Keyrune Inc. CEO Scott Elliott issued a response to an ICv2 column, written by Scott Thorne, that was published earlier this week.

In the column (see "Rolling for Initiative -- Store Championships, Melee and the Spooky Season"), Thorne addressed some of the issues with using Melee to run casual, in-store events. He made the case that the software was very detailed and offered a complexity that most retailers did not need to run events. Thorne also offered the suggestion that "simplicity is generally better than complexity" when it came to the usage of this type of software for retailers.

Keyrune Inc. CEO Scott Elliott's response, addressing Thorne and ICv2 readers, was as follows:

Dear Scott Thorne & ICV2 readers,

Thanks for the clear, direct feedback about user experience challenges with tournament creation and management on the Melee platform. You are absolutely right that tournament creation is difficult right now. We have taken a look at our data that shows what type of tournament the majority of organizers create (Swiss format, with no top cut), and our user experience and development team has been working for weeks on a new tournament creation process. We are eager to share the work-in-progress with early reviewers, soon.

You are right that Melee has huge amounts of customizability, which is why Wizards of the Coast, Ravensburger, and Fantasy Flight have selected Melee as the tournament and event platform of choice. We have more than 5,000 event organizers globally who are successfully using Melee.

The team at Keyrune is comprised of gamers, former event judges, scorekeepers, and event organizers who have used and created multiple different versions of tournament software, since the 1990s, and we are grateful for any and all feedback on how we can improve. If you have specific feedback for our team, please email contact@melee.gg or join our Discord server at Discord.Melee.gg.

Sincerely,

Scott Elliott
CEO Keyrune Incorporated

In the response, Elliott essentially acknowledged and thanked Thorne for his direct feedback. He also indicated that that Keyrune's team has been working on a new tournament creation process that is a "work-in-progress."