You wake up at Seatac, SFO, LAX. You wake up at O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth,BWI. Pacific, mountain, central. Lose an hour, gain an hour. This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.
This quote from Fight Club sums up waiting in the line for Capcom Fight club. For once, Capcom brought an event to our great city. You can’t even fathom how excited I was to get my hands on an early build on Marvel 3 and enjoy a live DJ and get some swag. Just general good times.
This did not happen.
Me and my friends showed up at the warehouse about 5:30PM (Event was to start at 8.) We chatted it up. It was good times. But around 7ish when they started rounding up the first 100 people that got wristbands… people were just giant assholes and cut the line.
SHOUT OUT TO ALL THE ASSHOLES THAT CUT THE LINE AND FUCKED IT ALL UP.
ahem…
And to make matters worse, the dumb ass security had no fucking idea how to let people in. It was a huge blob of people. And after waiting over three hours, I was now towards the very back. We all were crowded like slaves getting onto a ship… and people were getting restless…
HOWEVER, they did find a way to start letting people in… they let women and couples in first.
Let me say that again.
Women and couples first. Like it’s a REAL FUCKING CLUB. Thankfully I had my friend Yvette with a nice rack and was able to get in… at about 9:30PM an hour and a half late. I owe Yvette and her boobs dinner.
My other friends weren’t so lucky…
A couple left in frustration. And a couple picked up trash and “earn the right” to get in. That shit ain’t right AT ALL.
Once inside… I don’t know WHY they didn’t open the huge doors. It was well over 100 degrees and humid in there. And all the pizza and pop was gone (I hadn’t eaten all day.) But that was a minor concern. They have about 20 or so TVs and a giant projector all playing Marvel with TE sticks and 40 something inch flatscreens. Again, the lines were sort of a clusterfuck. But there was SOME order being done by the players.
Now can I mention the DJ… We should have had local player and DJ Jeffito run that shit. I was expecting upbeat dance music, maybe dance mixes of video game music… no. It was like listening to the radio. What a waste of money Capcom.
However, there was this douchenossle that wouldn’t get the fuck out of the way and I almost got into a fight with him. Dude had played 4 matches straight. That shit ain’t cool when there are lines like we had. He was an arrogant prick and I would have knocked him the fuck out… but I hadn’t played Marvel yet lol. But that’s a coulda shoulda.
After my one match… I just couldn’t handle the B.O. (nerds! WASH YOUR BUTT CRACKS) and the humidity. So I just went outside at around 10:15 and remained outside the rest of the night. I loved it how if you had to go pee or something, the bouncers wouldn’t let you back in… unless you were a woman. I still would like to know the logic being used here. They were just randomly letting certain people in. And keeping some out.
“Any Military?”
“Anyone under 5 feet?”
I’m dead serious. This is how they were selecting people to go in.
By the end of the night, we were all hot, sweaty and swagless. The only upside having played one or two rounds of Marvel. The organizers dropped the ball BIG TIME.
My message to Capcom is this…
Thank you for the free event and everything. But if you’re going to have a free event. CONTROL THE FUCK OUT OF IT. This was just one giant clusterfuck, and those fucking bouncers were just plain dumb. We shouldn’t need boobs or be trash men just to play a fucking game (a game which is VERY good by the way, everyone should buy it.) and when you say you’re giving out swag to 300 people. Live up to your word. Only the first 100 got anything. Unless I was lied to by your staff which is just as uncool. If order was just kept from the very beginning, this mess wouldn’t have happened. I’m not and angry person… if I’m fighting people, something is wrong.
Again, thanks to Capcom for setting this up. But if you’re going to do this. Pick a better location and get some people to run it that have an ounce of goddamn sense. This entire event seemed to be run half assed. Maybe you weren’t expecting so many people, but come on. A sense of order would have helped everything and everyone would have had a good time.
Chicago deserves better. We support you good. Support us good.
Again, Marvel 3 is good. Buy it. Just be careful with Capcom events apparently folks. They could either be awesome or bite you in the ass. My ass is very sore today.
Wolfen Films 
That DJ was playing Drum & Bass/Dubstep before you NON VIP started to get in.
Also, they said the first 100, not 300 (and to be fair, I didn’t get what I should have gotten because some non-100’s frauded their way to bags and they were out when I got there).
Here is my writeup I posted on SRK – very similar experience:
http://shoryuken.com/f340/chicago-fight-club-impressions-252018/
Thanks a lot guys. Sorry you all had bad experiences too.
Wolfen, just wanted to confirm some of these statements and make a few suggestions. I will post on C-U later; I can’t seem to get onto their site at the moment.
Dear Capcom:
The game was lots of fun – and it was thoughtful of Capcom to reveal their progress to us at a free event. I plan purchase the game when it is released. Having said this, a little more thought would go a long way with your fans.
