King of 94 Tournament - Feedback / Improvements

[smozoma]

Bump...

Any feedback for Ko94 II?

Pre-emptive feedback explanations:

• If you're wondering about the non-CRT TVs, the 3rd-party event organizers were supposed to get 16 TVs and they got like 6 instead. 1 of which didn't work.
• There were nametags printed out but the lanyards were forgotten.

[Jammer - KO94IIsnes]

The tournament was extremely well run.  Thanks Darrell and the team for an amazing life experience.  Everyone was awesome!  Congrats to top 3!

[segathon]

Great Job on stream with Settleitonscreen and twingalaxies.  Watched HOURS of it.  really felt like I was there besides being sober and having 3 kids telling me to make them a sandwich.

 

 

[CoachMac]

Plus Side

Games went fast and smooth.
Brackets were well organized.
Settle it on the Screen Set-up and announcers was great and fun.
ARDA OCAL!!!  Awesome Dude!  Great Announcer.
Competition was outstanding.  I went 3-3 in Toronto and 2-4 in LV.
In Toronto all games were blow-outs win or lose.  Except one good game with JER33.
In Vegas every game was a 1 or 2 goal game.  Except my game with KingRaph.
I could have easily been 5-1 or 0-6.
Seeing Mikey's Movie.
Hauling my CRT TV to and from the room, gaming site, lobby, pool, across the street etc...
PIZZA ROCK Pizza and Mexican Cokes.
WEDNESDAY.  Playing 10 Games against AngryJay in my 94 Game Room.
THURSDAY.  Vegas Knights Game.
Beating KingRaph in Air Hockey.
FRIDAY.  Playing all-day LIVE in the Hotel Rooms with AngryJay, Evan, Smoz, EA, KingRaph, Backhand Floater.
SATURDAY.  Playing Kevin from Columbus and Aqualizard many games after we were all eliminated and between playoff games. 
Live 2v2 in the Hotel Lobby until late into the night.
Meeting Tex, JackandJose, and Aqualizard.
The SNES guys celebration was awesome.

Minus

No T-shirts, Hats, Jersey, Swag, etc.. of any kind.
No Trophies for winners.
No name tags.
No Screen poster or whatever showing brackets and results.
No signs, posters, or banners, promotion of any kind.
No Vegas Knights or NHL presence.
No NHL94.com promotional area.
Aqualizard was pushing it some and I tried to set up something after being eliminated but no real effort to promote..
I got lots of guys asking questions about roms, online play etc.., but we really dropped the ball here again.
NO CRT's for Genesis sucked especially when i got 6 at my house I could have brought, plus a side trip to Vegas thrift shop could have scored all we needed for the price of a few drinks.

I would be happy to hel;p/do much of this if/when we have KO943.

Missing to many of the top guys (KG, Brutus, Ice, to name a few).

 

Edited October 2, 2017 by CoachMac

[kingraph]

3 minutes ago, CoachMac said:

Plus Side

Beating KingRaph in Air Hockey.

I need this rematch!  Was an epic 5-4 contest, Coach drilled all 5 of his goals straight up on my right side.  I swear there was only a millimeter of space there.  So much fun.  I also challenge Coach to a table/bubble hockey contest when we find a working machine.  Preferably the USA/USSR one from the 80's! 

And overall I agree with everything Coach wrote.  Major kudos to @halifax for running a smooth tournament.  He never lost his cool, made the best out of everything, did a great job of explaining the rules, played some great '94, and did awesome commentary during the streams.

Extra shout out to @CoachMac who ran the Sega Genesis Round Robin side in the morning (awesome job), hauled his CRT around, which came in super-clutch because the hotel TV's were locked down on input controls and we couldn't hook up our extra consoles, and carried the spirit of '94/fun all weekend!

I know this is a feedback thread, so I'll end this here and post some other thoughts / appreciation on a separate thread after I come back to earth.

 

[halifax]

7 hours ago, kingraph said:

 

And overall I agree with everything Coach wrote.  Major kudos to @halifax for running a smooth tournament.  He never lost his cool, made the best out of everything, did a great job of explaining the rules, played some great '94, and did awesome commentary during the streams.

Thanks bud!

