Thanks, Phil, for addressing this in a professional, honest, and thorough manner. I'm glad to see that someone with such integrity is working hard to ensure fairness and the betterment of the community.
After waiting all day for my pool to start, and asking several times if it was still going to happen on Saturday, I ended up getting disqualified after the pool was moved to Sunday and I was uncertain as to when exactly it was going to start. Definitely a huge disappointment, as I wanted to see how I'd do at this tournament after getting 3rd place at Summer Jam and coming back to the game. I feel like this sort of thing, as well as the tournament taking so long and running with so much uncertainty for the players, can be avoided with the improvements to the system that Phil has mentioned, perhaps with some added measures to give scheduling a bit more structure and to move the tournament along more quickly.
I think that ideally, unless the tournament is running ahead of schedule, we shouldn't be seeing many free tournament setups at all. If a match is called and one or both of the players isn't around, I think another match should be called in the meantime. Also, I think it would also be more efficient to call have at least one match "on deck" with the players waiting behind a current match. Lastly, I personally feel like it makes sense to run through at least the first round of the losers bracket as soon as possible. Space is limited, and allowing for about half of the pool to be eliminated and have the option to go elsewhere for casuals or whatever else instead of waiting around seems like a good idea.
Making a timed schedule for the tournament, if possible, would help a lot. MLG schedules pretty much every match to the minute. Keits' tournaments and Evo schedule small pools for specific times. Given the nature of Big E's tournaments, and how they accept entrants at the door, those kinds of schedules are likely impractical. However, I think it'd be quite possible and very beneficial to divide MK's tournament schedule for Big E tournaments into at least two time slots. For example, pools 1-4 from noon to 5:00, and pools 5-8 from 5:00 to 10:00. And with some practice, I imagine it'd be possible to make even more than two time slots, thus making it even easier for everyone. This sort of thing would definitely require some attention to detail and planning in regards to how long it takes to run the pools given the amount of players and setups at each particular event, but could provide a much better experience for everyone involved. More structure, more time for casuals, less confusion, less waiting around, less disqualifications, and potentially less people crowding the tournament area.
I really hope that these suggestions can be taken into consideration, and, if even only in some small part, end up helping to serve the community and improve these majors.
EDIT: Oh, and as for seeding, I think that
CrimsonShadow's system sounds pretty interesting, but as
GGA soonk suggested, we'll really have to see it when it's finished to determine how well it actually works. It might end up being the ideal way to seed, though, provided that it can be implemented while still addressing the concerns that
Maxter mentioned.
EDIT 2: On the topic of which console we should use, I think we should use whichever system is the Evo standard. I agree that 360 runs the game much better, and the new versions of the consoles seem to be robust enough for tournament use, but I would rather we continue to use what we'll be playing on at the world finals. That said, I'd love to see Evo switch over to 360, but that's another battle.
Lastly, I would like to say that despite any problems there may have been at NEC, it's important to have respect and give thanks to everyone involved in setting these events up, running the tournaments, and providing the live streams and commentary. Let's work together to be objective and constructive in our feedback, criticisms, and comments in order to help improve these tournaments. The people who are behind these tournaments are hard-working, understanding, capable people, and I know it's possible to be civil and work to level up at the same time.
9.95
Claude VonStroke
Dark_Rob
pherleece
Shock
summoning
SwiftTomHanks
Respect, thanks, and appreciation to you all.
