NYG / Defend the North Poll

I’m going to start by saying that this poll will influence our decision on when to run NYG. That being said, it is important that only people who want to attend complete the poll. We have always tried to please the at home audiences, but this decision needs to be made with the players in mind. If you want to know more about Defend the North, there is a thread about it HERE.


We’ve hosted in August ever since NYG 8 or 9, but something interesting is going on this year. With the advent of the FREE ENTRY tournament at Defend the North, and the possibility of another giant EVO side tournament, we are looking at a stacked Summer for VF as it is. I know that a lot of you travel for VF, and that for many of you making a ton of trips will be a sacrifice you can’t make financially. I also have a feeling that if you have to pick between Defend the North and NYG, most of you will pick NYG. I don’t really want to create a conflict of interest, and I think it's of the utmost importance that VF makes a showing at FGC events. I’m extremely excited about DTN, and I really want to support it, but I don’t want to lose the great times we have at NYG. So I’m proposing a compromise: let’s run NYG the same weekend as DTN.


I have been told that VF at DTN will be on Sunday, July 21. This leaves Friday and Saturday for a pretty decent NYG experience. I don’t want to split hype or pot bonuses, so we’d be running the matcherino for Defend the North the whole weekend, but we can do the team tournament / other games and exhibitions throughout the weekend with their own prizes. We’ll also do the traditional things like hanging out, getting food, and the like. This really solves a few problems for us as well, because with iFixMachine closed we can’t have the run of a place like we used to. With the tournament taking place at a major, we can rest assured that it will run smoothly.


At the end of the day, we always say that the “Gathering” part of New York Gathering is the most important part. I only want this option for us if it means that travelers will have an easier time, and that attendance will be high. It might make certain things more difficult: the DTN venue fee is higher than venue fees at Next Level (although the tournament itself is free entry!), and if you’re entering tournaments on Saturday you may miss a day of NYG. It also might secure attendance at both events for players that would have had to make a hard decision this Summer. It’s up to you guys to let us know what works best for you, and we’ll be able to run a great gathering like usual!

 

This is drawing parallels with EVO 2016. Friday and Saturday was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center (Next Level Arcade) and Sunday Finals was at the Mandalay Bay (Defend the North venue) of which I stayed the whole weekend and had to commute to the other opposite end of the Vegas Strip to get to EVO first 2 days of pools.

This could potentially work in getting more people to come since the whole weekend could be filled with VF. The negative as you said would be people who want to participate in other games at DFN. I was for sure going to enter MK11 and maybe SamSho if its out by then. But if enough people vote to have NYG same weekend I would possibly skip the other games and play at NYG instead. I'm pretty neutral on the vote though. I wouldnt mind NYG being on a different week or month since it gives me more reasons to come to NYC but I know that would be difficult for most people to hit everything especially with EVO happening also.

What would be sick is if NYG could somehow be incorporated at the DFN venue but I'm pretty sure the only slot of physical space we've been guaranteed is Sunday. There will be a 24hr arcade hall for DFN but not sure if there is space or if it would be allowed to set up shop for NYG to be there the whole Friday and Saturday.

But if that were to happen we would literally have 3 days of VF as opposed to the 6 hours slotted for the Singles tourny sunday.

Also with Luke and possibly Myke coming all the way from Austrailia this would probably be alot more attractive as well for other potential people coming from far away for DFN and EVO.

 

I cand understnd if the NY homies wouldnt want to lump 2 of our biggest events into one weekend, but as a traveler and out of towner i think it would be sick to attend both in the same weekend.

 

Is there any way we could lump them all at the same place with DTN. I think it would be important for VF to have a presence at their event too. Especially if we can work out steaming and stuff. I’m down too help with negotiations

 

So if NYG is on the same weekend as DTN. Will there be a singles tournament for NYG at a different venue like Next Level? Or will NYG be skipping the singles tournament this year and have it for DTN instead? This will decide which way I vote. I don't mind it either way though.

If NYG does happen on the same weekend then maybe if there is room at the DTN then we can call it NYG X DTN. Lol. It's all good to me.

 

I'll get back in touch with them, but it's a safe bet to assume we cannot run our event at their venue. You never know, but I think they don't want to add more hassle on top of what already looks to be a busy weekend.

As far as running NYG Thursday - Saturday, that is a possibility. I think if we did something like start on Thursday Night, then run full day Friday and Saturday it would be cool. I will have to check in with Next Level or wherever we are running our event, but it shouldn't be much of a problem.

I don't mid running an FS tournament at NYG, but I don't want to dilute the matcherino so any prizes would be smaller. Definitely we'll run a team tournament and probably some VF4. Also VF Kids or some other game. I was actually thinking Fighting Vipers...

 

Personally, im only interested in NYGX.

 

It looks like we'll be running NYG the same weekend. I can't give you exact dates yet, because I have to ask Next Level about their availability, but even if we can't get that location we'll be doing it that weekend.

I'll try to speak to Henry either tomorrow or next weekend because I'll be heading to Next Level for the Tekken monthly and maybe some Battle Circuits.

 

I'm also curious. Ideally, I would like to finalize my plans by end of this weekend.

 

You will be fine if you get in on the 18. I'm working out getting the venue secured, but I feel confident we'll be able to do Next Level. Even if not I'll rent out a place, but obviously I'd prefer a less costly option lol.