Illusions of Grandeur
ERrr
- December 13, 2007 - 10:31pm
[gameroom]dNTFHfd8c4c[/gameroom]
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This thing DID have spacing.
- September 15, 2006 - 11:33pm
With a tournament winning streak that dates back to the 2005 season, Karma stands atop Major League Gaming’s ranks as the undisputed singles champion. While a select few players have presented significant opposition to his reign, Karma has overcome every trial thrown his way in pursuit of the 1v1 crown. Surprisingly, much like his tournament record, the tactics employed by Karma to stay ahead of the pack have remained largely unchanged over the last year.
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Predominantly, Karma is known for his tendency to occupy top-center more than any other player. When controlling this advantageous positioning, Karma employs a ‘peak double-shot’ technique with unparalleled marksmanship, retaining almost full coverage behind the top pillars while decimating opponent’s shields as they approach the top-center structure Although seemingly a simple technique, few possess the shear precision dexterity to implement the tactic as effectively as Karma. “His double-shot is just nasty with his peaking,” stated Orlando finalist Strongside. “When he peaks you just can’t do anything. He’s so good at it.”
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Rather uniquely, Karma holds his top-center positioning when being shot. Whereas others would drop down to the cover of bottom center, Karma seeks refuge behind the top pillars. While seemingly leaving him vulnerable, his keen awareness of the radar and enemy approach angles allows him to hold his ground during many assaults, retaining the map and camouflage control provided by his commanding position.
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While his opponent is out of sight, Karma tends to run circles visually patrolling the map from top center, leaving his perch once he has gained a significant advantage in a skirmish as his opposition retreat under a platform or to a base’s grenade spawn. Often, Karma will rotate to the adjacent grenades (generally counter-clockwise) to his wounded foe, flushing the opposition out of hiding with his newly collected grenades and finishing the kill.
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While Karma pursues with an aggressive bulldog spirit when he has his opponents on the retreating defensive, he employs a more stealthy approach once his control has been relinquished. Opting to lay low until the enemy has lost his trail, Karma then maneuvers to reclaim the high ground.
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Although Karma has been able to routinely discard of other top caliber opposition through his main strategy, Karma’s true brilliance is put on display when facing an opponent who has formulated a counter strategy, forcing Karma to abandon his primary game plan. “His strategy has been the same for a long time now,” stated former teammate Strongside, who was able to utilize his familiarity with Karma’s play style to take a game off the reigning champion during the Orlando Finals.
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For the first Orlando Finals match, Strongside had specifically geared his game around exploiting Karma’s noted tendencies. “He likes to stay top center and run around in a circle. So I basically waited at one of the flags for him to come around the corner. When his back was towards me, that’s when it was go-time,” explained Strongside, noting how he avoided Karma’s peak double-shot. Strongside also ensured that Karma’s road to reclaiming top-center would be more taxing. “There are a couple of tricks on the map where you can get them to spawn only on the ground,” he noted.
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To punish Karma’s habit of taking refuge behind top pillars when weakened, Strongside attacked from the teleports. Karma explained, “He made sure that I had no grenades, and kept porting and shooting until I was forced to hide. He would launch grenades to the spot I was hiding, and would then port again and keep ‘nading the spot.” He added, “Strongside was able to hold a near perfect strategy against my top middle tactic.”
----------------------------------------
While this game plan earned Strongside a 15-10 Game 1 victory, it was rendered useless in Game 2 as Karma changed gears and took his game to the perimeter of the map. “Sometimes I have to shift up my strategy in game, which is what defines me from other people. It’s my ability to adapt in game to other people’s strategies,” explained Karma. During their second encounter, Karma dominated the run of play by stealthily moving about the map and catching Strongside unaware. Implementing a play style that Strongside had never witnessed, Karma rebounded to a 15-8 victory to take Orlando’s title.
----------------------------------------
Other than Strongside, only two players have forced Karma to abandon his primary 1v1 strategy during the 2006 season. First is Hali, whose unique grenading expertise abused Karma’s tendency to predictably hold top-center. Keenly watching the radar, Hali precisely times his plasma grenades to catch Karma as he rounds the top pillars. When Karma sat stationary upon his perch for cover, Hali flushed him out of his hiding with frag grenades. Unable to rely upon commanding positioning, Karma was forced to engage Hali in a stealthy battle about the perimeter of the arena, collecting grenades and ultimately emerging victorious from their Anaheim and Chicago meetings after closely contested early stages of each match. Hali, who has qualified for New York’s Playoff Division, would face Karma in Round 1 of the Superstar Division, should he advance that far. Amongst Hali’s Playoff Division opposition are KillerN, who took a game off Karma in the season opener, and the always lethal Ogre 1.
----------------------------------------
Secondly is Final Boss’ captain Walshy, who Karma views as the greatest threat to his title. Although Walshy failed to progress through the free-for-all portions of the competition in Chicago and Orlando, he produced a thrilling 14-15 result in the Anaheim finals, narrowly falling to Karma. In the eyes of the reigning champion, Walshy provides the most mentally engaging competition and always forces Karma to innovate his game play. With a strong variety of approaches, Walshy forces Karma to alter his game plan, as simply holding top-center lends Walshy the upper hand. Equally matched in skill, their clashes display highly developed mind-games, as the two lock wits in an effort to outsmart the other. Should they both emerge victorious from New York’s opening rounds, they will face a highly anticipated rematch of Anaheim’s Championship Match in New York’s Winners Bracket Finals.
----------------------------------------
Leading into New York, Karma looks to be facing the most difficult field of the season. Proven opponents Ogre 2, Strongside, and Walshy have each clinched Superstar Division berths, while Hali, KillerN and a wealth of other top talents battle for the final Superstar seed and the right to face Karma first round. With increased prizes on the line, the opposition is sure to be gunning for Karma’s crown and New York’s $5,000 Championship Prize.
----------------------------------------
Predominantly, Karma is known for his tendency to occupy top-center more than any other player. When controlling this advantageous positioning, Karma employs a ‘peak double-shot’ technique with unparalleled marksmanship, retaining almost full coverage behind the top pillars while decimating opponent’s shields as they approach the top-center structure Although seemingly a simple technique, few possess the shear precision dexterity to implement the tactic as effectively as Karma. “His double-shot is just nasty with his peaking,” stated Orlando finalist Strongside. “When he peaks you just can’t do anything. He’s so good at it.”
----------------------------------------
Rather uniquely, Karma holds his top-center positioning when being shot. Whereas others would drop down to the cover of bottom center, Karma seeks refuge behind the top pillars. While seemingly leaving him vulnerable, his keen awareness of the radar and enemy approach angles allows him to hold his ground during many assaults, retaining the map and camouflage control provided by his commanding position.
----------------------------------------
While his opponent is out of sight, Karma tends to run circles visually patrolling the map from top center, leaving his perch once he has gained a significant advantage in a skirmish as his opposition retreat under a platform or to a base’s grenade spawn. Often, Karma will rotate to the adjacent grenades (generally counter-clockwise) to his wounded foe, flushing the opposition out of hiding with his newly collected grenades and finishing the kill.
----------------------------------------
While Karma pursues with an aggressive bulldog spirit when he has his opponents on the retreating defensive, he employs a more stealthy approach once his control has been relinquished. Opting to lay low until the enemy has lost his trail, Karma then maneuvers to reclaim the high ground.
----------------------------------------
Although Karma has been able to routinely discard of other top caliber opposition through his main strategy, Karma’s true brilliance is put on display when facing an opponent who has formulated a counter strategy, forcing Karma to abandon his primary game plan. “His strategy has been the same for a long time now,” stated former teammate Strongside, who was able to utilize his familiarity with Karma’s play style to take a game off the reigning champion during the Orlando Finals.
----------------------------------------
For the first Orlando Finals match, Strongside had specifically geared his game around exploiting Karma’s noted tendencies. “He likes to stay top center and run around in a circle. So I basically waited at one of the flags for him to come around the corner. When his back was towards me, that’s when it was go-time,” explained Strongside, noting how he avoided Karma’s peak double-shot. Strongside also ensured that Karma’s road to reclaiming top-center would be more taxing. “There are a couple of tricks on the map where you can get them to spawn only on the ground,” he noted.
----------------------------------------
To punish Karma’s habit of taking refuge behind top pillars when weakened, Strongside attacked from the teleports. Karma explained, “He made sure that I had no grenades, and kept porting and shooting until I was forced to hide. He would launch grenades to the spot I was hiding, and would then port again and keep ‘nading the spot.” He added, “Strongside was able to hold a near perfect strategy against my top middle tactic.”
----------------------------------------
While this game plan earned Strongside a 15-10 Game 1 victory, it was rendered useless in Game 2 as Karma changed gears and took his game to the perimeter of the map. “Sometimes I have to shift up my strategy in game, which is what defines me from other people. It’s my ability to adapt in game to other people’s strategies,” explained Karma. During their second encounter, Karma dominated the run of play by stealthily moving about the map and catching Strongside unaware. Implementing a play style that Strongside had never witnessed, Karma rebounded to a 15-8 victory to take Orlando’s title.
----------------------------------------
Other than Strongside, only two players have forced Karma to abandon his primary 1v1 strategy during the 2006 season. First is Hali, whose unique grenading expertise abused Karma’s tendency to predictably hold top-center. Keenly watching the radar, Hali precisely times his plasma grenades to catch Karma as he rounds the top pillars. When Karma sat stationary upon his perch for cover, Hali flushed him out of his hiding with frag grenades. Unable to rely upon commanding positioning, Karma was forced to engage Hali in a stealthy battle about the perimeter of the arena, collecting grenades and ultimately emerging victorious from their Anaheim and Chicago meetings after closely contested early stages of each match. Hali, who has qualified for New York’s Playoff Division, would face Karma in Round 1 of the Superstar Division, should he advance that far. Amongst Hali’s Playoff Division opposition are KillerN, who took a game off Karma in the season opener, and the always lethal Ogre 1.
----------------------------------------
Secondly is Final Boss’ captain Walshy, who Karma views as the greatest threat to his title. Although Walshy failed to progress through the free-for-all portions of the competition in Chicago and Orlando, he produced a thrilling 14-15 result in the Anaheim finals, narrowly falling to Karma. In the eyes of the reigning champion, Walshy provides the most mentally engaging competition and always forces Karma to innovate his game play. With a strong variety of approaches, Walshy forces Karma to alter his game plan, as simply holding top-center lends Walshy the upper hand. Equally matched in skill, their clashes display highly developed mind-games, as the two lock wits in an effort to outsmart the other. Should they both emerge victorious from New York’s opening rounds, they will face a highly anticipated rematch of Anaheim’s Championship Match in New York’s Winners Bracket Finals.
----------------------------------------
Leading into New York, Karma looks to be facing the most difficult field of the season. Proven opponents Ogre 2, Strongside, and Walshy have each clinched Superstar Division berths, while Hali, KillerN and a wealth of other top talents battle for the final Superstar seed and the right to face Karma first round. With increased prizes on the line, the opposition is sure to be gunning for Karma’s crown and New York’s $5,000 Championship Prize.
Hmmm...
- September 14, 2006 - 7:34pm
I know not how to reclaim the sleak look of my old blog. Help me Lens!
Random Article
- September 7, 2006 - 9:26pm
[block]According to the Wall Street Journal, Major League Gaming Inc. (MLG) has received $10 million in funding to use in its efforts to elevate videogame playing into a professional sport.
Let us leave aside the question of whether playing a video game is a sport at all, let alone a potentially professional one. Rather let us ask whether the world is ready for the professionalization of what is primarily a hobby.
There is an inherent competitiveness in the mindset of most gamers. If a gamer is skilled at a particular game, then he or she wants to show off their skills. One need only spend a few minutes on Xbox Live listening to the taunts of players to see how seriously some gamers take their entertainment. Those of us who grew up with the Atari 2600 remember the Fred Savage film The Wizard and fantasized about becoming famous for our "leet" Nintendo skills.
For certain, there is an interest on the part of the "sportsman" with regards to professional gaming. Who wouldn't like to write off the expense of their Xbox 360 when filing taxes, let alone get paid to play?
The types of games MLG will focus its competitions on, games like Halo 2 and CounterStrike, are certainly exciting games that require quick reflexes, good manual dexterity, and well-honed skills. These are features that guarantee that the "sport" will be able to develop and promote specific athletes. If they are lucky, these gamers will have eccentric and interesting personalities.
The question then becomes one of audience. Will anyone pay to watch other people play video games? If G4's Arena is any indication, the evidence is mixed. The show doesn't offer large prizes, it doesn't command a large audience, and it perfectly displays the difficulty of creating play-by-play analysis of gameplay. Can MLG become a televised circuit competition like NASCAR? Only time will tell, but I doubt it.
More likely, the professionalization of video games will follow a path similar to that of professional Collectible Card Game events. The cash prizes will largely be paid by the video game manufacturers and be tied to new releases. I see the development as more a grassroots occurrence than a national one. Even if MLG becomes successful, they would do well to remember that even the most successful professional sports began at the grassroots professional level.
I don't know if the audience is there for a league, but I am willing to watch and find out. I do know that gaming still has a lot of PR work to do in order to overcome the negative reporting done by much of the news media. A truly successful league will have to fight against negative PR to promote the sport and will face opposition from those who see gaming as a waste of time or as a contributor to youth violence.
One thing is for sure: Given my skill at most video games, I won't be among the first generation of video game "athletes." I would be pwnt by all but the least skilled newb. To paraphrase Breaking Away, "to many people 'professional gamer' is just another joke, but to me it's another thing I can never be."[/block]
Is the world ready for Major League Gaming?
Let us leave aside the question of whether playing a video game is a sport at all, let alone a potentially professional one. Rather let us ask whether the world is ready for the professionalization of what is primarily a hobby.
There is an inherent competitiveness in the mindset of most gamers. If a gamer is skilled at a particular game, then he or she wants to show off their skills. One need only spend a few minutes on Xbox Live listening to the taunts of players to see how seriously some gamers take their entertainment. Those of us who grew up with the Atari 2600 remember the Fred Savage film The Wizard and fantasized about becoming famous for our "leet" Nintendo skills.
For certain, there is an interest on the part of the "sportsman" with regards to professional gaming. Who wouldn't like to write off the expense of their Xbox 360 when filing taxes, let alone get paid to play?
The types of games MLG will focus its competitions on, games like Halo 2 and CounterStrike, are certainly exciting games that require quick reflexes, good manual dexterity, and well-honed skills. These are features that guarantee that the "sport" will be able to develop and promote specific athletes. If they are lucky, these gamers will have eccentric and interesting personalities.
The question then becomes one of audience. Will anyone pay to watch other people play video games? If G4's Arena is any indication, the evidence is mixed. The show doesn't offer large prizes, it doesn't command a large audience, and it perfectly displays the difficulty of creating play-by-play analysis of gameplay. Can MLG become a televised circuit competition like NASCAR? Only time will tell, but I doubt it.
More likely, the professionalization of video games will follow a path similar to that of professional Collectible Card Game events. The cash prizes will largely be paid by the video game manufacturers and be tied to new releases. I see the development as more a grassroots occurrence than a national one. Even if MLG becomes successful, they would do well to remember that even the most successful professional sports began at the grassroots professional level.
I don't know if the audience is there for a league, but I am willing to watch and find out. I do know that gaming still has a lot of PR work to do in order to overcome the negative reporting done by much of the news media. A truly successful league will have to fight against negative PR to promote the sport and will face opposition from those who see gaming as a waste of time or as a contributor to youth violence.
One thing is for sure: Given my skill at most video games, I won't be among the first generation of video game "athletes." I would be pwnt by all but the least skilled newb. To paraphrase Breaking Away, "to many people 'professional gamer' is just another joke, but to me it's another thing I can never be."[/block]
Is the world ready for Major League Gaming?
The GH057ayame of Christmas Future
- September 7, 2006 - 1:00pm
It's been quite some time since I strapped on my bloggibg boots, and I must say I'm not quite sure I'm fit for the task. Unlike previous blogs, I have no real intentions for this post.
With each of my articles, I try to create a plethora of article titles for Dyslexia to choose from. Ultimately, each and every one of my presented options is ultimately discarded in favor of some crap like 'Carbon Overthrows Final Boss.' Here are some of the alternatives.
Carbon Overthrows Final Boss
The GH057ayame of Christmas Future
Coup d' Carbon
Ending Credits
Carbon - Two Moles of Destiny
xXx - The fat Vin Deisil?
Carbon - The Element of Awesome
Final Boss Frozen in Carbonite (with accompanying photoshopped Walshy/Han Solo hybrid pic)
Side note: Does anybody else find it odd that players named Gandhi and Karma ended up on the same team?
Storm Ventures Short Circuit The Pro Tour
Storm Ventures: Forcast for Ownage
A PwnStorm hits the Windy City
MLG Chicago: Weathering the Storm
Storm Venture Capitalists: The Next Great Investment
Poon: Does his name strike anybody else as mildly inappropriate?
