During the CeBIT championships in Hannover, Germany, there was some Super Street Fighter IV action happening. Here's a Makoto vs. Ibuki match that was captured.

Major League Gaming is asking the community to help out in their efforts to get Street Fighter IV on the 2010 tournament series.

Earlier today, co-founder Sundance DiGiovanni posted a video asking all fans and the community to sign a petition saying that they want the game on the MLG pro circuit.

Watch the video here.

And then go sign the petition here.

The Underground Tournament League is back once again with another tournament, this time scheduled for April 24 at the Rec Center Studio in Echo Park.

The main event is a 3-on-3 Street Fighter IV tournament, moving away from the singles tournament format. At the last event, Combofiend won, beating ComboJack in the finals; OnlineTony213 finished in third.

Registration is $10 per person. More info can be found on their event page on Facebook.

LOS ANGELES - The LA Riots III tournament has been postponed indefinitely. The word came from Gootecks earlier tonight, who said a situation that came up at the last moment that they had no control over.

The tournament was supposed to take place Saturday at 1 p.m. and be shown at TheStream.tv studios on the Miracle Mile.

Gootecks said he'll make an official announcement sometime in the next 24 hours.

UPDATE: Brian Gramo at TheStream.tv made an announcement earlier tonight that TheStream.tv will be shutting down production, thus the reason for the postponement of the tournament.

LG15 has more from their site:

Evo energy drink had been sponsoring the network; however, the company decided to end its sponsorship prompting Gramo to layoff the Stream’s employees and shut down production. Gramo intends to marshal the existing resources and any future donations towards revamping the Stream’s studio. The plan is to equip the studio with professional grad equipment then rent it out during the day as a way of supporting the Stream’s nighttime slate of original programming.

Tonight's Coin-Op TV show will include one of the participants in the LA Riots III tournament. It's Justin Wong.

Justin is the only one out of the eight players from this weekend's tournament that has not participated in the series. He recently won the Level|Up tournament last weekend.

He'll be a guest on the show, hosted by Robert Welkner and Hailey Bright.

On another note, this will be the first show for Coin-Op TV since they were nominated for a Streamy Award earlier this week.

The show starts at 8 p.m., and you can watch it on TheStream.tv.

For those trying to get into the Madden scene or wonder why there are groups that exist in an individual-type tournament, the guys at EA Sports break down in their latest blog.

Anton B, a member of the Madden Bible community and EA Sports, talks about labbing and why it's important.

Each day I spend a total of 8hours trying to figure out different schemes to throw at my opponent, its not easy but with time you will grasp a new concept and try it out.

When I want to try new things I normally go against the CPU, before attempting these things in real life against a Human opponent, the reason for this is, the CPU will throw different Defenses or Offenses at you and that helps with the Labbing Process.

Another thing you have to know about Labbing is "Who is a good Lab Partner"?  Choosing a partner is not that hard but in doing this the other person has to be willing to accept the above mentioned traits that you have.  If they aren't patience then He/she is not a person that you want as a Lab Partner because it takes Lots of time.  You want someone who has the same attitude that you have and that is to Win and do what ever it takes to get this accomplished.

If you're thinking that labbing might not be the way to go because ideas maybe stolen, consider this ... Jet Steele and Problem lab have labbed together for the past few years. They both faced off in the championships of the Dallas Madden Challenge and then the Finals Tournament.

The LA Riots III tournament is only a couple of days away. This week's Stats Series breaks down what you likely are going to be seeing when the tournament takes place on Saturday at 1 p.m., whether you're going to be watching it live at The Stream studios in Los Angeles, or if you're going  to be one of the likely thousands that are watching it on the live broadcast.

We know the eight players that are going to be competing in the tournament and how they're stacked up going into the contest (and you still have time to submit your guesses to win prizes in our Bracket Challenge).

What the LA Riots tournament series does is not only put the focus on eight players, but allow stat freaks like myself to break down the matches in a way that hasn't been done before for tournaments (You probably won't see me do this at Evolution, where hundreds of players await; I don't have that type of natural energy or performance-enhancing drugs handy)

One day, we can have a PER – Performance Efficiency Rating – for fighting game players. Until then, you have the chart below. This is a chart showing statistics from LA Riots II. Click for a much larger view.



