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Super Bonus Newsflash! Brawl and Rock Band this Friday at Traverwood Cosplay

by eli

Hey Smashfans, we'll have two stations of Brawl and our Rock Band kit set out at the new Traverwood Branch this Friday, 11/7 from 7-8:30 PM for players grades 6 and up. If we get enough brawlers, we could try a special modes tournament or something. There will also be DDR and cosplay; feel free to come in costume, or not. Hope to see you there!

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Blog Post

AADL-GT Round 3: Phoenix Flourish

by ejk

Just over a week ago (sorry guys), The AADL-GT Series continued with Round 3 events of the 2008 season. With only one more regular event to go before the Grand Championships in December, the time was ripe for players and clans to make a move in the standings. We saw some familiar faces at the top of the individual events, as DingDong, Hot_ArmS, and SwordSensei repeated their top 4 performance of the Smash singles event. As we turned to the Smash team event, AADL again went up against EVPL and PLCMC in internet play, which saw another victory for AADL despite breaking our unbeaten streak. On to Mario Kart Double Dash (for maybe the last time?) for Kart Singles, which went straight to an 8 player final from the pool qualifiers, with perennial favorites Dale W and Johninabox battling to an epic finish. After Team Kart closed the regular events of the day with a quick 4 match event, we moved onto the Clan Battle, with surprising results. Read on for more details.

SmashKart Championship Series 5.3: Smash Singles

Miraculously we had a perfect 64 players enter the Super Smash Brothers Brawl tournament, in 16 pools. After the dust settled, 11 of the 32 players moving on to head-to-head elimination were undefeated in pool play: Solon, Pwnerer, D-REX, SwordSensei, Pyromanic, Juggleguy, Hot_ArmS, Doomblaze, Johninabox, Notra, and limabean. Our round of 32 saw Notra, Juggleguy, Solon, and limabean's steak abruptly end in losses to DingDong, Chris R, Killa, and Dentrag respectively. Moving to the round of 16, we saw some of the best all around players advance as Johninabox, D-REX and MelancholyofSailorFullMoonTutuXD moved to the quarter finals. However, in what's becoming a Brawl trend, clan Asian Invasion members Hot_ArmS, DingDong, and SwordSensei all advanced to the Semis, joined by Clan Phoenix's Pyromaniac. DingDong prevailed over clan mate Hot_ArmS for the top spot, while Pyromanic took third place over round 2 champion SwordSensei.

SmashKart Championship Series 5.3: Smash Teams

Again, miraculously we had a perfect 32 teams for the Smash team event, but we had a bunch of ugly ties after the 2 qualifying rounds. Once we finally figured out who was advancing (remind me to keep track of winners, not losers next time) the top 16 teams moved on to elimination, with a good representation from the top clans. Our top 4 teams featured two teams from clan Asian Invasion and representatives from clan Phoenix and A Solo Special Ops. Asian Invasion proved again why they are the Smash Brothers clan to beat, with team "team" taking first place over clan mates team Asian Invasion.

SmashKart Championship Series 5.3: Kart Singles

With smash over, we transformed the room to Mario Kart Double Dash single player pools. 44 players competed with only 5 going a perfect 4 for 4 in first place finishes: limabean, monkeyman, Johninabox, D-REX, and Dale W. The top 8 players from pool play moved directly into a single race for the finals, which saw a ton of lead changes and Johninabox taking first place ahead of round 2 champion Dale W.

SmashKart Championship Series 5.3: Kart Teams

As time was winding down for the day, a quick team Kart event took place with 20 teams participating. The top 8 teams moved quickly on to the final match with MonkeysofDoom taking first over PrettyPrincesses, FusterCluck, and Alter Egos Unite! in the top 4.

