09/11/06

NDK VGR Tournaments are like nothing you've ever seen.

We take normal games, games you've played a thousand times, and twist them, bend them, make you play differently. If you win a prize - you earned it. Others may imitate, but they can never duplicate.  

Tournaments for 2006

This is the final list of the Tournaments for 2006. Soon you will be able to click on the link to see the rules!

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi - PS2

Soul Calibur III - PS2

Guitar Hero - PS2

Ninja Gaiden Black - Xbox

Dead or Alive 4 - Xbox 360

Gamer's Choice Tournament: Naruto Gekitou Ninja Taisen 4 - GCN

We Love Katamari - PS2

Gamer's Choice Tournament

I wouldn't want it said that I don't listen to you guys. (For the record, I've been begging for input for the last 5 years! But I digress.) Some Tournaments are so popular they never really die. On the NDK Forums, we created a poll to let you choose one of this year's Tournaments. We will be doing this every year from now on, to let you have a voice in what gets played as a Tournament every year. The will of the people will decide what game becomes a Tournament each year. Isn't democracy wonderful?

Rules

After several years, the rules for Tournament have finally changed! Make sure you read through this!

1. Practice! We provide lots of time during the weekend and especially right before the Tournament to practice the games we're running. There's really no excuse for getting into a Tournament and not even knowing how to play the game at hand. Plus, this is the ideal time to scope out the competition.

2. Show up! There are no more sign-up sheets for Tournaments, but it's more important than ever that you show up on time for the event! We know there's a lot to do during the con, and not everything is as timely as you'd like. But from now on, if you want to be in a Tournament, just show up at the appointed time and collect a Token from the Tournament judge. That token denotes your position on the Tournament roster, so keep it close to you during the event (although you have to give it back when the Tournament's over.)

3. Speak up! The number one complaint I get after the convention is over is, "Man, I could've won if my controller wasn't screwed up/my settings weren't all weird/I'd had a chance to change my buttons." I'm totally willing to let you set the game the way you like it, as long as you don't take all damn day doing it. Also, we're far from perfect, and we make mistakes too. If you find that something isn't right when you start your match, say something to the Tournament Judge and we will pause the match, restart it, or whatever it takes so that you have a comfortable playing experience. But if you don't say something at the time of the event, there's nothing I can do to change the past. So don't whine to me.

5. Play hard. You've got nothing to lose. Be a boy or a man - it's up to you.

Cheese!

Cheese (cheez) n. 1 : a food consisting of the coagulated, compressed, and usually ripened curd of milk separated from the whey. 2 : The deliberate abuse of a game's programming and/or flaws therein to gain an unfair advantage over an opponent. 

We in the VGR know cheese when we see it. We've spent years working to study and control it, or exploit it for our own ends. Some of us have even become allergic to it. When you're competing in a Tournament, you should avoid it. There are a few basic ideas that are universally considered cheesy:

1. Constant repetition of the same move or combo, over and over again, especially when unblockable.

2. Cornering: trapping your opponent on the edge of the screen where they cannot maneuver or dodge your attacks. This also covers Juggling, which consists of knocking your opponent into the air and keeping them there, unable to attack or defend, while you damage their life meter. However, some games are created especially to encourage juggling. In these games there is usually a way to break out or avoid the juggle. In such games, juggling is not cheesy, although repeated juggling, to the point that your opponent puts down the controller and just watches you play with yourself (heh) is cheesy, and is covered under Rule #1.

3. Any other use of the programming or it's flaws to give you an unfair advantage, or as declared by the Tournament judge.

Cheese is a touchy subject, and open to great debate. In some games cheese simply doesn't work, and in others it's a way of life. When you're playing with your friends on the Game Floor, do what you like. In a Tournament however, if a judge says something is cheesy, you have one chance to quit it, and then you're disqualified. We're not kidding. One warning, and then you're out of the Tournament.