The BB Community, EVO, Netplay, and the FGC.

[St1ckBuG]

No one is going to want to make a major anytime soon, and that will be the last thing we're going to try and do.

It's pretty obvious what steps we need to take, and the main ones are:

1). Support your local major.

2). Get netplayers and casuals to come to tournaments.

What will make people want to do these things? Please don't say "pot bonuses"... it doesn't work.

[dioxideUniversa]

While the discussion on increasing turnouts both locally and at majors is booming with great ideas for local scenes and the community in general to work with, I'd really like to comment on the amount of videos we have up for BB and the comments stickbug made (or apparently it was skeletal minion that posted this) about publicity from already established FG players and tourney goers.

I feel like these points are incredibly valid, and while ultimately the big picture is to increase major turnouts, throwing up more videos like beginner mode, advanced techniques for characters, and stuff like matchup information is a mostly cost-free way to increase publicity for the game. SRK's front page does post up BlazBlue videos when there's good content to be presented, but we're simply not making it. The community had plans to make character tutorials for the entire roster in CS2, but for the most part it just never happened. As far as I'm aware, the Ragna forums were the only one that actually got made (apologies to any other forums that actually made one and I just live under a rock.) I would really like to see the community hustle up to keep these sorts of videos churning out. SF is the kind of game where random players on a whim will make a video specifically for how to use x trick just because they want their version on the information up. BB doesn't have that sort of content and I feel like it contributes (if in an abstract way) to the concept of BB being a poverty game or what have you.

For now, I feel like it would be great if we worked together to actually show people how good CSE is. Talk with your character forum community, find out who can record and make videos, work on comprehensive information, etc. ... It would help anyone attempting to learn or improve their game, increase publicity for those you aren't playing it, dispel stigma, etc. It's even fun to work with your fellow (x) players and dustloop goers to create this sort of content for everybody.

Edited January 14, 2012 by dioxideUniversa

[BatousaiJ]

The money isn't that big of an issue in all honesty.

Who can't gather up like 20 dollars for venue + entrance fee for a tourney that comes around like twice a year?

I think the problem is more travel arrangement related with people not having a car to drive or not wanting to drive or takes buses to places they're not familiar with.

Being in NJ at the moment, I kind of want to hit up Next Level to hang out and play casuals with the NY/EC people but I've never been there and have very little idea on how to get there.

I looked up google maps and directions and given I don't like driving around in NY, I was going to take the bus/subway there but it wasn't quite clear to me(I'm terrible with direction) and in the end laziness wins out and I end up doing the team NAH thing again.

ECT was different for me because I had a friend who wanted to go as well and all I had to do was just ride with him but now that friend has moved to LA, I gotta either find clear and easy to understand directions or someone to hitch a ride with in my area.

[Star-Demon]

The money isn't that big of an issue in all honesty.

Who can't gather up like 20 dollars for venue + entrance fee for a tourney that comes around like twice a year?

It's not just that, man. There are other expenses and they are legit.

For me to go to Next Level, I have to drive myself out to a train station ($20 gas that day), take $25-30 one way ticket out to penn station, then take a metro line to Brooklyn, from there I walk a few blocks to the arcade. There's the Venue fee, and any tourney fees I take on. That's easily over 100 bucks. Twice a year that's anywhere's from $150 to $250 just to have two sessions. Not even for majors.

Local anime con is 44 bucks for three days. Gas is 20 each day I go. Tourneys are free. (this is why I think we should structure majors like a convention)

The train is what's killing me. I could drive, but finding parking would be a disaster.

If we could somehow hold majors and lead up to majors in a way that contains costs for players, the rest is time and motivation.

[BatousaiJ]

That's if you go alone though, you could split gas costs if you car pool with like 3-4 people in your area.

The fact remains that venue fees and tourney entrance costs aren't that significant compared to the trouble or cost of traveling for many people.

[Glenburg89]

Hey Everyone,

I'm newer to the Blazblue franchise as I came in during CS2.

Honestly, BB is a AMAZINGLY fun game worthy of world class competition considering how much depth and strategy it has.

In fact, It's one of those "Don't judge a book by its cover" games.

With that being said, I just wanted to throw in my thoughts about this entire discussion.

I agree with many points that St1ckBuG, Klaige, Shinsyn0021, P-kun, and many others said.

We gotta be united as a whole but take legitimate steps in doing so.

I have another idea that can make the game grow through smaller means.

