A video, which was first posted on the DetroitBadBoys blog earlier today, shows us the introductions from the 1989 N.B.A All-Star game.

Now let's talk about it in the competitive gaming atmosphere.

EVO does player introductions very well, perhaps the best of the non-major leagues. Not like the All-Star game above, but in 2007 they had a quick video of the players before they were shipped out to the masses.

During the first Mega Bowl, the players came down to the main television much like a heavyweight title bout; each player had an entourage, they wore a hoodie and someone was carrying a bottled drink.

Let's say that, for the Championship Gaming Series, they do this during the world title bout. It's only one contest (they usually do two a night) and it would add even more hype to the fact that $500,000 will go to the winner.

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Labels: championship gaming series, evo, madden, tournament experiences

Barring a big breakfast or traffic jam that slows down all of the Bay Area, this weekend's Axis Gaming "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" tournament should set the new Brawl record for attendance.

The record right now is the U.C.L.A Monthly VI tournament held this past May, which had 192 attendants. No other Brawl tournament in the nation has come close.

If you think you're walking into something special this weekend, chances are, you're probably correct. Look at some of the attendance records in the post-Tournament Go era (2004) in the United States.

EVO World Championships 2007: 270
MELEE-FC Diamond: 256
Pound 3: 233
The OC3: 218
MLG New York (Playoffs): 204
MELEE-FC 6: 202
Pound 2: 200
Super Champ Combo: 200

All of those were for Melee.

As of Friday afternoon, 211 players have signed up to participate in the tournament through All is Brawl.

This brings up something I have talked about to friends and other competitors, and it is something the community should think about.

Smash needs a "World Series," a "Super Bowl," a gold-medal game. To put it in another way, Smash needs one -- and only one -- event to go after. The community can keep having their U.C.L.A's, their Critical Hits. But that has to lead to something.

Other games have that. If you play "Madden," you play small regionals but the big event is the Madden Challenge. If you play any fighting game, it is the Evolution Fighting Game Championships. For "Halo" players, it's Major League Gaming's national championship.

If you play any of those games, there's always a top of the mountain, something to shoot for. There's a journey, which may take one year, three years or even 10 years. But there's a final destination.

For Smash players, what is that annual final destination (and I'm not talking about the stage)? Is it MELEE-FC? It could be, but it didn't happen this year. Is it Midnight Gaming? They had a finals tournament last year, but not this year. What about EVO? The community said no to this year's tournament.

That's why this weekend's event in Emeryville has a low-lying meaning other than it having the biggest payout.

It sends a message to major tournament organizers and major leagues (known and still growing) that the Smash community needs an event to go after. It needs a Super Bowl. If 200 players (and I believe it could be 300) go to Emeryville, imagine if a major organization picks up the game and holds a major event or a series of events leading up to a championship final.

Or, maybe the community lets Axis Gaming conduct an annual major event. If their tournament goes well, it is possible.

The Smash community can't keep having small regional events. They have to use those as a catalyst for something bigger. Other games have that, and it's time the Smash community joins in the party.

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Labels: super smash bros brawl, tournament experiences

I'm sure by now you've heard that Ken, the "King of Smash," is a contestant on "Survivor."

Yes, THAT Survivor.

You can see more info right here.

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Labels: players in public, super smash bros brawl

Someone or some people decided to drop in to the compLexity vs. 50.calibre contest a few minutes ago, thus prompting the match to be halted.

Here is, yet again, new HLTV info if you want to see the match: 75.126.85.113:27021

Labels: counter-strike, los angeles complexity

The L.A. compLexity are currently battling 50.cal in a Counter-Strike 1.6 contest.

The HLTV information has changed. It is now 75.126.85.113:27021

The other channels of communication, including IRC, are still the same.

Labels: counter-strike, los angeles complexity

This is not a plea for Axis Gaming to conduct divisional play, because I believe a bracketed competition might be sufficient. However, there's been a push lately by some players to have divisional play. And in thinking about this last night, a lot of things come to mind that I thought I should share with you.

Baseball did not move to its current divisional format until 1994. It was a near unanimous vote; every owner except George W. Bush (who ran the Texas Rangers) said that a deeper divisional format would allow more teams to stay interested throughout the season.

If you think the move to a deeper divisional format was a bad idea, look at just the top half of the National League standings in 1993, the year before the deeper divisional format was installed.

N.L. West
1. Atlanta (104-58) -- GB: 0
2. San Francisco (103-59) -- GB: 1
3. Houston (85-77) -- GB: 19
4. Los Angeles (81-81) -- GB: 23

N.L. East
1. Philadelphia (97-65) -- GB: 0
2. Montreal (94-68) -- GB: 3
3. St. Louis (87-75) -- GB: 10
4. Chicago (84-78) -- GB: 13

The other six teams not mentioned were even more horribly out of it, worst than the third- and fourth-place finishers.

If you look at the standings, only four teams were in it going to the final week of the season, matter of fact, they were the only four teams with a virtual shot at a division title in the final MONTH.

That's how brutal divisional play was from 1961-93. Remember, there was no Wild Card. There was no runner-up playoff spot like there is (virtually) in the N.B.A or N.H.L. The only way to make the playoffs was by winning the division.

I bring this up because, with the very likelihood that there will be 300 players at this weekend's tournament in Emeryville, the players that want divisional play need to think about it.

Normal divisional play takes place like this: Everyone plays everyone.