[aqualizard]

Great job, Halifax!  I wish you had a twin that could do the hard work of running and preparing for these things, so the other one could fully enjoy himself like the rest of us get to.  (Not just at the venue site, but all the prep beforehand, too.) It was awesome, again, and great to meet the faces behind the screen names! That alone made it worth the trip for me.

It was well run, and much speedier than the Toronto one. (Smaller number of people probably helped that.)

My biggest disappointments were the location, which I think contributed to the smaller participation, and that -- as Coach noted -- we dropped the ball regarding recruiting dudes THAT FLEW ACROSS THE COUNTRY TO PARTICIPATE!! These guys were obviously eager to be part of the community, and we had nothing prepared to recruit them.

(I actually hold myself responsible for this.  I see all the hard work that other guys do putting tournaments together, and helping run them.  I have to get more involved.  It would have been so easy just to have a single one page flyer -- and idea I have mentioned before!! -- to hand out to guys with this website and a vanity URL tailor made, like nhl94.com/joinus.  The next tourney, I will absolutely step up in this regard, and try to help grow our community like so many others are.)

Anyway, those are my two things: hold the tourney in more of a Hockey Town (like Toronto, NY, Chicago) and have something prepared geared towards recruitment.  As far as running it, I think you got it figured out.  (Especially knowing the lanyards/IDs were planned, but just forgotten.  Those would have helped big time!)

Oh yeah, one more small detail: on the small game report sheets, have a square for the group. (I was the 4th guy in group "D", so for Player number put "4D", but I think a square for the "D" would have been clearer.)

Great work and thanks to everyone who put this together, or helped when it was happening!

 

Edited October 3, 2017 by aqualizard

[aqualizard]

One other quick thing: I think there should be a trophy, but no prize money.  An entry fee is fine, to cover the cost of a venue and pay for small expenses to run the show, but having prize money kinda rubs me the wrong way.  I think the community would turn out in the same numbers with no prize money -- or possibly in greater numbers, since many of us know we have no chance of winning, but just like the comraderie.

I think one trophy for each winner -- GENS and SNES -- and leave it at that.

[IAmFleury'sHipCheck]

19 hours ago, CoachMac said:

Plus Side

Games went fast and smooth.
Brackets were well organized.
Settle it on the Screen Set-up and announcers was great and fun.
ARDA OCAL!!!  Awesome Dude!  Great Announcer.
Competition was outstanding.  I went 3-3 in Toronto and 2-4 in LV.
In Toronto all games were blow-outs win or lose.  Except one good game with JER33.
In Vegas every game was a 1 or 2 goal game.  Except my game with KingRaph.
I could have easily been 5-1 or 0-6.
Seeing Mikey's Movie.
Hauling my CRT TV to and from the room, gaming site, lobby, pool, across the street etc...
PIZZA ROCK Pizza and Mexican Cokes.
WEDNESDAY.  Playing 10 Games against AngryJay in my 94 Game Room.
THURSDAY.  Vegas Knights Game.
Beating KingRaph in Air Hockey.
FRIDAY.  Playing all-day LIVE in the Hotel Rooms with AngryJay, Evan, Smoz, EA, KingRaph, Backhand Floater.
SATURDAY.  Playing Kevin from Columbus and Aqualizard many games after we were all eliminated and between playoff games. 
Live 2v2 in the Hotel Lobby until late into the night.
Meeting Tex, JackandJose, and Aqualizard.
The SNES guys celebration was awesome.

Minus

No T-shirts, Hats, Jersey, Swag, etc.. of any kind.
No Trophies for winners.
No name tags.
No Screen poster or whatever showing brackets and results.
No signs, posters, or banners, promotion of any kind.
No Vegas Knights or NHL presence.
No NHL94.com promotional area.
Aqualizard was pushing it some and I tried to set up something after being eliminated but no real effort to promote..
I got lots of guys asking questions about roms, online play etc.., but we really dropped the ball here again.
NO CRT's for Genesis sucked especially when i got 6 at my house I could have brought, plus a side trip to Vegas thrift shop could have scored all we needed for the price of a few drinks.

I would be happy to hel;p/do much of this if/when we have KO943.

Missing to many of the top guys (KG, Brutus, Ice, to name a few).