So, "most" anime fans love to attend anime conventions (like myself).

If there are BB tournies at a local con you plan on attending anyway, try to round up as many people to compete in the tourney.

This would help to strengthen the community through face to face contact, potentially build friendships, and allow for players to get better.

Also, it being a con allows for more networking, planning, and resources for future BB endeavors.

Another idea is to build community support in your areas.

For example, if we had five dedicated players in each state/country those players could hype the game in their respective areas.

In addition, posting videos of local (small) tournies/gatherings would help a ton.

The idea is to spread exposure to this game like a virus.

Lastly, we always hear the famous phrase "persistence is key"

The more support the game has, the more we could potentially get people to say "Hmm, I guess I'll give this a shot" or "I really want to take my game to the next level".

Personally, I believe the decision to not include BB in this years EVO was a "test" and "reality check" to the community.

With that being said, this can potentially lead to this community working harder than it ever did.

Let's face it, at the end of the day nothing is wrong with this game ,and it's solid enough to be taken seriously.

[Star-Demon]

That's if you go alone though, you could split gas costs if you car pool with like 3-4 people in your area.

The fact remains that venue fees and tourney entrance costs aren't that significant compared to the trouble or cost of traveling for many people.

I'm the only one that plays this game out here. (also - I think they are worried about looking bad)

that's true, though - Carpooling helps, but the problem is coordinating people for that day-off.

Edited January 14, 2012 by Star-Demon

[Cirno]

1). Support your local major.

2). Get netplayers and casuals to come to tournaments.

What will make people want to do these things? Please don't say "pot bonuses"... it doesn't work.

You already said it, lack of transportation (or willingness to find some) is a big issue. Money is another, and when combined make for people staying home and netplaying it up.

As for fixing the problem? Perhaps if people would post in their local Match Finder topic more often, it would be easier to have some of these issues relieved. For example, the MD/NoVA thread is basically dead. Practically nobody posts in there, and the people that do mostly don't even care about BB. Surely there's more people in the area who play BB, I even see plenty of others around with "Maryland" in their location, but don't post in the topic. Why is this? Well, for one, people might be too intimidated by the lack of love for BB in the topic, or just think the topic isn't very approachable as it is. Perhaps if people were a bit more open to new posters in their respective Match Finder topics, it would be easier for new people to post, and perhaps organize meetups/rides/whatever (which could relieve some of the "willingness to find transportation" issue). There's also always the problem of the people able to give rides not wanting to go out of their way to pick others up (gas money is friggin expensive), but that's something that has to be solved separately I suppose. Would also help if people who are willing to give out rides would make themselves more noticeable.

Not sure how other Match Finder topics work, but here's a potential small push to a solution.

[A.X.I.S.]

Cirno whenever I spot people who are in the same state as me and post in the forums I immediately post and tell them to check out the thread and post, we host offline casuals and hang out a lot!

It usually works most the time and sometimes I give them a link to help them out.

If you want numbers then sometimes you have to step in and say "HEY WE PLAY THIS GAME OFFLINE SO COME OUT YOUR SHELL LITTLE TURTLE AND PLAY!".

I think if everyone just did that and tried to work something out with transportation then it wouldn't be so bad.

A few of our regulars in our community comes from OH because our scene is closer and we have some of the same games in common.

Hell sometimes we don't even play BB, we had a casuals in which we just played random games then played a Ao Oni lets play. (Best overnight casuals.)

It just seems like there is a issue on both sides and even if we found the solution it won't help too much without ASW's support.

[Shinobi!]

- I am available to help you guys in any way I can. I do run a doujin-centric radio show on given Sundays with Brandino called Donjon Network: 2nd Phase. If some notable players can step up and come talk to me about a show involving the future of the offline community AND to help spread word about Extend, I'm all for it and I'm sure Brandino would be as well. Granted, the show's fanbase is small yet dedicated and will always put in work on social network outlets.

Please do not let this opportunity pass by you. The door is open but the sooner you come talk to me, the better it is for all parties involved.

[Spud]

The money isn't that big of an issue in all honesty.

Who can't gather up like 20 dollars for venue + entrance fee for a tourney that comes around like twice a year?

I think the problem is more travel arrangement related with people not having a car to drive or not wanting to drive or takes buses to places they're not familiar with.

Being in NJ at the moment, I kind of want to hit up Next Level to hang out and play casuals with the NY/EC people but I've never been there and have very little idea on how to get there.

