Sunday 13 March 2016

Dave's Summer Tournament(s)

In that weird space during the evening before a tournament, figured I'd write a thing on here since I have an hour or so to kill.

Near the end of last year, I ran a more lighthearted event known as "Dave's Stupid Tournament". This was a play on words for Smash's "Dave's Stupid Rule" and involved running a number of games that had been requested on several occasions, but never saw an event. The game list for the event was:
  • Soul Caliber 2 (Gamecube)
  • Skullgirls (PS4)
  • Timesplitters 2 (Gamecube)
  • Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Wii)
  • Runbow (Wii U)
The event itself ran well. There was a couple of small issues that can be prevented in future. The most obvious one of these was taking a ruleset that works well in one game (TS3) and running (TS2) using the same ruleset with minimal testing. I hadn't appreciated how big the differences between the 2 games is, something I want to go into more in future.

The other was simply running too many games. While the event was more laid back, 5 games was too many and running 5 brackets in one day will always be stressful, even with lower numbers. The ideal sweet spot is likely 3 or 4, so I'll likely start at 3 just to be safe. Last event also included a Nintendo sponsorship, which was cool and something I'd like to do more of.

So with that said, here's some thoughts for the future DST events.

Changing the name from Dave's Stupid Tournament to Dave's Summer Tournament. Tournament(s) will happen in the summer and Stupid is a bit too self-deprecating. I have no plans to run events outside of So yeah, Dave's Summer Tournament(s) 2016.

Will aim to run the tournaments on the Sunday after Battlefield Glasgow (or possibly Maximum Impact Glasgow) if possible. Means people can stay over in Glasgow between both days and have a more chilled out event on the Sunday after the main event on the Saturday. Would most likely run 3 total across the summer: June, July and August.

So the question is, what games?



Captain's Mode (Smash 4) is an obvious choice that I might run at all 3. I love playing it and love running it. Last event it ran at received a lot of positive feedback and people really started getting into it.

It also has the added bonus of being extremely low maintenance to run. Teams need to provide their own 3DS, but a handful of WiiUs can provide enough setups for 24 players.



Fast Racing Neo is another possibility. Although it's not a game I've had the chance to play personally yet, I've heard good things about it. Racing games are pretty simple to pick up and play. They're also fairly predictable timescale-wise.

Main thing is testing out how it works logistically to see if it's manageable.

Virtua Fighter 5: FS is another one for the list. Dundee has a few regular players that play it and the PS3 version is pretty affordable. I've literally never played the game but will give it a try at some point.

If there's demand for it, more than willing to give it a spot one month to see how it goes.



This one is more dependent on a few factors. If it actually picks up a real scene on it's own merit and another event wants to run it, then I'd rather leave it to MIG, BFGG or Streetpass.

If no-one else picks it up as a regular event game but people are still interested, then as is the case of Virtua Fighter 5, I'll run something for it. Would rather support other events running it though.

Similar deal with VF5 and Pokken. If people want some Killer Instinct over the summer and no-one else is running it, then would love to see it happen. Season 3 and the PC version launch later this month, so interest in the game will be higher. It has a low entry barrier too.

Not as easy to make happen since XBones weight a ton and are relatively rare. Still a possibility though.

Probably the weirdest game I'll put on the list. This recently launched for Wii U and supports hotseat play. Would need to sit down and work on a format. Probably some kind of clock system similar to chess.

Would need tested out before though. Could either be a laugh or be awful depending on the format.


Never run a board game event before and would have to order a copy or 2 just to run it (want to buy a copy anyway). There's events for this in North America though, so it's not that out there. Is also simple enough to pick up and is essentially footsies the board game.

Could also bring in people that might not be interested in other games. FGC vs BGC could be fun too.

But yeah, that's 7 games that I'm interested in running at some point over the summer. There are a few other possibilities, but I'll leave it at this for now. Now to relax for an evening before getting back to Hypespotting V work.