Here are six of the eight players that will be competing in Saturday's tournament. The other two – Mike Ross and Justin Wong – didn't compete last time, which is why they're obviously not here.

Before going crazy and wondering what each statistic is all about, click here for the full guide.

Now you're going to ask me, "Which stat means more?"

I'm not sure which one means more right now. In the days of advanced analysis and sabremetrics, on-base percentage in baseball and PER in basketball mean more than what was considered the norm (hitting average and shooting percentage, respectively). The people that follow these types of things will weed out what ultimately matters vs. what is salad dressing.

Looking at these figures, it tells me a lot that I already knew about the six players mentioned here.

I knew that Keno was involved in the longest matches; this further confirms it (nearly a 10 second difference). Also, Kai doesn't connect on all of his ultras, which is a by product of his opponents jumping out of the way when they see his El Fuerte get ready to go.

Perhaps the most telling stat is the comebacks below 50 percent. I was almost inclined to call this the “Clutch” statistic, because it shows what someone can do when they're trailing late in a contest. I thought Alex Valle would lead here, but it's actually Kai. I want to know your thoughts on what the "clutch" stat is.

As we go into Saturday's tournament, I'm curious to find out where Justin Wong will fit in with all of this. He is the fastest worker in Southern California, and he's above the curve on first-hit win percentage. Mike Ross might have a lot of comebacks under 50 percent or less, but whether it's above the curve (2.83 in a final eight for a tournament) remains to be seen.

Here's a quick note of the eight competitors and one thing numbers-wise, that you should look for during Saturday's tournament:

Alex Valle: He leads in a lot of categories I've posted here. Perhaps the most telling is the rounds won under 50 percent. He has 14. The tournament average is 8.33. Opponents might chip away, but it's a matter of what happens late in a contest.

Combofiend: Without a doubt among the six in the chart, he is the fastest worker, regardless of whether he wins or loses a round.  He's nearly 4 seconds ahead of the next player and six seconds ahead of the average. He used Abel in LA Riots II, perhaps things change come Saturday.

Justin Wong: In the final eight of the Level|Up tournament, Justin had a 80 percent first-hit win percentage. Stack that against the LA Riots II figures, and he's well above the curve. His average round time was 39.82 seconds, which is also above the curve. The term "stay the course" might not apply to anyone else in this community, but it might do so for Justin.

Kai: It's a strange comparison when looking at his first-hit win percentage vs. first-combo win percentage. The difference is 30 percent.

Ken I.: Along with Alex Valle, he is above the curve in first-hit win percentage and first-combo win percentage (60 percent vs. the 53.35 percent average). He takes that lead, regardless of what character he uses,  and builds on it.

Keno: While we have Combofiend who is the fastest worker, Keno is by far the slowest worker. At the LA Riots II tourney, he spent nearly 18 seconds more than the average when he won a round. Another telling stat is that he rarely wins when he gets the first combo. It's at 25 percent.

Mike Ross: Perhaps one thing to look out for stats wise is the snowball effect. Wins compound just as badly as losses. Unfortunately in the final eight in the past two tournaments, it's been the negative side. He was only 3-for-10 following a loss.

Shizza: You'd think the guy that finished second in the tournament would have the second-best round ratio. But that's not the case. Shizza's ratio is plus-2. That means he's been in a lot of Round 3s and Game 3s.

Picture by Kelly Bracha.

Get ready to compete, because he will be.

ORANGE - One of the definite surprises of this past weekend was getting the opportunity to finally meet Arizona's JaeronMerc. His name might not ring a bell to the current competitive gaming audience, but years ago he was an innovater and the guy that pretty much kept competitive DDR alive for a year longer.

His unorthodox approach to tournament formats was adapted by a lot of people -- I've mentioned this in a book I wrote years ago -- despite it being initially eaten by wolves and considered "broken" or "doomed to fail." But in the end of those tournaments, a lot of the formats produced the two best players and a great championship contest.

Years later, he's moved on like almost all of us to different competitive games, including Street Fighter IV. I had a chance to talk to him during the Level|Up tournament on Saturday at The Block, and we discussed a few topics regarding running tournaments and the current Arizona fighting game scene. Also, you'll get our take on what game should be added to Devastation 2010.

You can listen to the interview below.

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