M3D wrote on 02/06/10 at 09:47:54:Hey folks! I'm working with some grassroots Nintendo fan communities to host a major national championship for Smash Bros and Pokemon this summer in Raleigh, NC. I'd like to add Mario Kart to the list of events, but I want to gauge interest here before I commit to an additional room at the convention center.
It's always good to see efforts in organizing Kart tournaments, so I commend you for considering this community. If money was no object, and vacation time was more plentiful, I would consider this. The reality is that our meets in Virginia are pretty well established now, and I doubt that I would be able to travel to both. Perhaps others that are more local like Josh Layne might be able to. He would represent our Kart community very well with his Vs. and Time Trial experience.
As mentioned previously, we don't yet have a thread for Virginia 2010. The 2009 discussion is still stickied, so you can get an idea of what we do. We joined forces with the Goldeneye Elite back in 2007, and have met with them annually since. Nathan Stinson is always great at getting everyone together and is integral in making it happen. On the technical side of things, I handle the structure of the Kart 64 tournament with regards to who plays whom, which shortcuts are allowed, how characters are selected, how points are tallied into the master spreadsheet, and so forth. A lot goes into making rounds as fair as possible, since the game has its flaws we have to work around. (e.g. the 4th person will never get the character they want without the aid of GameSharks, some characters / screen positions / Kart versions are handicapped for certain shortcuts, etc.) Years of tournament experience have helped us to tweak out most of the bugs.
Aside from Mario Kart 64 and Goldeneye being the main attractions, we do other video games and ping-pong on the side. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was our most recent tournament addition this year. With enough interest we may even get some Super Mario Kart tournaments added in the future. You can find these previous Virginia meets, Chicago meets, European meets and others further back in the archives. This community has actually made attempts as far back as 1998 to get people together for Kart tournaments, but it did not become a reality until later on.
M3D wrote on 02/06/10 at 09:47:54:So questions for you all: Would you be interested in coming to a live event to meet up and play?
If so, which kart games and what kind of tournaments would you want to see?
How can this event cater to the kart community to give lots of players a reason to come out and compete?
If you do go forward with a Kart 64 tournament, I'll offer a few tips. You definitely want to have a good methodology for handling selection of characters. This element alone nearly prevented a tournament in 1997 from completing the finals! Also, you want to lay out which shortcuts are allowed and which aren't among the players. Also lay out which glitches are banned or allowed, and how to resolve conflicts. I highly recommend banning the "double finish" glitch for starters and give an automatic 0 pts. to anyone who causes a glitch that prevents them from finishing (e.g. drowning.) A point system that works best is 3 for each 1st place finish, 2 for 2nd, and 1 for 3rd. Think of it as attaining one point for each person you beat to the finish. Also keep separate records of points aside from what you see on the screen. You never know when the power is going to go out or the game has glitched tallies. (This happens more often than one might expect!) Also, have a method for breaking ties, like Turnpike reverse.
Most of all, have fun and good luck!
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