USA Skullgirls Community Tour? (Discussion)

[Zidiane]

It's helping draw attention to every event on the list. That's why we made the list.

 

[Broken Loose]

If that's the case, why not make CEOtaku the last stop on the tour? That will get a ton of people attending it.

Or why don't we just use the calendar year and make GUTS the last stop on the tour?

 

[dapurplesharpie]

I think Combo Breaker is better as the last stop on the tour because its:

1. already established as the community's choice for the CAN'T MISS EVENT
2. midway between West and East Coast meaning its easier for all US based members to reach
3. the highest grossing event for SG in terms of money, turnout, and just general treatment of the community. Rick is, to my knowledge, the only tournament organizer that has an account on SH. I don't think Jebailey, BigE, or even Jamie posts on SH. I really think his hands on approach with our community should be rewarded with him having his event as the Final Destination for the Skullgirls Pro Tour.

 

[Zidiane]

the only tournament organizer that has an account on SH

@GameUnderground
I honestly think GUTS deserves a lot of our love this year. It's super unfortunate that we have players on the west coast that have to pick between GUTS and CEOtaku. GUTS has been supporting us for years, making them compete for our entrants doesn't feel good.

On another note: I think we should add another stop on the tour. This is from the SRK article:
"I'm in the european SG community, so I'm pretty aware about [Revolution 2016]. I thought that unofficial tour idea could also make the spotlight on us, as well. The EUFGC rarely has it, except when our best players wins US majors, like Ryan Hart or Luffy."

@Mr Peck comes out to a lot of our events, too. I think the EU community could use some love and consideration, even if we can't all make their events as easily as anything else on the calendar. Revolution 2016 could stand to be added to the calendar, I think, though to be fair I don't know what other events are happening in EU that their community may want a spotlight on.

 

[dapurplesharpie]

I SAID "TO MY KNOWLEDGE". GOD.

 

[Mr Peck]

@Mr Peck comes out to a lot of our events, too. I think the EU community could use some love and consideration, even if we can't all make their events as easily as anything else on the calendar. Revolution 2016 could stand to be added to the calendar, I think, though to be fair I don't know what other events are happening in EU that their community may want a spotlight on.

I mean, flying from the US to the UK is really expensive. I wouldn't expect everyone to turn up to Revo just because I try to go to US tournaments. It's great that McPeanuts is coming, and we'd definitely appreciate the visibility to other potential EU players that would come from including Revolution 2016 on the list, but it's up to you guys to decide whether or not it fits in.

As for other EU events...there aren't any yet. Most big EU tournaments seem to have a smaller selection of games than US majors, and the ones that do run a lot of games tend to round out their lineups with things like SF4/3S/ST/KoF/Blazblue. Hopefully if Revo does well we could try to get a slot at something like Stunfest, but that's a long way in the future. Also, the fact that almost all big EU tournaments don't run SG means I don't go to them, so I don't even know which ones are well organised and fun to attend. Basically, there's a whole lot of homework for me to do.

 

[Zidiane]

I mean, flying from the US to the UK is really expensive. I wouldn't expect everyone to turn up to Revo just because I try to go to US tournaments. It's great that McPeanuts is coming, and we'd definitely appreciate the visibility to other potential EU players that would come from including Revolution 2016 on the list, but it's up to you guys to decide whether or not it fits in.

It just seems like it wouldn't be fair to exclude everything from outside the US, especially since this is actually garnering excitement from people outside the community, just because it's expensive travel. Even if the vast majority of us can't make it, some spotlight and visibility could help you guys over there gather players, which could be really nice. After I guess doing your homework on whatever, if you guys find any specific events that treat you guys well, please speak up.

 

[Magma442]

A question came to mind about if there's going to even be a trophy. Does anyone know a place that would make a trophy with an engraving for the Skullgirls tour?

 

[Kai]

A question came to mind about if there's going to even be a trophy. Does anyone know a place that would make a trophy with an engraving for the Skullgirls tour?

There are places that sell skulls, and places that engrave. I'll make sure it comes out ;)

 

[Magma442]

Alright col and hey while I wont win it (I can't ven fly to half these events) I'm willing to put a small amount into funding the actual first trophy. At least what I can manage.

