On the Cool Runnings forums, they have posted a letter that MLG had reportedly sent to all Gears of War 2 professional players.

First, I would like to thank all of you for being patient as we went through out 2010 season planning. As for the news you’ve all been waiting for, I am very disappointed to say that Gears of War 2 will not return on the MLG Pro Circuit for another season. This was a very difficult decision to make for the league since the Gears franchise has been with the MLG for so long. There has been a constant state of discussion within the company over the past few months on this topic. Gears of War had many high points in its tenure with the league, however we faced obstacles that we ultimately were not able to overcome. A number of factors played into this decision including audience numbers, the gameplay itself, and our developer relationship with Epic. I know that many of you are disappointed to hear this but I hope you understand the reasoning. The decision took a long time because it was indeed difficult and was made and finalized just yesterday.

I think it was really awesome how the community and certain pros rallied around the game. You guys are all great competitors and great partners to have. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with each of you over the past year(s). I would like to thank all of you for competing with MLG and hope that you can continue competing with us in some other way. I’ve developed good relationships with many of you guys and know how much you guys care about competitive gaming.

MLG is growing and spreading the focus around to other genres, but at the same time getting more efficient within each genre. Stay tuned for additional league announcements pertaining to this season set to be announced today.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about any of this. My door is always open for you guys. Again, thank you all for your understanding.

All I'm thinking about is the first sentence of the last paragraph.

This is another fun Players Choice podcast and I hope you enjoy it. It's my first one featuring a player from out of state. In this episode, I talk to Arizona's Juicebox, arguably that state's best Abel player.

Juicebox went to two tournaments in the region this past weekend and finished in the top eight in both; the LA Riots qualifying tournament at Family Fun Arcade, and the Level|Up competition at The Block at Orange. His combination of surprising grabs and hard-nosed defense made him a tough player in both tournaments. But you probably know him for physically doing the Abel ultra motion whenever he connects on it during a contest.

Perhaps his signature moment of the weekend was winning the Beat the Pro event at the Level|Up tournament on Saturday.

In this interview, we talk about using Abel and how he's able to make him successful. He mentions the character that gives him problems and what he's done to help alieviate them. Also, you'll find out why he physically does the Abel ultra motion.

You can listen to the podcast below.

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Major League Gaming and EA Sports announced a deal earlier today to where statistics will be implemented into certain EA Sports games, and those numbers will be put into a database for competitive play. On the surface, this should should further separate the haves and have-nots when it comes to certain titles like the Madden series. MLG, on its site, said certain stats from online play will be implemented into rankings, and those numbers will be put into player profiles.

There's a lot that can be done by implementing numbers into players' profiles for tournament play. For one, a true seeding and ranking system can be put into place, and perhaps a PER - Performance Efficiency Rating -- can be created.

The only real negative to this might be the skunk rule; since games can end before time is up, then that might skew some numbers. Perhaps an ERA-type system could work? Who knows at this time? But at least followers of these players are going to see something, and that's a big positive.

Here's some of the announcement on the MLG site:

“Online competition and knowing where you stand is what video gaming is all about,” said Matthew Bromberg, president and CEO of Major League Gaming. “Together with EA SPORTS, we are creating the ultimate competitive social experience for millions of online EA SPORTS gamers in North America.”

Beginning last fall, sponsors like PlayStation, Best Buy, Ball Park and Geico have partnered with MLG and EA SPORTS in the 2009 EA SPORTS Challenge Series, a program which has successfully combined live competitions with online tournaments to determine the champions for select EA SPORTS titles. With greater product integration and the creation of a new online destination, this new joint offering is expected to be even more attractive as a marketing vehicle.

“We’ve been proud to work with MLG to help usher in a new era of video game competition,” said EA SPORTS President Peter Moore. “Today’s announcement reflects the natural evolution of the EA SPORTS experience, providing a rich platform for the millions of gamers now playing online to share and compete.”

In an upcoming Gamertag Radio podcast, Capcom's Seth Killian is asked about the status of Hakan, the new character in Super Street Fighter IV that hasn't been announced yet; therefore, since it's still not confirmed then it's not really official.

"You're going to see some more information about our final character before long," Seth told the guys at Gamertag Radio.

You can listen to the preview of the podcast here.

UPDATE: The bracket has been modified with two of the opening rounds changed. Every entry prior to 6 p.m. PT Monday is now invalid, and those participants can submit two new entries anytime before the Saturday deadline.

