$21,000 MK9 Tourney - Las Vegas, NV - May 14th-15th - 10K first place

Tournaments & Events
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Performance Designed Products (PDP) is proud to be the exclusive sponsor of the first ever National Mortal Kombat 9 Tournament! The Mortal Kombat 9 national tournament will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada at Bally?s Hotel and Casino on the weekend of May 14th -15th 2011. PDP has guaranteed a prize pool of $21,000 to be paid to the top 8 finishers, with the champion being awarded $10,000 in cash! This will be a double elimination format tournament starting with Day 1 qualifying rounds. The top 2 from each qualifying round will face off in the semi-finals bracket on Day 2 for a shot at a big pay day and the right to be called ?The Mortal Kombat 9 National Champion?!

PDPs Website -
Performance Designed Products Accessories and Controllers for Wii, DS, XBox 360 and PS3

Tournament Registration -
www.pdptournaments.com

Registration fee is $30. Registration ends on Monday May 9th, 2011

WHEN:
Saturday-Sunday May 14th-15th, 2011

WHERE:
Bally’s Hotel and Casino Grand Ballroom
3645 Las Vegas Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89109
PDP and Bally’s Hotel and Casino are working together to offer players and spectators ease of travel by having discounted rooms available at the tournament venue. There are a limited number of discounted rooms available, so book early!

WHY:
PDP is making the official MK9 Fight Stick and would like a grand venue to show it off. As this being a promotional tournament, it is required that the tournament be played on the official MK9 Fight Stick. These will be provided at the tournament at all tournament stations but we encourage competitors to get used to playing on one before competing. We are also wanting to get more involved with the gaming community. If we have a successful turnout, we will be able to do more tournaments, with more game genres and more prize money! We hope to see you all there to compete so that we can continue to do these tournaments in the future.

HOW…MUCH:
PDP is guaranteeing $21,000 in total prize money to be paid out to the top 8 competitors! 1st place will be awarded $10,000 in cash!!! Prize structure as follows:
1st: $10,000
2nd: $4,500
3rd: $2,500
4th: $1,500
5th-6th: $750
7th-8th: $500

ADDITIONAL INFO:

  • The event will be streamed by Team Sp00ky.
  • G4 will be shooting a 30 minute spot, covering the tournament.
  • More announcements to come. Please stay tuned…
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Really wish I could make it out to this. This looks very exciting and I hope it’s a Huge Success. Good luck to you guys in Vegas and a Big Thank you to PDP for making this possible as well as Spooky who will create an amazing stream.

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Never got into MK at all, but for $10,000 I’m down to try

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bumpin’ this.

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oh goody, a stream

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You might want to make this statement a little more clear in the OP. It’s kind of buried at the moment. I’m not trying to make a big deal out of it, but people should know about this restriction since it could have a significant impact on participation.

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Yeah that statement is a pretty big one, that knocks out all the pad players and people that haven’t adapted to the MK layout.

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I just wanted to drop in and say making people use the PDP stick is a bad idea. I would suggest letting people use their own sticks / controllers, and setting up demo stations for the PDP stick. If the PDP stick is really quality it will sell itself when people try it. Forcing people to use unfamiliar sticks will bring down the overall quality of play at the tournament, and probably hurt attendance across the board. Not to mention totally alienating pad players… I would also argue people will come away unimpressed, no matter how quality the stick is, when they start missing shit they would hit on their sticks 99% of the time in competitive play. I can’t wait to see what the sticks are like on day 2 after hundreds of random people have pounded on them… eek. This is just going to piss people off.

Anyway, I was about to book my plane ticket before I found this out. I would have probably walked away from Vegas having bought a PDP stick, just to have one, assuming they are quality. Now I’m questioning if I even want to go. The cost of having to travel to Vegas to play on an unfamiliar controller doesn’t sound too appealing at this point. Especially with other tournaments around the corner. I’m sure this was marketing’s horrible idea…

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i try to make this tourney, espically since its in las vegas!

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Hello all,

I understand the concerns and frustrations that people are having with the controller restrictions for the tournament. This tournament is being fully sponsored and paid for on PDP’s dime with a guaranteed prize pool of $21K…that’s even if 10 people show up…the prize pool is still the same. With that, I do understand PDP’s position on not wanting to involve other controllers for this tournament for a variety of reasons. This is a promotional tournament so you need to take it for what it is. The controller that PDP made is very high quality, and by NetherRealm’s position, the old MK layout is the way the game was meant to be played. This is the reason why they asked us to make the controller in the first place. I fully stand by the controller’s quality and design since I was the one who designed it.