 

[Broken Loose]

3. the highest grossing event for SG in terms of money, turnout, and just general treatment of the community. Rick is, to my knowledge, the only tournament organizer that has an account on SH. I don't think Jebailey, BigE, or even Jamie posts on SH. I really think his hands on approach with our community should be rewarded with him having his event as the Final Destination for the Skullgirls Pro Tour.

holy shit, this is insulting coming from my own teammate.


I seriously don't know what to fucking say after that

 

[dapurplesharpie]

holy shit, this is insulting coming from my own teammate.


I seriously don't know what to fucking say after that

You're free to be insulted.

Us being on the same team does not mean I have to agree with you regarding an issue involving a tournament. For the record, I've disagreed with Prime on a number of issues.


GUTS is the second on the tournament listing and I have absolutely no issue with that, nor am I complaining that GUTS is not receiving a pot bonus from Autumn Games.

 

[Kai]

Anthony, if you cannot plainly see why Combo Breaker is the natural choice for, "tour's end," then you need to take a step back and examine the angle you're approaching this from. There is literally no reason not to make our biggest tournament the last stop of the tour.

But that's not even really why CEOtaku is first, and CB is last. It's that way because I'm making up the SGCT right now, and CEOtaku is the next tournament.

 

[clawmaster]

And to be fair, all I have heard and seen is that CB is the EVO for SG. This tour of set events will make it easier for players to plan ahead, bring in bigger numbers and entries, make its easier for TOs to prepare for us, and as the TO of CB said it wil help develop story lines for your average FGC member to follow. As this will contunie to grow the scene, there will be more players entering SG and a bigger turn out will hopefully happen. Timing of this is late for sure, but this gives a much bigger incentive for players to go. Hell thats kinda the reason I wanna go to compete and capture footage to help develop these story lines for the rest of the FGC

 

[Pickles]

ok i wanna share my thoughts even though no one asked for my opinion

I remember the months leading up to CEOTaku last year. SG was announced as a main game only a month or two in advance, after the point where a lot of people would have been able to budget for it. Even for people without financial concerns as pressing, the fact that a lot of people weren't able to go led more people to not go because it would be a long trip for what was perceived to be a small tournament. Jebailey, as people probably know, was not the biggest fan of SG (at the time at least) and a lot of people expected that CEOTaku would be a glorified local that would lead to Jebailey using low turnout numbers to denounce the SGC as not worth including on a tournament roster.

Obviously, that's not how things turned out at all. Not only did CEOTaku end up with 50-60 entrants despite the short notice, every single person I spoke with afterwords said they had a fantastic time, some people even saying it was their favorite tournament they'd been to. A LOT of people who didn't attend last year are planning on attending this year, and the impression I'm getting from non-EC SGC is that CEOTaku is gonna be the year-closing tournament for people cross-country. Last year that tournament was NEC and we got 90-something entrants so accounting for SG growth we shouldn't have too much trouble doubling our CEOTaku numbers this year. As much as I love GU (being from new england) and appreciate what they're doing for us, I do not believe there is any reasonable chance that CEOTaku is not the 2nd biggest skullgirls major of 2016 (hopefully 2017, 2018 etc. as well). This is in no small part due to Broken Loose's influence; as mentioned Jebailey thought little of the SGC before CEOTaku 2015 and while I was not involved with planning of course I fully believe that BL is 90% at minimum of the reason that CEOTaku was the success it was. (It seemed like after the success of CEOTaku SG last year that Jebailey's opinion of skullgirls improved and hopefully he supports us more? Regardless, CEOTaku 2016 is gonna be lit regardless of who's running it, we still have main stage and pot bonus). So I can understand where he's coming from and why he would feel slighted.

That said, it should go without saying that combo breaker is the biggest tournament for SG of the year. Was last year, will probably be this year (though CEOtaku will probably come close). Main stage, big pot bonus, exhibitions, the works. As great as CEOtaku is, combo breaker is still "the big one", still the one that everyone who can only make one tournament a year goes to (as they should). I agree that seeing as it is our "EVO", making it the last stop, the big finale, makes sense. (Despite the fact that EVO is NOT the last stop on the capcom pro tour despite being the biggest SF event of the year, the SG community is small enough that it wouldn't be reasonable to have a whole seperate "skullgirls cup" event at the end of the year; that event should be at the tournament that everyone is already at anyway, i.e. combo breaker).

