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!
 
The rolling thunderstorms during the day could not drive off the more competitive puzzle players yesterday. We filled a 16-man bracket full of exceptional players and had some incredible matches.
A few of the top players people were watching were Brandon, Dropmaster LC, and last Magical Drop champion Elijah. However, a new player, Will, brought a big upset during semifinals when he sent LC into elimination bracket with a 2-0 victory.
Although he put up a good fight in winner's finals, Elijah took the set with a commanding lead.
After LC eliminated Brandon he got his vengeance against Will, securing a grand finals match and a chance to take the Magical Drop Crown.
After two straight wins from Elijah it came down very close in the third round, looking like Elijah was going to take a 3-0 win suddenly took a complete turn when LC worked the bottom of the screen enough for a final quota win. He kept up the strong performance for a second set win, bringing the match to a 2-2 score.
Ultimately Elijah proved to be the stronger opponent and won the set with a final score of 3-2.

A big, huge thank you to everyone who showed up and helped give the weekly Thursday night Puzzle Party a great start. I hope you all had fun and will come back next week where more Magical Drop will be joined by a few other games. But which games?
That's for you to decide!
Drop on by the Puzzle Party page and vote for your favorite game!

Full results of yesterday
 

    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.
 
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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
 
PictureClick picture above for the Event Page
Due to popular demand, a weekly puzzle game tournament night is coming at you every Thursday night at the Shoryuken League.
Puzzle game events used to be hosted alongside fighting games every wednesday night, thanks to a crossover game called Super Puzzle Fighter Turbo. As "Dragonpunch" fight nights progressed, the puzzle games were pushed aside so that newer fighting game releases could be featured. That left an ignored demographic of puzzle gamers.
However, I talked to Shoryuken League about bringing these games back to the people on a different night, and things fell in order well enough to give it a chance on Thursday nights.
Look for a Puzzle Party page to go up on OCG very soon for more details!

 
Wednesday's tournament was a blast featuring four games:
  • Super Street Fighter 4: AE 2012
  • Super Smash Bros. (N64)
  • Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

And a special bonus game that drew a lot of interest:
  • Pikmin 3 (Battle Bingo mode)

League points go to the following for SSF4:AE :
  1. Eternal Blaze     (+4)
  2. Andozer            (+3)
  3. Samrock           (+2)
  4. Richie               (+1)

Pikmin 3 was a free side event, no League points awarded, but just for those interested, the top placing players:
  1. t0mmy
  2. Nikki
  3. t1mmy
  4. David

Seeing as Pikmin 3 drew a number of players over to it maybe we'll see it again next week.
 
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Some very awesome news has come my way the last couple days. The most awesome news I have to share on this site is hearing back from staff at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. They surprised me with an offer for me to host video game events over the weekend.
Well, I jumped at the chance, because I absolutely loved the PRGE when I went there a few years back. The offer to be a part of such an awesome event is like a dream come true. I hope I can bring something great to their expo and they enjoy the work I do. I'm used to rather small-time events, where we don't get much more than 50 entrants. This is part of a much larger event and I hope I'll have all the equipment and staff to take care of everything.
Can't say I'm not concerned if I'm out of my league here, but I have been hosting events for years now and have handled some pretty major issues in stride, so I am ready to jump right into this and see how I can handle all the work thrown at me. Should be awesome!