[IL] Tournaments at Northwestern University?

[metroid1117]

Hey Midwest, I was just wondering if people would be interested in attending Melee tournaments at Northwestern University (NU). As you probably know, NU is located in Evanston, which is located north of Chicago and just East to Skokie (dotted red area on the upper-right corner of the map):

The campus is most easily accessible by Interstate 94 if you're coming by car and by transferring from the red line to the purple line if you're coming in by Metra.

I don't have any dates or venues planned in concrete yet (but if I were able to get the game room at the student center, we'd have more than 10 CRT TVs and just need Gamecubes or Wiis) since I just want to get an idea of possible attendance. Regardless of where the tournament would be held, there are plenty of places to get food within a 5 min drive from the university. I know I haven't been really active in the Melee scene until this past summer, so if enough people are interested I'd like for someone experienced to help me co-host the event.

So yeah, I think I've rambled enough. Would you want to come to an event hosted at NU?

 

[Dart!]

Let me know what you have in mind. i can help

 

[HoChiMinhTrail]

myself and quite a few others would def. be down. chicago has a very large melee following.

 

[tufts!]

Metroid, We have some people interested down at the University of Chicago. We could help organize if you want/if Hyde Park is easier for people to get to host or whatever. We are definitely getting something going here in the fall like bi-weeklies. Hit me up on facebook or here.

 

[metroid1117]

Let me know what you have in mind. i can help

Won't you be at school by that time? I thought I heard that you go to Bradley, NU would be mad far for you.

myself and quite a few others would def. be down. chicago has a very large melee following.

Metroid, We have some people interested down at the University of Chicago. We could help organize if you want/if Hyde Park is easier for people to get to host or whatever. We are definitely getting something going here in the fall like bi-weeklies. Hit me up on facebook or here.

@Trail and Tufts: I wouldn't want NU and UChicago to be competing for tourney attendance; if UC is going to be holding bi-weeklies, then I think it'd be better for UC to host since you're a more central location. Tufts, I'll definitely contact you via Facebook for more info, maybe we can something at NU when you guys aren't able to host.

Is it safe to assume that both NU and UC (UC especially) would be pretty convenient for the majority of Chicago Smashers?

 

[onionchowder]

This is Eric, from UChicago. I have tournament hosting experience and I'd definitely have interest in having some sort of regular schedule, but every 2-3 weeks is a little much. How about we do some sort of alternating bi/tri-weekly between Northwestern and UChi like they do at UMich/EMU?

Do Sveet's tournaments not run during the year?

 

[Juggleguy]

Haha yeah alternating monthlies between universities is an excellent idea. Michigan and Michigan State did this to perfection last fall. It is a really good system for driving attendance. I agree that triweeklies is too frequent, especially if you're doing it in one location.

Northwestern = best campus ever. I lived in Evanston for a few years and still have friends around that I could visit. So if you start hosting bigger tourneys, I'd be interested in driving over there along with some MI people sometime.

 

[HoChiMinhTrail]

Northwestern = best campus ever. I lived in Evanston for a few years and still have friends around that I could visit. So if you start hosting bigger tourneys, I'd be interested in driving over there along with some MI people sometime.

All their bars suck tho... it's a terrible place to get yo partay animal on.

 

[metroid1117]

I think alternating bi/tri-weeklies would be best so that this won't have too much of an effect on our schooling priorities. Looks like I'll have to actually get things done ahead of time instead of procrastinating next year! I'm going to have to contact the school regarding possible venues (I'm out of the country right now, it'll have to wait until next week). Adam and Eric, I'll contact you through Facebook for further details.

Juggleguy, how far are Michigan State and Michigan from each other? Was there a similar crowd (disregarding on-campus newbies) at each tournament, or did it depend on the location?

Trail, what bars did you go to? I'll try to avoid them if my friends and I go out drinking.

 

[onionchowder]

I know it's blasphemous, but we could also run a Brawl tournament on the side, if there was enough interest. I don't know anything about the Chicago Brawl scene though.

 

[Dart!]

forget brawl, i don't go to bradley lol. i can help run ****...let me know dummy

 

[ORLY]

Trail, what bars did you go to? I'll try to avoid them if my friends and I go out drinking.

oh snap, metroid be hatin'

 

[tufts!]

