Love N' Care | Joey Fury · @Joey_Fury
7th Feb 2023 from TwitLonger
Some thoughts on TWT Finals
As I write this, I first off want to say, I am immensely appreciative to have had the opportunity to travel to Amsterdam and compete on Tekken’s biggest stage. I recognize the tremendous amount of work that goes into putting on an event like this and I want to give my thanks to all the organizers and crew who made it happen. I understand how difficult it is and that unexpected things happen.
Now, I feel it is necessary for me to speak on my personal experience at this event. I do so because I think in the future it has the potential to benefit the players and the organizers. I love this community and I love this game.
I departed from Buffalo, NY on Wednesday afternoon. I had a layover in PHL for approximately 4.5 hrs, at which point I took a redeye flight from PHL to AMS. I have a 6hr time jump forward from where I live, so I arrived in Amsterdam around 10AM, arrived at the hotel around 11AM. Hoping to get some rest after extensive travel, we were told check-in was not available until 3PM. Suggestion: players arriving early in the morning should have a hotel accommodation for the previous day so they can rest upon arrival.
After killing time, I got to my room and tried to nap only briefly so as to sleep at a normal time in the evening. We were all notified of times to arrive at the venue on Friday via Discord. The first group was to arrive at the venue at 10AM, the second group at 2PM. We were also informed there would be catering from 12-2 for lunch. I was among the players called for the second group.
I arrived at the venue at 1:30 to eat and with the intention of being first in line to get my interviews completed. When I arrived I was received by two individuals who seemed unsure of who I was or what I was doing there. When I explained I was there for media day I was relayed to another person who escorted me back to the LCQ area. They told me I could check out the area and await further instructions.
I proceeded to the food area where the catering crew seemed surprised to see me and told us that we had arrived “late”. I then received a discord message informing me that I was scheduled to record a trivia segment with Kwiss around 3:50 and to film an interview at 4:45, the latter of which ended up happening around 5:15. I was confused why I was called for 2PM to then receive this information. I waited for Anakin to finish his segments which concluded around 6 (he was also initially called for 2PM and was actually on the newly-given schedule to finish before me).
I went out to dinner after and received word in the evening that we would be initiating the global finals tournament on Saturday which was unexpected.
I got a lot of rest Friday evening and throughout the morning on Saturday. I arrived to the venue Saturday evening feeling good, did the group draw, and played two matches of my group.
This was all fine, though I thought the group draw should have involved a graphic that displayed who was going to what group throughout the process. It was impossible to keep track of who was going where in real time so it felt strange when spectating.
Sunday I began feeling the travel fatigue catch up to me but was amping myself up to power through the day. I cleared my group in losers bracket around 3:30PM. Returned to hotel and started winding down for rest around 4. I checked discord and was notified I needed to be back at the venue at 6PM. There was some window for rest here but not a ton. I lay down briefly, then returned to the venue at 6.
At this point I received roughly 5 minutes of instruction on how to walk out for the Top 8 intro, and was then told to arrive back on stage in 2 hours for Top 8. After many cumulative interactions of this nature, I felt that production had no respect for my time or my need for adequate rest. My brief rest before coming to the venue could have been extensive had I been told outright what time Top 8 was scheduled to start. I did not mentally or physically hold it together for Top 8.
I felt that similar things happened to many players in this tournament. The sheer number of elementary errors I saw the best players in the world make this weekend indicated to me that we were not put in a position to play our best Tekken. Jeondding and Chikurin have my infinite respect for playing all through the LCQ and delivering world class Tekken in the evening on Sunday. I am not sure how they did it. And of course, my deepest congrats and admiration to Atif Butt for dealing with everything that comes from international travel and becoming the TWT Champion.
I realize that some of what I describe in this write-up may sound like nitpicking. I do not intend to be overly critical. I feel I have shared the things that are important and that are illustrative of the wider scale disorganization and miscommunication that came with this event. It is not simply the schedule change-ups and misdirections that are the problem. A player is physically and psychologically “ramping up” and “winding down” at key moments throughout a competition to make sure they deliver intensity when needed and get relaxation when needed. When an organizer cannot provide a clear itinerary and stick to it, players are on a roller coaster of “ramping up” and “winding down” unexpectedly, and it negatively affects them in a profound way. I felt this was not understood by the organizers.
This was my personal experience. This is in addition to errors in the process of running the LCQ, the way in which tickets were sold for LCQ, and how LCQ spots from people who did not show up could not be given to people who were there and wanted to play. Maybe others who were present can voice their opinions on what I have to say here, and what their experience was. Again, I do not present this as an attack on any individuals and I am grateful for all of the things that went well during this celebration of Tekken. I only want the best for the players, the commentators, the spectators, and everyone in this community I care so deeply about. Cheers.