Evolution East 2006 - Part 1: The Show Must Go On

I'm not sure if I can even talk about Evo East in the same fashion that I spoke about Evo West. Evo West had nary a hitch, and everything went pretty much according to plan. Evo East? Different story. That is not to say that the tournament did not go well. The tournament was great, and I hope everyone in the east who hadn't managed to ever attend an Evo event in the past had a chance to come out and experience Evo tournaments first hand. And I hope they all had a really good time. And I'm sure everyone has already heard about "The Drama" that happened this past weekend. And for those that don't know exactly what happened, lemme just say that it's just a testament to what the organizers are willing to go through to make sure Evo runs. Not just runs, but runs as well as we can make it.

The Arriving

Before I go into the drama, (which I've shamelessly teased you with and am leaving you hanging right now), I need to establish, at least, my personal state during which The Drama occurred. I figured I would fly to Evo East and that I would do it with a red eye, sleeping on the plane and checking into the hotel the following afternoon. Never again will I take the red eye. For one thing, I tried to starve myself of sleep Thursday morning so that, on my flight between Thursday and Friday, I would fall asleep easily on the plane. Well, the first sign of trouble was when I overslept my alarm Thursday morning, and got way more sleep than I had intended. So by the time 11:30 p.m. rolled around and I was on my plane, sleeping was not the easiest thing to accomplish. In fact, I think I slept for about 45 minutes and had that half-assed sleep the rest of the flight (half-assed sleep being that state in which you seem to continually convince yourself that you are asleep even though you are actually still fairly conscious). And then on the second leg of my flight, I managed to sleep about an hour on the plane. So by the time I finally reached the Westin Inn in Stamford, Connecticut, the location of Evolution East 2006, I was dead tired. But it's Friday afternoon and there is set-up to be done. So I checked in, showered up, and headed right back down on 1.75 hours of sleep and began the set up process.

And set up was a breeze. Everything went super smooth. The AV Staff at the hotel was super cooperative and helpful. We had just the right supplies for what we needed. All of the machines were connected quickly and working (scratch that... we've lost yet another two Dreamcasts. Every time we run a tournament, another Dreamcast or two goes out on us). The Toyota Yaris arrives on time and is set up with no problems. Basically, thanks to Evo West just two weeks earlier and knowing what to expect, everything was smooth sailing. And throughout the whole setup run, those of us on staff were marveling at how smoothly it was going and how fast we managed to setup. We actually thought we might, for once, get some sleep on the day of setup! But you know what they say: Knock on wood, karma bites you in the ass, pride comes before a fall... All of the staff almost had this horrid thought in the back of their minds that something was gonna go wrong. It wouldn't be Evo without us having to do some crazy emergency recovery. But nothing we've ever done has approached what we had to go through at Evo East: The Drama.

The Drama

The first sign something bad was when the TVs showed up. We had great TVs in Los Angeles, but shipping them to the East Coast with super fast shipping (to guarantee we'd have them by Evo East) and then having the hotel hold onto them until we arrived was an exorbitant cost that wasn't worth it. So we called every place we could in the areas around Connecticut, and no one had 30 TVs for rent. It was pretty odd that nothing was available. Finally, we managed to arrange something with a company to ship us TVs there from somewhere closer to the West Coast, I believe. Then, before the event, we were contacted by the rental company and they gave us a nice surprise: "Hi, we've upgraded your TV order from CRTs to flat-screen LCDs for free!" I'm sure they meant it as a pleasant surprise for us, but it certainly wasn't. We told them we didn't want the LCDs, but apparently it was too late. So we figured we would hedge our bets and hope these ones would not be bad. But in general, LCDs are horrible for playing video games. If you do not know why, allow me to explain...

(Okay, lots of technobabble here. If you are willing to take my word that LCDs are horrible for gaming, skip on ahead to the next section and continue on with the story.)

