The Louisiana Thread: Flarefox Forever - We are alive.

[Samsora]

Hope Lee come to grand chariot and enter brawl

 

[Deleted member]

It's pretty hard to avoid having tournaments be run by players. The other options are if a player chooses not to participate so things run smoother or hire someone to run tournaments. The other option would be to pay someone from outside the community to come run things which would cost money and the high venue fee would be more reasonable but that is what we are trykng to avoid. Smashcon takes the worst of both worlds by charging high and pocketing cash while players do all the real stuff. I would fully support a $5 venue fee and give my services to a game as to. But this is what I've been saying since since day one with smashcon and while o get all all the support in private, no one one wants one wants to speak up publicly. I will share a very lengthy discussion me and Erick had had before winter con when I get home that will shed more light on on the situation.

 

[Deleted member]

Stupid phone

 

[Bomber7]

If I was only looking for the opinions of people who agree with me I wouldn't be asking on an open forum. People show up because they want to play at all costs. Not because they agree with you. I did not plan for this to be a discussion between me and you. I want to know other people's opinion. I could **** talk you and smashcon all day but that's not not why I'm here. I never said anything about you needing needing to provide set ups. I was comparing what smashcon does to what apex does. I wouldn't care if you didn't provide any set ups. Because guess what, it's a regional where people can bring set ups. Not apex. But when all the "tos" do is set up a venue and collect money while volunteers run everything, it's fraud.

Our TO's are volunteers. Not sure who you've seen only collect money and not run brackets. I can at least speak for myself in saying I've collected money and run my brackets for the small exception if I've had a match. Which is why we are working to recruit enough people to where ideally, we have a pair of TO's per tournament so if one does decide to enter an event (or both), the other can have their back while they play. However, if there is aparently a problem with that, then we will look into it an see who isn't doing their job and correct it immediately. Thanks for the feedback.

Edit: I also strongly agree with players who are TO's not entering their own events. Problem is, not too many people want to give up playing to run an event, so yea, maybe paying a 3rd party TO would be the right course of action.

 

[Gunnermaniac]

I agree with Taylor wholeheartedly, but due to lack of some more specific information (all I really have is hearsay and what I see going on at tournies) I haven't spoken up myself. But yeah I go to smashcon myself because I know everyone else will be there.

 

[ChKn]

It honestly would have helped to have the date/topic set way in advance (2-3 months prior at least). I felt like everyone was getting dragged along waiting for the tournament to get announced. People need transparency to be able to trust the organizer(s).

 

[Bomber7]

Yeah, I've been busy with finishing up with school and Erick has no internet and we haven't been in contact with each other for a while. Not sure why I wasn't contacted sooner to put all this stuff together, so I'm very sorry for that. I'll do everything I can to make sure this last minute ordeal doesn't cause much trouble.

 

[Deleted member]

to perhaps shed some light on the interior workings on smashcon (sorta), idk. this is a conversation erick and i had before wintercon. take it how you want to.

• 
  Erick Marchetta
  Alright I have time to talk and internet again. What sup?
  
