Konami Nationals poor tournament organization for Minneapolis regionals
Posted by kent - Sun 10/25 2009 - 01:22 PM - 1474 Views
The 4th regional tournament for the official Konami US championships was held yesterday which resulted in foreseeable mistakes of both pad quality and differing from posted rules by Gameworks and tournament officials.
The day before the tournament players were already seeing the effects of poor pads. After complaining to the Gameworks technicians it was said that there was nothing more they could do and that’s the best they were going to be for the tournament.
Ryan Iyengar aka DukAmok attended all previous qualifiers, but due to Konami’s finances he was unable to make the MN regional. This is where most players knew that without the expertise of a skilled player present for each regional things would begin to fall apart. Being that Ryan was that skilled player, making sure the pads were working to the best of their abilities before the event and maintaining proper posted rules, without his help things were left in the hands of Konami’s 3rd party tournament organizers and the event turned out to be unanimously awful.
1st Travis K (reboman)
2nd Mike L (Bluemystic)
3rd Tim L (Cartoonhero)
4th Jayson M (Jay Goemon)
During the tournament the left 1P side of the pad was performing terribly for everyone and it was said that anyone who had the right 2p side was going to have a higher chance of winning. Only until a player had 18~ misses and dropped holds was the problem looked into by a GW tech. Players were offering to help fix the problem, but were then threatened to be disqualified if they touched the machine. GW came to the conclusion that they were just playing the wrong way.
Confusion then occurred with the correct songs to be played for each match and how random songs were to be selected. Mike and Tim had to redo their match after a misunderstanding after they had played songs outside of the tournament list. Players were also using the machine’s Random which makes it impossible to tell what song is about to be played, modifiers were guesses.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EvilDave219
The songs for randoms were only supposed to be the 5 used in each rounds, they were never supposed to use machine random because there's no way to determine what song you're playing. On the final round where you can pick anything, the random comes from the group of 9s used in the tournament (which for this would have been Afronova, Brilliant RED, iFuturelist, Xepher, and Electro Tuned).
All best of 5 matches meant you were allowed 2 picks each and random on the 5th song if necessary, not 1 pick each and then random the rest.
Overall players felt that many matches could have been determined by a coin toss instead of skills due to inconstant pads. The outcome of rounds would have in all likelihood resulted differently if the correct songs and randoms would have been enforced.
To recap here are the winners from each of the four previous regionals:
Posted by snapps - Sun 10/25 2009 - 01:51 PM [ quote ]
terrible
Posted by Trick - Sun 10/25 2009 - 02:10 PM [ quote ]
People stopped showing up to your arcade for a reason, Mpls Gameworks. Way to drop the ball
Posted by DJjeff - Sun 10/25 2009 - 02:20 PM [ quote ]
Very disappointing. I though an official tournament held by Konami would be organized better and played on the best pads possible. Aweful.
Posted by Darkhorse - Sun 10/25 2009 - 02:42 PM [ quote ]
Sounds pretty terrible. One thing, not to defend the establishment too much since it sounds like this was a very poorly run tournament... but "Players offering to fix the problem" doesn't mean jack.
As an owner of my own DDR machine, I realize that there are definitely players that know what they are doing and would probably be subject matter experts regarding machine repair and use. That being said, if I was the owner or manager of an arcade or an arcade machine, I would also have a policy that prohibited players touching anything internal to the machine or tampering with it in any way. Honestly you are just protecting your investment and your own interests, and you can't blame them for doing that.
Posted by Trick - Sun 10/25 2009 - 02:57 PM [ quote ]
You have a valid point, but look at it from the other end: If they really wanted to protect their investment, they'd keep the machine in constant repair. What do players do most when a pad isn't functioning the way it should? They step on it even harder or straight-up stomp them to try and get them to register.
That kind of unneeded abuse does more harm to the machine than someone who doesn't know what they're doing fiddling with a couple wires and pressure plates. Those things are cheap and replaceable.
Pads and proprietary metal plates, not so much.
Posted by phone - Sun 10/25 2009 - 03:50 PM [ quote ]
Well yeah, obviously anyone would want to protect their investment, but it's not like the players were just asking them to give them a screw driver and fuck off while they fix the pads. They were giving the techs / konami reps very sensible solutions to the problems and clearly explaining what they wanted to do to fix the machine, and the tech was just ignoring them and pulling the "I know waaay more about this than you" card. (Which, she clearly did not. Her way of testing the pads was to take out the sensors and squeeze them with her fingers. Not to mention, fixing the pads = spraying down the insides with WD-40.)
And I suppose it would be one thing if just the one person was telling them that they were having problems and giving them potential solutions. But it was EVERYONE who had qualified. You'd think that they would have been at least a little more open to suggestions if a large group of players who clearly know what they are doing are saying that the pads do not work.
Posted by The MOLE - Sun 10/25 2009 - 04:16 PM [ quote ]
This happens on a daily basis everywhere in the fucking world when it comes to arcades and there machines. They just want to make the most money with the least amount of effort/time/money spent. So therefore the arcade"techs" come maybe once a week AT BEST and usually just make sure the pads are barely registering and in "working" condition. The average ddr/itg pad in an arcade is usually horrible. Now I can tell you that the staff was probably not at all concerned with the players thoughts/feelings or the event in general. It was just another work day to them and probably a downright inconvenience that they had to deal with something on this scale that wasn't in there initial job description. God I fucking hate arcades sometimes. Basically this was to be expected. If they dropped the ball on DDRX when its dealing with making MONEY what makes you think these promotional stunts they call NATS are going to be any different?
Granted its not konami's fault that most arcade managers/techs are retards but I mean has everyone so soon forgotten the NAMCO ITG NATIONAL TOURNAMENT? YUCK.
