OK, so this isn't going to be a thread about topics to do with anything in-game or any gameplay in general. This is just going to be a thread about me expressing my opinion of the current tournament scene, mainly Defend the North.
So I haven't been to a tournament since Summer Jam. This tournament was my re-entrance to the tournament scene in quite a while. (although it did help the tournament was 40 minutes from my house LOL) It felt almost like I was an online warrior making my first appearance. This tournament left a bad taste in my mouth, and let me explain why.
Warning: LONG READ AHEAD so here is the TL: DR version ,,|,,
The price of the tournament entry was a whopping $40 bucks for just the venue fee. Then add in Injustice which was $10 bucks and it came to a total of $50 dollars. $50 dollars? You would think this was Six Flags or some shit. But nope, it's a below average hotel with a ball room that stunk horrid and not much space to move from station to station. Basically it's $50 bucks to stand around and breath nauseous smells while your valuable SATURDAY time is ticking away. May I add that SATURDAY is far and beyond a day where you want time to be wasted doing absolutely nothing of great pleasure or satisfaction.
I get there and enter the ball room early for the sole intention of getting a ton of matches in. What do I see when I enter the ball room? Just four Injustice set ups. You would think we were at someone's house hosting a weekly casual. To make things more of a nuisance, two of the four systems didn't even have DLC and weren't patched. So I couldn't even practice on the two available stations because the character I play is a DLC. Great.
But wait, it gets better. The Injustice stations were put right in front of the entrance to the ball room. So when you're playing your matches or trying to spectate, there are people constantly walking or running past you while bumping into you or trampling over your chair. Might I add I was about TEN inches away from the table corner and even moved the monitor more towards the center of the table to prevent people slamming into my arm while I'm trying to play. Didn't help at all. It just gave these people more cushion for pushin'. I actually have a bruise on my left arm from some idiot who decided to leave the ball room at the speed of someone trying to finish for an olympic medal while carrying his bag that had something in it that mimicked the density of a brick. Yeah, it slammed me right in my arm and my entire arm went numb for three seconds. It was to the point where I was so close to getting out of my seat and chasing the dude down just to slam my duffel bag over his head.
The best part was the stream station. God, was it laggy on that thing. It felt just like playing online. I could barely hit my combos on that station and this was even during that huge button check I did before my opponent arrived. The button check consisted of 15 minutes of me not being able to do a combo that isn't even that hard. I warn the Zatanna player before we play. He sits down to try it and out and is baffled at how delayed the station is. The highlight of the day was when I constantly asked if I could please play my matches off stream on another station that wasn't being used. I was denied every time and told that I must play on stream. Guess it's more about the viewers rather than the players tournament experience, huh? Good to know.
I wake up next day (Sunday) early to go down to the venue and get some more casuals. Now there is just two of the four stations that were there yesterday. Whatever. There's not many people there but a few guys so it's not a huge deal. I try and get games with someone. We sit down and realize both set ups are randomly missing the HDMI cord. LOL. So after 20 minutes of waiting around for a TO who had anything to do with the current Injustice station situation, we say fuck it and borrow one of the nearby stations HDMI cords and proceed to play. The stations next to us were empty and not in use.
To close things, overall this weekend I spent around $200 factoring in food, hotel, parking, venue, game, etc. $200 bucks in just two days for something 40 minutes away from my house... I honestly don't know how I feel about that.Yeah, I understand it was their first tournament and everyone starts some where. So here is your time to start improving and listening to players.
And yes, I understand sometimes shit happens and it's out of control for the TO. But when shit happens don't expect us to just be like:
"Oh, the power randomly went out on all these stations and we all need to clear the room and replay the tournament matches that were in progress? No problem!" (TRUE STORY - It happened at this event)
Expect bitching and complaints. Lots of them. Because that is what you're most likely going to get when "shit happens".
I will be making a review for every tournament I go to from now on. You're damn right I will express my opinion on the satisfactory I receive as a customer to these events. If anything I said in this post really offended any of you, then get over it and realize life is too short for things to suck. Try to make things better next time or else don't volunteer to be staff or run these events if you can't take CRITICISM.
Really crossing my fingers and hoping Apex is a lot better next weekend.
