1. So how did you come up with your username and avatar? Something that you would like to tell us about you in real life....moonlight as a clown? took mime school?
Haha, I'm afraid the answer to that isn't very spectacular. As most people have guessed, my username is a gross misspelling of the cartoon, 'Animaniacs'. I never actually watched the cartoon, but I had vague memories of it because my siblings kept singing one of their
Christmas carol parodies. So when I first created an account on another game site, this was my attempt at spelling it using phonics. I've used the same username on game sites ever since. The avatar is just an image I found while Googling the cartoon.
Hmm, something about myself. Well I don't know about clowning or miming (where did you even get these? lol), but I did do theatre for a while. Absolutely loved it. I'm 20 and come from the tiny Asian country called Singapore. Americans spell weirdly. What blackhole is eating all your U's and replacing S's with Z's!
2. How did you get started organizing tournaments? What was your 1st tournament that you organized? Was it a good experience?
I first stumbled on the Tournament forum close to a year after I first joined CC. I had a great experience playing in my first tournament (because placing 2nd in your first tournament makes you thirst for more), and that got me hooked onto the tournament scene. And call me weird, but I quite enjoy doing administrative work and coordinating events, so it wasn't long before I decided to try dabbling into organising tournaments myself.
My first tournament that I organised was the
United Nations CC Conference. The idea was birthed when my school was making us do one of those Model United Nations stuff, so I basically brought the entire thing onto CC. Yea it was a good experience - everything went smoothly, some people deadbeated but I managed to get reserves in easily, and there weren't any complaints.
3. What has been your favorite tournament that you have organized so far? What has been your least favorite?
My favourite would probably be
Broadway, Your Way [TPA]. I managed to infuse my love for the theatre into a tournament, and it felt good
. Yea, a bit of a theatre geek, so..
. I also really enjoyed
TO; Capture the Flag War of the Triple Alliance Edition. I didn't come up with this, but the idea was really, really neat - major props to
Sir. Ricco for thinking up such an amazing format. I had a great time coming up with a nice way to present the tournament results along the way as well, because I didn't quite like the standard format we were given to use.
The least favourite would have to be a toss-up between
Last Man Standing and
Around the World in 8 Maps, which is currently still ongoing. Both of these had gameplay components that didn't quite work out the way I envisioned it, so it was disappointing in that sense. I won't go into details, because that'd mean you'd have to look at the gameplay of these tournaments in the first place. I'm deciding whether I can come up with a better version of the latter with a smaller player pool and some tweaks to the rules, though.
4. You have been a big help in rescuing tournaments, what are some tips that you might have for those TO's wanting to rescue? Did you have a tournament that you really enjoyed rescuing?
Hmmm, there's really so much I'd like to say, but to condense it into a few points:
- Make sure you have enough time to rescue the tournament. The only thing more annoying than having a tournament you're playing in be abandoned, is to have it be abandoned twice. If you aren't going to be as free, look to rescue only those tournaments that are in their final stages.
- If any rules such as tiebreakers aren't clearly stated in the original TO's first post, look through the previous games in the tournament to see what was done in such scenarios, or ask the remaining players what the solution was. Ask the original TO too, if he's available (i.e. he didn't leave the site/take a hiatus).
- If you need to include new rules or modify existing rules, consult the original TO (if possible) out of courtesy, and make sure the tournament players are agreeable to the change. At the end of the day, you're still just stepping in to help see someone else's tournament to the end, and so it's best to ensure that your rule modifications do not go against the vision of the original TO, and why the players signed up for the tournament.
My favourite tournament rescue is probably
The King is Dead. It was the most annoying while I was still running it, because it was dragging on for a ridiculously long time, but I felt really accomplished when it finally ended, because it was such an elaborate tournament to have to run. I modified the rules and added clauses in some places along the way, because the way the tournament was structured was such that it could really go on infinitely. I did feel that the changes still kept the essence and heart of the tournament, and were changes that the players were more than happy to have. I mean, let's be honest, when a tournament runs on for 2 years, everyone kinda wants it to end.
5. What is your favorite map/settings? Team or singles?
I love Brazil, Classic and San Francisco for Standard games; Dawn of Ages, Feudal War and Treasure of Galapagos for 1v1s; and 8 Thoughts and Chinese Checkers for team games. In terms of settings, I'm pretty old school, so I still haven't touched the stuff like Trench, Parachute and Zombie. I wouldn't actively search for games with Manual or Nuclear either. I'm fine with most other settings, though I absolutely hate Adjacent forts, and tend to favour Escalating or No Spoils. It depends heavily on the map I'm playing on, I guess.
I generally find Singles more exciting than Team games, since the friendly to enemy troops ratio is vastly different, but I prefer to keep to Team games for now, since I'm pretty busy with life. Singles requires you to come up with your entire strategy, whereas in Team games, there's more brainstorming and bouncing ideas off each other. So that's especially helpful when I'm really busy and have to pop in, quickly take my turns, and get out. Of course that's only possible when you have teammates that are communicative, so I'm glad to be part of an awesome clan with people who do just that (: G1 ftw!
