Tournament viability - without a machine?

[Schlagwerk]

Back in January, I had an idea to run a sight-reading mods tournament. You know, WinDEU's gig. I wrote the files, made a storyline, and hacked the hell out of the default theme. I found a machine that someone was willing to lend in the area and get moved to the location, but that fell through. (Good thing, because it turned out the venue didn't have a spot for me even though they said they did.) I haven't released the files as part of any packs because they don't really fit in my packs, they're tournament files.

Fast forward to now, and the situation is flipped. Now I'm an organizer, and I know we have space - but no machine. I talked to some people who might know about it, and renting one would be about $7000. Not in the budget. The same contact says that he knows a few people who own them - but they're 1st mix pristine and blah blah blah. Not gonna happen. I'd have to hack in the theme and songs for either so I can't see them working out.

My question is this, then: Would it be possible to feasibly run a tournament of this caliber using hard pads and monitors, and if so, which are best? I won't say money is no object, but we have flexibility.

[Kytsune]

I don't see why not, as long as you make sure of a couple things:

1. The pads are in a condition good enough to host a tournament on. Obviously.
2. The monitor has little to no input lag, and whatever there is is adjusted for through global offset.

As far the first one goes, how good they are depends on how competitive you want your event to be. If there's money on the line and there's a heavy focus on competition, you'd best make sure those things are in top working order. Handling recalcs in a competitive atmosphere is a pain in the ass. I know next to nothing about home pad setups, so I'm not of much help there.

The second one there will be your bigger issue, I think. Plasma/LCD/LED/whatever monitors tend to have a small input delay (~5ms I think?) and TVs tend to have a much larger one (I've seen up to ~30ms). Just keep that in mind, try to adjust your global offset for it if need be (though you're boning visual players a little if you do), and you should be alright.

[Schlagwerk]

There would probably be no money involved since it'd be a side room tourney and it's kind of a bizarre mixed bag - there's the players who play 13s and up, and then there's the sort who are struggling with 9s; I'm more or less the 11-12 middle ground by myself. Could change, though, once I start running numbers. I want to get a projector set up for the crowd, which makes me lean towards just using a computer and some USB pads anyway. As far as monitors go we're running another lag-sensitive tourney so I could snag a few low-latency monitors once that's over.

I shopped around for a bit, and found a few pads. They're just meh from what I can tell:
http://www.amazon.com/Energy-Metal-Arca ... B000IBS78S
http://www.amazon.com/Champion-Metal-Ar ... 61&sr=1-11

Anyone have experience with these? The station would be in free play for the rest of the con (3 days, in a 24 hour room no less) so I wonder if they'll be up to the abuse.

[skateinmars]

These pads suck and won't last a day of intensive play with people that do not care about it.
You could get Cobalt Fluxes or maybe Bluesharks, but be advised they are not produced anymore. We use Cobalts for free play and DDR tournaments at anime/gaming convention and they can last for years with proper care. As for ITG no pad (except for custom made ones) can match the quality of a dedicab so you'll have to expect people whining about pad greats/misses (or not, depending on the players).

[rikame]

Those pads are nearly identical other than the logo. They're bad. I've ripped the bar off of a champion (it's made to be leaned back on but it you lean forward there's nothing actually keeping it in. You would honestly be better off with Ignitions than those things.

If you want a home pad set-up then I'm afraid you need the kinds of pads that are hard to find. Bluesharks, Cobalt Fluxes, and Afterburners would work but those are rather hard to find. Also, I would try to get two of the same, because a tourney with one CF and one BS is probably a bad idea (Bluesharks make it really easy to bracket hands, CFs not as much)

In other words, please please please don't waste your money on those pads.

[8ftmetalhead]

tl;dr dedicab > upgrade cab > stepmania/OITG with arcade pads > cobalt flux and/or blue shark > home built with arcade sensors > other homebuild > ddr game pads > foam pads > soft pads > highschool musical pads> keyboards > pretending to play using tiles placed on the floor.

People will bitch no matter what you do. Because that's just what ITG players do. Even on a dedi if it's modded in a certain way then some will bitch, you please them the rest will bitch. Find something that universally makes people hate you, then you'll probably be the closest to uniformly fair that you could be.

Also blue ma0ma0 over on AIJ built decent pads, he was considering shipping them to people. Go ask him.

[Schlagwerk]

Bluesharks, Cobalt Fluxes, and Afterburners would work but those are rather hard to find.

Those were the first things I looked for, and I couldn't find any for sale. My CF v3's base was cracking and the sensors stopped working a really long time ago, and I threw it away. Stupid in retrospect.

People will bitch no matter what you do. Because that's just what ITG players do.

Which is why I want to be so meticulous about it. I know that most of the people who will want to play will be okay with crap pads. This is the first event that this group is holding and given the climate okay is not good enough. One of the co-organizers offered to lend me his sandwich-bag pad and, while it was a nice gesture, the dude plays like, 8 footers. I refused to even hold it without having a machine, it's only been recently that I've reconsidered.

Also blue ma0ma0 over on AIJ built decent pads, he was considering shipping them to people. Go ask him.

I'll look him up. Failing that I know someone who owns a machine here, if I comped his expenses maybe he'd let me drag his machine 10 hours to the venue.

[Valex]

This is for bronycon right?

Nobody's going to care

EDIT: Actually I just realized a significant amount of ITG players are bronies now, so they would care

[SM MaxX]

Hey I'm not a brony; I'm just autistic.

---
But yeah please avoid DDRGame pads. They're built pretty poorly and offer very little reliability. Best bet would be build some sturdy ones yourself/get someone to make them for you, or try and get lucky by finding a few bluesharks/CF's/Afterburners.

[Psychotik]

Hey I'm not a brony; I'm just autistic.

There's a difference?

[Kyzentun]

Hey I'm not a brony; I'm just autistic.

You put Twilight Sparkle saying something as your avatar. That makes you a brony.

[Fraxtil]

Hey I'm not a brony; I'm just autistic.

You put Twilight Sparkle saying something as your avatar. That makes you a brony.

Doesn't look like any Twilight Sparkle I've ever seen.

[Valex]

Hey I'm not a brony; I'm just autistic.

There's a difference?

some of them just have asperger's, not full-blown autism

[SM MaxX]

Hey I'm not a brony; I'm just autistic.

You put Twilight Sparkle saying something as your avatar. That makes you a brony.

[Schlagwerk]

This is for bronycon right?

lolno.