I looked up google maps and directions and given I don't like driving around in NY, I was going to take the bus/subway there but it wasn't quite clear to me(I'm terrible with direction) and in the end laziness wins out and I end up doing the team NAH thing again.

ECT was different for me because I had a friend who wanted to go as well and all I had to do was just ride with him but now that friend has moved to LA, I gotta either find clear and easy to understand directions or someone to hitch a ride with in my area.

Average major=$100 a night hotel fees (3-day major), plus travel costs, plus venue fees, plus the cost of not starving to death. That can be hard for people who don't live close to any majors or don't have a scene nearby them. Not to say it isn't worth it or it isn't possible.

Edited January 14, 2012 by Spud

[Nakkiel]

Please do not let this opportunity pass by you. The door is open but the sooner you come talk to me, the better it is for all parties involved.

I'm sure some people from PNW BB scene (C0R, huey253, ??) would be willing to do this, myself included.

Edited January 14, 2012 by sG

[A.X.I.S.]

Please do not let this opportunity pass by you. The door is open but the sooner you come talk to me, the better it is for all parties involved.

I am oddly up for this but I am not a proper representative for MI.

I know someone who is perfect for this.

[Shinobi!]

I just need 2-3 people who are knowledgeable and know how to represent themselves as well as the community at large. I'm not one to look for elites, just people who know what they are talking about.

[PozerWolf]

Odd how certain posts would be censored when everyone's feed back counts in a situation like this.

Ah, looks like we have more issues here in the scene than that outside of this forum.

We should possibly look at the issue at hand and try to fix up the problem that we are about to run into.

Other than unnecessary deletion of specific posts here on this thread (mods need to stop 'cleaning' up this thread and let people speak there mind. Of course if taken too far, it makes sense, but no one has done that), we need to go about the steps being posted here.

1). Support your local major.

When is the next major relating towards BlazBlue?

And please no one point out BBR, since in reality, it does not exists.

Let's try to focus advertising hype for the next BlazBlue major and see what players can make it to the event.

Final Round comes to mind, but I wonder if they'll be posting Blaz this year? Don't know what's going on there, but it would be nice to see the game there.

Look at the front page, as it's a poor source of info even for the BlazBlue scene.

Very rare do we see news on upcoming events on tournaments, or even info on the game outside of some random combo video here and there.

Hell, I found out about the new BlazBlue in the works from SRK, and yet almost nothing is mentioned about it here on this site even now.

Front page = very unhyped.

2). Get netplayers and casuals to come to tournaments.

That's something to do with the scene for the locals to fix.

Basically, a more specific explanation would be needed in what this implies.

More feed back from locals would do more help, as they would mention the troubles they're having and people could give advise from there.

3). Support from the company, or lack of?

As mentioned, Aksys of America has done little to nothing outside of the Cali scene to help support this game.

Not even a heads up or anything like that saying that they exists to those in American scene. There ways of marketing and advertising to the community is very, very poor, and need to be led into the right direction.

Edited January 14, 2012 by PozerWolf

[PozerWolf]

On Aksys' support of this game... are you really surprised?

It's a fighting game, and it's highly anime, and quite generic at that to first glancers.

Well, I'd have to say if not for the support from Capcom, no doubt SF4 would not be where it is right now.

It wasn't by chance that SF4 just happened to get popular, Capcom did the right moves and knew who to advertise the game too, and with that said the game became a success.

However, even at that point, Capcom felt as though it needed more support.

As I mentioned before, traveling to random majors back in the CT days, I actually got in touch with Capcom and Namco and talked to them about... well... just random things. And even feed back I had on the game, they took rather seriously.

Even have spokes men of Capcom casually talking to those around the nation, just keeping in touch with the scene.

I've never seen Aksys really attempt this other than raising prize pots for random Cali tournaments.

Even something simple like a 'heads up, we're Aksys of America! Sup!" to the popular tournament organization around the nation would be nice. Because for all they know, that company doesn't exists unless it comes to bringing games from other countries.

Ninja Edit: Eh? What happened to your post?

Edited January 15, 2012 by PozerWolf

[Eshi]

In regards to final round, blazblue will probably be the most significant friday tournament and funkyp will very likely stream it. Maybe guilty gear too? We'll see.

[St1ckBuG]

Odd how certain posts would be censored when everyone's feed back counts in a situation like this.

Ah, looks like we have more issues here in the scene than that outside of this forum.

We should possibly look at the issue at hand and try to fix up the problem that we are about to run into.