Let's say there are 300 players. If you have 30 divisions, that's 10 players per division. This is where things get a little bit testy.

In most competitions I've seen or been a part of, usually four players will advance out of a 10-player division. If less than four players advance, the community gets in an uproar. Four is pretty good; it allows those in the "second tier" of ability to have a shot at the grand prize.

But four-player advancement cannot happen with 30 divisions. With 4 players getting out of each division, that leaves 120 players still in the tournament, and the last division will probably finish at 6 p.m. (seven hours later)!

How about three? Then that's 90 players, which is still rough. Two players is perhaps the most that can advance in our situation because there will be 60 players remaining.

Think about that for a second.

You go into a big tournament and enter divisional play. You post a 7-2 record, which on any other day would be seen as a great tuneup for the playoffs. Instead, you're gnawing on your nails wondering if that will be good enough. To see two players go 8-1 or have a 9-0 and 8-1 split will be heartbreaking. At the very worst, your 7-2 record is trumped by two stronger 7-2 records.

But think about it on the other end of the spectrum. Let's say you start divisional play with two straight losses. Now what? You have seven matches remaining. You have to run the table to even get a shot at making the playoffs. Do you feel like playing? Is it even worth it to play?

There's plenty of risks and rewards to running divisional play with so many people involved. My hope is that the players look at both sides before making a push to get divisional play involved.

With divisional play, it's obvious that players get more matches (which is why people love it to begin with). However, because there are more matches, more time is used up. With 300 people, is it a necessary risk?

Before you make a plea for divisional play, consider how it could happen.

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Labels: super smash bros brawl

The other day, a friend and I were talking about the possibility of getting a big tournament going for one of the games we both like. And when we started talking about locations, he said something along the lines of, "You must have the tournament in the Midwest because it's the center of the nation, so it's equal travel time."

In part, one of the low-lying reasons he's in favor of that idea is because he lives in the Bible Belt, so if this major tournament was in, say St. Louis, he wouldn't have to travel as far (only a few hours on the road). As for me, I would have to take a 4-hour flight, maybe longer, to get there.

It is here where we begin to differ in opinion. I asked him what options there would be aside from competing in the tournament. He couldn't think of any, which meant that people would go for one thing, and only one thing. Yes, there are things to do in the St. Louis area, having relatives there, but it was just a question to test his knowledge. He did not care about the auxiliary things. I do.

When I competed in tournaments from 2000-06, I usually stayed in my region (Deep NorCal and the Bay Area). Rarely did I go out of the region for big events. But when I did, I made sure it was a week or weekend that I would enjoy.

In the spring of 2006, I got word of a big DDR tournament taking place in Colorado. I went to compete, and anyone who knows me knows that I go to any tournament with a goal of destroying the competition.

But since I had never been to Colorado before, I wanted to make the three-day trip more than just the tournament. So I planned for some trips to the LoDo area in Denver, went to the ESPNZone, attended a Rockies game, hiked at the M.L.K Park, and checked out a couple shopping centers. With all of that, I made sure to spend time practicing and getting mentally prepared for the tournament. After the tournament, I went to a pizza buffet with the competitors in Aurora (side note: It was called Chicago's Pizza. It's great pizza, but California has a lot tastier options).

I think the sightseeing helped me get over a fifth-place finish (out of 37), which was very heartbreaking if you happened to be there and watch. If I went to Colorado and did nothing but practice and compete in the tournament, I probably would have been a wreck when I came back home. Instead, I felt somewhat good about the whole trip.

That was one of the many experiences I've had when I've traveled to tournaments outside of my region.

Going back to my friend, I brought this up. I cannot spend 3 days in a community center doing nothing but play friendly matches and eating fast-food hamburgers and cheap pizza. My brain would get fried. However, other people do not mind this. In fact, some people LOVE it; I remember someone last year at The OC3 showing me a letter-sized paper with all of the money matches he was going to do for the weekend. It had to be about 50 matches. To him, the actual tournament was secondary, he cared more about the money matches.

I love when major tournaments are in big cities or in places where there's something to do. If a major event (like EVO) is in Las Vegas, that's perfect because there's plenty to do there. Hold a major tournament in Orange County, and those families from out of the area will likely hit up the amusement parks or major shopping centers in between competing.

Axis Gaming's Brawl tournament this weekend is only a few minutes away from San Francisco, where there's plenty to do (Giants game, Pier 39, the Embarcadero, etc.). Your mind doesn't have to be solely on Smash if you don't want it to be.

This is the lure of having a tournament on one of the coasts; there's things to do outside of the tournament itself. There's more to it than just the travel ticket.

But I want to hear it from you. When a big tournament comes up, do you make a weekend out of it? Or, do you just get to the city and do nothing but play the game?

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Labels: super smash bros brawl, tournament experiences

In regard to Brawl, many people will say Snake is top tier if you compare him to Sonic.

However, Sonic has Snake beaten in the speed category.

What happens when these two compete in a foot race?



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Labels: super smash bros brawl

If you missed it, Da Secret was featured in a Madden 09 commercial. It's right here:



Just to clarify a few things. Secret was playing in a tournament where the winner got $100,000. The FB dive wasn't the $100,000 play.

How must it feel to be Young Nephew, the guy getting capped on by Secret in the commercial? Then again, everyone gets capped on by Secret.

Oh, and if you don't believe that Secret will go for 2 everytime in clutch situations, watch this video:

Labels: madden, players in public