Storm Ventures: Cumulonimbus of Terror
Pro Teams Hit Rocky Road In Anaheim
Pro Teams Get Proverbial **** Wrecked
Shaking Up The Pro Circuit
Trunkers' First Article - Prelude to the Curse
-------------------------------
This weekend I'll be interviewing Final Boss. That's right. So, with Final Boss and Carbon being interviewed, who's your pick to take it all? Str8 Rippin? Storm Ventures? Eats Mangos?
The playoff field has been blown wide open with this move, as I've paved the way for some nobodies from Alabama to take the crown.
Bah, I'll get on this later. I'm in a terribly unproductive mood at the moment.
Pro Teams - Championship Bracket Level 2
1. Final Boss - Walshy, OGRE1, OGRE2, Saiyan = 9600
2. Carbon - ShocKWav3, Gandhi, GH057ayame, Karma = 7185
3. STR8 RIPPIN - Tsquared, AYBFonzi, Foulacy, Cpt Anarchy = 6640
4. LeGendZ - Defy, Vash, Mack, StrongSide = 5460
5. XiT Woundz - Bonfire, Itwasluck, KillerN, Samurai = 5400
6. Storm Ventures - Ramby, Legit, Naded, Poon = 5300
7. Shook on3 gaming - VeGeTTo, Lightking, Pyrocy, Shook On3 = 4640
There's something to be said about consolation matches. Personally, I'd much prefer to face Legendz first round than Str8 Rippin. I suppose that's the difference between 16th and 13th.
With each of my articles, I try to create a plethora of article titles for Dyslexia to choose from. Ultimately, each and every one of my presented options is ultimately discarded in favor of some crap like 'Carbon Overthrows Final Boss.' Here are some of the alternatives.
Carbon Overthrows Final Boss
The GH057ayame of Christmas Future
Coup d' Carbon
Ending Credits
Carbon - Two Moles of Destiny
xXx - The fat Vin Deisil?
Carbon - The Element of Awesome
Final Boss Frozen in Carbonite (with accompanying photoshopped Walshy/Han Solo hybrid pic)
Side note: Does anybody else find it odd that players named Gandhi and Karma ended up on the same team?
Storm Ventures Short Circuit The Pro Tour
Storm Ventures: Forcast for Ownage
A PwnStorm hits the Windy City
MLG Chicago: Weathering the Storm
Storm Venture Capitalists: The Next Great Investment
Poon: Does his name strike anybody else as mildly inappropriate?
Storm Ventures: Cumulonimbus of Terror
Pro Teams Hit Rocky Road In Anaheim
Pro Teams Get Proverbial **** Wrecked
Shaking Up The Pro Circuit
Trunkers' First Article - Prelude to the Curse
-------------------------------
This weekend I'll be interviewing Final Boss. That's right. So, with Final Boss and Carbon being interviewed, who's your pick to take it all? Str8 Rippin? Storm Ventures? Eats Mangos?
The playoff field has been blown wide open with this move, as I've paved the way for some nobodies from Alabama to take the crown.
Bah, I'll get on this later. I'm in a terribly unproductive mood at the moment.
Pro Teams - Championship Bracket Level 2
1. Final Boss - Walshy, OGRE1, OGRE2, Saiyan = 9600
2. Carbon - ShocKWav3, Gandhi, GH057ayame, Karma = 7185
3. STR8 RIPPIN - Tsquared, AYBFonzi, Foulacy, Cpt Anarchy = 6640
4. LeGendZ - Defy, Vash, Mack, StrongSide = 5460
5. XiT Woundz - Bonfire, Itwasluck, KillerN, Samurai = 5400
6. Storm Ventures - Ramby, Legit, Naded, Poon = 5300
7. Shook on3 gaming - VeGeTTo, Lightking, Pyrocy, Shook On3 = 4640
There's something to be said about consolation matches. Personally, I'd much prefer to face Legendz first round than Str8 Rippin. I suppose that's the difference between 16th and 13th.
Posterity
- August 23, 2006 - 6:57pm
Tasting Victory - The Carbon Interview
Carbon Overthrows Final Boss
The ShooK On3 Gaming Interview
Storm Ventures Short Circuit The Pro Tour
Chicago Halo 1v1 - Karma Meets New Challengers
eX Versus XiT Woundz - The Next Great Rivalry?
Triggers Down Ante Up In Chicago
The Zone 6 Interview
Pro Circuit Halo 2 Analysis
Carbon - The Element of Danger
MLG Anaheim Prize Winners
Pro Teams Hit Rocky Road In Anaheim
Shaking Up The Pro Circuit
Carbon Overthrows Final Boss
The ShooK On3 Gaming Interview
Storm Ventures Short Circuit The Pro Tour
Chicago Halo 1v1 - Karma Meets New Challengers
eX Versus XiT Woundz - The Next Great Rivalry?
Triggers Down Ante Up In Chicago
The Zone 6 Interview
Pro Circuit Halo 2 Analysis
Carbon - The Element of Danger
MLG Anaheim Prize Winners
Pro Teams Hit Rocky Road In Anaheim
Shaking Up The Pro Circuit
Seeds?
- August 12, 2006 - 10:28pm
[block] The Playoffs event will consist of three divisions:
• Wild Card: This division is OPEN to EVERYONE, regardless of previous attendance or performance at an event, or lack thereof. If you or your team does not rank in the top 14 players/teams for the competition of interest, or if you have never been to a prior event, you will be competing in the Wild Card division for the competition of your choice.
• Playoffs: This division is limited to the teams/players ranked 8th-14th after the conclusion of the regular season, as well as one team/player from the Wild Card division. The team/player that finishes 1st in the Wild Card division for a specific competition will advance to the respective Playoffs division, joining the 8th-14th players by rank after the regular season to battle it out for a spot in the National Championship.
• Superstar: This division is limited to the teams/players ranked 1st-7th after the conclusion of the regular season. The team/player that finishes 1st in the Playoffs division will advance to the Superstar division. All eight teams/players in the Superstar division are invited to the National Championship.
In other words, it is possible for a team/player to seemingly come from nowhere and make it to the National Championship. That team/player will need to place 1st in the Wild Card division and 1st again in the Playoffs division. It will be tough, but it is possible. There have been quite a few upsets in the past, and at an event of this magnitude, it is certainly possible.[/block]
Leading into the final regular season event of the season, all eyes are focused on the crucial playoffs points race. Those finishing Top 7 in the Major League Gaming’s 2006 Season Points will earn an automatic bid to New York’s Superstar Division, a guaranteed $2,500 prize check, and the chance to fight for $30,000 and the 2006 Playoff Title. For those teams on the bubble, solid Orlando performances are of utmost importance. Those placing outside the Top 7 must fight through what will surely be a grueling battle for the final Superstar Division invitation.
Final Boss stands alone at the top as the only team which has clinched its invitation to New York’s Superstar Division. With their MLG Chicago Finals victory over Storm Ventures, Final Boss claimed the Playoff’s top seed, regardless of their Orlando performance. The reigning MLG Champions will look to extend their unblemished 2006 record and reach peak form as the Playoffs and Vegas Championships approach.
Carbon claimed the second seed with points from their Chicago roster, but now trail Str8 Rippin in points since the acquisition of gh057ayame, who missed Anaheim and holds a mere 835 points. The team can retain their second seed by outperforming Str8 Rippin in Orlando. Tsquared’s side will be looking to rebound from their disappointing 7th place exit in Chicago, and have looked to Cpt. Anarchy to aid in their return to glory. The two rivals have met at each event this season. While Str8 Rippin were victorious in the first two encounters, Carbon have leveled the score by ending Str8’s tournament hopes in both Anaheim and Chicago. Each will be looking to prove its new roster against the other in Orlando’s Championship Bracket.
Str8 Rippin and Carbon currently sit second and third respectively in the season points race. Although neither Carbon nor Str8 Rippin have technically secured their playoff passes, failure to advance requires a nearly unthinkable scenario, comprised of each the following elements: An abysmal (read 30th-32nd) performance, coupled with a 1st place finish by MoBDeep.net, followed by Shook On3 Gaming as runners-up, top 5 finishes by both Storm Ventures and XiT Woundz, as well as a top 8 placing by Legendz. Needless to say, the two teams will have little to worry about, and can secure New York Invitations by simply avoiding first round exits in Orlando.
Storm Ventures, who surpassed XiT Woundz and earned the fourth seed after reaching MLG Chicago’s Championship Match, currently sit 5th in the points race behind the newly formed and unseeded Legendz. Should the debut squad survive Orlando’s Open Bracket, they will incur the Dream Team clause and claim the Championship Bracket’s fourth seed. Legendz and Storm Ventures will likely meet in Orlando’s Winners Bracket Round 3, while XiT Woundz will find themselves bumped to 6th, their lowest seed of the season. XiT can reclaim a Top 5 seed by outplacing Storm Ventures in Orlando. For Storm Ventures and XiT Woundz, a top 16 finish will all but secure their spot in New York’s Superstar Division, barring a top 3 finish by MoBDeep or MoB PowerTripBev. Similarly, only a second place finish by MoBDeep can jeopardize Legendz’ playoff hopes.
Shook On3 Gaming, who placed fourth in Chicago, currently possess the seventh and final playoff invitation. Just beyond the cutoff is the newly reformed MoBDeep, who was hurt by its members’ poor (or absent) Chicago performances. Although the team is not out of the runnings for a playoff position, they must outperform Shook On3 Gaming by at least 250 points in Orlando to reach the top 7. While there are a number of ways this can happen, such a differential will require either a spectacular performance by MoBDeep or a relatively poor showing by Shook On3. Should Shook On3 Gaming land another Top 8 finish, MoBDeep must snag at least the bronze medal to earn an automatic bid to New York’s Superstar Division. MoB PowerTripBev, while still in contention, trails Shook On3 by 330 points, and will need to produce its best performance of the season to stand a chance of earning an invitation.
While several other squads are still in theoretical playoff contention, their path to snatching a Superstar Invitation requires a first place Orlando finish, coupled with a subpar performance by Shook On3 Gaming. Although in theory teams with as few as 1860 points are mathematically within contention, MoBDeep and PowerTripBev stand the only realistic chances to earn an invitation.
Once more, the center of the standings saw a generally upward shift, as the previously 5th (eX), 6th (MoBDeep), 10th (SMB) and 13th (MoB 4 Down) seeded teams have disbanded. Consequently, both Triggers Down and FBI Michigan, who failed to repeat their top 8 Anaheim performances, claimed greater seeds. FBI Michigan narrowly passed Triggers Down in the season points race and now hold Orlando’s eighth seed.
Also due to the number of disbanded teams, Gty curiously improved from 14th to 12th seed despite a subpar 21st place performance. They were, however, surpassed by Zone 6, who earned the tenth seed with their 11th place Chicago performance, and FBI NiceLikeRice, who claimed the eleventh seed with a surprising 10th place showing. These three squads will be looking to pass Open Bracket entrants Under The Influence and KSI Pro in the 2006 points race and secure the Playoff Division invitations awarded to the teams seeded 8th-14th at the end of the regular season.
XG2K.com placed top 16 once more, and slid into the 13th seed, followed by Team Terrabite. Several squads made a splash in Chicago and earned Semi-Pro status. Most notable are Looney Gaming, who made their MLG debut with a top 16 finish and now hold the 17th seed. On Point and Xtreme Gamingx respectively debuted to 15th and 16th seeds with Top 24 performances. GI H2Access.com, Yo Bref Stank, and Team Matrix Lounge. PBR, Go Outside, Sick By Definition and AyR were not present in Chicago.
Orlando Pro Teams
- 1. Final Boss (1) - Walshy, OGRE1, OGRE2, Saiyan = 8000
2. Carbon (3) - Shockwav3, Gandhi, True_Karma, gh057ayame = 5185
3. STR8 RIPPIN (2) - Tsquared, Foulacy, AYBFonzi, Cpt Anarchy = 5240
4. Storm Ventures (7) - Ramby, Poon, Legit, Naded = 4260
5. XiT Woundz (4) - Bonfire, KillerN, Itwasluck, Samurai = 4200
6. Shook on3 gaming (
- DaRk_VeGeTTo, hslightking, Pyrocy, Shook_On3 = 3820
-------
7. MoB PowerTripBev.com (9)- Triple007, IIPisToLII, elamitewarrior, FoSsiK = 3490
8. FBI Michigan (12) - Mackeo, Tupac, Slim, Victory_X = 2860
9. Triggers Down (11) - SK Halogod v2, Toxin, Detach, ToxinsNeighbor = 2790
10. Zone 6 (15) - Spainiard, Butt3rz, Cypher = 1855
11. FBI Nice Like Rice (20) - LegendJRG, snwborder5, Donut 5SiX1, RioOoOo = 1576
12. Gty (14) - [_Scrub_], drbob, OVERSHIELD, BigTimer13 = 1880
Orlando Semi-Pro Teams
13. MoB XG2K.com (16) - FearItSelf, RuDYReBoRN, xHokuM, TimeliestBrute = 1392
14. Team TerraBite (1 - quinn, Dysphoria, jo3, JuS = 1300
N 15. on Point (n/a) - st0n3r_2, OGRE3, McGavin = 762
N 16. Xtreme Gaming (n/a) - callmegod, bLooD187, SilverSon = 695
N 17. Looney Gaming (n/a) - LOONdog, Shoota II, ApoK, Suffer = 517
N 18. GI H2Access.com (n/a) - BuLLeTz, SuReShOt, Xenios, FireIsHot = 523
19. AyR (24)- ex DrumMeR ex, xSleepy, SoulRebelz, xSn4kE = 438
N 20. Yo Bref Staaaank (n/a) - I Got Cats, IlliniFan22, NinthMorpheus, MikeMan27 = 337
- 21. Sick By Definition (21) - PoWeeZy, xXrB, KillerDrizzle = 360
N 22. Team Matrix Lounge (n/a)- MudVayne, Be LiKe MyTh, Smoltz = 241
- 23. Go Outside (23) - Trojan, Swat-Lotus, Dark3n = 270
24. I PBR I (25) - Devastator, xShaKuRx, Ix HeLLBoY xI = 250
Notable Open-Bracket Entrants
LeGendZ - Vash, Mack, Defy, StrongSide = 4480
MoBDeep.net - Havok, MimiC, AcidiaN, MeLLoZ = 3570
KSI PRO - Gspot, Blackjak, Solshy, SadPanda eh = 2230
Under The Influence - Talent, Nitrouss, Legend, OmegA - 1979
*Note: Changes in seed are based on rankings released as of August 17th, 2006, compared against those released July 11th, 2006. Team changes made since August 17th may not be reflected, and consequently rosters and point totals may be dated. However, only disbanding will result in loss of seed. Roster changes and new point totals will not affect Chicago seeds.
• Wild Card: This division is OPEN to EVERYONE, regardless of previous attendance or performance at an event, or lack thereof. If you or your team does not rank in the top 14 players/teams for the competition of interest, or if you have never been to a prior event, you will be competing in the Wild Card division for the competition of your choice.
• Playoffs: This division is limited to the teams/players ranked 8th-14th after the conclusion of the regular season, as well as one team/player from the Wild Card division. The team/player that finishes 1st in the Wild Card division for a specific competition will advance to the respective Playoffs division, joining the 8th-14th players by rank after the regular season to battle it out for a spot in the National Championship.
• Superstar: This division is limited to the teams/players ranked 1st-7th after the conclusion of the regular season. The team/player that finishes 1st in the Playoffs division will advance to the Superstar division. All eight teams/players in the Superstar division are invited to the National Championship.
In other words, it is possible for a team/player to seemingly come from nowhere and make it to the National Championship. That team/player will need to place 1st in the Wild Card division and 1st again in the Playoffs division. It will be tough, but it is possible. There have been quite a few upsets in the past, and at an event of this magnitude, it is certainly possible.[/block]
Leading into the final regular season event of the season, all eyes are focused on the crucial playoffs points race. Those finishing Top 7 in the Major League Gaming’s 2006 Season Points will earn an automatic bid to New York’s Superstar Division, a guaranteed $2,500 prize check, and the chance to fight for $30,000 and the 2006 Playoff Title. For those teams on the bubble, solid Orlando performances are of utmost importance. Those placing outside the Top 7 must fight through what will surely be a grueling battle for the final Superstar Division invitation.
Final Boss stands alone at the top as the only team which has clinched its invitation to New York’s Superstar Division. With their MLG Chicago Finals victory over Storm Ventures, Final Boss claimed the Playoff’s top seed, regardless of their Orlando performance. The reigning MLG Champions will look to extend their unblemished 2006 record and reach peak form as the Playoffs and Vegas Championships approach.
