tournament feedback from people who DID NOT ATTEND
Posted:
Aug 17, 2004, 5:47 PM
Hello to those who did NOT ATTEND the tournament. I am not mad, just disappointed. Dozens of people who had said "oh, if it is in Vegas, I will go for sure" did NOT attend. I would like feedback. Could you please all post here letting us know the main factors involved in not going to the tournament? This way, we can improve upon the arrangements for future tournaments. I can think of a few reaspons why people might not have come. If one or more of these reasons applies to you, please tell me; if your reason is not listed, please tell me. Thanks.
Possible reasons for absence:
1) cost of trip (hotel, airplane) too expensive 2) entry fee of 50 dollars too expensive 3) felt as if there was no chance of winning the tournament 4) Did not have enough time off from work 5) Too lazy to travel 6) Did not like the format of the tournament 7) unable to attend for personal reasons 8) just didn't really feel like going; the idea seemed appealing at first but lost interest 9) thought the tournament was falling apart/might not happen after Greg's resignation from the WPPF.
Those are all the reasons I can think of. Please let us know so we can improve the tournament. Thanks. AGAIN, this post is for those who did NOT ATTEND.
Posts:
2
Registered:
Aug 19, 2002
From:
North Carolina
Age:
41
Re: tournament feedback from people who DID NOT ATTEND
Posted:
Aug 18, 2004, 4:14 AM
I would like to have attended the tournament, but could not justify the cost and time away from work/family, especially since I just went to Vegas for a meeting in June.
If you want to get more players in the tournament, I suggest having an internet weekend tournament at dweebo's. This eliminates travel expenses, vacation time and you may get some of the non-US players.
The only other way that I see to get a large draw is to find a sponsor to offer a large cash prize to the winner.
Posts:
542
Registered:
May 9, 2002
From:
Northeast USA
Re: tournament feedback from people who DID NOT ATTEND
Posted:
Aug 19, 2004, 12:20 AM
Here are some other possibilities:
10) Would have gone to a one day tourney, but 2 days was too long. 11) Could not find information about/did not agree with certain tournament rules (ie, what happens if there's a no-show, etc). 12) I'm an active online player but I did not know about the tournament. 13) Afraid that my friends and family would call me a geek and proceed to haze me for going. 14) I do not own a board/chess clock. 15) Not enough people would be there.
There may be many other reasons. I hope many of you folks will respond here or via email. I DID attend and I DID think the tournament was a success, but like anything else there's always room for improvement, so help the cause and put in your two cents.
Re: tournament feedback from people who DID NOT ATTEND
Posted:
Aug 20, 2004, 4:47 AM
I wanted to and plan'd to go. But I moved 2000 miles that weekend so I could not attend. I do like the idea of a LIVE every 4 months, bi or monthly WPPF Tourny at dweebos. This would/could, give us WPPF rankings. It would have to be done round robin would take all day or two days. And in the end the top people who won would most likley be winners again. But the other side to that is it may spark a little more intrest in A live(be it online tourny) but if we could get 25 people to commit to a monthly, bi or quarterly tourny I think the results of say a end of the year live(not online) tourny would be a little better then just TOURNY IN LV on AUG 7-8 2004. If even 50 people would commit to 4 tournys a year last one being live at a place and time that would work for the players that play'd in the other 3 tournys of that year. I think half(25 out of 50) would tend to show up and meet all the players that they had played at the online tournys. Do you think that would give a better tournout for the in-person one, at the end of the year? And if the WPPF had a 1st year fee of say $10-25 to enter in all the years Tournys including the end of the year one that may also help pay for it and may boost the participation. Just some thoughts any one think this is a good idea? PS one last thought or two I can supply WPPF tee shirts to the winner of the end of the year tourny or to anybody who wanted one. If it would help people participate, We could even give out Tee's to people who pay for there entry fee into WPPF.. that way where ever the tourny was there would be a gang of noticable pente players that other people might just come around and say what are all of those people doing.. and could spark even more intrest in the game we all love called pente.
Re: tournament feedback from people who DID NOT ATTEND
Posted:
Aug 20, 2004, 4:51 AM
and one other thing we could also combine, if it was ok with everyone in the wppf online play and live play for the last tourny the people that could not make it to the live tourny could still play just do it over dweebos.. I know that that wins of these games could be in some doubt but if it got more people in the tournys it would be a start.
Re: tournament feedback from people who DID NOT ATTEND
Posted:
Aug 25, 2004, 3:47 PM
I expressed some interest (not definite) last year when I heard about it. Then I decided to take a "pente sabbatical" to work on other projects, so I would have had to devote at least a solid month I'd say to get back in my peak pente form (which is pretty good, but not that great compared to the caliber of the players here). Travel is difficult for me, since I don't drive. 20 minute games are my weakest pente format (as opposed to speed or turn based games). I'm not opposed to spending time and money to support pente and efforts to promote its growth, but personally I think that my time and effort are better spend on things like promoting the game in schools (chess clubs for example) and online than to spend that time and effort to get to a medium high level of play, travel to Las Vegas and lose to the top players in the game. If there were many more players of the game, so that Vegas could draw a hundred players and there could be a masters game series and a series for the other players(both with prizes), then that would be exciting enough for me to attend. The thought of taking several days off work and paying to come get my @$$ kicked by DM, Dufus, Snut, and up2 was frankly not very appealing. I think until we have a solid number of players online (when I can log in here day or night and always find 10-20 players here, for example) having a World Championship in Vegas does nothing much to promote the game. Sure it's a fun time. My suggestions- 1.)I started a project of e-mailing all the pente players at www.itsyourturn.com with at least 20 games who were active there (I got about 1/10th of the way through and sent about 1000 notes I think) to let them know about this site and the WPPF. 2.)I've taken a pente board to the local school's chess club and offered a $10 prize to the first kid to beat me playing as P1 with no tourney rules in order to get them interested in the game. I feel like we need to take a long view towards pente's increasing growth and success (similar to what Nosovs said in another thread) and not lose heart because pente isn't already there. Chess has been played and popularized for how many hundred years? Anyway, that's my $2 worth (inflation) :~} Tom
Message was edited by: watsu at Aug 25, 2004 9:49 AM
Message was edited by: watsu at Aug 25, 2004 9:51 AM
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
