Fundraising Tournaments, My Thoughts on the Smash Brothers Community, and Moving Forward

As I continue to move on with my plans on improving Super Arcade I would like to briefly discuss the tourney we held this past Saturday to raise funds to help Nelson's family.  All in all I would say it was a decent success in that we accomplished our main goal of being able to donate money to a great cause.  People who normally don't frequent our location made the effort to come out and support this event and I think SoCal should be proud of the outcome.  Hopefully the viewers at home had a good experience and as promised, we ran zero adds, had no banners for any advertising, and kept focus on what really mattered.  We showed some old school videos of some classic East Coast vs West Coast matches to keep the show moving along while maintaining the hype, competitiveness, and aura that only Marvel vs Capcom 2 can bring.  Someone mentioned to me that it was in a sense ironic that there was some drama surrounding this tournament involving EMP and myself.  I guess with MVC2 you just can't avoid it and the good news is that at the end of this mess, it was all about the game and raising money for Nelson.  Big thanks to Shankar, IEBattlegrounds, and everyone who showed up to participate and help make this event happen.  Once again may you rest in peace and know you have left a good influence on our community.

Now onto discussing the Smash Brothers Community.  For those who aren't familiar with this bunch let me try and spread as much knowledge as I can from my experiences over the past few months of us hosting Super Smash Sundays.  There are three different games this community plays and I guess I would say there are also three different groups just as we have a different group for Street Fighter, Marvel, and Tekken.  Let's first start off with the Melee crew.  This group is definitely the most organized of the bunch and possibly of any scene I have ever been around.  These guys are the epitome of what every group in the FGC should be like.  I run at least 10 tournaments here a month and I can say hands down that Melee are the most organized, enthusiastic, and just have that genuine love for the game that can't be matched.  I have not once heard any player complain about the size of the pot, or how they feel shorted in the sense of not having huge prizes.  The game is over twelve years old so they do not have the sponsorship that the newer games have, yet they have the strongest community out there?  How is that even possible?  Well, for starters, these guys play this game because they love playing it.  They have very knowledgeable Tourney Organizers and also strive selflessly just to keep the game alive.  I am very glad to have met this group and they inspire me to help and continuously improve my own community.  On a less positive note let me discuss a little about the Brawl crew.  Dealing with this crew is like comparing night and day when it comes down to it.  Where the Melee community strives in maturity and cohesiveness, it seems as though the Brawl community lacks true leadership and is still very immature in terms of being timely and orderly.  The fact that this game is only about five years old might be a huge contributing factor.  Regardless, I do feel this group can continue to grow and become stronger, but it definitely needs someone to step up and make a huge push to get there.  Last but not least we have the Project M crew.  This group seems to be supported by not only their own players, but both Melee and Smash players as well.  To keep it short and simple, Project M is basically a fan made hack to make the Brawl version of Smash play more like its predecessor of Melee.  I believe the first version was made sometime early in 2011 while the latest version was released this past December of 2013.  This group is definitely on the rise and has the right pieces in place to continue to grow and become a staple just as Melee has been.  Please keep in mind these are just my personal thoughts through my brief experience of holding Smash Tourneys here at Super.  I do not expect all of you to agree with my opinions but once again, I am basically just an outsider to this community and sharing my opinions how I see them.

Just thought I would shed some light to the FGC about the Smash Bros. Community.  For some reason they had a bad reputation with us and I will be first to admit that I didn't give them a chance.  But after seeing first hand and working with them a couple times a month I can definitely admit I was wrong and these guys are a huge part of the Fighting Game Scene.  Hell, I said it before and I'll say it again, without Super Smash Sundays, Super Arcade would've probably gone under months ago.  Thanks for keeping the scene alive guys, not only yours but now ours too.  I truly appreciate your effort and hopefully we can co-exist and move forward together in building a stronger FGC.

And speaking of moving forward, I have spent countless hours these past two days figuring out and discussing a stable plan for the arcade and the new plans we are hoping to achieve here.  I already let the cat out the bag when it comes to our basic ideas and now it's time to produce a product that people will have faith in.  I am currently working on concept art and other visuals to provide people with so they can envision my thoughts and ideas.  There will be a website up soon with a couple videos, some concept art, and just a general breakdown of funding required to get this project off the ground.  Once I get this project out and have a deadline for funding I will finally be able to get some stress off my back.  This is going to be in the hands of the community and if all goes well Super Arcade will be here for years.  I will also be liquidating some of the stuff here and using those funds towards reaching the overall goal needed for the project.  If any of you are interesting in purchasing any of our arcade cabinets feel free to call me or stop by and we can discuss further.

I know a lot of you tune in for the drama and unfortunately I needed to take a break from all the nonsense for at least one post.  Sorry for the lack of excitement :)  and thanks again for reading.  I will try to keep up and blog at least once a week and until then, don't rile up an old man!  Or you might get exposed and blasted on stream with f-bombs galore!  Just kidding.  See you again soon.