Pound Prizes

[t3h Icy]

It's probably way easier in Japan though in regards to getting places for tournaments. You seen the size of that place? lol

My province alone is bigger then Japan.

Didn't Superboom lose to Crusayer when there was no pot, lol?

Most people don't have the passion to keep playing at the best of their abilities if they don't have any money on the line it seems. I wonder if that's related to how good the Japanese players are, since they play for the love of the game.

 

[iFudge]

You'd be surprised.

Depends on what the players value more...money, or the experience?

actually i heard that theirs some law that prevents the japanese to get prize money in video games, its labeled as gambling, and i recall that if they accept that money the goverment takes a % of it.
cause when my dad went over their for a tennis touranment he had to get a working visa cause the touranment had prize money.

 

[Razmakazi]

I just don't agree with Plank's assertion that the pot money isn't ours, the players. That's completely ridiculous seeing as he's TO'd for years and years and he's never not paid anyone to my own knowledge. That and there's the precedent of the thousands and thousands of tournaments archived on this site of the highest placers getting paid. And that precedent also goes for just any gaming community. The SF community, the MVC community, Tekken, other 2D fighters, rhythm game community, etc.

It's all in the years of precedents that the hundreds of thousands of tournaments of any kind have set that the entry fee is the pot money or if it's just one flat fee there is a percentage of that fee that goes to the pot and belongs to the winners.

It's really simple.

That bein' said, Pound was really ****in' fun but it'd leave a bad taste in my mouth if Plank doesn't do anything to compensate the winners, especially coz I don't think any of the big winners were MD/VA locals. Planes ain't cheap n stuff.

EDIT: It's just a bummer because the smash community is so completely trusting, almost to a fault. We house with strangers we met over the Internet all the time or people we've met maybe once or twice and it sounds so dangerous and stupid but over the years it's worked out tremendously and we have this cool *** community. Of course the entry fee is the pot money, it's ridiculous for Plank to just say that the money we paid to enter is not the community's, well, the tournament entrants. We trust the guy, why would he even say something like that when all the community is built on is this overextending trust. It doesn't even have to be said the entry fee is pot b/c the precedents for it and the trust we have as smashers is just that powerful.

It just defies common sense. I'm not calling Plank a thief or an *******, I'm just calling his comments in the OP wrong. Definitely wrong, incorrect, etc.

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

We're all hypocrites, just some of us more so than others.

 

[Lobos]

lol like getting high/drunk the night before the tournament....then blaming the TO for banning you for being late because of the previous night

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

Perfect example.

Or complaining about not being paid when you owe people money/are traveling to events.

 

[Blubby]

Perfect example.

Or complaining about not being paid when you owe people money/are traveling to events.

guess why... to pay the ppl you owe money.

btw... you were the usa guy in europe who begged for money... 1$:1€ exchange.

"This are REAL AMERICAN DOLLARS"

 

[BigWenz]

lol like getting high/drunk the night before the tournament....then blaming the TO for banning you for being late because of the previous night

lol but the T.O also should be overzealous with the banhammer. in the case of p4 m2k and jman, if jman was only not intime for his winners bracket match, then they should auto loss that winners bracket match, and not automatically lose their winners bracket match as well.

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

guess why... to pay the ppl you owe money.

btw... you were the usa guy in europe who begged for money... 1$:1€ exchange.

"This are REAL AMERICAN DOLLARS"

LOL that definitely wasn't the exchange rate. What the **** are you talking about?

I didn't beg for money. I got ripped off. You're dumb. And you missed the part where the person is still traveling to events and not paying their debts.

 

[solecalibur]

I agree with Razmakazi on this, stop trying to pretend that you can get out of this plank.
You owe them money, and you need to pay off for your mistake. Businesses make mistakes and have to pay the price, and no BS excuse "well I helped the community so im exempt" Lets NOT **** someone out of money and set a good example

 

[Blubby]

LOL that definitely wasn't the exchange rate. What the **** are you talking about?

