ShelledMenace Posted October 7, 2012 Posted October 7, 2012 Had fun, dunno how the rest of the night went since I had to leave early, but I'm assuming it went well. Can't go wrong with cake and stuff lol. Thanks GC as always, and FinestKO peepohl, and happy 3rd, NCI :O Also shoutouts to Norcal time where we're all coordinated and people come early so they can wait for a couple hours before GC opening.
Kaori Manabe Posted October 7, 2012 Posted October 7, 2012 well despite that i think things were run really well everything was run through in a breeze like done with tournaments at like 8 pm or something good games and good job to every1 Project Justice Double Elim Tourney Prize: $9 winner take all Supreme Champion (1st): DjCream Worthy Adversary (2nd): Maschera Maybe Next Time (3rd) Manabe 4th place: Lord Raptor 5th place tie: Chun Tone 7th place tie: Dakanya Tsubasa 9th place tie: Kamenridertag Notkbf
ShelledMenace Posted October 7, 2012 Posted October 7, 2012 Yeah I agree, I only said that 'cause I was among the few people that were there before opening lol...How was the cake? :c
PhaethonH Posted October 7, 2012 Author Posted October 7, 2012 (edited) Postmortem on NCI 2012.10.06 I tried a few experiments running the brackets for Aquapazza, 14 entrants. That tournament was in that sweet spot of having enough people for a "weighty" tournament run-through, but not so many to make the experiment overwhelming. Part of the experiment was also finding out how to handle running brackets while also competing in a tournament, and to keep that part small, I entered BlazBlue only. The Good - changes that I feel made NCI for the better lieutenant/backup bracket runners - I was conscious of the fact that I cannot pay full attention at all times: playing in tournament, restroom visit, food break, coughing up a lung, etc. To this end, I tried at all times to maintain having at least one person available to step in at a moment's notice. I placed highest priority on watching for end-of-match and score-recording, which really comes down to writing down the winner's name, then sorting out the rest later. The worst-case scenario I was avoiding was having all available bracket runners in tournament, leaving no one tending to brackets. challonge.com - despite its shortcomings, being web-based allowed multiple devices to update the bracket through the day. No single device became a bottleneck for updating brackets, and any web-capable device can become an updater with a login. The tio machine was still ultimate arbiter of competition, but having satellite devices helped spread out the record-keeping load. core mains - So this NCI took the approach of having a set of three "core" games, and then padding out the sides/bookends with miscellaneous games. I think this partitioning helped create an organization focus, as it made clear which games had to be prioritized over others. In that vein, BlazBlue (7 entrants) was taken up to Grand Finals offline, leaving only one match for live-streaming. expendable sides - the non-core games were relatively expendable from an organizational perspective. Signups and brackets for the non-core were deliberately started later in the evening. Gauging the remaining time, the side games were changed to single-elimination winner-take-all to fit within the expected remaining time. Such variability gives flexibility in scheduling, but does yield uncertainty in announcements and plans. vanguard marathon - the largest tournament, Persona 4 (22 entrants), was run straight through from beginning to championship without breaks. As the largest tournament, this kind of marathon run helped clear out the largest potential progress blocker.The Bad - inconveniences and shortfalls late, later, even later start - this sort of snowballed from the inconsistent time announcements. Signups were delayed due to arrival confusions, which snowballed into delayed brackets start, ultimately blocking the entire event.Resolution: due to being a domino effect, this problem comes down to properly adhering to start time. oddball challonge viewing machine - I set up a monitor and computer as a read-only interface to challonge, the idea was that people could browse the AP brackets in real-time without the threat of messing up scores. Problem was, it looked too much like yet another PC, complete with air of "private property, do not touch".Resolution: dress up the machine better to let people know it's for public bracket-browsing. laggy tweeting - my own twitter feed was sporadic and sparse during NCI, and was only restarted (in general) as a way to help coordinate NCI preparations.Resolution: build up experience with regular use of twitter. slipped shutdown time - I originally wanted a shutdown time of 11pm, mainly b/c I bring a car-full worth of equipment for events, requiring some time to pack up. Other people who lend equipment also need time to pack up their equipment and check for loose/lost parts.Resolution: Maybe a staggered or staged shutdown would help? That is, at first stage, shut down non-essentials (spare monitors, standby stations, card games), then second stage identify idle stations for shutdown, third stage power off. Something along those lines. no scheduled breaks - I fell into this trap myself. I looked back at past NCI and think about how confusion reigns when people take breaks at somewhat random times, as there are no schedule break time to synchronize them all, and wanted to avoid that. And yet I failed in the exact same way.Resolution: short breaks at 2 hour interval, major breaks at 4 hour intervals, set in terms of start-of-brackets, as the breaks are needed to relieve stress due to time adding