The Technobabble

There are two types of TVs images that can be displayed: interlaced and progressive scan. The older technology, interlaced, basically shows only half of the TV's images at a time: every other line. Thus, if the resolution of the TV is 480 lines up and down, only 240 are displayed at once: line 1, 3, 5, 7, etc. Then, it switches and shows the other half. So it basically flickers back and forth between the two sets of lines, but does it so fast that the human eye can't really notice it... all a person sees is one completed image. But things that are not the the human eye can't see it that way. Ever try to use a camcorder to record the images on a TV? You see that weird large black bar that scrolls up the screen and makes the TV image look terrible? Yup, that's because of the interlaced image. The Video camera doesn't see at the same speed as the human eye, so it looks really bad when you try to record TV images with a video camera.

Progressive scan, on the other hand, shows the entire image the entire time, so the image is sharper and stronger. Point a video camera at an image that is progressive scan, and it will look as clear on the movie you've recorded as it does in person. Since progressive scan is so much better than interlaced images, most TVs these days would rather output a progressive image. Most old TVs can only output in interlaced mode. TVs from the years past allow displays in both interlaced and in progressive. And very recent TVs these days, the nicer ones anyhow, tend to only display in progressive.

But here's the problem: old VCR's, game consoles, DVD players, etc. all output interlaced images, because that's what all TVs used to support. So that begs the question: what happens when you give interlaced signals to a TV that can only output in progressive scan? It's simple really: the TV itself does some extra work by upgrading the image. It takes the interlaced image and converts it to a progressive scan image on the fly. So even though we pass interlaced images to the TV, it figures out how to combine the interlaced images together to form a nice progressive scan-like image to display on the screen. The person watching the DVD won't even know it's happening. But how about the person playing a video game? Very different story here.

If you are watching a movie on a DVD player, processing the image isn't an issue at all -- the TV spits a newly converted image out to you and you see the image and hear it and it all looks great. Nothing is different for you. The issue comes from when you are interacting with the TV, and really only one thing does that: video games. Though the conversion technology the TVs use to upgrade the image is very fast, it still takes time for the TV to do this. It may be just half a second, but it still takes time. So whatever you pump into the TV actually shows up on the screen itself half a second late. So when playing video games, it becomes a huge problem. Particularly when playing a video game where a quarter of a second can mean the difference between winning and losing. Particularly in games where those life changing milliseconds occur every other second.

Because of this delay, when you press a button on your controller, the game console gives the TV the image that it is supposed to display. But because now there is an extra processing time required to upgrade the image, there is now a half a second delay between your pressing the button and seeing the result on the screen. This doesn't cut it for fighting games. Many of the situations that require millisecond timing and reaction are visually based. So if you look at the image on the screen and know you have to hit a button right when something happens, you're already looking at an image that's half a second old. So when you hit the button, you're not hitting it at the time you think you are: you are hitting it half a second late. So timing is all out the window and precision is no longer possible. And this makes fighting games unplayable.

(Okay, technobabble over. Feel free to read on...)

The Drama Continued

So when we saw the LCDs arrive, a nice scare was shot through us. Did these LCDs have the same problem as other LCDs that have caused us problems in the past? If these 30 LCDs had lag, it put our entire tournament at risk. So we decided to test them out.

And this is the part that confuses me the most. I popped in Capcom Vs SNK 2, a game whose combos I am very familiar with. The staff asked me to try some harder combos and see if there was any lag. And the weird thing is: I couldn't detect any! I tried a few combos, and had no trouble with any of them. (Combo babble here... skip to the next paragraph if you have no clue what on earth I'm talking about...) I performed some combos that I am familiar with. First, I tried C-Groove Chun Li's Jab, Jab, Short into Level 2 Sen Retsu Kyaku cancelled into Roundhouse Lightning Kick. Then I linked that into Stand Fierce buffered into a Level 1 Sen Retsu Kyaku... on my first try. I then did Benimaru's Custom Combo that involves doing his Kick Uppercut move cancelled into a whiffed Standing Short, followed up with Jumping Fierce juggles like three times in a row after only a few failed attempts. I performed Rock's 360 Throw into the corner + follow-up, Juggle with Crouch Roundhouse cancelled into Level 2 Raging Storm which was then cancelled into the Jab Rising Tackle, and finally Juggled with a Level 1 Kick Super. I mean, with lag, these Combos will be virtually impossible. And I didn't experience the lag at all.

