Time for the thank you / shoutout post! None of these big tournaments get done without the hard work from so many people.

Mr. Wizard, Tom & Tony Cannon (EVO) – for allowing us to hold this special 20th anniversary celebration, including dedicated space for us to run our tournaments and of course, X-Mania USA on the main stage and stream.

Chris Li (EVO) – Chris did a lot of behind the scene work to help us with this event. He doesn’t want the recognition but I’m going to give it to him anyway.

Karl Wickman (Sergjiev) – Karl did an unbelievable amount of work, including building the kurosticks (which I still can’t believe that he gave to me), streaming the Super Turbo Saturday shows to help promote ST and ToL II/X-Mania USA, getting early to the venue on Friday and Saturday to make sure we were set up in time to start at 9:30AM, then streaming all day both days including volunteering to help out the Vampire Savior community by streaming their Top 8 during X-Mania USA.

Alex Monin (Bernie) – This whole thing probably doesn’t even take place without Bernie once again lending us his cabs and CRT to use for the weekend. And also prepping the cabs with the USB converters and prepping the main cab for streaming. It’s not easy moving those cabs in the Vegas summer heat so please thank him when you get a chance.

Brian Grissom (Undamned) – Big thank you to Brian for bringing two CRTs and UD-CPS2s and USB converters for us to use for the tournaments and casuals afterwards. And also providing a UD-CPS2 for the winner of ToL II.

Reginald Tuttle (Mr. Tuttle) – Tuttle was a huge supporter with the donation drive and was also the man responsible for renting the 3rd cabinet from Watson to give us a cab we could use for casuals while the tournaments were taking place. Without his help, we may not have been able to bring a couple of the Japanese players over and help provide them an enjoyable experience.

Damien Dailidenas (Damdai) – Without Damien, maybe X-Mania USA doesn’t happen. He was able to influence Mattsun to run X-Mania USA on stage even without Japanese cabs. Also a big thank you to Damien’s wife for helping with e-mails to Mattsun.

Papas Si (STR) – Papasi does a lot of work behind the scenes with planning and he did an incredible job with Chris and Harmon running the brackets for both ToL II and X-Mania, He also took the Japanese players to dinner on their last night here, which was a very nice touch.

Chris Hatala and Harmon Tam (Ghaleon & Nomrah) (STR) – Chris and Harmon worked their butts off running the brackets with Papasi and made sure we got everything done in time. In fact, we finished ToL II an hour and a half ahead of schedule.

Josh Cooper (JoshC) – For the huge task of organizing the Salty Suite and helping us cover some of the tournament expenses.

Eugene Lin (eltrouble) – Eugene provided commentary, help with planning and also a lot of work promoting ToL II/X-Mania and the whole ST scene with Karl on the Super Saturday shows.

Victor Fontanez (Sp00ky) and crew – They coordinated with us and helped us test everything on Thursday night so there weren’t any technical difficulties when ST hit the stage on Saturday night. Sp00ky even bought equipment dedicated just for running ST on the stage.

Darryl Austin (MuffinMan) – Darryl pitched in and volunteered to record matches on the kurostick UD-CPS2 station for ToL II and X-Mania.

Terry Cox (Zaspacer) (STR) – Terry helped out with so many miscellaneous tasks and did relentless work in getting everyone to sign the ToL II poster. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get three signatures because they were so busy. But yell at those three for that, not Terry.

Brian Dawidowicz (Fatboy) – Brian helped us bring all the equipment, prizes, etc. in his SUV, provided a ton of commentary and help out with miscellaneous tasks as well.

Brendan O’Dowd (Hanasu) – Brendan provided a lot of great commentary and was also a big help translating for the Japanese players.

Julien Beasley (Zass) – Julien also helped out with a lot of help translating for the Japanese players, especially under some stressful circumstances.

Boeken – Boeken also helped with some translation at the Salty Suite and also with some interviews I believe.

Zhi – Zhi graciously helped us out with an interview with MAO, Mattsun and TMF.

Ken Olaku & Tai Olaku (Dark Gaiden & Vintage) – Ken and Tai provided us once again with another awesome promotional banner to help make us look professional.

Christopher Vogel (Spartanfan) – Chris helped out with a bunch of commentary and also with a bunch of setup on Thursday night.

Ryan Yabuta (Blastcity) and Armando – I don’t know the exact details but I believe they helped us out with equipment and support with streaming.

Mark Julio ( Markman) – Markman graciously donated three Madcatz sticks for us to customize into special X-Mania USA prizes.

James Chen and David Graham (Ultradavid) – For all the promotion they do for the ST scene and ToL II/X-Mania USA.

All the TOs and others that were involved helping with ToL II qualifiers all over the world:

Michael Power (Zero1) – IIX 25th Anniversary – UK

Eric Small (BigE) – Winter Brawl

Alex Valle (Calipower) – So Cal Regionals

Larry Dixon (ShinBlanka) – Final Round

Chris Chou & Javier Moreno (Ranma0005 & Javi) – Texas Showdown

Robin Palm (Renegade) – Civil War

Terry NG & John Choi (Kineda & Choiboy) – Nor Cal Regionals

Arturo Sanchez (Sabin), Henry Cen & Ben Fong – Next Level

Chris Hatala & Jesse Baker – Arcade Legacy

Michael Yu (Airslash) & Chris Anderson – Northwest Majors

Walid (Waldo) – Stunfest

John Gallagher (Sweet Johnny Cage) – East Coast Throwdown

Mike Watson – Super Arcade

Kenny Ng (Unessential) & Russell Ordona – Toryuken

Johnathan Kincaid & Ryan Tang – Saltmines

Don – Don’s Arcade

Other special thanks:

Seth Killian (s-kill)

Paul Dziuba (souperfx)

Myung Kim (Gamecenter)

Inaba-san (Godsgarden)

David Boudreau (XSPR)

Yuichi Takahashi (Nekohashi)

Nakamura

Kusumondo

Tonegawa

CrasherJ

Glenn Cravens

Jim Sejas (Rekkaken)

Jason Cole (AfroCole)

James Romedy (Simpower)

Ernest Delgado (Yogaboy)

Nathaniel Ridad (Fudd)

All the Japanese and international players who came and participated (MAO, Kurahashi, Kent Hiramatsu (Mattsun), Hanashi, Noguchi, TMF, Nuki, Daigo, Tokido, Orf, Balcork, Isimorn, RetroRic, Spidercarnage, Megadarve, Hokuto, JimmyBones, IM Amazon, Minibok) – It’s always great to have international players competiting in the tournaments and this year we had the most we ever had. A quick shoutout to Robin Prv, who unfortunately couldn’t make it at the last minute. Everyone wishes you were there!

Everyone who came out and supported and participated in ToL II and X-Mania USA! We had 96 players for X-Mania USA and had to turn away players during pre-registration because the tournament had capped and 80+ register for the ToL II pools, not including the 25 players who were already in the Top 32. Our participants have grown every year at Evo!

Last and not least, all the people who donated to the donation drive. Without your support, we would not have been able to make this tournament as big as it was. I will try to have the unsigned posters (for those who donated for those) printed this week and will try to ship the posters and t-shirts hopefully in the next week or two.

Anyone else I may have forgotten (hopefully no one)!

This is the last tournament I will be organizing (sorry Karl!) but I’m positive there will be a big ST presence next year at Evo! Those of us who were there early Monday morning saw Mattsun help me pass the torch to…

dramatic pause… Damdai! No pressure there, Damien.

But I will continue running the STR website and will still help behind the scenes a bit with some things.

-kuroppi