Edge of '94 Midwest

Well @everyone following #edgeof94-midwest, we've accelerated this process, and I'm proud to say that we're officially live on signups! Between now and December 7th, get signed up and be entered to win this amazing signed Neal Broten Gophers jersey. Broten is a local and national hero to the State of Hockey, part of the Miracle on Ice on the 1980 Olympic Men's Hockey team. To be eligible, be signed up before the deadline, and show up the day of the tournament! To signup, please visit our Paypal link : www.paypal.me/trojan1979 send in your $40 for each adult entry, and $20 for any family entries. We'll announce the winner Sunday night December 8th during a special live stream! Edit : We've extended the signup deadline to the end of 2019 due to the new signup process!

I picked this bad boy up, and it's definitely legit. The cable length is 10 feet, all the action is smooth and solid. I also picked up one of the USB offerings, and it too works great. This is available via Amazon, and I recommend it to anyone who attends local tournaments. If you play Genesis games online or via emulator, I recommend the usb variant. https://www.amazon.com/Retro-Bit-Official-Genesis-Controller-6-Button-Arcade/dp/B07P255V8J/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=6%2Bbutton%2Bgenesis%2Bcontroller&qid=1573569925&sr=8-4&th=1 This is not an affiliate link or a sponsored promotion. I just figured if everyone in the community had one, they wouldn't have to worry about what controller they end up with when they attend tournaments, as there are a ton of different options out there.

Well I traveled to Minnesota for family reasons. I was within 25 minutes of the venue, but wasn't able to break away during my stay to drop in. I must stay it's an experience seeing what people are like in Minneapolis, and then again in the boonies. It's like two different countries within a 90 minutes drive of the Twin Cities. After driving 90 minutes to release the ashes/remains of my father in law at his favorite fishing spot, I drove another 6.5 hours back to Green Bay. I consider it endurance training to for my Cleveland Gaming Classic journey this upcoming weekend. In my entire travels this weekend to the general area, only one time did I experience any sort of traffic delay, and that was due to an accident. It added 5 minutes to our journey. The roads are great, and everything was easy to navigate. I expect smooth sailing in February.

Your troll work is worthy

Esports Earning Summary Angryjay93 : $284 Kingraph : 284 EA : $40 Mort :$40

Hold for Results Genesis Tournament : Champion : Angryjay93 2nd Place : Kingraph 3rd Place : EA 4th Place :Mort Winner of consolation "Joes" bracket : Eric Smith from Minnesota, wins Gamerztek console and free entry to 2021 tournament. SNES : Champion :Kingraph 2nd Place : Angryjay93 3rd Place : Mort 4th Place : DPS Due to time constraints, we lessened the SNES bracket to 8 players, with the opening round being a one and done, thus the score differences. Will be tabulating payouts in the next day or so, had to hit the ground running on my return.

Hold for Attendance numbers and payouts and prize recaps The tournament saw a total of 23 total competitors, 22 competing in Genesis, and 16 competing in SNES, with one player only playing SNES. Despite many people not remembering to pay for the Paypal fee or use Friends and Family I have rounded up those payouts to $40. We had 16 players pay in tier $40 via Paypal for a total of $640 Because we went with a Swiss format for SNES, an additional player was needed to even it out. a fee of $20 was agreed upon to participate for Sammiesmith33 in SNES only, who was not present for the start of the Genesis tournament, and in turn didn't compete in it. We had two walk in players who paid cash $100 total for them We had two players who won free entry. I am covering the value of their entry at $80 combined. The other two players were our sponsor Leif Erikson, and my son Carter who are excluded from payment. Paypal : $640 Cash : $120 Sponsored Entries : $80 $840 collected in entry fees, 75% payout. $630 over two tournaments, $315 each tournament 60/30/10 Payout 1st /2nd/3rd place for each. 1st Place : $189 2nd place : $95(rounded up to 95) 3rd place : $40(i increased the 3rd place payout to cover the entry fees, up from about $32) Total payout per tournament, $324, $648 paid out total between both tournaments. Three signed Neal Broten jerseys were awarded. Jer_33 won the Gophers jersey. Jim Duffy won the Northstars jersey Leif Erikson won the Team USA jersey A total of five high definition Gamzertek SNES consoles were given away. Over 16 individual sealed Starting Lineup and Headliners figures were given away as consolation prizes as people were eliminated from the Genesis bracket, and continued to be given away until they were depleted well into the SNES bracket. A branded fanny pack from Up/Down Barcade filled with tokens was won by EA. Multiple Hyperkin branded Genesis controllers were given away. Several branded AV For You winter hats were given away by Leif Erikson, along with some athletic wristbands.

