[FXO] FXOpen Qualifier #1 (FXO IS#2)

No. A large number of no shows ruins a tournament and the atmosphere, makes ugly brackets, and above all makes the players and hence casters have to wait around some times for excessive amounts of time to wait for a game. Opening signup a short time before or using a check-in system results in less no-shows (note: I never said it completely eliminates them) and a smoother experience for the players and stream. It's a matter of 300 signups with 50% noshows compared to 150 signups with 10% noshows, even though a handful more people might sign up .

Additionally, I don't like backup lists as I seed tournament and I feel making replacements is fundamentally unfair unless every no-show spot is filled up (why should someone else not get a freewin just because their opponent noshowed first?) and because it disregards seedings (replacing bronze no-show with a top player - another matter of fairness).

The dates of the qualifiers were known in advance and you could reasonably assume it's not going to be at too different a time to the event or it would make no sense. I am not going to accept 'I couldn't schedule my events around this time' as an answer as no one is going to write a personal letter to each player tailoring it to their needs, they have to (or their managers have to) read the thread and take note of the date if you want to compete. Realise it was only the actual registration that was "short notice", which was basically a check-in system. Forgive me if I don't believe when you say that just because you wrote your ID in a 3 week old thread before accepting an invite to a tournament that is, let's be realistic, easier money, that you would definitely show up and not leave or pull out.

Challonge requires that the bracket results be reset if you make name changes if I recall correctly and so making replacements from a backup player list results in more delays.

The date of this tournament was already made in advance to get the invites and to co-incide with the staff's requirements as well (who all have school/work to consider) and a significant number of invites were confirmed before they were announced in the Justin.TV invitational. And on the topic of the justin.tv invitational no I don't have anything against it but when players are prioritising, this event has a comparable prize pool with the additional benefit of the 'ladder points' that will contribute to much larger tournaments so if players are serious about competing in these events rather than just looking for a quick easy pay day they should consider this when making the choice.

At the end of the day, the qualifiers are for people who we weren't particularly interested in inviting right now, and the justin.tv tournament included a lot of people who are participating in our own main event so it would not have a huge impact. There was no significant personal benefit to us hosting this tournament other than giving some other players with the drive to participate in FXOpen events who aren't that attractive as invites a shot. The streaming of it was done by the casters with much effort without 'extra views' or out competing everyone else in mind (if that were the case surely FXOpen could afford to just throw in a prizepool to this?). It was more of an 'icing on the cake' event that allowed people overlooked as invites a chance to show they want to be involved or that they have the skill to compete and with today's qualifiers that certainly seems the case.