2016 Retro World Series with RBI Baseball

[HalHawkins]

Just wanted to introduce myself. I've created a new series of events called the Retro World Series. The big Main Event at the end of the year will have an RBI Baseball tournament. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

01/21/2016
Today, Hal Hawkins announced the first inaugural season of the Retro World Series. There will tournaments held across the country at various events as Satellite Tournament with the season finishing off at the Main Event on August 11-14 in Houston, TX.

"I hope to create an opportunity for recreational and serious retro gamers alike to be able to take part in an event that's both fun and competitive," said Tournament Director Hawkins. "The retro gaming community has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years, and the Retro World Series wants to give this community the ability to enjoy retro games throughout the year with a great, big finale at the end."

The Main Event will feature 12 versus tournaments for Atari, NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis.

The Satellite Events will consist of high score, speed run, and versus tournaments.Players who compete in the events will earn points towards the Player of the Year award with a big cash prize awarded at the end of the Main Event to the winner.

The Satellite Tournaments will be free to enter with prizes awarded to the winner and runner up.

The winner also receives an entry into the Main Event tournament of their choice. Gameplay at the Satellite Tournaments will be recorded and uploaded after each event.

The Main Event will be a $26 tournament entry. Cash prizes will be awarded in the Main Event, including trophies to each tournament winner. The Main Event will also be live streamed.

There will be vendors and free play arcades at the Main Event, so guests and spectators are invited to join as well.

If you're an interested gamer, vendor, sponsor, or just want to come watch, visit www.retroworldseries.com to get more information and sign up.

Facebook: https://www.facebook...etroworldseries
Twitter: @RetroWrldSeries

Hal Hawkins
Tournament Director
(979) 224-2660
hal@retroworldseries.com

[BeefMaster]

This looks awesome.  What's the format of the RBI tourney look like?  Similar to previous national events (e.g. the COTUT), or something simpler like just a big bracket?  I also like that you're piggybacking off the existing Madison tournament for TSB.

Combat was a truckload of fun, but I have no delusions that I would be anything other than hopeless, having not played the game for two decades or so.

[HalHawkins]

The RBI tournament will be Group then Single Elimination. Single Game. Each game will have a 25 minute time limit. And we are actually sponsoring Tecmo Madison, so we will be up there with a space for people to come play other games as well.

Hey, anybody can pick up and play Combat lol We want everyone to be able to play.

[Gantry]

Pretty awesome stuff right there

[TbT]

I'm signed up for RBI and Tecmo...Nate squared is registered for Tecmo.  Joe Dirt and Riley may even be attending as well, and I sent Beales an email for him to circulate to all his Cotut contacts.  The line-up for this event is pretty legit.  It's going to be hard to top it if they switch out to different games next year.

The promoter says that Tecmo, RBI, and NHL 94 have been drawing the most registrations so far.  He thought Street fighter and Mortal Combat would have been the front runners, so he's a tad surprised....but I'm not.     

[Brookensrules!]

The Madison tecmo scene is pretty wild.  I wish RBI had something like this.  Where is the RBI being held?

[TbT]

The Madison tecmo scene is pretty wild.  I wish RBI had something like this.  Where is the RBI being held?

Houston.  Looks like about a 30 mile drive from the airport there.

[Brookensrules!]

That's a deal breaker.

[ultimate7]

I hear Houston is beautiful in August

[GTavosorio]

This looks like an interesting event - will it come to the east coast anytime soon?

[HalHawkins]

This looks like an interesting event - will it come to the east coast anytime soon?

We have been asked to come to some conventions in the northeast, so that is definitely possible

[TbT]

Only 19 days left to register.   

[TbT]

Registration period ends Sunday at midnight.  I've put in plenty of prep work for Tecmo.....and none for RBI.  The trophies for 1st place in each event look great.  Its a glass stand in the base as the shape of the controller used  in your particular game.  See them here... https://www.facebook.com/retroworldseries/photos/a.751574924894830.1073741828.729902087062114/1183384548380530/?type=3&theater

Winning my 3rd Tecmo bowl tournament of the year would be the icing on the cake.  I'm sure i'll have to go through Nate to get that done.  I'm something like 13-8 vs him recently, but that's still a 50/50 game IMO.  I am hoping to be able to get some scout work done on future opponents throughout, but we may have to do some work at the tourney.  The promoter wants us to call a game or two of the action that gets streamed online, so we may be in a booth for some of this deal.

That's cool and all, but I hate suffering through bad tecmo bowl.  Cool offer though, so we'll take him up on it.     

[Gantry]

You sir are a machine, got an email about the RWS - looks like a fantastically run event. 

[BeefMaster]

That is pretty terrific.  Keep us posted on the schedule for games that you call.

[fightonusc]

TBT, when you host a Tecmo tournament, how do you go about finding a venue?

[fknmclane]

Throws shitty underwear at them and sees what sticks?

[TbT]

TBT, when you host a Tecmo tournament, how do you go about finding a venue?

I want all entry fees to go towards prize payouts, so I need a place that will host it for free.  Next in no particular order is space, food, and a place that will help advertise the event.  Here in Omaha, Beercade is THE arcade bar of the city with a large facebook following.  Was the logical place to start.  But they don't serve food and space was really limited, and they were sort of luke warm on the idea from start to finish.  Not sure they'll want to do this again.     

The Keg Stand in Des Moines has great food, and twice the space with a private party room to host it in.  They even did a little bit of advertising on FB and posted my flyers in the bathroom over the urinals.  It was actually pretty beneficial to them because they had probably 15-20 people that ate food there that day and drank beer.  Beercade only got alcohol sales, and they had a lot of work to move arcade machines into the back to make room.     

Bottom line its hard to get people to come out for this stuff no matter where you go, and I had to work my ass off just to get those 16 people at either place.  I spent a good 40 bucks on facebook ads for Des Moines.  A local gaming store put some mini flyers by their register, and in exchange I handed out some of their coupons and displayed their flyer.  Also a sports talk radio host had me on as a guest the day before the tourney in Des Moines.  The location can certainly help, but its the leg work that ultimately makes a difference. 

In an effort to create some relationships with the local gaming stores, I just did a Tecmo Event at a retro store.  I offered $20 of my own money with in store credit to anyone that could beat me in Tecmo Bowl.  I beat everyone by anywhere from 15-50 points.  But if no one beat me, I still offered $10 store credit to 4 of the losing players that we choose randomly.  That store was super happy with how things went down, and is wanting me to do another deal like that with RBI baseball this fall.  Best of all they will help promote my future events.  There's 2 more stores here in Omaha I will approach about doing this.  if all goes well with local store support, I will expect 20 people at my next Tecmo/RBI tourney.     

With that said, Im going to start looking at a sports bar here in Omaha for the next tournament, in case Beercade is not on board again.  I like the back room/semi private area that Keg Stand had.  I've gotten some decent video of both tourneys, which i can also share with any prospective bar manager...basically to show them I'm serious about these events and that with their added support they can have solid turnout and good food/beer sales.

My next mission.....a day night double header of tourneys with Tecmo Bowl and RBI in Kansas City.  KC is almost 3 hours from here though.  That will be tough to pull off.  Going to need a few months of pre-planning and finding ways to get some help there from local stores, and some radio show host. 

[Gantry]

Your level of dedication is inspiring, I'll do my best to attend the next affair.  So is Des Moines out for sure? 

[edfan]

Your level of dedication is inspiring.

This.  I love it!