tbh, in retrospect, with all the information that has come out, both from Diem's post and others, I think they did a fantastic job. There were literally 1200+ people at the tournament; that is tough to manage for anybody. But the event ended at a reasonable hour, there was plenty of hype, payouts were made, and all the major matches were recorded/streamed. Thats all the important stuff, so everything else is frankly a minor complaint considering the circumstances. I was pretty angry at the time everything was going to shit, mostly because I wanted this event to be perfect because I knew how much it meant, but when it all came together on Sunday, I can't say that I am anything but proud of the organizers and the community for putting together such a colossal effort.

....

and with that, here are some pictures from some photographers hired for the event:

Hes uploading more by the hour, but here are some he already has up:



Just one of the ballrooms at the venue



Mew2king in his natural habitat...legend



Hype hype hype



The hardware

Match Videos!
Stream archive is in this link
All matches from the stream will be uploaded on this youtube channel
Melee vids will gradually be uploaded in this thread (make sure to subscribe!)
Brawl vids in this thread

Interviews
Cyber Sports Network
MLG interviews will gradually go up on mlgpro.com and this channel presumably
Many other interviews, including of the Nintendo representatives at the event, are forthcoming

RESULTS thread with full bracket and pools breakdowns

UPCOMING DOCUMENTARIES
Smash! the Doc on this channel....and the preview
"The Smash Brothers" web series, and its official preview: note this preview has just actors; the real thing has already got over 15k in donations and is in the middle of filming.

Just got back. 10 hour bus ride.

All I have to say is...

GREAT TOURNAMENT, GREAT EXPERIENCE.

Apex 2012 is the first national tournament I've attended, and it was incredible.
I've played Melee more than I slept in the last 5 days. I could probably write a 1000 word post on why the tournament was awesome, but I'll be going to bed now.

I think all I'll say for now is... did you hear the hype for Alukard through the stream? A Melee player wrecking shit with Skrull at the biggest Smash tournament of all time was quite the combination. The venue was going fucking crazy, myself included. UNREAL!

Oh, and....



I'm in the white shirt, sitting beside the dude standing with the Canada flag on his arm!

oh shit
Superboom won 64? He used to come to our tournaments in BC whenever we included 64 and would wreck everyone. Awesome guy too. Go Canada Also didn't know Azen was playing Smash again. Used to play Maple Story with him back in the day. One of the friendliest dudes I've ever met.

Firestorm said:

oh shit
Superboom won 64? He used to come to our tournaments in BC whenever we included 64 and would wreck everyone. Awesome guy too. Go Canada Also didn't know Azen was playing Smash again. Used to play Maple Story with him back in the day. One of the friendliest dudes I've ever met.

Click to expand...

Azen is fucking awesome.

He started playing again like a year ago. He and Chillin are really motivated to become the best again.

For anyone that missed the USA vs The World crew battle.

This is great, so entertaining.

So I just finished reading this thread.

Holy fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck what a shit storm. As expected, of course!

Here are my impressions of the problems this tournament had, and how to fix them. Coming from someone who was at the tournament:

For the sake of this argument, lets say we get just as many attendants as this year for the next Apex (it will probably only go up, tbh).

On the Smash side of things:

1. Setups. There was obviously a lack of setups this year considering how many people we had. Brawl had to borrow the Melee TVs/Wiis just to get finished at a respectable time. The problem: CRTs are heavy, take up space, and are no longer manufactured. It's not as easy as bringing your little 20 inch LCD monitor you got for <$200. I can't wait for Nintendo to make the jump to HD with the Wii U, as this problem will be in the past. But until then, setups will remain a problem...

2. Space. As mentioned, the CRTs require a huge amount of space. Which sucks. Not to mention we had a good 800 Smash players at the venue over the weekend.

These two are really the main concerns. If we had more setups, we wouldn't have had to play Melee round 2 pools til about 2am on Friday. Not to mention we could have finished the bracket on Friday, as scheduled. Brawl has this problem even worse than Melee, of course. They didn't even finish Round 2 pools on their day, and that was with the Melee Wiis/TVs.

Additionally, with more space and setups, we could have done Melee/Brawl on both Friday and Saturday, instead of relegating each game to a single day. Probably would have got everything done on time, and before 2AM.

Friendlies aren't going anywhere. It's been mentioned before, but unlike the FGC, the Smash community finds themselves in a tough spot. No online play means the only way we could play with people across the world is through friendlies or money matches at an event like this. Again, this just goes back to setups. More setups we have, quicker we get the tournament done, more time we have for friendlies. It's as simple as that.

All in all, I think the Smash events were still run very well despite all these setbacks. People are failing to realize just how huge this event was. Even if the first two days were somewhat of a grind, day 3 was awesome and ultimately everything was done on time. To be honest, day two for Melee players wasn't that bad. I had a blast at the hotel, shooting the shit with the community. It was good stuff.

Onto the FGC:

Clearly the FGC portion of the tournament caught everyone off guard. I totally don't blame Alex, Brandon and the rest of the Apex staff for this. Apparently a bunch of the FGC staff members... didn't show up. Lets start with that.

1. Staff members need to show up. Come on now. Clearly the tournament was dismissed as a silly Smash tournament with fighting games as a side event. Then a little tournament called EVO deemed it "Road to Evo" worthy. This brings me to my next point...

2. Road to Evo. Awesome stuff. However... 3 days before the tournament? Yeah, not so awesome. Brandon mentioned that they weren't expecting the FGC to show up. And, if this wasn't an Evo event, I'm sure that room beside the Smash room would have been fine. But alas, it became an Evo event. And as soon as that happened, FGC attendance probably doubled. And I'm sure if the news broke earlier, we would have had way more. Ultimately, if we are going for the Road to Evo again next year, these guys are going to need a room on par with the Smash room. That means: air conditioning, space, microphones and all that good stuff. Again, I don't blame the staff for this, cause it clearly caught them off guard. But for next year, you guys have to be ready.


But ultimately, despite the delays, boiling hot, tiny room and lack of staff, the FGC events did end up getting done, and on time. Learning experience. Once again, I believe members of the community are blowing things out of proportion. If you look at how day 3 was handled, you wouldn't even believe all the crap that went down on Saturday. Learning experience.

Finally, something that effects both communities:

THE STREAM:

Ultimately, I have to thank Jaxel and 8wayrun for what was easily the most successful Melee/Brawl stream of all time. Although I wasn't there, I'm making my way through the archives right now and it is some great stuff. This is the standard future Smash streams will be held to.

The controversy comes in with what games are being streamed when. People wanted to see Ocean vs. M2K, and it didn't help that you could hear the hype from the other side of the room over the stream microphones. "I thought this was supposed to be a Smash event, why is Marvel on the stream?"

First of all, that was a bracket match. A bracket match that was supposed to be done on Saturday, which I'm sure would have been on the stream. But, once again, due to a lack of setups, Brawl ran way over schedule, and round 2 pools and bracket had to be done on Sunday, at the same time as top 8 for every other game. Lets not forget that this is a Road to Evo event. There is no chance in hell a bracket match from any game is going to get priority over top 8 on the stream. Shit happens, and this wouldn't have been a problem if Brawl didn't run over time.


All in all, Apex was a fantastic experience being overblown by salty Smash and fighting game players alike. With a couple more setups and some more space, the tournament would have probably ran flawlessly.