Carbon claimed the second seed with points from their Chicago roster, but now trail Str8 Rippin in points since the acquisition of gh057ayame, who missed Anaheim and holds a mere 835 points. The team can retain their second seed by outperforming Str8 Rippin in Orlando. Tsquared’s side will be looking to rebound from their disappointing 7th place exit in Chicago, and have looked to Cpt. Anarchy to aid in their return to glory. The two rivals have met at each event this season. While Str8 Rippin were victorious in the first two encounters, Carbon have leveled the score by ending Str8’s tournament hopes in both Anaheim and Chicago. Each will be looking to prove its new roster against the other in Orlando’s Championship Bracket.
Str8 Rippin and Carbon currently sit second and third respectively in the season points race. Although neither Carbon nor Str8 Rippin have technically secured their playoff passes, failure to advance requires a nearly unthinkable scenario, comprised of each the following elements: An abysmal (read 30th-32nd) performance, coupled with a 1st place finish by MoBDeep.net, followed by Shook On3 Gaming as runners-up, top 5 finishes by both Storm Ventures and XiT Woundz, as well as a top 8 placing by Legendz. Needless to say, the two teams will have little to worry about, and can secure New York Invitations by simply avoiding first round exits in Orlando.
Storm Ventures, who surpassed XiT Woundz and earned the fourth seed after reaching MLG Chicago’s Championship Match, currently sit 5th in the points race behind the newly formed and unseeded Legendz. Should the debut squad survive Orlando’s Open Bracket, they will incur the Dream Team clause and claim the Championship Bracket’s fourth seed. Legendz and Storm Ventures will likely meet in Orlando’s Winners Bracket Round 3, while XiT Woundz will find themselves bumped to 6th, their lowest seed of the season. XiT can reclaim a Top 5 seed by outplacing Storm Ventures in Orlando. For Storm Ventures and XiT Woundz, a top 16 finish will all but secure their spot in New York’s Superstar Division, barring a top 3 finish by MoBDeep or MoB PowerTripBev. Similarly, only a second place finish by MoBDeep can jeopardize Legendz’ playoff hopes.
Shook On3 Gaming, who placed fourth in Chicago, currently possess the seventh and final playoff invitation. Just beyond the cutoff is the newly reformed MoBDeep, who was hurt by its members’ poor (or absent) Chicago performances. Although the team is not out of the runnings for a playoff position, they must outperform Shook On3 Gaming by at least 250 points in Orlando to reach the top 7. While there are a number of ways this can happen, such a differential will require either a spectacular performance by MoBDeep or a relatively poor showing by Shook On3. Should Shook On3 Gaming land another Top 8 finish, MoBDeep must snag at least the bronze medal to earn an automatic bid to New York’s Superstar Division. MoB PowerTripBev, while still in contention, trails Shook On3 by 330 points, and will need to produce its best performance of the season to stand a chance of earning an invitation.
While several other squads are still in theoretical playoff contention, their path to snatching a Superstar Invitation requires a first place Orlando finish, coupled with a subpar performance by Shook On3 Gaming. Although in theory teams with as few as 1860 points are mathematically within contention, MoBDeep and PowerTripBev stand the only realistic chances to earn an invitation.
Once more, the center of the standings saw a generally upward shift, as the previously 5th (eX), 6th (MoBDeep), 10th (SMB) and 13th (MoB 4 Down) seeded teams have disbanded. Consequently, both Triggers Down and FBI Michigan, who failed to repeat their top 8 Anaheim performances, claimed greater seeds. FBI Michigan narrowly passed Triggers Down in the season points race and now hold Orlando’s eighth seed.
Also due to the number of disbanded teams, Gty curiously improved from 14th to 12th seed despite a subpar 21st place performance. They were, however, surpassed by Zone 6, who earned the tenth seed with their 11th place Chicago performance, and FBI NiceLikeRice, who claimed the eleventh seed with a surprising 10th place showing. These three squads will be looking to pass Open Bracket entrants Under The Influence and KSI Pro in the 2006 points race and secure the Playoff Division invitations awarded to the teams seeded 8th-14th at the end of the regular season.
XG2K.com placed top 16 once more, and slid into the 13th seed, followed by Team Terrabite. Several squads made a splash in Chicago and earned Semi-Pro status. Most notable are Looney Gaming, who made their MLG debut with a top 16 finish and now hold the 17th seed. On Point and Xtreme Gamingx respectively debuted to 15th and 16th seeds with Top 24 performances. GI H2Access.com, Yo Bref Stank, and Team Matrix Lounge. PBR, Go Outside, Sick By Definition and AyR were not present in Chicago.
Orlando Pro Teams
- 1. Final Boss (1) - Walshy, OGRE1, OGRE2, Saiyan = 8000
2. Carbon (3) - Shockwav3, Gandhi, True_Karma, gh057ayame = 5185 3. STR8 RIPPIN (2) - Tsquared, Foulacy, AYBFonzi, Cpt Anarchy = 5240 4. Storm Ventures (7) - Ramby, Poon, Legit, Naded = 4260 5. XiT Woundz (4) - Bonfire, KillerN, Itwasluck, Samurai = 4200 6. Shook on3 gaming ( - DaRk_VeGeTTo, hslightking, Pyrocy, Shook_On3 = 3820-------
7. MoB PowerTripBev.com (9)- Triple007, IIPisToLII, elamitewarrior, FoSsiK = 3490 8. FBI Michigan (12) - Mackeo, Tupac, Slim, Victory_X = 2860 9. Triggers Down (11) - SK Halogod v2, Toxin, Detach, ToxinsNeighbor = 2790 10. Zone 6 (15) - Spainiard, Butt3rz, Cypher = 1855 11. FBI Nice Like Rice (20) - LegendJRG, snwborder5, Donut 5SiX1, RioOoOo = 1576 12. Gty (14) - [_Scrub_], drbob, OVERSHIELD, BigTimer13 = 1880Orlando Semi-Pro Teams
13. MoB XG2K.com (16) - FearItSelf, RuDYReBoRN, xHokuM, TimeliestBrute = 1392 14. Team TerraBite (1 - quinn, Dysphoria, jo3, JuS = 1300N 15. on Point (n/a) - st0n3r_2, OGRE3, McGavin = 762
N 16. Xtreme Gaming (n/a) - callmegod, bLooD187, SilverSon = 695
N 17. Looney Gaming (n/a) - LOONdog, Shoota II, ApoK, Suffer = 517
N 18. GI H2Access.com (n/a) - BuLLeTz, SuReShOt, Xenios, FireIsHot = 523
19. AyR (24)- ex DrumMeR ex, xSleepy, SoulRebelz, xSn4kE = 438N 20. Yo Bref Staaaank (n/a) - I Got Cats, IlliniFan22, NinthMorpheus, MikeMan27 = 337
- 21. Sick By Definition (21) - PoWeeZy, xXrB, KillerDrizzle = 360
N 22. Team Matrix Lounge (n/a)- MudVayne, Be LiKe MyTh, Smoltz = 241
- 23. Go Outside (23) - Trojan, Swat-Lotus, Dark3n = 270
24. I PBR I (25) - Devastator, xShaKuRx, Ix HeLLBoY xI = 250Notable Open-Bracket Entrants
LeGendZ - Vash, Mack, Defy, StrongSide = 4480
MoBDeep.net - Havok, MimiC, AcidiaN, MeLLoZ = 3570
KSI PRO - Gspot, Blackjak, Solshy, SadPanda eh = 2230
Under The Influence - Talent, Nitrouss, Legend, OmegA - 1979
*Note: Changes in seed are based on rankings released as of August 17th, 2006, compared against those released July 11th, 2006. Team changes made since August 17th may not be reflected, and consequently rosters and point totals may be dated. However, only disbanding will result in loss of seed. Roster changes and new point totals will not affect Chicago seeds.
Finding Trunkers
- July 19, 2006 - 11:45pm
For those of you going to Chicago that are interested in meeting me, be sure to swing by stations 3-4. I'll be judging there on Friday and Saturday, and would love to meet you all. My profile picture was mysteriously deleted, but I have a fairly recent photo of myself:
Off to the Windy City!
Off to the Windy City!
5 Minute Preview
- July 17, 2006 - 9:17pm
While the rivalry between Carbon and Str8 Rippin has taken center stage, the feud between XiT Woundz and eX has come to a boil. As the fourth and fifth seeded teams respectively, the two have met in each of the season’s opening three events, and each stand firmly in the other’s path to further glory. While XiT soundly defeated eX’s temporary Anaheim roster, their matches in Dallas and New York were determined by gruelingly close five game sets.
Approaching Chicago, each team boasts their strongest roster yet, and will look to surpass their early season achievements. Since their 11th place stumble in Anaheim, eX have seen the acquisition of rising star Mimic and the return of team captain Gh057ayame. Although there were initial anxieties regarding how well newcomer Mimic would mesh with the team dynamic, Mimic has toned down his pure-slaying style and willingly stepped into the support position left by Melloz’s absence. “Our team playstyle has stayed the same, except we’re more ruthless now,” stated Anarchy. Pistol added, “The team chemistry is amazing, it couldn’t be better.”
XiT Woundz player Sir Samurai has expressed his utmost respect for eX’s recent addition: “Mimic is a great player, and he needed to get off that team he was on. Not to say anything bad about the team he was on, but Mimic was on a whole other level than his teammates.” XiT Woundz themselves recently reaped the rewards of a roster change, but acknowledges that new teammates do not always result in immediate improvement.
“The new lineup has a lot of individual skill, but you won’t know how they fit as a team until Chicago,” said Itwasluck.
In their return to the Windy City, XiT Woundz hopes to recapture the magic that earned second in 2005’s Central Conference Championship. “I want a repeat of last Chicago,” declared Samurai, who was brought back to the squad after XiT’s sub-par 7th place finish in Dallas earlier this season. His presence was immediately felt, as the team claimed 4th once more in Anaheim. Killer N explained, “We realized that you can't force chemistry, you need the right combination of players to be a team. We needed someone that was a team-player and takes deaths for the team instead of playing selfishly.” Samurai has brought an element of versatility to the squad, and has proven himself capable of filling a variety of roles.
Although [insert 12th seeded team] and [insert 13th seeded team] will look to derail their journeys, XiT Woundz and eX expect to meet each other once more in Round 3 of Chicago’s Winners Bracket. While the result of this match won’t knock either squad out of the tournament, the loser faces a much difficult path through the lower bracket. Whoever is defeated in their meeting will face the loser of the likely Winner’s Bracket Semi-Final match between Carbon and Str8 Rippin on their path to the final four. By contrast, the victor of the clash between XiT and eX would face a squad who at best has placed no higher than 5th during the 2006 season. Although neither eX nor XiT has faced Str8 Rippin this year, they have both been twice defeated by Carbon in the season’s opening three events.
However, neither side considers itself to be a mere fourth place contender, and each have their eyes set on something greater. “We’re lanning with Carbon for a week before Chicago, so we’re expecting top 4 for sure, if not 3rd,” stated Anarchy. “People are gonna be shocked at how amazing us and Carbon are going to be,” added Pistol. XiT Woundz have ambitiously set their sights even higher. “We are hoping for top 2, but I think we are guaranteed top 3,” Killer N boldly proclaimed. Although an impressive five game display against Carbon has given XiT Woundz hope for an upset, Gh057 warns against such an ambitious prediction. “That’s what they said before Dallas. How was 7th place for them?”
Should the two sides advance to Winners Bracket Round 3, they will face a rematch of their five game New York set, where XiT Woundz emerged victorious.
[block] LB Round 6 – New York
CTF Classic – Warlock: Winner: XiT Woundz - 3 - 0
Team Slayer – Lockout: Winner: XiT Woundz - 50 - 49
Team Ball – Midship: Winner: eX – 4:10 – 3:03
CTF Classic – Sanctuary: Winner: eX - 2 - 1
Team Slayer – Midship: Winner: XiT Woundz - 50 – 42 [/block]
The two teams display a distinct contrast in playstyle. “I would say we're more of a conservative team, as far as Team Slayers go. But we can really do anything that we need to do to win, if it’s be aggressive and rush, or just stay back and camp,” describes Samurai. eX, however, prefers a high pressure ‘run and gun’ style that keeps their opposition on the defensive. Their aggressive nature results in often overwhelmingly fast gameplay. The contrast creates a thrilling dynamic, as eX attempts to blitz through enemy lines to prevent an established formation. “Once you get on their side of the map, they can’t do anything but die. But if they get their set up going, that’s when it gets rough. The thing about XiT is that they use host to their advantage and flank all the time. They just sit back and push you in somewhere,” explained Anarchy. Chicago’s match holds particular impact, as eX can reclaim the 4th seed and host advantage by significantly outperforming XiT in Chicago.
Throughout the 2006 season, XiT has demonstrated a particular strength on Warlock, and have dominated each of their games against eX on this map. Additionally, XiT’s patience and disciplined formations make the team well suited for games on Lockout. “The thing about XiT is, they’re really good at maps where it requires them to use their team shot, which makes them really solid on Lockout,” commented Anarchy. However, should they find themselves with an early 2 – 0 deficit in the series, eX feels confident in their ability to turn the tide. “Middy Ball and CTF Sanctuary are out strongest gametypes,” continued Anarchy. “We are the kings of Midship, and we plan to keep it that way,” Pistol added.
XiT Woundz, however, have expressed great contention with Pistol’s claim, and will look to dispel eX’s notion of presumed Midship dominance. “When they are playing against a team that has such a dominant team shot, there isn’t much they can do on Midship. It’s a circular map that’s wide open. They will all have good shots, but that doesn’t but that doesn’t beat a team that has such solid teamwork,” said KillerN. Similar confidence was expressed regarding Sanctuary CTF, a map that XiT has traditionally struggled with. “We've worked on that map a lot, and I believe we've improved our mistakes on it enough to be able to win that gametype,” team captain Bonfire stated.
Although each team is approaching the match brimming with confidence, both acknowledge that the series will be closely contested. Chicago looks to provide yet another installment in this thrilling rivalry, as these two powerhouses clash once more. XiT Woundz and eX both look to stun the community through their Chicago performances, and hope to soon be mentioned among the ranks of Carbon, Str8 Rippin and Final Boss.
Approaching Chicago, each team boasts their strongest roster yet, and will look to surpass their early season achievements. Since their 11th place stumble in Anaheim, eX have seen the acquisition of rising star Mimic and the return of team captain Gh057ayame. Although there were initial anxieties regarding how well newcomer Mimic would mesh with the team dynamic, Mimic has toned down his pure-slaying style and willingly stepped into the support position left by Melloz’s absence. “Our team playstyle has stayed the same, except we’re more ruthless now,” stated Anarchy. Pistol added, “The team chemistry is amazing, it couldn’t be better.”
XiT Woundz player Sir Samurai has expressed his utmost respect for eX’s recent addition: “Mimic is a great player, and he needed to get off that team he was on. Not to say anything bad about the team he was on, but Mimic was on a whole other level than his teammates.” XiT Woundz themselves recently reaped the rewards of a roster change, but acknowledges that new teammates do not always result in immediate improvement.
“The new lineup has a lot of individual skill, but you won’t know how they fit as a team until Chicago,” said Itwasluck.
In their return to the Windy City, XiT Woundz hopes to recapture the magic that earned second in 2005’s Central Conference Championship. “I want a repeat of last Chicago,” declared Samurai, who was brought back to the squad after XiT’s sub-par 7th place finish in Dallas earlier this season. His presence was immediately felt, as the team claimed 4th once more in Anaheim. Killer N explained, “We realized that you can't force chemistry, you need the right combination of players to be a team. We needed someone that was a team-player and takes deaths for the team instead of playing selfishly.” Samurai has brought an element of versatility to the squad, and has proven himself capable of filling a variety of roles.
Although [insert 12th seeded team] and [insert 13th seeded team] will look to derail their journeys, XiT Woundz and eX expect to meet each other once more in Round 3 of Chicago’s Winners Bracket. While the result of this match won’t knock either squad out of the tournament, the loser faces a much difficult path through the lower bracket. Whoever is defeated in their meeting will face the loser of the likely Winner’s Bracket Semi-Final match between Carbon and Str8 Rippin on their path to the final four. By contrast, the victor of the clash between XiT and eX would face a squad who at best has placed no higher than 5th during the 2006 season. Although neither eX nor XiT has faced Str8 Rippin this year, they have both been twice defeated by Carbon in the season’s opening three events.
However, neither side considers itself to be a mere fourth place contender, and each have their eyes set on something greater. “We’re lanning with Carbon for a week before Chicago, so we’re expecting top 4 for sure, if not 3rd,” stated Anarchy. “People are gonna be shocked at how amazing us and Carbon are going to be,” added Pistol. XiT Woundz have ambitiously set their sights even higher. “We are hoping for top 2, but I think we are guaranteed top 3,” Killer N boldly proclaimed. Although an impressive five game display against Carbon has given XiT Woundz hope for an upset, Gh057 warns against such an ambitious prediction. “That’s what they said before Dallas. How was 7th place for them?”
Should the two sides advance to Winners Bracket Round 3, they will face a rematch of their five game New York set, where XiT Woundz emerged victorious.
