This isn't the Madden Challenge sendoff that I'm planning to have. It's something I wanted to mention because this site is dominated by Madden and Smash.
There's been many complaints from Smash players about how Brawl is heavily dependent on defense. The game is not tailored to those that are aggressive. Therefore, players can be passive in their attack without the risk of being punished for such.
In short, camping is dominant.
But imagine if those players saw what happened this weekend at the Madden Challenge. There was a bit of camping taking place. Actually, A LOT of camping was taking place. You wouldn't know it was camping unless you had knowledge of both communities. A Madden player would say it's someone "clocking."
Here's the deal for those who don't know. A preliminary Madden Challenge match is 8 minutes. So there's just two minutes for every quarter. If you score a touchdown first, it is almost a death knell.
So what does this have to do with camping?
I didn't put 2 and 2 together until this afternoon, but it should have been evident after Friday's final involving Young Nephew.
Neph used the Minnesota Vikings, which has the best running back in the game, Adrian Peterson. Neph went fullback dive, fullback dive, fullback dive.
If fullback dive was a pizza, I'd weigh 500 pounds after Friday night because of the amount being consumed.
But there was more to it than just fullback diving an opponent to death. Since Neph scored first a lot of times (mostly by using fullback dive), it was the perfect zero-risk move. He had a lead, why do anything risky? You see, if people complained about "camping," then they would want Neph to throw the ball and attempt to score faster, put up points. If Neph could win 7-0 or 3-0, he would be content, because a win is a win.
It's easy to point out Neph since he won a regional, but the thing is, EVERYONE did this in one form or another. There were a couple matches -- I think one was RG and another was Secret -- that if were the equivalent of a Brawl match would be downright criminal.
Both players got the ball first in a preliminary contest. No, they didn't try to score right away. They went fullback dive until they were faced with a fourth down (which I believe happened one time between the two guys). Not only did they try to clock the whole first quarter, they tried to clock the whole first half!
Now imagine this.
There were two guys, one being Secret and another I think was Neph, where they didn't get the ball first to start a preliminary game. They stop their opponent on 3 or 4 plays and get the ball on a punt or turnover. And now, they begin to clock by using fullback dive. They score in the final seconds of the first half to take a 3-0 or 7-0 lead.
And guess what? They get the ball to start the second half. Brutal. Their opponent did not see the ball in the second half. Game over. Thanks for showing us your 4 offensive plays and 25 defensive setups.
Thing is, in an 8-minute game, this strategy works very well. So can you call it the Madden version of camping? I had to think about that for a while. If you have a one-stock lead in a round, do you have to be on the offensive? Do you have to do anything? Not really unless you're playing DSF or Futile. You could run away and just pray that the timer was turned on and it goes to zero.
My deepest apologies, the picture gallery I had planned in regarding to Axis Gaming's Brawl tournament last weekend has corrupted.
Full disclosure: When I uploaded the pictures to my iPhoto library, my computer crashed. Then, in trying to reopen iPhoto, more than 500 pictures were gone, including the ones that I tried to upload from my computer. In searching for those pictures, I could not find them. I'll keep trying.
I'm extremely upset because not only do I not have a picture gallery to share with you, I've lost pictures.
The Madden Challenge tournament series is back for a seventh season. It begins today at Universal Studios, where the first of three California circuit events will take place in a span of three days. There are few events throughout the year that I'm excited for. If you were to ask me important events that take place every year, the Madden Challenge is one of them. It's a several-month journey that is perhaps the toughest in all of video games.
Think about this, what other tournament series is out there where only the winner moves on from every circuit event? That's the uniqueness of the Madden Challenge. In other leagues, the top three, four, or even eight will move on to the next level. Not the Madden Challenge. You could get second place in several circuit events and never see the Finals Tournament.
That's why I really like following the Madden Challenge. It's a rough ride from the very beginning. You can't relax at any point. Every match could be your last.
I think it hit me how tough the tournament series was last year when I went to the San Diego regional. Justin Chow prevailed over Michael Degroot. And I was told that Degroot (known as Adam Morrison) made several attempts to win a circuit event. He kept getting closer every time, but he always fell short.
Any other game, he's making the Finals Tournament. Not the Madden Challenge.