I didn't beg for money. I got ripped off. You're dumb. And you missed the part where the person is still traveling to events and not paying their debts.

people say (a lot) you offered a 1:1 exchange rate because you were running out of money.

and not just some people, nearly every1

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

people say (a lot) you offered a 1:1 exchange rate because you were running out of money.

and not just some people, nearly every1

That's ridiculous. I traded my USD for Euros as soon as I got into Schipol. Get your facts straight, dude.

Since there were so many people saying that, you should definitely quote some of them.

Did you even attend SMACK or ESA? lol

 

[Aberu]

you don't admit you are wrong in using the prize money to pay off your debts?

lol, just lol

edit: care to explain why you defriended smashers off facebook?

there were clearly options on the website to register for certain events...am I just misunderstanding you here?

No he's not wrong in using the prize money. He was wrong to take on that risk, but he ran the tourney, setup the whole thing, and then you expect an amateur (aka doesn't own a company running the event) to fork up 13,000 dollars out of his own pocket instantly?

 

[OFY]

No he's not wrong in using the prize money. He was wrong to take on that risk, but he ran the tourney, setup the whole thing, and then you expect an amateur (aka doesn't own a company running the event) to fork up 13,000 dollars out of his own pocket instantly?

Finally someone else actually understands lol

 

[Aberu]

Finally someone else actually understands lol

Everyone on smash boards is so young, they have never had a family, a career, etc... At least most of the people complaining, that's for sure.

 

[ranmaru]

No he's not wrong in using the prize money. He was wrong to take on that risk, but he ran the tourney, setup the whole thing, and then you expect an amateur (aka doesn't own a company running the event) to fork up 13,000 dollars out of his own pocket instantly?

He was wrong on taking that risk, but why would he take that risk at a national? Why would he secretly take this risky while also enticing OOS people to come? The risk goes against the purpose of the tournament: For people to win (money). Why would he even let such a risk affect the winner's reward for their hard work to get to the top? (Yet we always will acknowledge Plank's hard work for hosting, but this reason alone isn't a good one to disregard him TAKING that risk at a freaking national) Even worse there was no warning before hand.

People don't only go to tournaments to win or to get better. People also go for the money. So I do not believe it's alright to say that the tournament was at least fun and that people should be good with that.

 

[Aberu]

He was wrong on taking that risk, but why would he take that risk at a national? The risk goes against the purpose of the tournament: For people to win (money). Why would he even let such a risk affect the winner's reward for their hard work to get to the top? (Yet we always will acknowledge Plank's hard work for hosting, but this reason alone isn't a good one to disregard him TAKING that risk at a freaking national) Even worse there was no warning before hand.

He did take a risk, but he took it for the community to have one last major stand with them. He made a mistake, no one is denying that, but the community being full of prepubescent drooling ******* asking for him to be sued, it shows they have a very confined perspective on life. Have you ever been in 10,000+ in debt that has been sent to a collections agency? I didn't think so. He was facing pay it now, or deal with collections. Collections is much worse and tacks on a huge percent to it.

Think Ethics, if you haven't taken an ethics class you won't understand this.

 

[OFY]

He was wrong on taking that risk, but why would he take that risk at a national? The risk goes against the purpose of the tournament: For people to win (money). Why would he even let such a risk affect the winner's reward for their hard work to get to the top? (Yet we always will acknowledge Plank's hard work for hosting, but this reason alone isn't a good one to disregard him TAKING that risk at a freaking national) Even worse there was no warning before hand.

And people are taking a risk expecting money out of an UNOFFICIAL tournament, there are no rules, contracts, nothing that states you are guaranteed to get paid hence why you can't sue Plank. Now if it were MLG, that would be different.

This risk however was a little lessened because of Plank's past TO experienced, in which he always kept to his word. Oh well

 

[LLDL]

He did take a risk, but he took it for the community to have one last major stand with them. He made a mistake, no one is denying that, but the community being full of prepubescent drooling ******* asking for him to be sued, it shows they have a very confined perspective on life. Have you ever been in 10,000+ in debt that has been sent to a collections agency? I didn't think so. He was facing pay it now, or deal with collections. Collections is much worse and tacks on a huge percent to it.

Think Ethics, if you haven't taken an ethics class you won't understand this.

It's a very simple concept to understand, I've never been in an ethics class. Don't insult people's intelligence lol.