We should have a low tier tournament.

 

[metroid1117]

I know it's blasphemous, but we could also run a Brawl tournament on the side, if there was enough interest. I don't know anything about the Chicago Brawl scene though.

The IL Brawl scene is pretty strong; I'm sure people like DLA, Akashi, Meneil, Sothe, etc. would show up if we held a Brawl side tourney. I'd personally want to hold on that just to make sure we could run a Melee-only tournament first.

forget brawl, i don't go to bradley lol. i can help run ****...let me know dummy

Oops, sorry; I thought I heard from Leo that you guys play often or something. Yeah, your help would be much appreciated man, I'll let you know details once I find them out myself .

We should have a low tier tournament.

I haven't seen any low tier tournies at events lately; do people really not have that much interest in them? Would they be a good alternate event to Doubles?

 

[Scythe]

melee low-tiers are boring tbh

 

[SuperMatt]

isnt mario low tier now?

 

[Quaz]

Low tiers are kinda slow, its hard to kill and you have limited move sets. Might as well just hold a puff only tourney.

 

[Scythe]

isnt mario low tier now?

no pretty sure he went to mid

 

[HoChiMinhTrail]

forget brawl,

this ^^^^^ that game is a ****ing joke

 

[onionchowder]

Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and veto the low tier idea. Just getting thru singles and doubles with pool play takes a while. If there was extra time, I'd rather do something like an amateur bracket.


I won't be back in Chicago until late September, and I'm busy October 1st. How about October 8th as the first tournament date? That leaves plenty of time to hype it up. Finding a venue and setups for the tournament shouldn't be a problem (our dorm can contribute at least 4 CRT TVs).

Unless of course you want to host the first one at NW.

 

[metroid1117]

October 8th, huh? Hmm... how about we just make these monthlies instead of tri-weeklies so that we don't end up having some weird schedule where there's 2 tournaments in one month? But yeah, I don't know when you guys start, but NU starts on the week of Sept. 19th. I'm not 100% sure of all the details yet, but we could probably host the first one on that Saturday, Sept. 24th.

So how long are these tournaments going to be? Full-blown Doubles + Singles (with pools) starting at 1 and ending at 11? Do you guys think the entry fees should be the typical $10/team for Doubles (I thought that's what Smashing Grounds resorted to) and $10/person for Singles? Also, should we keep the payouts to 60/30/10/ and 4th gets their money back, or should we further split the pot to top 5?

By the way, an amateur bracket sounds like an awesome idea; it's a great way to attract more newbies that wouldn't want to spend $10 just to play pool matches. $2 entry fee with a 70/30 split?

 

[tufts!]

I'll be in town on the 24th so I can help you with stuff if you need.

Psshhht all you people and your fondness for good characters.

 

[Quaz]

1 to 11 pm? I don't think 10 hours is enough time to run a tourney like this. Especially if there are pools.

 

[metroid1117]

1 to 11 pm? I don't think 10 hours is enough time to run a tourney like this. Especially if there are pools.

Smashing Grounds usually got done around 11:30, and I don't think we'll hit their levels of attendance (initially, at least). We could have Singles start at 4 or something to make sure it doesn't go overtime.

 

[bertbusdriver]

I'm sure UIUC would make an appearance at a few of these tournaments if you did them metroid.

east lansing and ann arbor are only about an hour away from each other btw. Too bad champaign is 2.5 hours from chicago

 

[onionchowder]

I was considering monthlies for a regular schedule, but a month is about 50% longer than 3 weeks, which is pretty significant, especially since I don't think I would make every NW tournament.

The way the amateur bracket worked at a San Diego tourney I went to worked was:

Regular tournament $10 entry
Amateur tournament $5 entry, starts before regular tournament.
Anybody who enters the amateur bracket can enter the regular bracket for only $5 more
Winner of amateur bracket gets free entry into regular bracket.

The idea is new players who only want to play people near their skill level will enter the amateur bracket and leave before the regular bracket. We would run teams and amateurs at the same time. We could also get rid of pool play if turnout isn't that big, or maybe implement Juggleguy's hybrid bracket.