The issue I think is that the graphic we drew up seems to rank importance/weight of tournament by chronological order, which is obviously not going to be accurate. Combo Breaker > CEOTaku > uhh i was gonna rank this whole list but I don't know enough about frosty or NWM to do it lol. But regardless CEOTaku should not be represented as the smallest dot in the smallest font on the tour, that's not fair to the event, the organizers, or the florida scene. Whether or not Kai intended that to be the message, that's the impression that BL, me, and I'm sure other people, are getting. Possible changes I would recommend to resolve this:

1) Make the order chronological, GUTS is the last stop on the tour and FF is the first. This is the format that Capcom Pro Tour uses, but it would require some more discussion to decide the logistics of the "Skullgirls Cup" to close out the tour.

2) Rework the graphic/schedule to give weight to size + importance of tournament. CB and CEOTaku should be the two biggest, and right now CB is the biggest while CEOTaku is the smallest.

3) Rework the graphic/schedule to only organize events by date and not give any weight to any events. The most "fair" option though not necessarily the one I'd recommend (IMO the graphic should also serve as an indicator for what events people should prioritize, but obviously I'm not the one in charge here).

Whatever the decision, I think a lot of this is just misunderstanding between parties and hopefully we can get it cleared up.

edit:
unrelated to the whole rest of my post but in the interest of avoiding double posting: I'd like to see Revolution on the tour. US players don't often go to UK for events but a lot of EC people don't go to west coast either; different regions have their own events. Capcom pro tour doesn't only have events in the US, not everyone is gonna go to every event anyway, and I'd like to see other regions feel included.

 

[Kai]

Let's play a game. It's called, "Which one of these sounds better?"

1. "CEOtaku, the launch of the all new Skullgirls Community Tour! Come and be among the first players to kick off a new era of Skullgirls!"
2. "Hey, why aren't we the last stop on the tour? And our dot on the chart is too small!"

 

[Pickles]

I mean if you really can't see why anyone looking at the graphic might get the impression that CEOtaku is less important than the other events then idk what to tell you. And if you intend to respond to constructive criticism with sarcasm and insults then I'm not really sure what the point of a thread to discuss this tour is. Just for people to parrot "oh man sounds cool can't wait to go to events!"?

Personally I think the whole idea of setting up a tour system for FIVE majors, when every single person who would be getting top 16 at tournaments already knows those are the events to prioritize without getting "points" for it (and we've had the same top 2 at every tournament those 2 have been at for the last 2 years), is a bit foolish, but I recognize that a lot of people like the idea and I wanted to give my feedback to try to improve the experience for everyone else. Guess this isn't really the place for that.

 

[GrunkleBarlowe]

I don't really think we need a points system tbh. I think we can just have an infographic (this one or something similar) to encourage people to attend these specific events and thats all we need. Getting our own trophies would be pretty lit too, and it's definitely something i'd help pitch in for (probably).

This whole CEOtaku vs CB debacle is stupid. If the size of the dots on the infographic are that big of an issue just make them all similar size.

This community has done so well at not having political shit outside of commentary stuff, let's keep it that way please. Having a pro tour/pro-circuit or points system i think is just going to fuel that and I think that's something the community could do without for the time being.

 

[Psychopath]

"Hey, why aren't we the last stop on the tour? And our dot on the chart is too small!"

That's unfairly misrepresenting what his stance was.

To an outsider or newcomer's perspective, the graphic would give them no indication that CEOtaku is among the biggest on the tour schedule unless they actively seek out additional information, which kind of goes against the purpose of making a tour schedule graphically informative so you might as well just make it a list of text next to the SCCT graphic like what Capcom Pro Tour does. From a cursory glance (assuming I have no prior information on the subject), I couldn't tell you whether or not it was some big opening weekend sort of deal or just a mundane first-stop before the ball actually gets rolling.

 

[GrunkleBarlowe]

This is a good idea.

I'm still on the fence about NWM. PNW loves the event and they're wonderful to the SGC, but putting one so close to Combo Breaker always feels like logistical suicide when considering the people that have to travel really far and will prioritize CB (rightfully so) as the main event.

If this is how it plays out, I would really want /everyone/ on the west coast to make a concerted effort that makes it a bigger deal than just "hey this tourney is good to the 40 people it was convenient for."