Other than unnecessary deletion of specific posts here on this thread (mods need to stop 'cleaning' up this thread and let people speak there mind. Of course if taken too far, it makes sense, but no one has done that), we need to go about the steps being posted here.

1). Support your local major.

When is the next major relating towards BlazBlue?

And please no one point out BBR, since in reality, it does not exists.

Let's try to focus advertising hype for the next BlazBlue major and see what players can make it to the event.

Final Round comes to mind, but I wonder if they'll be posting Blaz this year? Don't know what's going on there, but it would be nice to see the game there.

Look at the front page, as it's a poor source of info even for the BlazBlue scene.

Very rare do we see news on upcoming events on tournaments, or even info on the game outside of some random combo video here and there.

Hell, I found out about the new BlazBlue in the works from SRK, and yet almost nothing is mentioned about it here on this site even now.

Front page = very unhyped.

2). Get netplayers and casuals to come to tournaments.

That's something to do with the scene for the locals to fix.

Basically, a more specific explanation would be needed in what this implies.

More feed back from locals would do more help, as they would mention the troubles they're having and people could give advise from there.

3). Support from the company, or lack of?

As mentioned, Aksys of America has done little to nothing outside of the Cali scene to help support this game.

Not even a heads up or anything like that saying that they exists to those in American scene. There ways of marketing and advertising to the community is very, very poor, and need to be led into the right direction.

Pozer, your last few posts were just you complaining about BBR information and AKSYS. This isn't the thread to be posting that in. Is it that hard of a concept to understand? If you're going to stand on your soap box and preach about the conspiracy that BBR isn't a real tournament, then get out of this thread. This isn't the place for it. Go back to your thread in the events forum and keep asking for more information on it, and keep complaining about how AKSYS doesn't support the scene at all, while giving no advice on how they could be doing it better. You want information? We've told you: wait until Xie makes the post containing all of it. Hey just got back today.

Complaining about content on the front page, then comparing it to SRK is stupid as well. There isn't a whole lot of news pertaining to BB/GG/Skullgirls/Vsav when compared against the SRK front page that posts anything and everything for every game, gaming company, sponsor, gaming group, and tournament. Dustloop only recently started using a front page and there are players out there trying to utilize it more often. Also, it's up to the community to post ideas for articles, so don't blame the site, blame the users. Only the people who know it exists are going to make an attempt to make anything for the front page.

You keep saying that AKSYS doesn't help out the community enough? Could you list specific things they could do to support us better? They brought Extend and a $500 pot bonus to NEC, and last I checked that was the only recent EC major with their game listed as an event. I think that DVD they did with CT was a big hit for a lot of people and I'd like to see something done like it again, and possibly with their help. Maybe sponsoring netplay tournies to get more people to majors would be good too. Need more feedback from netplayers on this like pozer said. Also, AKSYS is sponsoring BBR with airfare and hotel to Japan. How is that not helping the community?

The next couple majors that come to mind are Powerup, CEO, ECT, Winter Brawl, and FR. The Montreal crew is also gonna try to host an event in May. I know CEO is trying to make up for not streaming top 8 last year, and the Florida crew is trying to hype it up as well. FR is always trying to hype up anime tournaments. ECT brackets are ran by me and I'll be trying to get people out once the thread is posted. I'm unfamiliar with Powerup, or who runs it so I can't say anything about it. I think the community knows what they need to do next. This thread has gotten some people thinking and acting. I don't expect any immediate changes in the tournament turnouts, but I do wasn't people to hype up their tournaments and promote them as much as possible.

Well, I'd have to say if not for the support from Capcom, no doubt SF4 would not be where it is right now.

It wasn't by chance that SF4 just happened to get popular, Capcom did the right moves and knew who to advertise the game too, and with that said the game became a success.

However, even at that point, Capcom felt as though it needed more support.

As I mentioned before, traveling to random majors back in the CT days, I actually got in touch with Capcom and Namco and talked to them about... well... just random things. And even feed back I had on the game, they took rather seriously.

Even have spokes men of Capcom casually talking to those around the nation, just keeping in touch with the scene.

I've never seen Aksys really attempt this other than raising prize pots for random Cali tournaments.

Even something simple like a 'heads up, we're Aksys of America! Sup!" to the popular tournament organization around the nation would be nice. Because for all they know, that company doesn't exists unless it comes to bringing games from other countries.

