STB Shujinkydink
Burning down in flames for kicks
I recently got the chance to catch up with Sagar, the main TO for our Northwest Majors event next month in Des Moines, WA. Find out what he thinks is important in running events and what hes got cooked up for this years Northwest Majors!
Dink: What is your name/Tag?
Sagar: GameClucks, Sagar1969, GCSagar1969, GC Guy
I use all of them depending what game.
D: When did you first start playing fighting games? and when did you decide
to get involved in running events?
S: So as many people know, I do not play any of the fighting games that I run
events for. I play DotA2, League (at a scrub level, Garen ONLY main) and
use to play Call of Duty 4 at a semi-professional level.
My event running history is really the GameClucks history. I bought
GameClucks in Jan 2006 and immediately started to run events for Halo and
Smash Bros. That evolved into running events for Counter Strike, Call of
Duty, Street Fighter, Marvel and everything else.
Across the last, almost, 10 years, I have run 4-8 events per month,
with more then 600 events run in total, an unknown number of brackets, and even
sizes from as small as 8 players to as high as 1000 players. Most of that
on my own as a one man operation, until three years ago when Deniz
(tLozSEA) joined me for the FGC events, which he has taken the lead on the
weekly and monthly and been a HUGE part of the PNW FGC success.
D:Which games do you currently TO for?
S: Smash Bros, FGC, DotA2, League of Legends, Halo, Call of Duty, Counter
Strike, Madden, anything I can get a group to care about and show up for.
D: Tell me a few things you think are important to running a successful
tournament.
S: The two things that have saved me in this business: Organization and Sense
of Humor. I am a HUGE trash talker, especially about games I do not even understand
or play. Injustice: "Superman, Green Lantern or Go Home!" I almost chant that at
the Injustice events.
Organization: Sign In and Money handling are KEY to success. If you screw
everything else up, but get those two things right, your event can be
remembered as a success. people made it onto the bracket and they got paid
correctly.
Sense of Humor: Despite my ridiculous trash talking, I have a personality
that is very relatable. I naturally get along with people, and if I find
someone who I do not get along with, they will never know I do not get
along with them, because I can, for the good of the event, make them feel
welcomed. People understand that I talk trash, but I am usually very funny with it.
For instance, Smash Brothers has a rumor that I was the best ICs on the
West Coast. This went on for years and to the point that high level
players would put my name up there as someone who was the best ICs in the
WC. People would ask me all the time to play them, how much do I play now? Why
dont I win my own tournaments? I would tell them I retired but will $100 MM them, cash on table only,
until $100 cash became something a ton of them could throw down, then it
went to $1000 MM, now I am just retired and wont MM. THANK GOD I was never
seriously taken up on these MMs (all of the actually good players knew it
was BS, so it became a pretty big inside joke for a long time on the
AllIsBrawl.com site, I was best ICs in Melee and Brawl BTW).
I also understand brackets and seeding. With more then 25 years of
business management, and 15 years of business ownership, I have put those
skills to use in this small part time video gaming venture and made it a
success.
D: How do you find dealing with all the different FGCs?
S: I do not see most gaming communities as being that
different. There are more similarities between all gaming groups, than
there are differences.
Treat everyone "right" and you can be successful, regardless of their
"community".
Maybe the PNW is what is different then other areas of the US, though I
have run very successful events in SoCal also.
The FGC event, specifically, Saturday Slugfest, is one of my favourite
events. Slugfest is likely one of the most successful events in the US for
the FGC. Not the biggest, but definitely the best run and most fun.
Does it really get any better than Gas Can Hooch??
Didnt think so...
D: As far as brackets go, how do you determine seeding for your events?
S: Deniz has a True Points Ranking formula that he uses. Deniz is the PNW
Secret Weapon. He tracks EVERYTHING.
He uses a formula initially put into use by Seattle Tekken via William. It
is how we seed things, based on the point system from all of the PNW
events that Deniz tracks.
For Smash Bros we have two or three people who seed the bracket every
month based on their Power Rankings and the last events Win/Loss.
Other games, which I run less frequently, so not as much data available,
we seed based on last event we can find.
D: What are you looking forward to the most at this years NWM?
S: Northwest Majors VI, on May 2nd - 4th, will be the most star studded event
we have had in Seattle. The "players of note" list is larger than III, IV
and V combined.
NWMVI will be a "Do Not Miss Event" for the PNW and really the West Coast.
This will be our break out year and will help us launch VII (in 2015) to
an all new level.
https://www.facebook.com/events/205535266293404/
http://www.NorthwestMajors.com/
D: Tell me about the competition NWMs usually gets. ie international, out of
state etc.
S: The PNW is vastly under rated. We have very solid players in a variety of
games up here. B0kkin, pretty well known from up here, won NWMV, beating
Ricky Ortiz last year in the Grand Finals.
FChamp comes up here for NWM the last three or four years.
KaneBlueRiver came last year and is registered this year.
PR_Balrog was here last year.
This year the list of attendees is HUGE.
But to find out who they are, you will have to check out the FaceBook page
at https://www.facebook.com/events/205535266293404/
We will have it updated there as people register.
We have some big surprises this year though!
You can find out more information about Northwest Majors at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/205535266293404/
http://www.NorthwestMajors.com/
http://www.twitch.tv/TeamKhaos -- Official Live Stream for NWM
https://www.facebook.com/GameClucksLynnwood -- Main Organizer for NWM and
home of the PNW Gaming Scene
Get Hype ladies and gents!
