WATO Tournament Feedback!

[hungrybox]

So, if you came to WATO12 last Saturday, you know that it was a success.

32 and 42 entrants for melee and brawl respectively? In a HOUSE tournament?

Well, that was a good sign. This was the largest Florida event since WATO10 (also known as CEO2010, Florida's first national in quite some time) which I also hosted.

So, WATO tournaments are gaining good reputation. I think that the $5 entry fee will stay as a standard for all of my house tournaments - it simply makes things way easier and more feasible to enter.

In a nutshell, I made this thread because I want Feedback - positive or negative - on what I (and by I, I mean me, kyon, and the crew) can do in order to make WATO tournaments even better. I appreciate the fact that so many people came out last saturday; it reminded me of the strong scene that Florida has (Plus 15 or so people dropped out, and it was still big).

So yeah, post your comments, concerns, hype, and any questions. They can be about the venue, prices, rulesets, setups, times, food, etc. etc. Make this thread useful to provide a better tournament experience.

Have at Ye!






One more reason I made this thread: Alex Strife will soon start his Road To APEX2012 series, which includes a regional circuit building up to the event. He has chosen me to host the ATL South event, and so I want to host more WATOs in order to help me build my experience as a host.

 

[BunBun]

I look forward to going to a WATO at some point.


Also

since I just put it in YLYL

 

[Pr0jecT]

Lack of setups was the only real problem, we only had about 5-6 Melee.

Cheap folding chairs would be awesome as I found myself sitting either on the ground or in a moving ultra chair with wheels n ****.

Recording Setups are needed (i'll bring my dazzle back from NY when I go back hopefully.)



Ban Ice Climbers, they are ****ing stupid, also. ALLOW WOBBLING LOOOOOOOOL

 

[Zoro]

There couldnt possibly be any more setups in that house​

you got people sitting behind couches cuz theres no room for bodies

 

[Aglow]

I think pools would have been great/doable. Convert all setups to melee for melee pools, then all to brawl for brawl pools. After pools, revert half back to their former state to allow friendlies of the opposite game during brackets.

I had a great time. It was an excellent tourney. THanks for hosting,

 

[_KuyaSombreo_]

your tournaments are great, but id like to see crews happen once in a while

 

[Pi]

put some more emphasis on setups
maybe wave the door fee for people who -bring- setups, you know that always motivates
like project said some chairs would be nice

ummm

but yea as zoro said it did get pretty crowded, perhaps we could set some things up on your porch?, i know that would be kind of awkward, people going in and out of the door...hmmmm

not sure, how was the upstairs, was there any more room up there?

 

[exarch]

For porches, beware of glare on the TVs.

It's ******** that door fees need to be waived for people to bring setups now.

 

[Exdeath]

I understand why the door fee is $5, but it's too high. Some of CFL didn't come because of the increased door fee.

 

[Takao9411]

I don't see why a door fee makes people not come.
Maybe at the next WATO there could be a Project M set up? Hopefully? :<
I don't really think there were too little set ups, everything was just extremely crammed together.

 

[Pengie]

put some more emphasis on setups
maybe wave the door fee for people who -bring- setups, you know that always motivates
like project said some chairs would be nice

This is actually a very good idea. At least waive the door fee for people who bring recording st ups. This would encourage them to bring a recording set up which is what I think is the only thing that is missing from these tournaments. It's a shame that no one will ever see half of the matches that happen at these.

 

[DFEAR]

wow...some tournies door fee is like 10 bucks (sfl) >_>...5 bucks is nothingggg ur all made of money sacrifice that mickey d's food for door fee xD

 

[Angbad]

Yea $5 is very reasonable lol

 

[h1roshi]

um, all i ave to say is that these tournies SUCK!

LMFAO, j/k, i had MAD fun at the last WATO, im glad i went, and i want to go to all the others and ****.

