I can't possibly speak for
Bruce, but I did spot an underlying grain of reason in his post. It is something that was on the periphery of my radar as well from personal experience. That is, organizers (of any tournament) should not choose a vacation destination where ASL will also be played, but choose a place for the maximum amount of players to convene and play that
also has historical or sight-seeing merits. In short, always have the horse in front of the cart, never the other way around; don't even let the horse walk
beside the cart. The horse is ASL play, the cart is the historical/tourist nature of the venue. If you will allow me to indulge in the personal example from which I speak...
I have 6 brothers and 6 sisters [
] and it is impossible to keep up with visiting them all as we are spread across the US. We decided to have a Sibling Reunion every other year, individuals taking turns hosting it in their town/city. The first was held by a brother in MO where there was river canoeing nearby. The second by a brother in OKC with a fabulous zoo in town. The third by a sister in NM with white-water rafting nearby. The primary purpose of these reunions was to spend the weekend visiting with each other, anything offered in the host area as a group activity was simply icing on the cake. These first three were almost universally attended with the second one netting the only picture ever of all 7 of us adult brothers together at one time.
The fourth was held by a sister who lives in TX, right below the OK line. They have a large home, property, and hotels nearby, but decided to hold it at an oceanside resort on the southern coast of TX, many hours away from their home. This one was markedly less attended. The next was hosted by a sister in DC who wanted to hold it at a resort in FL!!! There were so few RSVPs to this idea that it was cancelled. Does anyone see where this is going? Siblings were starting to place the vacation destination before the primary purpose of reuniting and visiting. With many of us having limited vacation time, limited finances, or large broods, these fancy resort reunions were completely impractical. Like one brother with 5 teenagers said, 'If I am going to lay out "vacation-style money", I'm going someplace we all really want to go see. These are just supposed to be reunions, not our
one family vacation a year!'. What started as 3 days of visiting at the host's home, BBQing, brothers vs sisters volleyball in the backyard, etc, returning to mid-priced hotels late at night, and reconvening in the morning for more, slowly turned into 3 days of pricey events and itineraries, activities, top-tier resort hotels and markedly less group visiting.
I am
not saying this is where the Asia-Pac Tourney mindset is heading, and I have the utmost faith in Jackson and his confrere to make the right choices; but I would be lying if I said the combination of Siem Reap and Bruce's post did not give me a hint of what the Asia-Pac tourney
could possibly become if it begins to run loose like our sibling reunions did. Another parallel I give pause to mention is the sibling in-fighting that arose between those who placed the horse before the cart and those who placed the cart before the horse. Neither side is really 'wrong' in what they want, the only question that must be asked is 'Are we honoring the original intention of the gathering?'
IF I had the vacation time, I would support Singapore, Tokyo, or Hong Kong, as that would likely yield the largest attendances and encountering the most new friends and gaming styles.....and a LOT of competition!
I think the Asia-Pac tourney is in good hands, just keep on keeping your eye on the prize.....a large, well-attended tourney.
Just my two cents...