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 op
Socials
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-mendez-0621/
Email: amendez0621@gmail.com
Twitter: @amendz0621
Video produced by Roan Pascual, Creative Director of Lions Gaming at TCNJ.
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
King 2021 logo designed by Gregory Vertilus, member of Lions Gaming Production Committee.
Where’s IMM? What Did YOU Do?
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:
Scheduling of the event
Outreaching of professional players to attend the event
Outreaching of professional streamers and tournament organizers to broadcast and run the event
Preparing and presenting a budget of the event alongside the Head of Finance of Lions Gaming to the Student Finance Board
Preparing and presenting partnership decks to potential sponsors of the events
Delegation included:
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.
Reviewing social media posts meant to advertise the event
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 want
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 streamli
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 tou