Also, with all stations having the same arcade controller, there will be no advantages and everyone will be on a level playing field. This will also make for a much smoother tournament format. No waiting for people to get their friend’s controller, no plugging, unplugging, syncing and button configs…just get on and play. It is a great controller and of arcade quality. The controller was designed for the game and to NetherRealm’s specifications. You just need to try to think of it as a sports regulation. You can’t play in the NBA with your basketball or your over-sized hoop. You can’t use your Nerf football so that you can throw it further in the NFL. I know there are holes in that analogy but you get the idea. It’s not like they are forcing you to play MK on a racing wheel. :stuck_out_tongue:

I’ve been assigned to run this tournament and I am trying to make it the best tournament possible given the parameters. I’ve been told that if this tournament goes well, we will be able to have more tournaments in other genres with more prize money. I think that this is a great opportunity to get more money and corporate sponsorships into the video game competitive landscape. I remember when I was competing, I would dream of opportunities like this. Tournaments were few and far between with extremely small prize pools. I’m hoping to push this tournament to get a good turnout so that we can have more like this. The more money for the players, the better. With that, we will need a good turnout…

Speaking frankly, as a former tournament player, I would fully take advantage of this opportunity. Having a chance to compete for $10,000 first place in what could be a small player pool is a dream come true. The fact that players think that limiting the controllers will lower the player pool and deter the higher level players would be even more enticing to for me to practice and get my game on point. Of course, this is not the intention of PDP but I am just thinking of it from a competitive standpoint.

I’m not trying to argue, start flame wars or saying one way is right and one is wrong. I’m just trying to shed some light on the situation and offer a new perspective. Being on both sides has me in a bind. I understand the position on players and I sympathize but I also understand the position of the sponsor. All I can tell you is, the rules are there and I cannot change them. I know all of you are OG gamers and can adjust to situations on the fly. That is what makes all of you great at fighting games and competition in general. If I were eligible, I would see this as a great opportunity to win $10,000 against what could be as few as 100-200 people. The game will be brand new. Nobody will have anything figured out by the time the tournament rolls around. If you would just practice, for those weeks, come up with a solid strategy and execute…it would be an easy payday. It seems like an exciting time!

I hope you guys can make it because I think the tournament is going to be great. I will do my best to make sure that it is. If the controller requirement deters you from going, I fully understand and I hope to see you on the stream.

Take care you guys. I will be around if you have any more questions or comments.
_Sebastian

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This is an interesting format for the tournament. While unplugging, replugging, and many things is an issue At least, we know that you’re sticking with one way. A lot of player(s) may not like the idea. But, a guarantee pot prize? I’ll go with it. Top 8 players are STILL getting a piece of the 21k. Heck, I’ll be happy to go with 8th place.

Sadly, I have a tournament at Chicago May 27-29th and I can’t make two flights in one month. I wanna take a piece of this. I’ll make this into a consideration.

Good Luck and I hope that this tournament turns out good.

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Is this the only game that’s going to be at the event? or will they have other station set up for other games?

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People also need to consider that this tournament will be about a month separated from the release of MK9. Generally, when a tournament is held that close to the release, it has the effect of evening out the playing field in regards to populated communities. People from less active scenes have a chance to perform well, since overall experience is still relatively low.

That being said, I think I should be able to make this tournament. I hope that others on the fence about going will commit as well, seeing how the fighting game scene rarely gets this amount of sponsor-funded prize money, and a good showing may help perpetuate the idea that fighting games are worth backing.

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will there be time before the tournament starts to get acquainted with the PDP fightsticks? like casuals or something?

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You can practice on PDP Fight Sticks for a month, they come out when the game is released so there is time to get adjusted to it but everything Goofyhand said is on point. If I was able to enter this I would enter this tournament but take this into consideration, with all the complaining people were making about GameStop SF4 tournament all the better players just practiced on the default 360 pad and made due with what their was. I played on that thing for weeks only because of that GameStop tournament, you do what you have to do and a LOT of Street Fighter players are going to play in the MK9 tournament and aren’t saying a WORD about the rules because they are already posted and they know they can’t be changed. They have a month to get good on the PDP stick to try and win $10,000, and they are being very quiet about it because that is what they do.

As Goofyhand said, the concern obviously for not being able to use pad is an issue, but when things got switched over to console, and I can only play standing up on an arcade cabinet I had to adjust or stop playing, right? Same thing with this specific tournament. For this much money involved I really don’t see any argument because if Capcom had a $100,000 to see who could play ONLY on a Capcom stock/created pad it would be laughable for people to be upset about them requiring that as it is their money/product/tournament.

I really do wish there were tournaments for this back in the day, you have no idea how much I would LOVE to enter this tournament and I play MK post MK4 on pads, but I sure would play this game for a month on the stick if I could enter.

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Is it possible to get some more detail on the “When” aspect? Some ballpark times for tournament start on Saturday and tournament end on Sunday would be helpful for out-of-towners.

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Buying a stick that is strictly for one game (unlike a normal arcade stick) and playing a default controller that is used for every other game is different. Gamers are usually broke lol.

Anyways, I don’t care about having to play on a PDP MK stick for the tournament, as I know its for promotional use, but I’m just wondering if there will be casuals or something before hand to at least get accustomed to it. I just need a couple of games in.

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When will the stand alone PS3 stick be available? To my knowledge, only the 360 stick is being sold on day 1, and it’s very difficult to find the TE at this time.

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You want to buy it for me? I can pm you my shipping info. I would probably have to choose between the stick or my plane ticket to Vegas right now.

Anyway, I understand the situation. Doesn’t mean I like it. Hopefully the tournament goes well. I still want to try and make the event.