Get Your Tournament - News And Info
Looks like the stats revolution continues to hit other communities. Dazwa, a Starcraft II referee, was a Brawl official during the 2010 MLG season, the only one that had Brawl. He was able to pull match data from the 2010 season, excluding the Orlando regional, which was the first tourney in the season.
The results of the data are really amazing, more than anything I could have ever imagined I would be able to do for Brawl. Dazwa has posted his findings on Smashboards, and it is a definite read, so be sure to check it out.
The obvious stat I wanted to look at was character usage and how far Meta Knight was ahead of the next highest-used character. According the data, Meta Knight was used 1,298 times and No. 2 on the list, Snake, didn't even get used half of that. Capt. Falcon wins the Mr. Irrelevant award (3 times, according to the data).
The character usage lines up fairly well with what is to be expected at a major Brawl tourney and in looking at the chart, you can tell there are breaks between groups of characters used.
More from Dazwa:
I'm going to be perfectly honest: nothing shown above should come as a surprise to anyone. While I was a little heartbroken that the least commonly played character was Captain Falcon, everything here seems to be reasonable, barring that unusually high Lucas. While it's possible that characters may have "earned" additional games to their tally by simply entering game 3, the effect that has isn't nearly as influential as simply advancing in the bracket. The game 3 effect might sway the lower portion of the cast, but it's not a terribly major factor.Another factor was stage usage and ban rate. Final Destination is a stage I live on, and yet it was the most polarizing stage in the tournament series, being the third-most used and most-banned.
Be sure to check out the rest of the stats and give much love to Dazwa and the MLG referees for putting this together.
Graphic from Smashboards. no comments
The disporportionate amount of combos each player had in the title match was somewhat alarming. I talk about it on today's Stats Series podcast, which you can check out at the end of this article.
Another thing to note, the winners bracket representative has won the tournament 11 times in the 14 singles tournaments. Keep that in mind as your favorite player takes a loss in the tournament.
The Stats Series podcast - May 25, 2011 no comments
(UPDATE: Made a correction, Ally won KTAR5, and Anti finished second).
The Smashboards' Brawl Backroom Committee, the organization that has overseen the unification of tournament organizers for Brawl tournaments in the nation, has decided to punish three players for splitting prizes during this past weekend's KTAR5 event.
The three players are ADHD, Mew2King and Anti. They will receive a "yellow card" infraction, putting them one more penalty away from not being allowed to participate in certain events.
If you're wondering whether the yellow card concept is similar to what Evolution tournament organizers have, it is similar, and the BBR Committee acknowledged that's where the idea came from.
The current yellow card for the three players expires Nov. 21, 2011. If they receive another penalty, they will be barred from future tournaments that only use the newly formed Unity Ruleset. More than 50 percent of tournaments are using the format on a weekly basis -- this includes the Monterey Bay Thunder tournament series as well as major championship events such as KTAR5.
M2K reportedly had forfeited a match in the winners bracket during the KTAR5 tournament, played one match (and won) and then forfeited himself from the remainder of the tournament. He finished in fourth. ADHD took third and Anti second. The top eight players all received money.
Word immediately went public about M2K forfeiting twice, creating a debate about whether any punishment should have been done considering he never lost to anyone in game and actually came back to the tournament to play a losers bracket contest.
It's not the first time M2K and ADHD have been involved in something like this. ADHD and M2K were barred from competing in Major League Gaming's 2010 national championship tournament for Brawl after it was found out they were involved in what the league determined to be match fixing -- it was reported that one player paid off the other to advance in a prior tournament, but the players said they were splitting prize money and no sandbagging was involved. Instead of going to MLG officials first, ADHD and M2K went public with apologies and then talked to tournament staff, which upheld their decisions. On the same day that ruling came down, M2K was released from vVv Gaming.
This repeated action of splitting money has been an unfortunate staple of the Smash community, where it is wide open and well known compared to other competitive games. It has created a debate, not only in the Smash community but in other areas, about how lenient tournament organizers and fans should be regarding those that finish in the money. Some fans and tournament organizers see it as a black eye, while others have taken the "you make it in the money, do whatever you want" approach.
