im losing it.
a ramble about organizing and my time in minneapolis for element.
I got back from Element (https://www.start.gg/tournament/element-1/events) last night and slept for 14 hours (and I can not wait for more to come). It was a melee/p+ tournament and rave hosted by my dear friends max and rhea at a DIY venue they help run in Minneapolis, and I was part of the organizational team of roughly eight people who they got together to make the event happen. No one really had proper titles but if I had one it would probably be melee TO(?). The nature of this event’s organization (and I think most events at this scale) involves everyone helping everyone with everything, so I was supporting p+ and the stream(s) and the venue crew as much as I could on top of making Melee happen as smoothly as possible.
When I arrived in Minneapolis on Friday night and got to the venue (a little after midnight) there was quick work being made to tear down an event that was being hosted in the space that day and had just ended. Actually seeing the space made me realize the floor plan I had put together a couple days prior was completely useless and needed to be rethought from the ground up. I want it to be clear that this is OK and something I somewhat expected to happen, but what I didn’t account for in those expectations:
How tired I was from the day. I woke up a bit earlier than usual to greet some friends that flew into Chicago to come with me and kevin tenacity to the event. After they got to our place we all got the car packed and headed to Wrigleyville to see the Cubs destroy the Mets. The game was a blast, but our attendance meant we didn’t get on the road to Minneapolis until ~5PM.
The size of the tables we had was vastly different from what I was told. I was expecting larger tables but they ended up being skinnier and shorter (though more numerous!) The smaller tables meant less setups per table which meant everything I had drawn up ahead of time was rendered completely void
How small the room was. I knew the square footage of course, but I struggled to really visualize what those numbers meant and would *feel* like in person. Actually seeing the space made it clear how specific and precise we would need to be with where setups are placed to avoid people getting stuck during pools, and walkways being clear enough to navigate between the pools, the TO desk, the bathroom, and the side room that was open for attendees.
Other miscellaneous quirks of the venue I couldn’t have possibly expected to need to ask about ahead of time. This always comes up with events when you’re running in a venue you’ve never used before, but it added to the mental stack still.
Bad decisions that I made with the first draft floorplan that feel obvious to me now but didn’t hit me at the time. This happens! All you can do is try to learn from it and improve next time.
So with all that in mind me and whoever else was around to help (Jon Tienda thank you for everything ever) had to get together and think Real Hard about how we should put things together. This night led to one of the worst headaches I’ve had in my life. I was in the building until around 3:30AM, but others were there up until well after the sun came up, actually putting TVs and Wiis on tables. (max and rye and others I don’t know about specifically you are truly champions of the world)
I think the floorplan for your event can make or break the entire thing, regardless of scale, so a lot of care should go into it (which is what prompted me to explode my brain working on overdrive to put one together for Element in three and a half hours.) The key things you need to be cognizant of are:
Where people will choose to be in the space. You obviously can’t control what every individual attendee does but the way things are laid out can both *encourage* and *discourage* certain behaviors. Keeping this in mind and laying things out intentionally is key to making sure your event does not feel awful to navigate at all times, lessening the mental and physical loads on everyone present. You should want your event to feel as close to friction-less to exist and move around in as possible.
Having the correct amount of setups. This feels obvious but it’s vital to be intentional about it! Too few setups and the tournament runs too slow, leading to congestion around pools areas and the possibility of going too late (nightmarenightmarenightmarenightmarenightmare). Too many poorly placed and the space feels terrible if you’re not actively playing, there’s going to be many attendees that do not want to be playing the game for 12 hours straight, and they should have a good experience as well.
Walkways. Walkways walkways walkways walkways. It has to be *easy* to get from the entrance to the venue to the pools, to the TO desk, to the bathroom(s), to any other rooms that you have available to them, and to the exits. If you have crowding in walkways either because setups are too close (or setups are in them!) or because you haven’t thought through where people are likely to choose to stand, it not only feels like shit to be in your space, it’s a safety hazard.
Power. You need to make sure you have enough power going to each group of setups and that you aren’t overloading any single circuit (this is how fires happen!) You also want to avoid daisy chaining (plugging power strips into powerstrips or extension cords into extension cords, this is how fires happen!) as much as possible and make sure people aren’t tripping over cables trying to walk around.
Getting Midlaned. Midlane was the name and venue of the recently deceased Chicago local (may she rest in peace.) It had a problem that we really couldn’t solve where if enough of the setups in 2 of the pools areas were being used you could end up being trapped on all sides by active tournament sets and would just be forced to sit there and wait until one of them ended so you could get out. This shit sucks! It makes things run slower for the organizer since players have to wait before reporting sets, it’s miserable as a competitor for a number of obvious reasons, and can be a safety hazard! (Shoutout to max for coining this on Friday night, I’m going to use it forever now.)
