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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/04/2020 in all areas

  1. Alright, time for a write-up. Firstly, big props to @Edge of '94 Midwest (Troy) and @LeifErikson for a great weekend of gaming, and the wonderful spectacle that was 'Modano Mo Problems'. From setting up the hotel deal, to hosting 2v2, to hanging out all day on Saturday. I drove to Green Bay for an "Edge" tournament in Feb 2018, and there was talk then about hosting a tournament in Minneapolis. I told myself that if it ever happened that I would do whatever needed to attend and help out. Had a lot of fun playing exis/2v2 at the Moxy Friday night against Troy, Chris O., Derek and @Votaw. Didn't play as well as I would have liked in tournament play on Saturday, but I'll take my lumps for not preparing enough and for the intense level of competition that is starting to attend these tournaments. I was in a group of 4 with @IAmFleury'sHipCheck, @seventieslord and Shannon. I emerged 3-1 in Group play (with matches against EA and Seventies on stream), and ended up in an 8 vs 9 match-up with @kevincabarello. We played an intense 1-0 game to start our 3 game series, and he went on to beat me 2-0 and moved on to face @kingraph in round 2. Highlight of the afternoon was definitely getting to play as CHI on the stream, thanks @seventieslord! Lowlight was definitely losing every single coin toss through the Genesis side of the tournament. The SNES side was a complete blur for me, thanks to Happy Hour at the Pourhouse. Yet I somehow ended up on stream against @DPS. Lots of good food and drinks flowing all afternoon, and was a blast to meet Chris O., Derek, @danTML7 and @seventieslord(all great guys, and great new online community members). Always a pleasure to hang and chat with @angryjay93, @kingraph, @IAmFleury'sHipCheck (EA), @DPS, Mort and @Votaw as well. Also met Phil N, owner of the D-Men Tap in Chicago who hosts weekly retro sports leagues and picked his brain about food/drinks/music and the retro scene in Chicago, cheers. Great weekend, and hope to attend again next year.
    3 points
  2. • Friday night exis/2v2 is the most fun part of the weekend.
    3 points
  3. I'm probably reiterating stuff already said but, it would be great if each tourney had two competitions - Hardcore Gamer Brackets & Causal Gamer Brackets. Hardcore would be for the folks who enter because they are hellbent on taking down a @kingraph or @angryjay93 or whoever is the best at a given moment. Basically, those who buy into Rick Flair's "if you wanna be the best, you need to beat the best" mentality. But, also, a competition for those causal players who don't play in online leagues or maybe in even "walk-ins" who remember the game from their youth and wanna see how they'd do against similar skilled folks. These people aren't likely to beat the best (ala 1980 Olympics) and probably, arent interested in trying and potentially getting humilated. NYC beers are too expensive to effectively drown such sorrows. Plus, there are plenty of folks around watching so getting your butt kicked in front of a group of folks stings that much worse. Obviously, the winnings, for each scenario, should be very different. However, if promoted this way, you "could" pull more folks out of their comfort zone to wanna try their hand at a tourney. You would just need to figure out a way to seed each bracket based on the sign ups. Maybe the winner of the casual bracket also gets entered into the hardcore bracket? I dont know... just throwing ideas out there. It's not just the idea of getting your butt kicked that can be a deterent. Rather, it's "I traveled x amount of distance at x amount of cost to get here and be eliminated rather quickly by someone I had no business going up against." (which @segathon discussed) I definitely think how these events are shaping up is going in a good direction as it is fair and competitive but, yes, it could cost you some of the casual gamers.
    2 points
  4. Understood....love that it was a SNES tournament. I thought people want to play to win LOL. Amazing there's a good following still for this 25 years strong! It's one of the only reasons I keep my SNES around is to host games whenever the guys are around...crazy 40 year olds still have a devout addiction to the best hockey game ever.
    2 points
  5. Something I've tried with the last Saskatoon tournament is to essentially divide the playoffs up so that guys are facing people at similar skill level. As Segathon mentioned, a lot of guys don't want to get their butt kicked. They just want to enjoy it. The A, B and C playoffs that I had, everyone enjoyed it as a lot of their games were really close. The top 3 guys in A still got rewarded with a rpize and the B and C champion also got to pick a really awesome prize. I think the guy in C won every playoff game(6 straight) all by 6 goals 1 goal. If we just had one overall tournament, he would've got slaughtered. To me, that is the biggest difference in all of this and I also think the biggest factor in people wanting to come back. I'm gonna test it out again with the Sega tournament I'm gonna do in late spring/early summer.
