If you feel like hotel prices are too high, try talking with people around you to see who wants to split one with you. You have to be willing to pitch in. OR you can try finding one close by that's cheaper so that you don't spend as much money to stay there.
Sounds about right.
If you need a ride (carpool), ask someone who is willing to help out. It's always a good thing to offer gas money & dinner to let them know that you appreciate them for letting you ride with them.
You have no idea.
If you know someone close by an event, ask them is it possible to stay with them for that weekend & be willing to help them out the best way that you can.
That's assuming you ask them way in advance.
Set a goal for a trip that you would like to make & be aware of your location. Also known as planning ahead of time. If you can't make the event let's say a California major, then look to see what's closer if all else fails.
Sounds about right.
If you feel uncomfortable about going to a tournament, try talking to people that you know that has been to an event to see what to expect.
More specifically, you should talk to people who haven't won tournaments/placed high nor those who have any special connections to said players who have.
People who win or place high in tournaments will obviously tell you it's a great event... they placed high and got recognition. Of course they're gonna say that! But the real testimony comes from those not caught up in the fame nor having the high-level connections to do so.
Be open-minded. If you're open-minded & don't alienate yourself with other players, then you will make a lot more friends than you already expect when you go to one. Be willing to introduce yourself also.
You call it alienating myself, I call it staying out of harm's way and in my own comfort zone.
The people who actually WANT to be my friend will come around despite this. And that's all I should need. All I gotta do is remind myself of that.
If you have any questions about a character, how to approach the game better, or even need help in general, ask around. There will always be players there that know about the game/games & can help you & your game.
To an extent, I agree with this.
Bring your own controller. Only you know what's comfortable to your hands. No one else.
Finally, something I completely agree with.
Use the characters that you KNOW that you're comfortable with. You're only messing yourself up if you try to play a bunch of characters that you're not good with to play, yet.
That's kinda difficult to do when you're a player that happens to genuinely like playing a character that is considered top/high tier, yet you would play this very character regardless of whether she gets nerfed or not.
I hate to be that guy, but this needs to be said. I don't think using the characters we're comfortable with is the real problem here. I think the mentality of some people in the community regarding players and the characters they use is what actually needs to change. They need to give us players who genuinely love the character they play - regardless of tier - a dad-gummed break... seriously. All this discouraging and disrespect because of who you play is part of the problem.
There is more to going to events than competing. Some people go to just hang out, have fun, & enjoy the weekend. You don't have to be good at the game to make friends or have a good time. You have fun regardless. You can just go & show some love to people.
Good thing I have a few friends I can genuinely have a good time with whether I win or lose, otherwise I would've been caught up in proving myself to the community for life just to gain back the friends I lost. Now I don't have to anymore.
All things considered, there should be one other thing I should add to all this: Conquering your fear of playing on stream in front of an audience, aka, conquering stage fright. 'Cause whether you like it or not, you're gonna have to deal with it someday.
The best way you can do this is to basically expose your replays on Youtube for the community to see, but the real kicker is showing not only your winning matches, but those you lost. Personally, I find uploading close matches (aka matches down to the wire) being the best approach, as opposed to a match that's a complete stomp on one end. The more you're used to the feedback, the better you'll perform in the real thing... or at least stream nerves won't be an excuse, anyway.
Oh, and deodorant... definitely deodorant. People like to be around people who don't have bad odor.
@Tempest had this novel idea about pre-registering for a tourney and getting free deodorant at the sign-up booth... or something like that.
