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The Role of Money in the Smash Community + Growth Talks

CAOTIC

Woxy
BRoomer
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
11,506
Location
Sydney
Initiative? Yug walked up to me and told me to email him. I did. About 12 times. Never got a reply.

I understand he's busy and all but dayum.
email is a fairly weak form of communication; try talking to him by phone or even better, at his bar. i guess if honest attempts there have failed, you've exhausted all your options.
 

Remastered

Smash Lord
Joined
Jul 26, 2010
Messages
1,428
Location
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
I tried dealing with the mana bar in QLD and they were less than helpful. I gave up and focused attention on animania and hopefully supanova when it comes around again.

After the recent animania up here I made participants enter email adresses in TIO when I set up the tournament. I tried to sit down with each person who turned up to show them something interesting about their character, and the different things you can do. Motivation towards a scene only works if you are willing to put in effort. I have 8 people get back to me about attending the next tournament up here. I have offered free entry into an amatuer bracket for non ranked players to compete in that will run during doubles. Whilst the main singles event is on, I will be holding a 'random only' tournament so that anyone who doesn't want to enter the higher level bracket, has something fun to do while we all play.

I have put my own money into producing flyers for events, but this can easily be done by taking some of the money away from non-major winnings from regular tournaments, and using the funds to do up and promote your scene.

Basically all I can say is be active with people who show interest in smash at events and gathering, even if they are casual, you can convert them by sitting down and spending a bit of time with them.

QLD is growing, and hopefully will continue into the release of SSBU
 

Ghostbone

Smash Master
Joined
Sep 20, 2010
Messages
4,665
Location
Australia
^
I commend you good sir, getting new players involved in the smash community is great :)
Don't forget to introduce them to Melee ;)

Edit: I actually kinda like the idea of an amateur bracket, what are you using to decide whether one is eligible or not? Is it just whether or not someone is on your PR?
 

CAOTIC

Woxy
BRoomer
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
11,506
Location
Sydney
I tried to sit down with each person who turned up to show them something interesting about their character, and the different things you can do. Basically all I can say is be active with people who show interest in smash at events and gathering, even if they are casual, you can convert them by sitting down and spending a bit of time with them.
awesome. this is a really important bit of advice.

i've seen communities grow singlehandedly through the relationship new players have established with the TO. if the initial impression TOs give are impersonal, they're less likely to be drawn in.
 

Remastered

Smash Lord
Joined
Jul 26, 2010
Messages
1,428
Location
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Yeh Ghost, just whether a person is a current or previous place holder on our PR. Basically, outside of the previous PR position holders, and the people who are on the PR now, there are about 5 or 6 regulars who would compete normally. Add to that about 8 others, and we have a fairly simple and decent amatuer bracket.

We also had a few people in our scene, and outsiders say that our PR should only have the top 5, as only the top 5 are competitve. I disagree with this also. Avoid taking away peoples goals and future achievements. For some players in the community to make it to the top 10 is something they can be proud of, and something they should look forward too, regardless of how hard or easy it is to be there.

At the most recent tournament up here (ACL), there was much more hype for the 10th place PR playoff then there was for the actual final, and I love that. A community that gets behind other players in the community is hard to achieve, but worth it in the long run.

I also recommend social gatherings, and not necessarily ones that have to discriminate by age, but that is acceptable in some cases for obvious reasons. We had a big group of us go out to korean BBQ and pancake mana during ACL, and I have no doubt you have all seen the laser skirmish organisation haha. We all play TCG's during the tournaments as well as gamecube side games, which only adds to the atmosphere. (Blade almost beat everyone up here at Soul Calibur 2, and it was amazingly hype).

The biggest thing I think I can say is, don't let people outside your scene dictate what is right and wrong, I agree some discussion on certain aspects need to be universal, like the majority of rules etc. But it's most important to bring together a tournament structure that everyone in your scene is happy with and enjoys.
 

ciaza

Smash Prodigy
Premium
Joined
Aug 12, 2009
Messages
2,759
Location
Australia
what adept said struck me as familiar, and i remember why.

i found and dug up this old thread (http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=264766)

while it tends to focus on smash 64, in this case the game is more or less irrelevant and i think it has some good advice as to how to keep players in the scene. a good read anyway.
 