  
• 
  Taylor Tonguis
  Imo, smashcon tournaments arent big enough to give out "pot bonuses." (at the current time) when we wen’t to forte in texas, we didn’t go for the pot bonus. We went to play melee. And they had a free venue and charged no venue fee. Everyone can really appreciate that kind of effort. It makes them more popular and attracts more players. Pot bonuses at smashcon won’t attract any oos, for smash at least. the reason texas came last time was not for the extra money. i talked them in to it. in fact, more people will show up if tournament fees are cheaper. i know at least 3 people that arent coming because they didnt want to pay that much money. i think $10 entry going to the pot is fine for a semi annual state tournament, but extra money that seems to always just disappear is getting very frustrating. if the venue charges you $2 a person, you should charge a $2 venue fee. if they charge you a flat rate, you should estimate how many people you expect to get and charge accordingly. if it's a free venue you shouldn't charge anything. people are losing tons of faith in smashcon, at least in the melee community. maybe the brawl community is younger and get their money from their parents so they dont care what they have to pay to play. if you are going to give pot bonuses and charge bigger venue fees than needed, then the pot bonuses should at least be fair. ive already made mention of this on the facebook posts. its ******** for one game with about the same amount of people to get 3x the pot bonus of another. And if you are going to give pot bonuses (which I still disagree with) the venue fee should be adjusted accordingly pre tournament. Not in advance to get some stock pile of money to give away. let's say you get 30 melee entrants. you got $300 off venue fees. 300-50 pot bonus is 250. idk what laser tag is charging, but melee alone would cover the venue fee. if you're giving $350 in total bonuses (because PnT is giving the rest) and you get 80 people to come, then the venue charges $200 (which i wouldnt believe if they did. you can get a better venue for that much) you still $250 extra. ive heard you say running this smashcon thing has put you in debt but if thats actually true then you should probably seek some help with handling your money. buying a few set ups was unnecessary but i can see why you wanted to, but after at least 3 other tournaments charging venue fees creating a surplus for the organization, there should be no reason to do it anymore. any debt you had (for reasons i cant understand) should have been resolved by now. and it's doesn’t make sense to me to say you want to save up for a big tournament. A: few people are going to come here. texas, the florida pan handle, and mississippi if you're lucky. and that would make the tournament like 60 people max for smash? still doesnt need a huge venue. if you ever did need a huge venue, that is the time that you charge a real venue fee so you can cover your costs. not prior to that time while making all the local players resent you for taking all their money. i also think it's insane to try and run 16 tournaments in 1 day at a venue the size of laser tag. its like half the size that ohana pier was. but thats none of my business. i do suspect that you try and get as many people as possible to come, so you have more games so you can collect more money from venue fees. Basically i think the whole organization is meant to try and make money off the players and it's never been admitted publicly. as i said from the beginning, you should just let your intentions be known and let players decide on their own if they want to be involved or not, but smashcon has always been extremely shady. the melee community is really tired of paying extra money that we see going nowhere and dealing with a shady TO organization. And everyone REALLY hates bomber. But that’s pretty irrelevant.
  
  i apologize for stepping on toes, but i just feel like ive never gotten real answers for most of the problems. i dont enjoy pissing people off, im just really frustrated with the way yall do things. and it's not just me either.
  
  
• 
  Taylor Tonguis
  i probably won't get back to you again today, i have trouble reacting properly when im frustrated so if you have a response ill probably read it tomorrow
  
  
• 
  Erick Marchetta
  Wow this is a bit to go over. I'm glad you've come to me instead of continuing to believe some of these things. Well let me start here.
  
  We have no extra money at all. Any and all extra money that has been made from previous conventions has only made the personal price of running the event less on the staff itself.
  
  I own 12 televisions. I can tell you I never wanted to.
  
  Here is one thing almost everyone in smashcon's staff believes we should be able to make money off our business. Even though that is and never will be our number one goal. I've always wanted to pay my TOs for there hard work. And it is work.
  
  But no we have never paid any of our "volunteer" workers. They all work for smashcon because they believe in me just like your players believe in you. We have actually never scammed anyone despite everyone's obvious wild assumptions. Mine and all of smashcon's goal has been to better the community and grow it which we've done.
  
  We give pot bonuses because it does attract Oos I've spoken personally with Brawl, and 64 players this time and both of them are showing for Pot Bonuses.
  
  Its astounding some Oos players last time weren't interested in them because the whole reason Rice said he came was for the pot bonus. It was the first thing I asked him.
  
  I would rather not go into specifics over how much we have done, paid, and sacrificed for these events.
  
  Here is what I have planned for any money we make ever.
  
  -Pay VGBootcamp to stream for us. They offered to come to summercon last week. -Buy into advertisements -Take trips to MS to start a state circuit before the next release of smash -Buy more streaming equipment for events -Buy Capture Cards for TOs -I've always wanted to send top players to Oos events with $$$ -Pay for big players to come here
  
  Everything listed here is to only improve events and reach out to more players. We've been operating much like the Alabama Smash League for a long time. I have not made it some sort of secret.
  
  I do not have large sacks of money laying around my beautiful house. I have three jobs work 80 to 90 hours a week and still find time for this bull ****. Here is the deal we're getting at Laser tag.
  
