I was just thinking about how players get into Smash, and how to get more players into it. This was after I'd just gotten done searching for players in my state on AiB. I realized that out of about 250 registered users in my state, only about 8 of them actually use the site. When i looked further, I noticed that the Regional Zone thread (which I made) had long since died, and there was no official place for players in my area to congregate there. It's no wonder so many of them stopped using that site.
Then I considered my own experience. I didn't really start using this site until I started meeting more players, and the main reason I come here is to talk to local players. I remember a few years ago, I noticed a user in general Brawl discussion who'd listed his location as my state, and I redirected him to our regional zones thread. That guy has become one of our biggest tournament hosts.
That's when I thought, "Smashboards should do this itself." It should redirect the hundreds of users who want to get into this game to the place where they can interact with local smashers. Because players tend to get more interested in the game when they can actually meet other players and participate in tournaments. As of now, the site doesn't do a great job of helping players find local players. The name "Regional Zones" doesn't immediately scream "Find players and tournaments near you," and it is listed under the average user's only interest, the General Brawl Discussion. The Info tab does a slightly better job, but is too general of a name to be a place that people will look at first.
The Suggestion
Somewhere on the homepage there needs to be a section called "Find Players and Tournaments Near You". It needs to be noticeable, and be one of the first things that users see. This should then redirect to a list of states, which, when clicked, will redirect to an official state topic.
