myself since I was still intending to show up, but I don't have any control over it.

 

[SoulPech]

Carls you don't need to apologize. you had no control over our decision.

Chonce and I made a last minute decision and I think he already explained that to OS already.

 

[Carls493]

Oh. I didn't know.

I just sensed that OS got upset about this, and I wanted to try and to explain the situation about it from my angle.

 

[Doctor X]

I don't want to be mean, just honest. At their beginning, tournament scenes-- especially in the Midwest where distances between major cities are much greater-- live or die based on the dedication of the early adopters. You need to prove to those on the fence that your game is really competitive enough to be worth playing and that your tournaments are really worth the potentially long drives. If you want to spread the "tourney bug" to your local scene, it takes a lot more sacrifice than you might expect.

Back when Brawl was first getting off the ground, most people in Cincinnati besides OS, Kel, and myself were in your boat. They either didn't have a car or they didn't take it seriously enough to drive anywhere or commit to plans made more than a day in advance. For whatever reason everyone expected the scene to come to them; to just become big in Cincinnati with as little inconvenience to themselves as possible.

What did we do? Three things:

• Regular smashfests. I see that Columbus has a smashfest thread. That's great. Try taking this much more seriously than you do, though. Ensure regular attendance, especially by key members of the community. Come up with fun little events-- not necessarily full tournaments but maybe a Falcon only bracket or a crew battle where you hand out a pie to the winning crew as a prize. Try to make your smashfests as enjoyable as possible so that newcomers have every reason in the world to keep coming. Most importantly, though, promote your smashfest. Post flyers at OSU, create Facebook groups, a twitter, and a regularly updated and dedicated smashboards thread. This will get as many people as possible in your city emotionally invested in the scene, and it is all more than doable without having your own car. Personally, I held just such a smashfest every single week at the same time for more than a year when Brawl first came out, in my own apartment with my own setups and food either ordered from a local pizza place or cooked by clowsui. The effect this kind of regular event can have on the unity of your local scene cannot be overstated.
• Go to non-local tournaments. Seriously. I know you guys have gotten some grief over this already and I apologize if that grief offends you, but it's true: If you do not travel, this scene will not grow. Yes, the drive can suck. Yes, having to commit your entire weekend to the event can suck. Yes, it can be hard to plan far enough in advance to ensure nothing comes up; doubly so if something actually does come up. However, this is a sacrifice that will need to be made by somebody if this game is going anywhere at all. When there were no Ohio tournaments for Brawl aside from the small ones we hosted, Gunpunch! drove 4 hours every other weekend to go to Ann Arbor for Rofa's tournaments, and like 5 hours once a month to go to South Bend, IN. In fact, one time we drove all the way out to Chicago for a tournament with something like 20 people in it. For the first two or three months it was just us three and nobody else in our car, but here's the thing... It was worth it. The next item will explain why.
• Talk about your tournament experiences with your smashfest regulars. Talk about everything-- the people you play in bracket, what characters they use, what kinds of problems you encounter, how you overcome those problems if you're able. Talk about the neat things you see non-local players do that your local players have never seen. Talk about your placings-- especially if you do well. If all goes according to plan, your locals will see this as a personal challenge. They already play you on a regular basis and they can begin to imagine how they might be able to perform if they went with you. Follow this up by sharing your tournament plans with them, inviting them to attend. Leave some open space in your car for a newcomer if you can, or arrange another car if you can't. By doing this, eventually our one car with three people became two cars with four people each, and then three and four cars as more people with the ability to drive began to take things more seriously.

Those of you who played Brawl in the Midwest are no doubt aware of the God Kais crew. I'll let you guys know, when Brawl first began those guys didn't go to tournaments outside of Cincinnati. They were like Columbus seems to be with PM right now. YBM, Infern, and Smash64 came to our smashfests. They wanted to be noticed in the community, but none of them would drive anywhere. Then a sequence of three things happened: OS kept talking about our experiences in Michigan and how he beat Anther and was considered the best ROB in the Midwest. He told Smash64 that his Ness would probably do very well, and mentioned that he still had an open spot in his car. Smash64 agreed to come along and he positively wrecked NOJ and a couple other good players when he got there. The next time a Michigan tournament rolled around, the other GK's wanted to go and I volunteered as a second car to drive them. Now Cincinnati was a "big deal" in Brawl, and it probably would never have happened if it wasn't for OS's dedication to the scene and the rest of Gunpunch!'s willingness to indulge him.

Edit: I won't say I regret all this just because Brawl turned out to be game that I despise...

 

[Infern Angelis]

I loved it when Dr.X raged at my Snake, or Snake in general

 

[sneakytako]

I'd like to report that Gkais got pooped on in bomberman.

 

[Doctor X]

I loved it when Dr.X raged at my Snake, or Snake in general

Everyone already knows that my nerd rage is top tier, brah.

What more people need to know is that your choice of lunch was bottom tier because you go to scrubway.

 

[Infern Angelis]

LMAO Sneaky, get Bomberman 64 and see who poops on who!


Scrubway is they way to go!

 

[Juushichi]

Ironically, all of this stuff has happened for the most part. Since Columbus for the most part (other parts, OSU) doesn't travel, we've taken it mostly upon ourselves to travel out to places. Just two months ago we went from Michigan to Indiana back to Michigan which would have culminated with the trip down to Kentucky that I had to back out of because of other obligations. Even then, people like Master_WGS and those groups have gone out to play with the boys in Maryland, people like Eli, Zhime and everyone over at VGBC multiple times in the last year. This is even ignoring that only Columbus, parts of Kentucky and Michigan went to APEX (I went for P:M, Melee everyone else for Brawl).

Personal things (like losing employment) hindered my plans to host the P:M only tournament that I had been talking about as well as recently traveling. I still have plans to host it, assuming everything goes well, in the summer. Carls, Pech, MX, Suyon (occasionally), and QD who comes down from Akron-area to play with us on Wednesdays and sometimes Saturdays still travel a fair bit more than me because Michigan is honestly the place to go for Brawl right now and I don't play Brawl anymore. Our regular smashfests are on Wednesdays every week and dedicated Saturdays when we don't travel.

Pech has recently been working to secure a venue for a tournament that he (and likely I) will co-host. So these things you mentioned are all things that are being taken into account. Big ups to you taking the major step up to try to pull people to Cincinnati, though.