So the great news is that we can have a CRT and LCD at the same time. I posted a side by side comparison video of the two. The only time you can notice something is if you freeze frame during the action. This was taken from the comments. It took the fast moving puck frame capture to reveal a difference of just a few pixels between the two. In either case, both displays will be on hand come tournament time.

We know you'll be there bud! To explain briefly on the round of 32 being 1 and done...... We are under more time constraints this time around for both tournaments, so everything must end on time. This will save time on both tournaments We are starting one hour later this time to give people a bit more time to drive in, and to give our crew more time to setup at the venue, as we will not be able to setup until the day of the tournament. Going back two years, we have only two upsets in that opening round, both coming from the #17 seed beating a #16 seed. Coincidentally both games involve @Votaw. Additionally only 4 total games were forced to a game 3 situation. In that opening round as a higher seed you should beat up on your opponent and get the win. It also does put a spark of hope for the lower guys knowing, that if they get lucky, they might be able to steal one from a good player. Their chances of beating a top guy are awful. -Trojan

Time to you quit your job. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

EDGE OF 94 MIDWEST is bringing our brand of NHL94 to Minneapolis Minnesota in 2020! Sign up here! ================> https://www.paypal.me/trojan1979 Please end $40 in via friends and family, or $40 + the fee. Modano Mo Problems will be our 5th effort spreading the love and joy of NHL94 to the frigid masses of the Midwest and beyond! I'd like to recognize and offer thanks to @LeifErikson 's company AV For You! They are our primary sponsor, helping us to continue to strive towards bringing you the best possible NHL94 experience from both a tournament participant, and a stream spectator standpoint! What : NHL 94 tournaments for both Genesis and SNES Where : The Pourhouse Uptown - 2923 Girard Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55408 When : February 29th 2020, 11AM - completion Cost : $50 at the door, or $40 in advance - Junior players(under age of 18) may participate for $20. This entry includes access to both the Genesis and SNES tournaments. Payout : 75% of all entry funds collected will be paid out. The payout scale will be 60/30/10 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place respectively. The available prize pool will be split evenly over the Genesis and SNES brackets. Additional prizes will be available to win that are not based on player performance in the way of video game/sports memorabilia. Format : The Genesis tournament in it's entirety will precede the SNES tournament : Group play will precede bracket play. A single elimination bracket will follow the group play phase. A Maximum of 32 players will advance to bracket play. The round of 32 will be a one and done game. The final 16 will be a best 2/3 series. A single 3rd place game(not series) will take home the 3rd place payout. Higher seed will pick tier and be player 2/home team for game 1 and 3(if needed). In game 2 for the final 16 players, the lower seed is then Player 1 and the home team picking the tier. Rules : 5 minute periods, penalties on, no offside, manual goalie. If it's in the game, it's in the game. No game mechanics are banned. Examples are pass shots, CB checks, hail mary shots, goalie interference goals, rebound goals on penalty shots, etc.   A coin flip winner will be the home team(player 1) and call the tier for team selection. The opposing player is the away team(player 2) and chooses which team they want based on the tier selected. You may select from within or below the tier specified. Example: Player 1 selects Tier 2. That removes DET, BUF, CHI, VAN, MTL from selection in that matchup. Player 1 chooses CGY, Player 2 selects BOS. Player 1 and Player 2 may not play as the same team. NEW THIS YEAR: You must take a different team in the selected tier each time. You are only permitted to repeat a team selection once you have used the other teams within that tier an equal number of times. (Exception to this rule if player 2 has selected the last remaining team available for player 1 in said tier, another team may be selected that was already used by player 1) This process resets between group play and the playoffs. Genesis Tiers : Tier 1: DET, BUF CHI, VAN Tier 2: MTL, LA, CGY, WPG, BOS Tier 3: QUE, DAL NYR, TOR Tier 4: PHI, EDM, WSH, PIT Tier 5: NJD, STL, HFD, NYI Tier 6: TB, SJ, OTW, ANH, FLA SNES Tiers: 1 - PIT BOS NYR DET 2 - CHI LA BUF CGY WSH 3 - VAN QUE WPG MTL 4 - NJ PHI STL TOR 5 - EDM NYI DAL HFD 6 - ANA FLA OTT SJ TB Games cannot end in a tie. A new game must be started in the event of a tie game at the end of overtime. Intentional time wasting in your own zone is prohibited. You must attempt advancing the puck into the opposing zone whenever possible. Players caught abusing this may have goals deducted, or in extreme cases the game awarded to the opposing player. Players are required to take a photo of their score and report to the scorekeeper. There is a 6 goal deficit mercy rule. The game is over once a 6 goal difference is reached. 