Posted by Drayne O - Sun 10/25 2009 - 09:43 PM [ quote ]
i feel bad for anyone who attended this tournament :(
Posted by nostromer - Sun 10/25 2009 - 09:54 PM [ quote ]
My condolences go out to the players on this one, If I was competing I would be absolutely furious.
the machine random is a fucking joke, I can't believe that. : (
Well, If that's how its going to be don't even bother showing up at the New Jersey regional at Funplex. that machine is a joke.
Posted by RADIORAMA - Mon 10/26 2009 - 12:02 AM [ quote ]
Just die already DDR. Nothing but one bad news after one bad news comes from this fucking piece of shit. It's the ass of the BEMANI franchise with the least amount of good games and is often plagued with hardware issues. Fuck if I had it my way, I'd revive KEYBOARDMANIA and would have killed off DDR after 4th Mix Plus. DanceManiaX and ParaPara Paradise are far more compelling games than this stomping piece of turd.
Posted by MadDogBV - Mon 10/26 2009 - 12:48 AM [ quote ]
Quote:
Originally Posted by RADIORAMA
Just die already DDR. Nothing but one bad news after one bad news comes from this fucking piece of shit. It's the ass of the BEMANI franchise with the least amount of good games and is often plagued with hardware issues. Fuck if I had it my way, I'd revive KEYBOARDMANIA and would have killed off DDR after 4th Mix Plus. DanceManiaX and ParaPara Paradise are far more compelling games than this stomping piece of turd.
Trolling troll is troll. <_<
Players catch hell at the arcade over here too when they attempt to fix the pads, almost to the point of being permanently banned from the premises. As somebody else pointed out, I don't understand the elitism of arcade managers who think they know better.
Posted by kent - Mon 10/26 2009 - 01:01 AM [ quote ]
this isn't really directly about the issue with the pads.. everyone is focusing on that way too much.
no one from Konami took the time to prepare any sort of fall back when Ryan or another knowledgeable player working the event would not be present.
imo this is the most glaring point about why this regional bombed.
it doesn't seem like anything was done to prevent something like this from happening.
Posted by Eggman - Mon 10/26 2009 - 01:07 AM [ quote ]
Yeah, I totally called this one.
The old BemaniMN tournaments look world class compared to what happened here.
Posted by Razer - Mon 10/26 2009 - 01:47 AM [ quote ]
Quote:
GW came to the conclusion that they were just playing the wrong way.
The best people in the region clearly do not understand how to play the game.
Posted by djgiza - Mon 10/26 2009 - 09:07 AM [ quote ]
I hate when they dont fix the pads. In FL they actually told me at boomers that it makes just as much money fixing the pads or not because kids put there money in, dont know what to do and walk away...oh yeah and skilled players scare the random children from playing since we post up there all the time. This is why I became the arcade tech there...its not expensive to order 3rd party sensors. Lazy Americans...
the manager would drink beer in the back and crack jokes on a "gay" dancing game
Posted by The MOLE - Mon 10/26 2009 - 09:20 AM [ quote ]
djgiza Thats exactly it. They hate the regulars that scare the average customer away. Granted there ARE groups of kids that play that give the game a bad name. But Serious players for the most part are courteous to patrons of the arcade. Most managers loath ddr or itg and its followers in my experience. Purposely not fixing pads to drive away the hardcore players or even having machines removed.
Posted by MadDogBV - Mon 10/26 2009 - 10:06 AM [ quote ]
Quote:
Originally Posted by The MOLE
djgiza Thats exactly it. They hate the regulars that scare the average customer away. Granted there ARE groups of kids that play that give the game a bad name. But Serious players for the most part are courteous to patrons of the arcade. Most managers loath ddr or itg and its followers in my experience. Purposely not fixing pads to drive away the hardcore players or even having machines removed.
Over here the DDR machine at the Reitz is the only thing keeping the arcade open. It's used about 10 times a day or more, as opposed to the Time Crisis 2 next to it which is used once a week. Of course, I think the manager here realizes that, and she's not as hostile as the other ones mentioned above.
Posted by Juego2007 - Mon 10/26 2009 - 10:26 AM [ quote ]
Wow man, I was at the tournament and I may not be an expert but I saw the tournament admins working hard to deal with the situation at GameWorks. I heard them arguing wtih the people at the GameWorks arcade trying to get the machine up and running. I couldnt not believe that the GameWorks people wouldn't help to fix the machine. I may not be a full player like some making these comments but I witnessed the Konami people trying hard to get things right and the GameWorks whatever they were bascially telling them they would not make the correction to the machine.
Wow man, I was at the tournament and I may not be an expert but I saw the tournament admins working hard to deal with the situation at GameWorks. I heard them arguing wtih the people at the GameWorks arcade trying to get the machine up and running. I couldnt not believe that the GameWorks people wouldn't help to fix the machine. I may not be a full player like some making these comments but I witnessed the Konami people trying hard to get things right and the GameWorks whatever they were bascially telling them they would not make the correction to the machine.
....I was pysched about the tourni. I was eliminated but I was psyched and then I saw this. I did some searching and found this site and a few others. I am only saying what I saw.
Yeah that's pretty much how Gameworks is. Why spend a little on machine maintenance when you can ignore it and focus on alcohol sales? There are far better venues to hold these sorts of events than Gameworks, because the vast majority of their franchises don't care.
Posted by Gosha - Tue 10/27 2009 - 02:39 AM [ quote ]
Yeah, if one of these is ran again next year, a Konami rep should do a questionaire on venues to host the tournaments in a select number of states. That way the players themselves could give a heads up on the best venues, that or provide the venues picked with upgrades to all the same version/new sensors/etc...
