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.