12 Players. 7
rounds. 13 Games. 9 hours of straight videogame play.
We call it THE GAUNTLET.
On Saturday, September 24th, I hosted my first ever video game tournament. The idea had floated around in my mind for over two years. I wanted a competition that showcased more than just one game. I also wanted a tournament that where when you lost you were not permanently eliminated.
So I came up with something I call “double-plus elimination.” It gets complicated, but in a nutshell: There is a Hardcore tier, and a Casual tier. The Hardcore tier is aimed at hardcore gamers, with race games, first person shooters, etc. Meanwhile, the Casual tier is for your idle gamers - Wii games, original Nintendo, Guitar Hero, you know - the fun stuff. Every round is a different game.
11 people showed, so a few bi-games were needed to make it
all work. Ultimately, it went very
well. Players in the hardcore tier got
to play Burnout: Revenge; Call of Duty: Black Ops, both regular and zombie
modes; Soul Calibur IV; Unreal III; and Motor
Storm: Pacific Rift.Casual gamers played Mario Kart; Boom Blox; Mario 3; Guitar Hero; Wii Tennis; and Ice Hockey.
For the final round, the Hardcore and Casual tier champions went head-to-head in a series of Little Big Planet 2 challenges for the win.
Gauntlet I
Winners
1st
Place - Tim S. 2nd
Place - Mike D.
3rd
Place - Jason R. 4th
Place - Chris E.
M.V.P.
I feel that an additional award should be given out, something akin to an MVP award for the most impressive performance throughout the entire tournament. Here's why:
Hardcore
Tier. Round 4. Soul Calibur IV
Tim vs. Jason
Soul Calibur is your typical fighter game, similar to Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Now, Tim owns Mortal Kombat, and he played it extensively. He does nothing but boast about his skill in the game. For that very reason, Mortal Kombat was not allowed in the tournament. Even so, whoever was match up against him in a fighter game was pretty well screwed. That person happened to be Jason.
Tim was randomly given Maxi as he character to play, to
which Tim cheered because it was the character he was the best at. Poor Jason… Jason ended up with Cassandra,
who looked like the girly version of Link.Here’s how every fight went. Tim beats the hell out of Jason for ten seconds straight. Jason manages to get one hit in, and then Tim goes back to pummeling him into the ground. The only reason Jason one the first round (which, by the way, was funny as well), was because after being knocked down on the edge of the board, Tim decided to finish him off with an impressive airborne spin-kick. Only he missed, and flipped off the edge of the board instead.
Somehow, Jason stayed tied with Tim all the way to the final battle. 3-3.
Final Round It was like watching that epic fight in a movie, where the hero is horribly outmatched. Yet, in his last possible moment, he has a moment of clarity, the world slows around him, he centers himself, and then launches into an amazing display of prowess that his opponent is not ready for.
That is exactly what happened. Tim decimated Jason until his chick slumped to the ground with at best two hits left. Tim had a good half a bar to go. But out of nowhere, Jason launched into a series of attacks that Tim was not prepared for. By the time he was able to block, Tim had as much life left as Jason did. A volley of strikes and parries ensued, until Jason at last managed to deal the final blow.
The entire room erupted in shouts from the intensity of the match. Tim was so charged up from the fight that he shot up, threw the controller into the couch, and paced outside for the better part of twenty minutes before he cooled off. As for Jason, mellow beyond belief, he simply shrugged and said “What? It’s just a game.”
And for that, I award Jason R. with the unnamed award for most impressive display of video-gaming prowess. Maybe I’ll buy a PS2 controller and spray-paint it gold for him.
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