  Venue cost- $3 per person Area- All of upstairs two rooms, and a projector. I want to say 1500 sq feet maybe more. Large Pizza's-7.25 each
  
  We are a "Very" small business and are not the evil corporation as some of you players are trying to make us out to be.
  
  Even though we may have a difference of opinion in the smash community. I would like to stress much like I do to everyone. We all have the same goal in mind and just want to better the community.
  
  I would like you not to copy and paste any of this conversation onto smashboards. I directly contacted you to avoid a smash boards argument as its awful and only hurts the community.
  
  You can show people in person all you want, and talk to them about my personal points of view or smashcon's. I'd just rather not turn anything into some huge flame war right before our big event. We all work very hard months in advance to ensure our events are better each time.
  
  Plus I REALLY hate politics of any sort. This falls into that sort of category....
  
  None of this was ment to be offensive if it somehow came off that way.
  
  Hope that answers everything.
  
  
• 
  Taylor Tonguis
  i do believe that you have no extra money. because after 3 or more tournaments with big venue fees and no venue price i think you split it between each other (after taking out the 12 tvs you own and how ever many set ups. even though when i show up at tournaments i mostly see set ups that players bring, but i wont directly call you a liar.) regardless of how many set ups you bought or didnt buy, buying more than you want for your use at home was irrelevant. people will bring set ups if you earn their respect OR give them the right incentives. instead you take players money, buy unnecessary things, and split the rest amongst yourselves saying running a tournament is "work." if it is "work" to you then you shouldnt be here at all. everyone else does it for the love of the game and the community. you take money from the community and nothing you have said says otherwise. all TO's should be volunteers at the level of tournaments you are running. saying someone got paid to be the head TO at apex is a different story. 3 day of the organization of 655 people is a pretty real thing. making a bracket for 30 of your friends to play is nothing. making the players pay for them to get paid is a ****ing joke. "never actually scammed anyone" is a joke. thats a nice way to say no one ever noticed we were taking venue fees into out pockets. better the community and grow it is something i've done. not you. if you didnt notice, brawl got smaller while melee and PM get bigger. its not all because of me though. brawl sucks and melee and PM get lots of public exposure. but i can assure you that you have only hurt the community. stealing "venue fees" from the community to give pot bonuses to a 12 man n64 tournament seems pretty hilarious. brawl came because oracle came for PM in summercon. even if you do get a car from one other state, how is it worth ripping off your entire community to justify 4 people coming from another? it makes absolutely no sense to me. the reason rice came is because he had a ride. he is a good friend of mine and tries to come to any events he can but he has no car and he rode with some MK9 friends.
  
  OF COURSE you would rather not go into specifics on how much you have paid, done, and scarified for events. because you have a lot of money that has disappeared somehow. and i didnt realize running tournaments for a community you allegedly support is "sacrificing."
  
  you want to pay VGBootcamp to steam a tournament of 28 noobs and 2 half ass respected players? what a waste of money. you could ask the community before wasting money on stupid ****. we stream melee from BR on the regular. sure, VGBootcamp is a good name, but no one wants to watch noobs play anyway. it's like if nasa streamed the special olympics. people would only watch it out of sympathy.
  
  you want to take our money to advertise? advertise where? tv? magazine adds? internet? its pretty irrelavent no matter what the answer. smash is a small niche group. if someone in the area plays, they already know about the tournaments. you are once again wasting money.
  
  another big joke: take the money from LA smashers and use it to go to mississippi to try and get more people to give you money? its not about expanding the player base. the player base is already there. it is what it is. ive been trying for 9 years FOR FREE trying to expand the player base, and it is what it is. sometimes you get a few new players and that is awesome. most the time not. but you want to spend LA players money to go to MS and basically do nothing? spend your own money on vacations please.
  
  obviously you arent dedicated to the game or you would have streaming equipment with your own money. like you messaged me the other day, we have 2 people willing to bring streaming equipment to the tournament. multiple other people own it for different reasons. you act like you care about your game, but use every excuse to justify taking "venue fees" to use the community's money to your personal advantage.
  
  you have been taking money from us for at least 2 years and i didnt get paid to go to apex. seems like another excuse to me. that being said, it is ******** to take the community's money and put it toward one player going to a big event. if they are the best player in the community they would be winning all the events anyway and saving up enough to send themselves to big events.
  
