RetroGame is an annual convention in Syracuse celebrating video games and gamer culture; it features vendors, local musicians and artists, panels, gaming free-play, and tournaments. This past year it was spread across two days and I was lucky to be able to attend both. On the first day, I attended as a volunteer for Syracuse Smash and helped set up and manage brackets for the Super Smash Bros. Tournaments otherwise known as CuseTown Beatdown. On the second day, I enjoyed the rest of the convention with my girlfriend and my brother. Helping run Smash tournaments is always an interesting and gratifying experience and I hope to give my perspective on that in this article and write about what I love about the convention itself in a second article.

Setting Up

Upon arriving, the first step for tournament staff is setting up all of the necessary equipment quickly and in the best way possible. In order to determine where we put everything, we need to be cognizant of a range of factors including streaming setups, locations for staff laptops and leaving enough room for players to sit, spectators to watch, and attendees to walk around. Fortunately, at this convention we were given a large section of a ballroom so we had plenty of space to work with. I was ecstatic upon seeing the space, it was warm and welcoming, and there was significantly more of it than we are used to working with.

We spent around half an hour carrying TVs, consoles, and other equipment from vehicles, and an additional hour getting it all hooked up and tested for any potential input issues. After that we had some downtime while waiting for the larger crowds of attendees so I sat down and played some friendly matches of Project: M to get warmed up for the tournament (I did about as well as anyone would expect of me, which is to say I was knocked out in the second round of loser's bracket).

The First Brackets

Generally speaking, the less popular formats are the brackets that are run first at Smash tournaments. Per usual, we ran Melee Doubles, Project: M singles, Smash 4 doubles, and Smash 64 singles during the first round of events. Doing this allows more people to arrive, register, and practice for the main events: Melee singles and Smash 4 singles. This is particularly important at convention tournaments because it allows the most general attendees to notice the event and consider registering. While generally speaking, none of the general con-goers are going to do well in the Smash tournament, if they enjoy themselves they might become part of the community in the future.

The Main Events

Looking around the room as the main events began, I was shocked at how many attendees we had, especially since such a large number of them were members of the Smash community (with their own controllers and everything) as opposed to random people who were wandering the convention and wanted to try their hand. I had entered Smash 4 singles, which admittedly I don't have a lot of experience at. This was my first tournament maining a viable character, and while I didn't make it out of my pool, I had a lot of fun playing. One of my opponents in my pool was a younger child, probably about seven or eight years old. He was a regular attendee and had come to the convention with his parents. I know some people disagree with me on how I handle situations like that, but I let him take me to the last game and the last stock. He was so proud of how well he did and it made me smile pretty wide to see that (no one tell him that I'm horrible at this game please). I was fairly swiftly eliminated from my pool by two extraordinarily skilled Yoshi players, which allowed me to focus my energy on helping run the brackets.

Things were significantly behind schedule at that point, which led to some players being annoyed. The other staff members and I managed to pull things together and get the brackets moving effectively again, despite some critical missteps. I was reluctant to disqualify players for not being on time, especially because it was a convention tournament, and had drawn many people who weren't familiar with tournament etiquette, but I relented eventually in the interest of moving things along. I had to leave to get ready for Day 2 before the event was over, but from what I understand, many attendees had a fantastic time.

My Experience

I've been a part of the Smash community since November 2009, so this event was essentially my seven-year anniversary of being a part of the community. I haven't volunteered a whole lot for our events in the past but my experience at CuseTown Beatdown made me want to get more involved from the organizer perspective and pull back a bit from being a competitor. I don't have a lot of free time to attend tournaments, but something that makes me glow with a bit of pride is how much our community has grown. As recently as 2012, we were maxing out at around twenty attendees at our occasional events. At this tournament we had over 200. It is incredible for me to witness the colossal growth of our community*, and I especially enjoyed this tournament because it was a fantastic opportunity to reach out and attract more people to the community while providing an awesome experience for our regular players. I hope to do this again in the near future, and do it a lot better!

*Note: A good portion of this growth is due to the actions of Erik “TheManaLord” Garb, who has put many hours of effort into making our community better. I'm pretty sure none of us longer-time Syracuse players can really express how grateful we are to him. Thanks, Erik!