[block] LB Round 6 – New York
CTF Classic – Warlock: Winner: XiT Woundz - 3 - 0
Team Slayer – Lockout: Winner: XiT Woundz - 50 - 49
Team Ball – Midship: Winner: eX – 4:10 – 3:03
CTF Classic – Sanctuary: Winner: eX - 2 - 1
Team Slayer – Midship: Winner: XiT Woundz - 50 – 42 [/block]
The two teams display a distinct contrast in playstyle. “I would say we're more of a conservative team, as far as Team Slayers go. But we can really do anything that we need to do to win, if it’s be aggressive and rush, or just stay back and camp,” describes Samurai. eX, however, prefers a high pressure ‘run and gun’ style that keeps their opposition on the defensive. Their aggressive nature results in often overwhelmingly fast gameplay. The contrast creates a thrilling dynamic, as eX attempts to blitz through enemy lines to prevent an established formation. “Once you get on their side of the map, they can’t do anything but die. But if they get their set up going, that’s when it gets rough. The thing about XiT is that they use host to their advantage and flank all the time. They just sit back and push you in somewhere,” explained Anarchy. Chicago’s match holds particular impact, as eX can reclaim the 4th seed and host advantage by significantly outperforming XiT in Chicago.
Throughout the 2006 season, XiT has demonstrated a particular strength on Warlock, and have dominated each of their games against eX on this map. Additionally, XiT’s patience and disciplined formations make the team well suited for games on Lockout. “The thing about XiT is, they’re really good at maps where it requires them to use their team shot, which makes them really solid on Lockout,” commented Anarchy. However, should they find themselves with an early 2 – 0 deficit in the series, eX feels confident in their ability to turn the tide. “Middy Ball and CTF Sanctuary are out strongest gametypes,” continued Anarchy. “We are the kings of Midship, and we plan to keep it that way,” Pistol added.
XiT Woundz, however, have expressed great contention with Pistol’s claim, and will look to dispel eX’s notion of presumed Midship dominance. “When they are playing against a team that has such a dominant team shot, there isn’t much they can do on Midship. It’s a circular map that’s wide open. They will all have good shots, but that doesn’t but that doesn’t beat a team that has such solid teamwork,” said KillerN. Similar confidence was expressed regarding Sanctuary CTF, a map that XiT has traditionally struggled with. “We've worked on that map a lot, and I believe we've improved our mistakes on it enough to be able to win that gametype,” team captain Bonfire stated.
Although each team is approaching the match brimming with confidence, both acknowledge that the series will be closely contested. Chicago looks to provide yet another installment in this thrilling rivalry, as these two powerhouses clash once more. XiT Woundz and eX both look to stun the community through their Chicago performances, and hope to soon be mentioned among the ranks of Carbon, Str8 Rippin and Final Boss.
More Testarama
- July 6, 2006 - 5:51pm
[BaWeeted]
Too late. Should have checked Trunkers' blog more frequently. Stay tuned to the main page.
Too late. Should have checked Trunkers' blog more frequently. Stay tuned to the main page.
Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3
- June 30, 2006 - 1:13am
MLG Anaheim saw more than its fair share of upsets and surprises, as a new wave of teams have proven themselves to be able contenders. The ensuing drama has shaken up the 2006 Season Standings, as Anaheim was ripe with Cinderella stories and crushing defeats. The field looks as open as ever, with the community’s talent level on the rise. Chicago promises intense action as the gaps have narrowed, and many seeds are now hotly contested.
With their commanding victory in Anaheim, Final Boss further strengthened their vice grip on Major League Gaming’s top seed. While their lead can still be toppled, teams will need to challenge this established powerhouse quickly should they hope to contend for the 2006 Points Title.
Carbon avoided early scares in Anaheim, as their eventual second place finish narrowed the gap against rivals Str8 Rippin. While Carbon was in impressive form in their Loser’s Bracket Finals match against Str8 Rippin, they have not yet proven themselves to be the second best squad of the 2006 season. The team will look to claim the second seed in Chicago, but will surely meet a reinvigorated Str8 Rippin side that is unwilling to relinquish the spot. Given the unique point spread, the two adversaries will likely occupy the second and third seeds for several events to come. Major League Gaming’s most heated rivalry will surely see future installments, as Carbon and Str8 Rippin contend for the right to challenge reigning champions Final Boss.
XiT Woundz have bounced back from an underwhelming 7th place finish in Dallas, reclaiming the fourth seed with the return of SirSamurai to the roster. The reunited teammates seem to have rekindled the chemistry that earned a second place finish in the 2005 Chicago Conference Championships. While XiT Woundz rose, eX slipped through the standings thanks to their temporary roster’s disappointing 11th place finish in Anaheim. eX will look to return to form with the return of Gh057ayame and the recent acquisition of Mimic, and hope to prove themselves in a possible Winner’s Bracket Quarterfinal encounter with XiT Woundz.
MoBDeep.net, Storm Ventures, and MoB Treatment all fell short of the mark in Anaheim, but have retained their top 8 rankings thanks to their performances in the season’s two opening events. Although MoBDeep were disappointed by their 9th place finish in Anaheim, they curiously moved up the charts thanks to a disastrous 16th place result by Storm Ventures. However, MoBDeep is currently left with a two man roster composed of Havok and Acidian after the exit of former teammates Mimic and Vash. The field is quickly closing in, as this trio of teams must fight to defend their jeopardized seeds and travel stipends.
A number of teams surged upwards through the rankings by greatly exceeding expectations in Anaheim. The season’s third event saw a new guard of teams claim the 5th – 8th prize positions. Most notably, Triggers Down lived up to the hype, placing 5th in their debut tournament and sliding into the 11th seed. FBI Michigan, who famously knocked Carbon into the Loser’s Bracket, placed 6th in their return to the MLG circuit. MoBPowerTripBev continue their steady rise through the ranks, finishing 7th in Anaheim and taking the 9th seed. The team has set their sites on top 8, and will look to outperform Storm Ventures and MoB Treatment in Chicago to continue their climb. XGC Zone 6 fought uncontested through the Amateur Bracket and ultimately rounded out Anaheim’s top 8. The performance catapulted the squad through the rankings, earning the team a spot in the Pro Division.
The center of the standings saw a generally upward shift, as the previously 8th, 13th, and 15th seeded teams have all disbanded. These gaps enabled Team I.A and MoBXG2K.com to climb into the Pro Division despite marginal performances in Anaheim. The new look KSI has retained Gspot and Cypher’s 10th seed.
Several teams made their Semi-Pro debut through solid Anaheim performances. Under the Influence jumped to 17th in the charts with a 15th place finish, followed by Nice Like Rice, who advance to 20th. Team GameClucks, XGC Premium and l PBR l join the charts through top 24 Anaheim finishes, while GILive.net and StorminMormons advance by placing 25th and 26th respectively.
Team Versus disbanded after a disappointing 22nd place finish in Anaheim. Liquid Ice Energy Drinks, who have been absent since New York, disbanded as well. Team TmF and Sick By Definition advance simply through attendance, as both teams performed moderately. ThinkEssay.com, Go Outside, Level 30 MLG, Gamzus and Suicidal Army were all not present in Anaheim.
Chicago Pro Teams
- 1. Final Boss (1) - OGRE 1, OGRE 2, Walshy, Saiyan - 6000
- 2. Str8 Rippin (2) - Tsquared, Foulacy, AYB Fonzi, Defy - 4600
- 3. Carbon (3) - Shockwav3, Karma, Gandhi, StrongSide - 4400
4. XiT Woundz (5) - Killer N, Bonfire, itwasluck, Samurai - 3100
5. eX (4) - Cpt. Anarchy, Mimic, Ghostayame, PisToL - 2880
6. MoBDeep.net (7) - Havok, AcidiaN - 1490
7. Storm Ventures (6) - Ramby, Legit, Naded, Poon - 2660
8. Get Treated (9) - Shook on3, Pyrocy, Vegetto, Lightking - 2620
9. MoBPowerTripBev.com (11) - Fossik, Nitrouss, Triple007, Elamitewarrior - 2390
- 10. Team KSI (10) - Solshy, Blackjak, Gspot, Cypher - 2175
11. Triggers Down (12) - Toxin, Toxinsneighbor, SK Halogod v2, Detach - 2030
12. FBI Michigan (17) - Tupac, Slim, Victory X, Mackeo - 1920
13. MoB 4 Down (14) - TrojaN, AbR Ant, Omega, Chaosdaninja - 1242
14. Team I.A (1 - Scrub, Dr.bob, Oversheild, h2c popcorn p - 1153
15. Aero Jet (23) - Spainard, Bigtimer13, Bruno393, Butterz - 1417
16. MoBXg2k.com (20) - RudyReborn, TimeliestBrute, Hokum, Fearitself – 812
Chicago Semi-Pro Teams
N 17. Under The Influence (n/a) – TalenT, lGaMeI, [AsK]LeGeNdPimPs – 699
18. ThinkEssay.com (19) – ScrubZ, Dysphoria, JusRapes, Strangepurple – 760
19. Team TmF (32) – BesT MaN, TeAm_BuRnS, Hali – 447
N 20. Nice Like Rice (n/a) – snwborder5, LegendJRG, Donut 5SiX1, RioOoOo - 696
21. Sick By Definition (27) – l Frosty l, PoWeeZy, xXrB, KillerDrizzle – 487
N 22. Team GameClucks (n/a) – Proxa, Ms. Hotshy, bradfox2 – 270
23. Go Outside (24) – Eli, Trojan, Swat-Lotus, Dark3n – 440
N 24. XGC Premium (n/a) – ex DrumMerR ex, xSleepy, SoulRebelz, xSn4ke – 410
N 25. l PBR l (n/a) – Devastator, xShaKuRx, lx HeLLBoY xl - 250
26. Level 30 MLG (22) – Bluefir3, Munoz, l Hamster l – 360
27. Gamzus (2 – Gamzu, lotda, Rabid – 240
N 28. GILive.net (n/a) – GI B33TS, GI WaldoX, GI QuAnTuM, GI NoRxCaL - 213
N 29. StorminMormons (n/a) –Thinkkkkaman, Jeffler, ll Ghost ll - 127
30. Suicidal Army (31) – SiCTheGreaT, BuuTheGreaT, GeMaZing, EoD X – 160
*Note: Changes in seed are based off rankings released as of June 11th, 2006. Team changes made since may not be reflected, so rosters and point totals may be dated. However, only disbanding will result in loss of seed. Roster changes and new point totals will not affect Chicago seeds.
With their commanding victory in Anaheim, Final Boss further strengthened their vice grip on Major League Gaming’s top seed. While their lead can still be toppled, teams will need to challenge this established powerhouse quickly should they hope to contend for the 2006 Points Title.
Carbon avoided early scares in Anaheim, as their eventual second place finish narrowed the gap against rivals Str8 Rippin. While Carbon was in impressive form in their Loser’s Bracket Finals match against Str8 Rippin, they have not yet proven themselves to be the second best squad of the 2006 season. The team will look to claim the second seed in Chicago, but will surely meet a reinvigorated Str8 Rippin side that is unwilling to relinquish the spot. Given the unique point spread, the two adversaries will likely occupy the second and third seeds for several events to come. Major League Gaming’s most heated rivalry will surely see future installments, as Carbon and Str8 Rippin contend for the right to challenge reigning champions Final Boss.
XiT Woundz have bounced back from an underwhelming 7th place finish in Dallas, reclaiming the fourth seed with the return of SirSamurai to the roster. The reunited teammates seem to have rekindled the chemistry that earned a second place finish in the 2005 Chicago Conference Championships. While XiT Woundz rose, eX slipped through the standings thanks to their temporary roster’s disappointing 11th place finish in Anaheim. eX will look to return to form with the return of Gh057ayame and the recent acquisition of Mimic, and hope to prove themselves in a possible Winner’s Bracket Quarterfinal encounter with XiT Woundz.
MoBDeep.net, Storm Ventures, and MoB Treatment all fell short of the mark in Anaheim, but have retained their top 8 rankings thanks to their performances in the season’s two opening events. Although MoBDeep were disappointed by their 9th place finish in Anaheim, they curiously moved up the charts thanks to a disastrous 16th place result by Storm Ventures. However, MoBDeep is currently left with a two man roster composed of Havok and Acidian after the exit of former teammates Mimic and Vash. The field is quickly closing in, as this trio of teams must fight to defend their jeopardized seeds and travel stipends.
A number of teams surged upwards through the rankings by greatly exceeding expectations in Anaheim. The season’s third event saw a new guard of teams claim the 5th – 8th prize positions. Most notably, Triggers Down lived up to the hype, placing 5th in their debut tournament and sliding into the 11th seed. FBI Michigan, who famously knocked Carbon into the Loser’s Bracket, placed 6th in their return to the MLG circuit. MoBPowerTripBev continue their steady rise through the ranks, finishing 7th in Anaheim and taking the 9th seed. The team has set their sites on top 8, and will look to outperform Storm Ventures and MoB Treatment in Chicago to continue their climb. XGC Zone 6 fought uncontested through the Amateur Bracket and ultimately rounded out Anaheim’s top 8. The performance catapulted the squad through the rankings, earning the team a spot in the Pro Division.
The center of the standings saw a generally upward shift, as the previously 8th, 13th, and 15th seeded teams have all disbanded. These gaps enabled Team I.A and MoBXG2K.com to climb into the Pro Division despite marginal performances in Anaheim. The new look KSI has retained Gspot and Cypher’s 10th seed.
Several teams made their Semi-Pro debut through solid Anaheim performances. Under the Influence jumped to 17th in the charts with a 15th place finish, followed by Nice Like Rice, who advance to 20th. Team GameClucks, XGC Premium and l PBR l join the charts through top 24 Anaheim finishes, while GILive.net and StorminMormons advance by placing 25th and 26th respectively.
Team Versus disbanded after a disappointing 22nd place finish in Anaheim. Liquid Ice Energy Drinks, who have been absent since New York, disbanded as well. Team TmF and Sick By Definition advance simply through attendance, as both teams performed moderately. ThinkEssay.com, Go Outside, Level 30 MLG, Gamzus and Suicidal Army were all not present in Anaheim.
Chicago Pro Teams
- 1. Final Boss (1) - OGRE 1, OGRE 2, Walshy, Saiyan - 6000
- 2. Str8 Rippin (2) - Tsquared, Foulacy, AYB Fonzi, Defy - 4600
- 3. Carbon (3) - Shockwav3, Karma, Gandhi, StrongSide - 4400
4. XiT Woundz (5) - Killer N, Bonfire, itwasluck, Samurai - 3100 5. eX (4) - Cpt. Anarchy, Mimic, Ghostayame, PisToL - 2880 6. MoBDeep.net (7) - Havok, AcidiaN - 1490 7. Storm Ventures (6) - Ramby, Legit, Naded, Poon - 2660 8. Get Treated (9) - Shook on3, Pyrocy, Vegetto, Lightking - 2620 9. MoBPowerTripBev.com (11) - Fossik, Nitrouss, Triple007, Elamitewarrior - 2390- 10. Team KSI (10) - Solshy, Blackjak, Gspot, Cypher - 2175
11. Triggers Down (12) - Toxin, Toxinsneighbor, SK Halogod v2, Detach - 2030 12. FBI Michigan (17) - Tupac, Slim, Victory X, Mackeo - 1920 13. MoB 4 Down (14) - TrojaN, AbR Ant, Omega, Chaosdaninja - 1242 14. Team I.A (1 - Scrub, Dr.bob, Oversheild, h2c popcorn p - 1153 15. Aero Jet (23) - Spainard, Bigtimer13, Bruno393, Butterz - 1417 16. MoBXg2k.com (20) - RudyReborn, TimeliestBrute, Hokum, Fearitself – 812Chicago Semi-Pro Teams
N 17. Under The Influence (n/a) – TalenT, lGaMeI, [AsK]LeGeNdPimPs – 699
18. ThinkEssay.com (19) – ScrubZ, Dysphoria, JusRapes, Strangepurple – 760 19. Team TmF (32) – BesT MaN, TeAm_BuRnS, Hali – 447N 20. Nice Like Rice (n/a) – snwborder5, LegendJRG, Donut 5SiX1, RioOoOo - 696
21. Sick By Definition (27) – l Frosty l, PoWeeZy, xXrB, KillerDrizzle – 487N 22. Team GameClucks (n/a) – Proxa, Ms. Hotshy, bradfox2 – 270
23. Go Outside (24) – Eli, Trojan, Swat-Lotus, Dark3n – 440N 24. XGC Premium (n/a) – ex DrumMerR ex, xSleepy, SoulRebelz, xSn4ke – 410
N 25. l PBR l (n/a) – Devastator, xShaKuRx, lx HeLLBoY xl - 250
26. Level 30 MLG (22) – Bluefir3, Munoz, l Hamster l – 360 27. Gamzus (2 – Gamzu, lotda, Rabid – 240N 28. GILive.net (n/a) – GI B33TS, GI WaldoX, GI QuAnTuM, GI NoRxCaL - 213
N 29. StorminMormons (n/a) –Thinkkkkaman, Jeffler, ll Ghost ll - 127
30. Suicidal Army (31) – SiCTheGreaT, BuuTheGreaT, GeMaZing, EoD X – 160 *Note: Changes in seed are based off rankings released as of June 11th, 2006. Team changes made since may not be reflected, so rosters and point totals may be dated. However, only disbanding will result in loss of seed. Roster changes and new point totals will not affect Chicago seeds.
