Tournament organizers with Evolution said there will be at least $20,000 in prizes guaranteed for the Super Street Fighter IV competition. Not only that, the game's producer, Yoshinori Ono will make an appearance at the tournament.
Add to both of those a scheduled appearance by defending champion Daigo Umehara, the showing of Bang The Machine, and at least five other tournament games, and you have the makings of what could be an epic weekend at Caesars Palace.
The passion, dedication, and amazing skills of the world’s greatest fighting gamers have created a competitive legacy like nothing else in gaming, so come to Vegas and be a part of the magic, the action, and the history. You can register to compete here, or if you just want to watch, spectators can attend the event for free, and are welcome to play games at one of the dozens of freeplay and demo stations.
Earlier today, EA Sports released footage of broadcaster Gus Johnson working on soundbytes to be implemented into Madden 11. Johnson also talked about what it means to be only the fourth lead commentator in the history of the Madden series.
I'm posting this because my friend is in the match, also because it took place on the same weekend at Super NorCal Regionals. This is the finals of the Fanime Super Street Fighter IV tournament, which took place in San Jose.
My friend, Geoff aka SAYK, was in the finals as the winners bracket representative. He took on Joshua, a Guile user. It got somewhat intense but Geoff pulled out the victory in the end after switching from Ryu to Guile. The finals went two sets, the videos are below.
One of the most exciting parts of Saturday's MLG Columbus Tekken 6 tournament came in the second semifinals, when Fighting GM made an insane run to defeat Knee.
As part of his run, GM won 11 consecutive rounds to turn the tide in his favor. It was a sight to behold, in part because momentum seems to be a big thing when non-Koreans face off against the Koreans. That was the case when Kor won four consecutive games to beat Holeman and win the Orlando regional.
Aside from GM's first-combo win percentage (.867), the complete line score from that specific match, much like the title match, didn't open up any eyeballs. However, the 11-round winning streak was near perfection.
GM got the first combo nine times, including five in a row when he started his streak. He also had a combined 16 juggling and wall combos (1.455); in the other 12 rounds played, he had only six (.500).
But more importantly, he was able to withstand the damage given to him.
Knee pulled off two wall combos during the streak. Each time, GM was sent to less than 25 percent health and in danger of losing. Despite that, GM rallied back to win both rounds.
GM also won only three times with more than 50 percent health. I'm not sure if that's a surprise though, considering that it is Knee. Unfortunately for GM, the momentum quickly evaporated in the title match.
Click on the images to see the stats bigger. Go here for the guide. JC means "juggle combo" and WC means "wall combo."
It is probably because of where I came from in which I talk about how big Saturday's Team FFA United Ranbats 1.2 tournament was. The championship could have turned out to be the biggest tournament match of 2010, despite very few people knowing about it or seeing it live.
I'm sure when Striderzer0 posts the videos sometime in the future, you're going to shake your head and wonder what made this final match different than the rest. No, it wasn't Andy OCR making the run of a lifetime. No, it wasn't Combofiend using Cammy and going toe-to-toe against Justin Wong.
Futile vs. Hugo101 doesn't have that ring of "memorable moment" or "scene-changing match." Hardly. These two guys were trying to stay in the top three overall standings so they can make it onto Team FFA United.
Five hundred people didn't go to the Abel forum on SRK to talk about how Futile finished second to Hugo's Dictator. Futile doesn't have that type of pull. A win over Hugo wouldn't have made that happen.
But had Futile won, it would have been the biggest tournament win of 2010. Yes, there's still 6 months left, but it would have been that significant.
I still associate Futile as being a Brawl player. That's just how I've known him to start. He's a top-five player, one of the best Warios in the West Coast. But over the past few months, he's also played the Street Fighter IV series.
Brawl and Melee players in Southern California do play other fighting games, Super Street Fighter IV included. I've had some of those players ask me about the scene and what it's like to cover it. A part of me has this feeling that a lot of them want to compete in tournaments, that they want to be immersed in the scene because it would be a change from what Brawl or Melee has offered.
Some players have done that. Earlier this year, Plan 9 won the BlazBlue tournament at West Coast Warzone 2, perhaps the biggest tournament win for a Smash player to date. That was the first signal to the Smash community that it's OK to come out and compete, that you can be successful in another game.
