Unofficial Announcement of an Official National DDR Tournament
Posted by kent - Thu 09/10 2009 - 09:00 PM - 2053 Views
An unofficial announcement of an official Konami lead tournament has been posted. Reasons for this unofficial announcement is due to the first regional tournaments starting very soon.
The Community Manager of Konami, Ryan Iyengar aka DukAmok is the main person behind this and has been in contact with EvilDave over some of the details of this upcoming event.
Here are some of the details:
The main event and regional's are to be held on SuperNOVA 1 for its availablity. SN2 will be used at locations when no SN1 is available.
"Satellite" regional tournaments will take place throughout the US at Gameworks locations.
The 1st place winners from each regional will be awarded with an all expenses paid trip to the finals.
Finals are to be held at the Gameworks Las Vegas, NV on the 5th of December.
The main event will only be open for the 1st place regional winners.
Competitors must register to compete on an upcoming Konami website. Entrance is free of charge.
Tentative regional tournament locations are as follows:
Additional tournaments in Southern California and New York are also in the works, although exact locations have not yet been finalized.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EvilDave219
I currently DO NOT know what the rules will be for these tournaments. However, Konami does plan to advertise these tournaments VERY HEAVILY, and they expect 150+ participants to be at EACH regional tournament. From my understanding with Ryan, the basic regional tournaments will essentially be a "tiny tournament with a HUGE qualifying round," and then the last 3 rounds will be elimination.
There will be one, and only one winner at each regional tournament. The winner will get a package deal of sorts to Vegas for the national tournament in December. That is, flight, hotel, meals, etc all paid for. The 7 or 8 people who win the qualifiers will compete in the national tournament, and ONLY these people can compete. There may be a side tournament for anyone else who wishes to attend the national tournament, but the only people who are eligible to compete in the actual national tournament are the regional winners. I'm not sure what prizes will be awarded for the national tournament, but Ryan assures me it will be thousands of dollars.
Ryan is also trying to plan to attend every regional tournament, and will definitely be at the first regional in Dallas. The only one he can't attend is the Miami regional due to some kind of previous engagement. Regardless if Ryan is there or not, there should be a staff of people from Konami there to run the tournament.
thanks for completely ignoring the midatlantic konami
This, I mean seriously, this is where the bulk of the players are these days. Regardless, I will try to attend the national tournament so I can meet more people. this tournament does start the day after I finish my fall semester so it shouldn't be hard to pull off.
Mmm, I really hope there's a way of convincing Konami to do NY. It's a pretty central location between NE and Mid-A and would be an easy way to get all of the players in both regions involved. It's a cheap Chinatown Bus ride from DC, I know that. Legit like $15.
SN1 kind of sucks, but I'd rather have that in a tournament than SN2 because SN2 has more ridiculous charts that take away from everything fun about DDR tournaments. FFA9 comes to mind... A super fun Extreme division, and a ridiculous SN2 one dominated by ridiculous, gimmicky charts, much like an ITG customs tournament.
Ugh I wish we could just have Extreme, even if it would mean nationals would go to like, quadruple-random.
For those complaining about "why isn't a tournament located at X location," keep in mind Konami is doing this via a partnership through Gameworks. Go to Gamework's site and look at their locations and you'll see a HUGE gap on the east coast.
That being said, the vibe I got from Ryan was that there's a 95% chance that there will be a tournament in NY, it's just that they haven't finalized the venue yet. There's a couple locations they're looking at that should be in Times Square.
I hope it's 10K so this can be an IRL 10K Commotion.
Posted by Piano Man - Fri 09/11 2009 - 12:08 AM [ quote ]
What the hell; nothing in New England? I knew TGA dying plus 8otB being on their shitlist killed any decent locations, but seriously, nothing in the NE area?
Posted by Piano Man - Fri 09/11 2009 - 12:09 AM [ quote ]
Quote:
Originally Posted by InsaneBassist
I hope it's 10K so this can be an IRL 10K Commotion.
Amen! I just finished reading that, finally.
Posted by goemon4 - Fri 09/11 2009 - 01:19 AM [ quote ]
baw gonna have to miss the one in miami, fucking job interview and if I miss it for a ddr tournament...
Grapevine Mills Mall is like 5 minutes from where I work, haha. Practice time. No way in hell will I win, but I'm still gonna participate.
Posted by dahrkdaiz - Fri 09/11 2009 - 06:20 AM [ quote ]
blah, honestly, this should be much more accessible. Not a lot of people can make the travel to these places for a tournament. it would be a lot nicer if maybe there were maybe 32 regionals, that would provide a lot more accessibility (and maybe taking the top 2 players, provide a nice 64 man bracket) for players. Not to mention, having the tournaments in places like Columbus, Ohio alienates a lot of lesser skilled players because pretty much everyone I've seen from that area AAA's everything, all the time. And wtf, Supernova machines? Come on, at least Supernova 2.
Posted by jbean3535 - Fri 09/11 2009 - 10:46 AM [ quote ]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Milk Chan
Definitely making both vegas ones. So nice living here haha.