After the bonus points were awarded for all the regular events, the Clan Standings for the day were as follows:

Asian Invasion 7130
We're Better Than Special Ops 6730
A Solo Special Ops 5680
The Whole Famn Damily 5110
Phoenix 4350
Anonymous 2540
Tires Don Exits 1670

It should be noted that clan Asian Invasion took top score for the day, even though they left after Smash competition. That left a spot open in the clan battle for clan Phoenix, who took advantage of the situation. Clans A Solo Special Ops and We're Better Than Special Ops were eliminated in Smash Brothers and Mario Kart events, which left clan Phoenix to face The Whole Famn Damily in the surprise game of Bomberman. With time running out, Phoenix arose and claimed top Clan in round 3.

Round 4 and the final regular event of the 2008 AADL-GT season takes place downtown on Saturday, November 29 at noon. Be there or be bored somewhere else.

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Blog Post

AADL-GT Round 3 Registration is Open

by ejk

Sign ups are open for this weekend's set of events! Head to the Registration Page and grab your spot for Smash Bros. and Mario Kart.

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Blog Post

AADL-GT Round 2: Asian Invasion Ascendent

by ejk

Round 2 of the AADL-GT 2008 Season saw a surge from the Asian Invasion clan behind strong showings from members Hot_ArmS, SwordSensei, and DingDong in the Smash Singles event, but The Whole Famn Damily clan stayed strong as well on Saturday with members Dale W and masteraj racing to the finals in Kart Singles. We also saw AADL represent nationally in online Smash Brothers play against teams from EVPL, PLCMC, and WBTPL. New clans Phoenix and The Vikings joined diametrically opposed clans A Solo Special Ops and We're Better Than Special Ops for a place in the clan battle, featuring a surprising ending in the mystery game. Read on for more details.

SmashKart Championship Series 5.2: Smash Singles
Smash Singles saw 60 competitors duke it out in 15 separate 4-player pools, with only 7 of those going a perfect 4-0 in their preliminary matches: SwordSensei, Hot_ArmS, Mojo, Johninabox, Pyromanic, Jacob K and Doomblaze. Our top 32 players moved on to head-to-head elimination matches which saw no major upsets in the first round. However, the round of 16 saw victory streaks end for Doomblaze, Mojo, Johninabox, and Pyromaniac. Of the top 8, Asian Invasion clan members Hot_ArmS, SwordSensei, and DingDong all advanced to the semifinals, joined by The Whole Famn Damily clan member Solon. Semi-final winners SwordSensei and Hot_ArmS met in the final match, with SwordSensei taking the top prize and giving his clan a commanding lead in the Clan standings for the day.

SmashKart Championship Series 5.2: Smash Teams
The Smash Team event brought 27 pairs of players together, including a special appearance from "retired" player lain paired with masteraj. The team of brothers, Lard-In-A-Box made it to the round of 8 before falling to team Asian Invasion, who was joined by fellow clan team Tiny Terrors, team Arjan and the noob and team Smash Bros. in the final four. Team Asian Invasion eventually won in the championship match against A Solo Special Ops clan Arjan and the noob.

SmashKart Championship Series 5.2: Kart Singles
Kart Singles saw the Asian Invasion's domination subside somewhat with 56 players grouped into 4-player, 4-race pools. Doomblaze, Dale W, Funzo, Tub O Lard, and aikem all went undefeated in pool play and moved with the top 32 players into 8 4-player elimination races. aikem, Funzo, and Tub O Lard all went from undefeated to out as the top 16 moved on to 2 networked 8-player races. Perennial favorites Johninabox and limabean won their respective races with the top 4 finishers in each moving to the final race, which saw repeat winner Dale W claim the top prize again, and taking more of Eli's money.

SmashKart Championship Series 5.2: Kart Teams
With time running down, an abbreviated Kart Team event took place with 21 teams registered facing off in 3 preliminary races. The top 3 in the first two 8-kart races and the top 2 in the last 5-kart race moved on to a all-or-nothing final 8-kart race. The brothers of Lard-In-A-Box would not be denied, and took the top prize as the regular events wound down for the day.