-misshiroshi

 

[hungrybox]

Yeah SFL door fee is always $10 when i go

Plus my events are all $5 to enter.

I won't waive door fee, but I will begin to offer food and snacks and stuff

 

[Frames]

yo nobody said the one thing that needs to be fixed

the venue

hungry ur house is the best but its just tough always moving around and people using ur cups and trashing ur house and everything and the more people the hotter it gets and a/c always costs extra

if you could get a solid venue (impossible in cfl but still) then wato would be amazing...u already do amazing for a house tournament but expansion is the next step to make it even better

otherwise i enjoyed it people johning about chairs and setups...no johns we had more setups than genesis lol jk

 

[RockCrock]

Beware -- Feedback


Door Fee: $5 door fee for a house tourney is way high. ~30 melee entrants and ~40 brawl entrants with some overlap is 70 entrants * $5/person = $350. How in the world do you justify that much money as a door fee? OK, so we used a lot of electricity, but not over 300 dollars worth. On the other hand, the tournament entrance fees were pathetically low. Did 3rd place even get their money back? $10 minimum for singles, if not higher.
Lower the door fee to $2-$3. Raise the tournament entry fee.

Set-ups and set-up positioning: The set-up to player ratio was poor. 5 Brawl TVs for +40 people and 5 Melee TVs for 30 people means fewer friendlies and longer lines. I realize you can't be held accountable for people not bringing enough TVs, but had there been any more, they wouldn't have even fit!! Not only were numbers unfavorable, but the positioning and comfortablity of the playing environment was poor. As others have said, sitting on a hard tile floor is ****. Cramming 3 TVs into a small room so that players must stand on top of one another is also undesirable. Melee didn't have any recording set-ups. Not sure if you heard, but someone tripped on/unplugged a power cord during a tourney set = bad.
Have a better plan of where things need to go. knihT had a great suggest for set-up/door fee incentives.

Venue Comfortability: There simply wasn't enough space. Walking from one side of the house to the other was difficult, the "pathways" were crowded with spectators. 80 pairs of shoes blocked the entire front entrance/exit. As others have said, sitting on a hard tile floor (be it for a friendly or tournament match) is ****. Chairs should be standard.
You need a REAL VENUE (i.e. not your house) if you want to make future WATOs bigger. Also, it goes without mentioning that the temperature of the house was as bad as Gigs, it was literally cooler outside. The noise levels got out of control a few times. Cheering is fine, the game is exciting, sure, but there's a limit. Yelling 24/7 should not be tolerated. Oh yeah, and band practice upstairs? Come the **** on.
Move.

Tournament Operators: You and Kyon were over-whelmed, understandably. Was a log of people who paid the door fee even kept? Try having a sign-up station at the door. Players should have to report their region/crew when they sign-up, for seeding purposes, why was this omitted? People who paid to enter were left out of the bracket - that's a major mistake (the players are at fault too). And initially they weren't even refunded the correct amount?? You've got to be kidding me, they should have been given free entry to another event for a mistake as big as that. I'm glad you guys didn't do pools, it's an unnecessary seeding methods that doubles the time it takes for the tourney to finish. I remember seeing a megaphone being plugged in, but I don't recall it being used too often, at least not for Melee matches.
Get more organized. Use a set-up station. Seed by region/crew.

Don't run both games on the same day. It's too much. Having to wait for Brawl teams to finish before starting Melee singles (two almost COMPLETELY unrelated events) is bull****. Were you told that I made the Melee bracket? Kyon had good intentions, but he wasn't fit for the job. I was glad to help, but the bracket should have been made a long time ago when registration had concluded.
Hold Brawl and Melee on different days. Who the hell goes to both anyway?


If you plan on hosting an ATL South a event, rent a sizable venue and step up your tournament hosting game big-time.

 

[Toneh]

I'm with rockcrock on the door fee and setups, only thing though is if you raise the entrance fee, alot less ppl may go.