6 goals is the max goal differential counted. Players are permitted to bring their own OEM or approved 3rd party controllers. All other equipment is provided by us. Having equipment on hand from volunteers as spares is always appreciated, but not required. Hotel Accommodations : The Moxy uptown has provided a special rate for our group if you use this link. https://www.marriott.com/event-reserva…/reservation-link.mi… This deal also includes a complimentary drink from their bar! In addition, we will have space dedicated for gaming the Friday night before the event! starting at 4PM! This offer is good until February 1st so book your rooms today! Food and Drink at Venue : The Pourhouse is a premium sports bar experience, and will be the source of any food and drink needs all tournament long. What types of systems are used for this? : All screens used are CRT using analog connections(typically composite), which means no input lag. All Genesis systems and controllers are OEM, or Gamerztek brand clones. The exception to this is the main stream setup which may use a high definition Mega SG and/or Super NT system combined with a high speed PC monitor. SNES are a mix of 1st gen, model 2, and NOAC clone units(again mostly Gamerztek). All controllers are either OEM or Cirka, Hyperkin, or Gamerztek brand clones, which work very well.  You are welcome to use and bring your own OEM controller. Our goal is 20 setups this year which means 40 concurrent gamers can play with no waiting. Will this be streamed? : AV For You will be handling the streaming tech. Trojan will be the primary commentator with a slew of guest commentators. We are planning on streaming on The Retro Sports Gamer YouTube Channel. We highly recommend you follow them if you haven't already, as they play and stream all sorts of retro sports games, including NHL94. You can find them here.... https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+retro+sports+gamer Can I dress up in hockey attire? : Expect a cross check if you don't get in the hockey spirit! How can I help the tournament organizers? : In addition to committing early to attend we ask that you share the existence of this tournament, early and often, on all forms of social media. Make travel plans early, and lock in so we know you are coming. Bring new players, and make a weekend of it. Will there be additional prizes? : In addition to cash prizes, and Lord Manly's Cup, we plan on having many different hockey/video game related prizes for giveaway available. All entrants will be eligible for some prizes just for being there, and others will be available only to those who sign up early. Stay tuned for more information! Why was the tournament moved to Minnesota? : While we have had successful events in Green Bay, some factors required we source a new venue. First off, the Edge VR Arcade converted the space we used previously into addition VR Stations. It was a business decision on their end, and we're thankful for them hosting us the prior two years. We also recognized that about 2/3 of our player base comes from outside of Wisconsin. Flying in and out of Green Bay caused major issues for some people, in fact it almost kept Angryjay93(3 time champion and our biggest advocate) out of the last tournament. There are direct flights into Minneapolis readily available from all over the US and Canada, making this the most accessible tournament to the NHL94 community at large. In addition, as we keep growing, we recognized the need to expand our staff manpower. @LeifErikson has been instrumental in coordinating all things local both in the way of display/venue/manpower procurement. This WILL be our best tournament to date, and it wouldn't be possible without Leif's support. We also believe that there is a largely untapped market in "The other Canada" stateside. We believe a new local demand, coupled with our pool of existing players, plus additional traveling players due to ease of travel should greatly expand our attendance numbers. Why is there no Tecmo Super Bowl tournament the night before?: The Tecmo Super Bowl tournaments we held the past two years have been a tremendous hit. Friday night = big business for The Pourhouse on the main floor. With double the setups in play, and not being able to use the same area that evening, coupled with the logistics of transporting additional gear several hours away made this something we had to pass on this year. Playing pickup games of Tecmo and other retro games is certainly an option in the Friday space that we'll have, but we don't plan on bringing a bunch of equipment into that area. Again, Modano, Mo Problems ;). A handful of systems will be setup to be used, but not enough to hold a full scale tournament.