 

[Octave]

Even worse there was no warning before hand.

If there had been a warning like "Oh guys, by the way, if not enough people attend then the winnings will go to the hotel for overbooked rooms," then there wouldn't have been a P5 at all. Top players would say,"**** taking that risk, I'm gonna go to a local where I know there will be money," and players under them would say,"**** going cause M2K and PP aren't going to be there now," etc.

That being said, if that warning had been there and there was never a Pound 5, this wouldn't be happening.

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

I like Aberu.

Don't insult people's intelligence lol.

Intelligence?! Where?!

 

[Dark 3nergy]

It's no surprise to me that the people who yell "stealing!" over and over tend to be those who have little to no experience running tournaments. First of all, if anything, Plank would be guilty of breach of contract, and not theft. Now it's not like Plank had 2 boxes labelled "venue payment" and "prizes" and took earmarked money from the prize box to pay off the venue. I was one of the co-head TOs for Genesis, and I can tell you that what happens is, you simply have one lump sum of money, and you have two debts. Your first obligation is to the venue. If you understand this, then you understand that it makes absolutely no sense to say there was any kind of "theft." People saying that Plank "stole" or "scammed/fooled" people apparently just make up their own story of how tournaments are run in their minds. You guys need to stop repeating your uninformed arguments over and over again, and consider the points that other people are making.

Now, what you CAN say happened is that Plank failed to fulfill a promise to pay prizes. I don't know if there is a LEGAL basis for that, but there is a moral basis. Did Plank **** up? Yes, but you have to look at it for what it is - he didn't get the attendance or rooms reserved that he expected, and that caused him to be unable to pay prizes from the entry fee money, and nothing more. Certainly something should be done about that, but again, the situation has to be looked at for what it is.

So basically in a nutshell, alot of this **** storm could of been avoided if people would of you know, showed up. Hey guys lets pay attention to this part of my post here for a sec before half of you totally TL;DR HUR DUR it. If you guys actually had helped or at least tried to help people get to this venue or in some manner helped plank fill up the rooms this might not of happened. So instead of pointing fingers and screaming, "OMG HES SO HORRIBLE FOR NOT PAYING MY BROKE *** BRB CRYING A RIVER", how about next time theres a big scale tournament you help the TO out and make sure as many people get there as possible. Common sense, most smashers posting here lack any form of decency and only want their goddamn money. Horrible, continue to dig your own watery graves with your mortons salt. Because I sure as hell wouldn't pay a dime any one of you after all the disgusting threats made to plank.

There was no written obligation for him to award money to winners. There was to the hotel obviously, but not to the tournament goers. Many people touched on it already, but obviously paying off the debt to the hotel was much higher a priority then giving out prizes. I would have done the same thing if i was in such a situation.

Again let me reiterate, a promise does not equal a contract. So for those idiots trying to sue plank your ****ing ******** and mentally challenged.

 

[ranmaru]

He did take a risk, but he took it for the community to have one last major stand with them. He made a mistake, no one is denying that, but the community being full of prepubescent drooling ******* asking for him to be sued, it shows they have a very confined perspective on life. Have you ever been in 10,000+ in debt that has been sent to a collections agency? I didn't think so. He was facing pay it now, or deal with collections. Collections is much worse and tacks on a huge percent to it.

Think Ethics, if you haven't taken an ethics class you won't understand this.

Prepubescent drooling *******. Most of those are young, teens. I do not think it's alright for us to write them off like that. I guess you mean confined perspective, that they only focus on the money. This may be true, but who doesn't? People say money is evil, yet we have to embrace it because everything costs money. We must work and achieve money to survive, yet it is evil. What can be done?

No, I haven't been in debt, and I am glad I am not. And I would not want anyone to be in that situation, yet, that would be AFTER taking the risk. I would never take this risk, I like to double check.

Don't you think there could have been other ways that he could have helped this become big than agreeing to a sliding scale agreement, which relied on smashers to be responsible and fill those rooms?

No, I haven't taken Ethics, but can you elaborate a example so I may understand?

And people are taking a risk expecting money out of an UNOFFICIAL tournament, there are no rules, contracts, nothing that states you are guaranteed to get paid hence why you can't sue Plank. Now if it were MLG, that would be different.