Thus, we thought we were safe and the set up process, once again, was running almost too perfectly smooth. But then, the players arrived and began plugging in to the provided TVs at the back of the room (these TVs are provided for players to play whatever games they want using their own consoles that they brought from home). And every player experienced lag. And when I went back to try it out, sure enough: there was very noticeable lag. When you hit a button on the controller, the character on screen always reacted a fraction of a second later. This makes just about every fighting game unplayable. Though you can adjust for the lag eventually, who wants to do that? It invalidates the entire tournament. Now it becomes a contest of who can adjust to the lag, not who is the best at the games.

So I put a bit of blame on myself for The Drama. How did I miss the lag in my first test? I'm still not sure. Either A) I'm that good. B) Some external factor got in the way. C) That particular TV I used was the only one in the whole set that was fine. D) Muscle memory. We know that A and C are completely improbable. So was it B? I'm not sure. I'm not 100% positive, but I do have a vague memory, thinking back on it, that the PlayStation 2 console I was playing on was not plugged directly into the TV. It might have been going though the splitter that we used to split the image to the TV and the big screen projector. I cannot think of a technical explanation of why that would eliminate lag, but it's the only "outside" influence I can recall. The only other theory is the muscle memory. Maybe I've done the combos soooo much in the past, that they are just second nature to me. But considering the last time I played CvS2 was Evo 2005, I really doubt it.

In any case, there's no point trying to figure out what happened. The only thing left to do at that time was to figure out how to solve the problem. And the staff gathered around and discussed it. Canceling the tournament is just not an option. Playing with lag was also not an option. So what on earth were we going to do? After we closed the ballroom Friday night, at around midnight, the staff gathered to figure out our options.

We went through a bunch of crazy scenarios. Ask the hotel to borrow their TVs from everyone's rooms? Run the tournament IN all of the staff's hotel rooms, sending players between rooms? Wait until the morning and hit the local CostCo and pray we can buy 20 TVs in the morning? Find a place still open and buy 20 brand new TVs? All are options, but all of those were most likely not going to happen or they provided too much risk. Except the last option. Buying the TVs right there and then was the only option we had left. But it was midnight!! Who on earth was open at midnight that would be willing to sell us twenty TVs?!?

Wal-Mart, that's who. There are such things as 24-hour Wal-Marts and we know they have TVs at Wal-Marts. Was it a long shot? Yeah. Are we gonna go for it? Hells Yeah. So we called just about every Wal-Mart in the New England states, it felt like. We tried to find not only one that was actually opened for 24 hours, but was also willing to sell us 20 TVs. And we finally found one... something like 50 miles away from the Westin Inn. So now the question is: do we drive 100 miles round-trip to buy them? And if we do, what on earth do we transport them in?

That's where Gilbert comes in. Gilbert is the man who drives the Yaris in a large truck from event site to event site. He's a really cool guy who has been talking a lot with the staff, also using his own time to help out staff and such. He was there helping us late that night and when he heard what we were thinking of doing, he volunteered his truck for us to use. After all, the Yaris was on site already and the truck was empty.

So we had everything in place. So did we carry out this crazy idea? You bet we did. 5 of us immediately went out after midnight in two vehicles to drive 100 miles round trip to find a Wal-Mart that we've never been to so that we could buy 20 brand new TVs just to make sure Evo East would run. And I must remind you that I am personally on 1.75 hours of sleep in the span of 40 hours at this point. And most of the other staff isn't much more well-rested. And we knew that going out to buy 20 TVs and coming back to set them up meant we weren't getting to bed until 5:00 a.m. at best. But we didn't care and set out on our mission. So, although this may sound like shameless self-promotion, I need to say one thing:

This is how far the Evo Staff is willing to go and how dedicated we are to put on a good show for the players.

