So...looked in the DLC5 topic, noticed that I had missed the time period when everyone was discussing the fighting game tournament, and that there didn't seem to be clear organization this year. Actually the tournament organizing is something I've been thinking about a bunch lately, I just wasn't logged into the DL when I was doing so (Bus/Train/Work/etc).
May as well share my observations...
#1 Historically, the organizer of the tournament does not participate in the tournamentOkay, so Captain K broke this one on games he didn't know well in order to fill out the bracket, but in general I think this has a lot of benefits. First, someone's actually running things and moving things along instead of being distracted. Second, as the organizers have a tendency to pick out games that they know well, them participating seems kinda unfair and less fun.
#2 So far, the organizer has switched every tournamentThis seems like a good policy. Different organizers = different games. Different organizers bring different things to the table. If we're sticking with rule #1, different organizers means that nobody's stuck never playing. (Eventually I'm sure we'll have to repeat an organizer, but I feel like we should give people decent breaks).
#3 The tournament is entertaining because there's spectators oohing and ahing--this is it's main advantage over the rest of the 40 hours we spend playing videogames.How do we emphasize this aspect? Well for starters, no-seeding + single-elimination keeps things exiting (though perhaps not strictly fair--see my DLC4 bracket placement ^_^).
Perhaps more importantly, one thing I learned from the DLC4 tournament is that splitting rooms is bad. DLC2 where we had two TVs running SF2 worked fine. DLC4's room split just subdued the mood.
#4 So far, we have yet to repeat a gameWe will likely buck that trend this year with Brawl...although actually, that might deserve further analysis. For instance, Smash Bros in general was barely touched the last time we were in Pacifica, so maybe Brawl is bigger on the east coast? (Then again, DLC5 might not be the same crowd as DLC3--I should compare guest lists). There are also Smash Bros games that have yet to be used in a DL tournament, which could be included in lieu of Brawl for a change of pace.
#5 These things are too damn longI think everyone agrees on this point; by the end most people are tired and the excitement is drained. And if DLC attendance (and by extension tournament enrollment) keeps growing without us addressing time, then the problem will just get worse. Several solutions:
1. Make sure the next pair is ready to go and has their character selected before getting a controller.
2. Use quicker games (in terms of match length)
3. Use fewer games. (so far the format has been 4 games and a "secret" 5th game)
4. Use multiple TVs (preferably in the same room as mentioned above).
5. Skip the "stop and look at the movelist" step, or include more games where you don't need a movelist.
6. Have two games running simultaneously.
Not saying we need to make every one of these changes. Different tournament organizers might even have different ideas of what is "sacred and can't be sacrificed." These are just places where corners could be cut.
#6 We have never had two games from the same series in the same tournamentFairly obvious (these tournaments are significantly about variety) but it bears mentioning.
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Aaanyhow, that's the end of my sort-of general analysis section. On a personal level, I'm actually interested in organizing this year (or else I probably wouldn't have done this much thinking). Figure I should say some stuff about me specifically:
To be perfectly honest, I may not be the ideal candidate, and won't be offended if people argue against me. On the plus side, I'm eager and have done a lot of thinking about tournament structure. On the minus side, I'm the girl who pushed for PoFV last year (I eventually ended up agreeing with Sage that PoFV matches take too long, but point is if people are looking for a "fighting game tournaments with nothing but real fighting games", I'm not your girl).
One area I do feel is my strength, however, is time management analysis. Like, I started getting a bit obsessed with how to get a scientific idea of match length. For instance, my analysis of Super Mario Kart went something like... 3:10
between good players, 3:30
between amateurs--which is to say: SMK matches are too long (I was aiming for 1:00 at the time--longer if the game had a very strong argument outside of match length).
Anyhow, figure I may as well toss this out there, and get discussion going on general observations of what works in these tournaments, as well as discussion going on whether people would be happy with me running things.
