New Plymouth first starting out tournament need help

[baka101]

Hey all,

Man you don't know the hassle just to find this site, first it started by joining Capcom-unity then sending Capcom Admin a message regarding Capcom game licensing cause I didn't know you didn't need to have one to start a tournament, Tom responded

If you want to slap together a practice/tournament in NZ and have people show up and play (and get/stay excited about the games) then just do it... you don't need permission or a license, etc.

If you _want_ advice, ask people at evo, or on the forums.. or s-kill (although he is definitely very busy), but you can also wing it.

The real answer is: Go! Have fun! Make it happen.

Hope this is more clear,

EVO (evo2k.com) has run for a decade without being directly involved with Capcom and/or with any permission/license to do so.

You are good to go! Stenghthen you community and play Street Fighter!

Hope this addresses your concerns,

-Tom

So then I thought why not email gootecks, after reading his article

Top 10 Street Fighter 4 New Year’s Resolutions

3. Do your part to strengthen your local community
What good is being the best at Street Fighter 4 if you’re sitting at home by yourself in training mode?  Get out there and help run tournaments, make friends with more people, become better friends with the guys you already play with.  By strengthening the community, more people will be playing more frequently which will make everyone level up.

Gootecks himself responded

Mark,
I'd get in touch with ozhadou.net because they are in Australia although I have no idea where they are in relation to you.  I think that having console sessions is a better idea and less risky than opening up an arcade.  In fact, I'm working on renting office space in my area to do pretty much the same thing.  Maybe post on the gootecks.com/forums for additional support/suggestions.  Good luck!

Ryan Gutierrez aka gootecks

So I did that and they said

Hi Mark,

The first thing I would recommend is that you get in touch with some of the guys over at the NZism forums: http://nzism.alphaism.com/. I'm not sure if you know about this site, but NZism are the New Zealand equivalent of OzHadou. They just recently held their first ever nationals tournament for SF4, and have been organising gatherings (and probably tournaments) for SF4 over the last few months, no doubt along similar lines to your own ideas.

Please try contacting them and see what they have to say. I'm expect they'll be very keen to hear from a fellow NZer looking to grow the NZ SF4 community in his local area.

If you don't get the answers you need from the NZism guys, please feel free to email me again with any specific questions you might have. I'm more than happy to share my experiences concerning the Australian SF community.

Cheers,
Andrew

So here I am asking for help to run a tournament the first of its kind in my town New Plymouth, its really crap New Plymouth is we get cafes,restaurants,clothing shops going up,we have WOMAD as entertainment,we have bars/clubs going up.  At yet any other entertainment is neglected for instance Village Skycity took over Toptown Cinema 5 and promised they would update the analog screens into digital, replace the hard chairs with better ones, replace the sound with digital sound, get a 6th screen in where the candy bar is but none of these things have happened hence an example of neglecting any other non drinking/eating entertainment avenue.

Also back in the 90s New Plymouth was a magic place and those where the years before the American dying arcade scene, we had like 4-5 arcades Apollos, Spaceworld, Wizards can't remember the other 2 arcade names all packed with the latest games in that time period I would of been 11-12yr old when the most talked about subject at school was streetfighter 2 amongst the bloods,crypts and homies etc. And eventually those unfortunately had there day and closed, then like in 1997 I believe Laserforce started up we had a arcade scene again yah, it was MSHvsSF,MvC2,SSF2T mad challenges all the time that stayed open until the 00's then closed damn it. Now we have arcade machines in Toptown Cinema 5 and Bowlarama but those are coincascade(timeout) rejects like american style cabs Final Fight,SSF2T,XMvsSF,MvC2(no characters unlocked),neogeo machine,tekken 4(the screen is all messed up with colors green and blue you cant make out anything) plus the arcade operator here is a retard WTF all those games are a $1.00 each that old,and things messed up on screen.Plus we have topskater and its $2.00 each and yes messed up screen,time crisis 2 $2.00 a game.
Toptown newest game is Ghost Squad and Battle Gear 3. So yeh no Streetfighter 3 thirdstrike to be found or Streetfighter 4,Tekken 5 DR or Tekken 6 BR.
Then we go onto bowlarama ok the same crap except they have Battle Gear 4 but one of the four screens aint going plus there are gay signs everywhere saying no food or drink,no bad language,no sitting in the seats when not playing etc and the place has a bad feel to it, its dark as hell,old carpet etc,the staff or person running it unfriendly.

