Texas Reverie

Event Case Study

Texas Reverie 1 (2022)

Date: 06.11.2022 — 06.13.2022

Package Tier: Platinum

Location: Austin, Texas

Hosted by: Luis ‘Drago’ Vilorio

Event Logistics

Texas Reverie is an incredibly unique event experience that brings together the best of the best in the state to an Invitational-Style three day bender. Our team coordinated on-site production and streaming of constant Super Smash Bros. Ultimate action, up close and personal commentary with the players, figureheads and various entertainers within the Texas scene and variety content with in-person events such as foot races, hot sauce challenges, and social games. As well, EXE was in charge of bringing the event’s identity to life through branding, digital marketing materials and printed materials that added to the events aesthetic on-site. Due to the crowd-funded nature of the event, apparel and merchandise were produced to help raise funds for the compendium to vote players in and make the event happen.

Photos by @BlueRoseTori

Branding

The main inspiration for the brand was to blend the visual styles of popular shonen manga with iconography and visual elements that represent the region of Texas. The term “Reverie” is comparable to a “Summit”; a meeting or grouping of important individuals. This idea leads the branding to be stylized, yet clean cut enough to show a sense of exclusivity or luxury.

Graphics(2022)

The graphic style honed in on the visual aesthetic of Japanese manga panels; segmented imagery collaged together in a grid-like format with a focal point on the characters involved. Colors are kept simplistic and focused on the high contrast blend of the Leather black and Jolly yellow.

Printed Materials(2022)

Stream Materials(2022)

When displaying either gameplay or variety content, the overlays were kept very minimalistic. Highlighting content with important information relayed through solid black sections and simple pops of color through brand elements. The “Upcoming Match” Layout being the only exception to this. The direction of that screen was inspired by classic head-to-head graphics prevalent in sports and competitive fighting broadcasts.

Apparel Designs(2022)

Multiple pieces of apparel were created for the event as a way to source funding from the audience to purchase in a digital shop leading up to the event. The designs were heavily inspired by popular manga franchises, and popular brands within pop culture to combine the subject matter that is Super Smash Bros. with recognizable imagery. Apparel designed by Danza of EXE and Alex of @SpifSpace

Location: Kingsland, Texas

Hosted by: Luis ‘Drago’ Vilorio

Date: 03.15.2023 — 03.17.2023

Package Tier: Platinum

Texas Reverie 2 (2023)

Event Logistics

Moving on to the following iteration of the event, some improvements and changes to the events format were made. Due to popular demand and in the competitive spirit of the compendium, EXE coordinated two qualifying events for players to compete in to snatch a spot in Texas Reverie 2023. In addition, players that were ranked #1 in their respective subregions of Texas were invited, and the voting system was still in place to invite 6 additional players to the event from around the state. The event itself saw upgrades in venue, as EXE rented out an entire lake-front home as the space to house players, staff and VIP guests. The production took a massive overhaul as the team needed to coordinate throughout the two-story home to provide a great viewing experience for those in attendance, a comfortable space for players to compete in and a top-of-the-line stream for viewers at home to watch alongside. Variety content also did not stop as we had more events that were streamed such as trivia challenges, hot sauce challenges, pool-side conversations, side-event brackets, a streamed VIP bracket and player interviews.

Photos by @MajorXrd

Graphics(2023)

The branding of the event generally remained untouched, but the graphic style was updated to shift the focal point to map or atlas-styled iconography and elements. Keeping the colors clean and concise, the events informative graphics utilized the Leather and Jolly colors, but as the event’s invitees were decided, additional colors were introduced to represent each subsection of Texas that the respective invitees were from. This graphic style not only translated to digital materials, but printed materials as well.

Printed Materials(2023)

Stream Materials(2023)

Head to head matchups became an increasing focal point for this event with subregional pride and representation on the line as well as the various player and character matchups that were displayed. This led to the ‘Upcoming Match’ screen shifting to focus on those key elements. Players were photographed and posed with their characters and the subregion they represent as their backdrop. This graphic style was incredibly useful as it served as an informative graphic to keep viewers informed of the upcoming matchup, the position in bracket that the tournament was at, and the characters to expect. This graphic also translated to being used as VOD thumbnails when uploaded to our video platforms.

Apparel Designs(2023)

Fresh designs were created for this event with the addition of some older designs being printed on a larger variety of apparel pieces. The designs for this event was to continue off the theme of Japanese Anime and Manga styles, but to hone in on two series in particular: “Blue Lock” a popular soccer anime, and “Chainsaw Man” a popular action shonen anime. These characters and themes were blended with Super Smash Bros. imagery to continue to bring together recognizable styles.

Apparel designed by Danza of EXE and Alex of @SpifSpace

Event Bracket Page: start.gg/reverie

Texas Reverie Social Media: @TexasReverie