(Untitled)
- June 2, 2006 - 11:48pm
Sunday night in Dallas, after the venue had closed an before the bomb threat, I found myself playing Smash with Wife in Jason's room. After some time, Walshy requested to play a few games with Wife before he had to leave for an H1 LAN. After somewhat handily defeating Walshy in a couple matches, Wife asked the following: "Do you want me to go easier, or try my hardest?"
Unsurprisingly, Walshy responded "Keep trying your hardest." Now, to put this in perspective, Walshy will never so much as enter an MLG Smash competition. It's not a game that he realistically could profit from, and it's unlikely that he'll ever reach the top tiers of Smash competition. Yet he still pushes himself, still seeks to improve, still revels in the shear challenge of it all. He enjoys being pitted against a pro player because doing so exposes his flaws, forces him to reevaluate and improve his game, and mentally stimulates him. Independent of tournaments and prize money, for true competitors, there's a great and deep satisfaction gained from the path of self improvement.
Which is why I'm so shocked by threads like 'Losing Sight of Why We Started'. "When money is involved, it's not fun anymore, it's work," seemed to be the prevailing trend among the responses. Even today someone said:
[block] hence me not caring for my placement anymore.
much less should 95% of you should too, seeing how you will never become that "halo 2" superstar that you have always dreamed about.
but honestly, for all of you inspiring top halo 2 players, it wont happen. just leave it to the top teams now.[/block]
During the prize money controversy, my response to the quote “Listen guys it actually matters to the people that have shots for top 16. It just makes it pointless” was the following:
[block] Well, if you're going to say that it makes it pointless for those with top 16 aspirations, you might as well say it's pointless for all people who can't place in the money. Such a line of thinking belittles the value and spirit of competition, and the fact that at the heart of it all, we play this game for pleasure. Pointless financially, perhaps, but this demeans so many other things.[/block]
I would like to expand upon that thought today. In my mind, I would like to think that people were so upset about the prize money announcement not because they were motivated by greed or a sense that something was ‘owed’ to them, but that their cries were motivated by the fact that they would be financially unable to pursue the road to self improvement should only the top 5 teams receive payout. Regardless, prize money is not the focus of today’s discussion.
I think that such a statement as this completely demeans the nature and value of competition, as well as the satisfaction gained from hard work and self improvement.
I think placement is important, as it gives you some concrete measure of your own progress relative to the community. Placement and recognition is what drives the league. All the people who suggest that lesser skilled players should give up because there are only tangible rewards given to the top 8 teams completely ignore the greater intangible satisfaction available. It's what drives competition at all levels, be it collegiate sports, spelling bees, or anything else.
During my days as a competitive soccer player, there would be days when our coach would be unable to attend practice. During these times our captain was responsible for administering the practice. Although we did the same drills and scrimmages, our practices lacked their usual intensity in the absence of the coach. Several players were motivated by the coach’s approval, a starting position, and minutes on the field, and would not give their full effort without such rewards. Even though the players were laughing and joking around, I never found these practices to be as enjoyable because they lacked the deeper satisfactions of hard work and competition.
Competitive soccer cost thousands of dollars a year for professional instruction, and nobody had aspirations to become a pro player. Yet we chose this path over casual leagues, chose to spend our weeknights at practice rather than at home relaxing. None of would ever see a dime in return.
Although most of my teammates started playing soccer casually at the age of 5, running mindlessly around the field was not what kept our determination over the years. We no longer played for the same simple pleasures. Did we lose sight of why we started? I suppose one could say that, but we found something much greater.
Unsurprisingly, Walshy responded "Keep trying your hardest." Now, to put this in perspective, Walshy will never so much as enter an MLG Smash competition. It's not a game that he realistically could profit from, and it's unlikely that he'll ever reach the top tiers of Smash competition. Yet he still pushes himself, still seeks to improve, still revels in the shear challenge of it all. He enjoys being pitted against a pro player because doing so exposes his flaws, forces him to reevaluate and improve his game, and mentally stimulates him. Independent of tournaments and prize money, for true competitors, there's a great and deep satisfaction gained from the path of self improvement.
Which is why I'm so shocked by threads like 'Losing Sight of Why We Started'. "When money is involved, it's not fun anymore, it's work," seemed to be the prevailing trend among the responses. Even today someone said:
[block] hence me not caring for my placement anymore.
much less should 95% of you should too, seeing how you will never become that "halo 2" superstar that you have always dreamed about.
but honestly, for all of you inspiring top halo 2 players, it wont happen. just leave it to the top teams now.[/block]
During the prize money controversy, my response to the quote “Listen guys it actually matters to the people that have shots for top 16. It just makes it pointless” was the following:
[block] Well, if you're going to say that it makes it pointless for those with top 16 aspirations, you might as well say it's pointless for all people who can't place in the money. Such a line of thinking belittles the value and spirit of competition, and the fact that at the heart of it all, we play this game for pleasure. Pointless financially, perhaps, but this demeans so many other things.[/block]
I would like to expand upon that thought today. In my mind, I would like to think that people were so upset about the prize money announcement not because they were motivated by greed or a sense that something was ‘owed’ to them, but that their cries were motivated by the fact that they would be financially unable to pursue the road to self improvement should only the top 5 teams receive payout. Regardless, prize money is not the focus of today’s discussion.
I think that such a statement as this completely demeans the nature and value of competition, as well as the satisfaction gained from hard work and self improvement.
I think placement is important, as it gives you some concrete measure of your own progress relative to the community. Placement and recognition is what drives the league. All the people who suggest that lesser skilled players should give up because there are only tangible rewards given to the top 8 teams completely ignore the greater intangible satisfaction available. It's what drives competition at all levels, be it collegiate sports, spelling bees, or anything else.
During my days as a competitive soccer player, there would be days when our coach would be unable to attend practice. During these times our captain was responsible for administering the practice. Although we did the same drills and scrimmages, our practices lacked their usual intensity in the absence of the coach. Several players were motivated by the coach’s approval, a starting position, and minutes on the field, and would not give their full effort without such rewards. Even though the players were laughing and joking around, I never found these practices to be as enjoyable because they lacked the deeper satisfactions of hard work and competition.
Competitive soccer cost thousands of dollars a year for professional instruction, and nobody had aspirations to become a pro player. Yet we chose this path over casual leagues, chose to spend our weeknights at practice rather than at home relaxing. None of would ever see a dime in return.
Although most of my teammates started playing soccer casually at the age of 5, running mindlessly around the field was not what kept our determination over the years. We no longer played for the same simple pleasures. Did we lose sight of why we started? I suppose one could say that, but we found something much greater.
Posted by: super-rad-brian
(06.03.06 12:45am)
Man, you have great blogs.
I think that there are two sides to competition. There are those that want to be the best, and anything less than that is unexceptable. And there are those that find fun in competition, and could care less whether they finish first or last.
It seems to me that the Halo community is getting caught up in being a pro. They want to win money or atleast get to play with top players. It isn't about being the best, its about acting like the best.
I don't really know where I'm going with this.
But again, nice blog.
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I think that there are two sides to competition. There are those that want to be the best, and anything less than that is unexceptable. And there are those that find fun in competition, and could care less whether they finish first or last.
It seems to me that the Halo community is getting caught up in being a pro. They want to win money or atleast get to play with top players. It isn't about being the best, its about acting like the best.
I don't really know where I'm going with this.
But again, nice blog.
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Posted by: Lies
(06.03.06 12:47am)
So true...
Living near Walshy, I have the privaledge (sp?) of LANning with him every couple of weeks. After some great Halo Matches its always fun to see Pac and Walshy go play Smash.
People forget that having fun is what's important... Isn't that why all of us picked up the controller for in the first place?
Kick back, relax, and play some Troy every once in a while
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Living near Walshy, I have the privaledge (sp?) of LANning with him every couple of weeks. After some great Halo Matches its always fun to see Pac and Walshy go play Smash.
People forget that having fun is what's important... Isn't that why all of us picked up the controller for in the first place?
Kick back, relax, and play some Troy every once in a while
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Posted by: shiruken
(06.03.06 2:48am)
The want to win, the want to compete is a primal instinct. we as animals cannot deny it, it's a form of enjoyment, we take fun in defeating an opponent. so while the path to acheiving that feeling may be anything but "fun," one must walk that path to reach it. we constantly need reminding of our goals (by a coach, friend, family, etc.) lest we stray from that path. if i had the wish to go pro, i could will the hours away, regardless if i was having fun or not, practicing my BXR and RRX and jumps for hours on end. But I'd much rather be outside with my friends, watching a movie, or reading a book. For me, videogames are a past-time, a hobby, an additional activity within my busy life. Because videogames and my success in them are a secondary matter, I won't play them if I don't feel like it. I don't have a reason to practice because I truly do not need to because of the choice I made not to pursue that goal.
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Broken Promises and Shattered Dreams
- May 31, 2006 - 7:09pm
I encountered an interesting tidbit on Kotaku today.
Apparently IGN has re-incarnated the Dreamcast portion of their site, intending to "re-review every title that appeared on the ill-fated console". It will be quite interesting to see how they view these games from a 'modern' perspective, nearly 7 years after the ill fated 9.9.99.
Personally, I still rank the Dreamcast as my second favorite console of all time, behind the classic Super Nintendo. We've all heard articles and speculation as to 'why the Dreamcast failed', and hopefully IGN will do the console some justice with their revisit. I can only hope that they take the common eulogy approach of 'a celebration of its greatness while it lived, rather than mourning the fact that it died.'
The Dreamcast's innovation was simply amazing for its time. It ventured into the uncharted world of online console gaming, whose waters proved to be tremendously laggy. It gave functionality to the Visual Memory Unit that most discarded as a mere gimmick. The VMU, at its worst, showed a charming avatar of your Soul Calibur character. At its best it allowed you to conceal your playcalling in the NFL 2K series (a problem that modern football games have still been fairly unable to adress), it downloaded independently playing games that, once completed (on the removed VMU itself), unlocked features in the main game itself. Sonic Adventure allowed the VMU to be used as a tomogatchi of sorts, even allowing for the 'Chao's to be traded via the VMU connectivity feature.
Most importantly, the titles always felt fresh and innovative. Power Stone, Chu Chu Rocket, Shenmue... let's hope IGN gives you a proper send off.
"It's thinking."
Apparently IGN has re-incarnated the Dreamcast portion of their site, intending to "re-review every title that appeared on the ill-fated console". It will be quite interesting to see how they view these games from a 'modern' perspective, nearly 7 years after the ill fated 9.9.99.
Personally, I still rank the Dreamcast as my second favorite console of all time, behind the classic Super Nintendo. We've all heard articles and speculation as to 'why the Dreamcast failed', and hopefully IGN will do the console some justice with their revisit. I can only hope that they take the common eulogy approach of 'a celebration of its greatness while it lived, rather than mourning the fact that it died.'
The Dreamcast's innovation was simply amazing for its time. It ventured into the uncharted world of online console gaming, whose waters proved to be tremendously laggy. It gave functionality to the Visual Memory Unit that most discarded as a mere gimmick. The VMU, at its worst, showed a charming avatar of your Soul Calibur character. At its best it allowed you to conceal your playcalling in the NFL 2K series (a problem that modern football games have still been fairly unable to adress), it downloaded independently playing games that, once completed (on the removed VMU itself), unlocked features in the main game itself. Sonic Adventure allowed the VMU to be used as a tomogatchi of sorts, even allowing for the 'Chao's to be traded via the VMU connectivity feature.
Most importantly, the titles always felt fresh and innovative. Power Stone, Chu Chu Rocket, Shenmue... let's hope IGN gives you a proper send off.
"It's thinking."
Posted by: shiruken
(05.31.06 7:30pm)
I remember playing my friend's Dreamcast and think it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. The graphics looked great (for the time), the games were fun, the controllers were interesting, but fit the hand well. Unfortunately things don't always click, and in the case of the Dreamcast, it seemed nothing ever clicked. A great idea that would be ripped apart by gamers, critics, and ended Sega's console involvement.
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Robin Hood
- May 28, 2006 - 7:13pm
The saying goes that everybody gets their 15 minutes of fame. As Blog of the WEEK, I have 10080 minutes at my disposal. This is far too much. Such, I’m going to try and distribute the wealth, if you will. The following are blogs/sites that I feel also deserve attention.
Shiruken – Although he was just recently Blog of the Week, not enough can be said about the quality of Shiruken’s blogs. He consistently posts very well thought out and insightful dialogues about various issues encountered by netizens these days. Just today he posted a discussion of the social obligations that should be faced by a site like myspace, as well as an illustrative critique of their layout.
Karg – Karg’s blog is more or less your one stop shop for your videogame updates. Too lazy to scour the various game sites of the internet? Karg has got you covered. Want to see the most disgusting .gif you’ll encounter in this lifetime? He’s got that too.
Overswarm – Overswarm, best known for his work on NSCS, goes into great detail when discussing game design and competitive theory. Also, he has a knack for packaging seemingly mundane daily activities into highly enjoyable stories. His ‘photo diaries’ from random shopping trips are clever as well.
Jason – Despite the fact that Jason is a staffer, his blog remains as one of the most hidden gems within the community. While I clearly have a biased opinion after receiving a *thumbs up*, it’s hard to deny the shear quality and thoroughness of his entries. For a sampling, check out his discussion of Nintendo at this year’s E3.
youndanny – The best blog that nobody ever sees. This is largely due to the fact that he has a tendency to delete his entries within 48 hours of posting them. If you go there now you’ll leave empty handed. Keep on your toes though, and you’ll be in for a treat.
Sirlin – If you have some time on your hands, Sirlin writes incredible articles about competitive theory and video game design. He’s a proven Street Fighter champion on the national level, as well as a student of various other games such as Starcraft. In his articles, he shows how the timeless ‘Art of War’ by Sun Tzu can be implemented on the road to victory in modern day video games. Although he mainly discusses Fighting games, the general theories and mindset portrayed are applicable within the FPS realm as well.
Kotaku – A quirky video game blog with ~8-10 new entries a day. Informative and entertaining.
EDIT: Ares - For making me laugh with math.
DOUBLE EDIT: Syndie - For being better than Synide.
Shiruken – Although he was just recently Blog of the Week, not enough can be said about the quality of Shiruken’s blogs. He consistently posts very well thought out and insightful dialogues about various issues encountered by netizens these days. Just today he posted a discussion of the social obligations that should be faced by a site like myspace, as well as an illustrative critique of their layout.
Karg – Karg’s blog is more or less your one stop shop for your videogame updates. Too lazy to scour the various game sites of the internet? Karg has got you covered. Want to see the most disgusting .gif you’ll encounter in this lifetime? He’s got that too.
Overswarm – Overswarm, best known for his work on NSCS, goes into great detail when discussing game design and competitive theory. Also, he has a knack for packaging seemingly mundane daily activities into highly enjoyable stories. His ‘photo diaries’ from random shopping trips are clever as well.
Jason – Despite the fact that Jason is a staffer, his blog remains as one of the most hidden gems within the community. While I clearly have a biased opinion after receiving a *thumbs up*, it’s hard to deny the shear quality and thoroughness of his entries. For a sampling, check out his discussion of Nintendo at this year’s E3.
youndanny – The best blog that nobody ever sees. This is largely due to the fact that he has a tendency to delete his entries within 48 hours of posting them. If you go there now you’ll leave empty handed. Keep on your toes though, and you’ll be in for a treat.
Sirlin – If you have some time on your hands, Sirlin writes incredible articles about competitive theory and video game design. He’s a proven Street Fighter champion on the national level, as well as a student of various other games such as Starcraft. In his articles, he shows how the timeless ‘Art of War’ by Sun Tzu can be implemented on the road to victory in modern day video games. Although he mainly discusses Fighting games, the general theories and mindset portrayed are applicable within the FPS realm as well.
Kotaku – A quirky video game blog with ~8-10 new entries a day. Informative and entertaining.
EDIT: Ares - For making me laugh with math.
DOUBLE EDIT: Syndie - For being better than Synide.
Brick Walls
- May 28, 2006 - 5:43pm
Yesterday a kid from Smashboards, who I had played with once before, came over to play. He proved himself to be an utter and complete waste of space. Previously, when I played with him, he played a single warm up match with Donkey Kong and proceeded to use ‘tournament caliber’ characters after that. This time around, however, he chose to do a ‘tier list challenge’ if you will, meaning he started from the bottom and worked his way up. Mewtwo, then Pichu, on to Bowser, etc.
