Edward Sebastian Jr. put up a picture gallery earlier today of Saturday's The Box Arena team ranbats tournament finale. There's plenty of shots in there of many players, so be sure to check it out.

Also, if you want to see only the matches of the final eight teams, they're available in two parts. Hit the jump for the videos.

Picture by Edward Sebastian Jr.

The only thing missing from the Madden Challenge Finals Tournament is the betting lines. There’s been many prediction topics on the various Madden forums, as spectators are encouraged to make their pick for who will win the Finals Tournament (and no, there won’t be any first-place splitting here).

There’s a week to go before the 22 finalists head off to Turks and Caicos to play in North America’s toughest tournament series. It’s been a long time since Young Nephew kicked off the season with a dominating performance, arguably the most dominant this season.

A lot has happened since then. A blocked field goal in the finals of a regional, a bevy of Dallas users and two non-Xbox 360 owners winning regionals are just some of the notable events.

I won’t be picking the winner, but I will predict who will make the final four. Yes, the bracket has not been revealed yet; I have heard it might not be released to the public because of the possible lack of Internet at Turks and Caicos.

Problem

Texas player “Jumpman” won his third consecutive regular season championship on GameBattles, holding off more than several hundred competitors throughout the several-month season.

Jumpman finished with a record of 205-17, winning his last five matches in regular season play. He went 18-2 in his final 20 contests.

By finishing first, he’ll go into Monday’s playoffs as the No. 1 seed.

Finishing second on the ladder was “BarDulL,” who made a late charge in the final three weeks to finish 217-27. He won his final eight contests and went 47-5 in the last seven days of regular season play.

One of those 47 wins came against Jumpman; BarDulL prevailed in that contest on Wednesday. However, BarDulL lost his next match, breaking what was then a nine-game winning streak. On his profile, BarDulL claims he should have earned the No. 1 seed over Jumpman.

Taking the 32nd and final spot was “Some Kind of Joke,” who finished 77-18. He only played five matches on Wednesday, winning all five. He went 17-3 in his final 20 games.

The 32 players will compete in a traditional double-elimination competition, scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Monday. Matches are scheduled to take place Monday and Wednesday.

Many players in the Championship Gaming Series have either been forced into retirement or trying to get back into the competitive scene.

“Comeback Dan” Otto is taking another approach.

With the league gone for good, Otto has turned his focus to a new venture; being a tutor. He has started a Web site, www.gaminglogic.net, and it focuses on helping players get better in several console game.

“The purpose of Gaming Logic is to help aspiring gamers become the best player they can be by providing them with an avenue to receive training from top players,” Otto said. “This training comes through premium content provided by pros.”

Through the premium content, users can watch video commentary and read strategies from the top players.

The games scheduled to be covered include “Halo 3,” “Call of Duty 4,” “Forza Motorsport 2” and “Gears of War 2.” All four are games that have a healthy competitive following, which is partly why Otto picked those games. The “Madden NFL” series could be included in that roster.

It won’t be Otto going at it alone. Several competitive players have signed on to provide assistance.

And if there’s a game that they want covered, they can contact Otto by e-mail or head to the Gaming Logic forums.

Some of the services will be available at no charge, while others will require a “Premium Membership.”

“Whether the player is very experienced in the competitive scene or just picking up the game for the first time I guarantee the articles and commentaries at Gaming Logic will improve your game,” Otto said. “The demos and articles at Gaming Logic will teach you Why things in the match happen.”

Private lessons are usually the norm for video game competitors trying to learn from the best players. However, Otto provides several reasons why a Premium Membership is likely better. One reason is the cost (normally, it’s $9.95 a month although for the first couple of weeks, it has been reduced to $5.99 a month). Another reason is the specific commentaries and articles that users will receive. A third reason is that information is constantly updated, while private lessons are usually one-time deals.

“The commentaries focus on WHY someone got a kill rather than teaching you how to shoot a gun,” Otto said. “Gaming Logic focuses on the ‘why’ because all games at a competitive level are situational based. Figuring out how stay in an advantageous situation (like holding top Middle on Narrows) and how to get out of disadvantageous situations (like spawning in gold room on Construct) are absolutely essential to your success at a high level.

