We had two fantastic days of gaming revel up in Portland. The weather outside was nice and warm for an October weekend, and as much as I would have loved to have had some outdoor fun, the gaming extravaganza of the PRGE beckoned.
The expansive area of the Portland Convention Center encompassed a multitude of vendors, a freeplay "Megacade", rows of pinball, a dining area, a DJ and dance area, and the Freeplay Console Zone which is where I worked my magic.
Saturday was the first day of the event and I had never handled anything this large before (3,000 attendees the year before), but I was only dealing with those who wanted to compete in the console gaming events, not the Arcade event (Super Puzzle Fighter), not the pinball tournament, and not the Tetris World Championship event... which was being run right in front of my area.
The staff of volunteers they had there were very nice and helpful people. I've been accustomed to people knowing what to do, but not doing things. This time around the staff didn't seem familiar with what to do but were very interested in helping out. There really wasn't much work for me to do since all I had to do was ask someone and they'd get it done, but it seemed so awkward not doing everything myself, definitely not used to that kind of work, haha.

Saturday was also the largest and busiest day of the weekend. The Super Mario Kart event had almost 50 people enter the event. After a couple rounds of initial racing it was obvious we had quite a contender for first place. Matthew ended up going to grand finals against Ryan and won the final set 3 - 0. A fine kart racer indeed.
For the top 4 players' services of putting on a great show we awarded them with these prizes:

Coming soon:
SSBM recap
More on Sunday's events!
 
This past Wednesday we were treated to some surprise news, that Juicebox, a top 8 EVO player was going to be showing up to the weekly Dragonpunch tournament.
Needless to say, some of our competitors were psyched to hear about this. We had a few players come down to the League to play him in King of Fighters, and I had the pleasure of playing a friendly game with his Yang in 3rd Strike.

Check out some videos of his excellent skills at EVO:
Results:

SSF4:AE 2012
1) Juicebox
2) Theo
3) Samrock
4) Thomas

Super Smash Bros.: "Real" Brawl
1) t0mmy
2) t1mmy
3) David
4) Richie

King of Fighters
1) Juicebox
2) Joel
3) ???*
4) ???*

*Gotta get the rest of the brackets from David

So, it may not be much of a surprise that Juicebox took 1st in Street Fighter 4 and King of Fighters, but we actually got to see a good show in finals with Sam taking 2 rounds in Winner's Finals before going down and Theo took a 3-0 first set win coming from loser's bracket in Grand Finals against Juicebox's Juri. Final set Juicebox broke out his Abel and won 3-0 for the final set. Sam and Theo did the local scene proud and we were happy to get such a strong player to visit us at the League and show us a thing or two.
 
Thanks for everyone coming out to the League last night for a fun fight night.
Dive Kick was still one of the biggest draws with some newer players showing off their divin' and kickin' skills.

Results for last night:
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition 2012
1) Saltlord Seth (Seth)
2) Andozer (Andy)
3) Theo
4) Samrock (Sam)

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
1) Ranger (Garrett)
2) Chrome (Tyler)
3) Thomas
4) Richie

Dive Kick
1) Nikki
2) Richie
3) Andozer (Andy)
4) Perrin

Saw a few people practicing up their Magical Drop III for the next Puzzle Party event. Be prepared!
 

    Samrock took 1st in nearly every event last night but Richie won Dive Kick in a 3-0 grand finals set with Jeffaily and his big head.

In Smash Bros. (Brawl) Sam went undefeated with his Lucas despite a strong show from Chrome's Ike in grand finals. I think in the near future we may see Ike pull through with the win though, so don't count out the swordsman so quick!
Where was Ryan and Allen, our previous top 2? Maybe we will see these two go up against Sam and Chrome soon!

Speaking of close matches between Chrome and Sam, we saw a similar play in Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition 2012 where upper finals came down to a final round in a 2-2 set, but Sam's Makoto's super ultra ending cinched the win. Thomas came through lower bracket with Akuma to face Sam in a hard-hitting battle, but Sam pulled off a strong win in one set using Deejay and some kickin' moves and dances.

Top 4 Results:

Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition 2012
1) Samrock
2) Thomas
3) Chrome
4) Richie

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
1) Samrock
2) Chrome
3) Richie
4) Whitty

Dive Kick
1) Richie
2) Samrock
3) Big O
4) Richard
 
One of the biggest and best Smash Bros. tournaments in Oregon this summer wrapped up over labor day weekend with a resounding success!
Players hailing from multiple cities all came together to compete in the 7th R3V0LUTION tournament for 2013.
If you attended, feel free to leave a comment below about what you thought of the event.

I know you're anxious to see the results, so without further ado...
Super Smash Bros. (N64/Virtual Console)
1) t0mmy
2) Tasty
3) Spicy
4) t1mmy

Super Smash Bros. Melee (Gamecube)
1) Oliver
2) t1mmy
3) Spicy
4) Tasty

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
1) t0mmy
2) t1mmy
3) Tasty
4) Kyle the Wario Bikeflip Master

Shoutouts to Tasty & Spicy for best overall Smashers for all three Smash Bros. games; these two are from Ashland area. Special shoutout to Kyle who puts on the best show for the audience, he's not known as the "Bike flip master" for nothing!

Every last attendee at the event helped make a hype and fun event so successful, I'd like to thank each and every person who came to compete, spectate, and participate in this event.
 
Picture
Iron Galaxy's "Dive Kick" hits the Shoryuken League
In addition to the usual Dragonpunch Wednesday events of Street Fighter and Smash Bros., yesterday OCG was presented with an opportunity to host a Dive Kick tournament.
For those of you not familiar with this game, I would suggest watching the original video that set the hype level of Dive Kick.
And for those of you too lazy or whose time is worth way too much to watch a ridiculous video about this game, the premise is simple:
Two players
Two buttons (Dive and Kick)

That's it.

Ok, I know what's on your mind: Who took the top 4 last night?
Here ya go:

Dive Kick
1) Richie
2) Samrock
3) t1mmy
4) Whitty

As for who picked up some sweet League Points in Street Fighter:

Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition 2012
1) Samrock (Sam)
2) Richie
3) Chrome (Tyler)
4) Thomas

And Smash Bros. had some new faces drawing a crowd for finals, with the top 4 being:

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
1) 8-bit (Ryan)
2) Allen
3) Whitty
4) Chrome (Tyler)

There you have it for this week, our fighting game heroes:

  • Richie, the Dive Kick extraordinaire
  • Samrock, the Street Fightingest fighter
  • 8-bit, the Smashing Maestro Brother