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Pay-for-play tournament site exclusively for PSP owners
We were more than a little iffy about presenting this information to you. Our tip line received word from a new pay-for-play tournament website. It's not uncommon that we're spammed by some entrepeneurs--and it's a rare occasion when we believe a commercial enterprise might be of note to PSP owners. The website, PSP Tournaments, wants to do exactly as its name suggests. Players can sign up for tournaments, pay an entry fee, and try to win a cash prize. Honestly, we're skeptical on the security (and legality) of such a website, but considering its first tournament (Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops) will be free, we thought it would do no harm in passing along the information.If you know your Snake Eating beats the rest, you may want to consider participating in the site. If the site proves legitimate, there may be a new home for competitive PSP players to meet and challenge each other.
Win an Elite 360 playing Halo 2 or by chance
Over on Trixie's blog she posted a little tease about an upcoming Halo 2 tournament and a chance to win an Xbox 360 Elite. From her post we learn that Microsoft will be giving away five Elite consoles in some sort of Halo 2 online tournament and in a Play & Win contest later this month. Two ways to win, one interesting online tournament for the US and Canada. We're thinking that we'll be seeing the tourney starting after the new Halo 2 maps roll out and the rankings get a reset later this month. So, if you have no cash to buy an Elite and if winning one is your cup of tea, then keep your eyes glued to Xbox.com later this month for an official announcement.[Via Gaming Bits]
Beta test Tournament.com, gain the need for gaming greed
Tournament.com is looking for a few good beta testers and giving the participants $1 credit for every match they complete before the official launch later this spring. Tournament.com is looking to become a skill-based tournament environment where players compete for real money. Co-founder Marcus Pearcey says, "Much like golfers or chess players can compete against each other in tournaments, Tournament.com users can prove their skills and make some cash in secure, fair, competitive matches that reward winners with more than just bragging rights." Tournament.com has received the rights to use Valve games Counter Strike and Half-Life 2 for the beta, they plan to announce more titles after the beta.Of course, this sounds just a tad bit like gambling, but Tournament.com insists this is skill-based competition. There is a list of locations that believe this is gambling and won't allow you to play. Competitors are only allowed to place $150 USD into their account every month to wager $1 to $10 on their competitions -- you must also be 18 or older to participate. The beta testers who receive the $1 credit per round need to use up their credit value before they can cash out. For gamers into competition, the stakes just got real. The $150 cap prevents us from saying that this is just begging for intervention. Tournament.com doesn't sound any different than bars that hold gaming competitions with buy-ins. Just make sure to check that the software is legal to download in your location before you go trying to pwn n00bs for cash.
High school Halo 2 tournament quashed by school officials
The Ann Arbor News reported this weekend about a high school junior's plans for a school-sanctioned Halo 2 tournament, which was canceled after local police got wind of it. Zach Wigal had hacked through a jungle of bureaucracy for nine months while planning the tournament, spending $650 of his own cash on a permit, printing 2,500 fliers, and clearing the idea with school officials. Four days before the event, Wigal's dad made a courtesy call to the cops, letting them know than an estimated 300 gamers were about to descend on the high school commons, suggesting that the officer might want to attend for security reasons. That set off a chain reaction of concerned phone calls that ended up with the school officials rescinding their permission for the tournament, ostensibly because "kids 17 and under playing an M-rated game for money is not something appropriate for the high school." A reasonable decision, but one that they were perfectly capable of making, oh, nine months ago. Zach Wigal had better hope he gets that $650 back.
Reminder: Throw down with Cooking Mama
Well, obviously Majesco wants everyone to get on the Cooking Mama train (we hear that's how they make that money), but this weekend, as you'll recall, they're offering New Yorkers a chance to get in the game in style. To promote the release of Cooking Mama: Cook Off, Majesco is calling all Iron Chef-wannabes out to show their stuff -- and win free swag. If you're going to be anywhere near the Nintendo World Store this Saturday between 11 and 4, drop by, if only to sample the goodies the on-site chef will be preparing. Now that's incentive. To our readers in the area: we'd love to see your pictures if you attend. We may even post them and make you an interweb celebrity for a whole five minutes.
GoW tournament shut down by diaper gamer
First, a word of caution. If you are at all uneasy about diapers and their contents then this blog post may not be for you. In Fort Collins a group of gamers organized an underground Gears of War tournament at a nearby warehouse for over 60 gamers. Among the tournament's participants was a 16 year old kid who was wearing a ... diaper. The diaper clad teenager wore his protection in case of an emergency and didn't really think he'd have to soil himself, that is until he downed five energy drinks. You see, the 16 year old (being the hardcore gamer he is) decided to use his emergency diaper and soon after other participants complained about a "septic tank like smell" coming from the kid. The event's security promptly removed him due to his foul odor. The story doesn't end there as our diaper wearing gamer then called the police to complain about his ejection from the tournament and how he was unfairly treated. The police showed up knowing full well the event was an illegal paid tournament, shut down the event, and fined the event coordinators.Whether this story is true or not, we still can't get the image of a 16 year old diaper wearing gamer out of our head. Who'd knowingly mess their pants in the name of gaming? Something tells us neither this kid or his diaper will be invited to the next Gears tournament.[Via Digg]
Guitar Hero II tourney in Florida April 7th
With Guitar Hero II mere weeks away from release, competitions were bound to start to get planned. GameHQ is holding a tournament on April 7th, sponsored by Red Octane. The catch, of course, is that it takes place in Deland, Florida at the Sunshine Bowling Center. Festivities start at 7:00 pm and there are unspecified prizes to be given to true rockers. We do like the name of the group, though: G.H.O.U.L., the Guitar Hero Organized Underground League. So, if you live in that region of America's wang, are you going to see what all the fuss is about? If so, will you start practicing now on the PS2's version, or wait until you pick it up for 360?