With 50 ppl it should have been at least 14-16 setups (3:1 ratio if you can)

Did 3rd place even get their money back?

yeah im sure they did. For melee and a top 4 payout (50 25 15 10) : 32 entrants x 5 = 160. 160 x .15 (3rd place) = $24.
So yeah. Unless they did top 5 but its prolly close

 

[Frames]

Were you told that I made the Melee bracket?

mutherfuker...at least i knew u made the bracket...rigged *** mutherfuker

 

[hungrybox]

Beware -- Feedback


Door Fee: $5 door fee for a house tourney is way high. ~30 melee entrants and ~40 brawl entrants with some overlap is 70 entrants * $5/person = $350. How in the world do you justify that much money as a door fee? OK, so we used a lot of electricity, but not over 300 dollars worth. On the other hand, the tournament entrance fees were pathetically low. Did 3rd place even get their money back? $10 minimum for singles, if not higher.
Lower the door fee to $2-$3. Raise the tournament entry fee.

Payouts were top 5 for both games. Hell, even 5th place got their money back, plus profit.
I did the $5 door fee because I made my events ridiculously inexpensive - $25 was enough to get you into all 4 events, regardless of whether you play both games or not.

Whatever part of the door fee for electricity cost usually goes to my mom. I don't understand why going from a $5 to a $3 door fee REALLY makes that big of an issue, except for diminishing the total door fee entrance.

With the $5 door fee I'm going to actually start buying Pizza and drinks for the players, along with paper cups and plates. And YES, we did log exactly who did and didn't pay door fee.

Set-ups and set-up positioning: The set-up to player ratio was poor. 5 Brawl TVs for +40 people and 5 Melee TVs for 30 people means fewer friendlies and longer lines. I realize you can't be held accountable for people not bringing enough TVs, but had there been any more, they wouldn't have even fit!! Not only were numbers unfavorable, but the positioning and comfortablity of the playing environment was poor. As others have said, sitting on a hard tile floor is ****. Cramming 3 TVs into a small room so that players must stand on top of one another is also undesirable. Melee didn't have any recording set-ups. Not sure if you heard, but someone tripped on/unplugged a power cord during a tourney set = bad.
Have a better plan of where things need to go. knihT had a great suggest for set-up/door fee incentives.

Suggest me a venue and I'll see what I can do. WATOs at my house are just what I'm used to and good at hosting. Other venues have ridiculous prices and door fees and sometimes their regulations and hosting rules are TERRIBLE. At my house I decide what goes down, when it goes down. Plus I can feasibly house anyone for either the night or morning.

Venue Comfortability: There simply wasn't enough space. Walking from one side of the house to the other was difficult, the "pathways" were crowded with spectators. 80 pairs of shoes blocked the entire front entrance/exit. As others have said, sitting on a hard tile floor (be it for a friendly or tournament match) is ****. Chairs should be standard.
You need a REAL VENUE (i.e. not your house) if you want to make future WATOs bigger. Also, it goes without mentioning that the temperature of the house was as bad as Gigs, it was literally cooler outside. The noise levels got out of control a few times. Cheering is fine, the game is exciting, sure, but there's a limit. Yelling 24/7 should not be tolerated. Oh yeah, and band practice upstairs? Come the **** on.
Move.

Band practice: my brother and friends. I'm no the only one living in my house. Again, I wouldn't necessarily mind a new venue. See above. And we lowered the temperature a number of times, which added onto the electricity bill.

Tournament Operators: You and Kyon were over-whelmed, understandably. Was a log of people who paid the door fee even kept? Try having a sign-up station at the door. Players should have to report their region/crew when they sign-up, for seeding purposes, why was this omitted? People who paid to enter were left out of the bracket - that's a major mistake (the players are at fault too). And initially they weren't even refunded the correct amount?? You've got to be kidding me, they should have been given free entry to another event for a mistake as big as that. I'm glad you guys didn't do pools, it's an unnecessary seeding methods that doubles the time it takes for the tourney to finish. I remember seeing a megaphone being plugged in, but I don't recall it being used too often, at least not for Melee matches.
Get more organized. Use a set-up station. Seed by region/crew.