 

Great feedback by @CoachMac here, I think he nailed it.  I would have like to see an actual printed out bracket at the tourney... maybe with sliding boards that fit into slots (could have been cool but that is a luxury wish list item and definitely not needed)

The one thing I would like to add about wanting more of though is ... MORE GUYS FROM THE COMMUNITY.  I'm not saying this because I'm disappointed, I'm saying this because, believe me, you don't want to miss out on these events.  I can't begin to describe the energy of the live tourney.  It's one thing to play each other online, it's a completely different experience to sit next to great guys like @corbettkb ; @jackandjose; @Evan to name a few and battle it out game after game.  There is a respect for one another & genuine comradery that comes with playing in this NHL94 community, it's difficult to put into words.  You will never see it displayed in greater fashion until you play at one of these tournaments with one another.  So if you have to start putting money away right now to save up for the next one or as soon as you know when the next could be, start making plans... don't miss it.  The two Ko94s that I've attended are experiences that I will never forget and it's the guys on this site that make them most memorable for me. 

I just want to say @halifax -- you are one of the coolest cucumbers around.  For everyone else out there, you should have seen this guy.  There was so much going on at any time and he was always calm and collect.  He made time to answer any questions.  If there was an issue (like not having enough CRTs; gathering groups to go over rules numerous times; bouncing between to the Downtown Grand staff, the commentators, all the GENS and SNES players just to name a few), he made decisions quickly to remedy any situation.  I'm sure there were so many adjustments that needed to be made along the way and throughout the actual day but I never noticed a thing b/c the entire tournament was seamless in execution.  Big thanks, Hali! 

[LABS_66]

So who are the big winners???

[IAmFleury'sHipCheck]

1 hour ago, LABS_66 said:

So who are the big winners???

GENS:

1. AJ is the big winner

2. Raph

3. EA

[smozoma]

2 hours ago, LABS_66 said:

So who are the big winners???

And on the SNES side it was

1. Jammer (Jamil K. - he posted up above)
2. BobK (Adam G.)
3. Kris M. I think he was another Vancouver guy / friend of Jammer. 

SNES buds.. you have some work to do, shown up at two Ko94s in a row! (Not that there weren't some good Sega guys, too, I lost my 1st round in the playoffs to a Chris O., although I'll blame it partially on having just played 9 SNES games in a row on CRTs and suddenly playing Sega on a laggy 60 inch LCD )

[KB27]

I had a great time for my first tourney!  I was very impressed with how smoothly things ran.  A couple a pieces of feedback from a newb:

• I'm not sure that having penalties on adds anything on the genesis side.  I believe I read somewhere (probably on this forum), that penalties are "randomly generated".  If this is the case, I don't think having penalties on serves the intended purpose of mitigating excessive holding and poke checking.  
• I would have loved a 2 v 2 tourney.  It's been twenty years since I've played 2 v 2, but some of my favorite NHL memories were played with four guys all sitting on coach, drinking beers and smashing each other into virtual hockey boards. 
• I would keep the prize pool even if you have to drop the amount of the pool significantly... and have a trophy too!
• In terms of building the community, it might be worth having someone demo the forum and website. I don't think newcomers understand the amount of work that has gone into maintaining and building a legitimate forum. The NHL94online website is also awesome. If I had not talked to coachmac I would not have known the website keeps stats and stuff like that. Lastly, it might also be worth having two experienced community member demo an online game from setup to completion.  I've read the information online which is great, but sometimes seeing the process helps too. 

[IAmFleury'sHipCheck]

4 minutes ago, KB27 said:

I had a great time for my first tourney!  I was very impressed with how smoothly things ran.  A couple a pieces of feedback from a newb:

• I'm not sure that having penalties on adds anything on the genesis side.  I believe I read somewhere (probably on this forum), that penalties are "randomly generated".  If this is the case, I don't think having penalties on serves the intended purpose of mitigating excessive holding and poke checking.  
• I would have loved a 2 v 2 tourney.  It's been twenty years since I've played 2 v 2, but some of my favorite NHL memories were played with four guys all sitting on coach, drinking beers and smashing each other into virtual hockey boards. 
• I would keep the prize pool even if you have to drop the amount of the pool significantly... and have a trophy too!
• In terms of building the community, it might be worth having someone demo the forum and website. I don't think newcomers understand the amount of work that has gone into maintaining and building a legitimate forum. The NHL94online website is also awesome. If I had not talked to coachmac I would not have known the website keeps stats and stuff like that. Lastly, it might also be worth having two experienced community member demo an online game from setup to completion.  I've read the information online which is great, but sometimes seeing the process helps too. 

