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Blog Post

Theater Ad Starts Friday

by eli

If you visit Quality 16 Theaters in Ann Arbor starting this Friday, and if you're not late for your show, you'll probably see our shiny new AADL-GT commercial! It features choice quotes from several of you, a single-player and clan leaderboard, and one of my favorite game remixes, The Alternate Route, mixed by ParagonX9 We will be revising the ad after the next tournament weekend, so if you have ideas on how it can be improved, let us know.

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Blog Post

Eli Gets Jiggy

by john

"Why, oh why", you ask, "would we shut down the library for a full day?"

The answer is simple. So Eli and Eric could throw down the gauntlet and finally find out who the real DDR champion is (I'm not gonna tell you.. you have to judge for yourself).

Of course, the victor got to sing his own praises, Karaoke-Revolution style, later.

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Blog Post

AADL-GT Round 3 Results

by eli

Round 3 is behind us, and with Round 4 fast approaching, at long last, here are the full results from the October tournament.

Round 3 began with Super Smash Brothers Single-player melee, with 80 competitors registered. With 3 qualifying matches per player, and our systems running smoothly, we had time for seeded 1v1 eliminations, which worked out quite well. In the semifinals, Round 1 Melee Champion [gtplayer:136] was bested by [gtplayer:355], season leader [gtplayer:143] was beaten by [gtplayer:427], [gtplayer:357] fell to emerging force [gtplayer:326], and [gtplayer:396] was beaten by his own big brother, the right honourable [gtplayer:325]. The final match was a vicious 4-player melee, with [gtplayer:325] again proving his Melee Mastery, [gtplayer:326] taking second, [gtplayer:427] taking third, and [gtplayer:355] finishing fourth.

More after the jump...

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Blog Post

AADL-GT Open Thread

by Edith Wharton

Out with the old thread, in with the new..

News: Play Mario Kart at McDonalds?!

Fun stuff: Watch the .gif version of Star Wars Ep. IV.

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Blog Post

Super Smash and Kart Tournaments: This Weekend!

by eli

The action heats up this weekend, with our first-ever Open Super Smash Bros: Melee tournament, inviting all players ages 13 and up to come and fight against the best SSB:M players in the area for a shot at gift card prizes: $40 for 1st place, $30 for 2nd, and $20 for 3rd. Doors open Friday night at 6:00 PM in the Downtown Library Multipurpose Room, and the Tournament will start after 6:30. The format will be 2 or 3 stock, 4-player battles, with all items and stages enabled, earning points for wins, with the highest scorers moving on to elimination brackets. Registration is now open.

Then, on Saturday, we've got AADL-GT Round 3, from Noon - 5 PM at the Downtown Library, including Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart Single-player and Team Events. Doors open at 11:30, and Preregistration is open now. Winners of each event advance to the Sur-Prize round,, where they'll play a MYSTERY GAME to determine who will take home the $70, $50, and $30 gift cards.

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Blog Post

Tournament Open Thread

by Edith Wharton

All the world 's a thread, and all the men and women merely players.

Here I dug up some content.. take a Super Mario Quiz!

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Blog Post

AADL-GT Round 2 Results

by eli

The 2005 season thunders on, and round 2 fulfilled expectations, with intense competition, increased controversy, and a solid 100+ turnout. Registration enhancements helped us get everyone checked in faster, and putting food and a TV outside the room was a big hit, decreasing the congestion and making more room for everyone.

The Mario Kart single-player event kicked off with 83 competitors, and a new split-screen approach, with two races going on at once. Everyone got 3 qualifying races, which unfortunately still took forever, and after a tiebreaker, the top 32 advanced to the quarterfinals. The semifinals got us down to a final 8 person race, with [gtplayer:168] taking First place, [gtplayer:141] taking second, veteran [gtplayer:345] taking third, and Black Shark Clan's [gtplayer:153] taking 4th, all getting a trip to the Surprize round, and to the grand championships in december. Read on for more!

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Blog Post

AADL-GT Round 2: This Weekend!

by eli

Preregistration is now open for AADL-GT Round 2, happening this Saturday, September 24th, from Noon - 5 PM in the Basement of the Downtown Library. Doors will open at 11:30 for players in grades 6-12, so be early to get checked in and start warming up. Winners of the Sur-Prize round game will take home $70, $50, and $30 gift cards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. We'll have single-player and team events in both Mario Kart Double Dash and Super Smash Brothers: Melee, and the event will (really this time) be broadcast live on Comcast channel 18 in Ann Arbor, so be sure to bring a signed release form if you haven't turned one in before. We'll be implementing several enhancements this round, including smoother, faster registration & check-in, split-screen single player Kart for more races in less time, checkin and food and tables outside the room, and definitely more pizza. Read on for more.

We'll also be having an All-Ages DDR Tournament, Sunday Sept. 25th, from 1:00-4:00 at the Malletts Creek Branch. Open Gamecube play will be available, and prizes are $40, $30, and $20 gift cards.

One of our new features is a super-easy way to attach your clan logo to all your comments here on the axis blog. Just email me your clan logo at axis@aadl.org, and I'll add it to the server. You can then include your clan logo in your post just by adding:

[mygtclanlogo]

anywhere in your post, including in your signature! You can edit your signature on the 'edit' tab of your My Account page. Once you've added that tag to your signature, you'll never have to think about your clan logo again. Let me know if you run into any trouble or have any questions about this.

