Here are the stats for the Top 8 matches at last Thursday's Afro Dojo tournament. Jason Cole came back from the losers bracket to win the tournament, using both Boxer and Dhalsim.

Cole, as with most Dhalsim users, made first combos a big deal. He had a .773 first-combo win percentage, in addition to his .692 first-hit win percentage. He was the only opponent whose defensive averages in those same categories were under .500.

Perhaps the most amazing statistic in the Top 8 is that Cole made 11 comebacks.

These stats are for what happened in the Top 8 only. The first part of the stats are what the player did, the second half are what the opponent did (O for opponent).

I'll be adding these stats, as well as other Afro Dojo matches, to the player database later today. Check out the player database here.

If you need a reference on the stats posted above, go here for the statistical guide.

ESPN posted another article this past weekend about the life of a Madden player. In this, they talk to several competitive players about the competitive scene and how high the stakes can get. For a guy like Eric "Problem" Wright, the stakes can get really high.

A 21-year-old college student from West Covina, Calif., Wright is considered by many within the hardcore Madden NFL community to be ... the greatest player of all time. The Jerry Rice of rocket catching. The Dick Butkus of the game's virtual lumber-laying "hit stick." Since entering the competitive "Madden NFL" scene as a high-school junior, Wright has won dozens of tournaments and thousands of random games.

And that's not all.

"I've made close to $300,000 in tournaments," he said. "I've made nearly $500,000 underground. Online, I have to play with aliases. Or else no one will bet with me."

Add it up: that's 800 large. I thought Wright was joking. That is, until former Madden Challenge champ Ayan "Fool" Tariq mentioned that the pot for Madden NFL "money games" -- read: wagering on wins and losses -- can run between $300 and more than $3,000. Meanwhile, Topp told me that he won $50,000 playing against former NFL defensive tackle Sam Adams.

None of the "Madden NFL" hardcore scoffed at that claim, either.

Southern California will be well represented at Super Battle Opera next month. The two qualifying tournaments for Tekken 6 and Street Fighter IV took place Sunday afternoon in San Mateo.

For Tekken 6, the team of Rip, Suiken and Aris won the title, beating Mr. Naps, William Powers and Master Bolo in the finals.

Team Evil Geniuses won the Street Fighter IV tournament, beating the team of Vance Wu, Filipino Champ and 200 Yen in the finals.

Five of the six players on those two teams are from SoCal.

You can check out the full list of qualifiers on Event Hubs, including where the teams are from and what characters are primarily used.

This past weekend, AlphaISM Radio had its latest radio show, and they took time to break down Isaiah "Triforce" Johnson's comments which he said a few days earlier. The hosts, in the 4-hour show, took exception to the quote that Empire Arcadia "made" Justin Wong, a former member.

Martin "Marn" Phan also was on the show and mentioned a brief story regarding him and Triforce regarding how he left Empire Arcadia.

You can listen or download the interview here (in MP3).

The beauty of sports is that it's unscripted. Amazing things can happen at any time during a event. Think about baseball this year. It's widely considered the Year of the Pitcher, with a combination of five no-hitters and perfect games, and two others being so close to being on that list. At any moment, you can witness history.

And on that same level, upsets can happen and surprises bloom.

After Sunday's Apex 2010 finale, one thing stood out to me: what is the bigger surprise exit of this year? There's two obvious choices.

The first is Justin Wong, who didn't make Championship Sunday at Evolution 2010. I'm fairly sure he was on a lot of people's lists to at least finish in the top three, if not play for the title.

The other is Joseph "Mango" Marquez, who was nowhere near the top eight at Apex 2010's Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament -- 25th place. Mango is the standard in the United States, having dominated for the past three years.

Justin played on a bigger stage, with a bigger audience and bigger stakes. He took Daigo Umehara to the brink in an exhibition. In the time before Evolution, he lost less than 10 games after he moved to the West Coast.

Mango was expected by 99.999 percent of the community to get to the finals and possibly win it. A lot of people on the chat were talking about possibly seeing Armada vs. Mango, the runback from Genesis 2009. And Mango was taken out early by two guys not expected to contend for the title.

So what do you think was the bigger surprise exit? Or is there a bigger one out there other than these two?

Apex 2010, the biggest grass roots Brawl and Melee tournament of the year so far, is taking place all weekend. Check it out and chat below.

Street Fighter x Tekken will be at the Gamescon event in Cologne, Germany, on Aug. 19, the opening day of the four-day event.

