Tournament Liaisons: A New Idea

[Wife]

This Smash season has inspired some frustration, due to the lack of information made available to spectators watching events from home. Regionals are getting anywhere from 5k-10k on the stream these days, and the very centerpiece of the tournament - the bracket - is astoundingly not always made public, or kept updated.

But I was rescued from writing some douchy article on the importance of spectatorship when it suddenly hit me: we're smashers. We came from dirt, twice, and we're quite capable of just doing things ourselves. Aren't we? So here is my proposal.

For any significant tournament, we designate a tournament liaison (TL) and a community liaison (CL). The TL is present at the event, stays informed, and texts anything relevant to the CL, who is at home, keeping the rest of us in the know.

Now in the past Nintendude and I have fantasized about creating a brand new piece of software that TOs and fans could share, but for our immediate purposes I think a self post on r/smashbros and a challonge bracket link would work just fine.

Please post and let me know what you think!

Random Thoughts:
1) This would be a voluntary system, with the perks being that a good TL or CL would surely increase their clout, and perhaps even get some of those sweet, sweet follows on Twitter :-)

2) The bracket is most important, but other information could be nice too. For example:
> PhillyBilly lost to Neo in a Marth ditto and stomped a chair, literally, in half
> Mew2King didn't make it to the venue on time and was DQ'd first round of Winner's
> Power outage interrupted PP vs. Leffen at 1 stock each on the 3rd game!

 

[Hughie]

I think this is a pretty cool idea, but the CL will have to have a fair bit of time on his hands to update everything quickly.
Other than that, it is a good concept to hear what is happening apart on what's on stream.

 

[prog]

Even for SCR recently, they had a ticker at the bottom with results of sets from all events. Not sure if that's a plausible solution at this point, but I think that's a solid endgame goal.

 

[Wing T]

Or the TL could just live tweet updates and bracket links.

 

[CyberZixx]

FGC events always have brackets. TheCrimsonBlur's events do too. I'd love for every smash event to have that standard.

 

[TheTantalus]

I disagree with this. A modern 2014 T.O. should be keeping their stream/public up to speed on this, or someone on their staff team should. Not that I think this is a bad idea, but I think babying a community to do a job they should already be doing is a bad practice.

I always post Challonge links on twitter and make sure GimR/Commentators know specific upsets and upcoming matches so that if something was missed for the stream offstream, the viewership will know quickly.

 

[WHA?]

A user on here called teH_icy pretty much has done this in the past. You can see him on "tournament info dump" threads. The dude has some inside info on the tourneys (sometimes i think he updates us all while he is at tourney). Has a few ppl relay him info and he does the rest. Even makes brackets based on results he gets, when the TOs dont update their brackets in real time.

When he has done this, I can pretty much open up a stream on one tab and his info dump on another and be pretty aware about the tourney.

I can definately see this arrangement of a CL and TL working.

Also, my knowledge on the google docs thing is murky, but is it possible to have someone (the TL) update a doc through their phone and have everyone see the updates live? It would be kinda like the info dump threads, but you wouldn't have to scroll the thread pages.

 

[Taeo]

Agreed that it can be very frustrating to follow a stream and not be able to find a public bracket - especially if you join the stream late.

I also agree that the current tools should suffice. But if you have any ideas that might improve the situation please let me know. I'm a web developer by trade and I'd love to be able to give back to the community. I'm also from MD.

 

[Zanguzen]

Thanks for the suggestions, Wife. I'd just like to emphasize how valuable a live bracket during a tournament is for me when I spectate online. Some recent, large Melee tournies have surprisingly not provided this.

 

[Liquipedia]

.....Soon™

 

[thespymachine]

I disagree with this. A modern 2014 T.O. should be keeping their stream/public up to speed on this, or someone on their staff team should. Not that I think this is a bad idea, but I think babying a community to do a job they should already be doing is a bad practice.

I always post Challonge links on twitter and make sure GimR/Commentators know specific upsets and upcoming matches so that if something was missed for the stream offstream, the viewership will know quickly.

It seems the TL/CL would simply be the TO staff team.

But yeah, it's already becoming pretty standard that TOs and streamers relay the necessary information.