Also, it's time to announce the players who will be invited to do live, on-air commentary at this month's tournament. I will be appointing Lead and Relief Commentators for each event, with the Lead commentators doing most of the talking, and the Relief stepping in when the Leads are playing. Be aware that my goal is to produce the most entertaining event possible, so while I want to give several players a chance to do this, I will be making changes and cuts throughout the season. If I don't think you did a very good job, you won't be invited back to the 'press box' next month. So, be forewarned, and don't take it personally. Also, remember that this is an invitation. You don't have to do it if you don't want to. So, here are our commentary teams for Round 2:

Mario Kart Single-Player and Team:
Lead: Major Tom and Leinad
Relief: Muffincat and Duck

Super Smash Brothers Single-Player and Team:
Lead: Sravan and Galen (pr0 and c0n)
Relief: Black Shark and Duck

Surprize Round:
Lead: Muffincat and Black Shark
Relief: Major Tom and Leinad

A few tips for you commentators:

1) Look for the drama and build it with story, not with interjections.

Right: Wow, he's made it all the way to the final lap of the final race, only a master shell can ruin his day now...
Wrong: Oh! oh! wow! Man! Going! Going! Going! Gone!

2) Play off your partner, no matter who they are, use their name extensively, and set them up.

Right: I see she is truly dominant with DK, bob, isn't that one of your best characters?
Wrong: (in reply): Nope.

3) Remember that the audience at home may not know anything about the games.

Right: Wow, there goes Mario's Cape teleportation glitch... that's a bug in the game that's very difficult to execute, but very shocking when performed precisely....
Wrong: Oh man! Charizard!

4) Nothing impresses me more than a dazzling display of Nintendo Knowledge.

Right: You know, bob, the original Donkey Kong was Shigeru Miyamoto's first game for Nintendo, and it was built to be a conversion for thousands of unused Radarscope cabinets, as the US market had responded very poorly to Radarscope, despite it having been a smash hit in Japan.
Wrong: The Revolution is going to suck.

Anyway, enough of that. Get registered for the tournament, get practicing, and if you've got questions, now's the time. See you Saturday!

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Blog Post

Eli Goes to PAX, and Lives to Tell the Tale

by eli

This past weekend, I attended the Penny Arcade Expo. It was absolutely incredible. There were PC, console, and tabletop game tournaments, panel discussions, an exhibitor room (think E3 lite), concerts, freeplay, prizes, and the OMEGATHON II.

I went to see how truly large game tournaments are run, specifically to get some ideas on how to handle our recent influx of new players, and to do a little of what adults call 'networking'. Also, to play some games. Read on for complete details.

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Blog Post

Leaderboard

by eli

Ok, we've got some new features in our system, and we're proud to present the first ever Season Clan and Player leaderboards. There may still be a few issues here, of course, so if you've got questions, ask away. Also note that these are the only clans for which I have registration information. If your clan played last weekend, and you're not listed, post a comment or drop an email to axis@aadl.org and we'll get you all set.

First of all, we've got a bit of a surprise on the Clan Leaderboard after 1 round. With 5 Clans competing so far, the Clan Champ of round 1 is....

Skillz dat Killz!
-- Earnist da Chicken
-- J's Coolio
-- MonkeyMan
-- Doomblaze

Total Round 1 score: 4000 points

Skillz dat Killz, made up of 4 wildcards from season 1, storms out of nowhere to rack up the most points out of any clan competing at round 1. They secure their spot in the Clan Cup in december, narrowly edging out second place Turtle Clan (3940 points) and the third place Trouble Monkey Clan (3850 points). Here's the full clan leaderboard:

1. Skillz dat Killz (4000)
2. Turtle Clan (3940)
3. Trouble Monkey Clan (3850)
4. Vaccinated Monks (1360)
5. Black Shark Clan (1340)
6. Turtle Clan 2: T-unit (600)

I know there are some other clans that we didn't get registered, so let me know and I'll get you set up. Also, this is without recruitment bonuses applied; recruitment bonuses only count toward your leaderboard score, and can't help you win a single round. We'll get recruitment bonuses sorted out over the next few weeks, but we will only credit the clan that the new member says recruited them, so get your recruits online and in here to tell us that you recruited them!

So, here, also, are the top 32 players on the Individual Leaderboard:

1. Earnist Da Chicken (1785)
2. c0N (1695)
3. TurtlePerson2 (1680)
4. pr0 (1515)
5. anti snowman (1305)
6. Jimmy (1140)
7. Post (1130)
8. Doomblaze (1040)
9. Ice (905)
10. *Flare* (895)
11. Corey (865)
12. Bad driver (740)
13. Gnato (695)
14. Ion (670)
15. Monkeyman (660)
16. bbqkitten (625)
17. Chris R (615)
18. DrewE (565)
19. J's Coolio (515)
20. jlgelinas (515)
21. Duck (485)
22. zyke (465)
23. Joe S (455)
24. aaron (440)
25. D-Rex (435)
26. KingBoo (435)
27. Paul K (420)
28. John (395)
29. The Gamer (395)
30. AKIA (390)
31. Nick11 (385)
32. Balla (375)

Ok, got questions? I knew you would. Fire away, but bear in mind I'm off to PAX tomorrow morning, and may not get to all your questions until next week.