Gonna be honest I also agree that NWM isn't really suited to being a big SG major. The date is one thing, along with the venue seriously needing to change. I've attended it two years in a row and i'm strongly considering not returning next year.

Non-PNW west coast attendance was low because of how close it was to Combo Breaker on top of the fact that most people from WC aren't really in a financial situation that allows them to travel. Besides Dawn/Mike/SP, SoCal presence was non-existant and me and sprouts were the only ones who came from NorCal. Negus didn't want to/couldn't attend. There was no non wc presence for SG besides Mock, who only came because we funded him to go.

 

[Fosh]

Dolfy, you offend me. ;_;

This sounds like it could be fun, though I dunno if double dipping at CB with two different high level tourney brackets is the best idea since people might want to focus more on doing well in the official tourney. I think I agree with Dolfy about showing this off to people more as a "this is where SG will have a strong presence this year/tourney cycle/etc." but if we can organize a little tourney tour for extra prizes or glory at the end, that'd be cool, too. I'd definitely be willing to chip in on something like a community funded pot bonus for events or anything else related to it.

 

[earlfriend]

@Broken Loose The "announcement" of SGCT on the official SG twitter stems solely from me happening to see Kai's tweet and thinking "Oh, maybe I could help signal boost this." There was no intention to give prominence to one thing over another, or start any kind of shit between events. I wish I could spend all of my time checking Twitter for relevant SG stuff to boost, but I can't. We're more than happy to boost SG tournies/locals (as long as it's not several/day) when people point them out to me/us.

Point me to a CEOtaku tweet and I will retweet the fuck out of it on @Skullgirls.

 

[Kai]

snip

bruh stop with the, "hey I was just trying to help but I GUESS YOU DON'T WANT THAT," routine. I heard your grievances, and responded with a grievance of my own (FL's bad attitude). You were not insulted, you big baby (that's an insult). If you've nothing more to add, just say that, but don't try and punch out on some imaginary high ground.

Gonna be honest I also agree that NWM isn't really suited to being a big SG major.

This was already discussed elsewhere, and NWM was picked(ish) among the other events that we're focusing on. The SGCT is not meant to be apart from that communal choice, it is a symbol of that communal choice. Unless everyone simultaneously just says, "no, we don't want to go," then I'm taking the last word I heard on it, which was yes, it's worth going to.

@Broken Loose The "announcement" of SGCT on the official SG twitter stems solely from me happening to see Kai's tweet and thinking "Oh, maybe I could help signal boost this." There was no intention to give prominence to one thing over another, or start any kind of shit between events.

Exactly. I'm not sure how anyone sees an announcement. I put this forth as a discussion from the very start. The SGCT does not exist outside of my efforts to make it so, and I'm coming to my fellow players and organizers looking for help strengthening our collective national scene.

I have heard the complaints about CEOtaku's prominence on the ROUGH DRAFT tour flowchart. I will likely be modifying it to reflect that tournament's relevance to our scene, and avoid implying that it is a minor jumping off point. It is the jumping off point, though.

 

[keninblack]

Here is my two cents I guess

-On board with this sounds fun.

-Definitely with Liam and Jarred, I dont see the reasoning for having a separate top 8 bracket for the tour. I feel just ending it with the CB top 8 would be enough. Considering i'd imagine half the bracket would be practically the same.

-Bella>Filia in terms of logo

 

[Kai]

I'm leaning against an end of tour bracket, at this point. I had initially thought it would be better to have it end with matches, but that would mean we either run it before the CB tourney, after it, or at a separate event, and frankly, non of those sound optimal. For now, I think I'm going to go with the idea of just handing out the end of tour prizes at Combo Breaker, maybe even on stage if we can (right after top 8 medal ceremony, maybe?). I'll talk about it with Rick, once SG discussions start (a while from now, mind you).

 

[hilaryyy]

Gonna be honest I also agree that NWM isn't really suited to being a big SG major. The date is one thing, along with the venue seriously needing to change. I've attended it two years in a row and i'm strongly considering not returning next year.