 

[Robin60062]

I'm interested! I live in Northbrook, and I have a friend at Northwestern that I think would want to come too.

 

[HoChiMinhTrail]

I was considering monthlies for a regular schedule, but a month is about 50% longer than 3 weeks, which is pretty significant, especially since I don't think I would make every NW tournament.

The way the amateur bracket worked at a San Diego tourney I went to worked was:

Regular tournament $10 entry
Amateur tournament $5 entry, starts before regular tournament.
Anybody who enters the amateur bracket can enter the regular bracket for only $5 more
Winner of amateur bracket gets free entry into regular bracket.

The idea is new players who only want to play people near their skill level will enter the amateur bracket and leave before the regular bracket. We would run teams and amateurs at the same time. We could also get rid of pool play if turnout isn't that big, or maybe implement Juggleguy's hybrid bracket.

if you are gonna rnu two smaller singles tournies you could also consider just making the whole thing a pools tourney. with the top 4 in each pool advancing to a final champions pool and then the top 8 placings are determined by their records. pools is honestly the most accurate tourney setting when it comes to showing player placings outside the top 1-3.

 

[TheWalkingThano]

I'm in Evanston and I would be interested.

 

[ORLY]

when're these supposed to get up and running, anyways?

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

I think it might be useful to have a university list with players attending that school.

 

[Tink]

i thought the amatuer brackets ran like this:

reg event 10$ everyone enters
then the ppl that get eliminated from 1st round of pools, can then pay an additional 5$ for the amatuer bracket, and it gets paid out reg 60/30/10.
(idk how this would work out to great with lower attendance tho.)

atleast, thats how it was described for pound, and sounded sweet for ppl.

also, smashing grounds are running every 2 weeks....so might wanna take that into consideration, if you wernt already, on dates to pick. also also, sakurai is on nov 12th i believe, so dont schedule stuff for that slot!

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

if there is an amateur bracket, you should probably only make it 1 or 2 dollars. If its $5, the winner of the amateur bracket will be making as much money as getting second place in the real bracket (if the brackets are the same size; if not, 1st and 2nd are still likely to be making more money than 3rd place in the real bracket which provides incentive to players to lose in pools in order to win money)

 

[Tink]

u mean, aka Tinks original plan for pound =D.....i woudlve destroyed lajin and made that 250 he got.

 

[Quaz]

o man if amatuer brackets happened like that I'd get 5th seed on purpose. mwahahaha

 

[Tink]

quaz will be the only guy gunning for 5th seed, get it, and then lose to some person in ama. finals LOLLL....i wanna see it!

 

[ORLY]

just make this circuit happen, metroid

but keep me updated on dates that you want reserved for your tournament so we don't have any overlap with smash to the futures

 

[metroid1117]

Ooh, Smashing Grounds every two weeks? Awesome!

Anyway, I have some good and bad news... mostly bad news though. The good news is that our first tournament will be on next Saturday on the 24th. The bad news is that (1) at the moment, we can't figure out a way around our school's zero-tolerance towards gambling (which encompasses playing "games of skill" for money) and (2) this date conflicts with Don't Blink: After Story. I'm not sure how many Melee players planned to go there, but because of the above complications, this tournament will be free, directed mainly (but not specifically) towards the NU community. I really appreciate the amateur bracket discussion that's been going on and I hope to implement something like that next time we host a tourney at NU, but until my friends and I find a solution to the gambling policy, we cannot host a tournament with direct monetary prizes. Sorry to disappoint, guys...

Adam and Eric, are you guys still planning to host something at UC in October?

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

Hey i wouldn't mind coming for a free/fun tournament! Whats the best method to get there, train or car?

 

[metroid1117]

Where would you be coming from? If you're coming from Chicago, then the easiest way would be to take the Red Line up to Howard, then transfer onto the Purple line and get off at Noyes; from there, it's about a 10 min walk to the venue. If not, then the best way would be to go on I-94 and take the exit to Dempster St. or Lake Ave. if you're coming from the south or north, respectively. If you need more specific directions, just let me know!

I'm in the process of drafting the tournament thread, but I have to clear it with my friends first before I post it; there will definitely be more details in there.