King 2021: An Exercise in Management

Anthony E. Mendez

Anthony Mendez is a game designer and event coordinator with a passion for all things related to games. In particular, he is attuned to what makes for engaging experiences, and what doesn’t. Throughout his time at TCNJ he has applied his skills to various projects including game jams, independent studies, and his work at the gaming club on campus, Lions Gaming. While looking for internships and opportunities, he plans to work with a group of fellow graduates and rising seniors on an independent game project. He hopes to continue providing his insight into game projects and events in the future.

Socials

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-mendez-0621/

Email: amendez0621@gmail.com

Twitter: @amendz0621

What is King?

King 2021 was an online Smash Ultimate and Melee tournament hosted on May 2nd and by Lions Gaming, a completely student run club at TCNJ that I had the pleasure of running this year. The one day national tournament featured top players from across the country. While a shift to an online environment posed challenges for this annual event, the entirety of the team at Lions Gaming strived to continue the precedent set by the first King in 2019 while remaining conscientious of health and safety concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can find the site made to promote King here (credit to Alexander Reinhard, future Executive Director of Lions Gaming).

Where’s IMM? What Did YOU Do?

I’ve had a passion for any and all things related to games for as long as I can remember; it’s why I pursued being a game designer. Why didn’t I make a game then? While I haven’t faltered in my goal, in the future I hope to find myself in a management position for game projects, giving direction to a group of game developers. Rather than put my Unity and game design skills to the test (which have both been thoroughly tested and acknowledged during my time as a student), I wanted the opportunity to evaluate my management skills. King 2021 was a testing ground for those skills—one with actual stakes regarding the public image of Lions Gaming, and by extension The College of New Jersey as a whole.

As Executive Director at Lions Gaming, I was in charge of the organization of the event, as well as the delegation of tasks to the various Directors at Lions Gaming.

Organization included:

1. Scheduling of the event

2. Outreaching of professional players to attend the event

3. Outreaching of professional streamers and tournament organizers to broadcast and run the event

4. Preparing and presenting a budget of the event alongside the Head of Finance of Lions Gaming to the Student Finance Board

5. Preparing and presenting partnership decks to potential sponsors of the events

Delegation included:

1. Overseeing and giving final approval of the production of various assets for the event, ranging from the launch trailer above, to stream overlays, to the logo.

2. Reviewing social media posts meant to advertise the event

3. Assigning various miscellaneous tasks to the Lions Gaming team

Pandemic Problems, and Surprising Solutions

Before I was given the role of Executive Director at Lions Gaming in 2021, there were plans to host King in 2020. The inaugural event was run in 2019 by Ryan Sterenkowski, and proved to be a huge success while bringing positive buzz to TCNJ. However, due to the pandemic we were forced to cancel our plans for King 2020 last year. By the start of the Fall semester, we at Lions Gaming knew if we wanted to run King again, we would have to incorporate it into an online environment.

The decision to outsource streams and tournament organization was a fairly easy one to reach; it was done back when the event was offline, and helped alleviate the workload from Lions Gaming. The games themselves also had common ways to be played online, so that was another easy hurdle. The main issue was translating the extra activities present at King 2019 online.

Initially the process seemed imposing, but we gradually came across ways to shift the event online while maintaining the core King experience. While we had to sacrifice some aspects of the first King that provided entertainment for those who attended that weren’t competing in tournaments (aspects like an Artist Alley to support artists at the college, or guest speakers) this allowed us to streamline the experience for competitors as well as the companies we were outsourcing work to. The lack of a physical venue also meant we didn’t have to account for building safety and security. Combined with the fact that we no longer had to worry about renting individual setups for the event, and we found our budget for the event could afford to be less than half of what was asked back in 2019.

The Result

Despite being another online tournament in a sea of others, King 2021 was able to break the mold and stand out. A combination of the event being free to enter, offering prizes (thanks to the Student Finance Board and Student Activity Fee) and featuring top players ranked worldwide allowed the event to appear on people’s radars. These same top players also streamed their own perspectives of the tournament, spreading awareness of the event to their own audiences. It made enough of an impact to prompt Panda, the sponsor of two of the players we invited, to make a video highlighting their experience in the tournament. For the curious, the video can be found here. Those interested in seeing what the main streams looked like for the event can find a playlist of Smash Ultimate matches of the event here. Overall, we were able to provide an entertaining experience to the attendees while simultaneously spreading awareness of both Lions Gaming and King, as well as the TCNJ community as a whole. The road has been paved for the future of the club, and while I may no longer be responsible for organizing the event, I’ll be sure to tune in to see who will take the crown for King 2022.