Kyon is good at seeding brawl. I seed melee when I have time (I didn't). Did YOU know that I greatly helped seed Melee Singles at APEX2010, and that I practically RAN Winterfest? Those weren't even my tournaments.

Mistakes happen, the players were refunded their money for the event. I don't like having people crowd around gary for seeding, though. Location is good advice. I'll be sure to ask all players for their location next WATO.



Don't run both games on the same day. It's too much. Having to wait for Brawl teams to finish before starting Melee singles (two almost COMPLETELY unrelated events) is bull****. Were you told that I made the Melee bracket? Kyon had good intentions, but he wasn't fit for the job. I was glad to help, but the bracket should have been made a long time ago when registration had concluded.
Hold Brawl and Melee on different days. Who the hell goes to both anyway?

HELL no. No one ever goes to Sunday tournaments unless they're a national. Besides, I use Sunday to clean up and do my homework.

If you plan on hosting an ATL South a event, rent a sizable venue and step up your tournament hosting game big-time.

red stuff is cool

 

[ZomgNinjah!!!1]

I think pools would have been great/doable. Convert all setups to melee for melee pools, then all to brawl for brawl pools. After pools, revert half back to their former state to allow friendlies of the opposite game during brackets.

I had a great time. It was an excellent tourney. THanks for hosting,

Thanks for coming dude, your IC's are three good. And ur pretty dope on the piano :D

 

[ZomgNinjah!!!1]

Beware -- Feedback


Door Fee: $5 door fee for a house tourney is way high. ~30 melee entrants and ~40 brawl entrants with some overlap is 70 entrants * $5/person = $350. How in the world do you justify that much money as a door fee? OK, so we used a lot of electricity, but not over 300 dollars worth. On the other hand, the tournament entrance fees were pathetically low. Did 3rd place even get their money back? $10 minimum for singles, if not higher.
Lower the door fee to $2-$3. Raise the tournament entry fee.

Set-ups and set-up positioning: The set-up to player ratio was poor. 5 Brawl TVs for +40 people and 5 Melee TVs for 30 people means fewer friendlies and longer lines. I realize you can't be held accountable for people not bringing enough TVs, but had there been any more, they wouldn't have even fit!! Not only were numbers unfavorable, but the positioning and comfortablity of the playing environment was poor. As others have said, sitting on a hard tile floor is ****. Cramming 3 TVs into a small room so that players must stand on top of one another is also undesirable. Melee didn't have any recording set-ups. Not sure if you heard, but someone tripped on/unplugged a power cord during a tourney set = bad.
Have a better plan of where things need to go. knihT had a great suggest for set-up/door fee incentives.

Venue Comfortability: There simply wasn't enough space. Walking from one side of the house to the other was difficult, the "pathways" were crowded with spectators. 80 pairs of shoes blocked the entire front entrance/exit. As others have said, sitting on a hard tile floor (be it for a friendly or tournament match) is ****. Chairs should be standard.
You need a REAL VENUE (i.e. not your house) if you want to make future WATOs bigger. Also, it goes without mentioning that the temperature of the house was as bad as Gigs, it was literally cooler outside. The noise levels got out of control a few times. Cheering is fine, the game is exciting, sure, but there's a limit. Yelling 24/7 should not be tolerated. Oh yeah, and band practice upstairs? Come the **** on.
Move.