up, not time-of-day. Maybe have staggered breaks.The Ugly - elements that need serious attention inconsistent time announcements - this ultimately comes down on my head. I was still stuck in a 2009 mindset and subconsciously expected the dustloop announcement to be the definitive information source. As a result, not all communication channels transmitted the start time.Resolution: the five-W's must be transmitted consistently across all channels, with no assumption that anyone will or can cross-check any other channel. tio access bottleneck - this is a regularly-occurring problem, where having a single computer (and a single set of human-computer interface devices) introduces a bottleneck where only so many updates can be carried out per minute. While this kind of bottleneck did not occur so much this NCI, single-machine load did not scale well in past larger events, blocking match calls.Resolution: optimally, tournament software with distributed operation. Otherwise, unknown and TBD. tournament computer singleton - this is one element I can see leading to catastrophic failure. At this NCI, there was one computer, and only one, used for signups and brackets. The computer also had screensaver lock. The upshot was if the computer was not given constant attention, it became unusable until the owner unlocked. This presents an unacceptable blockage risk, and became a sore stress point for me. Should the owner become inaccessible in some manner, everything in the tournament becomes inaccessible - entrants, brackets, progress. I cannot abide by having the entire event hinge on a single point of failure.Resolution:dedicated computer configured specifically for tournament use or guest login geared towards tournament use or bracket software that is not tied to a single computer or save brackets to removable storage so it may be resumed elsewhere if needed. [*] tournament computer malposition - there is one part of the floor where the bracket computer traditionally sits. I have two problems with this location. One, it straddles a geographical chokepoint in the venue. The problem compounds when a small crowd forms trying to update different game brackets at the same time, sometimes completely choking off the hallway. Secondly, the machine is far away from the line of sight of almost all stations, requiring considerable "running" to maintain the tournament -- a guaranteed round-trip through a physical chokepoint. The second problem viciously feeds the first: more runners choke up the hallway, and unable to run, block tournament progress. Resolution: repositioning, TBD. Miscellaneous whinings - trivial matters I just want to air out [*] I made the call to swap out the Aquapazza cabinet for BlazBlue to help along the BB tournament. Didn't really help. Boo. [*] No preparations were had to streamcast or record SSF2T. Oh, well. [*] Circumstances were against Guilty Gear (late start, equipment shortage, lack of streamcasting), but they were all resolvable in real time. GG needed SDTV capture for live-streaming, which was not set up for a while. Even then, GG blocked a long time waiting for a live-streaming slot. Not comfortable with the way time was going, I made the call to finish Guilty Gear offline. In the grand scheme of things, Guilty Gear's problems are really non-issues -- GG finished on time, all competitors were present, and the upcoming PSN GG will render the SDTV capture a moot point. [*] Cakes were supposed to have a surprise topper print. While it technically arrived in time, bizarre circumstances ended up having the delivery rejected and otherwise "lost". So we ended up with generic "happy bday" icing text. Edited October 7, 2012 by PhaethonH fixed spelling "postportem"
qwerty Posted October 7, 2012 Posted October 7, 2012 Shoutouts to norcal home of late ass niggas and two hour long dinner + mahjong breaks
PhaethonH Posted October 7, 2012 Author Posted October 7, 2012 (edited) I would like to express appreciation for the people who helped NCI in an official capacity (that I remember...): Chun, for being vanguard of NCI for all this time Gamecenter, for providing venue FinestKO, provding NCI's streaming coverage OrionXElite, bracket master I would also like to express gratitude to those who helped in an unofficial capacity, providing equipment and watching over brackets (i suck at remembering names...): Hypebot for helping with BB and P4 brackets. Tsubasa and Dakanya for helping with AP and GG brackets them two guys whose names I don't remember ( ) who I tried to recruit into bracket-running Certainly there were others who helped make NCI a success, but alas, I can only see so much. Who else is deserving of recognition? Edited October 9, 2012 by PhaethonH
Yggjrasil Posted October 8, 2012 Posted October 8, 2012 I had a pretty fun time yesterday.Happy 3rd Birthday,NCI! As usual, thank you NCI crew for the experience, Myung for having the most hype venue in NorCal. Thank you Dacidbro for giving me a ride and a place to stay over the weekend. Shoutouts to BB only having 7 entrants. Shoutouts to No PNW in Top 8, Shoutouts to Ajisen Ramen being the most gdlk ramen place. Oh, and it was nice to meet you KBNova! Your love for GG has inspired me to definitely pick up the game and make it into my main game again. Talking to you about all the changes in GGAC+R was fun too, we even managed to find out some things that surprised even the veterans of the game!
Spirit Juice Posted October 8, 2012 Posted October 8, 2012 I'm glad the cake wasn't a lie. [/old jokes]
PhaethonH Posted October 9, 2012 Author Posted October 9, 2012 I'm glad the cake wasn't a lie. [/old jokes]
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