Once again, list specifics. Don't come in here and brag about what other companies have done for their players. You have to remember that AKSYS localizes games: they don't make BB. Comparing them to Namco and Capcom... there's no comparison.

Majors know that AKSYS exists, but if the TO's don't take the initiative then nothing is going to happen. Also, AKSYS definitely doesn't have the kind of money that Capcom and Namco have. That's pretty obvious.

Also, don't go around saying that AKSYS should just hand out post bonuses to every major. Pot bonuses don't increase tournament turnout, which is the whole point of this thread. I want to generate ideas to get more exposure of competitive BB. If money increased turnout then Revelations would've been the biggest tournament of the year (which it wasn't).

[Sanoshi]

So i'm pretty sure no one but a few people read my post on my idea. So far we have a lot of ideas and suggestions to help get the community back up and running and re interested in the game. I want to make this a serious suggestion because i feel it touches on most of how people want more local interest within their community, saves on resources, and involves the current community where they can build off each other and have a say.

YOU CAN GO AHEAD AND SKIP THE FIRST 3 SECTIONS IF YOU WANT.

Below are my opinions taken either from experience and asking people who are and aren't active within our fighting game scene.

So, I'll break things down as simply as possible and lists how each of these meets community needs and can create a bigger "comeback" for our scene.

[[ SECTION 1: TYPES OF PLAYERS WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY ]]

So far the our overall community is split into different categories. We have:

• Tournament Regulars
  
• Casual Players
  
• Netplayers
  
  
  Within these categories, are reasons why they within that category. These reasons tell us how and why they are there.
  
  
  
  Tournament Regulars:
  Currently attend tournaments for the social interaction and/or the competition. They have either prepared themselves financially to attend to these things, worked with their community (which they are familiar with) to get rides and meet ups, and play to learn and compete with others offline to test their skills.
  
  
  
  Casual Players:
  Do not enter (or rarely do) because fighting games or their interest in BB, are not strong enough for them to put more effort (in traveling, skill, etc) into. Usually take the game less seriously than tournament players and do not seek to learn beyond their current level. Usually, other basic factors in life take precedence before fighting games. Tournament play usually takes them out of their comfort zone.
  
  
  
  Netplayers:
  Have interest for their game but, focus most of their learning and interactions with other players online. Usually socializes through the internet, by forums, messengers or console. Netplaying has given these players easy access to play a game they enjoy and has lead to people getting into the game in a competitive level. However, they do not attend offline tournaments either due to restrictions or interest (see casual players).

  
  
  
  You can see these people are our "market" of interest. We have to reach out to these general demographics by meeting their need as best as possible. I'm aware the reasons StickBug has listed are all valid and common reasons but, we have to do what we can within the communities interest and ability.
  
  
  [[ SECTION 2: OUR STRENGTHS, WEAKNESS, OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS (SWOT) IN OUR COMMUNITY ]]
  Taking the types of players within our scene, we can list what we currently are doing good and bad, what needs to be taken into account, what we can capitalize on and how they could potential hurt the community.

  ILOVEBEINGABUSINESSMAJOR

  
  
  
  *THIS TABLE IS STRICTLY MY OWN OPINION. Feel free to argue points and add your own opinions.
  [table=width: 500", class: grid, align: center]
  

  
  [/td]
  [td]Strengths
  Weakness
  Opportunity
  Threats
  
  
  Tournament Players
  
  • Usually can give advice and suggestions to new players (socially and FG fundamentals)
    
  • Can provide feedback from majors and minors to the community
    
  • More likely to help out interested players
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Can be reluctant to give information
    
  • Although they show up to tournaments doesn't promise high level play or mentality
    
    
  
  
  • Increase interest by adding in seeding for tournaments
    
  • offering practical prizes (hotel pay, entry fee waved), etc
    
    
  
  
  • Some may show arrogance and do not seek to grow the scene.
    
  • May not respect the current game or scene.
    
    
  
  
  
  Casual Players
  
  • Can easily give advice of the basics of the fighter
    
  • May not feel as threatened by loss (within a game)
    
  • Has general knowledge and interest to know the basics of the game.
    
    
  
  
  • Usually does not seek to use resources on a fighting game
    
  • Does not take fighting games to a deeper level
    
  • Easily content with where things are currently.
    
    
  
  
  • Since they already have a mild interest in the game
    
  • Can create a deeper sense of belonging to the community and the game.
    
  • Make them realize that a hobby can turn into a passion if one truly enjoys it. Chance to get inspire (+1!)
    