Want to see your local team's tourney game in HD? Not this week
Despite many commenters complaining about extended SD-only periods of NCAA Tournament action, we've gotten a lot of HD action on our CBS feed. As it turns out, the home team (University of Michigan) being NIT-bound might have guaranteed us more HDTV action than say, North Carolina residents. A CBS spokeswoman explained to The Mercury News that a lack of capacity causes the network to ensure the local market gets its preferred game, by only sending an SD feed. Otherwise, you'll get a "flex" feed, that switches to the best action, and in high definition. Next week, once some teams have been eliminated, there will be enough capacity to get every game, to every market in HD. CBS says it's "likely" their capabilities will change for next year, but if they don't, HDTV owners might be rooting against their alma mater next winter.
Canada gets March Xbox Events tour
This March break our Canadian friends can check out the newest Xbox 360 games, win cool prizes, and participate in tournaments during the Xbox Events tour. Starting today and running through March 25th, various retailers throughout Canada will be welcoming the Xbox Event program into their stores for some gaming excitement and fun. Be sure to look at the schedule of events and locations to see if an event is nearby. Who says your March break can't be fun?[Thanks, DjDATZ]
Play NHL 2K7, go the the Stanley Cup playoffs
Canadian residents and professional NHL 2K7 gamers, listen up. You have a chance to win a trip to Canada's mecca of all sporting events ... the Stanley Cup playoffs. To win, you'll have to be a skilled NHL 2K7 player and have luck on your side. Starting March 11th in Montreal and running through April 8th, various EB Games locations will be holding NHL 2K7 tournaments where the winner from each store will be entered into the grand prize drawing. Full list of EB Games stores and dates are listed after the jump. Brush up on your hockey skills and sign up, because you have a religious sports journey to embark upon where winner takes all. [Thanks, DjDATZ]
Update on the London charity Meetup
Last week, we told you about the best positive use of the DS this month: the DS Meetup group in London and their upcoming charity tournament. Well, the group has finalized tournament details, so we thought it worth updating our readers in London who may be interested in the event, which is scheduled for this Saturday at the University of London Student Union. If any of our readers go, we'd love to hear about it![Thanks, Joe!]
Play DS for a good cause
Not that "enjoying yourself" isn't a good enough cause, but this is for a good social cause. DSMeetup.org.uk, a group that gets together in London for DS multiplayer sessions, is holding a charity tournament on March 10, to benefit Comic Relief, who we had no idea still existed, and who continues to raise money for various causes in Africa.The event is being held to coincide with Comic Relief's "Red Nose Day", which is kind of like Britain's version of the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, but with more comedians and novelty nosepieces. British readers, feel free to correct us.Participants pay £1 to get into the tournament, and all of the proceeds go to the charity. We admire the DSMeetup group for wanting to do something positive with their DS gaming sessions; the most charitable thing our Game Nights here do are keep us from debilitating, painful loneliness. And even then, only for a few hours.[Via Wonderland]
Blizzard announces global arena tournament
As far as I'm aware, this is totally out of the blue and hasn't been pre-announced. Blizzard announced on worldofwarcraft.com today that they are holding a global 5v5 arena tournament: We're pleased to announce our plans for the inaugural World of Warcraft Arena Tournament, scheduled to begin on February 16 in Europe and North America and March 3 in Korea. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade players in these regions who consider themselves to be among the best in the game at player-vs.-player (PvP) combat will soon be able to prove it to the rest of the world. Will you and the rest of your team be up to the challenge? If so, gather your cohorts and begin preparing for the largest World of Warcraft competition ever held. Blizzard's page on the tournament is fairly thorough, so be sure to check it out for full details. In short, though: Make a 5v5 team and compete on your server. One or more teams per battlegroup will be selected to compete in the qualifiers, which will run from April 20 to May 4 and pit all the region's qualifiers against each other. The teams will be copied to a private server for this. Each region's top eight teams will compete in live regionals, date and location TBA. An uncertain number of winning teams from the regionals will compete in the global finals. One team will win, thereby winning the title of "bestest 5v5 team in the whole wide world." For me, the most interesting thing about this whole event is that it's global. Never before has there been anything that's united the different regions, to my knowledge. I'm not even much of a PvPer, but the opportunity to "determine the best World of Warcraft PvP team in the world," as Blizz puts it, has me excited. No word on prizes or anything, but stay tuned.
