Something to read - Evo/smash and our community - A message from Alex Strife

[swordgard]

This is from Alex Strife in the BBR, he wants to know if he can get some help from the MBR too. Quoted word for word:



Alright Apex is over ( thank god xD ) and I have to really put in some work towards the Brawl back room. What I am going to do is just go down the list of things I wanted to really talk about in regards to Apex, Rulesets, and the community itself so here goes.

Apex
Apex 2010 was probably something the community needed. It was a great tournament but beyond that it was a great experience. The feedback I am getting is nothing but positive about the experience and the venue being amazing. With that being said I want to really propose that we start to endorse Apex as the EVO of our game. We should really start to push this in general. What I have created was a series that really can be that once a year mega event that everyone can go to. With Pound 5 and Cata5 being the last events for two great hosts this could mean that the EC will lack something that is memorable. Let’s please start this discussion on putting this together for next year!
I am asking that this is become a major project. On SRK we have a lot of the admins working on EVO every year when they first began. It really took a community effort to put EVO together and we can increase the attendance and setups to make an event unlike anything in the history of our community.
Let us imagine, if you will, what we can do for next year. I have contacts for ScrewAttack ( a VERY popular video game website ) that could possibly create more public interest in our events. Down the road we will have sponsors and possibly increased prize pools that gather all those from around the entire world. Imagine an event that everyone wants to go to. That is what Apex can be with the BBR support.

Community
For us to really do anything we need to begin increasing our tournament attendance. To do that, we need to focus on the low level players and really show them what smash can be competitively. Rules and such are not as important as really talking to those players and making them feel right at home. We really forget that we have those players that are new here. That is up to us, the community, to give those people a good time. For many, the first tournament is the most significant. If we can really focus on this as one of the main projects we can get more players at our events.
Lets talk about this lets get it started please!


EDIT: He said there might be changes to ruling like no wobbling due to popular distaste.

 

[Alex Strife]

thanks. As I said I am willing to really do what is needed to get APEX to be the tournament of the summer every year!

 

[Mike G]

If APEX is the "EVO of Smash", how would APEX regionals work for this?

 

[Alex Strife]

Well we cannot start that so early. Not until a year or so after. Even then Evo nowadays just has one giant tournament and goes from there. Imagine 3 days of smash ran well and lots of hype and atmosphere. Each summer it would be that time again for people to get excited.

 

[SleepyK]

We'd have to run regional circuits again.

 

[Alex Strife]

Not necessarily sleepy,

For years Evo was just one tournament it was a while ago they tried to get qualifiers and such for their events( thats when they had sponsors for money ).

As of right now if we all just work on this one event we can go from there.

 

[pockyD]

i didn't go, but was there anything about apex that made it more significant or 'special' than genesis or pound?

i'll be honest; nobody here in cali (on the melee side anyway) originally thought of it as a 'must go' tournament the way we perceived pound4 (and now pound5)... not that it was a bad tournament or anything (like i said, i didn't go), but most of us see it as 'just another major'

so really, what do you feel you can do to push it over the top to being 'the' tournament, and more importantly, WHY do you feel that this is the tournament to push?

 

[Alex Strife]

Well I'd say the production value was something that we really strove for. Also, my tournament features many of the top international players for both games. For brawl it is the tournament to go to every year but Melee I want to build slowly. For WC not going we still got 220 melee entrants and we even did crew battles. Right now I want to build this cause Pound is Planks last one and after that there is nothing on the EC that is worth going to. I do not think that should happen. Will that mean I will make attempts to fly more Japanese Melee and more Euro Melee in? Yes. I work hard and these events will be amazing.

What will make it special is the sponsors. I have already proved to sponsors that my event is great. It ran well ( minus obvious complaints about wobbling but I do not hold that as a negative but more of an opinion ) and I have contacts with several companies to help build next years in terms of finances and exposure.

My goal for Melee is to maintain my numbers and really push for more WC support. I already have support from OOC but I want WC because I respect them.


If you want please ask me more questions. I want to show I am worthwhile in this community and I am willing to prove it.

 

[Silent Wolf]

Apex was amazing and potentially could have been more amazing had more people shown up. There were a ton of extra set ups and the room temperature was legit. in terms of consistent tournaments, if one tournament were to be made THE tournament, apex would get my vote. it had a good balance of melee and brawl and alex strife was an amazing host. it would be cool to see a really good tournament get even better and keep happening. genesis doesnt happen often enough and isnt about to, and it looks like pounds just about over with. related regionals sound dumb though, just keep it one tournament.

 

[Mew2King]

I am going to make sure the future of smash (at least the Brawl part from OOC players) will remain good that is why I am getting mad connections with people with Buddy Passes for future planning. I can probably get Armada/Amsah discounted tickets too.

 

[Wobbles]

I want to play Armada more

 

[Alex Strife]

Jason it is not about buddy passes it is about planning ahead ( something smashers do not do as much ) and really having a community put an emphasis on events rather than just let the public do what it wants. If we want smash to grow in general we need to show people it is worth saving up for.