I think the floorplan we ended up with is genuinely the best possible case for that room. It took a couple different forms throughout the night but we found the best line and it is one of the things I am most proud of as a TO having done. To gas myself up a bit it really was a miracle I was able to think things through clear enough to end up at a good solution with the physically and mentally drained state I was in that night, the way we utilized the tables (pushing them together to make Big Table that can hold more setups than 2 of the same table alone) and angled positioning of just about everything in the room to make sure there were clear paths was perfect I really am just so happy with it in retrospect. We also got lucky on a number of fronts, for one there were a bunch of DQs in both games so we could get away with less setups than we wanted initially, and for two the room is perfectly set up for power to get just about anywhere using mounts in the ceiling so we didn’t have to interact with that limitation much at all beyond making sure we had enough 12 port power strips, which I think we did exactly without planning for it ahead of time which is crazy.
After getting to my accommodations that night (it was rhea’s couch, thank u rhea) I tucked in, stress cried into my pillow for an hour, then got the crispiest three and a half hours of sleep I ever have gotten. At 8:00am ish I woke up, took a quick shower, then max picked me up to go to the venue (she was off like 45 minutes of sleep at most at this point I really can’t believe max’s will I have an amount of respect for her I will never be able to describe.) I left Friday night (morning?) with a lot of concerns still rattling around my head because I didn’t get to see what everything looked like with setups up, and those anxieties persisted throughout the car ride. I’m not a person who throws up ever but walking up to the entrance to the venue I got an urge I had to fight back. I thought there was a real chance it was going to be a nightmare, there was no possible way for things to be good, and I would be in damage control mode, scrambling and moving things around incessantly in the 2 hours we had before doubles started and attendees really started showing up. I walked into the space and felt all of those concerns melt away in real time. Max, rye, and whoever else was there did an immaculate job with the general vibe of the room’s lighting, and seeing all the setups going made it clear to me that I did actually do as good of a job as the tiny optimistic part of my brain thought I had done.
There were some normal event fires that came up and had to be put out but I was in such a good mood the whole time thanks to how well the floorplan came together it all felt like nothing. I also had a lot of my best friends around me helping out which assuaged just about any worry I did have come up. The tournament ended early for both games (which means we did a good job!!) so there was ample time to get the space reset for the rave, at which point my organizational brain turned off and I got to hang out with friends old and new and dance until the morning came. I have a ton more stories from the day that I don’t particularly care to write about at this point, you’ll have to ask me about it at an event some time :P
Gonna shout out a bunch of people now and definitely forget some which I feel awful about preemptively but that’s how it goes. (Insane how much writing this section has made me cry I love my friends so much)
Max for putting the whole thing together and being such an absolute pleasure to work with, talk to, and just generally exist around at all times. Your ability to work through terrible conditions while maintaining a good attitude is an inspiration to me as an organizer and person. You really do light up the room with your presence and I am so lucky I get to call someone like you a friend.
Rhea for being the other half of the duo that spearheaded this thing and letting me and my friends crash in your home. I know things have been a lot for you lately and I’m so so so proud of you for doing as good of a job as you did in spite of it. You filled gaps perfectly on the day with the event making my and I’m sure everyone else’s lives a ton easier. You and max did a great job with y’all’s set, I’m so sad I didn’t have the energy capacity to properly enjoy it on the dance floor.
Jake Johnson for being one of my rocks as a friend and organizer. There were so many times on Friday night where I out loud said “I wish Jake was here he would know what to do.” Seeing you on Saturday morning I could feel any amount of worry left in me melt away. It’s really insane how good you are at clearing my anxieties and helping me solve problems. I hope I get to have you present at every event I run, I don’t know if I’d ever be able to do it without you man, love you so much.
Alex for helping me stay level throughout the day. I don’t know if you’re aware of how much having you sitting next to me doing goofy shit and making me laugh helps me not Lose My Fucking Mind At All Times.
Kevin for driving me there and back and generally being one of my rocks throughout the day, you know how much I love you man but really, thanks. Also he ran a pool (even if he did show up late and I had to do part of it) which was cool.
Rye for killing it with p+ and tolerating me calling for her attention incessantly on the PA. You are also an inspiration to me in your ability to just continue to push through and keep things going no matter what, I wish I had your will.
All the people that help run the venue, everyone I got a chance to talk to was an absolute treat. I’m really sad I didn’t get to talk to/get to know more of you, the space is awesome and you all seem like fantastic stewards of it. I will be back for fun in the future I promise.
Jon Tienda for being an absolute champion Friday night helping me get the floorplan together, you’re in the jess dang3r history books for sure.
Jackie for placing their seed and being so fun to dance with.
Blaine for getting me and rye (and max though you didn’t know it at the time) breakfast and being a chiller. Very excited to see your photo album from the event you’re always doing cool shit.
Hannah for playing one of my favorite DJ sets I’ve ever listened to. I’m so lucky I got a chance not only to experience it, but gush about it to you after.
Hazel for the rave visuals being so sick!!!
Mara for the graphics and visual identity for the event in general being killer thanks to you
Lamonster and Nakamaman for streaming melee, thanks a bunch guys!! Sorry about all the problems getting things started, its an inevitability of this stuff and you navigated it great.
Sofie for bringing the p+ stream, thank you goat!!!
I’m gonna stop writing now because I got more shit to do with my day and I could probably go forever. Element will definitely go down as a canon event for me as a person and organizer.
To everyone I shared moments with this weekend I didn’t mention here, I love you and I will cherish our times together forever. You all are why I do any of this, thank you for being my friend.