How #37 Reloaded came about and exposure pt 1

Boy oh boy, this has been a very stressful and draining week both physically but more so mentally.  There is so much to talk about and a few things that need some explanation and clarification.  The first situation I would like to discuss our upcoming tournament "#37 Reloaded."  For those of you who do not know what this is, this is a tournament celebrating what is known as "Evo Moment #37."  The reason this moment is heralded as the moment Street Fighter was brought into the general public's eye.  Aside from the fact this was a display of tremendous skill under the highest levels of pressure, it also showed a truly genuine crowd reaction and illustrates our community's love for fighting games.  This event occurred 10 years ago, and as a celebration in a sense, we are hosting this event in the exact same location where this magic happened.  The two players involved, Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong, will both be in attendance and competing in the lineup of games we have already set.  There will also be a friendly exhibition match between both of them just for old times sake. 

Okay, enough description as I'm sure you all get the point :)  So this event was originally planned a few months before Evo 2014 even took place.  The original idea was to call this event "Evo Throwback" and to run the games that Evo ran that year.  I talked to one of the staff of SRK about running this and we were working on the idea that I would be the one handling all the grunt work and the event, while SRK would be responsible for advertising and taking registration.  So as time goes on I go and get info in regards to venue sizing and costs, then I come back with the numbers so we can start planning on the next steps.  Throughout this ordeal I was constantly being called a lagger while I was the one out running around and doing work.  I was sitting here taking this dude's bs before the project was even off the ground.  It gets more and more ridiculous so please bear with me.  So as we inch closer to Evo I was asked to put everything into an email and make this a formal proposal.  His excuse was, "We are corporate now and this is just how things run Mike."  Okay, no problem chief, we want to make this legit, I totally get it and it's not a problem...  Email sent, no real progress after, just a few phone calls to make sure we are still on the same page.  So, Evo comes around, no word about the tournament at all during Evo, no mention of anything.  But hey, why bother advertising a gaming event at the world's largest gaming event?  That would be useless right?  I'll go more into that story later on.  So anyways, no announcement, not a mention of anything, then I ask about it and was told, "Evo is corporate, we cannot associate with Super Arcade's image, I'm sure you understand."  Whoa nelly.......  So you ask me to get all these things done, we plan this stuff out, you even ask me to make a formal proposal, then you just go and drop me this and expect me to let it go?  This is where the "power trips" start coming into play and I will go into much detail with other various examples and experiences.  So tourney is off and obviously I'm a bit frustrated.  A lot of stuff also went on during Evo weekend that led to even more drama to this, so there is a reason to all the build up.  So I am leaving Las Vegas and I decide to give MarkMan a call.  Mark is the PR for MadCatz and is my connection to having Daigo attend our tournament.  I spend some time with him on the phone discussing our tourney and ideas and things seem to be going well.  I then bring up the fact that I am having issues with one of the Evo staff members and ask if this will be an issue.  I am assured it won't so we continue on further discussions take place throughout the week to book Daigo for #37Reloaded.  After I settle the issue of getting Daigo here, my next step is to talk to the Cannon brothers and get their seal of approval.  I call Tom and ask him if he heard about the tourney I was planning and he replied no, then asked me to tell him about it......  So here is the issue.  I spent time talking to Wizard for months about this and the idea was never even brought up to the other members of SRK's staff?  Wizard went on to make this decision alone and shot me down without ever giving it a chance?  Now thats some garbage right there.  Wasted my time, wasted my effort, and basically just dicked me around for the fun of it.  Congrats on being an asshat dude.  You really do take the cake, and I'm just getting started.  Ok, so back to the phone call with Tom Cannon.  He asks me to fill him in on the idea and soon as I'm done he replies, "So when is this happening?"  Instantly this man likes the idea yet it was never run by him.....  The creator of SRK likes my idea, but it never saw the light of day because one person was so selfish he would rather put me down and not let something like this happen.  There is a trend here, and I promise by the end of my next few stories and posts, you will all start to see it.  I continue to tell Tom that I'm sorry, but this won't be a SRK/Super Arcade event anymore, and I am just giving him a courtesy call to let him know this and also ask for permission to use their footage from previous tourneys.  He agrees with the only stipulation being I do not use the Evo logo anywhere.  Done and done.  Thank you Tom.