This risk however was a little lessened because of Plank's past TO experienced, in which he always kept to his word. Oh well

Yet remember, Plank never even told us about this risk. Do you not think people would be mad for that reason?

I think the problem here is that he wasn't upfront with us.

What do you mean it was lessened?

 

[OFY]

@ranmaru People obviously didnt think there was a risk attending Plank's tournament because of his past tournaments as TO in which he payed out to the winners and also because of the reputation of the other Pound's.

Because of this most smashers didnt even consider a risk of losing money or not being payed out. But there is always a risk by attending smash tournaments that are organized by smash players, nothing is set in stone.

You should automatically assume theres a risk, theres almost a risk in every situation in life.

let me quote dark energy real quick

Again let me reiterate, a promise does not equal a contract. So for those idiots trying to sue plank your ****ing ******** and mentally challenged.

 

[ranmaru]

If there had been a warning like "Oh guys, by the way, if not enough people attend then the winnings will go to the hotel for overbooked rooms," then there wouldn't have been a P5 at all. Top players would say,"**** taking that risk, I'm gonna go to a local where I know there will be money," and players under them would say,"**** going cause M2K and PP aren't going to be there now," etc.

That being said, if that warning had been there and there was never a Pound 5, this wouldn't be happening.

Exactly. We should know everything about the services he is about to give to us. If it does not interest us, then oh well, we bounce.

There was no written obligation for the people to show up.

 

[Ripple]

Let me give you a bit about Plank's history with me

In summer of 2008 I believe it was? There was this big huge tournament called Axis, a 300 man Brawl tournament in California with a 3k pot, 2k for first, 600 2nd, and 300 for 3rd (or something very close to that since that only adds up to 2900). I told a bunch of East Coast people about it because at that time I didn't think I could go, but I wanted an EC person to at least hear about it so they could make some money and I would feel good about helping them out. I am being 100% honest with everything that I am saying here. I told a bunch of people about it, but only Plank was on AIM that would be able to fly there. He originally thanked me for telling him about the tournament. I even tried to set him up to team with DSF so he could make some extra money (teams ended up getting cancelled though).

A few days later, I decide that I really want to go to it because I really wanted to win it. Instead of just doing that on my own, what I did is I told DSF and Plank that I was now going to go. Both of them, especially plank, were basically begging me not to go. Plank was saying that it was unfair that I should go now that he already bought his plane ticket, and for hours talked to me on aim until I finally was like okay okay, you can go alone. But I told him that he would have to promise to not plank the edge, because at that time before a LGL was instantiated it could ruin the game and potentially get MK banned. As someone who played MK with skill and wanted to just fight normally and keep the game alive and proper as it should be, I told him not to plank, and he agreed to it.

But go figure, he was lying. When he had to fight SK92 he beat him by planking the edge (no ledge grab limit) and barely at that. Plank completely lied to me, after I was nice enough to tell him about a large tournament, set up a good teammate for him, and then decide to not go out of niceness even though I really really wanted to, and all at the sake of promising not to plank, he did the exact opposite.

When he came back, I told him he owes me at least something for this, especially since he lied to me about the planking thing. I told him to drive me to tournaments, and if he did that, we would even team at them. So he would take me from south jersey to north jersey and NY and maryland/virginia tournaments, and he would even get to team with me. Not even much of a favor for just myself since it helps him too.

He agreed to this at first, but then later on whenever I ask him for a ride to tournaments, he does not do it. I later found out he was lying the entire time. Either that or he suddenly changed his mind, which is a pretty ****ed up thing to do.



This is the type of person Plank is.

you heard it from m2k folks. plank is the kind of person that will plank someone to death when money is on the line. even when he promised he wouldn't do the tactic that was named after him

what an *******.

 

[ranmaru]

@ranmaru People obviously didnt think there was a risk attending Plank's tournament because of his past tournaments as TO in which he payed out to the winners and also because of the reputation of the other Pound's.

Because of this most smashers didnt even consider a risk of losing money or not being payed out. But there is always a risk by attending smash tournaments that are organized by smash players, nothing is set in stone.