So I had to give you a long arse run down why I want to start up a SF4/fighting tournament in this hole it never used to be but now is due to lazy arcade owners who have no idea what to do when running a arcade,hell I started a dipolma in mechnical engineering to get a job to save up to open a jap arcade much like the one in manners mall wellington,yiffans in auckland,timeout under burger king queen st,auckland so we could get some of that magic back that was in new plymouth once upon a time.

The idea to run a console fighting game tournament came about when I downloaded
I GOT NEXT documentary man what a awesome video I have seen it like 12+ times, then came The Dogface Show, then SRK,iplaywinner,gootecks,eventhubs,capcom-unity all for ideas on street fighter 4 and also watching the live stream on evo2009. So as to figure out what the streetfighter community these days is like,the history,the pioneers,the beast etc as so I can return new plymouth back to the day when we had skillfull players, but now we just have bored youths hanging outside BK or town doing f all just drinking or doing drugs to pass the time. I want to change that by saying renting a floor space in town and start friday, saturday night events where I get some 360s and ps3's together along with some crt tv screens or normal analog screens and have people bring along there controllers whether they be pads or joysticks, and if its a free event have them bring screens, there own consoles and we have SF4,blazeblue,KOF,Tekken practice sessions etc.

Now what I finally ask you guys what is the best way of holding something like this cause you guys are in New Zealand so you know what the youth culture is like, and what to watch out for, what the council thinks, renting spaces, equipment issues, paying or none paying sessions, who supplies what, marketing the event, tournament or practice session structure, rules, flyers, getting word out, how much money you need to even consider doing an event, sponsors, getting other businesses involved, getting discounts for hosting at certain places, how a tournament should be run etc,prizes,security,cleaners,people monitoring the tournament,how many people is needed to start an event and anything else I cant think of to run such a event.

This console fighting tournament thing was a prequel to see if there is a market for an jap arcade,what happens and what to look out for etc.

So if any of you manage to read this huge desperate call for help and reply on how I should go about this I am much grateful for that.

Thanks

Baka101 aka Mark

[stereomonkey]

First of all, Welcome to the site Mark!  Looks like you had one hell of a journey to get here.

Second,  I highly recommend getting the player base sorted first.  Not really useful to start up a tournament if nobody plays in New Plymouth.  Also when it comes to recruiting players I think your best to start small.  Have casual get togethers around peoples homes/apartments/garages, wherever you can just so you get an idea of what the scene is like in NP. 

So my recommendations would be to find those players in NP that are interested in fighting games.  Once that is sorted you can probably start with organizing events and when that happens we will try to support you to the fullest.

[[NIUE] weazzyefff]

Man what a huge mission to find this site, every time i write ANYthing in NZ google this damn site comes up. Man that sounds cool, if i had heaps of money i would definately do the same, good luck.

[baka101]

Hey stereomonkey, thanks for replying so fast I didn't think I would get such a fast reply after just posting my first massive eva post.  Ok I used to work at ebgames new plymouth so I did get to know the staff there many still friends and I have a friend who works in the console part of Dicksmiths as well, but the only trouble is many of them are either WOW addicted or just play the latest game and then complete and repeat the process with a new game. And another against me is unlike many of you who are in auckland and wellington with SFIII 3rd strike and SF4, tekken 5-6+ in there arcades, we don't have those games in our crap as you cant call it an arcade, so many people at home in new plymouth could be practicing these games on console, pc etc without me even knowing it but because these no arcade here with those games theres no reason for them to come into town cause there is no arcade here to practice or verse random people in the flesh and blood. And is there a way on xbox live or ps home etc to filter games so that I can fight against people in new plymouth, new zealand on the respective titles I mentioned.