So you guys fathom all this, take some time to just breath and think to yourself, have you been in any situation or heard any stories about Wizard doing something to your disliking.  I'll be back with more fuel to the fire so stick around.  It might be a fun ride.

Pushing Through And Moving Forward

I actually had a blog written up and was going to post it but due to an extremely tragic occurrence I decided to hold off and wait till now.  I still remember posting about the death of Nelson Reyes and also Patrick Collins just like it was yesterday.  I still feel the chills when thinking about how just one week prior to Patrick's death I was on the phone with the guy just chatting about a bunch of arcade stuff.  Each and every unfortunate member that has passed away in our beloved community has effected me in one form or another.  These few recent deaths are not the only ones I have been through as two more had happened a few years prior.  If you are somewhat old school in the Fighting Game Community you might have heard the names Dasrik or PSX2000.  I was fortunate enough to know both of these gentlemen and for those of you who knew them as well, I'm sure you would agree that they were both very special people.

The reason I bring all this up is because I wanted talk a little bit about Terrance Moore.  For those of you unfamiliar with that name, Terrance is a gentleman that went by the tag "PushaTee."  He was a very amazing person that brought a sense of happiness to everyone around him and he just had that one in a million type of personality that pierced the room when he entered.  In a community of such competitive nature and rivalries, Terrance was one of those shining lights that just made people happy.  One thing that i found amazing about Pusha is the fact that I never heard one single person speak a single negative word about him.  Now there's a ton of good guys in our community, and don't get me wrong, I notice them and have been noticing them for a very long time.  Be even good guys have a rival, or an enemy, and for some reason no matter how nice or how stand up a person you are, there will always be someone talking some crap behind your back.  But in the case of Terrance, I have never heard as much as a single peep from anyone stating any dislike towards him.  That just tells me that he was doing everything right and by the love and support the community has given him, it definitely shows.  For those of you who had never been in contact or had any interactions with him, I want you to know that your gift of kindness in helping his family is very appreciated and is going to a family of good people.

I almost feel bad for posting anything after talking about Pusha but this blog is for me to inform people and share thoughts so I shall keep it that way.  As I get older I am truly realizing the value of life and how important it really is to cherish all the little things.  You go through very many stages of your life and never realize the truly great experience each and every step can bring.  You also hear a lot of advice and stories from people who are already passed your current stage and usually take it for granted at the time.  I mean honestly, how many times have you heard someone tell you something and later on say... Hmmm, he was so right, why didn't I listen?  It's the little things like this that can actually be life changing.  I can go on and on about this subject, but it's honestly just a broken record.  Almost as if a permanent cycle of life, cause I for sure have done this many times only to realize..... damn, he was right.  I need to cut this post off short a bit due to finalizing things with PushaTee's memorial fund, and our stream tonight.  So please take some advice and just stop and listen to people once in a while.  I'll be back soon with more old man rants and needless bitching, but until then, thank you all for reading. 

More Updates, Current Progress, and Feedback.

Hello to all of you guys who take the time to read and keep up with everything I do here at Super Arcade.  Just wanted to stay in touch and let people know what's going on and where we currently stand in terms of current business hours and progress.  Firstly, this has been an extremely stressful time and no matter how many precautionary measures you take, something is bound to go wrong.  Regardless though, we are almost on track and I believe we will probably have a full on stage for our streaming area in less than 1 month.  We are also slowly adding in more games to our current lineup with the latest being Pirates of the Caribbean pinball and a 4-player Xmen cabinet.  Still holding onto the overall idea of not completely catering to the Fighting Game Community and adding more games that attract gamers of all ages.