6. Do you have any regular team mates that you play in tournaments with?
Pretty much anyone in my clan who's willing and able. Did I mention I'm in an insanely amazing clan with the best community of players? Yep, I used to team up with
amazzony pretty often.
7. What are you favorite kinds of tournaments to organize?
I'd say tournaments with a theme or cool gameplay format are my favourite to organise. Right from the time the seed of the idea is planted to the time you actually create the tournament thread asking for players, it's just so much fun to plan out the entire idea and let your creative juices flow. I personally don't get much of a thrill organising those tournaments without so much of a premise other than to have a competition, because well, anyone with time on their hands can come up with one of those. (Though I fully understand there's a place for these in the tournament scene.) Creating a storyline based on the maps CC has to offer, or coming up with/integrating new methods of progression/elimination from the tournament just create that much more a sense of ownership and pride over the tournaments you organise. It really adds a whole new dimension to the tournament, that I believes spills over to the participants of the tournament as well, to a certain extent. Certainly there'll be hits and misses, but it's still a lot more fun when you switch it up.
8. With a great 68 tournaments completed you also have 4 tournament wins, which tournament was your first win? Do you still enjoy playing in tournaments?
Heh, quite a large disparity in the numbers eh... My first win was
Beta Dubs [TPA], which I won with
amazzony. I was immensely surprised by the tournament win, to be honest. We just joined the tournament for some fun, and hopefully get a feel of some of the new maps. Never did we expect to take it all! It felt great to share my first tournament win with someone else, and it just broke the dry spell of tournament wins for me, with 2 more coming in that same month.
Well the last tournament I joined was last year's
[Offical] 12 Days of Christmas tournament... so you can probably tell, it's been a long while since I last joined a tournament. I had to cut back on my games since last year, because of developments in real life, so I've been focusing more on playing clan games and organising tournaments. I guess I could let you know if I still enjoy playing tournaments when I eventually do join another one... I did thoroughly enjoy the aforementioned Christmas one though!
9. What is something that you would like to see improve on CC in regards to tournaments?
Technical-wise, I'm satisfied with how things are presently. I honestly don't encounter any problems, since CC has made vast improvements for us, like being able to invite players to the game while creating the game, and having the option to create multiple games of the exact same settings at once.
I do wish there'd be less people shamelessly organising tournaments for the sake of medal-hunting though - hoping to get the Tournament Contribution and Tournament Achievement medals in one fell swoop, and add to their counts for other gameplay medals. And, I mean no disrespect to those who've created countless 1v1 tournaments on different maps and settings - I am well aware that those require time too, especially with so many running simultaneously; but I do feel that we need more tournaments where the selling point is its innovative gameplay format, or the way it links its map and setting choices to a theme. There was once a
Tournament Design Competition a long time ago - perhaps something like that would help to get the Tournament Community's creative juices flowing.
10. What advice do you have for someone just starting or wanting to start organizing tournaments?
Take part in at least 1 tournament before organising tournaments yourself, so you get a feel of how things are run. There's no harm starting with a simple gameplay tournament for your first time organising, or at least one that doesn't require you to create so many games at once - that's often the most annoying part when starting out. You can get more ambitious after having some experience.
Most importantly,
install the Watch This Game add-on. It's a massive time saver for updating tournaments. It changed my life.
11. How has the tournament department changed over the years? What are the pros and cons? Is there something you miss from the old tournament days?
I'm not sure if I'm the person you should be asking about this... I honestly don't know much about the Tournament Department, since I've never once been a Tournament Director. The team certainly has expanded though, and there can only be pros, no cons, from that. Needless to say, the greater team size only means greater efficiency in the various aspects of tournament running, since the workload is more spread out. Back in the day we had to PM the TDs to request for tournament privileges once our tournaments were full... now they do everything for you! We're really fortunate. I do think all the Tournament Directors - past and present - have done a marvellous job.
Something I miss?
barterer2002's tournaments.
12. How long have you been heading the tournament department for the newsletter? How has the experience been?
Hmmm, I first took over as Tournament Executive for the CC Dispatch in the middle of June last year, so it's been about 6 months since I first started. I'm really fortunate to be heading a team with such efficient and hardworking volunteers. It might be a small team with just 2 other people, but they really make things easy, getting their articles in way before the deadline. Thanks,
DaveH and
mcshanester29! The CC Dispatch Chief Executive,
Dukasaur, has also been extremely helpful and supportive in showing me the ropes. What more could I ask for! Perhaps more writers... *hint hint*
.
13. Is there a question you wished I asked and didn't? If so what is the q&a?
Hmm, not really, no. Your questions are pretty comprehensive (: And it looks like I've said more than enough... sorry for the long answers!
14. Any last comments in closing?
Thanks for interviewing me, and for doing a great job with all the other interviews so far!
, when do you think 
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