Needless to say, none of these low tier characters put up much resistance. He was no Azen, and had only a mild familiarity with the playstyles of various chracters. Quite annoyed, I tried to make some casual banter. “Oh man, Mewtwo’s moves are ridiculous!” “Hah! If only Pichu didn’t hurt himself more than he hurt me.” The kid merely sat stoically silent, unwavering in his concentration on the screen. After a few painfully easy matches, I directly confronted him.
“Are you going to keep going through the tiers, or can you play some real characters already?”
Finally the kid spoke. Monotonously, “Oh, this is just what I do now. I start at the bottom of the tiers and go up.”
“Well, it’s a waste of my time. Let me know if you actually feel like playing.”
“But this way you get exposure to all the characters.”
Exposure maybe, but familiarity? No. Smash is not just a game of 25 characters, it’s one of 625 unique match ups, each with their own nuances. Until you’re fairly familiar with a matchup, encountering one for a single, isolated match does little to develop your level of comfort and competence in that matchup. In many cases, characters have ‘brick walls’ that take quite some time to acclimate to. Generally, learning to thoroughly break these ‘tricks’ cannot be done in a single match, as the rules of spacing need to be completely redefined for that particular matchup.
For instance, against Link, it can be very dangerous to land in his general vicinity. Landing in front will result in a long range grapple shield grab, while landing behind will often result in a devastating ‘cyclone’ up-b. One must redefine their own habits against link. Generally, should I land in front of a shielded opponent after a shuffled uair, a simple downsmash will push the opponent out of grab range. However, the d-smash knockback is insufficient against Link’s unusually large grab range. Such, I had to redefine my instincts and force myself to either sidestep the grab or roll through it. Completely reprogramming these instinctive reactions can take a considerable amount of time in various instances.
Even after you have broken down these ‘tricks’, a competent opponent will have a more challenging combat style awaiting. Peeling through these layers takes many matches of experience. Sirlin discusses these ‘brick walls’:
From www.sirlin.net article "The Sheathed Sword”
[block] ...
In many games, though, it’s possible to create traps or lay tricks that must be dealt with before the actual conflict can start. What I mean is that it’s possible to throw up brick walls that the opponent must break through before the back-and-forth strategic play, the "fun part," can even begin. If an enemy must first defeat 3 brick walls before even facing you in actual battle, then he’ll be weakened–or even defeated–before real battling begins.
Street Fighter Alpha 3
I don’t even like Street Fighter Alpha 3, but I’ve defeated quite a number of opponents in tournament play who were "better" than me, and who certainly knew far more about this particular fighting game than me. Part of the reason is that (depending on the character match up), they have to pass a few "magic gates" before we really even start playing. For example, with my Zangief, they’ll first have to pass the "I’m going to jump straight up and down forever doing fierce punches" test. Zangief is surprisingly safe while jumping straight up, and his fierce during this jump has incredibly far horizontal range. Opponents might try to jump at him, only to get hit by the fierce. They might try to throw a fireball, only to be hit out it by the fierce. They might try to walk up and dragon punch the fierce, only have me not do a fierce punch that time. I waited for them to miss their dragon punch, then fierced them back. Actually, retaliating with a fierce isn’t even necessarily the best move in that situation, but it’s sure the most annoying. It helps strengthen the illusion that the jumping straight up fierce is an unstoppable, uncounterable, unfair move.
So if an opponent can’t even figure out how to get past the "jump up fierce" test, why should I bother actually fighting them? Why should I ever stop doing it? I might lose if we actually fought. And even if they bumble around and get hit a few times before they figure out how to get past the fierce, they’ll be at the disadvantage. I’ll have more energy and the luxury of playing defensively, should I desire to.
If they pass that test, there’s another test! It’s the "jump at them with fierce splash" test. Lots of characters can stop that one, but some have trouble. Zangief’s "splash" has incredible priority and often hits the enemy’s moves. It’s easily blocked, but my favorite move to do after a jumping splash is–guess what–another jumping splash. I’ll do it all day if I have to. As long as I’m not losing–that is, if doing the move forever will put me ahead in damage or keep me even–then I’m happy to do it. I’m setting the pace of the match, I’m not losing, and the opponent has to "pass the test" of the fierce splash before we get around to actually playing.
Sun Tzu Again
Another related point of Sun Tzu’s:
"The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy."
Giving the opponent brick walls to deal with before engaging in actual combat is a way to bide your time, waiting for the opponent to defeat himself. Not all walls must be broken down. For example, an opponent faced with my "jumping straight up and down Zangief" could simply decide to back off and wait. What he might not realize is that I have unlimited patience. Since my brick wall in this case is keeping me even (I’m not falling behind) I’m happy to do it forever, which is probably much longer than he’s willing to avoid the battle. Most opponents lack the will to avoid battle forever, and will eventually enter into it at a disadvantage out of impatience. Whether the opponent attempts to break down the wall or not, he is all the while susceptible to error. His patience is sapped and in all likelihood, he’ll open himself up to attack through hasty desperation. It’s for this reason that the ability of the "brick wall" tactic to do actual damage is far less important than how solid it is. The more solid (even if doesn’t damage the opponent, but merely stands in his way), the more frustrated the opponent, and the more likely for him to make the fatal mistake I was waiting for the whole time.
Street Fighter Alpha 2
To further drive home the two points we’ve covered from The Art of War (win before the fight begins, and wait for the opponent to beat himself), I’ll now tell the story of one of my own Street Fighter tournament victories. The tournament was called the East Coast Championships 4, or ECC4. I had won the Street Fighter Alpha2 portion of the ECC3 tournament, so I felt a lot of pressure to win again. I made it to the finals where I faced veteran player Thao Duong. Thao plays only one character (Chun Li), and he’s incredibly robotic, meaning he executes moves perfectly and rarely makes mistakes.
I was undefeated in the tournament so far, and Thao had one loss (it was double elimination). This means Thao had to beat me 4 out of 7 games to be even with me, and another set of 4 out of 7 to win. I only had to win one set of 4 out of 7 to win.
I started by playing Zangief, my secret counter to Chun Li. Since it’s widely believed Chun Li totally destroys Zangief (but not mine!), it would be a flashy way to win. Whether it was my year of no practice or Thao’s playing or Chun Li’s dominance of the game I can’t be sure…but Zangief was not up to the task that day. No problem, since I would switch to my standard Chun Li killer: Ryu. I scraped together a win or two, but again my lack of practice was showing and Thao won by greater and greater margins. I then realized the horror of what I would have to do, and what I would become somewhat famous for in the Street Fighter community. I realized that the only remaining character I could reasonably play in a tournament was Rose, and furthermore that Rose, though very good against most characters, really only has one move against Chun Li: low strong.
And this is where Sun Tzu comes in. My use of Rose’s low strong move is both a method of winning before fighting and of waiting. The low strong is an uninspiring little punch that doesn’t have all that much range, but it has amazing priority to beat other attacks. It’s also incredibly fast, allowing Rose to do multiple low strongs in a row with only the tiniest of gaps.
The low strong was my brick wall–my first test. The only problem is that there was no second test. And worse yet, there really wasn’t much "actual fighting" in store for Thao should he get past my "trick." I could only hope that he’d fumble in trying to get around it, and even become frustrated enough to make mistakes. In retrospect, this is not the best approach to take against the robotic master of move execution himself, but it’s still preferable to no strategy at all, which was my alternative.
I low stronged my little heart out. Probably over 90% of my moves were low strong, done at a very particular range, and with a particular pattern of timing that I dare not reveal. (Ha!) I had infinite patience to low strong forever, forcing Thao to defeat this trick. If he could beat it, we would then have to actually play, and at that point surely he would win. But fortunately, he never did beat it: he fought it head on. At times, he would decide not to attack, not to beat against a brick wall. I used that opportunity to get at the optimal range (which is one pixel farther from him than the range of my low strong). From this range, I continued to low strong forever. I wasn’t winning by that, but I wasn’t losing. Even the robotic Thao would eventually tire and attack, even if at the wrong times, out of annoyance or desperation. Spectators reported that I did an amazing 18 consecutive low strongs without either myself or Thao doing any other moves.
A side effect of my low strongs is that they create a "baseline expectation" of what I’m going to do. The sneaky roundhouse I do after the 17th low strong is pretty tricky, actually. I mean, wouldn’t you expect an 18th low strong after the 17th one? (Note: I was actually even more sneaky, by doing the 18th low strong, then the low roundhouse.)
My story is dragging on as much as that match did. Each game is best 2 out of 3 rounds, and games tended to go the full 3 rounds. They went the full count of 4-3 when Thao won the first set, and all the way to the 14th and final game…where I won 4-3 in the second set…to win the tournament. I collapsed in dehydration and drank a quart of red Gatorade without pause.
I urge you check out this excellent, if brief, tournament report by Chocobo.
Had I ever actually fought Thao "normally" with Rose, he would have killed me easily. Instead, in an amazingly boring and non-crowd-pleasing show, I attempted to prevent actual fighting through my "brick wall trick" of low strong. Furthermore, I bored my opponent into attacking hastily at times, and generally frustrated him, or at least think I did.
It’s interesting to note that early rounds of Street Fighter tournaments are often dominated by "tricks" like the ones I’ve described. Few players have the will to keep those brick walls up forever, though, and eventually resort to "actually playing." Also interesting is that the last rounds of Street Fighter tournaments–especially the finals round to determine the top 2 players–very rarely operate anything like I’ve described. Far more often, the players good enough to get the final 2 are also good enough to easily avoid the kind of roadblocks I’ve been talking about, even if they have to devise countermeasures on the spot. The usual case at such high levels of play is "actual fighting" right off the bat, the very thing I try to put off as long as possible in a tournament match. So it seems that (my own exploits excepted!) tricks will only get you so far. To the benefit of the spectators, the best of the best actually do fight. [/block]
Needless to say, none of these low tier characters put up much resistance. He was no Azen, and had only a mild familiarity with the playstyles of various chracters. Quite annoyed, I tried to make some casual banter. “Oh man, Mewtwo’s moves are ridiculous!” “Hah! If only Pichu didn’t hurt himself more than he hurt me.” The kid merely sat stoically silent, unwavering in his concentration on the screen. After a few painfully easy matches, I directly confronted him.
“Are you going to keep going through the tiers, or can you play some real characters already?”
Finally the kid spoke. Monotonously, “Oh, this is just what I do now. I start at the bottom of the tiers and go up.”
“Well, it’s a waste of my time. Let me know if you actually feel like playing.”
“But this way you get exposure to all the characters.”
Exposure maybe, but familiarity? No. Smash is not just a game of 25 characters, it’s one of 625 unique match ups, each with their own nuances. Until you’re fairly familiar with a matchup, encountering one for a single, isolated match does little to develop your level of comfort and competence in that matchup. In many cases, characters have ‘brick walls’ that take quite some time to acclimate to. Generally, learning to thoroughly break these ‘tricks’ cannot be done in a single match, as the rules of spacing need to be completely redefined for that particular matchup.
For instance, against Link, it can be very dangerous to land in his general vicinity. Landing in front will result in a long range grapple shield grab, while landing behind will often result in a devastating ‘cyclone’ up-b. One must redefine their own habits against link. Generally, should I land in front of a shielded opponent after a shuffled uair, a simple downsmash will push the opponent out of grab range. However, the d-smash knockback is insufficient against Link’s unusually large grab range. Such, I had to redefine my instincts and force myself to either sidestep the grab or roll through it. Completely reprogramming these instinctive reactions can take a considerable amount of time in various instances.
Even after you have broken down these ‘tricks’, a competent opponent will have a more challenging combat style awaiting. Peeling through these layers takes many matches of experience. Sirlin discusses these ‘brick walls’:
From www.sirlin.net article "The Sheathed Sword”
[block] ...
In many games, though, it’s possible to create traps or lay tricks that must be dealt with before the actual conflict can start. What I mean is that it’s possible to throw up brick walls that the opponent must break through before the back-and-forth strategic play, the "fun part," can even begin. If an enemy must first defeat 3 brick walls before even facing you in actual battle, then he’ll be weakened–or even defeated–before real battling begins.
Street Fighter Alpha 3
I don’t even like Street Fighter Alpha 3, but I’ve defeated quite a number of opponents in tournament play who were "better" than me, and who certainly knew far more about this particular fighting game than me. Part of the reason is that (depending on the character match up), they have to pass a few "magic gates" before we really even start playing. For example, with my Zangief, they’ll first have to pass the "I’m going to jump straight up and down forever doing fierce punches" test. Zangief is surprisingly safe while jumping straight up, and his fierce during this jump has incredibly far horizontal range. Opponents might try to jump at him, only to get hit by the fierce. They might try to throw a fireball, only to be hit out it by the fierce. They might try to walk up and dragon punch the fierce, only have me not do a fierce punch that time. I waited for them to miss their dragon punch, then fierced them back. Actually, retaliating with a fierce isn’t even necessarily the best move in that situation, but it’s sure the most annoying. It helps strengthen the illusion that the jumping straight up fierce is an unstoppable, uncounterable, unfair move.
So if an opponent can’t even figure out how to get past the "jump up fierce" test, why should I bother actually fighting them? Why should I ever stop doing it? I might lose if we actually fought. And even if they bumble around and get hit a few times before they figure out how to get past the fierce, they’ll be at the disadvantage. I’ll have more energy and the luxury of playing defensively, should I desire to.
If they pass that test, there’s another test! It’s the "jump at them with fierce splash" test. Lots of characters can stop that one, but some have trouble. Zangief’s "splash" has incredible priority and often hits the enemy’s moves. It’s easily blocked, but my favorite move to do after a jumping splash is–guess what–another jumping splash. I’ll do it all day if I have to. As long as I’m not losing–that is, if doing the move forever will put me ahead in damage or keep me even–then I’m happy to do it. I’m setting the pace of the match, I’m not losing, and the opponent has to "pass the test" of the fierce splash before we get around to actually playing.
Sun Tzu Again
Another related point of Sun Tzu’s:
"The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy."
Giving the opponent brick walls to deal with before engaging in actual combat is a way to bide your time, waiting for the opponent to defeat himself. Not all walls must be broken down. For example, an opponent faced with my "jumping straight up and down Zangief" could simply decide to back off and wait. What he might not realize is that I have unlimited patience. Since my brick wall in this case is keeping me even (I’m not falling behind) I’m happy to do it forever, which is probably much longer than he’s willing to avoid the battle. Most opponents lack the will to avoid battle forever, and will eventually enter into it at a disadvantage out of impatience. Whether the opponent attempts to break down the wall or not, he is all the while susceptible to error. His patience is sapped and in all likelihood, he’ll open himself up to attack through hasty desperation. It’s for this reason that the ability of the "brick wall" tactic to do actual damage is far less important than how solid it is. The more solid (even if doesn’t damage the opponent, but merely stands in his way), the more frustrated the opponent, and the more likely for him to make the fatal mistake I was waiting for the whole time.
Street Fighter Alpha 2
To further drive home the two points we’ve covered from The Art of War (win before the fight begins, and wait for the opponent to beat himself), I’ll now tell the story of one of my own Street Fighter tournament victories. The tournament was called the East Coast Championships 4, or ECC4. I had won the Street Fighter Alpha2 portion of the ECC3 tournament, so I felt a lot of pressure to win again. I made it to the finals where I faced veteran player Thao Duong. Thao plays only one character (Chun Li), and he’s incredibly robotic, meaning he executes moves perfectly and rarely makes mistakes.
I was undefeated in the tournament so far, and Thao had one loss (it was double elimination). This means Thao had to beat me 4 out of 7 games to be even with me, and another set of 4 out of 7 to win. I only had to win one set of 4 out of 7 to win.
I started by playing Zangief, my secret counter to Chun Li. Since it’s widely believed Chun Li totally destroys Zangief (but not mine!), it would be a flashy way to win. Whether it was my year of no practice or Thao’s playing or Chun Li’s dominance of the game I can’t be sure…but Zangief was not up to the task that day. No problem, since I would switch to my standard Chun Li killer: Ryu. I scraped together a win or two, but again my lack of practice was showing and Thao won by greater and greater margins. I then realized the horror of what I would have to do, and what I would become somewhat famous for in the Street Fighter community. I realized that the only remaining character I could reasonably play in a tournament was Rose, and furthermore that Rose, though very good against most characters, really only has one move against Chun Li: low strong.
And this is where Sun Tzu comes in. My use of Rose’s low strong move is both a method of winning before fighting and of waiting. The low strong is an uninspiring little punch that doesn’t have all that much range, but it has amazing priority to beat other attacks. It’s also incredibly fast, allowing Rose to do multiple low strongs in a row with only the tiniest of gaps.
The low strong was my brick wall–my first test. The only problem is that there was no second test. And worse yet, there really wasn’t much "actual fighting" in store for Thao should he get past my "trick." I could only hope that he’d fumble in trying to get around it, and even become frustrated enough to make mistakes. In retrospect, this is not the best approach to take against the robotic master of move execution himself, but it’s still preferable to no strategy at all, which was my alternative.