“Despite these facts, much of the information presented to a player in a private lesson is far to general to be utilized effectively in a specific situation. Applying these generalizations to specific situations in games often leads to incorrect play.
In a competitive match many different situations arise, but due to time constraints of private lessons very few of these situations can be covered making the lesson pointless.”

Starting Thursday, content is scheduled to be updated on a weekly basis, which is one of the goals of the site, Otto said.

Seven players from the defunct Championship Gaming Series have joined the reborn Jax Money Crew, it was announced Friday.

Five of the players will make up the “Counter-Strike 1.6” team, while two others will take part in “FIFA” contests.

“After the close of the CGS, there was no doubt in my mind, that I would continue in gaming,” founder Alex Conroy said on the team’s new Web site. “When some of my players shared the same ambition, the idea to reform JMC became a reality.”

Conroy was the leader of the Dallas Venom in the C.G.S, and some of the players on the J.M.C franchise come from that team.

The Counter-Strike squad will consist of Salvatore “Volcano” Garozzo, David “Zid” Chin, Michael “Method” So, Erik “da bears” Sundstrom and Justin Summy.

So is the only California player on the Counter-Strike squad, as he is from Orange County.

The FIFA duo will be Bardia Moayedi and Yfran Garcia. Both had impressive showings during the 2008 C.G.S season, with Garcia taking home the individual championship in “FIFA 09.”

Moayedi, from Laguna Niguel, was a member of the Venom during the C.G.S’ 2008 season.

The seven players are the latest to find homes following the end of the multi-game league. Earlier this month, four members of CompLexity Gaming were signed by the Evil Geniuses.

WEST COVINA - Peter “Combofiend” Rosas made it known to Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez that he was going to use Dhalsim against Gutierrez’s Balrog in the finals of Saturday’s “Street Fighter IV” tournament at Video 94.

And even with the forewarning, Gutierrez couldn’t stop Rosas.

Rosas won Saturday’s tournament with an undefeated record, beating Gutierrez in the finals, 2-0.

“I don’t know what to do against Dhalsim, because nobody plays him except Combofiend,” Gutierrez said. “His hits don’t do much, but if you don’t know what to do against him, you’re stuck.”

For winning, Rosas won $1,000. The payout is the biggest for a “Street Fighter IV” competition in the state this year.

“It’s great,” Rosas said. “Everyone is really good. There’s tough competition.”

The tournament hosts wanted at least 25 players before awarding the tournament its $1,000 first-place prize. Nearly 32 players showed, all hoping to get a shot at that four-digit amount.

And players were reminded from the very beginning what they were playing for. Many of the first-round matches that didn’t go players’ ways were heavily noted; losers early on left in either frustration or disbelief, wondering if they would be able to get to the finals and a shot at the title.

Those that lost had to run a gauntlet of stellar competitors, and many of them didn’t get out.

Gutierrez and Rojas met in the first semifinal, but they played a Balrog ditto match, and Rojas narrowly prevailed, 2-1.

After Gutierrez won the second semifinal, Rojas made known his intentions to change characters.

“Dhalsim beats half of the cast, Balrog beats the other half,” Rojas said. “Ryan is really tough to play against.”

GRANADA HILLS - Max Christiansen defeated Andre Malek to cap off an undefeated championship in Saturday’s “Street Fighter IV” tournament here at Family Fun Arcade.

Perhaps it was fitting that Christiansen met Malek in the title match; the two friends go back to the days of “Soul Calibur II.”

“I’ve known him for years,” Malek said. “He was the best Nightmare player back in the day.”

On Saturday, it wasn’t about the swords, but who could punch, kick and grab better. That turned out to be Christiansen, who used Ken but threw very few hadoukens. Instead, he held Malek at bay throughout the finals, to a point where he could do damage but avoid getting grabbed by Malek’s Zangief.