This is the full statement from the committee:Recently the integrity of our tournaments has come under attack. While most would agree having the best players possible at events is in the interest of the community, it should also be noted that it is only beneficial if these players are playing at their best capacity and not attempting to manipulate the tournament for their own collective good. The issue directly at hand is splitting, as it has caused what should be high profile, amazing matches, to instead become a battle of players not trying their hardest, using secondaries, or worse, playing "reverse mains" and also forfeiting. This, because the players have chosen, before playing, how to divy up the winnings of the tournament. This hurts the image of the individual tournament and of the overall Smash community, and this behavior will no longer be tolerated. The BBR-RC is taking the following stance and amending it's ruleset, partially mirroring and in the same spirit as recent decisions made by The Evolution Fighting Game Championship Series, in order to combat this awful practice that has already severely scarred the community (e.g. MLG DC and the Midnight Gaming Championship).no comments
The first players to be infracted and receive a Yellow Card under the already established authority of the Unity Ruleset, Conduct Rule #5, in conjunction with the newly created Infraction System (category: Bracket Manipulation), are Mew2King, ADHD, and Anti. This is due to their actions at this weekends tournament-KTAR5, where the players agreed to a split the money allocated for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place, respectively. This has been confirmed by Tournament Organizer Keitaro. This Yellow Card will be in effect for a period of 6 months, ending Monday, November 21st, 2011.
We hope future action will not need to be taken, but the Tournament Organizers in the BBR-RC, representing the largest collective of Tournament Organizers ever in the Smash community, with over 50% of tournaments in the community now using the Unity Ruleset, has the unique ability to prevent future issues from occurring. We hope the entire Smash community can work together to collectively cry out in disgust at the all to common action of splitting, as it has deprived the community of prestige, integrity, and most of all amazing matches that participants of any tournament deserve.
-The BBR Ruleset Committee
EA Sports has put out a massive blog post on its site about the updates to franchise mode that will be coming in Madden 12. It seems as though a lot of requests made by players will be answered this year and be implemented. Be sure to read the whole thing, because it's really meaty.
The biggest change, according to EA Sports, is the volatile change in ratings from week to week. While regular updates do that -- players' overall rating go up or down an average of 1 to 2 points -- franchise mode will have even bigger swings, sometimes 10 to 20 points.
Here's more from Josh Looman at EA Sports:
I play every sports game on the market and I’ve always been frustrated by the fact that when I play a career or season mode, every game I play feels exactly the same. The players always play exactly like their ratings and there’s no such thing as having a good or bad day. It’s the one thing that has always ruined the immersion factor for me.no commentsIn the NFL, when you go to a game or turn on the TV, you never know what’s going to happen. Is Michael Vick going to have the game of his life or struggle the entire game? We don’t know…and that’s why we love sports. They’re unpredictable.
In Franchise mode this year, we’ve captured that unpredictable feeling and it makes each game feel different every time you start it.
Here’s how it works…
Each week, every player’s ratings will be different from the week before and will vary based on specific traits tied to our all-new Dynamic Player Performance feature, which we’ll discuss at E3.
Think of it in the old adage of “Any Given Sunday” – there are a multitude of factors that impact how a player performs each week, and this is now replicated in Franchise mode.
If a player is inconsistent, you could see pretty significant rating swings from week-to-week.
Justin finished the tournament undefeated (4-0). In the finals, he had a perfect first-hit win percentage, going 7 for 7. He also was 6 for 7 when getting the first combo. He had 30 combos, 10 which were broken by Floe. Floe only had 23, three broken by Justin.
In the Final 16, Justin lost only two games and played just seven rounds over the minimum. He gave up just one game in his final two matches, that being to Floe.
"Long Island Joe" Ciaramelli finished in third, his two losses to Justin and Floe. no comments
UPDATE: International players can't sign up because the link will not work for them. The tournament organizers said Tuesday they are working on a plan to include a pre-registration link for those affected.
The purpose of selling tickets to the event prior to the event is to properly seed each entrant according to region and location. Doing so ensures you play someone who you are not accustomed to playing with all the time. Last thing anyone wants is to be knocked out of first round pools by your friend that you just traveled 3,000 miles with.no comments
The reason we have the VENUE FEE available as online only, is because we actually need to use the money for the various expenses GENESIS 2 has presented us. Everything from projectors, projector screens, table covers, monitors, TVs, power cords, pens, markers, paper, ink, etc. There are a few specific things ill leave out that will be a surprise, but rest assured, we will be using every last penny of that VENUE FEE to further better your experience at GENESIS 2 this summer.