    
  
  
  • Probably makes up most of the current BB scene.
    
  • The majority of players might not care to make the scene grow and leave it to more "capable" hands.
    
  NetPlayers

[*]Understands and can easily communicate with others online about the game.

[*]Already plays the game to some competitive degree.

[*]Access to a variety level of players.

[*]Developed stubborn habits or mentality about the game.

[*]Lacks interest and/or resources to travel to offline play.

[*]Comfortable with online play and lag.

[*]Can create "Majors" for Online Players.

[*]Creating another source to be expose to the game.

[*]Through this, one can build interest and incentive to get online players to come out to events.

[*]Since they are adjusted to online play, they'll most likely stay online.

[*]Could potentially not help the physical presence of the community grow.

[*]Morphs into stream monsters.

[/table]

By seeing what we can work on, and the types of people we have, we can better address the issue to improve our scene.

[[ SECTION 3: FIGHTING GAME SCENES GROWTH AND HISTORY ]]

This is just a very rough insight about how we should learn and look about our past experience, not just in our BB scene, but how fighting games and their scenes grew.

Street Fighter 4 was released in Japanese arcades in 2008. Then, in early 2009, Japan, North America and Europe got the console release. Anyone who has been around before then can easily admit that thanks to Street Fighter 4's release, the fighting game scene has grown substantially. So, we can say from 2009 to 2012, the overall fighting game scene has been alive. Since then, Capcom released Super Street Fighter 4 in 2010, then Super Street Fighter 4 AE in June of 2011. Further, they re-released their Versus series, Marvel vs Capcom 3, Feb 2011 then WITHIN THE SAME YEAR, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 in Nov 2011.

Capcom has had ~2 years to grow and continuously patches and updates their games. They are the ones that literally revived the scene and they earned the hot spot they have right now.

Now, Guilty Gear has been around since 1998. With ~4-5 versions release throughout the year, their most recent version, Guilty Gear Accent Core (not Plus), was released in 2007 (GGXXAC+ in 2009). The American scene was already small compared to the dozens of Capcom games that were played much more. During the revival years of the fighting game scene growing (assuming early to mid 2009), they're last Main Guilty Gear Tournament at EVO ended at 2009. Why did it end there? Because Blazblue: Calamity Trigger was released on console of June 2009.

That being said, most people have hoped Blazblue to be the successor of Guilty Gear but, admittedly did not live up to it's name. Despite that fact, Blazblue has stirred up a different type of crowd and interest. There were Guilty Gear players that actually moved on and continue to play BB to this day. If you looked at the community leaders of each region, we can easily see that most of the people that do support the game or gave it a chance, came from the Guilty Gear scene. Since then, Blazblue has released updated versions, CS in July 2010, CS2 in May 2011.

We can all agree that Blazblue is a game that can stand on it's own. It takes familiar Guilty Gear mechanics, but has it's own different game style and pace. Assuming the scene started in 2009 and with updates that are almost a year a part, we can see why the scene has had it's ups and downs.

BBCS2 released in May 2011, then BBCS Extend will be released Feb of 2012, which gives CS2 and EX almost 8 months of waiting for the latest version.

SSF4AE released in June 2011, then SSF4AE2012 released in December 2011, a 6 months wait.

MvC3 released in Feb 2011 got it's update to UMvC3 in Nov. 2011. 8 months wait, but this is still it's first major update.

Point being, there was a drop of interest for the BB scene because of the long waits for the updates. With our scene still being overshadowed by the Capcom's thriving games, it was understandable and expected that people would play other games while they waited for the latest patch. With our tournament players playing other things, or waiting for the game to come out, the whole scene see's a lack of hype or interest. From there, it trickles down to other players whom were interested and supported the BB scene. The community slowed down because of this, and thus put our local scenes at risk.

But what can you expect? It's almost unavoidable and was what happened and why the scene is in the shape it currently is in today.

Guilty Gear could be charged of the same thing, however did not have the resources Blazblue has. BB was introduced in a prime time for fighting games, and has access to Online play. Guilty Gear did not have this chance. Thus, we can mostly conclude that GG is barely alive- but has not lost respect.

But what can we do for BB? Is it dead? Not by a long shot. It has the people of Dustloop. It has captured and has made a presence in the competitive fighting game scene. Although it may have been out of this years Evo, we still have a much larger scene than when the game first started. For many, BB is their first competitive fighting game. BB has grown to have it's own scene, from high schoolers taking majors, to OG players that came from another game.

