Saw this posted over at NA. http://letsplaygamingexpo.com/speakers/tetris-championship-special-qualifier/ Looks pretty cool. I talked to Ferris a couple years ago at PRGE, I think he was at Robin's house also, seemed like a good dude. Who lives in TX, Rocketman, right? Looks like you only have to achieve the highest score for the weekend playing NES Tetris, no head to head unless there are max-outs.
yeah jake, kristen, thor (not that hed show up though). not sure about anyone else. if jake OR kristen win they get their fares covered- seems like a rad idea to me!
Just a note here for future reference... this was a great event (very nice convention center and relaxed room for Tetris playing) and, to echo what Josh said about it, is more or less what the MGC should now become. MGC basically sucks now in terms of incentive to win (other than bragging rights). Josh may be boycotting MGC now, so it's been moving in the direction of becoming extinct rather than growing. If would be cool if they had several qualifiers like this for major regions of the country to get people interested in competing and coming to Portland.
A few observations from us: (1) The LPGE event overall was a success... hundreds of people turned up... great venue, etc... However, I'm not sure if the Tetris Southern Qualifier was marketed well enough. May be the pool of serious NES Tetris enthusiasts is limited to begin with or not enough people knew about it and had time to plan on being there? (2) Ultimately, I agree with Chad. These types of regional qualifier events could really re-energize folks across the country to practice and step up to the challenge. In a much smaller scale but similar general concept to the 1990 NWC, you could have a winner from each region (West, South, North/Central, East) win their airfare and lodging for the CTWC in Portland. That would be amazing and serve as a massive platform for Portland every year.
I don't see myself going back to MGC. The hotel where it is held is way to small. It needs to move but it doesn't look like the organizers want to do that. Max does an great job with the tournaments but it sucks playing video games in a hallway. It's also unfortunate that MCG has to deal with the "gambling" laws now. I went to ReplayFX this past weekend and there were a ton of everything; pinball machines, arcade machines, consoles, inflatable games, stages, competitions, etc. It was held at the convention center in downtown Pittsburgh. They could double the attendance next year and there would still be plenty of games to play and room to move around. ps. Congrats on the win Chad!