  "-Pay for big players to come here" i cannot stress how stupid the M2K ideology is. "if you pay for me to get there i'll come to your tournaments." spending the community's money to bring some asshole here who isnt willing to pay his own way is bull ****. if any top pro wants to come win events in LA please come. but using community money to pay for some dude to play here is ********.
  
  you obviously have made it some sort of secret as you "would rather not go into specifics on how much you have paid, done, and scarified for events." basically what you said was "i bought some set ups and paid some TOs but im not going to tell you the specifics about where the money went." is that because there was surplus that just went in your pocket? or is that because you paid the TOs (including yourself) the remainder of the money? either way its not going to the community. you act so high and mighty about helping the community but after 2 years of dealing with this bull **** and trying to be civil im ****ing done with it. you frauds are only here to make money off the players.
  
  trust me, i dont think you are making large sacks of money. smash con events only happen twice a year. even if you personally made $400 per event (which may be the case lol) that's still only 800 a year. in perspective to being rich, that is nothing. but in perspective of ripping off the community, thats HUGE. i work one job 30 hours a week and go to school 17 hours this semester and paid for everything ive had since i was 16. dont talk to me like you are high and mighty. and if you think this is "bull ****" then ****ing quit because you are obviously the wrong man for the job anyway. i dont even like half the people in the smash community but whether i like them or not, no one deserves to get ripped off.
  
  so assuming all of your information is true, which i dont trust because smashcon has been dishonest in the past, if you get 80 people to show up you're making $210 + what ever you make on pizza sales. so youre probably making over 250 for a days "work" (where you play games and you and your friends run tournaments LOL). while you give away pot bonuses to local players and basically rob players that have no shot at winning of their money. you could just charge a $3 venue fee, and have no pot bonuses, and STILL make money off pizza. and no one would care because food is food. meanwhile you give imbalanced pot bonuses and rip off the melee community more than anyone.
  
  in the sense of what local TO's should be, you are an evil corporation. making money off poor local smash players. super fraud.
  
  i want to better the community. you want to make money off the community. different goals.
  
  a smashboards argument would only hurt your organization, not the community. which is why you never want to talk about anything publicly. it only has to do with you making less money. you should shut down your whole organization and let someone who is really interested in the community pick up the ball.
  
  
• 
  Taylor Tonguis
  all that being said i firmly believe it is never to late to start over. starting next event, tell the community everything that has happened and start doing everything non profit. i will help as much as i possibly can. i will host melee and pm monthlies at my house. someone else would only have to worry about brawl and 64. take the load off other people. then make the semi-anual events as cheap as possible for venue fee to get the most people possible attending. once the number are pushed up high enough, regional players will take notice and the odds will be more likely that other players will join. i feel like its a much more efficient and honest way to expand the community.
  
  
• 
  Erick Marchetta
  Taylor. I can not even begin to wrap my head around such assumptions. Whoever you have been talking to or whatever ideas you've got in your head. They are wrong.
  
  I have never made a cent off of smashcon. Believe what you want.
  
  I know that equipment alone me and Jarious have around 5k spent.
  
  I have helped grow Brawl, melee , and 64. I have gone to events played games I enjoy but would obviously lose my money in just to try and get to know players better. So that we can all experience smash together.
  
  I've been driving from Alexandria, Shreveport, north LA, south LA, West, East. I've had so many car breakdowns just trying to meet one single new player who shows up at a monthly. To try to entice them to come back because the community is so ass backwards about being nice to new players.
  
  God my first experience with a tournament was so bad it made me want to do better. The players talked down to me and treated me like ****. Then I wasn't given my Gfs match properly. I played one set and the other player let me believe it wasn't double elimination. Idk if the TO knew but he just seemed to not care at all. So I walked away thinking wow what a bunch of *****.
  
  I'm not going into what I've done or given specifically anymore because I see no need. I feel no need to list some endless rant of declarations of things I've done. Who will believe me besides the people who were there. Why should I care what honestly anyone in the community thinks. I'm just trying to do me and by doing me doing smashcon to help have bigger and more consistent events.
  