Monday 11 January 2016

2015 Scottish Smash 4 Community Awards!

So I'll just do a quick note here before this post starts. I used to primarily blog about Dust 514 for about a year between 2013-2014. After Legion was announced, I kept going for a bit, but with the PC version of Dust seemingly in limbo I've lost interest. EVE is still a bit of fun now and again. Valkyrie looks cool and I'd be keen to be involved with it from an event organizer position. Until that happens (or Dust 514 on PC comes along), I'm not likely to be writing about CCP anytime soon. I've mostly moved onto other things and it's those that I'll be writing about from this point on.

Introduction

So 2015 was a hell of a year for the Scottish Smash 4 community. Featuring 4 majors (5 including Aberdeen Comic Con), a fairly consistent monthly series in Glasgow and a plethora of smaller events across the country. Thinking about it, I'd be interested in trying to name all of them, but that will have to wait for another time.

2015 also saw it's fair share of worse times. There was drama and salt, some of which I was involved in. Words were exchanged and there was almost some bad blood over it. Thankfully people came together to talk things over and we grew a bit as a scene. Glasgow will totally beat the rest of Scotland next time though.

Anyway, in celebration of a successful year, we put up a bunch of awards. Votes were collected and I can now present to you all, the winners of the 2015 Scottish Smash 4 Community Awards!

Most Improved Player(s)

Joint 1st: RiskyR & Jay

In what was one of the most even splits of votes in a category, Jay and RiskyR were voted the most improved players in 2015. Looking back at earlier in the year, it's hard to find either of them placing highly in events.

RiskyR made it out of pools at Battle City in June, only to be defeated in the second round of losers. Jay was failing to make top 8 at Dundee locals and lost fairly early in Battle City's amateur bracket.

Things didn't look great going into July, with RiskyR losing to "Boob" in the third round of losers at Armagedinburgh. Jay getting a tough match against G~P in winner's, went out in the second round of losers to Ebisu. September showed a similar story as well, with early losses in the main bracket and a round 4 loss from RiskyR in Amateur. Outside of two top 3 places at Streetpass Glasgow tournaments from RiskyR, it had been a rough year from both players in terms of results.

Then Oktoberfist 3 happened. With an impressive run through losers from both players, they duked it out to take 7th and 9th place. Jay would go on to take 7th place at Smash of Decades in November alongside 8va, followed by 9th at Battlefield December 2015.

Best Gfycat Moment

1st place: https://gfycat.com/WatchfulLittleAztecant

In a recreation of one of the most famous moments our scene is known for, Strawhatter hit Trenchfoot with an uptilt. When the opportunity to match these 2 players at the Armagedinburgh arouse, it seemed fated this would happen again. Trenchfoot has since changed his tag to "Pat Sheezy" and mainly plays Melee.

I should really get around to putting this video together to upload at some point.

Best Video

1st place: BFGG Crew Battle Recap





Easily the best community montage we've had in our scene. This video recaps the end of summer crew battle between Glasgow and the rest of Scotland. The crew battle featured 15 players per side with 3 stocks each and was one of the best moments this year. Major props go to Biolizard for creating this.

Best Meme

1st place: Classic RiskyR Edgeguard

As you probably heard if you watched the previous video, there's a moment when Pilot says "classic RiskyR edgeguard" on commentary. He says it a lot and now so do lots of other people.


Best meme 2015.

Most Photogenic

1st place: Fusco

Photo credit: @Nwanzo
Yeah, I can see why he won.

Also, my elbow came joint second. You guys are weird and that pun wasn't on purpose but I'm leaving it in.

Best Tag

1st place: TWS Lethal Joyce

I don't actually understand this one, so I'll leave an explanation from Gibbo below.

TWS is Team Worldstar. Lethal Joyce simply came from the day that Clean Your Room also became a thing. When Jack was asking what game to play and his mum told him to play a game of clean your room. The way she cut him down was fairly lethal.