Def Jam: Icon tournaments at Gamestop
Gamestop is partnering with EA to host a few Def Jam: Icon tournaments around the US before the game is released. The tournaments will be hosted at various Gamestop and EB Games stores at different dates in four cities. The tournaments will kick off in Atlanta tomorrow and will start in the coming weeks in Chicago, Los Angles and New York. Also, at random stores, there will be a rap artist stopping by to partake in the activities and show you how a real rapper throws down. So far only Fat Joe has been confirmed at the Union City SWM Gamestop store in Atlanta, but more artists will be announced when the other tournaments near. And if you attend any tournament in Atlanta please post your impressions of not only the tournament, but how much you enjoyed your time with Def Jam: Icon. Head over to Gamestop's official page for dates, locations and more information ... yah dig? [Via Gamertag Radio]
Texas Hold 'Em tournament on Xbox Live
We just got word that new fansite Xbox Live Connection is holding a Texas Hold 'Em tournament via Xbox Live. Anyone who has the XBLA game Texas Hold 'Em and is at least 18 years old can join in on the fun. Qualifying rounds started last night, but will run until February 18th. All the nightly winners will be invited back to square off on the championship table on February 19th with first place receiving a $40 Best Buy gift card and second place a $10 Best Buy gift card. For complete rules, tournament dates, and to sign up please click the 'read' link below. Good luck card players, the $40 gift card would be a nice down payment on a Xbox 360 game.
Guitar Hero Tourney at Gamestop this weekend. Maybe.
When we got an e-mail from Gamestop telling us we should "get ready to rock" at a Guitar Hero II tournament this Saturday, we were stoked. When we followed the e-mail's direction to contact our local stores for more information, we were considerably less than stoked. We called 10 of the 1659 stores listed as tournament hosts on the Gamestop web site, all in our local suburban Maryland area. Of those, only one store, in Wheaton Plaza, gave a vague answer about a tournament starting at 4:30 with registration throughout the week (the store manager had no information on format, prizes, or any other details). Of the other nine stores, five said they weren't actually hosting a tournament, three said they hadn't heard anything about it, and one said they were postponing it because the manager was going on vacation that day. Of the stores that weren't hosting the tournament, the reasons ranged from lack of information and materials from Gamestop's corporate offices to lack of a PlayStation 2 demo kiosk to play the game. We really like the idea of in-store tournaments -- they have the potential to bring gamers together in a social setting better than anything since the death of the arcade. But Gamestop needs to get its act together before promoting a major nationwide initiative like this.
The story behind the Madden '07 tournament street poster
We've entered a new era when you start to see gaming tournaments, like the third one down in the picture, advertised on the streets. It oozes dirty Fight Club competition, where if you fail some guy might cut off your thumb as a trophy. Whatever images these signs on the highway conjure up in your mind, we're sure they aren't the idea of legitimate business and competition. Alice from Wonderland snapped this photo on the way back home from the airport. Sounded interesting ... so we called the number.First time calling the machine answered and told us that if we were calling about the Madden Tournament it was $40 in advance and $60 at the door. The message said we could go to their website, PrimeTimeGamers, to register. After going to the website we discover that shady highway sign actually hides a tournament sponsored by Gametap, TimeWarner Cable, Jackson Hewitt Tax Prep and, apparently, Electronic Arts. The tournament is part of the Ballers Club Alliance, run by "Tha Super," and are held at Nationals Sports Bar in Torrance, Calif. When we called the number again to double check some info a guy picked up the phone. After an awkward exchange he said, "I'm in the middle of a Halo tournament right now, can you call back at 9PM?"Guess we'll find out more about the mysterious highway sign and the underground tournament with high-profile sponsors later.
Watch the Metal Gear Solid tournament ... now
Did you enter GameSpot's Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops tournament? 48 players will face off against each other in Hideo Kojima's latest addition to the MGS franchise. The GameSpot editors will provide commentary and will also provide prizes during the halftime show.The "Snake Wars" begin today at 4PM PST.
Win up to $600 at Gamespot's MGS tournament
Think you're the best Snake on the web? Prove it. Gamespot is hosting Snake Wars: an exclusive subscriber-only tournament that allows you to compete for Best Buy gift certificates, valued up to $600. That could buy you a PS3!Gamespot subscribers can head over to the registration page to have a chance to enter. But, you'll have to hurry: only 48 players will be allowed to participate in this deathmatch royale.
GoW tournament is like Love and War
GamingAngels.com is hosting a Valentines Gears of War tournament for couples, aptly named Love and War. The tourney is open to two person teams, one of which has to be male and the other being female. And no you don't have to be sleeping together, female friends, cousins, or your sister will do just fine. The rounds are best out of five, random maps, and is only open to mature ages (since Gears is a M rated game). And what do you get for taking home the first place Love and War trophy? Gift certificates for food! Be sure to swing on by GamingAngels.com to read the official rules n' such. But hurry, because registration closes February 2nd.[Via TeamXbox]
