Rep yo city! aka The how to grow your local KI scene thread!

We all know sometimes it can be a struggle to find folks in your town who play KI! Well I’m proud to say after some years of trying, things are finally falling in line in Austin, TX!!! And it feels great to teach others about the game and witness the exponential growth AND pure joy that others experience when they start to click with KI’s mechanics!

Here’s some step by steps to make it happen:

TLDR
Find a currently existing weekly, get KI visible there, (even if u have to buy it or set it up), be patient, respectable, and consistent. Spread word online. Get a group to contact/communicate to those interested that this does happen consistently and that they’re welcome to come. Don’t give up!

1 - Do NOT give up!

It’s so easy to say, oh well, I’ll just play Street Fighter or Marvel or MKX or Tekken, etc (insert any other more popular game). But there ARE people who are open-minded that aren’t on this forum lol. Just be that KI guy/gal.

2 - Find a currently existing local weekly

It doesnt matter the game - check facebook or meetup for FGC meetups. Again, it will most likely only be one of the “popular” games that’ve been around while KI was in it’s 20 year hiatus.

3 - See how the meetup owner/operator feels about KI

Develop a repoire where you can be friendly but he/she knows you are really interested in KI. In my case the guy was cool and friendly. He actually played KI S1 and got S2 but lost interest when SFV came out. But I got lucky and the guy was super cool. He was down for KI to happen at his meetup (which basically was a SFV weekly), but said I would need to bring KI folks to play with.

4 - Gift them or donate to them whatever they need to have KI and EVERY character available.

In my case, I bought the KI Definitive edition and Kilgore. It was the best $50 gift/donation I spent this year so far! If you want there to be a KI and you’re not hosting yourself for whatever reason, there is no excuse for you not to at least make sure the place has a KI setup there.

5 - If they’re cool with having KI, be patient, respectful, and try your best to control your passion for KI

To the guy that was down for having KI at his meetup, I can’t thank him enough. So be respectful of the environment and control your passion. (I’m learning to get better at the latter myself, but awareness is the first step! :wink: ha!) In other words, try your best to NOT be annoying but dont be afraid to let the guys at the meetup know that KI is here and available to try for those who want to try it.

6 - Understand that this will take time and people will look at you funny when you say “I have KI, wanna try it out”

Basically know your game and dont take it personally when folks only wanna play SF or “other EVO '17” game. But, if you can just get one person to try KI with you, people will slowly notice, and might take a little interest, and the next week or 2 weeks later they may try it! Watch how the number of people in KI grow.

7 - Be consistent with letting people know that people ARE INDEED meeting up to play KI

See if there’s a facebook group for KI players in your city. Then post about your meetups in the general KI facebook groups/forums when your meetups happen. Ask folks for PERMISSION to post pics or vids of the meetup so that others can see that people play this game and enjoy it. Post these pics/vids in the KI groups/forums to entice other KI players, and then post these in general FGC groups.

8 - Understand that even after you’ve fought hard to finally get people to try it, KI is not for everyone and some people dont want to learn for valid reasons.

It’s the same reason why I enjoy SFV with my buddies that I’ve played older SF’s with. But I wanna get better at competitive KI bc I really enjoy the KI matchup diversity and the mind games at high level. I simply dont have the time to learn both, KI and SFV, therefore I dont have the desire (at least right now). We as obsessed KI folks have to understand that the opposite may be true for others too.

8 - But remember rule #1 - Do NOT give up on growing the scene

Don’t try to convert everyone, but if you make it, they will come. So have patience, stay positive, and long live KI!!!

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Im gonna note this for later. Ive been thinking of working on something for the Cleveland and surrounding areas of Ohio. It kinda bites to be surrounded by tourneys like KIT, ECT, a recent Combo Breaker in Chicago and numerous locals to those areas.

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Just letting folks know. Every week someone new is playing KI in Austin. They all say the same stuff:

Dang this game looks great! fun! hype! etc.

I wish this was on PS4.

Wait … this is on PC! Oh $hi#!!! etc

People love to see the legacy characters and the guest characters.

People love the character diversity/variety.

A lot of NRS guys are about to get into KI.


I seriously recommend you play KI weekly somewhere. Just do it! :slight_smile: Especially if it’s in proximity of other fgc folks. That way those folks will hear the KI excitement and will eventually check out the greatness!

Best

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have you been able to work on it yet?

Have had some life stuff push me from starting a local scene as of yet. And as of right this second, Cleveland is kind of on edge with ‘stuff’.

I was hoping this Xbox Arena feature that MS has been working on would help me out with that. Thing is, the damn thing is STILL only for insiders. Its been like 3/4 of a year its been in closed testing…

Don’t feel left out I’m an insider and Arena was rolled back a few months ago.Once it comes back which I believe MS said is " very soon" , it’ll be for everyone

I’m in columbus, do you think it can stretch out to over here?

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Possibly. Keep your ears open.

And after that, let’s drop the current events stuff.

Anybody get KI going in your city lately? :slight_smile: