Event - Apex 2015 Re: Apex feedback

[Anomic_Punk]

Hi guys, I am FullMetal, the main melee TO for the Apex tournament series. I would like to open myself up to feedback concerning Apex 2014. Please be honest, I'm not looking for "pats on the head" here. Positive feedback is ok, but constructive criticism is what I'm looking for. I will answer any and all questions asked of me.
Go for it!

 

[RJ<3]

The thing I was surprised to find out about was Melee Doubles was still running at 2 in the morning. I understand that the final few sets for Melee Doubles were to have finished at 8PM and I would've been fine with it if the bracket was running a couple of hours late, but 6 hours seems a bit too much, not to mention people need their good night's sleep after a long day of smashing.

 

[Anomic_Punk]

The thing I was surprised to find out about was why Melee Doubles was still running at 2 in the morning. I understand that the final few sets for Melee Doubles were to have finished at 8PM and I would've been fine with it if the bracket was running a couple of hours late, but 6 hours seems a bit too much, not to mention people need their good night's sleep after a long day of smashing.

You're absolutely right, it was expected of me from my superiors at Apex to run doubles all in one day. I mistakenly assumed that top 8 for doubles was on sunday. I was busy all day trying to rectify the mess that was saturday as a whole, I was literally in the pit running matches for most of the day. By the time I was made aware of my mistake, it was about 8-9pm at night. Therefore, the fault falls on ME alone for making top 8 of melee doubles run at that time when they previously thought they were off the hook till the next day.
So if you feel the need to blame someone for the mess that was day 2 of Apex 2014, I am the guy.
The doubles tournament should have run MUCH more smoothly and much earlier than it did. That fault falls on me alone for my personal failings as a TO.
But thank you VERY much for your feedback. Things like this is what gives me the drive to improve and run better tournaments every day.

 

[RJ<3]

You're absolutely right, it was expected of me from my superiors at Apex to run doubles all in one day. I mistakenly assumed that top 8 for doubles was on sunday. I was busy all day trying to rectify the mess that was saturday as a whole, I was literally in the pit running matches for most of the day. By the time I was made aware of my mistake, it was about 8-9pm at night. Therefore, the fault falls on ME alone for making top 8 of melee doubles run at that time when they previously thought they were off the hook till the next day.
So if you feel the need to blame someone for the mess that was day 2 of Apex 2014, I am the guy.
The doubles tournament should have run MUCH more smoothly and much earlier than it did. That fault falls on me alone for my personal failings as a TO.
But thank you VERY much for your feedback. Things like this is what gives me the drive to improve and run better tournaments every day.

Anytime! You did the best you could, given the fact that Apex 2014 was massive! It had to be pretty taxing for you.

 

[Strong Badam]

Better organization with players who are in multiple events would be nice. It was extremely awkward having like 20+ minutes of streaming nothing/casuals waiting for Grand Finals of Project M because Armada was occupied doing Melee Doubles. I know it's definitely not easy, I don't envy your position as a TO of such a huge event at all, but that's the feedback I have.

 

[TreK]

^ what he said. I think there were a couple thousands people waiting for you to #FreeArmada on the P:M stream.

As a stream monster anyway, that's all the feedback I'm capable of.

 

[phish-it]

There were a few issues that could use improvement for next Apex, and they generally all stem from the obvious underlying issue: A bigger venue for the number of people in attendance.

I'd like to be able to play friendlies in the tournament room but that couldn't happen due to the amount of people and games going on in the main room which is expected. It was hard to move around and the fire hazard dilemma was unavoidable.

The friendly room was nice, but it was far from the main area, and you couldn't play games in there to stay warmed up when your matches could be called any minute (or any hour rather) on the other side of the hotel. So standing around in the crowded main room waiting was inevitable, only adding to the crowd.

 

[tekkie]

the worst part of the entire tournament is that the decision was made to take the hundreds of setups from the main tournament room saturday night and remove them from the venue instead of making them available for people on sunday

 

[Metà]

the worst thing about apex is that col bol beat amsa in loser's

edit: jk. biggest problem for me was my pool. there was no captain for like two hours and then instead of eliminating S2J from the bracket, they made me have to fight him first thing in loser's. i'm not mad that i lost, it's just that there was a severe lack of communication between the TO's and the people running their own pools (why is this happening? you have the resources to give every pool a captain)

 

[ph00tbag]

When I first walked in, I noticed several tables that weren't being used for anything, and weren't used for anything for the first two days of the tournament. After the fire code debacle, these were gone, but an issue like that, which I felt was much more in the TO's control than a mob of teenagers and young adults, should have been addressed immediately. I think it would have resolved the fire marshal's concerns much more adequately than yelling uselessly on the PA for an hour.

 

[Anomic_Punk]

All the issues here are definitely being noted on my part, and I appreciate each of you taking the time to voice your complaints. Sometimes (although I do try to get as much feedback as possible AT the event itself) some issues escape my notice or slip under the radar, so I'm glad for anything that was missed being brought to my attention!

 

[azzucips]

This may not concern you since you were a Melee TO, but from my experience, it seemed like the Brawl pool leaders were complete assholes and just DQ'ed people nearly immediately if they weren't found in 10 seconds. I got DQ'ed from winners AND losers immediately after a few games in my PM pool.

A conversation I actually heard was:
"Hey where's [X player] ?"
"idk"
"DQ him"
"okay"

 

[GTZ]

Time management is a huge issue at apex. Events go until obscene times and it is tough to stay that late when you've arranged a somewhat strict sleeping arrangement. Although I do have an interest in coming, something like this would definitely have to be addressed, not just in Melee, but in the event overall.

I second the DQ-ing issue as well posted by previous individual above me

 

[Rizner]

Need a better way to inform players what's happening, and for players to contact pool captains if needed. I'd say assign the captains and give their contact info to the pools they have ahead of time, and set up a way for texts to go to players for matches. Should help vs noise and loud speakers, and players can better inform when another pool runs past time so they don't get dq'd because of scheduling