UNFORTUNATELY ITS GAMEWORKS SN EWWWWW (should've been orleans or sam's town)
Dave let me know that Konami is on the regional managers to hound the store managers to maintain their machines prior to the actual events and that the day before, a Konami staff member will go check on the machines to see if they are up to par
Posted by djgiza - Fri 09/11 2009 - 10:53 AM [ quote ]
yay finally something konami is doing something by me in miami. I was in the top for local tournaments since fourth mix came out by me...but stopped playing because beatmania IIDX is so fucking hardcore :) .Now the IIDX is gone I havent played since extreme...
SN1 is weird
Posted by djgiza - Fri 09/11 2009 - 10:55 AM [ quote ]
Quote:
Originally Posted by goemon4
baw gonna have to miss the one in miami, fucking job interview and if I miss it for a ddr tournament...
Haha! miss it, DDR tournaments are like life source for bemani players
:)
I lol'd when people said "OMG dey leik put them in the worst locationz"
I'm close to one of those "worst locations" XD
Posted by ranatalus - Fri 09/11 2009 - 11:45 AM [ quote ]
same here, haha
joe P, want to come out to ohio and enter ours? you can stay with us while you're here, haha
also, if you are near a location and have ANY connections/friends that work at the gameworks near you, go there and do whatever you can to help them fix/test pads.
if you DON'T have any connections, don't harass the techs because that's just going to make gameworks unwilling to do stuff in the future
I'll probably be making the miami one (live about 30 mins from GameWorks). Doubt I'll get far, since I cant consistently pass anything harder than Max 300 SMMM.
Posted by Joe P. - Fri 09/11 2009 - 09:56 PM [ quote ]
Quote:
Originally Posted by ranatalus
joe P, want to come out to ohio and enter ours? you can stay with us while you're here, haha
I totes would, but I'd need to make and keep $500 before that day haha D:
Posted by ranatalus - Sat 09/12 2009 - 03:43 AM [ quote ]
Well I am really glad that Konami is stepping up to take charge in promoting more of DDR. I also am glad that they at least decided to keep things together by choosing a arcade title that everyone who is in this party (in terms of locations) is able to do for the most part. The locations so far are decent but not greatest but based on the fact it's gameworks who've got the rights to put this on, I guess I can't expect much better. I hope if this proves somewhat sucessful, I hope Konami will consider working out a tournament system that will entrust more arcades on their part to run a qualifer and make more effort into making an official tournament series a more nationally participated event. Another concern of mine is the fact that it appears while as many people can attempt to enter a Regional, the qualifer round will only allow about 8 people to compete.
QUOTE: From my understanding with Ryan, the basic regional tournaments will essentially be a "tiny tournament with a HUGE qualifying round," and then the last 3 rounds will be elimination.
This is not many to work with and would mean alot of people could be traveling for hundreds of miles just to play one song and find out they are out of the running. Not a great idea. Time is always a factor of course when running events however it seems like each location wants to get this done with this as fast as possible. A good fun tournament is one that lasts all day with at least a 32 player cut from the qualifer. I can also assume this tournament will be single-elimation making it even less desirable. Realistically I see only players who can AA any song on Expert from DDR to be able to stand a chance in this thing. Its just that simple.
I wonder what the prizes are wonder if they will meet to the expectations of other formidable events like Sporktoberfest, Bemanifest, In The Groove nationals and more that have run in the past. I also wonder if there is a paid trip for anyone who wins at the vegas location to go to vegas again for the nationals or if they have to get their on their own. It all comes down to the player's cost versus possible gain if they win. Is the bait big enough for us to try? For me I am willing to say no.
Right now I am not seeing this event series to be a desirable event to attend on my own part. I live in Cheyenne, WY and a trip to Vegas (my closest location) is a 13 hour drive one way. That would mean I would need to dedicate a full three days just to get there and back. I can't do this for many reasons, one I need time off and since there really wasn't too much advance notice I can't schedule for it. Not to mention this tour is in the middle of the holiday shopping season, and I like to see who's schedule is not affected by Christmas this time of year who plays DDR. I also checked flights for a one day trip and there just are not seats left from Denver to Vegas on that day left.
I also don't want to compete just from what the rules sound like so far. It's just not a good bet and I love betting in Vegas when I can. I know there are 20 twenty players just within 200 miles of me that will meet or exceed my skill. I also know of several strong players in Las Vegas and Reno and many that will travel from California. I just don't want to go traveling unless I know I have a fair chance of making it at least half way through at my current skill level.
Well that is about it. I hope that gives a good idea to why I can't and why several other players are saying the same. Once again I am really glad Konami is taking the steps to promoting DDR. However I feel they probably picked a bad time and not enough locations. I really wish they would have worked with Namco Cybertainment (whom I work for at my arcade in Cheyenne) this way we would have had access to the largest arcade chain in the US (and that includes the Brunswick Zones).I hope these events are successful though as I am hoping that next time dozens of more locations would be eligible to run some sort of qualifing tournament and continue to resurrect the popularity of the game to new heights.
I guess I am just glad to be competing in Sporktoberfest this October 17th in Colorado Springs. I hope that many other players who originally planned to visit me and my friends to still come and enjoy what I hope will be a better DDR touranment.
I haven't played DDR in years now, but I know I can still play pretty good, maybe, if i tried.
the metrorail stops right at sunset place, so I guess i'll make it to the miami tournament.
if it's free, what the hell. why not. :)
where to sign up...?
Posted by Neon Kel - Tue 09/22 2009 - 09:11 PM [ quote ]
