Virginia Beach: Pembroke Mall

[FFMMCLXIV]

Just wanted to let everyone near the Virginia Beach area know that there's a SSBM tournament at the Pembroke Mall GameStop, tomorrow (Saturday, the 28th) at 12 noon. Sorry for the late notice...just joined the site recently, as you can see.

BTW, if you see a kid with a Poketopia shirt, it's me. Say hi

 

[Ether]

Wow, that IS short notice. What's the rule set/venue fee/prize split?

 

[FFMMCLXIV]

Good question.

To be honest, GameStop's tournaments (at least the ones that I've been to) have been kinda "show up and be ready for anything." That's the way the Madden tournament was a couple months back, and the Pokemon tournament last week at Lynnhaven Mall was the same way...so as far as the rules go, I have no idea.

I may have a clue about the prize, however. They had a Smash tournament at Lynnhaven a couple weeks back, and my friend who went told me about it. The 1st place prize was $100 in GameStop money, several DS games, and a chain with a gold crown on the end. 2nd place got $50 in GameStop money. The prize could be similar, but I'm not sure.

Oh, and I'm 99% sure it's free. If it isn't, I'm in trouble.

 

[Ether]

Hey, keep us posted when Game On hosts these things. We could use the MLG rule set and start having weeklies/biweeklies there. Do their tvs lag?

 

[FFMMCLXIV]

Hey, keep us posted when Game On hosts these things. We could use the MLG rule set and start having weeklies/biweeklies there.

That sounds great! I'm confused by Game On, though. It was GameSpot/EBGames, as far as I know. I'm missing something noobish, I'm sure. Thanks in advance for clarifying.

Anyway, yeah, that'd be much better, because the stages were set to random, and ALL stages were included. Superflat World, anyone?

Do their tvs lag?

No. Well, the finals were played on a big flat screen plasma at the Cox kiosk, and there might have been a hint of lag, but I didn't notice any.

Here's how it went down.

I was surprised by how big this tournament was. Seemed pretty organized, they had everything figured out, 8 TVs to keep things moving...except for the fact that the memory card was corrupted. Luckily, some guy had all of the stages and characters in his car, so it was all set. I think that at least 50 people had to be there.

As far as rules, the first and second rounds were 4-player matches, 4 stock, items set to very low, all stages on random, and only the winner advanced. I thought that was pretty harsh, myself. I was out in the first round on Venom...

Anyway, that narrowed it down to 7 in the 3rd round (semis), same rules, and it was a double round-robin; you had to play everyone twice, best 4 records went to the Final Match. There were two guys tied for 4th, so they had a play-in match...it was pretty intense.

In the final, it was 7 stock, all other rules same for the final four on the big plasma. Everyone was complaining: "C'mon, the final match should be on FINAL Destination!" Organizer didn't care, though. It was knockout style: last place is eliminated, the others start over. The first phase was on Battlefield, one down. The second phase was on Hyrule Temple (ugh), and it lasted forever; Ice Climbers kept screwing around and standing up at the top while Sheik owned Ganondorf at the bottom of the stage. Ganondorf was knocked out, and it was time for the showdown: 4 stock, no more items, and the stage ended up being Pokemon Stadium, so it was a good fight between Sheik and Ice Climbers, but Sheik triumphed 2-0.

I later learned that there was a tourney there last year, where the grand prize was a Wii!...but this year, the prize was a $50 GameStop card and a copy of Brawl when it comes out. Pretty good, I wouldn't mind getting Brawl for free.

Anyway, yeah, it was a great event, can't wait for the next one! I'll keep you posted if I hear anything about the next one, and thanks again for clarifying Game On. Now that my brain has kicked in, I'm thinking it could be a division of GameStop or something?

...I'll stop guessing and let you tell me.

 

[Redd]

Haha pretty random, when I go to hang in VA Beach I always go to Pembroke =P

 

[Ether]

my bad, Game on is another game store in the beach.

So it's a free for all tournament, with items. Well, I guess it's no harm done because it's free to enter, but it's not a very professional rule set.

 

[FFMMCLXIV]

my bad, Game on is another game store in the beach.

So it's a free for all tournament, with items. Well, I guess it's no harm done because it's free to enter, but it's not a very professional rule set.

Oh, I thought it had a deeper meaning than that. What a waste.

I agree about the rule set, but I liked the actual format of the tournament. Harsh elimination aside, I had fun playing my match (no plural) and watching the other matches.

And yeah, I'll keep my eyes open for any others, as will my friends. If there's any around, I'll let you know.

 

[Ether]

You know, you should play me and my friends. We've got a crew out in Virginia Beach..

 

[FFMMCLXIV]

I'm sure you'll crush me and my friends. What area of Virginia Beach? I live fairly close to Lynnhaven Mall, Landstown High School, and that area.