You should automatically assume theres a risk, theres almost a risk in every situation in life.

let me quote dark energy real quick

Yet Plank knew people would trust him because of that. Shouldn't he have been more careful with that?

Do you think future tournaments should have a risk like that?

 

[S0FT]

Apparently we need to be smarter about choosing our tds

 

[GDX]

i unsubscribed, but i couldn't help reading the new stuff

my only comment is...man, 20k venue for the weekend? I'd definitely look around first. giving that much money to one place that isnt a bank for a mortgage down payment or something is very painful

 

[GimR]

As people have pointed out there is no legal obligation for plank to pay anyone back, since everything in smash is accepted in good faith.

Plank deciding to pay people back is solely up to him.
There is nothing anyone here can do to make him pay anyone back.
He has made it clear he is not going to.

That being said, TDing is a business. I assume if he had made from the door fee, more then the venue and all other expenses he would have pocketed the money himself and not added in with the payout money.
(I hear this is what happened with the other Pounds, not 100% sure though)
But if he does not raise enough money to cover the expense, we, the smash community has to pay for it?
Who wouldn't want to be in a business where all your negative ventures are paid for by someone else and
you keep all your profits?

Planks actions do not reflect someone that is out for the communities best intrests.

People have said he has done so much for the community with these tournaments.
But has he really, if at each tournament this was a possible outcome?

If all the tournaments were run with such high risks to the smash community, not to plank, then
one would naturally draw the conclusion, plank has been in this for the money all along.

What other explanation can you draw from someone taking such a high risk like this?

I think by not accepting responsibility for his actions and rather blaming us the community he is revealing his true character.

A character that is either an idiot or a thief.

And I do not think him, an idiot.

seeing as Plank has lost money at every pound I don't feel this is a fair judgement

 

[ranmaru]

i unsubscribed, but i couldn't help reading the new stuff

my only comment is...man, 20k venue for the weekend? I'd definitely look around first. giving that much money to one place that isnt a bank for a mortgage down payment or something is very painful

I agree. Smarter to go cheaper.

 

[Lobos]

NOW ON SALE!!! GET EM WHILE ITS HOT!

caps

 

[bryu_1337]

I can't feel sorry for plank even if he lost a thousand dollars of his own money after he used the prize money. if he really was in a financiallly bad situation before this, why the **** would he bank on about 600 smashers (who are known for cancelling **** last minute and are notorious for room cramming) coming to this event and only staying 4 per room max? it doesn't matter if the last pund had 600 smashers. tournaments fluctuate in attendance all the time and plank knows this.

in the op, plank said that prizes come after the venue is paid. usually, this is where the venue fee comes in. the 20 dollar venue fee. you need to make sure that your venue fee covers the cost of the venue, you *******. if you're taking a risk in banking on flaky *** smashers, then that's your fault for banking on them if they don't follow through.

if plank knew he had to sell a certain number of hotel rooms to get the discount and knew he had to make up the difference if he sold less, he should have just declined it. it's too big of a risk for just about anyone in the smash community to take.

also, any to's in the future need to make it clear that if they can't pay the venue fee, the smashers have to pay and said money will be detracted from prizes until the venue fee is paid in full. there need to be a mod who checks every tournament thread for this, because apparently, that's the way it goes in the smash community now. if you go to a tournament, you run the risk of it being a VERY expensive smashfest if the TO is too incompetent to raise the proper funds to pay for the venue.

 

[Laijin]

All I have left to say is this:
This issue is literally ripping the community apart. Its a shame, but its true. Its not good that we are creating such hate amongst ourselves like this.

 

[CT Chia]

For everyone feeling sympathetic for Plank:

It's cool how you are taking this, seriously, I admire it. However, do you really think Plank deserves accepted apologies and condolences with how he handled the situation? If he had been active since the moment the tourney ended, was upfront with everyone about how he was short money, then everything would have been fine. I'm sure the community would also be willing to work on some fund raising events to help earn back the money he was short of for the venue.