Things have been going decent in terms of income and overall good feedback from our patrons.  The hours and hours and hard work seem to show and the general consensus is that the place is much cleaner, brighter, and more modern than before.  Oh yeah, we also have an occasional line to use to restroom...  Amazing!  One problem we are still running into though is keeping the floor clean.  I rent an industrial grade floor buffer every other week and get my hands dirty trying to keep all the gunk off the tiles.  It was kind of a crazy idea to go with a white floor but I feel the trade off in keeping the place looking bright is worth it.  We can also keep the normal overhead lights off and just leave the LED mood lighting on during the evening to cut costs and also keep a cool type of club look in a sense.  I know it seems like forever since we promised to have a "Grand Opening" and I will be first to say that I am not pleased at this.  There is nothing more I want to do than have the store open 7 days a week.  But at this time it is just not possible since we are waiting on about 10 more cabinets, a pair of basketball hoops, a stage, and our truss.  All these things are beyond my control and even with unlimited budgeting, which is something we obviously don't have, this would still be an issue.

For our kickstarter backers, here's a slight update on things as well.  Our backer plaque is done and just needs to be picked, T-shirts should be ready in about 10 days, commemorative Super Arcade tokens are still being worked on...... The only thing that doesn't have a definitive date are the 1st round of backer sticks.  The 2nd round of sticks are already here and some have been delivered, so please be patient.  We are still planning on a big party for our grand opening and hopefully people will still be interested in attending by that time.  The arcade will be closed to the public and we will have food, drink, and a DJ as promised.  Once again sorry for the delays, this isn't something I have full control over and working hard on my nagging skills to get things accomplished.

I also have another project I am working very hard on and if you are interested check it out at #37reloaded. This is Super Arcade's first major tournament and I am trying to leave a lasting impression.  It is very difficult to find a balance for a business to make a profit and to keep things reasonably priced and have everyone happy.  But as the saying goes, we all know its impossible to make everyone happy so I do what i feel is best.  We have raised the price slightly on our drinks to help cover the cost of maintaining the restroom.  Just the cost of paper towels and toilet paper have warranted this increase and I hope you all understand.  We also clean the restroom at least once every 2 hours to help keep it in immaculate condition and give you all that great experience when you enter!

Anyways, not much time to type today, so I hope I have covered some questions you guys might have.  I will try to post again soon and thank you all once again for supporting us.

Final update regarding VIP grand opening party, new streaming policies, and current status of the arcade

To say things have been stressful is a complete understatement at this point.  Being in a position where you are granted what is basically an opportunity to provide for the fans is such a huge responsibility and burden to have.  I fully understood this situation and still went ahead and tried to succeed in terms of running a Kickstarter campaign just in hopes that I could keep a location healthy and thriving for many years to come.  There were points prior and during the fundraising process that I questioned myself and whether or not this was a wise choice in life.  On one hand you have an arcade that has provided a ton of entertainment for many people both as a physical location and online through live streaming.  On the other hand, it was definitely not a profitable business and was draining me mentally, physically, and financially.  Ultimately I did launch the campaign and with the support and love from arcade lovers we were able to raise enough money to make a huge change here.  After many months of planning and about a month of hard labor we are now looking at a project that is roughly 80% complete.  Many of you that follow our blog and instagram account are up to date as far as the remodeling process and the many problems we have overcome so far.  We managed to finish just about everything cosmetically that we set out to accomplish which includes redoing the flooring, patching and painting the walls and ceiling, and most importantly redoing the restroom from hell!  We also added new gaming cubicles for that more professional and organized look and reworked our overhead lightning so people won't have an epileptic seizure from the flickering that used to occur.  There are two items that we are still waiting on though.  One being the truss metal beam system that is not only for awesome decoration but will provide us with the ability to place more lighting to create even more of a special feeling environment for everyone.  Another main item that is not quite ready is the stage/stream station.  This particular unit is being custom made and hopefully it will be ready within a couple more weeks at the latest.

For the most part we have received very good feedback regarding the direction we took in terms of overall appeal and cleanliness.  I can honestly say that arcade is almost too bright and clean at the moment.  But clean is usually good so let's hope our patrons have some respect and try not the wreck the place.  The restroom has been coined as "glorious" by many and I hope my attempts to bring some class to the place haven't gone unnoticed.  I feel as though my ideas and insight have transferred over from thoughts to reality pretty well.  I am normally my toughest critic but I do feel a sense of satisfaction when seeing the almost complete product and with all the positive reviews we have had so far I would hope to believe that I am not senile yet.  I have put in maximum effort and poured out my heart into this arcade.  I am honestly doing this for the people and as I have said before, I grew up in an environment of arcades and gaming and only wish for others to have the chance to do the same.  Although time changes things drastically, one thing that won't change is the positivity that comes from competitive human interaction and the importance of improving yourself.