  I've brought tons of new players into the community. The people I've brought in have brought in more. I'm sure you can relate.
  
  All I want is to do what I believe is best for the community. My opinion which is exactly what you do.You do also what you think is right.
  
  No one is giving me money.
  
  I wrote that whole response before as respectfully as possible. Even had friends judge it to make sure I wasn't offensive.
  
  Found time for this Bull**** was a joke. You misunderstood.
  
  Your coming out of left field on me completely.
  
  Literally everyone, and I mean everyone told me I should just ignore you because nothing good would come of it. I wanted to believe we could work something out since we both want to do what we feel is right.
  
  But after reading these crazy assumptions. Places where you misunderstand me trying to not gloat as lieing or other things. Idk what to think of you.
  
  I would like to say your a nice guy still but it seems you have a bit of paranoia.
  
  Almost everything you responded to me with is wrong. I don't know what else to tell you besides that your just judging this very wrong.
  
  I'm done talking about this. I tried its obvious I can't make a single point to you that you'll believe.
  
  You can message me about anything else and I'll respond.
  
  I just hope in time our actions stand out as good.
  
  You can respond and have the last words if it bothers you enough. I could care less I don't care for arguing or acting like all this talking is getting somewhere.
  
  Again trying really hard not to be offensive. Lets see where that gets me.
  
  I just wanted to see if we could sensibly get somewhere. Thats all..
  
  
• 
  Taylor Tonguis
  you're not the type of guy i feel like i need to have last words against. that seems like a silly thing to say because im saying something else but i dont mean it as anything negative. basically we just disagree. and thats fine. ill run melee saturday and everything will be cool. but after that i cant say what will happen
  

 

[RuslinJimmies]

So how bout that X-Men? Swell movie there...

 

[Deleted member]

Why are people so afraid to offend other people. When you avoid conflict nothing ever gets better. I'm not an Internet troll, but im not afraid to say how i feel. shrugging off of serious problems is why things dont get fixed. you, RJ, may not care, and that is fine or maybe you do. but everyone else does the same thing even if they care. everyone is afraid of confrontation. there is really nothing long with a little argument. either nothing comes from it or things get better. to me it seems like a didnt matter or win situation (this does not apply to anything that happens with your girlfriend. dont try it please).

its not time to try and change the subject. its just getting started.

 

[007-jake]

Meh, the problem seems to be, as stated numerous times, that venue fees shouldn't be as high as they are, especially if the fees aren't being used completely on the tournament and when the tournaments are of admittedly poor quality. There damn sure shouldn't be any missing money or personal TO profit from ANY tournament in LA, unless our tournaments start to have 1000+ people, hotel specials, etc etc to where it becomes an arduous job running them. In my personal opinion, no LA tourney should have a venue fee higher than $5. I fall into the category of players that will pay the $10 just because those were the only tournaments I could go to and because I'm a baller so $10 isn't too much. The question becomes, "what can we do to solve the problem?" There's really only two answers: Smashcon lowers venue fee prices and pleases players, or players agree to boycott their tournies. So...players?

 

[RuslinJimmies]

Well in the end I care, but I'm still going to go because it's a relatively late tournament.
I think one of the major things that irks me was the pot bonuses being split the way they were among games. Sure it would be hella shady to say "We are gonna determine pot bonuses at the time of the tournament," but there's a way around that.
Let's say you have 1,000$ (for easy math purposes) that's dedicated specifically pot bonuses.
Melee gets 300 entrants - 300$
PM gets 300 - 300$
Brawl gets 300 - 300$
64 get 100 - 100$

Just make it known that hey there will be pot bonuses, and this is the formula we will use to determine the pot bonuses.

So far most LA players if not all LA players have said we go just to play with a larger crowd. So the pot bonus is gravy. But when you here that smaller events got a pot bonus that couldn't have been provided strictly by players of that event, it kind of leaves a bad taste.

