Day One of ReveLAtions 2012: Expect the Unexpected

Blood, sweat, and tears are all too familiar with competition. From athletic sports featured on ESPN to the mental competitions with games like Chess, there is little doubt that a lot of time and dedication goes into perfecting skill and testing it on unsuspecting victims. ReveLAtions is a tournament that brings together competitors from all around California to battle it out against each other in their favorite fighting games.

I was given the opportunity to attend ReveLAtions 2012 and I brought an assistant by the name of Daniel Gomez with me. Prior to the trip, we planned out what games each of us was going to cover. Upon arriving, many of our plans had to be rearranged in the blink of an eye; a nerve-wracking experience that I do not wish upon anyone ever. With that said, I have come up with three rules that will help in going to a tournament (or any occasion for that matter).

Rule #1: Always check your Twitter (if the venue has one).

Upon entering the Santa Monica Place, I was unaware of how ginormous it was. The venue is an outdoor mall/outlets, so it was very easy to get lost. When my assistant and I found the place through our brilliant deduction skills (i.e. follow the nerdy looking people), we found out that the schedule had been changed.

Which brings me back to my opening line: always check your Twitter. Had I checked my Twitter in the morning, I would have known that at midnight, a tweet was sent out with a revised schedule. Instead of starting in the mid-afternoon, it started in the evening. Changing the times from morning to evening is huge, especially since it was expected to run until midnight. Although the changes were last minute, it was not the fault of the event coordinator by the name of Reggie. The city of Santa Monica had informed him that in order to have the venue open during the times they wanted, which was about 10am to midnight, they had to pay an extra 4200 bucks. Since that was obviously not going to be paid, the event had to be super crunched on time.

While we were informed of the changes, we did not know exactly what was going to happen. This brings me to my second rule.

Rule #2: Do not be afraid to ask questions.

The more information one knows, the better. My assistant Daniel was very helpful in this aspect when I asked him to procure information. We were able to obtain an up-to-date schedule, which reflected the changes in time. With that, we were able to rearrange some ideas and get a plan going to make sure that most of what needed to be taken care of was done. Not only that, but we were able to meet some friends that would be able to help us in case we needed anything during the tournament. Having a pair of juevos is essential; so make sure you got a pair before entering a tournament.

When the doors opened at 6pm, the competitors rushed in and went to their respective places. The actual starting of the pool plays and matches was a bit unclear. It was difficult to tell if matches were actually going on or if it was just people playing to warm up. Because we did not follow our own rule of asking questions, some events had finished before we had a time to take a look.

With all that said and done, allow me to introduce my final, and possibly most important rule.

Rule #3: Expect the unexpected.

We did not expect the times to change on us, so we had to try to prepare for as much as possible. While sitting in the venue, we were watching people getting turned down left and right, saying that the event is not going to start not until 6pm. So many disappointed faces left those doors and did not return until it was time for the fun to begin.

But it wasn’t so bad. Many of the competitors that came in at the previous time were sitting around and socializing with each other. I sat back and observed, watching individuals greet each other and played catch up from previous tournaments. It was interesting to see this world unfold before me. Unfortunately, those competitors had to leave the venue while the rest of the equipment was setting up. But as press, we did not need to leave.

As press, we were able to see the inside workings to putting together a big tournament. The venue transformed from the little tables and TVs to up and running on a big screen. It was clear that the bigger areas were devoted to the most popular games and it trickled down from there. Street Fighter x Tekken got hold of the big screen on one side and BlazBlue got the other. Right next to BlazBlue was Gears of War and from there, it got smaller and smaller. Next biggest area was devoted to Pokemon competition, hosted by PokeMoshPit. Following them had Super Smash Bros. set up on OG-looking television sets. Finally, Skull Girls and BlazBlue were mixed together. It was unclear as to when BlazBlue went up on the big screen.

The tournament had many sponsors, one of which was the energy drink NOS, a very fitting sponsor. A booth was set up in the corner with what seemed to be a dance floor. WSS Shoes was there, promoting their products and a couple smaller vendors were present as well. One was setting handmade bags and pins, while the other was selling their works of art. With an event like ReveLAtions available to possibly promote your products at, there is an opportunity to network, market, and overall meet new people. One such sponsor that really made a name for it was Angry Bananas. This sponsor was especially fantastic because they were raffling off a cabinet of Street Fighter x Tekken.

Although there were heavy changes in the schedule, I think that the staff and coordinators of ReveLAtions did the best they could with what they got. It led to a successful first day and it could only go up from here.

Stay tuned on Velocity Gamer for all coverage on ReveLAtions!