I have put myself under too much stress in setting a date over and over for those who are waiting on our VIP grand opening party.  At this point I must postpone it one last time to Friday, September 26th.  By this time there is no excuse not to be 100% done with everything we have been waiting on and the arcade will be fully operational.  Although we have been open for events and tournaments it is very clear that we are not equipped to operate normal business hours as we are still waiting on the delivery of equipment and more arcade machines that are being repaired.  Also by setting this date a month away hopefully people can better plan and make sure they are here!  As previously stated, this party will include a DJ as well as food and drink.  So come hungry, thirsty, and prepared to have some fun.

Man oh man this blogpost seems to never end, but there are a couple more things that I should address.  We have only been open for 4 days and already there have been things being posted and dramatized quite heavily on various forums.  For starters, I would like to explain our streaming situation here and this is not a place where I am looking to chastise or single any one out.  Our goals here at Super Arcade are to bring games and gaming to a wider audience.  At the same time we are also seeking ways to infuse our loyal scene with increased prizes and pot bonuses.  To accomplish these goals we have finally organized our own twitch channel which is temporarily under the channel superdojo and a youtube channel under SuperArcadeFGC.  Eventually the twitch channel with be under "superarcade" and we will make the proper announcements once the change occurs.  Until then please follow us and tune in for all the content we will be bringing to the community.  You guys might ask, so where is the problem in all of this?  Well first off let me say that Super Arcade and Level Up Entertainment have a streaming partnership and Level Up will still be streaming Wednesday Night Fights, The Runback, and the Melee edition of Super Smash Sundays.  Every other stream will be held on our channel and we will have multiple streams available to help bring more exposure for the games that don't get much air time.  Prior to this change we have had other people doing a great job providing the work required to bringing the fans and community live streams that benefited everyone.  I would personally like to thank the hosts of IEBattlegrounds, Mando and Binkley, the host of our anime tourneys, Joshua Moore aka Jyosua, hosts of SoCalTekken, Vietnam Tom and JustFrameJames, and also a few others who have helped us which include Numakie, Rotanibor, and Wild Wallace.  All of these people have helped the arcade and although it may seem as though we are taking away something from some of these individuals, we are striving to bring the scene to a bigger front and achieve bigger and better things for the community as a whole.  To go into detail a bit further, I do understand that these people have put in hard work for the community and although they will no longer be streaming here on their own channel, their efforts have not gone unnoticed and hopefully everyone will understand our goals and help us push forward to reach them.

So thats about it for now as I will be posting our hours of operation on our twitter account.  Thank you all for your continued feedback and support and hopefully we will see most of you here in the near future!  Thanks for reading and talk to you all again real soon!

Important Update for Friday Night 8/15

With the steady bombardment of issues we have come across I must delay the grand re-opening for at least 2 more days.  For those of you wanting to visit us tonight and have a pass from our Kickstarter, I would like to express my deepest apologies.  I will be here tonight along with my crew after we take out the people who are coming to our VIP dinner, but all other festivities are not going to happen.  If you would like to stop by and hang out, feel free to do so, but do not expect a functioning arcade to be in place.  I must maintain my commitment to our guests for dinner, but due to more unexpected delays, I will not be able to have an arcade ready for you all to visit tonight.

Once again, those who were invited to our VIP dinner party, this is still taking place and please arrive somewhere near 7:00-7:30 pm at the arcade.  For those of you who were coming for our grand re-opening, this will not be taking place but we will be at the arcade tonight if you would like to stop by and just check out the place as it stands currently.  I will definitely have a weekend set aside for you guys and most likely will make it next Saturday night  the 23rd.  There will be food and beverage along with a DJ so at least there is something cool to look forward to.  Once again, I apologize for all the inconvenience this has caused as today's issues have hindered our ability to open.