I'm really interested in how this plays out, and I'm interested in starting a central LA series, but this comes with the knowledge that people down south won't travel to it, and in total I might get 10 people to come. So discuss on guys

 

[Kalzar]

involves doing nothing either way balling

 

[DrinkingFood]

Woo I'm back on dry land
I missed you, internet

 

[Avery]

-Semi short notice
-10$ venue fee
-PM starts at 8
-No confirmed PM or melee TOs as of now
-Mlg weekend in a no wifi venue (which I feel will effect OOS attendance)
-The lovely convo that got posted

Getting drunk in front of an mlg stream wins this round, best of luck to everyone going though.
Hit me up when its shrimp time.
#FREELA

 

[Deleted member]

Mlg watching party + mini shrimp at my place Saturday night. Although I did want to have a shrimp that Thursday

 

[BSL]

Excess from the venue fee should go to surprise pot bonuses IMO



Taylor stop having shrimps when I can't make them ;~;

 

[iceman48]

The only problem I have is the vague business strategy. Paying for players to come here, paying for players to head OOS, more TVs, more setups, paying real TOs and for a super stream, all when supposedly these Cons aren't making any money at all, in fact are losing money (if I read that rambling mess correctly). This ain't a real business, Mark Cuban, this is a semi-big video game tourney with an assortment of semi-apathetic consumers. I won't say Randall's tournies were perfect, but at least he wasn't a jackass.

 

[GOL | 482 | JSalt]

Tbh, I'm sick of being told that things are going to happen and they simply don't. It'll be a HUGE surprise for me if VGBootcamp really shows up, because it seems that unrealistic for me that they would think that it would be a good business idea. The goals they want to attain, they're all just mostly unrealistic at this point. Just one step at a time, you know, like breaking even first?

And Erick really travels around the region for one new player? You work 80-90 hours a week, how the HELL do you even sleep? Let us name one player out of us who has joined the scene specifically due to Erick inviting them in... You can't just throw out statements like that and not expect some of us to put the pieces together and call you out on it...
I mean, do we ever hear new people join the scene because "SMASHCON WAS AWESOME" or because "the players were really cool and I had a lot of fun"? Reflect on that.

Oh and I'll be putting up the ICE monthly results tomorrow and I'll let you guys know how the Just 4 Play PM tourney in Slidell went the day after. A very interesting experience, to say the least, lol

 

[Bomber7]

On the note of Smashcon - anyone interested in volunteering for be Melee's TO? We're looking at Diego being P:M's TO with Atticus being assisstant TO for any of the Smash games (depending on where we need him) since he volunteered. Also who here has the willingness and capability to stream for Smashcon? If having commentary is also a possiblity, by all means, let's have it.

 

[Deleted member]

never mind

 

['V']

So, I feel that the discussion pretty much boils down to:

1. Smashcon is a poorly run tourney because of overcharging venue fees for "pot bonuses", inexperienced staff for TO'ing, and promises that they can't keep in regards to getting more people to come to their events.

2. Players complain about it and make suggestions on how the tourney can improve (lowering venue fee, tips on keeping up with brackets, multiple day tourney, etc.).

3. Smashcon does the same exact thing as before without taking any suggestions.

4. Players get pissed off because other players go to the poorly run tourney because those other players wanna go and play other people.

5. Smashcon is mad because players are mad.

Seems to me like the players who don't like Smashcon should just not go and spread the word. If enough people don't show up, things will probably have to change for the tourney in order to get back the players that they lost and attract more and new players to come to future events.

For me, If I'm able to go, I'll probably watch MLG for most of the day and maybe show up towards the end of the day, but I'll only play like one event. I'm not interested in spending all that money in one day again. I might potentially be going to CEO that next weekend anyway.

 

[Bomber7]

Venue fee has been reduced from $10 to $5.

 

['V']

Venue fee has been reduced from $10 to $5.

Yoooooooooooooooooooo!!

 

[BirdyBirds]

lost my PM sd card at a tourny, just got a new PM sd card today. thinking about mods. any ideas?

 

[Sudai]

Seems to me like the players who don't like Smashcon should just not go and spread the word. If enough people don't show up, things will probably have to change for the tourney in order to get back the players that they lost and attract more and new players to come to future events.

There's a reason I haven't been to a single smash con event. Gut feeling told me it'd be a ****ty experience, then when I found out Bomber was one of the main organizers, I nope'd the **** out hard. No offense Bomber cause I have no idea what you're like now, but what I knew before smashcon ever even started led me to believe things would suck. As it seems they do from the stories I hear after -every single- smash con from multiple groups of people.