With the Mr.Wizard's podcast of calling out our community, and the overwhelming sense of responsibility that people have had admitted to, more players are realizing that they do not want their game to die. Ask any Guilty Gear player, they would love for their scene to be alive again. Don't let you're game die because one guy said you don't support it. Show the, otherwise and come out strong. BB has the people, it's just up to the indiviuals of the community to help the scene grow, and show those whom already run tournaments, play competitively and want to learn WHY you love to play this game. Show them why fighting games are amazing.

[[ SECTION 4: THE IDEA ]]

This section is a rough repeat as to my original idea posted before.

Let's break down the active or known scenes currently for BB:

[*]NorCal (west coast)

[*]SoCal (west coast)

[*]PNW (more or less west coast too)

[*]Arizona (i think?)

[*]Canada

[*]Texas

[*]Michigan

[*]East Coast (grouping it all together. It can be seprated from NY, PA, VA, etc)

This list is created based on OFFLINE AND ONLINE active BB scenes.

Why are these Regions Important?:

We have to take what is already alive. Since we already have a strong showing in BB, what we CAN do are make these scenes stronger and give them more exposure. Making our base places stronger will help other scenes gain motivation or travel to interact with more players.

What Do We Need To Make This Work?:

We need

LEADERS

. These are the people who run things, get people out into the scene, who have a drive to want to help the community grow and know how to socialize with new and old faces. Leaders are those that people follow, admire and respect. In EVERY scene, there are people like this.

If you are a leader, you know you are a leader.

What's the Idea

?:

The idea i have is simple.

Leaders would organize BB tournament MAJORS within a fighting game major.

These BB majors would lead to either the top player, or top 3 players, being seeded for the OFFLINE MAJOR Side Tourney at EvoWorld in Las Vegas, 2012.

These BB majors are not limited to just seeding. Sponsors from the community, local business or Aksys Games are possible.

There are only ONE OFFLINE BB Major for each Region/State(s).

There are only ONE ONLINE BB Major for each Region/State(s).

ONLINE BB MAJORS get SAME treatment as OFFLINE major. It is not limited to seeding and has the chance to be sponsored.

Still don't get it? Let me give you a detailed example:

Say there are only 2 Regions: West Coast and East Coast.

In the East Coast, the following will happen:

East Coast OFFLINE BB Major: Being Held at CEO

Tournament Organizer: StickBug

BB EAST OFFLINE Major Winner: LordKnight

East Coast ONLINE BB Major: Location will be in NY.

Tournament Organizer: Stickbug

BB EAST ONLINE Major Winner: Omniscythe

------

In the West Coast, the following will happen:

West Coast OFFLINE BB Major: Being Held at SCR

Tournament Organizer: Xie

BB OFFLINE Major Winner: Zong_One

West Coast ONLINE BB Major: Location will be in CA.

Tournament Organizer: Xie

BB ONLINE Major Winner: DacidBro

After winners are determined, sponsors or the community would send their own selected players to play at EvoWorld in Las Vegas, NV

Seeding for: Lord Knight, Omniscythe, Zong_one, DacidBro @ EvoWorld

EVO WORLD BB Major: Ceasar's Palace, Las Vegas, NV

Tournament Organizer: Xie

BB WORLD EVO Major Winner: SPARK lol

[[ SECTION 5: PROS, CONS and PROOF ]]

THEORY AND PROOF: The theory of this working is based on how Evolution first started. Originally Evo was held at someone's backyard where people played games. As the years went on, Evo held regional majors, respectfully called: EvoWest and EvoEast.

These regional majors that Evo held brought up a sense of healthy rivalry. It made people want to connect to test their skills against one another and made people feel a sense of pride and want to compete. After fighting games exploded in 2009, it became just one main major: Evolution World. Today, it's looked upon as THE tournament to go to for all fighting game fans.

By looking at this tournaments history, you can say it brought together ALL fighting games capcom has released. From 3rd strike and MvC2, their tournament selections grew larger and included other fighting game from other developers, such as melty blood, and now KOF.

If feel BB can grow within the pre-existing scene by using majors. If we hype up our Anime game, within a huge major, which is being hosted by leaders within our community, we will build a stronger scene and grow into something greater. The more we grow, the more we can bring in other anime games such as Guilty Gear, Melty Blood, KOF, Arcana Heart, etc.