The LA Riots III tournament is Saturday, and Get Your Tournament will be doing a few things leading up to and during the event. The first is our Bracket Challenge; we'll be giving away some cool prizes to those that can guess how the tournament is going to go. If you're really good, you'll have a lot coming to you.

Here's how the contest goes: Your goal is to fill out the bracket above (click to see a bigger version) with how you think Saturday's LA Riots III tournament will turn out. Points will be awarded for each round of the tournament. They are ….

• Round 1: 1 point per match
• Round 2: 3 points per match
• Round 3: 5 points
• Rounds 4 and 5: 1 point per match
• Round 6: 2 points
• Round 7: 3 points
• Round 8 championship: 7 points

The person with the most points will win the contest. In the event of a tie, we will take all of those in the tie and do a drawing on a live stream to see who is the winner.

Here are the prizes you can win:

• First place: Your choice of an iPod Shuffle or Marvel vs. Capcom fight stick (Xbox 360)
• Second place: A MadCatz TE keychain
• Third place: A MadCatz TE keychain

If you predict a perfect bracket – that means you get the result of every match correctly – you will win an iPod Shuffle AND the MadCatz Marvel vs. Capcom fight stick, plus a World Warrior II T-shirt from Kineda.com and an iTunes gift card and a MadCatz TE keychain!

Some other notes before you get started working on your bracket:

• The double jeopardy rule will be enforced in the tournament. That means that the same match can't happen twice in a tournament unless it's unpreventable. This situation would only happen in Round 5. If you believe that is going to happen, then switch the two players that lost from Round 2 (A goes to B, and B goes to A), and continue to fill out your bracket.
• For the championship match, you only need to say who will win the tournament, regardless of whether it goes to a second grand finals.
• No sticking players more than it's possible to happen or else you will be disqualified. Example: Don't stick (just an example) Shizza vs. Justin Wong in every spot of the bracket.
• Incomplete brackets will not be counted.
• None of my current teammates, former teammates, LA Riots organizers or competitors in the tournament can enter (sorry, for the most part).
• You can submit up to TWO different brackets, however you can only win one prize.
• If the official bracket is altered prior to Saturday, all submissions are absolved, and the contest will re-start.
• Once you submit your entry, that's it, no changes.
• I have the right to change the rules at anytime including, and up to, the day of the tournament.

You can submit your bracket predictions two different ways:

1. Leave it in the comments section below, with a name.
2. E-mail me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with the headline BRACKET CHALLENGE and a name.

The deadline is 11 a.m. PT Saturday!

If you need an example of how to submit your answers, here you go. This is an example only:

More after the jump ...

ROWLAND HEIGHTS - ComboJack continued to cement the all-knowing fact that, barring some sort of unforseen event in this episode of life, he is going to win Season 3 of the Arcade Infinity Ranbats series. Last season, he made a run at the title but finished a narrow second to Keno. The roles are reversed now; ComboJack leads with 30 points, and Keno has 16 after Sunday's tournament where they finished first and third, respectively.

ComboJack faced Mike Ross in the title match, and I think from the beginning we knew what was coming. Mike held his own, but ComboJack prevailed, and did some unexpected links to ultras or supers in the process (when the guys at AI post the videos on their YouTube portal, you'll see Jack doing the unexpected stuff).

Onto the title recap:

Title match result
First championship: ComboJack 2, Mike Ross 0
Second championship: ComboJack 2, Mike Ross 0

Match breakdown
Rounds won: ComboJack 8, Mike Ross 2
First-hit win percentage: Overall 60.0 percent, ComboJack 100.0 percent (4/4), Mike Ross 33.3 percent (2/6)
Lead changes: 0
Average round time: 50.3 seconds

The title match was over when …
... ComboJack defeated Mike Ross' Blanka in Game 1 of the first championship match. The character usage didn't throw off Jack at all.

Player of the tournament:
Evil Elvis, for his top-eight finish (5-2). He beat Jeremy aka Vicious following his loss to Keno, then won another match to get to the final eight. But then he lost to eventual champ ComboJack.

Other notes:
Mike Ross' character usage in the title matches went Blanka, Honda, Ken, Honda.

Twice during his final two matches, ComboJack jumped back into a slow fireball, and that cost him a round. Turned out, that didn't cost him the tournament.

