Alex Strife
Smash Hero
Have you ever wondered why you put so much effort into going to, helping out, at events? Well we all have. Is this something we want to put the effort into or should we just worked on something that is less difficult? I am here to tell you why this is important to not just tournament organizers but to everyone in our community.
Years ago, when I first started, the community in my region was a total mess. Our tournaments were disorganized and our venues were awful. Due to us not having a set standard for our events we were used to being kicked out more of venues, rather than, finishing our tournaments on time. It was a dire mess. At the time I just wanted to help but I soon realized that some people in the community at the time were too prideful to accept it. I began my journey to become a tournament host not to satisfy a need but to help the community I love so much.
As I progressed through the community I learned and improved everything I could. The one thing I felt strongly about was people helping. If people wanted and offered help I would take it. These people generally wanted to just help get things quicker. Since, at the time, I worked for a LAN center I could not offer free entry to any of them. I instead offered them free food and bought them food on my own dollar. It was the least I could do. We all wanted tournaments that ran well and with all the help I got it happened. That is what the community needed at the time. We needed grassroots events that helped get our local community going. We needed an alternative to what was going on. This helped to cause bigger and bigger turnouts each time and our events were the events people enjoyed going to.
After about a year and a half I took a two year hiatus from the community and gaming in general. I had finished my education and just wanted to take a break to focus on myself. Real life stuff happens so what can you say XD. Anyways, I noticed a lot of things that happened while I was away. The major thing was that the tournaments that occurred in the scene just seemed to be run terribly. From all the work I did establishing the community and having people help went to a now broken scene where no one wanted to help and the hosts were making events run late. In one case, for example, a host showed up two hours late to an event. It just seemed like the scene would surely die without someone getting involved to really help. Even worst is that when people helped the hosts out were not even given credit or a thank you. What I cannot tolerate is people who take those for granted and just not give them something in return. Mind you, no one asked for anything in return but I always feel that for helping you should get something even if it’s a thank you. None of that was provided. Worst is, that those people were pretty much driven away from the community due to the hopelessness of the situation.
Then brawl came. That is right this happened all during the Melee scene. The brawl scene it got a little worst before I finally began to step back into the scene.
So now we had events that were new to everyone. More and more people would flood in to get into the game. So we have a great chance to grow the community exponentially. With that I decided to just come back and say hi to people and hang out. I traveled from New York to New Jersey to Virginia supporting the community and just seeing how others run tournaments. At times it was great. I saw a bunch of people supporting events and bringing setups. Those people are still around today helping the scene and making sure they help as much as they can. In other areas, it was not the same. Due to just an obsession with becoming elite, rather than helping others, we saw an entire region just become a place no one was welcomed.
To put it in perspective take a look at it this way. You love a community. Deep down you believe that it can be more than grassroots. You have seen it on the biggest of stages. Anything and everything you could have done being drained down a toilet because people either do not care about being better, rather be important and feel like "gods" rather than men, or worst...people that just are out there to make a quick buck because they have nothing else better to do. Think about that for a moment and tell me it does not bother you. It would bother anyone who wants to see this community prosper. The people like me or those who just like to see things reach their maximum potential cannot help but hate those times. Horrible tournaments, horrible hosts, and just people who did not know better.
Then I decided to come back. I began searching for venues and looking for a place to really give smashers the most for their money. I found a place in NYC called Play 'N' Trade and it did not end up working out. The staff was a bunch of morons and did not know anything about how to properly prepare for an event. I then began looking in New Jersey for a venue. I decided to find something that was easy to get to from New York and New Jersey. Thanks to a beautiful assistant
I found it in this venue called the E-spot. It had a lot of things going for it and still does. For one it had a bus that for less than three dollars round trip took you from NYC and back. Another was food. It had food everywhere. From a Rita's (ice scream shop) to a Blimpie's it was great. At the time no one needed to drive to get there. It was all easy to use public transit. I then assembled my staff. I got a few smashers plus some personal friends to help out.
We ended up with the Viridian City tournament series. I made sure everyone helped out. We all knew how important this series would be to our region. On one hand we had tournaments that were run by people who only did it to satisfy their own egos while we had the VC series that was about the people. Each event was given an extreme amount of care. We made sure to hype each event up to get as many people as possible to come. We worked together to get players like Ally, DEHF, and Tyrant to fly over (some even paid for by me out of my pocket) so that the competition was always there at Viridians. Everywhere we looked people would travel to this event and make each one bigger than the last. We urged the community to bring setups and to push towards live streaming the events. It was about quality as well as quantity.