Non-PNW west coast attendance was low because of how close it was to Combo Breaker on top of the fact that most people from WC aren't really in a financial situation that allows them to travel. Besides Dawn/Mike/SP, SoCal presence was non-existant and me and sprouts were the only ones who came from NorCal. Negus didn't want to/couldn't attend. There was no non wc presence for SG besides Mock, who only came because we funded him to go.

this is always really hard to swallow because every year i lowball the numbers and am still way off. players i've never heard of or seen online from Idaho, Montana, western WA, Oregon, BC all come out and it's like 20-30 new/unknown regional folks who travel because it's their closest major. Then i get on Twitter and read 40 instances of "focusing on CB, maybe next year Seattle!"

i really believe 80-100 is not unreasonable, but west coast really needs to go and i don't think many have the capability/drive with an event so close to CB.

As for you Dolfinh, you may not want to go for SG, but you'd be missing out on arc events for sure.

 

[MysteriousJ]

I like how this formalizes the main skullgirls tournaments, but i don't get who the point system is trying to appeal to. Tour points only incentivizes attendance for top players, all of whom are already aware of the tournament plan. Just a nice graphic (that doesn't make one tournament look more important than another, besides CB) is enough to get people's attention, IMO. If you want additional attendance incentive, how about something that's fun for everyone? For example, every tournament win gets you an entry in an end-of-season raffle.

 

[dapurplesharpie]

For example, every tournament win gets you an entry in an end-of-season raffle.

I second this.

 

[Pickles]

I will likely be modifying it to reflect that tournament's relevance to our scene, and avoid implying that it is a minor jumping off point.

thank you, that's all we wanted

 

[Wenzel]

I like how this formalizes the main skullgirls tournaments, but i don't get who the point system is trying to appeal to. Tour points only incentivizes attendance for top players, all of whom are already aware of the tournament plan. Just a nice graphic (that doesn't make one tournament look more important than another, besides CB) is enough to get people's attention, IMO. If you want additional attendance incentive, how about something that's fun for everyone? For example, every tournament win gets you an entry in an end-of-season raffle.

Second.

 

[Kai]

The points system is for outsiders. It's so they recognize this as a thing. If you just play along, the points will serve their purpose.

 

[missingno]

The points system is for outsiders. It's so they recognize this as a thing. If you just play along, the points will serve their purpose.

Welcome to the Skullgirls Community Tour, where everything's made up and the points don't matter.

 

[GrunkleBarlowe]

this is always really hard to swallow because every year i lowball the numbers and am still way off. players i've never heard of or seen online from Idaho, Montana, western WA, Oregon, BC all come out and it's like 20-30 new/unknown regional folks who travel because it's their closest major.

Oh wow, I had no idea that it had this kind of out of state presence. That's actually pretty cool.

 

[Kai]

Welcome to the Skullgirls Community Tour, where everything's made up and the points don't matter.

Grand prize for winning the tour... an answering machine message recorded by Bill Curtis!

 

[PME]

I don't see why we can't have Updo as the focus of logo the tbqh. That or Marie

 

[Zidiane]

I hadn't realized that BL's issue was with the size of the text, I thought he just was upset he was first on the list, cause that's what he said he was upset with. I had imagined the title image to be largely WIP anyway, but if it's an issue, I'll try my hand at a concept image for the tour. Is something like this better suited to our tastes? @Broken Loose

 

[Ninjapls]

I don't see why we can't have Updo as the focus of logo the tbqh. That or Marie

cause this:

I'm personally against using Filia DP as the icon, only because its already a thing with the 240p+ boyz and I don't want to take that from them.

EDIT: why not Bella slap or Eliza taunt?

 

[Broken Loose]

I hadn't realized that BL's issue was with the size of the text, I thought he just was upset he was first on the list, cause that's what he said he was upset with. I had imagined the title image to be largely WIP anyway, but if it's an issue, I'll try my hand at a concept image for the tour. Is something like this better suited to our tastes? @Broken Loose

Spoiler

That's way better. I think calendar order (like Capcom's) would be less confusing, but this image doesn't separate the tournaments into tiers like the initial one did.

 

[dapurplesharpie]

I like the way the original graphic lead up to Combo Breaker and still don't think it should be based off calendar year.

In other communities, all events lead up to EVO, which is in the middle of the calendar year. This proposed tour does the same thing.

 

[Chip Blaster]

Out of all of these, only going to be able to make it out to Combo Breaker.
RIP.
Oh well, I'll still have fun.
The banner Zidiane made up looks pretty cool