Wanna know how many good things I've heard about smashcon from people that go to more than just smashcon? Just **** smashcon 'employees' (or whatever you wanna call yourself) have said in this thread.

Venue fee has been reduced from $10 to $5.

lol

 

[Gunnermaniac]

lol vgbootcamp. That's funny

 

[iceman48]

It's weird to see every other TO in the state and some of the major players coming out to say the Smashcon tournies are ****. I wonder if Erick and Bomber are going to take a step back and come up with a new plan instead of just ******** at Taylor and placing blame elsewhere.

 

[Bomber7]

It's weird to see every other TO in the state and some of the major players coming out to say the Smashcon tournies are ****. I wonder if Erick and Bomber are going to take a step back and come up with a new plan instead of just *****ing at Taylor and placing blame elsewhere.

The answer is yes.

@ Sudai - You should have come out to Open World when I was running it. It was much better run compared to Smashcon. You would have had fun. If you can get a ride down to Mandeville for one, you should. I can see how earlier on you decided not to go due to my lack of experience as a TO, but I've definitely grown over the years and learned a lot more. However, I'm sure you'll be happy to know I'm not longer a TO. It might give you more incentive to go now.

 

[Sudai]

I mean, I expected you to grow as a TO it'd be dumb not to, but from the 3-5 horror stories I hear about each smashcon (some you were involved in some you weren't) I'll pass.

$10 venue fee (even the reduced $5 is too much for such a small tourney imo) would be enough to drive me away if it weren't for everything else.

 

[BSL]

JNig keeps $2 of the $5 at open world

 

[GOL | 482 | JSalt]

JNig keeps $2 of the $5 at open world

And let me explain that:
The owner, Gary, offered that to me, just as he offered that to Bomber. Bomber declined as he knew he would be stepping out eventually and his own personal reasons. If I decided not to run these monthlies, Gary would have to run them himself, and he has basically no idea how to TO. So he felt that since I'm running them for him, he might as well pay me to do it.
Take it as you will.

 

[Sudai]

^That's fine. My issue was never that TOs were making money, its that they were making money while telling people that money was going to a venue fee. It's all about transparency.

That said, no open worlds for me cause of $5 venue fee. Not worth it imo

Not that me (not) going changes anything. lol

 

[iceman48]

Sudai going changes everything.

 

[BSL]

And let me explain that:
The owner, Gary, offered that to me, just as he offered that to Bomber. Bomber declined as he knew he would be stepping out eventually and his own personal reasons. If I decided not to run these monthlies, Gary would have to run them himself, and he has basically no idea how to TO. So he felt that since I'm running them for him, he might as well pay me to do it.
Take it as you will.

Just thought it was relevant to Sudai's comment that $5 is too high. And also that (as far as I know) no one was aware of your being payed for being TO.

 

[Bomber7]

In regards to $5 being too high of a venue fee at Open World, then put this into perspective. To rent Open World for a whole day would run $800. We get about thirty people per event so that would mean you guys would have to pay a little over $26 at the door for venue alone. That being said, $5 a head is a steal.

Another option is to just pay the $5 venue fee and all events are free. Or we could just take a percentage out the pot and give it to the owner as compensation for letting us use his space for the whole day.

But that's just me and my humbled opinion.

 

[Sudai]

I'm just spoiled by free venues. $5 for anything smaller than a regional is a rip imo, especially when we have tournies with no venue fee to this day.

 

[Gunnermaniac]

And let me explain that:
The owner, Gary, offered that to me, just as he offered that to Bomber. Bomber declined as he knew he would be stepping out eventually and his own personal reasons. If I decided not to run these monthlies, Gary would have to run them himself, and he has basically no idea how to TO. So he felt that since I'm running them for him, he might as well pay me to do it.
Take it as you will.

TOing is a chore, no problem with this...
Sudai I'll pay your venue if you enter brawl ;D

 

[Sudai]

Nah, I get too bored playing Brawl. Sorry :[

 

[iceman48]

No. Not worth it.