Michael aka Slash5150 is broadcasting today's Bloody-Knuckles event and Tournament Wars championship matches. You can watch it and chat below.

Here's some more info on the event.

Raise your hand if you said we would see a Cammy ditto in a championship match of a major Street Fighter IV tournament within the next two months. If you raised your hand, your nose just got longer. That was the definite capper from Saturday's Street Fighter IV competition at the Level|Up tournament. Combofiend stays with Justin Wong using Cammy, and then Justin proves he can do the same by going Cammy as well during the first championship match. It definitely made for a memorable finals contest.

As I told Combofiend in the post-tournament interview (which is below), his usage of Cammy might start a revolution; more people for the final two months of Street Fighter IV's life will go with Cammy. And then if she doesn't work out in Super Street Fighter IV, we'll all go back and act like nothing happened (well, some of us).

Onto the recap, where I might be inclined to use Cammy somewhere, maybe a few times.

Title match result
Combofiend 3, Justin Wong 1
Justin Wong 3, Combofiend 1

Match breakdown
Rounds won: Justin Wong 9, Combofiend 9
First-hit win percentage: Overall 83.3 percent, Combofiend 87.5 percent, Justin Wong 80.0 percent
Lead changes: 0
Average round time: 36.61 seconds

The title match was over when …
… Justin Wong clamped down on Combofiend's offense and took a massive lead in the final round of the final game. Combofiend had stayed with Justin the whole time except for perhaps two rounds early in the contest.

Player of the tournament:
I want to say AlexMan for getting to the final eight, but I'll give it to Combofiend for using three characters in the final eight and getting to the title match against Justin Wong, and then winning the first championship match. 

Other notes:
Juicebox getting two perfects in five rounds played against AlexMan got the Arizona faithful hyped up like crazy. But I still have to wonder why he went Ryu after losing a game to Combofiend's Abel. There was nobody in the crowd that understood that switch. Juicebox had told me he went hardcore Ryu for a while when trying to improve his overall game. Still, I can't understand it.

Here's an interview with Combofiend after he finished second. He talked about why he went Cammy.

Here's an interview with Justin Wong after he won the tournament. He talked about playing against Combofiend's Cammy.

After tonight's Tekken 6 competition at the Level|Up tournament, I've now realized that when it comes to regions, I cheer for only two things, the San Francisco Giants, and Southern California Tekken 6 players. That was the case especially in the winners finals and championship match, where I was hoping that Aris would hold it down for Southern California against the Northern rival Mr. Naps. Instead, it was Mr. Naps that took home the title despite moments where he was locked up.

It was also great to see the whole bracket get full for the tournament; I got worried that the event wasn't going to get all the spots in, unlike the Street Fighter IV tournament, which had their 64 players secured within hours of signups. And to everyone in Pool D, I hope you didn't get any cuts or bruises because that was a BRUTAL bracket to be in; there was so much talent there and unfortunately only two could get out.

Anyway, onto the great title match recap.

Title match result
Mr. Naps 3, Aris 1

Match breakdown
Rounds won: Mr. Naps 9, Aris 6
First-hit win percentage: Overall 66.7 percent, Mr. Naps 83.3 percent (5/6), Aris 55.6 percent (5/9)
Lead changes: 1
Average round time: 25.47 seconds

The title match was over when …
… surprisingly, Aris got his second perfect round of the match; it occurred in the first round of Game 3. After that, Mr. Naps ran off six consecutive rounds to take the match. Some were close, but a lot of them Mr. Naps was in control.

Player of the tournament:
Mr. Naps held it down for Northern California and thus it's an easy pick for player of the tournament. For the run that Aris made, I want to give it to him, but this is a major event.

Other notes:
Aris got two perfects in the final eight. The first came in the first round of the tournament. And when Aris started the match with three consecutive rounds won, I thought we were going to see a second championship match within seconds. That wasn't the case, as Mr. Naps adjusted and figured out Aris in time to stop him.

In the final eight, the regional rivalry went 4-2 in favor of Northern California. Mr. Naps went 3-0 against Southern California in the final eight. Ricky Ortiz went 1-2.

Here's Aris talking about finishing in second ...

ORANGE - We'll be live from the SoCal Level|Up Tournament later today. We should be doing updates starting sometime after 12:30 p.m.

You can get updates throughout the day on our Twitter portal.