Not sure if this is Kevin who I played 2v2 with in the lobby but if so, good to see you on here and great feedback.  I really like the idea of forum representation providing demos to potentially new members.  Great playing you in the tourney as well!  Hopefully we can get some exis on here at some point soon.

[smozoma]

I think we need to have a sort of monthly "tournament planning" thingie... maybe we can use Discord voice chat.

For example, the website/forum demo has been talked about a lot in the past (was intended to be at Toronto), but it will take someone to actually sit down and plan it and prepare it ahead of time, and it would help if we split up duties for this and other tasks, such as big display brackets, t-shirt designs, trophy creation, prizes, and so on. The tournament really sneaks up on you and suddenly you don't have time to do the things you intended to do. Best to split up the work over the year and between more people.

[Jammer - KO94IIsnes]

6 hours ago, smozoma said:

And on the SNES side it was

1. Jammer (Jamil K. - he posted up above)
2. BobK (Adam G.)
3. Kris M. I think he was another Vancouver guy / friend of Jammer. 

SNES buds.. you have some work to do, shown up at two Ko94s in a row! (Not that there weren't some good Sega guys, too, I lost my 1st round in the playoffs to a Chris O., although I'll blame it partially on having just played 9 SNES games in a row on CRTs and suddenly playing Sega on a laggy 60 inch LCD )

We'll be there for the next one   

[CoachMac]

http://www.msgnetworks.com/2017/10/03/the-king-of-nhl-94-ii-is-crowned/

[halifax]

13 hours ago, IAmFleury'sHipCheck said:

I just want to say @halifax -- you are one of the coolest cucumbers around.  For everyone else out there, you should have seen this guy.  There was so much going on at any time and he was always calm and collect.  He made time to answer any questions.  If there was an issue (like not having enough CRTs; gathering groups to go over rules numerous times; bouncing between to the Downtown Grand staff, the commentators, all the GENS and SNES players just to name a few), he made decisions quickly to remedy any situation.  I'm sure there were so many adjustments that needed to be made along the way and throughout the actual day but I never noticed a thing b/c the entire tournament was seamless in execution.  Big thanks, Hali! 

Thanks for the props bud. This time went much better. I think due to a combination of having done it before and having less people than last time.

[jer_33]

Where's Mikey after all of this? ..and I've heard next to nothing about the premiere of Pixelated Heroes!?!

[Sdogg]

Awesome tournament guys !! I watched some of it online.If the next one is east coast or Toronto I will most likely attend.

Sdogg

 

[halifax]

apologies fellas. I had plans to update all the games with the teams used...but it seems i'm missing entire groups of matches.

[angryjay93]

2 minutes ago, halifax said:

apologies fellas. I had plans to update all the games with the teams used...but it seems i'm missing entire groups of matches.

This I think was my main/only real complaint. I would have loved a smozma type spreadsheet from the last big King of 94 event. I know all us stat junkies love that stuff.

As a person who played 32 games that night, noticing anything that didn't take place on a tv screen was going to be a tall task. This is one way of saying how everything ran so smoothly from a tournament standpoint. 32 games and I never felt overwhelmed nor did I have too much downtime. The night just flowed perfectly despite having 5 less monitors than anticipated. I can't be any more positive about the flow of the tournament, it was incredible. 

Everyone I met was great to be around, no one with even so much as a hint of a bad attitude. Just a lot of passionate people looking to play a great game, I couldn't have asked for anything more.

The stream from the fellas of Settle it on the Screen was another great addition to the atmosphere. The commentary from them, Mikey, Halifax, and Arda was always entertaining. I could occasionally hear a bit of it from my seat while playing a game and I had to catch myself from laughing out loud a few times.

I largely agree with Coaches post on the rest of how I feel but I understand that efforts were made in some of the minus areas to no avail. Sometimes that happens, that said I still had an amazing time.

[Premium]

Would it be possible to stretch the tournament over multiple days?

[chaos]

6 hours ago, Premium said:

Would it be possible to stretch the tournament over multiple days?

What benefit would we get from this? Can you explain? It's hard enough to get someone there for 1 day, let alone multiple days. Remember anywhere we host a tournament, there will be people traveling to it. But we are open to suggestions.