So why I thought about the console fighting tournament was to see if there was a market for this arcade genre within new plymouth and by utilizing the newspapers to get a picture of this event before it starts out, get flyers out, get the word out and see if we can get the market of who still play these games, away from home versing random people in a setting just for arcade fighting on consoles and testing there's skills. So you see how impossible it would be to meet everyone who plays at home on xbox live or pshome etc in new plymouth when there is no point to come into town cause we don't have an arcade with these games to verse random people so I want to fill this with a console fighting tournament/practice event to see if these people do exist.

So newspaper article complete with picture would be like hyping it up, and saying something like we are keeping it small cause we didn't know if anyone would show or how many sf fans or fighting games fans there where in new plymouth etc, and how we are trying to pioneer a tournament in new plymouth so people can practice and fight to be able to get to new zealand national tournament etc and put nzism website on the map because if I hadn't of contacted gootecks and him putting me onto ozhadou then them putting me onto to this site which I never knew existed i wont know of you guys.

So you see without a decent arcade like ones in wellington and auckland who have these games there is absolutelty no way of knowing what type of fighting community we have, it wasnt until the 90s when the arcades started up we knew that we had a strong fighting community here, so with this tournament we start it small and test the fighting community waters in new plymouth if we dont get enough numbers etc after all the newspaper articles,marketing,flyers, word of mouth we know that new plymouth isn't a place for a fighting community and no use in starting a arcade to compete with those 2 crap arse you cant call arcades in new plymouth, and I was give it up and move to either hamilton, wellington or auckland and spend my days working as a draughtsperson and arcading it after work which i know i can always get a challenge.

So yeh

Baka101 aka Mark

and yeh New Plymouth is in a bad state for entertainment game and cinema wise in town I mean, at one point ebgames new plymouth got one of the top selling places in new zealand for selling games and consoles so that means theres still a hell of alot of gamers at home cause why not its crap in town cause theres nothing you can call arcade or console fighting tournaments etc, so my advice if you want gaming entertainment please avoid new plymouth at all costs it really is the worst until something changes.

[Hydro]

Hell I'll come down to NP for a SFIV tourney, I'm gonna damn sure be at the next one in Hamilton.

[Gino]

Hell I'll come down to NP for a SFIV tourney, I'm gonna damn sure be at the next one in Hamilton.

Yeahh.......

[baka101]

Hell I'll come down to NP for a SFIV tourney, I'm gonna damn sure be at the next one in Hamilton.

Yeahh.......

Yeahh to coming to NP for tourney or Yeahh to tourney in Hamilton I am confused

[fluxcore]

I don't quite have time to reply just yet to your posts, so I'm just saying 'welcome to the site' and that I admire your enthusiasm and what you're trying to accomplish I'll reply in greater length a bit later.

James: in the event of a NP tourney you could swing by hammy and then we could make a road trip out of it

[stereomonkey]

I don't quite have time to reply just yet to your posts, so I'm just saying 'welcome to the site' and that I admire your enthusiasm and what you're trying to accomplish

I'm in the same boat.  Once I finish upload the Nationals videos I'll come back to ya Mark.

[baka101]

Oh guys this ain't a straight away thing ok, it going to take months of planning on my end and support from friends and community etc, so don't rush yourselves for me hell no just do your things I haven't even decided a month for this to take place yet as I only have ideas.

And what one of you where saying about making a road trip to new plymouth does that mean you would come to me and help me organize it or oversee it or just witness it.

Plus both of you pm me your email address preferably hotmail so when I do venture to hamilton I can talk to you in person and introduce you to my friends in hamilton.

If I dont venture to hamilton, I will be in auckland for new years eve and new years day.