Right around that time I noticed some major events going on in our community. I knew that I should be there to help. I began to see a lot of things I liked and disliked. The main thing I enjoyed was that in some regions people were actually starting to help a lot more. People like Renth who helped without even asking and getting thanked and even paid a little. Sadly at some majors I saw TO's doing it all by themselves. Now I was happy they were taking responsibility for their event I just felt that everyone needs a hand once in a while. That is something I always tried to make clear. People are needed to make things great. It is never about who makes the event it is about working together towards a greater good. The community advancing is our greater good so we really push towards that. At these major events I did not see a greater good. What I saw instead was an attempt at being better than someone else or trying to be something to achieve a personal goal. One tournament host started to do a circuit on the east coast. When asked about the reasoning for doing it they never stated it was about getting a job at another company. They never really truly cared about the community but more about advancing themselves. Now, mind you, there is nothing wrong with advancing yourself through the things you do but there was a laziness about the structure that ended up being not worth people’s time to enter and did not further the community itself. The hosts ended up never hosting anything significant again.
Fast forward to Apex 2012 and beyond and we see a big jump in quality. Instead of being in garages or basements we have venues at accredited schools like Rutgers University. People look at that event and see the effort and love put into the entire event. We have dozens of people helping ranging from setting up recording groups to make sure all great matches are recorded to those who work day and night to make sure our floor layout is perfect.
We need to encourage people to offer help and help to grow our scene. That is where we all look at this. We all need to do more then what we are doing. Our streams and recordings need to improve. How so? Better equipment and more professional settings. Instead of looking at other communities in awe look to our community members who study video production and IT and talk with them about better hardware to make the streams better. For example, many people do not realize that audio mixers can help to make a better stream. What they help to do is provide additional outlets and equalizers for the stream director to make sure the audio is perfectly balanced. Also look into streaming software such as Wirecast to help produce a stream with more professionalism. Even beyond the stream aspect we can get better recording equipment simply by investing in recording in 480p via the component cables and a capture device that supports it. All of this information can be easily found via the internet or even asking me and others who are willing to help. Ask for help or even just ask around for the help you need do not stay there and sit around.
For hosts I simply say do not be satisfied with your turnouts. Too often have I seen hosts succumb to their own hype and believe they are great at what they do. Just because a lot of people go to an event does not mean what you are doing is great. If you put together an event focus on making the event better. Look to your peers and ask about the good and the bad. Stop trying to be “that guy” and start being someone that matters beyond your inner circle and be a better community host. Try changing a floor plan if you can and make it a little less cluttered (an issue with many events) or even work on growing your staff and making the quality better. Always remember that quality of your event will beat out the quantity of your players entering. Also, give credit and pay your staff and make sure they will help you again for the next event.
I hope that the people that read this understand that we can no longer be satisfied with being ok but we can strive to be better. Tomorrow is always a new day and a great man said “life is what you make of it so make it a good one”. Let us do that and make our community better. Encourage people to learn the game and show them we are a welcoming community. So much more that can be done so let us do it. Apex 2012 is only the beginning so let us build our community for Brawl and Melee’s sake. We can do this guy's!
Years ago, when I first started, the community in my region was a total mess. Our tournaments were disorganized and our venues were awful. Due to us not having a set standard for our events we were used to being kicked out more of venues, rather than, finishing our tournaments on time. It was a dire mess. At the time I just wanted to help but I soon realized that some people in the community at the time were too prideful to accept it. I began my journey to become a tournament host not to satisfy a need but to help the community I love so much.
As I progressed through the community I learned and improved everything I could. The one thing I felt strongly about was people helping. If people wanted and offered help I would take it. These people generally wanted to just help get things quicker. Since, at the time, I worked for a LAN center I could not offer free entry to any of them. I instead offered them free food and bought them food on my own dollar. It was the least I could do. We all wanted tournaments that ran well and with all the help I got it happened. That is what the community needed at the time. We needed grassroots events that helped get our local community going. We needed an alternative to what was going on. This helped to cause bigger and bigger turnouts each time and our events were the events people enjoyed going to.
After about a year and a half I took a two year hiatus from the community and gaming in general. I had finished my education and just wanted to take a break to focus on myself. Real life stuff happens so what can you say XD. Anyways, I noticed a lot of things that happened while I was away. The major thing was that the tournaments that occurred in the scene just seemed to be run terribly. From all the work I did establishing the community and having people help went to a now broken scene where no one wanted to help and the hosts were making events run late. In one case, for example, a host showed up two hours late to an event. It just seemed like the scene would surely die without someone getting involved to really help. Even worst is that when people helped the hosts out were not even given credit or a thank you. What I cannot tolerate is people who take those for granted and just not give them something in return. Mind you, no one asked for anything in return but I always feel that for helping you should get something even if it’s a thank you. None of that was provided. Worst is, that those people were pretty much driven away from the community due to the hopelessness of the situation.
Then brawl came. That is right this happened all during the Melee scene. The brawl scene it got a little worst before I finally began to step back into the scene.
So now we had events that were new to everyone. More and more people would flood in to get into the game. So we have a great chance to grow the community exponentially. With that I decided to just come back and say hi to people and hang out. I traveled from New York to New Jersey to Virginia supporting the community and just seeing how others run tournaments. At times it was great. I saw a bunch of people supporting events and bringing setups. Those people are still around today helping the scene and making sure they help as much as they can. In other areas, it was not the same. Due to just an obsession with becoming elite, rather than helping others, we saw an entire region just become a place no one was welcomed.
