[8 Jun 2013] Northwest Majors (Des Moines, WA)

UPDATE: HOW TO WATCH NORTHWEST MAJORS!

All of the VF tourney action will be happening on Saturday, June 8th, featured on two streams:

The intended schedule has been posted and you can read it here:
http://northwestmajors.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/nwmv_schedule.jpg

The Main Tournament is intended to start on SATURDAY at NOON (PST) and will be featured on the 3d fighters stream.
3D STREAM: http://www.twitch.tv/khaosgamingtv

The Top 4 is intended to start on SATURDAY at 6PM (PST) and it will be featured on the Main Stream.
MAIN STREAM: http://www.twitch.tv/teamkhaos

Delays happen, often at majors. The best way to know what's going on is to follow the official twitter page!
Northwest Majors on Twitter: https://twitter.com/northwestmajors/

(East Coast EST Notes: Main Tournament = 3pm EST. Top 4 = 9pm EST. Follow @northwestmajors for updates and delay notices)




Date:
June 8th - 9th, 2013

Venue:
Highline Community College (Des Moines, Washington)
(Very close to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport)


Registration: http://northwestmajors.com/register
$35 from May 14 until May 31
$50 Day Of Registration (You will NOT be Seeded for events)

Participation Pass: $10
Participation Pass allows you too us the BYOC area and play in events not run by the NWM Organization. Without a Participation Pass you can not enter any NWM related events.

NWM Events:
Super Street Fighter 4: AE2012 ($15)
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 ($15)
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown ($10)
Tekken TAG Tournament 2 ($10)
The King of Fighters 13 ($10)
Persona 4: Arena ($10)
Injustice: Gods Among Us ($10)
Mortal Kombat ($10)
Street Fighter x Tekken ($10)
Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles ($15)
Super Smash Bros. Melee Doubles ($20/team)
Super Street Fighter 2: Turbo (Working on this, but looks like TWO QUalifiers for the EVO ST Event)


Event Seeding will take place after May 24th and before the Friday of the Event (June 7th). Door Registration will result in NO SEEDING, you simply be put into pools or onto the bracket without a seed.


ESTIMATED Schedule of Events:
FRIDAY JUNE 7th
Pacific Northwest Road to EVO2013 Playoffs

SATURDAY JUNE 8th
Melee 2v2 and 1v1 Pools
Pools for AE and Marvel
Brackets down to Top 8ish for all other games

SUNDAY JUNE 9th
Finals for all Events that we plan to Live Stream (TBD)


Hotel Recommendations:
Best Western Plaza by the Green
24415 Russell Road
Kent, Washington, 98032
253/854-8767
CODE: Highline gets you $89 room per night
Free WiFi, Shuttle Service to the Venue and Cont Breakfast


REGISTRATION IS LIVE AT
http://northwestmajors.com/register

 

UPDATE: SCHEDULE AND STREAM INFO!

NORTHWEST MAJORS - VF Schedule & Streams

Note: Delays and schedule adjustments are common at major tournaments. The schedule is a guideline and things can change, so following @northwestmajors on twitter will probably help you through the tides!

The intended schedule has been posted and you can read it here:
http://northwestmajors.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/nwmv_schedule.jpg

Because this tournament will have same-day registration open (which I do think is a good thing), I find it decently possible that some delays may happen. However, the Tournament Organizer is very good and the main staff do good work. On top of that, they have had experience with this venue before and greatly increases the chances of smooth sailing.

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown is intended to be a 1 day tournament. Handled in two parts (Main & Top 4).

The Main Tournament is intended to start on SATURDAY at NOON and will be featured on the 3d fighters stream.
3D STREAM: http://www.twitch.tv/khaosgamingtv

The Top 4 is intended to start on SATURDAY at 6PM and it will be featured on the Main Stream.
MAIN STREAM: http://www.twitch.tv/teamkhaos

Delays happen, often at majors. The best way to know what's going on is to follow the official twitter page!
Northwest Majors on Twitter: https://twitter.com/northwestmajors/

Also, I intend to host all day casuals on Sunday at the event! Should be kick-ass and we can work on whatever people want to work on, have a team battle, whatever you guys want to do!


Notes:

Tournament Rules

• The Tournament Format Will Be Double Elimination
• ALL MATCHES in the tournament will be:
  • First to 3 Games
  • First to 3 Rounds Per Game
  • Default Timer
  • Random Stage Select
  • Loser of Game May Choose to Change Stage, Change Character, or Rematch
    • In the case of a character change, I assume only the loser can change their character, but I have to double check with the organizers on this.

First to 3 games is how we have been competing in the Northwest since September and it has generally resulted in the best results for our tournaments (reflecting the top players of the moments), the most exciting matches, and VF5FS still finishes faster than most other games!

Affordability

• Northwest Majors is, outside of travel costs (which can also be managed), a very affordable Major in general. Travel/Lodging tips will be written in the next post.

Streaming

• Stream Info will be posted later.

Pot Boost

• There is a conditional private sponsor for the Virtua Fighter tournament. If we meet a certain (aggressive, but possible) threshold of players, a donation will be made to the pot to boost the prize pool. I cannot go into detail about this, but it is real and the offer was made as a recognition of the Virtua Fighter Community's passion.