I low stronged my little heart out. Probably over 90% of my moves were low strong, done at a very particular range, and with a particular pattern of timing that I dare not reveal. (Ha!) I had infinite patience to low strong forever, forcing Thao to defeat this trick. If he could beat it, we would then have to actually play, and at that point surely he would win. But fortunately, he never did beat it: he fought it head on. At times, he would decide not to attack, not to beat against a brick wall. I used that opportunity to get at the optimal range (which is one pixel farther from him than the range of my low strong). From this range, I continued to low strong forever. I wasn’t winning by that, but I wasn’t losing. Even the robotic Thao would eventually tire and attack, even if at the wrong times, out of annoyance or desperation. Spectators reported that I did an amazing 18 consecutive low strongs without either myself or Thao doing any other moves.
A side effect of my low strongs is that they create a "baseline expectation" of what I’m going to do. The sneaky roundhouse I do after the 17th low strong is pretty tricky, actually. I mean, wouldn’t you expect an 18th low strong after the 17th one? (Note: I was actually even more sneaky, by doing the 18th low strong, then the low roundhouse.)
My story is dragging on as much as that match did. Each game is best 2 out of 3 rounds, and games tended to go the full 3 rounds. They went the full count of 4-3 when Thao won the first set, and all the way to the 14th and final game…where I won 4-3 in the second set…to win the tournament. I collapsed in dehydration and drank a quart of red Gatorade without pause.
I urge you check out this excellent, if brief, tournament report by Chocobo.
Had I ever actually fought Thao "normally" with Rose, he would have killed me easily. Instead, in an amazingly boring and non-crowd-pleasing show, I attempted to prevent actual fighting through my "brick wall trick" of low strong. Furthermore, I bored my opponent into attacking hastily at times, and generally frustrated him, or at least think I did.
It’s interesting to note that early rounds of Street Fighter tournaments are often dominated by "tricks" like the ones I’ve described. Few players have the will to keep those brick walls up forever, though, and eventually resort to "actually playing." Also interesting is that the last rounds of Street Fighter tournaments–especially the finals round to determine the top 2 players–very rarely operate anything like I’ve described. Far more often, the players good enough to get the final 2 are also good enough to easily avoid the kind of roadblocks I’ve been talking about, even if they have to devise countermeasures on the spot. The usual case at such high levels of play is "actual fighting" right off the bat, the very thing I try to put off as long as possible in a tournament match. So it seems that (my own exploits excepted!) tricks will only get you so far. To the benefit of the spectators, the best of the best actually do fight. [/block]
Posted by: shiruken
(05.28.06 6:37pm)
The best way to defeat an enemy is to know everything, his strengths, his weaknesses, what move he performs in this instance, and what move he performs in another. Knowledge is power. The ability to analyze a situation in milliseconds and determine that your opponent is at A, you are at B, and his most likely move is attack X, and to avoid you need to move to C is a gift. But to realize all of that and in addition that if you perform attack Z as you move from B to C is something more. Once you know what will happen, you can decide the best counter and the best way to attack back.
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Changes in Seed (Dallas -> Anaheim)
- May 25, 2006 - 10:30pm
Anaheim Pro Teams
- 1. Final Boss (1) - Walshy, OGRE1, OGRE2, Saiyan = 4000
- 2. STR8 RIPPIN (2) - Tsquared, Foulacy, AYBFonzi, Defy = 3200
- 3. Carbon (3) - Shockwav3, Gandhi, True_Karma, StrongSide01 = 2800
4. eX (5) - gh057ayame, Cpt.Anarchy, MeLLoZ, IIPisToLII = 2300
5. Check Six (4) - Bonfire, Zyos, KillerN, Itwasluck = 2200
- 6. Storm Ventures (6) - Ramby, Poon, Legit, Naded = 2140
- 7. MoBDeep.net (7) - Havok, Acidian, MimiC, Vash = 1920
- 8. Team KSI ( - Mack, Toxin, SadPandaEh, BLACKJAK = 1800
9. MoB Treatment (12) - GT VeGeTTo, GT Lightking, GT shooK on3, GT Pyrocy = 1740
10. 0m3N (13) - G-SpOt, Cypher, The Bo, Pacwell = 1405
11. MoB PowerTripBev.com (9) - MoB Nitrouss, MoB st0n3r_2, MoB Triple007, MoB Sir Samurai = 1340
N 12. Triggers Down (n/a)- FoSsiK, Detach, Solshy, SK Halogod v2 = 1125
13. Team Terrabite (15) - Monkey, Qu1nn, jo3, -DMAQ- = 1125
N 14. Team eCC (n/a) - XiT xOmegAx, Flankster v2, BC 07, ixTrojaNxi = 1120
15. Team Best Buy (17) - Nakamura, Nataku, Rippon, Stew = 1120
- 16. Team Versus (16) - Poison, BoO, [_Scrub_], elamitewarrior = 925
Anaheim Semi-Pro Teams
17. OLR Michigan (10) - Mackeo, Tupac, Slim, Victory_X = 880
18. Team I.A. (14) - quickdeath27, Skills x2, drbob, OVERSHIELD = 820
19. ThinkEssay.com (11) - ScrubZ, Strangepurple, Dysphoria, JusRapes = 760
N 20. MoB XG2K.com (n/a) - RuDYReBoRN, callmegod, FearItSelf, xHokuM = 580
N 21. Last Minute Team (n/a) - Chris Ka Pwn, I Got Cats, Donut 5SiX1, SilverSon = 500
N 22. Level 30 MLG (n/a) - LegendJRG, Bluefir3, Munoz, I Hamster I = 487
N 23. XGC Zone 6 (n/a) - Intangibles, BigTimer13, Bruno393, Butt3rz = 440
N 24. Go Outside (n/a) - Eli, Trojan, Swat-Lotus, Dark3n = 440
25. H2o (20) - IMnotGarbage, Rocky, Blood187, Ballew = 350
N 26. Clutch Like Kobe (n/a) - Hali, SHOCKA, Smoltz, MaKeR = 287
N 27. Sick By Definition (n/a) - I Frosty I, PoWeeZy, xXrB, KillerDrizzle = 247
28. Rabid Lords of Ninja Gamzus (1 - Gamzu, lotda, Rabid = 240
29. Liquid Ice Energy Drink (19) - Rid[D]icK, TheMightyZion, CaDdY = 210
30. Dookie Blasters (22) - STANKROD, xSHOOKx, SMELLY, DukeOfCheese = 160
N 31. Suicidal Army (n/a) - SiCTheGreaT, BuuTheGreaT, GeMaZing, EoD X = 160
N 32. md-madn3ss.com (n/a) - Thor_, BesT MaN, i Hulk i, team_burns = 140
Lowered Rank Due to Absence (Previous Rank to New Rank: NY Placing, Dallas Placing)
OLR Michigan (10 to 17)
ThinkEssay.com (11 to 19)
Rabid Lords of Ninja Gamzus (18 to 2
Liquid Ice Energy Drinks (19 to 29)
Dookie Blasters (22 to 30)
Lowered Rank Due to ‘Underachieving'
Check Six (4th to 5th: Placed 4th @ NY, 7th @ Dallas)
Lowered Rank Due to Roster Change
MoB PowerTripBev.com (9th to 11th: Placed 9th @ NY, 9th-12th)
Lowered Due to New Team Emergence
H2o (Placed 17th – 24th at each event, but were ‘leapfrogged’ by new teams placing top 16)
Higher Rank Due to Improved Play
EX (5th to 4th)
MoB Treatment (12th to 9th: 12th @ NY, 8th @ Dallas)
Team Best Buy (17th to 15th: 17th @ NY, 13th-16th @ Dallas)
Higher Rank with Consistent Play
Team Terrabite (15th to 13th: 15th @ NY, 13th-16th @ Dallas)
New Teams to Top 32
Triggers Down
Team eCC
MoB XG2K.com
Last Minute Team
Level 30 MLG
XCG Zone 6
Go Outside
Clutch Like Kobe
Sick By Definition
Suicidal Army
md-madn3ss.com
Teams Maintaining their Seed
Final Boss (1)
Str8 Rippin (2)
Carbon (3)
Storm Ventures (6)
MoBDeep.net (7)
Team KSI (
Team Versus (16)
[block] Dallas Pro Teams
1. Final Boss - Walshy, OGRE1, OGRE2, Saiyan = 2000
2. STR8 RIPPIN - Tsquared, Foulacy, AYBFonzi, Defy = 1600
3. Carbon - Shockwav3, Gandhi, True_Karma, StrongSide01 = 1400
4. Check Six - Bonfire, Zyos, KillerN, Itwasluck = 1200
5. eX - gh057ayame, Cpt.Anarchy, MeLLoZ, IIPisToLII = 1100
6. Storm Ventures - Ramby, Poon, Legit, Naded = 1040
7. MoBDeep.net - Havok, Acidian, MimiC, Vash = 880
8. Team KSI - Mack, Toxin, SadPandaEh, BLACKJAK = 980
9. MoB PowerTripBev.com - MoB Nitrouss, MoB st0n3r_2, MoB Triple007, MoB Sir Samurai = 580
10. OLR Michigan - Mackeo, Tupac, Slim, Victory_X = 880
11. ThinkEssay.com - ScrubZ, Strangepurple, Dysphoria, JusRapes = 760
12. MoB Treatment - GT VeGeTTo, GT Lightking, GT shooK on3, GT Pyrocy = 760
13. *0m3N - G-SpOt, Cypher, The Bo, Pacwell = 525
14. Team I.A. - quickdeath27, Skills x2, drbob, OVERSHIELD = 640
15. Team Terrabite - Monkey, Qu1nn, jo3, -DMAQ- = 605
16. Team Versus - Poison, BoO, [_Scrub_], elamitewarrior = 605
Dallas Semi-Pro Teams
17. Team Best Buy - Nataku, Nakamura, Stew, Rippon = 480
18. Rabid Lords of Ninja Gamzus - Gamzu, lotda, Rabid = 240
19. Liquid Ice Energy Drink - Rid[D]icK, TheMightyZion, CaDdY = 210
20. H2o - IMnotGarbage, Rocky, Blood187, Ballew = 150
21. Team 2 Eazy - RochY, Who0_KiDd, MudVayne = 135
22. Dookie Blasters - STANKROD, xSHOOKx, SMELLY, DukeOfCheese = 160
23. DVS Gaming - dVs xXBulletz, dVs FaTe, dVs XpErT = 105
24. Team uG - Monsterous Ajax, I CyRaX I, I A I ttack = 90
25. NEXT IN LINE - I Elysi0n I, I Striker I, I_SpIdErMaN_I, riotx = 75
26. Owned By Us - Owned By AL, SheezY, II XoRc1sT II, SuReShoTOwNz = 60
27. Team IK4I - lK4l Massacre, lK4l Illusion, lK4l Carnage, DeathReaper12 = 40 [/block]
- 1. Final Boss (1) - Walshy, OGRE1, OGRE2, Saiyan = 4000
- 2. STR8 RIPPIN (2) - Tsquared, Foulacy, AYBFonzi, Defy = 3200
- 3. Carbon (3) - Shockwav3, Gandhi, True_Karma, StrongSide01 = 2800
4. eX (5) - gh057ayame, Cpt.Anarchy, MeLLoZ, IIPisToLII = 2300 5. Check Six (4) - Bonfire, Zyos, KillerN, Itwasluck = 2200- 6. Storm Ventures (6) - Ramby, Poon, Legit, Naded = 2140
- 7. MoBDeep.net (7) - Havok, Acidian, MimiC, Vash = 1920
- 8. Team KSI (
- Mack, Toxin, SadPandaEh, BLACKJAK = 1800 9. MoB Treatment (12) - GT VeGeTTo, GT Lightking, GT shooK on3, GT Pyrocy = 1740 10. 0m3N (13) - G-SpOt, Cypher, The Bo, Pacwell = 1405 11. MoB PowerTripBev.com (9) - MoB Nitrouss, MoB st0n3r_2, MoB Triple007, MoB Sir Samurai = 1340N 12. Triggers Down (n/a)- FoSsiK, Detach, Solshy, SK Halogod v2 = 1125
13. Team Terrabite (15) - Monkey, Qu1nn, jo3, -DMAQ- = 1125N 14. Team eCC (n/a) - XiT xOmegAx, Flankster v2, BC 07, ixTrojaNxi = 1120
15. Team Best Buy (17) - Nakamura, Nataku, Rippon, Stew = 1120- 16. Team Versus (16) - Poison, BoO, [_Scrub_], elamitewarrior = 925
Anaheim Semi-Pro Teams
17. OLR Michigan (10) - Mackeo, Tupac, Slim, Victory_X = 880 18. Team I.A. (14) - quickdeath27, Skills x2, drbob, OVERSHIELD = 820 19. ThinkEssay.com (11) - ScrubZ, Strangepurple, Dysphoria, JusRapes = 760N 20. MoB XG2K.com (n/a) - RuDYReBoRN, callmegod, FearItSelf, xHokuM = 580
N 21. Last Minute Team (n/a) - Chris Ka Pwn, I Got Cats, Donut 5SiX1, SilverSon = 500
N 22. Level 30 MLG (n/a) - LegendJRG, Bluefir3, Munoz, I Hamster I = 487
N 23. XGC Zone 6 (n/a) - Intangibles, BigTimer13, Bruno393, Butt3rz = 440
N 24. Go Outside (n/a) - Eli, Trojan, Swat-Lotus, Dark3n = 440
25. H2o (20) - IMnotGarbage, Rocky, Blood187, Ballew = 350N 26. Clutch Like Kobe (n/a) - Hali, SHOCKA, Smoltz, MaKeR = 287
N 27. Sick By Definition (n/a) - I Frosty I, PoWeeZy, xXrB, KillerDrizzle = 247
28. Rabid Lords of Ninja Gamzus (1 - Gamzu, lotda, Rabid = 240 29. Liquid Ice Energy Drink (19) - Rid[D]icK, TheMightyZion, CaDdY = 210 30. Dookie Blasters (22) - STANKROD, xSHOOKx, SMELLY, DukeOfCheese = 160N 31. Suicidal Army (n/a) - SiCTheGreaT, BuuTheGreaT, GeMaZing, EoD X = 160
N 32. md-madn3ss.com (n/a) - Thor_, BesT MaN, i Hulk i, team_burns = 140
Lowered Rank Due to Absence (Previous Rank to New Rank: NY Placing, Dallas Placing)
OLR Michigan (10 to 17)
ThinkEssay.com (11 to 19)
Rabid Lords of Ninja Gamzus (18 to 2
Liquid Ice Energy Drinks (19 to 29)
Dookie Blasters (22 to 30)
Lowered Rank Due to ‘Underachieving'
Check Six (4th to 5th: Placed 4th @ NY, 7th @ Dallas)
Lowered Rank Due to Roster Change
MoB PowerTripBev.com (9th to 11th: Placed 9th @ NY, 9th-12th)
Lowered Due to New Team Emergence
H2o (Placed 17th – 24th at each event, but were ‘leapfrogged’ by new teams placing top 16)
Higher Rank Due to Improved Play
EX (5th to 4th)
MoB Treatment (12th to 9th: 12th @ NY, 8th @ Dallas)
Team Best Buy (17th to 15th: 17th @ NY, 13th-16th @ Dallas)
Higher Rank with Consistent Play
Team Terrabite (15th to 13th: 15th @ NY, 13th-16th @ Dallas)
New Teams to Top 32
Triggers Down
Team eCC
MoB XG2K.com
Last Minute Team
Level 30 MLG
XCG Zone 6
Go Outside
Clutch Like Kobe
Sick By Definition
Suicidal Army
md-madn3ss.com
Teams Maintaining their Seed
Final Boss (1)
Str8 Rippin (2)
Carbon (3)
Storm Ventures (6)
MoBDeep.net (7)
Team KSI (
Team Versus (16)
[block] Dallas Pro Teams
1. Final Boss - Walshy, OGRE1, OGRE2, Saiyan = 2000
2. STR8 RIPPIN - Tsquared, Foulacy, AYBFonzi, Defy = 1600
3. Carbon - Shockwav3, Gandhi, True_Karma, StrongSide01 = 1400
4. Check Six - Bonfire, Zyos, KillerN, Itwasluck = 1200
5. eX - gh057ayame, Cpt.Anarchy, MeLLoZ, IIPisToLII = 1100
6. Storm Ventures - Ramby, Poon, Legit, Naded = 1040
7. MoBDeep.net - Havok, Acidian, MimiC, Vash = 880
8. Team KSI - Mack, Toxin, SadPandaEh, BLACKJAK = 980
9. MoB PowerTripBev.com - MoB Nitrouss, MoB st0n3r_2, MoB Triple007, MoB Sir Samurai = 580
10. OLR Michigan - Mackeo, Tupac, Slim, Victory_X = 880
11. ThinkEssay.com - ScrubZ, Strangepurple, Dysphoria, JusRapes = 760
12. MoB Treatment - GT VeGeTTo, GT Lightking, GT shooK on3, GT Pyrocy = 760
13. *0m3N - G-SpOt, Cypher, The Bo, Pacwell = 525
14. Team I.A. - quickdeath27, Skills x2, drbob, OVERSHIELD = 640
15. Team Terrabite - Monkey, Qu1nn, jo3, -DMAQ- = 605
16. Team Versus - Poison, BoO, [_Scrub_], elamitewarrior = 605
Dallas Semi-Pro Teams
17. Team Best Buy - Nataku, Nakamura, Stew, Rippon = 480
18. Rabid Lords of Ninja Gamzus - Gamzu, lotda, Rabid = 240
19. Liquid Ice Energy Drink - Rid[D]icK, TheMightyZion, CaDdY = 210
20. H2o - IMnotGarbage, Rocky, Blood187, Ballew = 150
21. Team 2 Eazy - RochY, Who0_KiDd, MudVayne = 135
22. Dookie Blasters - STANKROD, xSHOOKx, SMELLY, DukeOfCheese = 160
23. DVS Gaming - dVs xXBulletz, dVs FaTe, dVs XpErT = 105
24. Team uG - Monsterous Ajax, I CyRaX I, I A I ttack = 90
25. NEXT IN LINE - I Elysi0n I, I Striker I, I_SpIdErMaN_I, riotx = 75
26. Owned By Us - Owned By AL, SheezY, II XoRc1sT II, SuReShoTOwNz = 60
27. Team IK4I - lK4l Massacre, lK4l Illusion, lK4l Carnage, DeathReaper12 = 40 [/block]
Neutralized Bomb
- May 23, 2006 - 8:29pm
As many of you are now aware, we encountered a rather inconvenient bomb threat Sunday night at the venue. And no, it was not just an overreaction to a talking timer. After an hour or so of killing time in the parking lot, the mall was opened so that we may use the facilities. I joined CampinMonkey, Ryu, Tankgirl, GSpot, Youndanny and SpunkyT for a late night excursion into the mall.