To put it in perspective take a look at it this way. You love a community. Deep down you believe that it can be more than grassroots. You have seen it on the biggest of stages. Anything and everything you could have done being drained down a toilet because people either do not care about being better, rather be important and feel like "gods" rather than men, or worst...people that just are out there to make a quick buck because they have nothing else better to do. Think about that for a moment and tell me it does not bother you. It would bother anyone who wants to see this community prosper. The people like me or those who just like to see things reach their maximum potential cannot help but hate those times. Horrible tournaments, horrible hosts, and just people who did not know better.
Then I decided to come back. I began searching for venues and looking for a place to really give smashers the most for their money. I found a place in NYC called Play 'N' Trade and it did not end up working out. The staff was a bunch of morons and did not know anything about how to properly prepare for an event. I then began looking in New Jersey for a venue. I decided to find something that was easy to get to from New York and New Jersey. Thanks to a beautiful assistant
I found it in this venue called the E-spot. It had a lot of things going for it and still does. For one it had a bus that for less than three dollars round trip took you from NYC and back. Another was food. It had food everywhere. From a Rita's (ice scream shop) to a Blimpie's it was great. At the time no one needed to drive to get there. It was all easy to use public transit. I then assembled my staff. I got a few smashers plus some personal friends to help out. We ended up with the Viridian City tournament series. I made sure everyone helped out. We all knew how important this series would be to our region. On one hand we had tournaments that were run by people who only did it to satisfy their own egos while we had the VC series that was about the people. Each event was given an extreme amount of care. We made sure to hype each event up to get as many people as possible to come. We worked together to get players like Ally, DEHF, and Tyrant to fly over (some even paid for by me out of my pocket) so that the competition was always there at Viridians. Everywhere we looked people would travel to this event and make each one bigger than the last. We urged the community to bring setups and to push towards live streaming the events. It was about quality as well as quantity.
Right around that time I noticed some major events going on in our community. I knew that I should be there to help. I began to see a lot of things I liked and disliked. The main thing I enjoyed was that in some regions people were actually starting to help a lot more. People like Renth who helped without even asking and getting thanked and even paid a little. Sadly at some majors I saw TO's doing it all by themselves. Now I was happy they were taking responsibility for their event I just felt that everyone needs a hand once in a while. That is something I always tried to make clear. People are needed to make things great. It is never about who makes the event it is about working together towards a greater good. The community advancing is our greater good so we really push towards that. At these major events I did not see a greater good. What I saw instead was an attempt at being better than someone else or trying to be something to achieve a personal goal. One tournament host started to do a circuit on the east coast. When asked about the reasoning for doing it they never stated it was about getting a job at another company. They never really truly cared about the community but more about advancing themselves. Now, mind you, there is nothing wrong with advancing yourself through the things you do but there was a laziness about the structure that ended up being not worth people’s time to enter and did not further the community itself. The hosts ended up never hosting anything significant again.
Fast forward to Apex 2012 and beyond and we see a big jump in quality. Instead of being in garages or basements we have venues at accredited schools like Rutgers University. People look at that event and see the effort and love put into the entire event. We have dozens of people helping ranging from setting up recording groups to make sure all great matches are recorded to those who work day and night to make sure our floor layout is perfect.
We need to encourage people to offer help and help to grow our scene. That is where we all look at this. We all need to do more then what we are doing. Our streams and recordings need to improve. How so? Better equipment and more professional settings. Instead of looking at other communities in awe look to our community members who study video production and IT and talk with them about better hardware to make the streams better. For example, many people do not realize that audio mixers can help to make a better stream. What they help to do is provide additional outlets and equalizers for the stream director to make sure the audio is perfectly balanced. Also look into streaming software such as Wirecast to help produce a stream with more professionalism. Even beyond the stream aspect we can get better recording equipment simply by investing in recording in 480p via the component cables and a capture device that supports it. All of this information can be easily found via the internet or even asking me and others who are willing to help. Ask for help or even just ask around for the help you need do not stay there and sit around.
For hosts I simply say do not be satisfied with your turnouts. Too often have I seen hosts succumb to their own hype and believe they are great at what they do. Just because a lot of people go to an event does not mean what you are doing is great. If you put together an event focus on making the event better. Look to your peers and ask about the good and the bad. Stop trying to be “that guy” and start being someone that matters beyond your inner circle and be a better community host. Try changing a floor plan if you can and make it a little less cluttered (an issue with many events) or even work on growing your staff and making the quality better. Always remember that quality of your event will beat out the quantity of your players entering. Also, give credit and pay your staff and make sure they will help you again for the next event.
I hope that the people that read this understand that we can no longer be satisfied with being ok but we can strive to be better. Tomorrow is always a new day and a great man said “life is what you make of it so make it a good one”. Let us do that and make our community better. Encourage people to learn the game and show them we are a welcoming community. So much more that can be done so let us do it. Apex 2012 is only the beginning so let us build our community for Brawl and Melee’s sake. We can do this guy's!