Tournament Operators: You and Kyon were over-whelmed, understandably. Was a log of people who paid the door fee even kept? Try having a sign-up station at the door. Players should have to report their region/crew when they sign-up, for seeding purposes, why was this omitted? People who paid to enter were left out of the bracket - that's a major mistake (the players are at fault too). And initially they weren't even refunded the correct amount?? You've got to be kidding me, they should have been given free entry to another event for a mistake as big as that. I'm glad you guys didn't do pools, it's an unnecessary seeding methods that doubles the time it takes for the tourney to finish. I remember seeing a megaphone being plugged in, but I don't recall it being used too often, at least not for Melee matches.
Get more organized. Use a set-up station. Seed by region/crew.

Don't run both games on the same day. It's too much. Having to wait for Brawl teams to finish before starting Melee singles (two almost COMPLETELY unrelated events) is bull****. Were you told that I made the Melee bracket? Kyon had good intentions, but he wasn't fit for the job. I was glad to help, but the bracket should have been made a long time ago when registration had concluded.
Hold Brawl and Melee on different days. Who the hell goes to both anyway?


If you plan on hosting an ATL South a event, rent a sizable venue and step up your tournament hosting game big-time.

Dennis, I wanna sincerely apologize for the noise of the drums and guitar upstairs. Like a good sport I participated in the tourney, but the guitarist of my band is stubborn and he doesn't give a rat's *** what event my brother is hosting. He's quite rebellious, especially for someone living under me and Juan's roof he should know better, but he's one of those people that doesn't know how to be considerate to the world around him. I saw this coming. I knew that it would become uncomfortable with the noise and people level, and I tried my hardest to avoid it. Next time my brother hosts a WATO (if he doesn't aquire a new venue) it's gonna be planned waaaay better. The shoes and blocked pathways I agree were a hassle, so something about that will be done next time.

 

[RockCrock]

I appreciate your apology

 

[QDVS]

Step up your tourney hosting son!!!

 

[Pi]

If future wato events are expected to be this big
you may want to seriously consider moving furniture around (like, way around)

The venue just doesn't support that amount of players. Which can be seen as a compliment actually, your tourneys are generating a lot of flow. Though I suspect a portion of the turnout was due to M2K

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

Dennis basically said everything that I had a problem with this past event. Things were so cluttered and un-organized that I don't even think I paid for Melee singles, lol. I was just added to the entrance list somehow, not that I'm going to complain of course

The environment isn't very professional, and I really don't want to be picky because I'm aware of how hard you work to get these events going, Juan, but I think a new venue is definitely necessary. I've never had fun competing at a WATO event simply because of the environment.

I will look for a venue for you if you feel you're too busy to do so. I look forward to attending your future events, my friend.

Also, un-necessary smasher drama happening in front of my eyes isn't very wonderful, either. But that's probably out of your control hahaha

red stuff is cool

Juan, I also don't think you should take the feedback of Dennis in a negative way. Just saying.

 

[hungrybox]

k

new venue search gogogogogo

 

[Dogysamich]

UCF student center?
that mcdonalds were gigabits used to be?
disney world?

You got choices.

Yeah, I actually suggested Mcdonalds and a Disney World.

Deal wit' it.

 

[nevershootme]

UCF student center?
that mcdonalds were gigabits used to be?
disney world?

You got choices.

Yeah, I actually suggested Mcdonalds and a Disney World.

Deal wit' it.

UCF stuff is restricted... like mega restricted lol, there is the pizza place on campus (brooklyn pizza), but you must be a registered student club to do so.

i've once tried to negotiate with the gaming club (lan knights) and they didn't approve the idea of doing console stuff (despite large spaces in the ballrooms they rent for their BYOC LAN's which easily accommodates a definite 50 for consoles)

just do Central Florida Fairgrounds really.... it worked before, then why not again. just rent a smaller spot for smash only unless u wanna negotiate with Jebailey again to do a multi-game tourney.

 

[VGmasta]

More chairs are necessary.
Chairs are really good. Really, really good.
The sitting on the floor is bad. And standing up is nightmarish.

**** Dennis! Did you type up that whole wall of text all by yourself?!