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You may add Greg C. to the list.

These are thoughts and conversations constantly being processed year to year with our events. Trying to balance nostalgia and quality of competition are of constant concern. I absolutely love Swiss format. If system bandwidth is there, I think it's the best format for smaller to medium sized tournaments. If not, time can be a major issue Last weekend we actually used it for SNES to accelerate things, as there weren't many ranked SNES players present, and we were down to 16 SNES players, with more than enough systems to accommodate them. To ease the blow, we let those that got eliminated grab a Starting Lineup or Headliner figure as a thank you. Ultimately, everyone who doesn't get 1st place in the bracket ends their tournament in defeat in disappointment. Pros/Joes brackets are great if you have the numbers, but they aren't foolproof either. In November in Tecmo Cleveland two guys came in off the street and signed up for the Pros bracket. They also happened to be my first two opponents. I shut them out by nearly 80 points combined. At that point they were doomed to enjoy any level of success against actual pros. Point differential mattered there, and I think it's important for Swiss to use the "Bucholz" score factor to be the mechanic for ranking, followed by head to head, and then point differential. That way when if a pro gets up, they don't have to keep pressing for mercy. Despite how players get matched up, I do think the same gameplay and team selection methods should as close as possible, if not the same in both divisions. Our tier selection process does give players flexibility, but does prevent them from using the same team over and over again. @segathon we are strongly considering Swiss format next year with Genesis with additional group play rounds, which would hopefully ease your local buds minds knowing they get a ton of games for their dollar. On that note, some guys really got the screws put to them and didn't seem to mind as they got to play in a consolation bracket anyway. I do hope you'll reconsider for 2021. Thanks @kingraph for starting this meaningful dialogue.

Gentlemen, As we continue to hold more and see and more live tournaments (KO94, Edge of 94, NYC, LI Retro, Montreal, etc), I want to come up with some bullet points to share with folks who are considering attending, but are on the fence. I have a feeling that the "tournament" aspect gets overplayed when we promote these events, and we forget that it's actually fun to just attend. At least that has been my experience when talking to everyone at these events. I am also trying to be self-aware as I have always placed in the top 2 at these things, so I don't want to be ignorant/arrogant in my view. So, please help by responding to this thread with any bullet points that you think would be good to share for people considering attending an NHL'94 live tournament. I'll keep a running list on this OP: Going to a live NHL'94 "Tournament" The goal is to have fun and be a kid again for a few hours! Players of all skill levels are welcomed Don't think you have to be the best competitive player to attend Some people have played consistently for the last 20+ years Some people haven't played for 20+ years! There will be competitive games with people of similar skill level Bring a friend and claim your bragging rights Reminisce about the players and games of the 90's Meet up with friends you haven't seen in a while Consolation brackets, giveaways, prizes, and raffles are found in most events

Here's the link https://tecmobowl.org/forums/topic/63039-madison-wi-030715-tecmo-xi-apocalipps-now/page/13/?tab=comments#comment-432510 He went by hoigaard on boards, but his non nerd name is Ryan Krebs, I can connect you on the F book if you want, he's a pretty cool guy, I think he used to run the NY tecmo scene originally so he's in your neck of the woods. Love the swingers reference, I think that is the key connector to most NHL retro guys Nostalgia. I'd probably mention that movie right away. And i'd put your reference up near the top like "you're not going to win the tourney, even if you took the Kings to the cup against the computer with offsides off. LA is such a finesse team...." And then you could tie in Swingers again at the end as well with something like "So let’s enjoy the day to play some NHL’94, and talk about how you wish you could make Lil Wayne Gretzky's head bleed for super fan 99 over here"

Sipping my tea.....

Super helpful @segathon, thanks for sharing. I will modify and perhaps use the essence of that for the NYC tournament.

Nostalgia is a powerful drug, when I mentioned I play retro sports game tourneys to guys of a similar age their eyes light up. But I have also seen that light get extinguished playing one of us superfans when we need to get a good "Point Diff" so we get a better seed come playoffs. Sure Raph and AJ are 800 lb gorillas but most of on here can do some damage to a guy who hasn't played in years and their stiffest competition was their litter brother To get those nonsuper fans in the mood, I may even say first game is against computer to see how many goals you can score and then sort people starting there. Plus everyone should go 1-0 for first game! Also what Raph said initially is a great point, have your buds come with, make it a fun night out more than a serious tournament. With all that being said us Superfans are the guys that keep this crazy game relevant for all these years. Also did some digging, a Tecmo Bud did this post years ago and I think works here as well here too

Discord allows us to share a screen and voice chat. Trojan and I have done this numerous times, should be easy as pie Breaking this down after the fact will be a lot easier and probably more enlightening than when I verbalized my thoughts as I played the game live.

Alright, time for a write-up. Firstly, big props to @Edge of '94 Midwest (Troy) and @LeifErikson for a great weekend of gaming, and the wonderful spectacle that was 'Modano Mo Problems'. From setting up the hotel deal, to hosting 2v2, to hanging out all day on Saturday. I drove to Green Bay for an "Edge" tournament in Feb 2018, and there was talk then about hosting a tournament in Minneapolis. I told myself that if it ever happened that I would do whatever needed to attend and help out. Had a lot of fun playing exis/2v2 at the Moxy Friday night against Troy, Chris O., Derek and @Votaw. Didn't play as well as I would have liked in tournament play on Saturday, but I'll take my lumps for not preparing enough and for the intense level of competition that is starting to attend these tournaments. I was in a group of 4 with @IAmFleury'sHipCheck, @seventieslord and Shannon. I emerged 3-1 in Group play (with matches against EA and Seventies on stream), and ended up in an 8 vs 9 match-up with @kevincabarello. We played an intense 1-0 game to start our 3 game series, and he went on to beat me 2-0 and moved on to face @kingraph in round 2. Highlight of the afternoon was definitely getting to play as CHI on the stream, thanks @seventieslord! Lowlight was definitely losing every single coin toss through the Genesis side of the tournament. The SNES side was a complete blur for me, thanks to Happy Hour at the Pourhouse. Yet I somehow ended up on stream against @DPS. Lots of good food and drinks flowing all afternoon, and was a blast to meet Chris O., Derek, @danTML7 and @seventieslord(all great guys, and great new online community members). Always a pleasure to hang and chat with @angryjay93, @kingraph, @IAmFleury'sHipCheck (EA), @DPS, Mort and @Votaw as well. Also met Phil N, owner of the D-Men Tap in Chicago who hosts weekly retro sports leagues and picked his brain about food/drinks/music and the retro scene in Chicago, cheers. Great weekend, and hope to attend again next year.

10-15% true disciples of the game LOL, to make the journey to the city that never sleeps for some NHL94 shenanigans, only in New York... On another note, I was able to download Retroarch and Discord last night successfully, now I need to figure out how to navigate on both apps and make sure the settings are good for P2P play. Figure I can get in some good practice before April comes around...

The King of 94 and Edge of 94 Midwest events always had some activities the day before. The NYC tournament has only been for the day. NYC has been opportunistic in that we obtain a good deal on the bar space and can keep the entry to a pretty cheap $25. I figured it would mostly be locals given the dense population but we had about 10-15% travelers.

There is generally something set-up on the Friday evening, mainly for those arriving from out of town the day before the tournament. At this most recent event in Minnesota, even the local event organizers booked rooms at the hotel in order to hang-out for Friday night exis/2v2.

is the tournament the only thing going on that Saturday? Or are people going to be around on Friday for exis? (i take it this means exhibition games)

• Friday night exis/2v2 is the most fun part of the weekend.

More SNES!!!! Cant get enough