Thanks

Mark aka Baka101

[fluxcore]

All my contact stuff is in the sidebar, hit me up wherever whenever
<---

As for a tourney in NP, I'd have no probs helping you out - as long as I can enter for once

Just a quick thing while I'm thinking about it, that it can be very hard reaching people. There are still a lot of people around that play fighting games and don't know about this site, such as yourself, and I'm not sure how many of them would be reading newspapers tbh! Student rags might be a good try though...

[baka101]

Of course you could enter the more the merrier hell all the members of nzism if they want could come along, I just want people that all and all the support I can get.
And some great skill level to boot that would be awesome.

And yeh not only newspapers but fliers to say the asians at the hotel management course out in bellblock and youths on the street and at WITT which is a subsidery of AUT here in New Plymouth cause I am a mechanical engineering student here at WITT so there are many other young and old people here to get the word to, plus I know a few businesses in town etc so i could use that.

So thanks again people the support is awesome, and with all that this thing could become a reality and get the streetfighter community commissioned and stomp out years of boredom for everyone in newplymouth well my generation and the fighting game community here anyway.

[zos'la]

LOL welcome mate, you're on the same boat as I 3 5 months ago when I started teh very first SF4 tournament here in Auckland and thats how i bump my head to this site
Its not easy to do teh organizing part, lots of work and stress.

some things to note:
1: your player base/ community in NP? how many people do you expect for the turn up? that will determine how much entry fee etc, too high then its a no go, too low with bad turn up and you're messed up with the payments for retal cost etc.

2: Venue: do you have a suitable place in mind? like in Auckland we have places such as: RvB.co.nz and giga.net.nz both are very suitable for holding such events.

3: Gears: Do you have the gears to run this? by gears i mean consoles, games and joystick etc. For us we had to ask our community to lend their person sticks/ consoles out, our admins Lennysaraus had a bunch of sticks, we then ask a few very nice members from this site to lend their PS3 and some sticks out during the event. I am not sure how close you are with teh people in NP but It would be wise for you to know some of these people if available.

4: hold a Gathering and see the turn out, like up in auckland we do such regular gatherings for a fee of $5.00 for 6 hour play, with 4 or so consoles you have people running around playing each other very casual stuff. But it will give you a good idea of turnouts, know people around you that may help you and do announcements etc.

well enought blah from me, need to get some work done if you have more questions, feel free to botherFLuxcore as he has put his hands up else just leave a msg here and we will get back to you

Btw, make sure you don't make Flux doing anymore amdin, he actually wants to endter this time lol.

over and out.

[baka101]

Hey Zosla

As I said before it very hard to grasp the hidden streetfighter or fighting community out there in new plymouth due to our gay arcades, as I said before we dont have even the following arcade games Streetfigher 3: 3rd strike nor do we have Streetfighter 4,tekken 5,tekken 6,blazblue,Marvel vs Capcom 2 with all the characters unlocked, unlike Wellington, Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch you guys can grasp the community cause you would see the amount of people at the arcades with these games or even know that it is possible for people with a interest to turn up, its not the same here cause we are missing those first stated ingredients. So we may just have a big community for arcade fighting games but due to crap arcades we wont ever see those people in town, and they just play at home. And if you recall I said Laserforce was a last decent arcade and I was able to grasp how many people where in the streetfighter community but that has been closed down for many years now and replaced by a thai restaurant.

But hold a tournament or gathering as you said and get the newspapers involved so people who play at home might just realize that something is about to happen and give fliers out to the locals in town the youth community etc we may just see what hidden community there is, cause as I state many many times before without arcades like Auckland,Wellington,Hamilton,Christchurch with those particular arcade games its impossible to gauge the streetfighter community in my town and without a get together or tournament marketed and advertised mad its just a pipe dream that I may eventually just give up on and move to one of those cities I mentioned and just play there.

Thanks

Mark aka Baka101

[HoneyBadger]

Wonder what would happen if some of us went down there and hyped shit up. Suddenly the whole town would be like THE DAMAGERRRRR