@Goldfish
@STORMS
Dink: What is your name/Tag?
Sagar: GameClucks, Sagar1969, GCSagar1969, GC Guy
I use all of them depending what game.
D: When did you first start playing fighting games? and when did you decide
to get involved in running events?
S: So as many people know, I do not play any of the fighting games that I run
events for. I play DotA2, League (at a scrub level, Garen ONLY main) and
use to play Call of Duty 4 at a semi-professional level.
My event running history is really the GameClucks history. I bought
GameClucks in Jan 2006 and immediately started to run events for Halo and
Smash Bros. That evolved into running events for Counter Strike, Call of
Duty, Street Fighter, Marvel and everything else.
Across the last, almost, 10 years, I have run 4-8 events per month,
with more then 600 events run in total, an unknown number of brackets, and even
sizes from as small as 8 players to as high as 1000 players. Most of that
on my own as a one man operation, until three years ago when Deniz
(tLozSEA) joined me for the FGC events, which he has taken the lead on the
weekly and monthly and been a HUGE part of the PNW FGC success.
D:Which games do you currently TO for?
S: Smash Bros, FGC, DotA2, League of Legends, Halo, Call of Duty, Counter
Strike, Madden, anything I can get a group to care about and show up for.
D: Tell me a few things you think are important to running a successful
tournament.
S: The two things that have saved me in this business: Organization and Sense
of Humor. I am a HUGE trash talker, especially about games I do not even understand
or play. Injustice: "Superman, Green Lantern or Go Home!" I almost chant that at
the Injustice events.
Organization: Sign In and Money handling are KEY to success. If you screw
everything else up, but get those two things right, your event can be
remembered as a success. people made it onto the bracket and they got paid
correctly.
Sense of Humor: Despite my ridiculous trash talking, I have a personality
that is very relatable. I naturally get along with people, and if I find
someone who I do not get along with, they will never know I do not get
along with them, because I can, for the good of the event, make them feel
welcomed. People understand that I talk trash, but I am usually very funny with it.
For instance, Smash Brothers has a rumor that I was the best ICs on the
West Coast. This went on for years and to the point that high level
players would put my name up there as someone who was the best ICs in the
WC. People would ask me all the time to play them, how much do I play now? Why
dont I win my own tournaments? I would tell them I retired but will $100 MM them, cash on table only,
until $100 cash became something a ton of them could throw down, then it
went to $1000 MM, now I am just retired and wont MM. THANK GOD I was never
seriously taken up on these MMs (all of the actually good players knew it
was BS, so it became a pretty big inside joke for a long time on the
AllIsBrawl.com site, I was best ICs in Melee and Brawl BTW).
I also understand brackets and seeding. With more then 25 years of
business management, and 15 years of business ownership, I have put those
skills to use in this small part time video gaming venture and made it a
success.
D: How do you find dealing with all the different FGCs?
S: I do not see most gaming communities as being that
different. There are more similarities between all gaming groups, than
there are differences.
Treat everyone "right" and you can be successful, regardless of their
"community".
Maybe the PNW is what is different then other areas of the US, though I
have run very successful events in SoCal also.
The FGC event, specifically, Saturday Slugfest, is one of my favourite
events. Slugfest is likely one of the most successful events in the US for
the FGC. Not the biggest, but definitely the best run and most fun.
Does it really get any better than Gas Can Hooch??
Didnt think so...
D: As far as brackets go, how do you determine seeding for your events?
S: Deniz has a True Points Ranking formula that he uses. Deniz is the PNW
Secret Weapon. He tracks EVERYTHING.
He uses a formula initially put into use by Seattle Tekken via William. It
is how we seed things, based on the point system from all of the PNW
events that Deniz tracks.
For Smash Bros we have two or three people who seed the bracket every
month based on their Power Rankings and the last events Win/Loss.
Other games, which I run less frequently, so not as much data available,
we seed based on last event we can find.
D: What are you looking forward to the most at this years NWM?
S: Northwest Majors VI, on May 2nd - 4th, will be the most star studded event
we have had in Seattle. The "players of note" list is larger than III, IV
and V combined.
NWMVI will be a "Do Not Miss Event" for the PNW and really the West Coast.
This will be our break out year and will help us launch VII (in 2015) to
an all new level.
https://www.facebook.com/events/205535266293404/
http://www.NorthwestMajors.com/
D: Tell me about the competition NWMs usually gets. ie international, out of
state etc.
S: The PNW is vastly under rated. We have very solid players in a variety of
games up here. B0kkin, pretty well known from up here, won NWMV, beating
Ricky Ortiz last year in the Grand Finals.
FChamp comes up here for NWM the last three or four years.
KaneBlueRiver came last year and is registered this year.
PR_Balrog was here last year.
This year the list of attendees is HUGE.
But to find out who they are, you will have to check out the FaceBook page
at https://www.facebook.com/events/205535266293404/
We will have it updated there as people register.
We have some big surprises this year though!
You can find out more information about Northwest Majors at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/205535266293404/
http://www.NorthwestMajors.com/
http://www.twitch.tv/TeamKhaos -- Official Live Stream for NWM
https://www.facebook.com/GameClucksLynnwood -- Main Organizer for NWM and
home of the PNW Gaming Scene
Get Hype ladies and gents!
@Goldfish
@STORMS