While walking along the lower level, we saw a hooded male and female staring into the storefront window of an EB Games. From their posture, they looked to be intensely scanning the merchandise. Sensing the bad kid scent, Monkey condescendingly spouted off “Who’s this kid?” Fully expecting a random to turn around, Monkey was stunned silent when Ogre 2 emerged from the hood. Knowing that he had just been mistaken for a bad kid, Tom carefully crafted his revenge. “Oh hey, you should go check out the ice rink. It’s open.”
Such we proceeded to the rink. Monkey led our line, and opened the door with relative ease. The moment Monkey set foot on the rink, the booming voice of an onlooking security guard was heard. “The rink is closed! Get of the ice!” At this point Monkey realized that he had been led into a trap. “****! Ogre 2 baited the ice rink!” True to his style, Monkey said the following to every bystander he saw while exiting the mall: “Hey, you should go check out the ice rink. It’s open.”
While walking along the lower level, we saw a hooded male and female staring into the storefront window of an EB Games. From their posture, they looked to be intensely scanning the merchandise. Sensing the bad kid scent, Monkey condescendingly spouted off “Who’s this kid?” Fully expecting a random to turn around, Monkey was stunned silent when Ogre 2 emerged from the hood. Knowing that he had just been mistaken for a bad kid, Tom carefully crafted his revenge. “Oh hey, you should go check out the ice rink. It’s open.”
Such we proceeded to the rink. Monkey led our line, and opened the door with relative ease. The moment Monkey set foot on the rink, the booming voice of an onlooking security guard was heard. “The rink is closed! Get of the ice!” At this point Monkey realized that he had been led into a trap. “****! Ogre 2 baited the ice rink!” True to his style, Monkey said the following to every bystander he saw while exiting the mall: “Hey, you should go check out the ice rink. It’s open.”
Location, Location, Location
- May 18, 2006 - 4:39am
Whenever an announcement is made, the members of the MLG general public are soon up in arms, vocally opposing the recently announced decision. The general perception seems to be that the sole motivation behind MLG's decision is to incite unhappiness and discontent among its members. More often than not, these complaints are ill conceived and logically inconsistent. They are simply knee jerk reactions that are poorly thought out and entirely misguided.
A brief note before I expose some of these comments: Ultimately, what's best for the league is generally what is best for its players as well. They all work towards seeing the success and growth of competitive videogaming. If a venue cannot facilitate the production values and media production that MLG has envisioned, the league will not compromise its values simply to appease the regional pleas of a select few. Doing so would simply stunt the growth of professional gaming. The new venues are still highly accessible, and have been chosen as to retain the same number of regional events.
Additionally, I will be referring to these diagrams extensively during my discourse. To some of you these may be unfamiliar.
Diagram 1:
Diagram 2:
[block]BR3tt Owns: comment #18: "Wow that is sooo *** and I prolly won't be able to go to any events now. What city was supposed to be relativley close to philly because I don't see anything that close other than chicago and that is in the later season."[/block]
Relatively close to Philly? Let’s take a look at Diagram 1. New York lies a modest two hours away. Additionally, Brett is from Ohio. The drives from Ohio to Philly and Ohio to New York are essentially the same distance.
[block][block]Get Off M3 (Maryland): comment #20: "that stinks sooo much.. i was gonna be going to philly and atlanta... but now i cant go ***"[/block]
[block]WesSide2K7 (Maryland): comment #32: "seriously...I'm in Maryland. What events am I supposed to be able to afford to fly to? Such garbage....wow. Did you bother checking for a venue in DC? Nope...probably not. Way to **** things up."[/block]
[block]Silva Snipa (Maryland): comment #25: "wow thats extremely ****...you just took away like the best events I had a chance of going to...why do all the events have to be so damn far from where I live I mean new york or orlando either way its gonna cost a crap load and take forever..."[/block]
[block]umpstadan_313 (Maryland): comment #26: "wtf what is mid east coast to do now no philly and dc this year **** it"[/block]
[block]WesSide2K7 (Maryland): comment #32: "seriously...I'm in Maryland. What events am I supposed to be able to afford to fly to? Such garbage....wow. Did you bother checking for a venue in DC? Nope...probably not. Way to **** things up."[/block]
[block]WesSide2K7 (Maryland): comment #32: "seriously...I'm in Maryland. What events am I supposed to be able to afford to fly to? Such garbage....wow. Did you bother checking for a venue in DC? Nope...probably not. Way to **** things up."[/block]
[block]umpstadan_313 (Maryland): comment #26: "wtf what is mid east coast to do now no philly and dc this year **** it"[/block]
[block]TalenT (Virginia): comment #49: "this is ****ing *** they just took out the only 2 events that were in driving distance to me... **** you MLG"[/block][/block]
Almost all of these complaints come from the beloved state of Maryland, and while these complaints hold slightly more validity than Brett’s, the additional driving time to New York is still a mere two hours. Also, the drive from Maryland to Atlanta is approximately 14 hours long. I would imagine one would fly in this situation, which results in a comparably priced ticket to Orlando. If not, you’re looking at a 3 hour driving extension to 17 hours, which should be of no hindrance were you already willing to drive the 14 to Atlanta. The same arguments roughly apply to Virginia as well.
[block]Heavy Arms: comment #29: "WTF. Wow MLG come on you could atleast try to stick to your routes."[/block]
A little history behind these events: Clap was personally responsible for creating the Halo Nationals tournaments in Philadelphia. Similarly, Anakin and Dolbex were the creators of the 50K series in Atlanta. As the founders, they have put a tremendous amount of work and care into these events, and as cliché as it sounds, “it hurts them more than it hurts you.” In no way could a spectator or player be more attached to these events than their creators. While it pains them to see these events go, these cities were simply incapable of hosting the quality and scope of tournaments that comprise the 2006 MLG Season.
[block]EnigmiK (Massachusetts): comment #41: "No east coast events this year....Wtf? How can this be...One side of the map is basically being screwed over";[/block]
Once more, I must point towards Diagram 1. Three of this season’s seven (or more accurately six, considering Las Vegas is invite only) events are being held on the east coast.
[block]Nosajj (Texas): comment #43: "MLG...that's a BRILLIANT idea, because i own a house in both orlando and chicago...NOT"[/block]
This complaint is simply littered with logical fallacies. Following these lines, one would need to own a house in each and every city that they visit. Furthermore, several people are driving to MLG Dallas from as far away as Orlando and Dallas, and you could conceivably do the same. Additionally, Chicago has always been a part of the season schedule, and has simply been moved to being a regular season event.
[block]GFK-Dojuh (Las Vegas): comment #44: "thhere goes my MLG L.A"[/block]
Yes, there it went. It moved half an hour down the road. Coming from Vegas, this really shouldn’t be an issue.
[block]ChImP v2 (Canada): comment #53: "worst schedule EVER. i prefer LA"[/block]
See above.
[block]biGgi3: comment #48: "Really *** that they just cancel events during the season they should figure these things out b4 they announce any thing. They just ruined so many peoples chance to prove there skill. i think that SunDance needs to get his S**T straight."
comment #69: "Getting Rid of east coast is *** didnt yall think about getting d.c. bak?????? my team just broke up because of this dumb sh**"[/block]
Firstly, all dates and locations have always been clearly announced as tentative. The 2006 Announcement listed all dates as TBA, with the accompanying text “When an event date and venue location is finalized, we will make an official announcement on the homepage.”
Such, no events are being canceled during the season. We have kept the same number of events in the same general regions. All event data is being released well ahead of time. With the event dates now finalized, people have plenty of time to make preparations. This allows people to schedule in advance, as well as book cheaper plane tickets. Additionally, New York and Orlando are east coast events. All players still have ample opportunity to prove their skill, and Sundance certainly has his **** together.
(Work in Progress)
A brief note before I expose some of these comments: Ultimately, what's best for the league is generally what is best for its players as well. They all work towards seeing the success and growth of competitive videogaming. If a venue cannot facilitate the production values and media production that MLG has envisioned, the league will not compromise its values simply to appease the regional pleas of a select few. Doing so would simply stunt the growth of professional gaming. The new venues are still highly accessible, and have been chosen as to retain the same number of regional events.
Additionally, I will be referring to these diagrams extensively during my discourse. To some of you these may be unfamiliar.
Diagram 1:
Diagram 2:
[block]BR3tt Owns: comment #18: "Wow that is sooo *** and I prolly won't be able to go to any events now. What city was supposed to be relativley close to philly because I don't see anything that close other than chicago and that is in the later season."[/block]
Relatively close to Philly? Let’s take a look at Diagram 1. New York lies a modest two hours away. Additionally, Brett is from Ohio. The drives from Ohio to Philly and Ohio to New York are essentially the same distance.
[block][block]Get Off M3 (Maryland): comment #20: "that stinks sooo much.. i was gonna be going to philly and atlanta... but now i cant go ***"[/block]
[block]WesSide2K7 (Maryland): comment #32: "seriously...I'm in Maryland. What events am I supposed to be able to afford to fly to? Such garbage....wow. Did you bother checking for a venue in DC? Nope...probably not. Way to **** things up."[/block]
[block]Silva Snipa (Maryland): comment #25: "wow thats extremely ****...you just took away like the best events I had a chance of going to...why do all the events have to be so damn far from where I live I mean new york or orlando either way its gonna cost a crap load and take forever..."[/block]
[block]umpstadan_313 (Maryland): comment #26: "wtf what is mid east coast to do now no philly and dc this year **** it"[/block]
[block]WesSide2K7 (Maryland): comment #32: "seriously...I'm in Maryland. What events am I supposed to be able to afford to fly to? Such garbage....wow. Did you bother checking for a venue in DC? Nope...probably not. Way to **** things up."[/block]
[block]WesSide2K7 (Maryland): comment #32: "seriously...I'm in Maryland. What events am I supposed to be able to afford to fly to? Such garbage....wow. Did you bother checking for a venue in DC? Nope...probably not. Way to **** things up."[/block]
[block]umpstadan_313 (Maryland): comment #26: "wtf what is mid east coast to do now no philly and dc this year **** it"[/block]
[block]TalenT (Virginia): comment #49: "this is ****ing *** they just took out the only 2 events that were in driving distance to me... **** you MLG"[/block][/block]
Almost all of these complaints come from the beloved state of Maryland, and while these complaints hold slightly more validity than Brett’s, the additional driving time to New York is still a mere two hours. Also, the drive from Maryland to Atlanta is approximately 14 hours long. I would imagine one would fly in this situation, which results in a comparably priced ticket to Orlando. If not, you’re looking at a 3 hour driving extension to 17 hours, which should be of no hindrance were you already willing to drive the 14 to Atlanta. The same arguments roughly apply to Virginia as well.
[block]Heavy Arms: comment #29: "WTF. Wow MLG come on you could atleast try to stick to your routes."[/block]
A little history behind these events: Clap was personally responsible for creating the Halo Nationals tournaments in Philadelphia. Similarly, Anakin and Dolbex were the creators of the 50K series in Atlanta. As the founders, they have put a tremendous amount of work and care into these events, and as cliché as it sounds, “it hurts them more than it hurts you.” In no way could a spectator or player be more attached to these events than their creators. While it pains them to see these events go, these cities were simply incapable of hosting the quality and scope of tournaments that comprise the 2006 MLG Season.
[block]EnigmiK (Massachusetts): comment #41: "No east coast events this year....Wtf? How can this be...One side of the map is basically being screwed over";[/block]
Once more, I must point towards Diagram 1. Three of this season’s seven (or more accurately six, considering Las Vegas is invite only) events are being held on the east coast.
[block]Nosajj (Texas): comment #43: "MLG...that's a BRILLIANT idea, because i own a house in both orlando and chicago...NOT"[/block]
This complaint is simply littered with logical fallacies. Following these lines, one would need to own a house in each and every city that they visit. Furthermore, several people are driving to MLG Dallas from as far away as Orlando and Dallas, and you could conceivably do the same. Additionally, Chicago has always been a part of the season schedule, and has simply been moved to being a regular season event.
[block]GFK-Dojuh (Las Vegas): comment #44: "thhere goes my MLG L.A"[/block]
Yes, there it went. It moved half an hour down the road. Coming from Vegas, this really shouldn’t be an issue.
[block]ChImP v2 (Canada): comment #53: "worst schedule EVER. i prefer LA"[/block]
See above.
[block]biGgi3: comment #48: "Really *** that they just cancel events during the season they should figure these things out b4 they announce any thing. They just ruined so many peoples chance to prove there skill. i think that SunDance needs to get his S**T straight."
comment #69: "Getting Rid of east coast is *** didnt yall think about getting d.c. bak?????? my team just broke up because of this dumb sh**"[/block]
Firstly, all dates and locations have always been clearly announced as tentative. The 2006 Announcement listed all dates as TBA, with the accompanying text “When an event date and venue location is finalized, we will make an official announcement on the homepage.”
Such, no events are being canceled during the season. We have kept the same number of events in the same general regions. All event data is being released well ahead of time. With the event dates now finalized, people have plenty of time to make preparations. This allows people to schedule in advance, as well as book cheaper plane tickets. Additionally, New York and Orlando are east coast events. All players still have ample opportunity to prove their skill, and Sundance certainly has his **** together.
(Work in Progress)
Self Imposed Ban
- May 3, 2006 - 2:50am
I'll be gone for a week or so. Hasta luego, MLG.
Scavenger Hunt
- May 2, 2006 - 9:59pm
Over the past couple of months, I've recieved a number of complaints regarding my rather outdated profile picture. Luckily, with the release of the MLG NY photo album, I finally have a more current image available to display to the public.
Don't be fooled by my relaxed posture and cool demeanor. I'm vigilantly watching for any cheaters who may attempt to defile the integrity of my station. Gaining the title of Strongside's favorite judge doesn't come easy.
Now, to those of you who casually glanced through the photo album, you may have disappointedly walked away under the impression that Trunkers appeared only once. Nay, loyal readers, I present to you the needle from the glorious haystack that is the NYC Gallery.
Still don’t see it? Let’s take an extracted view.
With this close-up view, we see a blurry, yet clearly recognizable picture of me on the job.
Lastly, this is Defy. Do not kick him out of your station.
Don't be fooled by my relaxed posture and cool demeanor. I'm vigilantly watching for any cheaters who may attempt to defile the integrity of my station. Gaining the title of Strongside's favorite judge doesn't come easy.
Now, to those of you who casually glanced through the photo album, you may have disappointedly walked away under the impression that Trunkers appeared only once. Nay, loyal readers, I present to you the needle from the glorious haystack that is the NYC Gallery.
Still don’t see it? Let’s take an extracted view.
With this close-up view, we see a blurry, yet clearly recognizable picture of me on the job.
Lastly, this is Defy. Do not kick him out of your station.
Posted by: shiruken
(05.02.06 11:01pm)
i definitely can see a striking resemblance in that pixelated mess that is you. i wonder what wouldve happened if you did kick defy out of your station...he doesnt look happy in that pic...probably the same face he would have had when you told him to leave...and before you died.
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