I agree, there should have been trophies handed out. 

I also like the idea of having a PC set up and a demo on how to set up to play online.

I had talked to a few people about playing online, and it just so happened there are a couple of guys who had found the forum years ago who ended up setting up to play online, but they only play against each other. I talked to them about joining classic, so hopefully we do get a few guys to play.

You guys gotta remember this was Mikey's tournament. Not set up by us (though Hali did most of the work). While we would have loved to do more with promoting the website, I'm not sure if it was the time or place to do it. This tournament was more about promoting his movie. I absolutely agree we could have "advertised" more without shoving it down people's throats though. Some kind of flyer would have been nice. This is a good idea for the Hartford, CT tournament.

 

[CoachMac]

9 hours ago, Premium said:

Would it be possible to stretch the tournament over multiple days?

Many of us played all day Friday and well into Sunday morning.

AngryJay, EA, Raph, Tex, and Smoz (The majority of the Bets Gens players) played all day in our Hotel Room Friday.

BUT, as Chaos stated the actual tourney would be tough to extend as it is monumental effort to make it one day.

I am glad to see you showing some interest and a positive vibe.

You would be a huge addition to any Live Tourney.

[IAmFleury'sHipCheck]

1 minute ago, CoachMac said:

You would be a huge addition to any Live Tourney.

Agreed.  I hope you can make it to one of these some time.  I was actually on the phone with Mark Lesser a couple days ago and he asked me about younger guys playing the game.  I brought you up (I called you Plabax but I'm not sure if that's what you go by today) and how you've not only had a huge impact with your ability to quickly learn the game but how you've helped to continually push the gameplay with newly developed tactics.  He is always pleasantly surprised to hear about the devoted fan base to the game but it felt like he was even happier hearing that there are younger players who are playing this game as well.

[segathon]

TecmoMadison makes a weekend out of it.  But the tournaments are not connected and the big tecmo tourney is all done on Saturday.  Friday is a hang out, register and get in some exhibitions in and then I threw a NHL and NBA Jam side tourney.  

The night before really adds to making new "buds".    Normally day of the main tourney people get butterflies and are not as talkative before the games start and new player may feel a little less welcomed.

I really think the professional stream put on in vegas is what's going to bring in more players to next one.  Having hosts commenting on the stream really  legitimatizes the tourney.  

Great job!

[aqualizard]

1 hour ago, segathon said:

TecmoMadison makes a weekend out of it.... Friday is a hang out, register and get in some exhibitions in and then I threw a NHL and NBA Jam side tourney.  

The night before really adds to making new "buds".    Normally day of the main tourney people get butterflies and are not as talkative before the games start and new player may feel a little less welcomed.

This is a great idea!  

I think for the Vegas event, if we had a "Voluntary Registration" at 8pm the night before, it would have gone a long way to making people feel welcome, and familiarizing people with the event.  I bet > 90% of people were in town the night before (Fri), and it would be very easy just to meet at a bar, and possibly the venue itself, or a hotel common room, very casually.  The rules could be explained, people could be registered, and a nice meet and greet would happen.  Then the next day for the official event we would be that much further ahead. (And you could say if you are not registered from the night before, show up at 9am.  People that registered the night before don't need to show up until 10am.)

Edited October 5, 2017 by aqualizard

[kingraph]

16 minutes ago, aqualizard said:

This is a great idea!  

I think for the Vegas event, if we had a "Voluntary Registration" at 8pm the night before, it would have gone a long way to making people feel welcome, and familiarizing people with the event.  I bet > 90% of people were in town the night before (Fri), and it would be very easy just to meet at a bar, and possibly the venue itself, or a hotel common room, very casually.  The rules could be explained, people could be registered, and a nice meet and greet would happen.  Then the next day for the official event we would be that much further ahead. (And you could say if you are not registered from the night before, show up at 9am.  People that registered the night before don't need to show up until 10am.)

There actually WAS a Friday night registration, explanation of rules and screening of Pixelated Heroes for all tourney guests. 

[CoachMac]

6 minutes ago, kingraph said:

There actually WAS a Friday night registration, explanation of rules and screening of Pixelated Heroes for all tourney guests. 

AND, gaming in a Hotel Room all day Friday, and a NHL game Thursday Night.

The event was great AND I had a ton of fun before and after.