We didn't care if we got no sleep, it wasn't even a factor in our consideration. Losing sleep to make the tournament run perfectly was a foregone conclusion. We get a lot of hatred from people for they way we do things. Oftentimes, we are told by people that we don't care about the community. And it's comments like that that drive me crazy. They really don't know what we go through to make sure the ship sails on smooth waters. Sometimes we make decisions that are unpopular, but there are always reasons for what we do. And we aren't doing anything to ruin the community. Everything we do, we are trying to make sure everyone has a great time.

And so out we went. And 50 miles later, we were in a Wal-Mart in New York buying 20 TVs and lifting them into a truck. And 50 miles later, we were back in Stamford. (And, as if the night couldn't get any crazier, even more completely disastrous misadventures occurred during the Wal-Mart run. I won't go into details, but just believe me when I say it could have gotten much, much, much worse, were it not for some true heroes of the night... you know who you are if you are reading this). And we took down all of the LCDs and replaced them with the new TVs we bought after hauling all 20 TVs from the truck into the ballroom. And there was no lag on these TVs. And finally, things were ready to go on Saturday. And by the time I managed to climb into bed to get some sleep, it was already light outside. I'm pretty sure everyone who went on the Wal-Mart run climbed into bed at around 6:00 a.m. and we all needed to be back into the ballroom by 9:00 a.m. to start running the tournament. Which is exactly what we all did.

The Drama Broadcast

It doesn't sound like that much of a drama, does it? A problem was presented, we discussed it, we solved it. So why do I keep calling it The Drama? Because right when the problem was discovered, one individual decided to run to the Shoryuken.com Forums and post about it almost immediately. It was almost akin to that tattle-tale kid we all knew in elementary school. Not only did he post about it, he called Evo East, which hadn't even started yet, the worst ran tournament EVER and encouraged those who read the post and were planning on attending the event to not show up. And the thing that really frustrates me is that he did so without talking to a single member of the staff to see if we were going to try and solve the problem. If he spoke to us and we replied with a hearty "**** you, learn to play with lag", he has every right to do what he did. But if he had come to talk to us, he would have known that we were obviously planning something else and were willing to go through drastic measures to do it.

Now understand something, I'm not trying to make this person sound bad. I've known him, though mostly through e-mails and the internet, for a while now and he's helped me a lot in the past. He's a respected member of the community. I respect him greatly not only for his technical knowledge, but also for his great play. But to go and do something like this without even so much as a word to us staff asking what we were going to do to solve the problem, well that was completely short-sighted. I'm personally not angry with him, I jut hope that in the future he'll think about talking these things through first before doing something such as trying to tell everyone to boycott the tournament. After hearing about what the staff went through to fix the problem, I hope even he realizes what he did was rather impulsive. Yes, he traveled by plane from a long distance to go to a tournament that, in his mind, was a wash. But so did others I spoke to, and they understood exactly what we were going through and were impressed by the lengths we were willing to go to to fix the problem, so much that they volunteered to help out on the Wal-Mart run (bless their souls). But we knew it was the staff's problem and so it would be the staff that needed to sacrifice their sleep and strength to fix it. So it did become a big drama on the Forums and there was a chance that, if people had listened to the individual, that the event wouldn't have turned out as well as it did had no one decided to show up.

The Tournament

Okay, 4.75 hours of sleep in two days later, Evo East began Saturday morning. And since I've already written enough for one post for now, I'll stop here for a bit and let this soak in a couple of days before I follow-up with a post on the actual tournament and my individual thoughts on each game like I did for Evo West.

Thanks for reading.

- James

P.S. Everything really did start turning for the better once we rid ourselves of that cursed, evil "Beat-Down Stick." Don't ask.

(Edited to fix typos and grammar mistakes made trying to get the post out as fast as possible... Sorry about those. "Me fail english? That's unpossible!")