Darkwing SykeDuk

Smash Dankist
Joined
Mar 5, 2006
Messages
4,996
Location
Purple Monkey Dishwasher
I've been doing that for years son..

only problem is u get the ******* who think ther top **** and start boasting "omg i took 2 stock off syke omgomgomgomg"

how about instead of not owning them.. you own them, then give them give them tips on avoiding/escaping. Positive reinforcement.. not false hope of victory..
 

Remastered

Smash Lord
Joined
Jul 26, 2010
Messages
1,428
Location
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
I like that thread ciaza, good link ;)

Also Zac, it's not necessarily about winning and losing, or baiting people into the scene by pretending they are better than they are, it's about creating an environment thats enjoyable regardless of skill.

Amatuer brackets, free first tourney entry, good people, a competitive outlook, all items that can make a new person feel comfortable. Once they have joined the scene, then you can start with the positive reinforcement technique, because by then they will want to be getting better.
 

Misfire

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jul 27, 2011
Messages
15
Location
Australia (SA)
Ok, so I'm just going to write a little bit here about how I got into smash brothers and the time it took me to actually join the competitive scene and why it took that long.

So I originally played Melee when I was like, I don't know, maybe 14 or 15. Back then we just played it for fun. Then my friend Marc (BlackShadow) started to learn quite a bit and ended up surpassing me. After that I sort of gave up on Smash in general because it was "no fun any more". Which was true to 14 year old me.

About 4 years later Eric (Monkeybear) and his twin brother Connor (Vash) came to Australia. We all shared a love for the game and we all started playing together. The only thing wrong with this was that Connor and Eric had come from Canada and from a relatively competitive scene so they blitzed Marc and I.

Now two things happened after this. I played for a bit regardless of how much **** there was. Then I stopped playing so much because I just couldn't keep up and Marc had started to learn more too. After that I basically stopped playing and reverted back to playing TF2 a lot. I think this supports the whole "don't **** them" argument a little. I know that the way I felt after being pwned super duper hard prevented me from learning more. I would always use the excuse that "I would just get ***** any way". Now, that's just me but I'm sure some of the new players will feel that way too.

Almost 2 years later and there's about 5 months until BAM happens. For some reason, I'm not sure what, I decided I was going. I also decided that Marc would teach me. Now, the way Marc taught me was great. Him and I would chill at his place in a relaxed yet slightly competitive atmosphere and he would teach me things that I could do with Luigi that I previously hadn't been able to pull off. Like Wave Dashing and short hopping and all that lovely stuff that eventually leads into other lessons about comboing etc. This was the way I was taught. Marc would also intermittently play games where he was playing seriously with me. But only after I had learnt the new skill. After the game he would talk to me about what I did wrong, how I could punish what he could do wrong and how to improve the things that I needed to win games. To me, this seems like the best way of teaching new players.

****** them and then telling them what they did wrong works also (to a degree). But you don't want to make new players feel bad about it. I think I'm a testament to that. So yeah. That's my two cents :)

Edit: I just read the thread "how to encourage new players" and it basically said a lot of the stuff I just did so feel free to not read my post. :( lol
 

Attila_

The artist formerly known as 'shmot'
BRoomer
Joined
Jul 22, 2008
Messages
6,025
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Tbh I think I kept playing after my first tourney cause I did well (7th).

Although cobalt infiniting me against a wall made me almost quit lol

At bam, I spent heaps of time playing friendlies with the new kids. Just chatting and going for crazy shizz is actually heaps of fun, and I think they really enjoyed it too.

We'll see if they stay in the scene, I suppose.

:phone:
 

Misfire

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jul 27, 2011
Messages
15
Location
Australia (SA)
One of my favourite things about BAM was playing friendlies. I got way better from just playing a lot of different people and changing my play style to either match or surpass them. To be honest I didn't win a single, singles game at BAM but I did win some Teams Friendlies.

I think both methods work very well but I think that new players should be eased in to the medium rather than thrust into a setting where there's no hope of victory. I'd say that teaching new players the skills they need should take presidence over ****** their tight little but holes. After you've taught them some skills, play them and see how they go. Give them positive reinforcement and tell them what they did wrong and how to improve.
 
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