Also, 100% of all ticket sales for each event will be collected, and used as the prize money for GENESIS 2. We are NOT taking a cut from the pot.
Justin will receive a "yellow card" violation. A second violation and he will be disqualified from the world finals, scheduled for July 29-31 in Las Vegas.
Some of the word from Evolution:
Justin is NOT being cited for losing. Everyone misses combos, makes a wrong guess, gets "upset" by a player perceived to be weaker, or just plain loses. All of that is of course acceptable. He also explained that he had not been practicing MVC3, and so was "rusty." We of course understand that a player may not be in top shape for every game they play in, and that a player may not end up performing well on any given day.There was no punishment made for the latter portion of the brackets being altered by the PowerUp tournament organizers because of reported requests by the players. However, Tony Cannon, one of the Evolution staff, said there were some "serious errors in judgment" regarding the alterations.
The issue, however, is not that Justin lost. It was HOW he lost, coupled with the fact that his loss would benefit a close friend.
This is Justin's response:
I did not intentionally lose to Noel Brown. As many know and saw, I was losing matches and dropping combos all weekend in MvC3. My main focus as of late has been MK and the upcoming PDP event, and I think my results at this event pretty much reflect that shift in focus. In the match with Noel, I did what I have done a lot in this game, picked something out of the ordinary to confuse my opponent. It worked in the first game, but not in the second. I then switched to my main team and it went down to the wire with Noel winning 3-2. Everyone knows I play wacky stuff, and this is not the first time I have chosen wacky teams/characters in tournaments. This is just my strategy sometimes. I play very unique things and I shouldn't be penalized for what I have doing for years, just because I did it against a good friend and lost. I have asked EVO to reconsider their decision, but this is their event series and their call to make. I will not apologize for this play-style, but I do apologize to my fans and my teammates and management at Team Evil Geniuses for the drama this has caused. I hope my true fans realize this was just a match I lost. It does happen.
More regarding the decision can be found on Shoryuken.
no commentsHere's more from the tournament organizers:
The reason for the change is is that the directors of both events "feel Shadowloo Shodown provides a much larger representation of the Asia/Pacific community and will have much more presence there. As a result, there is much more likeliness of players from Shadowloo Shodown making their way to the EVO World Finals in Las Vegas."no comments
On the EA Sports blog, Game Changer Jake Stein posted some info on gameplay in Madden 12. It seems as though the developers have taken an early focus toward the defense, as Stein talks a lot about that in this blog entry.
A big complaint about past versions has been how the game seems to go through cinematic motions once a certain event happens, that the realism ends too early. Stein points out that tackling and contact go beyond just the initial movement.
Here's some of Stein's info on the blog:
The very first thing that jumps out to me when playing Madden NFL 12 is the enhanced tackling system. The central gameplay team gave themselves a goal at the beginning of the development cycle: eliminate suctioning, warping, and sliding. The way this goal was achieved can be summed up in one sentence; collision doesn't take place until contact is actually made between ball carrier and defender. This can be felt in multiple aspects of the game from how the O-line and D-line interact, to wide receivers diving for balls that they would normally just speed up to catch, but most of all, you feel this with tackling.no comments
Call it Pro-Tak 2.0, call it whatever you want. The point is this; you aren't down, until you're down! Let me provide a few examples that I was able to see in only a few short hours of playing. LeGarrette Blount, running back for the Bucs, is running up the middle. He receives a tackle that would normally have begun a canned animation of the ball carrier losing his footing, putting his arm down, and picking up a few extra yards. What happens now in Madden NFL 12 is I broke the tackle, started to lose my balance, but this time after a few yards (and no other defender around to finish me off), Blount regained himself, giving me complete control over him once again. Amazing!
Rovell talks about the value of having a cover athlete. When it comes to Madden, not much because the game is already popular. He brings up another EA Sports title as comparison:
A good control is Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise. (Tiger) Woods hasn't really become a better spokesman than he was for the game last year, but sales are up for the new game because fans can now play Augusta National.no comments
As for the Vick and Hillis, it's a no brainer.
First, it's worth some money. Sources tell CNBC that the Madden cover spot this year is worth around $125,000, even though it does include some work—about a week full of commitments.