Thank you everyone for reading and more updates will definitely be coming ASAP.

The final steps of chasing a dream......

Wow.  Just F*ing wow.  That pretty much sums up the past 3-4 weeks that I have spent here at Super Arcade.  There's an old adage known as Murphy's Law and all I have to say about it is, "Murphy, you suck!"  As most of you know we closed the doors to the old Super Arcade on Wednesday, July 9th.  We then packed up some of our games and were headed off to EVO.  Let's just say that weekend was very uneventful and was the first set back of many to come.  To set a foreground to all this let me start off by saying I have attended EVO before it was even called that.  I was a die hard Street Fighter player and competed at the highest levels since somewhere near 1992.  I put my heart and soul into becoming the best and with a ton of devotion and dedication I was fortunate to achieve many of my goals as a competitor.  Now with all that said, I have known the EVO staff forever and ever.  I was one of those guys who helped move arcade cabinets around before everything went to console.  I was one of those guys who helped set up chairs the night before the finals.  I was one of those guys who carried tv's and set up tables so that the people in attendance would be able to compete and enjoy their experience at the tournament.  All in all, I just loved the game, the scene, and seeing people share the same enjoyment out of all the things I had grown to love.  But one thing that was different about this for me compared to many others, I did this my way.  I was always very vocal about a lot of things and I was never one to stand down when my views or opinions were questioned.  Sometimes I argued ignorantly and with just spewed nonsense, but most of the time I brought my views to the table and tried to generate a serious discussion in hopes of either resolving a misunderstanding, or just completely shutting down someone for spitting their own nonsense.  Anyhow, this attitude is was brought me to where I am and sometimes it can be for the worse.  In this case I suppose it has become for the worse as I have been segregated to an extent from being a part of many things that people I grew up with in the scene are now involved in.  

I can go on and on about certain things that have happened over many years and talk about how I haven't agreed with many situations that have brought the scene to where it is today.  But by me doing so, it would harm the images of some and then it would just become a childish he said she said type ordeal.  So I will show that I have grown as a person and just let things go.  From time to time I will share stories on stream about how things used to be and just act like a typical old fart who's talking about his youth while the 09er's just find me borderline insane in my rants :)  I can tell all you youngins one thing though.  When you hear an elder tell you things like "one day you will understand" or "once you get to my age this is how it will be," take that advice and make use of it.  Things do change with time and it's up to you whether or not you make the best of it or if you just follow in the footsteps of those who made the same mistake prior to yours.  A lot of mistakes are avoidable and procrastination or lack of care can lead to many issues, but as I have come to realize more and more, you can really only count on yourself when something needs to be done.  In the unfortunate case that I am not a professional carpenter, nor am I a professional engineer, I had to rely on people to help me get work done for our remodel.  Myself along with a couple others have taken care of the flooring, electrical work, painting, ceiling work, and the amazing restroom.  These were all things that required hard work, a bit of experience, and just pure will power basically.  Another thing I would also like to state is, for the help I required, plans were made months in advance and partial payments were made to ensure there was no loose ends on my parts.  Well low and behold, all 3 parties that I needed all fell through and I was stuck here just twiddling my thumbs waiting for deliveries.  My new display counter is apparently made of only the finest of wood in the rain forest and is brought in by helicopter only.  My custom cubicles are designed by Albert Einstein and then hand crafted by the Keebler Elves.  And the arcade machines I am bringing in....  those are custom built in North Korea and infused with only the most advanced microchips and only available to NASA.  I mean gimme a break dude, how do all 3 people I am counting on fail so hard?  Well, it happens lol, and Murphy's Law is a mofo.  Then while working on the restroom of course we run into more problems.  I order a toilet from amazon because no one in the local area stocks the special one I wanted to install.  The toilet is what they call a 2-piece, but when it arrived it was in 4 pieces.  Real cute right?  Man, I can just go on and on about all the little nonsense that has taken place here but we almost at the end of it and no point thinking about the bad.

