also, new discussion should be the venue/lack of setups/lack of space.
one great part of being at a tournament is the fact that we can watch high profile matches. but due to the way the venue was set up, i was afraid to watch many matches at all for fear of being screamed at and going deaf within two minutes of the match. Although i understand the necessity for the business to keep aisles open, it really took away from the tournament experience to not be able to watch matches and stand and converse with fellow smashers without bothering the people who did pay to be there.
discuss?
This was the next thing I was going to discuss actually.
Gamefrog has potential to be a great venue. The first BAC was very chill and very fun. This tournament was not.
Like Chris said, it was basically impossible to have more than 3 or 4 people watching a match, much less get hyped because any time a crowd gathered either Maria or a staff member would come through RUDELY telling people to move.
This was ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS.
There are multiple ways to move through those aisles; people walking through are just as capable of walking behind the couches as we are sitting on them. Were they worried about it hurting business? I'm pretty sure that every person in there paid $5 just to be there, and then however much more to participate. They made at least $200-$300 in door fees, and we can't stand and watch/hype our friends matches? That is part of what we paid to be there for! The employees (including Maria) were absolutely obnoxious about this and I know A LOT of people were getting really aggravated.
The way the venue was set up was just bad. I realize not all of this could be helped, but TV's will produce crowds and if you stack TV's you will compound people, Put it near or in front of the door and you have no right to complain about people blocking the doorway.
Next was the lack of setups. I don't know who to blame for this one but it was a real issue. Heading into the latter part of the day, there were at least 25 people left trying to play Melee and 3 Melee setups. Brawl took up setups brought for Melee forever and lasted as long as it does because people who should have been DQ'd were not, but I can be gone for 30minutes with no warning the tournament was starting, no phone calls to check on where several of us had left (anyone could have made this call) and no actual announcement that Melee singles was starting (Dylan told me this for a fact). But I'll talk about this more in a later post. Digressing, I actually got into it with Maria at one point because I switched my TV back to Melee when I found it sitting without anyone playing on it and EVERY Melee TV had a 4 or 5 person rotation, which is ********.
Anyway, I'll stop for now and wait for more feedback.
I mean if my main can 3 stock you, i don't think my secondaries would have any problem 1 stocking you.
