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.

Labels: Get Your Tournament changes, super smash bros brawl

This is the most exciting time of the year.

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.

Labels: madden, tournament experiences

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.

Labels: power rankings, super smash bros brawl

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.

Enjoy!

Labels: Get Your Tournament changes

In case you are wondering about video highlights; despite having a live stream of the tournament, I did record matches from Saturday's tournament in Emeryville.

As with the case of the Oxnard Brawl Tournament, five matches will be made exclusive to our YouTube portal. The remaining matches will be available on Get Your Tournament.

The five matches will be posted sometime before the weekend, hopefully starting tomorrow.

Here are the five matches that will be available on YouTube:

BarDulL vs. MogX
SK92 vs. Decide
Eggz vs. Kira
Meep vs. Bond
Aero vs. Sean

Labels: super smash bros brawl

The Smash World Forums' Smash Back Room has released the official tier list for Brawl. And it is ...

Top
Metaknight
Snake
King DDD
Mr G&W
Falco
ROB

High
Marth
Wario
Lucario
DK
Diddy
Pikachu
IC
Kirby
Pit
Wolf

Middle
Toon Link
Olimar
Fox
Zelda
Zero Suit Samus
Bowser
Luigi
Peach
Ike
Shiek

Low
Lucas
Ness
Mario
Pokemon Trainer
Samus
Yoshi
Sonic
Jigglypuff
Ganondorf
Link
Cptn. Falcon

Keep in mind that the characters within the tiers are not ranked.

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Labels: super smash bros brawl, tournament strategies