I have SCART and Component hookups for my standard consoles, but they don't provide a native digital signal which defeats the purpose. They are really designed to be used on a CRT that has component hookups. I am exploring options that will allow me to get a lagless conversion to an analog computer CRT monitor from the Mega SG. I already own the SG, it's just a matter if people will complain if we utilize this with a modern LCD monitor for our stream station.

Well, with the exception of this single station, every other station would be CRT based, so the back breaking isn't really spared here haha. I hope you'll get your hands on one. I'm giving two fatigued NHL94 thumbs up for the Mega SG. You can give the same two thumbs up for the RetroUSB AVS which I also own. I'm hoping to get the Super NT in the not too distant future. Replacing each console with a high definition display isn't a reasonable affordable approach to this, as a single setup would run upwards of $400 or more between the console, controllers, game copy, and monitor involved. The key word in your experience is "scaler". This is not scaled internally or externally whatsoever. The signal coming out of the Mega SG is native HD, no matter the specified resolution. Even the revered Framemeister has scaling latency. The only external device I've used, with analog video signals, that I have experience with, that didn't add lag, was the OSSC. It is a line doubler(not a scaler), but I couldn't get past 480p before capture cards started freaking out with the out of spec HDMI signal. Unfortunately that device bit the dust, as is something of a home brew product. I am not shelling out $200 for another one when you can get another console for that. In seeing the poll results so far, it seems the world is split on this issue. I love that so many people love their CRTs, and we have no plans to remove them from usage. To your point regarding stream quality, let me grab a couple different streams as an example. Now, this will be showing streamed NES content, but the idea is the same. One shows emulator quality video uninhibited by any additional video noise. The other shows an original console that gets its 240p signal interlaced as a 480i signal, which makes it look bleh. Ignore the content of the layout, and just look at footage in the game play window. This was done with an emulator, some scanlines were added to give the retro effect. Now look at this footage from a live tournament where real console footage was grabbed. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/263975952?t=00h01m54s We do think this will not also benefit the stream watcher, but also the players playing the game, as all that video junk goes out the window. I'll try to work on some HDMI captures of the actual console playing NHL94 for more examples. Thanks @kingraph for your feedback. I don't blame your position one bit.

In recent years, the retro community has benefited greatly by FPGA products that hardware simulate(not emulate) consoles like the original NES, Super NES, and Sega Genesis. For NES there is the Analogue NT/NT, and the more affordable Retro USB AVS. For SNES there is the Super NT. For Genesis there is the Mega SG. All of these items have something in common.... native high definition output(no cheap scalers), true hardware simulation(no emulation/system on a chip), meaning no latency on the console side. The image quality is pixel sharp, as there is no video noise to speak of(Genesis is notorious for having terrible composite video quality), and when paired with a low latency display like a modern computer monitor, the user experience is top notch. For now, CRT's are available in high numbers, and we plan on continuing to use them for our tournaments. However, for streaming purposes, they leave a lot to be desired, as we scale analogue signals. While SCART to RGB is certainly an option, it's an extremely expensive, and complex option. Items like scalers/line doublers, signal splitters + plus praying for compatibility with capture cards creates more problems that it solves sometimes. These FPGA consoles provide plug and play options that just work, look amazing, and would be 100 times better than any experience of any Hypkerkin HDMI clone, or simply plugging in a Genesis to an LCD via composite. What we want to accomplish is to have our main stream station using a low latency computer monitor, paired with the Mega SG. every other tournament console station would utilize a CRT. We started a poll on our Edge of 94 Midwest Facebook page, and would like some feedback on this. Please share your thoughts here, and on our Facebook Poll.

If there is a functioning emulator recording/playback feature, I'd be very interested in doing some commentary for this league.

I've had the computer pull the goalie on a 1 goal deficit in Gens.

Glad it's going to a good home. @CoachMac hopefully that's not all you own.

I had really hoped to be the "announcer" in this rom to boost my NHL94 status to an immortal legend. Let me know if you decide to hack a NHL94 Sega CD rom, and I'll record the intros. Now excuse me while I put fasteners into a plastic bag in my 9-5.

I thought the Roenick video was cool. They showed it on stream at some point during the Sega tournament. Is anyone ever going to tell him that they weren't actually playing NHL94 in Swingers?

If you think it means we're closer to Thunder Bay, Ontario than our previous venue, then you're correct.

Constructive criticism has its place and it is something that's needed to grow, but I'm going to have to side with fellow organizers here. The amount of work that goes in year round to investigate and promote these things is insane. I wasn't in this community during the 1st event. Perhaps it was lightning in a bottle, but I think Halifax has done everything he can to keep this going in the right direction. He has national sports news coverage, many of the world's best players in attendance, and a venue that seems to have been well received. I still believe growth for this game is possible. Just look at pockets of success and interest in the past 3 years out of Vancouver, Chicago, and Green Bay. Let's look at the positives regarding the traveling idea..... Vegas introduced everyone to Jamil, and one of the best Genesis series that's ever been witnessed. What a storyline that was. This led to the Vancouver tournament, which brought Daf and his fan club to the show. I've put my foot in my mouth regarding overly criticizing things. I think these thoughts are better communicated privately. The only criticism to the tournament is that I couldn't stay connected to streams for 12 hours a day lol. I'm sure the guys there didn't mind it. Thanks for doing everything you guys do @halifax @smozoma Sroka, Raph, AJ, and anyone else who was pitching in. It was a pleasure to witness.

Exactly three years from the date of our first #NHL94 tournament, we're happy to announce that Wisconsin was not big enough to contain us! We are now Edge of '94 Midwest! Coming in 2020, to a major city near you! More details to come in the coming weeks and months, but here's a hint.....

All I heard was Trojan.

Here's the SNES stuff from the TGFN page from last year's tournament.