Hello again everyone! It has been an extremely long process that has brought us to this point. As most of you know, we have already acquired the "Multi-Use Permits" required to run a coin-op business in our particular location of Azusa. My crew and I have been working diligently to not only get things done properly, but also under the rules of the State and City Safety Codes. For those unfamiliar with this stuff, basically we had to obtain permits just to do simple stuff. One of the major obstacles we are dealing with is making everything "handicap accessible." This is actually a huge ordeal and not taken lightly at all by the inspectors. Just remodeling the restrooms is somewhat of a nightmare due the guidelines we must follow. A simple example would be, the entrance door must have 36 inches of clearance. So all in all, following all these rules and going through step by step inspections is really slowing down the entire process. This was one of the reasons I was leaning towards the original location. The current location is in a building thats pretty much considered historic and requires a ton of work to get everything up to code. The other proposed location was already up to date and move-in ready. You guys don't even want to know how much money is being spent just to get all this done..... That probably explains why I fought so hard to get into the other spot before giving in and taking this location. Anyways, just thought I would shed some light on what's causing the delays. If it was up to me and my crew, the place would be up and running already. But as it stands, there isn't much more that needs to be done, and we are just following all the rules to ensure we have no problems with the city down the road.
I also announced our tentative weekly tournament schedule on twitter. We will be running things almost identical to our previous location in terms of tournaments and what not. Mondays are the only day where we don't currently have anything lined up, but that can always change. Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays will have some form of Smash Brothers. Wednesdays and Thursdays will have our usual fighting game line up of Street Fighter, Tekken, Marvel, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, and possibly Guilty Gear of some sort. Fridays are saved for old school 2d fighters and casuals, then every other Saturday we will continue to host our bi-weekly Rebel Up Anime Fighters Tournaments. Also, I'm sure you all noticed that our previous partner has found a new location for his Wednesday night tournaments in Orange County. This will not change our schedule, and if anything, it will provide another offline location for people to compete. And since people like to throw jabs here and there, let me just say this. Before WNF was brought to Super Arcade, there was a reason it bounced from location to location without ever finding a steady home..... There is also a reason why other tournaments also choose to be run at our spot. What it all boils down to is what makes sense financially. I will give props to the eSports Arena though. That place is huge and has obviously cost a pretty penny to get to their current status. But I do know from previous ventures that renting out a spot like that is not cheap, and we all know that TOs cannot afford to foot the bill unless the players show up and pay for it through venue fees etc. With that being said, someone once told me "Business is Business," so let the games begin. Our Wednesday tournaments will have a very small venue fee, and pending sponsorship, we might waive the venue fee entirely for that day. Beat that one buddy. BOOM!
So moving forward, while we are still complying with the city's demands, we are still working out all the kinks and working on other aspects of the business. When things do finally launch, a huge burden will finally be off my back and we can return to doing what we do best. Giving the FGC that competitive environment and entertainment that has been missing since we closed. And on a final note, we do have 4 air conditioners at the new location, and we have 2 restrooms, so go stick that up your butt buddy.
Another final note, in regards to the kickstarter rewards. We are working with teespring to handle all the t-shirt orders we need to fill. I will also have custom buttons ready for our tier 1 backers available in store. If any of you have any questions, feel free to message me through our kickstarter campaign page. I have been very active there as of late and catching up with all the emails. Thank you again for your support, and thank you for sticking with us through this entire ordeal. Oh yeah, and before you read through all this and ask, where is the potential opening date? We are aiming for October 14th. Thank you again and talk to you all real soon.