 

[Marc]

APEX would be much more attractive to Europeans if it wasn't during the most expensive time of the year for traveling. I paid 365 euros for my Pound 4 ticket and would have had to pay at least 1000 for APEX while I actually wanted to go to the latter more. =/

 

[Alex Strife]

well the thing is that many people started looking at the wrong time. I know if people started saving and ordered in advance it would of been much cheaper. By the time I asked you guys to go it was too late. Now we have a year and I will be offering Free/cheap housing again and if you ask lord chair or anyone OOC I took care of them very well

 

[Mew2King]

get screw attack to help us out @ Swordgard

 

[Slhoka]

APEX would be much more attractive to Europeans if it wasn't during the most expensive time of the year for traveling. I paid 365 euros for my Pound 4 ticket and would have had to pay at least 1000 for APEX while I actually wanted to go to the latter more. =/

This.
It's really hard to find affordable tickets during summer.

well the thing is that many people started looking at the wrong time. I know if people started saving and ordered in advance it would of been much cheaper. By the time I asked you guys to go it was too late. Now we have a year and I will be offering Free/cheap housing again and if you ask lord chair or anyone OOC I took care of them very well

That's not true. I've been looking for cheap tickets for Apex a long time before the tournament, and they were none. I also just tried to search flights from Paris to NYC around August 2011, just out of curiosity : the lowest I could find was 594€ ($767), and everything else was more than 850€. So yeah, prices will lower a bit in a few months, before going up again, but it will still be VERY expensive. Not to mention the fact that it isn't that easy to know what you'll do 1 year in advance.

But I have to agree that smashers need to learn to plan things earlier, even though it doesn't matter on such occasions.

Also I'm not sure that the parallel with Evo really fits, since Evo is focusing on many game series while your project only aims to be a Smash tournament.

 

[Alex Strife]

Also I'm not sure that the parallel with Evo really fits, since Evo is focusing on many game series while your project only aims to be a Smash tournament.

Well think of it this way. When you hear about EVO you think its the tournament where everyone goes that plays SF or Tekken. It is that once a year event that the best of the best come and everyone plays their hardest. Upsets happen, amazing matches happen, and everyone has a great time. That is what I want Apex to become. That once a year event that is run well, have amazing upsets, and see sets that happen once a year. Japan vs US , Euro vs US, *** vs Euro...stuff like that

Add in the fact that we had every smash game possible there. Brawl, Melee, and 64. We had 25 64 players...thats amazing in itself. We should push for that...we may get even more.

I have faith that next year will be even better. I know it may be a pain to plan for some people but think of the rewards.

- A great time
- A GREAT community event
- Side events that happen


Would it not be nice to have something thats not a tournament but an EXP. That is what I want Apex to be. That is what I am building to.


Does that help to explain what I meant?

 

[Alex Strife]

here is some food for thought

Apex. I was going to the States anyway, NYC area and figured: ‘Oh well why won’t I go to a random national and benefit from free housing in the process.’. After 2 weeks of being pampered by local smashers, getting free tours and meeting Japanese people, it was finally there: Apex 2010.
As I just said, I never really figured going to the States, paying lotsa money ‘n all, for just a tournament would’ve been worthwhile. After being part of it, part of what turned out to be way, way more than ‘just a tournament’, the person you have come to know as Chair was no longer of that opinion. Apex is worth your effort and money more than anything else. A tournament experience I have never been part of before, beautiful people, more than splendid organizing, with everything you’d want a tournament to have: good seeding, foreigners, LOTS of people, cheap hotels, tv’s, a host WHO KNOWS HIS ****, side events, cheap and accessible food and a sweet-*** close-to-everything venue.
Apex was by far the best tournament I’ve ever been to. People were kind, social, curious, interesting and hell, FUN. By far enough tv’s, enough time, projectors, livestreams, I’ll repeat myself: this tournament has everything you can possibly want a tournament to have. With an accessible, trustworthy, accredited, striving-for-perfection host like Alex Strife (pun not intended), you’re guaranteed to have a great time (unless you manage to **** up, then you only have yourself to blame ). After the tournament, I couldn’t stop thinking that even IF I went to the States just to visit that ‘random’ national, it’d **** well have been worth my money. Every time again, Apex manages to surprise everyone. If you don’t think you’ll have the money for it, you’d better start saving right away. I can tell you: You do NOT want to miss Apex 3. Even though it’s expensive like hell for me (and believe me, I’m no rich man) to travel all the way to the States every summer, I’ll try everything in my power to be there.
Mark my words: 2011 is where it’s at. Be there, believe the hype and hell: believe this random European troll, even if you really, really hate him. He knows his ****, and if this person, the one who was apathetic enough to be the only one who remained seated instead of standing up to cheer after Glutonny successfully represented his continent against at the time the undisputed world’s second best, was standing up, loudly cheering for a certain Japanese player even BEFORE he won his set against the great Jason Zimmerman, if THIS PERSON tells you where to find your hype, you’d better believe him.
Apex tournament series, believe the hype. I know I do. Thank you Alex Strife, thank you USA, I had a wonderful time. Until next year, at APEX 2011!

 

[swordgard]

get screw attack to help us out @ Swordgard

What?


?????

??????????


What the hell are you talking about O.o

 

[Alex Strife]

Jason is ...attempting to talk about who I have contacts with...which is screwattack aka the ppl who do angry video game nerd.

 

[SleepyK]

screwattack is a very large gaming community.

 

[Skler]

That uses Samus' upB in the air as an offensive move because it does like, 30 damage.

 

[Alex Strife]

For cheaper Travel I will basically do mine in DEC ( also cause of Genesis and to avoid issues )