Instead, Plank didn't respond to any of the winner's inquiries about money (via PM). Evidentally Armada was told he would be paid and as of such borrowed money from someone else, and now that he isn't getting his Pound money he's in serious debt. Plank made a whole whopping two posts in the last 2 weeks since the event, the first saying (after a 2 week absence) uhhhh... I didn't make enough venue fee money to pay the venue, so I used your entry fees. The second message practically saying I don't really owe anyone anything, and can use any money paid to me for Pound however I please, and gave us numbers that I analyzed only to make things even fishier. Of course coated with sorries and such but that doesn't change anything at this point.

If Plank had been upfront and truthful of everything from the moment the tourney ended (and he should have known he would be in this situation from before the start of the event, or right at the end of it at the latest) then there would be no problem. Instead he went ahead and used money that wasn't his (I don't care how you look at it, I, along with others, consider that entry fee money to be property of the winners at the time of placement (even if the EXACT amount isn't determined, it's certainly more than ZERO).

For everyone that is completely ok with Plank's decisions and thoughts on the issue, then I might as well hold a tourney, invite you guys, then not pay out the winners at the end because I'm not forced to. Seriously, entrants paid on average around $50 I would say to attend this event, and the winners of the event didn't receive a dime. $50 for a smashfest (not to mention any fees people payed to stay in hotels, food for the weekend, etc) is ridiculous.

 

[Bones0]

It sucks that Plank is INCAPABLE (not UNWILLING, as many of you seem to be under the impression of), but it was still the best tournament I will probably ever attend, as well as many other people. Unfortunately, not enough people attended to pay off the venue. From there, the two options are:
1. Cancel the tournament (I'm not even sure if his contract would have allowed him to do this, and a lot of people had already purchased plane tickets, train tickets, etc. anyway)
2. Run the tournament, but not pay out winners.

Clearly option 2 is the best. It sucks for the 15 or so people who were expecting to profit from the tournament, but for the other 250 it was still an amazing weekend. I would even bet that even a bunch of the top players would have still attended for fun even if they had been warned beforehand that there might not be any prize money available after paying off the venue.

Seems pointless to argue at this point. Mistakes happen, and people will be pissed. Life goes on. For those thinking of suing or blaming Plank for fraud, go **** yourselves. For Plank, don't beat yourself up over it. Learn from your mistakes, and next time you organize a tournament (or anything sort of event for that matter, since I realize you may be leaving the Smash scene soon) you will be better prepared to handle similar scenarios. Anyone can let a disaster destroy them, but it takes true focus and determination to use a disaster as a way to grow as a person.

 

[SciFiGuy]

P5'in It (The Court Remix)

Pound 5’s the case, no time to waste
Stacks been replaced (aye aye)
Who’s hidin’ dough, whose got some mo’
Who’s liable? (Plank Plank)
Got all lawsuits, got all disputes
What does not compute? (Bens Bens)
This mystery, brings misery
Pound 5’s the case (aye aye)

Is everybody ready for the gavels and juries?
Is everybody ready for the Ally fury?
Court fees worth mad cheese and things seized
Big decisions from the attorneys
I’ll be givin’ out the objections, Phoenix
Twistin’ testimonies the right way, helix
All my evidence be rock hard, Steelix
Lawyers slippin’ from the cross-examine, Felix
No checks to Quebec it’s all theft
Don’t settle now, don’t exit the stage left
Tell ‘em “Gimmie all my money back,” PayPal accept
Winners be ragin’ like they got hit by a rest

 

[Kira-]

I swear no posts past the first 2 pages ever get read.

Except by the people who are making the thread go past 2 pages to begin with.

 

[Pierce7d]

For everyone feeling sympathetic for Plank:

It's cool how you are taking this, seriously, I admire it. However, do you really think Plank deserves accepted apologies and condolences with how he handled the situation? If he had been active since the moment the tourney ended, was upfront with everyone about how he was short money, then everything would have been fine. I'm sure the community would also be willing to work on some fund raising events to help earn back the money he was short of for the venue.

Instead, Plank didn't respond to any of the winner's inquiries about money (via PM). Evidentally Armada was told he would be paid and as of such borrowed money from someone else, and now that he isn't getting his Pound money he's in serious debt. Plank made a whole whopping two posts in the last 2 weeks since the event, the first saying (after a 2 week absence) uhhhh... I didn't make enough venue fee money to pay the venue, so I used your entry fees. The second message practically saying I don't really owe anyone anything, and can use any money paid to me for Pound however I please, and gave us numbers that I analyzed only to make things even fishier. Of course coated with sorries and such but that doesn't change anything at this point.