When the dust had settled, The final clan standings of the day looked like this:

Asian Invasion: 8255
The Whole Famn Damily: 6645
A Solo Special Ops: 6540
We're Better Than Special Ops: 6340
Phoenix: 4000
The Vikings: 2280
Wario Ware: 1460
Tires Don Exits: 1275

The top four clans faced off in the Clan Battle for bragging rights and additional prizes. Asian Invasion and The Whole Famn Damily held serve through the preliminary clan battles of Mario Kart and Smash Brothers. The final game of the day was revealed to be 1942: Joint Strike for PS3. Even though Asian Invasion was in 1st place and had the advantage of going second, Famn Damily scored more points, repeating as clan champions for the day.

Our next tournament is scheduled for Saturday, October 18 at the Downtown Library Multi-Purpose Room. Be there or be somewhere else that probably won't be as fun or have pizza for everybody.

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Blog Post

AADL-GT Round 1 Results: Damily Dominant

by ejk

This past Saturday marked some significant milestones in the proud history of the AADL-GT series. We had our first real workout of the new library Wiis while moving our official Smash Bros. competition up to Brawl. We also had our first online competition with other libraries, playing in a small elimination tournament against the Detroit Public Library and the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. New clans were the order of the day as the newly formed Whole Famn Damily racked up the points. Even with changes, traditional powers found their way to the top of the leaderboard.

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Blog Post

AADL-GT Tournament Weekend: Brawl, DDR, Guitar Hero and More!

by eli

It's the opening weekend of the 2008 GT season, and it all kicks off with a BONUS Brawl open play this Friday from 11 AM - 6 PM at the Downtown Library! We've got 8 new Wiis and we need to get some serious unlocking done. We won't have any food, but please come on down and help us get as much unlocked as possible for the tournament. Then, Friday night sees our next Revolution Hero tournament for all ages: try to win the Guitar Hero 2 or DDR brackets, or go for the double crown. Saturday features the Smashkart championship series season opener for Grades 6-12 (sorry lain) kicking off at High Noon with Brawl Singles. Full details follow below, but Saturday will also include our first ever gtsystem exhibition match, where the winners of our Smash Singles will face off online against the best players that Detroit Public Library and Columbus Public Library have to offer! Then, opening weekend wraps up with a Rock Band tournament for All Ages Sunday from 1-4pm, and then the last Pokémondays of the summer on Monday from 1-5.

Hope to see you all there, and read on for tourney specifics!

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Blog Post

ZOMG TEH GT IS BACK!!1!

by eli

WOW. The offseason is finally over. The doors to that temple of videogame prowess that is the Downtown Library Multipurpose Room are about to swing open for AADL-GT Season FIVE! Lots of big changes await this year, some right around the corner and some down the road, but here's the entire season schedule and some info about this weekend's tournaments, featuring Guitar Hero, DDR, Rock Band, Super Smash and Kart! First we've got our first ever Revolution Hero tournament, with simultaneous DDR and Guitar Hero tournaments for all ages, this Friday Night from 6-8:30 pm. Then, this Saturday welcomes the return of the SmashKart Championship Series for grades 6-12 to our annual Preseason event. Recruit for clans, test out rulesets; and Graduated Seniors get one more shot at glory. Then, Sunday sees our first ever Rock Band Tournament for 4-player teams of all ages. Then, Monday sees the next round of the racous battlefest Pokémondays from 1-5pm, all at the Downtown Library. Check it out! And read on for full details.

Welcome back GT faithful! It's been a long, quiet off-season, but I think once we get this highly transitional season off the ground, it will be a brave new era in the ongoing saga of the aadl-gt tournament series. But first, we have no Wiis. Yes, our vendor has not yet delivered the shipment of 8 shiny new Wiis, so we've still got just 1 wii. There are two ways to handle this. First, if any of you guys would like to bring your wii and brawl and kart (we have controllers) we could conceivably pull together the hardware at the last minute. That's up to you; let me know here if you think you'd like to bring your wii and we'll see what we can do! Or, we could have a farewell to Melee and double dash, with finals in Brawl and Kart, and see what happens. Either way, we've got all four events lined up but no clan play... and remember that this is the last tournament for which graduated seniors are eligible. A farewell, as it were.