Malek showed what could happen if he gets in the right spot, as he used several spinning pile drivers to dominate the first game.

Christiansen changed his spacing just a little bit in the second and third games, and mixed up his attacks to throw off Malek. In the second and third rounds, there were more grabs accomplished by Christiansen.

The tournament win was Christiansen’s first. He finished third place earlier this month at Family Fun Arcade.

“I’m not too competitive with tournaments, but I love ‘Street Fighter IV,’ so I come,” Christiansen said.

After the match, both players complimented each other. Christiansen made note that Malek was still a rookie to “Street Fighter IV” but made it to the finals over several players that have been competing weekly.

“He just outplayed me,” Malek said.

SAN DIEGO - Aris Bakhtanians and Christian “Vicious Suicide” Gonzalez are really good friends and have played each other plenty of times in “Soul Calibur IV.”

They put their friendship aside for a few minutes Sunday to battle in the finals of the latest tournament held at Games On in Pacific Beach.

Bakhtanians found the upper hand late in Game 5 of the finals and prevailed, 3-2 to win Sunday’s tournament with an undefeated record.

Bakhtanians said the finals was a toss-up and could have gone either way.

“It was just a matter of who plays their sharpest right now,” the champion said.

It was Bakhtanians who did just that, narrowly taking out Gonzalez’s Lizardman after it appeared that Gonzalez was going to force a second final.

For the second consecutive tournament, the winner used Siegfried. Mark Martin was the defending champion going into Sunday’s competition. But Martin finished seventh out of 25 competitors.

“We came out today to take out Mark M.,” Gonzalez said.

In the second semifinal, Gonzalez narrowly lost the first round, then put on a brief dominant display to go ahead 2-1. But he let Round 4 go and then escaped with a Round 5 win that got the crowd cheering.

After exchanging high-fives with some of the other competitors, Bakhtanians wasn’t so quick to compliment his friend, who he was soon to face in the finals.

“Oh don’t be so happy. You’re about to get (expletive) up,” Bakhtanians said.

CompLexity. Team 3D.

Another chapter in the nation’s most-famous “Counter-Strike” rivalry will be written Saturday with — as usual — plenty on the line.

The Los Angeles compLexity made sure Friday night that the rivalry match would happen; they defeated Devastation, 10-2 in the quarterfinals of the Championship Gaming Series’ Pro-Am Source playoffs.

CompLexity dominated in nearly every way over Devastation as it stayed alive in the tournament. Now, they’ll take on a 3D New York team that hasn’t played in nearly a week. And the last time Team 3D did play, they lost to the San Francisco Optx.

In Friday’s contest, compLexity ended the first half leading 8-1. They ended the match three rounds later.

Saturday’s tilt between compLexity and Team 3D will be the second semifinal contest in the playoffs. The match will be played on de_season.

The two teams met Monday on de_season, with Team 3D winning, 10-4.

The winner will play San Francisco in the title match on Tuesday.

With less than two months to go in Gamebattles’ “Super Smash Bros. Brawl” competition, “Jumpman” continues to hold on to the No. 1 position.

However, there are several players in the hunt to take the top player down.

Jumpman sports a 168-13 record, which is 21 less than the No. 2 player.

Down on the top 25, there are several players with at least 200 wins. “Ellemenno KANG” is seventh with a record of 205-51.

“Phone Home” has the most wins of anyone in the top 25, but is 223-70 and on a two-game losing streak.

The top 32 players in the ladder at the end of the year advance to a playoff bracket, where the winner receives $1,250.

Here are the top four players as of Friday afternoon:

JumpMan: 168-13: Has won 16 in a row. Only one of two players in the top 15 with a win streak in double digits.

JudgeMeow: 189-15. In second on the ladder but with a 3-2 record in last five games. Has the second-most wins among those in the top 10.

Fa7al: 145-20. Has won nine in a row, which is the third-best winning streak among players in the top 15.

Hailstorm: 160-26. Remains in fourth despite winning one of the past three games. The 26 losses are second-worst among those in the top 10.