    2 points
  6. Pretty interesting. I worry you're kind of writing the book on yourself, though! E.g. Watch for the winger on the faceoff.. But, I'd watch hours of this
    2 points
  7. muscle memory is enough to make a grown man reconsider going into these tournaments....separates the true gamers from the wanna be's...looking forward to making it out to one of these events, first time for everything! KUDOS to all involved in setting up these events, forums, podcasts, videos...the community is the real deal!
    2 points
  8. Gentlemen, As we continue to hold more and see and more live tournaments (KO94, Edge of 94, NYC, LI Retro, Montreal, etc), I want to come up with some bullet points to share with folks who are considering attending, but are on the fence. I have a feeling that the "tournament" aspect gets overplayed when we promote these events, and we forget that it's actually fun to just attend. At least that has been my experience when talking to everyone at these events. I am also trying to be self-aware as I have always placed in the top 2 at these things, so I don't want to be ignorant/arrogant in my view. So, please help by responding to this thread with any bullet points that you think would be good to share for people considering attending an NHL'94 live tournament. I'll keep a running list on this OP: Going to a live NHL'94 "Tournament" The goal is to have fun and be a kid again for a few hours! Players of all skill levels are welcomed Don't think you have to be the best competitive player to attend Some people have played consistently for the last 20+ years Some people haven't played for 20+ years! There will be competitive games with people of similar skill level Bring a friend and claim your bragging rights Reminisce about the players and games of the 90's Meet up with friends you haven't seen in a while Consolation brackets, giveaways, prizes, and raffles are found in most events
    1 point
  9. 1 point
  10. Nostalgia is a powerful drug, when I mentioned I play retro sports game tourneys to guys of a similar age their eyes light up. But I have also seen that light get extinguished playing one of us superfans when we need to get a good "Point Diff" so we get a better seed come playoffs. Sure Raph and AJ are 800 lb gorillas but most of on here can do some damage to a guy who hasn't played in years and their stiffest competition was their litter brother To get those nonsuper fans in the mood, I may even say first game is against computer to see how many goals you can score and then sort people starting there. Plus everyone should go 1-0 for first game! Also what Raph said initially is a great point, have your buds come with, make it a fun night out more than a serious tournament. With all that being said us Superfans are the guys that keep this crazy game relevant for all these years. Also did some digging, a Tecmo Bud did this post years ago and I think works here as well here too
    1 point
  11. Discord allows us to share a screen and voice chat. Trojan and I have done this numerous times, should be easy as pie Breaking this down after the fact will be a lot easier and probably more enlightening than when I verbalized my thoughts as I played the game live.
    1 point
  12. To add to this, we did this swiss as well, which I agree, I think worked nicely for this size tournament. And then divided it at the end based on wins. 4 Game RR (3 wins or more in A), ( 2 wins in B), (1 win or less in C). So the math works outs to 5,6,5 based on 16 players. The interesting thing is that I also put in a rule that you could move up if you wanted to. Nobody exercised the option at a chance for the top 3 and preferred just to stay in their own bracket. Which (albeit a small sample size) told me that it was a good format for the crowd. Ultimately, I think that for all of use as tournament organizers we want to determine what we want the outcome of our tournament to be. For the Saskatoon tournaments, I'll continue with this route since there's a smaller size and a very wide gap in skill between the top players and bottom players. For King of 94, It'll probably remain as is for a while. It's intended for those that want to be the best(or to try and beat the best along the way). The Duke of 94, which is kind of like a B tournament but it's not really restricted if a good player wants to play in it (Liek SOH last year). By making the Duke of 94 auto goalie only, I think it evens the playing field and it's less money to play in (and less prize money) so I think it serves it purpose in a different way. Great thread. thanks for the discussion topic @kingraph. I could talk tourneys and formats and rules etc. all day. Just ask @smozomalol.
    1 point
  13. 16 players I had. It was an SNES tournament. There's lots of us. My point was, people don't want to pay to get their butts kicked if they are generally not good at the game. They'll pay once or twice, but I think that many eventually will stop attending.
    1 point
  14. 10-15% true disciples of the game LOL, to make the journey to the city that never sleeps for some NHL94 shenanigans, only in New York... On another note, I was able to download Retroarch and Discord last night successfully, now I need to figure out how to navigate on both apps and make sure the settings are good for P2P play. Figure I can get in some good practice before April comes around...