PROS:

[*]Gives TO's a break from finding a venue and spending their own cost

[*]Encourages Netplayers and casuals for a reason to go out to tournaments and EVO

[*]Develops and encourages local arcades and scenes to prepare majors.

[*]Still interacts with the overall fighting game scene

[*]Creates competition or rivarly among regions (Remembre GG 32v32?) Competition is healthy because it creates an active scene.

[*]Many opportunies to get practice and expose our game.

CONS:

[*]Too complex and confusing for new players

[*]Potentially could cost more money than needed.

[*]Relies heavily on certain communities.

[*]Leaders could flake or do a horrible job at running the tournaments

[[ SECTION 6: ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION ]]

This is the LAST section before i conclude.

This is where the entire community comes in.

Advertising are paid methods in order to make a product or service known.

I don't expect people to shell out hundreds to thousands of dollars, but money will be used. Whether it be using it to pay for ads, flyers, etc.

Promotions are aimed to make services or products aware through word of mouth.

This can be done by hosting gatherings, and doing local tournaments and socializing. The easiest and most inexpensive way to do this.

The community can contribute by posting articles, videos about players, tournaments and events that help promote the game and it's events.

SO I HAVE TO GO CAUSE I TYPE TO MUCH AND LONG BUT THAT'S THE JIST. HAD TO CUT IT SHORT

TLDR: BB version of EvoWest, EvoEast. Read Section 4 for more details on it.

And PLAY BB GUYS! IT'S A GOOD GAME

Edited January 15, 2012 by Sanoshi

[Linear04]

Hm gotta say that the EC and WC major ideas are really good.. I was also thinking of something like evo points but didnt think it would be feasible because srk!=dl

great write up in any case, really great read and gives ideas to think about

[PozerWolf]

*snip*

I've stated why I brought up BBR, and it seems like you're the only person who didn't understand why (well maybe another person or 2).

I never compared the front pages of dustloop or SRK, I only stated how I found important info of Blaz outside of dustloop.

And I did give info / advice on what Aksys can do and what could be done, as well as stated why I didn't go too depth (not yet anyways).

It seems your posts on the situation is somewhat basis. Clear your head a bit before posting, think it out and try not to get upset about.... well everything.

It just looks like a more specific post as to why Blaz isn't at Evo is needed. And maybe from there people will grasp the reality of this issue.

Meow.

Edited January 15, 2012 by PozerWolf

[Errol]

sure seems like it would help a lot if console release dates weren't so slow..

So many people get caught in this limbo between versions of the game, but I guess we can't do anything about that. Feels like there is only a few months of play before you can actually see the loketests for the next version happening in japan.

[St1ckBuG]

Pozer, you know the difference between a game developer and a localization company right?

[Kuuhaku]

I do agree that one key thing is to get Blazblue more exposure. At lot of people at EVO last year actually really liked grand finals. I saw a lot of comments that it was one of if not the most entertaining grand finals matches. Yet, no BB footage made it into most of the highlight reels.

Speaking of personal experience, I can understand that feel of BB not being streamed at tournaments. I feel like a lot of times the brackets and community aren't taken that seriously by other parts of the FGC. And while this is sometimes frustrating, if there's anything I've learned from the experience... it's just that we got to deal with it. Money talks and usually it's not the BB community running these venues so it' really can't be helped. What can be helped is trying to establish good relationships with these communities so they'll at least give BB a shot.

If you have means, time, money, etc. to get more people involved in BB, you should do it. Even if it's just you and your friends uploading scrub matches onto Youtube, it helps. Look at those matches, analyze what retarded things you're doing, and work on improving. If you have a community, promote yourselves. I can understand why people hate stuff like anime conventions, but going there and doing a setup can actually attract people. Even if you get only one person into the scene from your efforts, it helps. Yes it's not very easy and a lot of times very questionable things will happen, but you have to keep trying.

Comparing our tournament numbers to other games like SF and Marvel isn't really fair or even make any sense because our numbers were small to begin with. The aesthetics of the game do matter. No matter how hard you try to pitch it, it's aesthetics aren't going to appeal very well to a western audience because of all the social stigma attached to anime. So small numbers are really no surprise.

EVO, both teams and singles, had extremely high turn outs for us. Yes, it's not very big when compared to other games, but I really don't think it's from lack of community effort. That being said, I think the number one focus should to not be discouraged and to keep trying.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Bohemian Polka

[Shakugan]

You know me and team DRS supports BB. I will try to come up with another prize for the Winter brawl champion.