Seeding & Registration

• Registrations before June 1st will be guaranteed to be seeded. (My opinions on seeding follows)
  • If I am consulted for input in the seeding (likely), I will prioritize region & skill level (determined in order by prior tournament history, observed skill level, and consultation from other "high-skilled" players).
  • So far my personal record on seeding, including last year's second major in the Northwest (End of Summer), has been pretty good and was consistent with the results and others apparently felt they were very fair.
  • Regional Priority = I try to reduce the likelihood that players from the same region have to fight each other early, it is my belief that players go to Regionals and Nationals to challenge the regional or national metagame and that players prefer to not be forced into their own local tournament scene right off the bat.
    • I believe that there is often a way to balance the seeding to ultimately reflect skill level while doing this,
    • However, this sometimes shifts all of the brackets to manage both of these ideals. If a player's regional priority causes a big jump in their seeding, an adjustment to the bracket will probably be made so that a player that was displaced from the normal seeding will be put in position to challenge that section of the bracket.
    • Bottom Line: seeding is complicated, but if I am consulted, my ideal bracket allows players to challenge players from other regions first while the overall bracket still does its best to result in the most skilled Top 8 (or 16) possible.
  • If I am consulted, I will still try to work on all registrations that are not paying at the door. However, this is not under my control, so we shall see.

 

*Saved* for Travel & Lodging Tips

 

Northwest Majors is this weekend up in the Seattle area (near Sea-Tac Airport) and I'm pretty excited for this!

I wish I had more time to post more about this, work has been swamping me for a few weeks now...

That said, we've got a lot of strong players from the Northwest already confirmed. While I'm taking a little time from work to post this, I'll write about 3 players I'm excited for. There are more, but I'll try to get around to posting about them later.

I'm probably most excited for MasaRED, the online Shun player who has earned the respect of the best players in North America since VF5 Online Edition. Masa is scary when he gets a read on you and despite Shun being a very tricky character, Masa's direct style of play is generally hard to deal with. He will spend time reading you, and then he'll go after you when he's got it. Masa's last major tournament performance was at last year's End of Summer tournament (another Major in the Northwest) where he fought incredibly close, down to the wire matches against Renzo and AyuFanb0y. This weekend, my bet is on Masa to win it all, but I'm going to do my best to stop him!

From Portland, I am super excited to announce that both Yangsing and Fat Bear are confirmed for Northwest Majors. Both are exciting players to watch and bring some great things to the table!

Yangsing (who has one a Best Bout Beatdown under the name, "Gangnam Style") is a versatile player, I often liken him to an engineer. He's quick to figure out the mechanics of a fighting game and finds stuff that works and approaches the game logically. I feel that his style of play is very similar to AyuFanb0y's. In Portland, we are incredibly lucky to have a player like Yangsing who can figure out and play a variety of characters effectively. Characters Yangsing is known to have used: Kage, Shun, Jeffry, Taka, Jacky, El Blaze, Jean.

Fat Bear is a known name in the Street Fighter communities (especially Third Strike where he's made great marks, but also in CvS2). Fast reactions, great input skills, and a smart player (generally the mathematical type). You might also want to invite him to a game of Poker or Mahjong Final Showdown is the first VF where Fat Bear has played it at a very dedicated level and focused on the game, in fact, it is his primary game now. He's all about the VF now (but he also loves SFIV). Fat Bear plays Akira but he also spends a good deal on learning Goh. He admits that Goh is harder to play competitively than Akira, at least where he is at right now, but he really enjoys playing both. One of the biggest draws to VF for Fat Bear is that it is a game where you really can get better through training mode--this really helps as he is in a phase of his life where it is really hard to make time to go to events because of family, fatherhood, and lots of work. The work he puts into training mode really shows as he finds answers to character-specific situations we pressure him, and his level of sharpness just keeps getting stronger and stronger. Fat Bear is in the group I call the Portland Top 5, he cemented that position by fulfilling a prediction of mine: winning a Portland Best Bout Beatdown tournament before the end of the year 2012. He fulfilled it in December and we're proud to have him in the club!

Anyways, there's going to be a lot of great action at Northwest Majors and on top of that, a lot of awesome casuals!

If you are planning to go to Northwest Majors, as a spectator or competitor, let us know so we can make sure we all meet up for a lot of fun times and great matches!

-Chanchai

 

For anyone that wants to watch the recorded matches from Northwest Majors V, here are the links!

I had an amazing time at the event and I want to thank everyone involved! I plan to post more northwest tournament links in the VF.TV boards eventually, but it's a pretty massive undertaking to dig up everything, but it's a project. Anyways, here is where you can rewatch the tournament!

MAIN BRACKET MATCHES (Twitch Archive)
http://www.twitch.tv/khaosgamingtv/b/414356484

FINAL 4 MATCHES (YouTube - Timestamped to skip bracket spoiler)
http://youtu.be/h8004dEyjTo?t=31s

Also, here is the final bracket! http://nwmv.challonge.com/nwmvVF5FS