    1 point
  15. Well everyone, another event is in the books! The weekend was an absolute blast, and a blur as it was over in a blink of an eye. I'll start with my experiences, and then conclude with my list of people to thank. If I've inadvertently missed you, please provide the necessary verbal cross check so I can right that wrong. Tagging is a bit hit or miss for me, so I'll mostly avoid that. I started out hitting the road about an hour and fifteen minutes later than normal Friday morning, but Hank, Carter and I arrived without incident at The Moxy at the exact same time Leif Erikson. We proceeded to start taking over the the main area of the Moxy lounge by the bar. Multiple Genesis consoles, including an Analogue Mega SG, Analogue Super NT, and Retro USB AVS were all in play. We also had multiple CRT's on hand, and a 2v2 station was setup with our special rom. Leif and I stepped out to scout out Pourhouse. When we arrived I knew immediately we had made the right decision. The place just screams "bros day away". After discussing staging locations for equipment, stations, etc, we returned to Moxy to get our gaming in. EA was already at the bar with his scarf. I suggested he get himself a smoking jacket to complete the look. Kevin Cabarello also was there, and not long after, Tyler Votaw from St Louis, Jason and Shannon from Madison, Chris O from the greater DC area all arrived. Angryjay93 and Raph alsoeventually arrived. Chris had a bud(Rob if memory serves) show up from LA. Our Canadian friends Jer, followed by a later arrival by DANTLM7 and SeventiesLord also spent time with us Friday. Darik Aho also joined us. Later in the evening, DPS, Mort, and Phil from Chicago's DMEN Tap league arrived. Hank was bound and determined to compete in Tecmo and Dr Mario for most of the evening. Chris O took me to the woodshed in a couple exis, but I fared well against Darik and Leif. Jer took me down a couple times in close games. Jason from Madison took me down in a game where I gave him some superior talent, but the game was close. 2v2 was a blast, but I wanted to make sure more people had a chance to play it. It seemed to be in use most of the night. I had to turn in earlier than most due to the responsibilities and early start for setup at Pourhouse. The area outside our bubble transitioned into something resembling a night club with all of the Friday night business. It was a hopping scene, but I decided it was best to dismiss Carter to the hotel room for the night, as there were adult things taking place. After mingling I finally went to the hotel room to call it a night. This is a stock photo, but this was our room config. No one in our room knew how to play guitar unfortunately. Onto Saturday : We got to Pourhouse super early around 7 AM. Hank, Mort, and Darik were around to help, along with Angryjay93, and the staff members at AV 4 You, owned by Leif Erikson. Their truck was packed to capacity, filled with technical goodness we'd enjoy for the entire day. I recorded a quick video just showing the venue pre tournament as we all setup. Above is a photo of Leif and Carter testing out the game feed and layout with the amazingly talented producer Noah! It took awhile, but there was a lot to do. By about 11 we were just about ready to get started. I finalized the groupings based on everyone was there. For the 1st time in our history, every person who said they were coming showed, and we even had an extra unexpected guest, which was awesome! After forming the groups for Genesis, it was onto the opening ceremonies. Leif recorded this special moment. Oh Canada was also performed prior to the Star Spangled Banner, but only the US anthem came with pyrotechnics, and constant applause from Blackhawks fans. After the anthem we went over the expectations for the day, and into group play. We were able to get lots of group play Genesis games covered on stream with commentary. They can be viewed here : We split the brackets into a 15 player "Pros" bracket, and the remainder of the field played for the "Joes" consolation prizes. You can view the stream for the Genesis Pros bracket here : We had some breaks in between games, but the scene switching helped from Noah our producer from AV For You. The big surprise of the day was the performance of Mort, coming back from a 6 goal mercy rule loss in game 1 to defeat Leif Erikson in 3 games. EA also showed some promise and appeared to be on fire. Ultimately both EA and Mort were unable to get past either AJ or Raph to advance to the finals. EA took 3rd place for Genesis. Ultimately Angryjay93 overcame Kingraph in the finals in a very good 3 games series. With a small army of helpers, the SNES consoles were all setup ready to go before the end of the Genesis tournament. After a brief pause we got started. People enjoyed things like the custom arcade brought by Leif, or played pickup games on their own. We also gave away a ton of stuff all day long. Seventieslord won the Roenick 3 way challenge! Due to time constraints coupled with the lack of ranked SNES players, we decided to go with a Swiss format. We had 16 total players. The top 8 advanced to an opening 1 and down round, followed by a 2/3 series for semi and finals. Kingraph took his revenge beating Angryjay93 in 2 games. You can see the entire SNES broadcast here : Above is video of Raph hoisting his trophy for SNES in slow motion with the pyrotechnics going off around him. Mort took down DPS in the 3rd place series, final game played on stream as well above. We had a ton of help tearing down, and it went smoothly. Everyone seemed to have a good time. I have a ton of people to thank, in nor particular order of importance. 