If Plank had been upfront and truthful of everything from the moment the tourney ended (and he should have known he would be in this situation from before the start of the event, or right at the end of it at the latest) then there would be no problem. Instead he went ahead and used money that wasn't his (I don't care how you look at it, I, along with others, consider that entry fee money to be property of the winners at the time of placement (even if the EXACT amount isn't determined, it's certainly more than ZERO).

For everyone that is completely ok with Plank's decisions and thoughts on the issue, then I might as well hold a tourney, invite you guys, then not pay out the winners at the end because I'm not forced to. Seriously, entrants paid on average around $50 I would say to attend this event, and the winners of the event didn't receive a dime. $50 for a smashfest (not to mention any fees people payed to stay in hotels, food for the weekend, etc) is ridiculous.

It sucks that Plank is INCAPABLE (not UNWILLING, as many of you seem to be under the impression of), but it was still the best tournament I will probably ever attend, as well as many other people. Unfortunately, not enough people attended to pay off the venue. From there, the two options are:
1. Cancel the tournament (I'm not even sure if his contract would have allowed him to do this, and a lot of people had already purchased plane tickets, train tickets, etc. anyway)
2. Run the tournament, but not pay out winners.

Clearly option 2 is the best. It sucks for the 15 or so people who were expecting to profit from the tournament, but for the other 250 it was still an amazing weekend. I would even bet that even a bunch of the top players would have still attended for fun even if they had been warned beforehand that there might not be any prize money available after paying off the venue.

Seems pointless to argue at this point. Mistakes happen, and people will be pissed. Life goes on. For those thinking of suing or blaming Plank for fraud, go **** yourselves. For Plank, don't beat yourself up over it. Learn from your mistakes, and next time you organize a tournament (or anything sort of event for that matter, since I realize you may be leaving the Smash scene soon) you will be better prepared to handle similar scenarios. Anyone can let a disaster destroy them, but it takes true focus and determination to use a disaster as a way to grow as a person.

Both quoted for truth. I would not be happy if before, during, or even immediately after the tournament, Plank made an announcement that he was going to use the prize money for the tourney. EVEN WITH it not being his money to use, if he was like, "Guys, I'm really sorry, but I just wanted everyone to have a good time, and I need this money to pay off the venue. I know it looks really shoddy, and you all have a right to be upset, but there's just nothing I can do about it right now. Since the hotel did not book to the expected amount, the tournament was more expensive than anticipated."

In that case, maybe like one or two players would've been mad, and even LESS so if they knew BEFORE THEY ACTUALLY WON THE MONEY. I mean, hell, you present it like that, and there's NO WAY I could not sympathize with the dude, and just be like, "Okay, sure, we're all still gonna have a good time."

Coming back after the fact, taking the money, disappearing, giving broad apologies while not even being in touch with the winners, and then acting like the pot money was his from the get-go, are what makes me so upset. AWFUL handling of the situation.

The way the situation was handled was just downright awful judgments.

 

[Pierce7d]

Pound 5’s the case, no time to waste
Stacks been replaced (aye aye)
Who’s hidin’ dough, whose got some mo’
Who’s liable? (Plank Plank)
Got all lawsuits, got all disputes
What does not compute? (Bens Bens)
This mystery, brings misery
Pound 5’s the case (aye aye)

Is everybody ready for the gavels and juries?
Is everybody ready for the Ally fury?
Court fees worth mad cheese and things seized
Big decisions from the attorneys
I’ll be givin’ out the objections, Phoenix
Twistin’ testimonies the right way, helix
All my evidence be rock hard, Steelix
Lawyers slippin’ from the cross-examine, Felix
No checks to Quebec it’s all theft
Don’t settle now, don’t exit the stage left
Tell ‘em “Gimmie all my money back,” PayPal accept
Winners be ragin’ like they got hit by a rest

This is so legit, ROFL. Imma give this to Neo and tell him to make this **** into a song, LOLOLOLOL