Best Side Event

1st place: Glasgow vs Scotland Crew Battle

Things got a bit heated during the summer and the idea of settling in Smash arouse in the form of a crew battle. Glasgow challenged the rest of Scotland to bring it on and what ensued was a 2.5 hour long crew battle between the 30 people who happened to be there. Despite an early lead, the rest of Scotland brought it back to the score of 45-40.

One day the full video of this will be uploaded. For now though, the recap linked above will have to suffice.



Photo Credit: Thomas Dyregaard
Nicest Player

1st place: 8va

Despite playing one of the most frustrating characters in the game, 8va is one of the nicest people in the Scottish scene. Whether it's giving friendly advice, helping carpool with players/equipment to get to events or donating prize winnings to help pay for tournament equipment, 8va has made the Scottish scene a better place for being in it.

Seriously, man's a stand up guy. Also top 2 in Glasgow. Kinda looks like he could be a CO in Advance Wars in this picture.





Best Newcomer

1st place: Ander

We've had a lot of good players join our scene over the last 12 months. It was clearly hard to choose who the best was as well judging by this chart. In the end, Phoenix Dawn's Ander took the number 1 spot in the vote with 3 people tied for second and another 3 tied for third.
Ander's Results from 2015 include multiple top 3 finishes at Glasgow events and strong appearances at multiple other events in the latter half of 2015. He also took 2 stocks from me at the Glasgow vs Scotland crew battle.


Photo credit: Thomas Dyregaard
Best Tournament Organizer

1st place: GimbleB

#Feelsgoodman

Anyway, I put in hundreds of hours of work into running events last year. I ran Smash 4 at Hypespotting 4 with a concussion, at Armagedinburgh with few mistakes, founded the Battlefield monthly series and am currently spending too much time making sure Hypespotting V goes well.

I've mostly stood down from running anything outside of helping with HSV and streaming monthlies. Winning best TO is a really nice note to end on before I focus on studies/work.

Best Commentator

Photo credit: @EvilHustleCrowe
1st place: The Janitor

Despite not being a smash player, The Janitor is one of the most experienced commentators in Scotland. With a wide variety of experience across multiple fighting games, he's the voice of the Scottish FGC and can make pretty much anything enjoyable to watch.

Likely to be a huge threat in Pokken with Masked Pikachu.

Highlight of the Year

1st place: CJ starting a "Fuck him up Yackabean" chant at HS4, minutes after Nintendo plastered the stream link all over their social media.

Video here

It was great.


Event of the Year

1st place: Oktoberfist 3

So like a few other Glaswegion players, I didn't end up making it to Oktoberfist due to being ill with whatever flu hit Glasgow last autumn. Judging from the responses I saw afterwards and the stream, the event looked amazing and was a great last major event for the year. It was also the most stacked Scottish only event by a long way.

Some of the storylines were great. Jay's run through winners. RiskyR's run through losers. Oast placing 2nd at a major after some intense sets with Yackabean. The winners getting god damn wrestling belts!

Photo credit: @rdesmoothjazz

Good stuff to Dreamboat and the rest of Giant Attack for running this. Sadly I couldn't be there, but next year...

Best Scottish Player

1st place: Yackabean

In a complete surprise to no-one, Yackabean takes 2015's Best Scottish Player award. His results throughout the year have consisted of an overwhelming amount of first places, with a few top 4 places at Scottish Majors and 17th at Europe's largest Smash 4 event, Dat Blast Zone 7. Here's the ones I could find:

Glasgow

OSU January: 1st
OSU February: 1st
OSU March: 1st
Hypespotting 4: 3rd
Battle City Glasgow June: 1st
Rivals of Glasgow August: 1st
Battlefield Glasgow August: 1st

Edinburgh

Road 2 Hype Edinburgh: 1st
Smash Beyond the Wall 3: 2nd
Armagedinburgh: 4th

Dundee

GATK Weeklies: 1st
Octoberfist 3: 1st
Smash of Decades: 1st

Aberdeen

Granite City Comic Con: 1st
Reset End of Year Tournament: 1st

London

Dat Blast Zone 7: 17th