Here comes some useful info.  We will be taking out a select bunch of people from our kickstarter to a VIP dinner tomorrow evening.  We will also be having a "soft" grand opening for another group in our kickstarter project.  A soft grand opening is technically a half assed opening where stuff is not complete, and this I definitely apologize for.  Many things are currently not in my control as to having a time frame for completion so we are forced to just make do with what is here already.  Our opening has already been delayed for a week and we need to get the wheels turning again asap.  Our weekly tourneys will be starting right up this coming Wednesday and Thursday, and we will also be hosting our Friday night casuals once again.  We will also be hosting our bi-weekly anime series known as "Rebel-Up" and our weekly Super Smash Sundays as well.  I am going to assume everything we were promised will be here on time, but just incase it isn't, we will have our doors open to the public starting this Saturday and keep working until everything is finished.  And since I still have a weekend in the schedule with no tournaments attached to it, I will probably dedicate this day for people who supported us via kickstarter.  More info will be coming real soon, and thanks again for reading!

Mike Watson

Almost there........ sort of.......

So things are coming along pretty well here at Super Arcade in terms of our remodeling process.  The flooring is just about complete as we have completely replaced it's 20 year old predecessor.  The floor used to be an old darker blue tile and is now a much brighter and cleaner looking white tile with some dark accent in it.  I was skeptical at first about the color but after laying down a few different colors, this seemed to be the best choice.  The walls and ceiling are done for the most part and if you have been following our Instagram you would have seen the outcome.  I think the overall look of the place has improved greatly and I am actually really satisfied that my visions have unfolded into a reality.  The arcade is much much brighter already as we have painted the walls with a light gray accented by some bright blue, red, and black color.  The lighting is going to be worked on this week and should take about 3 days.  We currently have fluorescent fixtures in the drop ceiling that have issues with flickering and just overall not bright at all.  I am still deciding on a choice of either updating these fixtures with LED or just replacing the ballast and the egg crate diffusers to maximize the output of light.  Regardless, I will be testing both options out and that issue will be done soon.  Now onto other issues....

So you would think that with months and months of planning and such a huge time frame in terms of giving notice, what could go wrong?  Well, sometimes you have to count on people for certain things such as customizing furniture, bringing in arcade cabinets, and building a new display counter.  I had originally planned on an opening date of August 8th, but now that just went out the window.  On Friday I received word not only from 1 of these people i was counting on, but all 3!!  What the hell is going on here?  This is not only frustrating from a point where I can't open on time, but it completely throws a wrench into everything.  First off, I have been at the arcade almost every day since Evo ended starting at roughly 8am and working till at least 5pm and sometimes going as late as midnight if my body permitted.  I figured as long as I kept on my schedule and did my part that there would be nothing to worry about. Wrong!  So my display counter isn't going to be ready till the 14th, my custom desks/cubicles won't be ready till the 15th, and some guys I was depending on to bring me some arcade cabs I had requested informed me that they were too busy to bring the cabs in by the 8th.  Really great news right?  Let's try not to unload so much fun on me at one time please.......  So in attempts to keep morale high and not worry too much I will try and take any good I can out of this situation.  During all my planning I never found a situation where I would be in a huge rush.  I believe I laid out all the groundwork decently well and fit everything into a logical time frame.  But since I have another week to work on things maybe it's a blessing in disguise.

Some good news here though is that our infamous restroom is about 90% done.  I spent a good amount of time designing this portion of the arcade to make sure it came out that much more special.  With a combination of light and dark ceramic tiles as well as some glass decor, I don't think there will be anything to complain about.  The people that have seen this restroom already can vouch for me when I say, it's probably nicer than the one you have at home and compares to a nice Las Vegas hotel restroom.  And when i say nice, I consider the LVH and Tropicana to be trashcans.  We have an electronic paper towel dispenser and an electronic soap dispenser.  We have a new light fixture that is bright, and I won't ruin any more surprises, but let's just say, the toilet we have is something you have probably never seen before.  Let the rumors begin............

So all in all, unfortunate news that we are not going to be open for about another 2 weeks.  Good news is that when we open we will be amazing!  Thanks for reading up on our progress once again and I will post more news as soon as it comes in.  Talk to you all real soon!

Thanks,
watson