Here's three questions to ponder as the journey begins: 1. Will Problem win today? The last two Madden Challenge openers, he's won. That's almost as impressive as Big Gene's combined five circuit and finals championships. I don't think we'll ever see another player win two consecutive openers, or even three if Problem wins today. The way he played in Culver City last month, it's hard to pick against him.
2. What will be the most-used team? It looks like the N.F.C East teams will be the most used. And some will probably go with New England, despite the defense. Rest assured, the winner of today's tournament will start the trend, much like last year when San Diego was the team to use for the first half of the "season." I'd hate for it to be Dallas. I'm not sold on them yet.
3. Will there be any surprises this season? Last year, there were few surprises. Brusk was the closest thing to a surprise since he beat Secret in a Midwest regional, but then he couldn't participate in the finals tournament. I think with how the game is structured, there's going to be less surprises. You have to be entrenched in the game to beat the veterans this year. I believe this year, the veterans will dominate the circuit events.
With Axis Gaming's Brawl tournament complete, it's time to look at the Southern California Power Rankings once again.
Two questions come out of that tournament:
1. How much changes from the previous guesses? 2. Can one tournament define a player?
For discussion, here's the top 15 players: 1. DieSuperFly 2. Futile 3. Aero 4. Teba 5. Edge 6. Hugs 7. Ajax 8. ShadowROB 9. Plan 9 10. Lite661 11. Beat of Azia 12. Gamble 13. Danimals 14. Romeo (xDarklinkx) 15. D.C.
As I mentioned in a previous entry, there's six, possibly eight players that can take over spots in the rankings based on success or participation. Those eight players are:
1. Connor the Kid 2. BarDulL 3. Fly Amanita 4. Creepy Fingers 5. Leepuff 6. Edrees 7. Hall 8. Pnoy
After Axis Gaming's tournament, what changes?
First of all, I didn't say who the six players were that should be dropped. I still don't think it's necessary to say who they are ...
... except for Gamble. Gamble, the top Fox player in the region, was one of the six players who I believed should have been dropped from the rankings. A lot of it was based on recent activity, which was near zero.
But he went to Axis Gaming's tournament and finished 17th, which included a first-round-so-everyone-is-watching-you win over Zelgadis. I think with his performance, he saved his spot on the rankings. He might drop, but he'll be on there.
As far as the other five players, I still believe they're gone. Nothing has changed to where they should be kept.
So that leaves five spots for the eight potential candidates I've mentioned (and there's nobody after the major tournament that joins the discussion).
Do any of the eight potential candidates get dropped? The only person I can think of is Pnoy. Then again, he's No. 1 in the San Diego Rankings. So if you take him out, then you have to take out Hall, who is No. 2 (think about it, you can't take one player if he isn't even considered the best in his or her region). Now, if San Diego updates their rankings and puts Hall at No. 1 where he should be, then this discussion ends.
So let's assume that Hall will jump to No. 1 in the San Diego Rankings. That eliminates Pnoy from the discussion.
Seven players for five spots.
That seems about right. The last two Power Rankings were created with some good players getting shut out, so this will be no different. There's no need to extend the rankings just to get two good people in.
In light of a few changes that will be coming very soon (which I can't explain just yet), I'm revamping the blog.
Here are some of the changes you'll see in the blog as you go through it:
* -- You can now leave comments on every entry (including this one). However, in order to leave comments, you will need a Google account. This is to prevent spammers from attacking.
* -- It is archived per week and little bit more streamlined. I'm in the works of putting in a search, so stay tuned.
* -- There soon will be tags implemented with each post, much like the multimedia section. So if you're into just anything written in the blog about "Super Smash Bros.," then you can click on the tag at the end of the post, or you can click on the specific link in the Categories section located in the third column.
* -- There is a lot to explore. Several of you brought up the idea that there wasn't much to click through. And now, you'll be able to check out a lot of different sites, whether it's professional teams, community sites, or even more of Get Your Tournament. We'll have the links here.
* -- Finally, you can subscribe to the feed. Click on the orange box in the third column, and then click on the "Subscribe" tag.
The redesign has come because you all have given suggestions. It's also come because of some changes and additions that will be coming to Get Your Tournament.
This is the official blog for Get Your Tournament. We give our insights and opinions here on the tournament scene and some other video game news. To check out the previous blog we held, click here.
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