Hello, all. I know my lack of play has lead to a lack of posts, but I thought I'd check in on the upcoming Midwest Gaming Classic. I just got things settled on my end, allowing me to get my arrangements made. I know of a few others attending, but I wanted to give people the chance to shout out if they're planning on being there. Soooo...who's goin'?
I am going - finally got around to making arrangements. No VIG for me - curious how many people will be playing in the VIG tetris tournament. Not many I wager. I plan to be in town Friday evening and taking off Sunday after the tourney. Looking forward to it.
Just checking in to let you guys know that I won't be there this year. I've been there the last 5 years. Please let us know how it goes! I'll miss hanging out with you guys but hopefully see you in Oct!
No Mike. No Josh. Bummerrrrrrr! I don't know if Frank is doing Geek.kon again, but maybe there will be another Midwest tourney before the Fall. If not, I for sure need to get to the Big Dance this year to see everyone and meet the other folks.
Congrats to the 2014 Midwest Tetris Champion...Ben Mullen! When it was crunch time, the man was on fire. For reals. Great weekend, all around. I hope to see you all again soon.
Major congrats to Ben Mullen! Starting on Level 0 for qualifying, he broke 800k, and broke 800k twice during competition as well. No one else was close - very decisive win.
Congrats Ben! Looks like the structure of the tournament was different this year. Did you like it? Was it also free to enter?
It was free and was totally based on the NES (which I'll admit made me all kinds of happy). The freeness is a funny thing. Apparently the good folks at the Wisconsin legislature discovered the charges and told MGC they couldn't because they were "games of chance" like gambling. Yet none of them showed up and did well in any competition interestingly enough. Here is the basic structure: Qualifying by highest score from level 0 (all day Saturday and into sunday). Top 8 get 2 games at level 5, 4 move on using combined score. last 4 got 2 games, now level 9, highest 2 combined scores move on. last 2 got 3 games level 9, highest combined score wins.
What's funny is that if conventional gambling was a "game of chance" in the same way Tetris is, casinos would probably go out of business. Which says enough in my opinion.
I've only been there twice, but it's been a pretty good time both years. I do have some very strong feelings for how it should be promoted/supported/conducted/etc., though that's not to sound ungrateful. If you put together the fields from last year and this year, you have a more than qualified 8 contenders between NES and SNES. I hope maybe a bit of a spotlight can be pointed on that fact to help shape what is already an incredibly legit tourney.
It is! The Expo itself is probably the most underrated such event in the country. Its HUGE in size with lots of stuff going on and the folks are pretty great. The tournament itself is normally in a fairly small, cramped space, but it always seems to work quite well. This year it was in the wide open, which was cool because it made for much more people watching and participating. Really, the more solid players we can get there the more fun it will be. In addition to the official tournament we also have a nice nighttime drunken tournament in one of the common rooms (this year it was in the Nintendo age room, and it was fun as hell).
LOL. That's pretty lame, I did not hear that part. I went to the Louisville Arcade Expo back in March. Mostly to compete in the pinball tournament but they had a couple video game tournaments. It cost $2 bucks to enter and you only got one shot and the money went to charity. The winner got a trophy. The ones I competed in were Popeye for the C64, Fire Mario, and Duck Hunt. I finished 2nd or 3rd in Fire Mario. (same rules as MGC). The Duck Hunt competition was fierce. I only made it to the 2nd round.