So, here's the full season schedule. Stay tuned for some big changes to your aadl-gt online experience coming soon.... unless you want a sneak preview

Season Weekends
July 11-13
August 9-11
September 19-21
October 17-19
November 28-30
December 19-21

Each Weekend has the same three events:
Fridays 6-8:30 Revolution Hero for All Ages
Saturday 12-5, Smashkart Championship Series for Grades 6-12
Sunday 1-4, Public Library Pokémon League for Grades K and up (except for July 13)

We'll also have the return of the AADL-GT Grudge Buffet and other cool stuff along the way.... See you this weekend!

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Blog Post

Ninja Warrior Levi Meeuwenberg coming to AADL

by eli

Sasuke is an irresistible Japanese television event that happens twice a year. 100 competitors take on a brutal 4-stage obstacle course. In the 20 times the contest has been held, the course has only been completed twice. Sasuke now airs in the US as Ninja Warrior on G4, and for the past two Sasuke competitions, G4 has selected American contenders (via the American Ninja Challenge) to travel to Japan to appear on the show alongside the Japanese competitors. Both times, Ann Arbor has been represented in Japan; last fall, Ann Arbor native and Michigan State student Colin Bell appeared on the show, but failed on the Spider Jump of the first stage. This spring, Traverse City native and current Ann Arbor Resident Levi Meeuwenberg traveled to Japan and outlasted all the Japanese competitors to be the last man standing!

Levi is a freerunning ( Parkour) expert; he's appeared in commercials, music videos, and toured with Madonna. His performance on Ninja Warrior was flat-out awesome and he is certain to be back in the fall to attempt the daunting course again. AADL is very proud to welcome Levi to the Downtown Library on Monday, June 9 at 7 PM to talk about his experiences as a freerunner, stunt double, and his trip to Japan. Levi is a class act and we're thrilled to bring him to you! Hope to see you there!

UPDATE: Levi's event was fantastic and 160 people showed up to see him! The event was recorded and is available online here.

NEW UPDATE: Levi is coming back to AADL on September 26 at 7 PM, this time with members of the UM Parkour club and more of a focus on Free running! Details here.

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Blog Post

Spring Break Open Play: This Week

by eli

Bored this week? Come to the downtown library for open play this Tuesday, April 8, Wednesday, April 9th, and Thursday, April 10 for gamecube, ps2, and Wii open play! Each day, we'll welcome Kids from Noon until 3 PM and Teens from 3 to 6 PM. Will there be Brawl, you ask? OF COURSE there will be Brawl. Winner stays. How long can you stay in command? Come find out.

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Retro Octathlon and Constant Brawl Friday, plus Wii Sports Saturday!

by eli

No school Friday! So, what to do? How about a high score contest across 8 vintage videogames at our third annual Retro Octathlon? How about a 42" TV in the back of the room running nothing but Super Smash Brothers Brawl ALL DAY LONG? You can have both in the MP Room at the Downtown Library Friday, from 1-8 pm. And, just in case that's not enough smash for you, there will also be open Melee during the Wii Tennis Doubles Tournament, Saturday from 1-5 pm. Prizes for Retro High Total Scorers and for Wii Sports, plus snacks. See you there! Read on for full Retro Octathlon Details.

Here are the games for this year's Retro Octathlon. We've got prizes for the 3 players with the highest total score in:

1. Sky Kid (1985)
2. Balloon Fight (1985)
3. Paperboy (1984)
4. Jungle Hunt (1982)
5. Bubbles (1982)
6. Robotron 2084 (1982)
7. Ms. Pac Man (1981)
8. Defender (1980)

Then, Semifinals will be Double Dribble and the finals will be done other than the one and only Street Fighter II. It should be awesome, plus I have an idea for how we can manage brawl that might be fun. See you there!