But there needed to be something else. There needed to be another moment. Saturday could have been it. A tournament win by Futile would have sent the signal to Brawl and Melee players that it's possible to make the switch and be successful.
It's OK, it's not that bad to compete.
A lot more Smash players would have went to The Block on Wednesdays, FedEx on Thursdays or a local weekend ranbat and still got the shit kicked out of them, but they would have surfaced and stayed to improve, and that's what's important.
I noticed a few Smash players, when Street Fighter IV first came to console, did compete in local tournaments. But they were one-tourney-and-done. They took their ass kickings and went back to Brawl or Melee. There was nothing to grab onto, no hope of staying being worth it because no other Smash player had success.
Saturday wasn't the last time in a lifetime. Let's not kid ourselves. Futile is eventually going to win a tournament. He proved he can hang with the contenders. And Futile may not be the first top-Smash player in SoCal to win a different tournament -- someone else could surface and do it.
When that moment happens -- be it Futile or someone else -- we'll see how Brawl and Melee players respond. Will more of them try their hand at Super Street Fighter IV and other fighting game tournaments and not run away after getting beat down?
It's very possible. The community is waiting for someone to show them it is.
Kelly is one of the official photographers for MLG Columbus, and she was at all of the competitions this weekend. Be sure to go to the official MLG site to see pictures from the Tekken 6, Halo 3, Brawl and World of Warcraft tournaments.
If you want to check out the Tekken 6 pictures from Saturday, go here.
Don't forget that the 3-on-3 tournament for Tekken 6, as well as the 2-on-2 Brawl tournament, will be Sunday morning and will be broadcast on MLG's site.
The Box Arena is broadcasting the second of their six 2-on-2 ranbats tournaments, live from Santee. The format is Super Battle Opera style, meaning everyone on every team will play in a match.
Sansann and ShadyK will try to stay at the top of the standings after winning the first ranbat tournament last month.
Congratulations to Holeman for winning the Tekken 6 tournament at MLG Columbus on Saturday. He got the job done after finishing second in Orlando a couple months ago.
With his win, he is now the points leader for Tekken 6. Kor, the defending champ, went 2-2 on the day to finish in the top eight.
The biggest standout aside from the champ Holeman was runner-up Fighting GM, who won eight consecutive elimination matches to get to the finals. Arguably his most notable point came in the second semifinals, where GM won 11 rounds in a row as part of his defeat over Knee.
The day ultimately belonged to Holeman. Unlike last time where he surrendered four consecutive games to Kor, he only gave one game to the hot-streaking GM.
Holeman came out victorious in Columbus and with 2nd and 1st place finishes in Orlando and Columbus, respectively; it is safe to say that he is the most consistent and dominating player in MLG right now. However, FightingGM had a very impressive run, and showed that the US players can indeed compete with the Korean superpowers. As Blood Hawk, a fellow New York competitor, remarked when GM was playing one of the Koreans during his Losers Bracket run, “He’s not a machine!!”
Holeman stats in the title match were on par with most Tekken 6 finals matches. He got the first hit in 14 of the 18 rounds and won nine times (.643). He also had 14 juggling combos in the match (.778).
Fighting GM was on fire going into the title match; he had taken out the defending champ Kor, plus Nin in the second semifinals.
Against Holeman, he had a day-and-night outing.
GM won every Round 1 of the four games played. After Round 1, it seemed like he was a totally different player.
In the four Round 1s combined, GM got the first combo three times. More importantly, he was juggled one time and not sent to the wall.
But in the 14 non-Round 1s, GM was juggled 13 times and wall comboed nine other times.
Click on the graphic to see the stats from the final match. If you need a refresher on what the stats mean, go here. JC means "juggle combo" and WC means "wall combo."
Striderzer0 is broadcasting today's Team FFA United Ranbats 1.2 tournament.Vicious will try to defend his 1.1 title and earn more points toward the top three standings. The top three finishers at the end of the series will become Team FFA United and represent the arcade in future events.
SUNNYVALE - After he finished fifth at the HD Remix tournament at Super NorCal Regionals, David Sirlin talked about his run in the tournament. I also asked him about breaking through in the veteran-laced Super Turbo/HD Remix scene, and he brought up some unique names in the community.
You can listen to the interview below.
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