Producers Katsuhiro Harada and Yoshinori Ono will be at the event and likely playing the game. Here's more from SDTekken:

Witness the clash of two Legends of Fighting at gamescom 2010 for the Duel of the Decade. Join the exclusive premiere of STREET FIGHTER X TEKKEN and meet the makers of the two best fighting games, Yoshinori Ono (Street Fighter) and Katsuhiro Harada (TEKKEN). Watch as the two fighting game icons Ryu and Kazuya test their might on stage and on screen.

Where: Konrad-Adenauer-Saal Congress-Centrum Nord
When: Thursday, August 19th, 2010 at 2 PM local time (Doors open at 1 PM

Each visitor will get an exclusive give-away to remember this awesome premiere.

Following the presentation is a games tournament with the best STREET FIGHTER and TEKKEN players.

Are you strong enough to meet the challenge?!

In an interview just after a private showing of King of Chinatown, Empire Arcadia's Isaiah "Triforce" Johnson got on the mic to talk about the state of his organization, as well as those that aren't with it anymore.

Several players have left for good or joined other competitive gaming teams. This included Justin Wong, who is now with Evil Geniuses. But neither side had wanted to talk about the move until Triforce did a few days ago.

"That issue is not resolved," Triforce said of his best player leaving. "I cannot comment any further because there's logistics behind it, so i can't say whether he's still in Empire or with another organization.

"That's for the wise men to figure out."

King of Chinatown is a documentary focusing on Jusitn Wong. It began filming in October 2008, when Wong was still on the team. He left in June.

Soon after, Arturo Sanchez also announced he was leaving to dedicate his full time to Team Spooky.

However, in this video Triforce said Smash player Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman is still with Empire Arcadia, even though he is also a member of of vVv Gaming.

"The empire is fall from crumbling," Triforce said. "There's a chink in the armor, there's other players that can excel."

The interview, done by Raw Game Play, is in two parts, the first part is posted above.

Latest update: Aug. 11, 2010

This is the Get Your Tournament statistical player database. After watching more than 30 tournaments, here are the statistics of the players involved in those tournaments, put together into a database, which will be constantly updated.

This is something I envisioned since I started seriously tracking statistics months ago. The idea, at least for me, is to see how a player performs in Super Street Fighter IV. After months of working on this, I believe a player, like in any major sport, has tendencies that can be tracked and noted. If someone always gets the first hit or always use EX meter the moment he or she gets it, it will be revealed here. I've also wanted to see how two player stack up as they meet in a big match. If I knew someone had a .750 win percentage and her opponent had a .751 first-hit win percentage, I know that on paper, getting the first hit is crucial in this matchup.

Also this is, as a lot of things, a major work in progress. If you've wanted to see how certain players, or yourself, stack up statistically to other players, you'll get to see it here.

This is baby steps to what will be a very in-depth database. I'll be adding a lot of features to this in the future, and feel free to suggest something (we're probably thinking the same thing, but I want to see what is suggested. A list of tournaments charted, plus defense statistics are two of my priorities.).

As I chart tournaments, I'll be updating this. Unlike the statistical tournament tier list which is updated every 1,000 rounds, you'll always see the latest statistics (and if you're keeping track, you'll know when the next 1,000 mark is broken).

Some notes on this following the jump ...

ESPN has a great article in its E-Ticket/Outside the Lines series featuring the Madden series. It breaks down the history of the game, from how Madden got involved, to its current state. It adds a few things that weren't mentioned in G4's documentary, produced several years ago, including Joe Montana's influence.

It captures how a game that was a coinflip has become a national franchise, to the point that the little things seen on Sundays can be traced to the video game.

Does the pressure of being a franchise game get to the producers and makers? Seems like it, if you read the story:

Ian Cummings is the creative director for "Madden." If there's something amiss in the way the game plays, it's ultimately his fault. Mike Young is in charge of art. If the style of Pittsburgh's digital helmet numbers looks wrong, he's probably to blame. Cummings played his first game of "Madden" on the Apple II. Young grew up in St. Louis before the Rams arrived; as a child, "Madden" was his NFL. In a large corner office adorned with a University of Tennessee flag, the two work side by side, in part to better communicate, in part to commiserate, as in the following exchange:

Cummings: "Updating player gear is such a pain. Like a guy changing from a single wristband to a double. It never stops."

Young: "We have people that just catalog this stuff every week. A player will start wearing team-colored gloves. A team will put a special logo on the 20-yard line for Week 8. Another team won't wear a special patch. And if we don't have that, it ruins the game for some people."

Cummings: "'Madden' might have the hardest community to please. It's painful. It ruins weekends. I've been out to dinner with my wife, and I check my phone [for online fan feedback]. It's all, 'You suck; you're terrible; give up the NFL license.'"

Graphic by ESPN via EA Sports