1) The Shield donated much of what was given away as prizes. He was at the first 4 tournaments in Green Bay, and always was finishing near the top. He could not attend this year, and wanted to help make the event memorable. He's known more for his Tecmo prowess, but has always been one of our biggest event supporters. Make sure to thank him if you see him. 2) Charlie Bravo again made the Lord Manly's Cups for this tournament. They looked amazing, and this single touch has really propelled our image over the years. As we wrestle to find the balance of accessible entry fees, yet large enough to warrant a draw, we recognize that this single repeatable badge of honor is coveted, and there is non other like it in retro sports game tournaments. 3) Tom Jenkins of Cleveland Gaming Classic introduced me to the contacts at Hyperkin and Big Play over the past 18 months or so. His connections and encouragement have been tremendously valuable. 4) Hyperkin for their donation of equipment and support of our event. 5) Big Play Podcast for having us on 6) Pourhouse and their staff for allowing us to hold the event there, and all of the support that came with it 7) The army of volunteers that helped out that I could see, Darik, Hank, Mort, Angryjay93, Ed Hammes, and anyone else I didn't see setting up or tearing down equipment. 8) Kingraph, having the #1 ranked Genesis player in the world at your tournament from half the country away 3 years straight really helped bring legitimacy to what we're doing, and provided competition at the top against Angryjay93. Congrats on your continued success in our tournaments, and in your own back out East. 9) Angryjay93 is now the only paying player to have attended all five Edge of 94 tournaments, dating back to when we were "King of 94 WI". I have no words that can adequately thank you for believing in what we're doing. You're a class act human and champion. 10) Tom Stahnke the Retro Sports Gamer has continually supported us in person and behind the scenes by allowing us to broadcast to his viewers, expanding the ever growing audience of NHL94 streams. He continually encourages his players to get involved in the events we run, hosted us for a satellite tournament in Chicago, and even has put my son and I up multiple times at his home. Thanks for being a great friend bud. 11) Popsic Art did a tremendous promotion for us with their framed NHL94 art. I hope many of you decided to take advantage of this. 12) Up Down barcade donated the Fanny Pack of Tokens ultimately won by EA. When you're in town, check them out. 13) Creative Edge Productions/Edge VR Arcade hosted us the prior 2 years, and even though hosting events there was no longer possible for us, they still gave us an amazing promo video that I was able to record a voice over for. 14) Again, EA surprised me with a cartridge signed by the entire tournament. This always touches my heart. 15) Thank you to everyone who contributed on the mic for the stream in some fashion. You all know who you are. I hope to expand tournament involvement with this in the future. 16) Leif freaking Erikson has done something for us that I can't possibly measure. The stream, the pyro, the cameras, lighting the audio, the professional CRT displays, the holographic image, everything was beyond top notch. AV For You has propelled us beyond where we could have gotten on our own. If Leif wants exis, you give Leif exis. He's earned every single one of them. I feel that these thanks are so inadequate when typed over a keyboard. I was truly emotional on my return home, overcome with joy and gladness that everything went as well as it did. There are obviously areas to improve upon and there always will be. For the first time, it just felt right. I had always felt like we missed a critical mark that was holding us back somehow. Leif helped us break through that glass ceiling, and the sky's the limit. I know this was long, but I'm forever thankful for the memories we've created. If you contributed in a positive manner and weren't recognized, it wasn't intentional. May the year 2021 come soon! Please share any pictures or your own thoughts on this amazing weekend! Peace and thanks, -Troy "Trojan"
    1 point
  16. Trade deadline update. Created some players, changed some others, moved some others to free agency. Players who have been injured most of the season who have not returned yet are scratches, though on teams out of the playoffs I fudged this a bit. Players who look to be out for the remainder of the regular season are also scratched. TD1920.rar
    1 point
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