Firstly, all hell broke lose when staff came out with the wristbands for those after the first 100. Had staff handed them out one at a time starting at the beginning of the line moving back, and stationed security guards to keep people from cutting, it’s likely that everything would’ve been fine. Instead the scene was similar to a pack of hungry dogs going after a chunk a meat (the page of wrist bands). All organization pretty much ceased at this point, which may’ve snowballed into the ensuing unfortunate events.
That we couldn’t go to the restroom without losing all of the hours we spent waiting in line (6-7 in my case) was ridiculous. You’re serving food and drink, dear organizers, and don’t expect people to have to use the restroom? Ever see Die Hard? The terrorists saw it was sensible to let their hostages use the restroom. In the future, please consider this as the cool headed Hans Gruber did. Maybe it was your strategy to get us to leave earlier by making this rule (allowing others to come in). If so, it worked.
When left unattended, bouncers become the face of Capcom. And frankly, I don’t think they care what you look like. Please give them clear instruction before setting them free to huff and puff at us (no, not just the guy letting the first 100 in).
Placing signs (even paper w/ fat permanent marker would do – though poster-board is preferable) high enough above the monitors could be useful. These info cards could identify which stations are pad and which are stick (sucks waiting in line to find out one is using a pad for their match when a stick is preferred). Also, these signs could let people know how many matches to play. I saw stations where 1. the winner stayed, 2. best 2 out of 3 after which, both contestants left, and 3. one match after which, both contestants left. Identifying the stations in this or a similar manner could help people decide where to line up as well as alleviate frustration due to the expectations of those waiting in line. Even if all were marked with the same info, this would be helpful.
Button layout strategically placed where the sticks / pads rest. Many frustrated / unfulfilled players had to watch their characters die quickly after waiting in line for a half an hour simply because they didn’t know that holding an assist button down for a second switched in a character.
In closing, I would be very skeptical about going to an event like this again. Because the event was minimally organized, the payoff simply was not there. I do not think that providing food / drink / an unreleased playable game to your fans exempts you from treating them with dignity (I didn’t even stick around to see the trash pick-up crew getting assembled). Please bare this in mind as you continue to plan such events in the future. Addressing these issues could make you heroes to your fans, or at the very least, fair. Yes, let’s shoot for fair in the organizing department – the swag & game will take care of the hero part. =)
Sincerely, with tough love,
Twin
Couldn’t agree more. I don’t see why all these simple things were so hard to do.
Oh yeah, that’s right, they didn’t really try. 😀
I lol’d at the Die Hard refrence.
I was at the event as well and totally agree with you. I was there with my girlfriend and a buddy of mine and waited in line for 3 hours. Whenever the bouncers started screaming at everyone like they were prison guards or something was the time we decided to take off. No game is worth that.
To be clear though, there WAS somewhat of a line until they decided to start handing out wristbands to people in line AT RANDOM about 10 minutes before the doors were supposed to open…which is an equally horrible idea. It’s a giant middle finger to the people that were actually at the front of the line (I was probably about 3 rows back, so I wouldn’t have even been one of these people but it still pissed me off) and only succeed in completely destroying what remained of any type of organization.
This was a waste of 3 hours of my life. The only thing this “promotional event” succeeded in doing was making me NOT want to buy MvC3.
I’m glad someone wrote an article about this, nice work.
-Chas-
I’d also like to add that while I agree with 99% of your article, and I was equally as frustrated with the whole even, it isn’t fair to call the people with wristbands assholes. They were able to cut in line because thats what they were instructed to do BY CAPCOM. We shouldn’t hold them accountable for abiding by the shitting rules and policies Capcom DID have in place for this.
The whole problem with that could have been solved if A) They had told people in advance you can show up and leave to get a wristband OR B) they waited until they opened the doors to hand them out to the first 100 people that ACTUALLY waited in line to play their stupid game.
But this would make too much sense. 😀
Justin told me you were saying the same thing.
I do what I can. You should roll on down to Galloping Ghost for some fighters.
Woooooo Galloping Ghost!
I was there all opening weekend. Even went for the midnight launch. I love that place.
Bad line management and fuckers cutting almost ruined the event. People cut the line to get in and cut at the games. I had fun though and hope more events happen again, but with better management. Here are my complaints
The 300 people were given wristbands but it was the 1st 300 to mob the dude passing the wristbands out. I was able to get mine before the mob attacked him and I got my swag. It honestly was the dude’s fault why did he go in the crowd of people and say, ” who was here first?” Really you should have given the wristbands 1 by 1 as people walked in the door.
I am mad that the 1st 100 were able to get their wristband and than go home till the event started. That seemed unfair and lead to the mini riot since they just walked to the front around 730 that made people pissed and they rushed the door because they thought they were being cut I guess.
One more thing the people that just took basically whole pizzas out the box and put them on their plate for themselves, FUCK YOU! People just don’t know how to act in public it quite sad.
Seconded on the pizza. I hear it wasn’t that great anyway.