Suggestions & Criticism for the Apex Series

[Roller]

Didn't read all the posts, so this may have been previously addressed. However I would STRONGLY recommend against the 5 man pool top 2 get out structure next time. It causes unbalanced round 2 pools and results in ~14-20 first seeds getting screwed simply because they had too many other 1st seed players in their pool.

Next, for seeding. I understand it is very difficult to seed players from different regions who you are not familiar with. However there were MANY errors in seeding, some of them overly egregious. For instance, in my pool I was the pre-assigned 4th seed. I beat the 1st seed player in my character's arguably worst matchup. This should never even come remotely close to happening. A 1st seed should 2-3 stock a 4th seed consistently. Not GET double 2 stocked by them.

To help provide better seeding next time I would strongly advise the formation of a panel of ~2 active/top/knowledgeable players/TOs from each region to do the seeding.

Other MI players either below me on our PR, or not even on the PR got significantly easier pools than I did, and while this is biased since it happen to me, I saw/heard about this happening many times.

In addition, Raven Lord, a top German player mentioned to me that his second round in bracket was against the 1st seed from his pool. Little details like that should be more carefully examined during bracket construction.

Also, following through on promises for friendly setups. If you don't promise any, that is fine, but if you do; please make sure you can 100% follow through with the promises you make. It derails your credibility otherwise.

I look forward to APEX 2013, and hope you guys take all this constructive criticism to heart. Good luck!

 

[Sinji]

Time was the main issue. DQing players for not showing up for their pool within ten minutes is a good idea. I had to wait for 20 min. for the players in my pool to show up. Brawl did a good job DQing players for not showing up. Melee, Eh......

Hope Apex 2013 is hosted in the holidays. That will increase the attendance.

 

[KoRoBeNiKi]

Just more setups...and quicker d/qs. Make 1 room tournament based and the other all friendly or something similar

 

[da K.I.D.]

Is apex even happening again?

 

[GDX]

Is apex even happening again?

...seriously?

 

[Zinnamon]

Has anyone thought about getting sponsored by some electronics department store or an electronic manufacturer to get a good amount of TVs (borrowed, sold at discounted prices/free)? Perhaps they'll just borrow some sets for advertisement.
Don't get intimidated, just call some stores, manufacturers get an appointment and show up to all of them you guys won't loose nothing if you are rejected. The downside I see is that since you probably would need to return the borrowed sets, in case some of them break the TOs would be the ones responsible for them and would need to reimbruse them.
Getting sponsored by manufacturers does sound pretty farfetched but I'd give it a go, after all the event is huge.
Getting borrowed TVs looks impractical but try anyways, getting free TVs (or discounted) sounds more likely but I wonder what you could do with them afterwards.

A more plausible suggestion:
If you buy a bunch of component to VGA adapters ( http://www.nextag.com/component-to-vga-adapter/stores-html ) you could also use monitors as set ups which not only are easier to get, but if you accept both tvs and monitors you could just as well double the amount of setups, perhaps more or perhaps less. Wiis and GCs are probably easier to get than monitors and TVs right? If not that could be a problem too :S

 

[sneakytako]

Apex 2010 was amazing. Apex 2012 was the opposite of amazing.

Here what I think some of the issues were:

1.) Lack of setups.

Very obvious, but day one for brawl players was a complete nightmare. Had <10 setups to play friendlies with about 200 people there. I personally had a terrible time that first day.

2.) Setup a feasible plan.

What was the plan for day 2? Play all but grand finals of doubles and 2 rounds of pools? We finished at 2AM on saturday with only one round finished, Dooms deserves a lot of credit for making sure round 2 finished ASAP. Don't make the TOs do that again. Apex 2010 had it right; make melee and brawl run in separate rooms parallel to each other.

3.) Lack of control for smasher's behavior.

We had issues with people going through the back door. People were climbing on chairs to see international play friendlies. We needed more TOs to generally patrol the venue to make sure people weren't getting into trouble.

4.) Pool/bracket awareness

I think people have already stated this, but the TOs were constantly getting asked who they play next or w/e. What should have happened was to have more designation of responsibilities within the staff so one TO handles actual input of match data, one TO handles receiving match results, a few members being in charge of any questions regarding the ruleset, and then an overall manager that oversees venue/lost items/misc. issues. A visual bracket/pools would also be a great addition.

My 2 cents.

 

[SoulPech]

That's interesting you mention that. When I was watching the streams, Keist and I were saying the same thing and what we could have done to prevent this. His idea was if he were running the tournament, he would be the main TO to report to. The tourney would have been separated into 4 quadrants with 2 TOs monitoring 1 quadrant. If someone had to leave for food, bathroom, etc., they would have to report to their TOs. When the pools were done, they would report to Keist.

 

[Alex Strife]

oh sorry about not posting here

all of that has already been addressed. we hired better TOs to run apex ( chibo/keitaro ) so they will make sure its amazing.

as far as setups...using vga + crt/lcd moniters does not work we talked about it after teh first mlg and it still lags...so all tvs have to be normal crt tvs...those are hard to find + a lot of other issues like storage.

wont type much but we are doing all we can to ensure a better exp.

 

[GDX]

my only suggestion is to ban jason from this tourney. not because of the Japan stuff, but because he still owes a Floridian down here $200+ dollars from 2010

once he pays it back then he can be allowed to come

 

[Alex Strife]

GDX - I understand but that is more of a personal issue than a community one...won't be the first time he does something like this or the last.

 

[da K.I.D.]

GDX - I understand but that is more of a personal issue than a community one...won't be the first time he does something like this or the last.

doesnt mean we should intentionally let that kind of behavior slide.

I honestly dont know why Plank or M2K are still allowed to go to Smash tournaments at all...

 

[Alex Strife]

i dont let it slide...but for me to say ur banned for being a jerk is not my place.

trust me i wish there was a way to just have this nonsense stop but no one really will do anything...all it resorts to is people saying stuff on boards instead of making him go to a dr or therapist..heck idk what he needs.

 

[Strong Badam]

it is not a TOs job to be your collection agency
w/e beef you guys have w/ M2K is between you and him not Alex Strife or the entire community and him. if a TO wants to ban someone for that then you're lucky he's helping you out, if not deal with it.

 

[da K.I.D.]

Does that same logic apply to plank?

 

[Strong Badam]

yes, it does, you can ban him at your tourneys if you want, don't expect every TO to do it. TOs aren't there to babysit, they're there to run a tournament.

 

[Plairnkk]

yes, it does, you can ban him at your tourneys if you want, don't expect every TO to do it. TOs aren't there to babysit, they're there to run a tournament.

*facebook like*

 

[Tesh]

yes, it does, you can ban him at your tourneys if you want, don't expect every TO to do it. TOs aren't there to babysit, they're there to steal thousands of dollars.

Couldn't agree more with this.