Over the weekend I attended a tournament in Orlando called Arcade Renaissance Tournament. It's a fighter tournament held annually for gamers in various fighting games. This year was no different from the last when it comes to exciting competition and spectacular comebacks. The games that were all on show were the following:
Guilty Gear AC
Street Fighter 3: Third Strike
Capcom vs SNK 2
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Tekken 6, Virtua Fighter, and KOF were unavailable due to a low entry count. I would have loved to see the Tekken players, but it's so new in the states not many people are confident to play it in tournament play. The biggest crowd this year was no surprise, SSBB had a total of 48 people enter in the brackets. Guilty Gear was second with 27. And, CvS2 with 18 coming in third.
Smash Bros.- All eyes were on Super Smash Brawl making its first appearance at Arcade Renaissance.
Super Smash Bros. is a great money maker for tournaments. The entry for Smash alone paid for the rooms fee for the hotel. The Smash community is so different from the rest of the fighting games. The crowd is a bit more docile and quiet when playing. It took people from the MvC2 bunch to bring cheering and applauding for the winners and losers (Oh boy, the MvC2 crowd booed the losers, lol). Personally, I find watching Smash really boring, and most people there did too, but the hype crowd really kept us in the moment.
Whenever I know Guilty Gear is being held at some event, I always expect some crazy ish to happen. This was no different. GG has the weirdest crowd of people I have ever meet in my life. It's like Walt Disney himself draw these characters, and send them off to Guilty Gear events. There were heated discussion over pancakes vs. waffles...Seriously, a fight almost broke out due to some disagreement about pancakes. However, GG event was pretty exciting. Turns out to be on of my personally favorites throughout the tournament.
Guilty Gear - Hate'em or Love'em, these guys are passionate about their game. I just wish they use deodorant before they leave the house...
CvS2- Intense...Very Intense.
3S - Big games for the Big Screen. One of the best battles in the whole event was in Street Fighter 3.
Finally, MvC2, 3S, and rest of the fighters all had their share of glory during the long exhausted day. Overall, a great day and people enjoy themselves. People from, Tampa, Maimi, Tallahassee and many other places around Florida came to this event. It's always great to see gamers come together and socialize with each other in person. Nothing against online, but meeting friends and getting tips on games in person is best for any community of gaming. Next fighting event I plan on attending is Ashburn, VA on May 23rd. The legendary Justin Wong, and many other veterans of tournament fighting will be there. Then after that it's EVO, BABY!!!!! Missed last year due to work, but this year I request those days off way in advance. I luv Vegas...Anyways, if you ever want to come to Arcade Renaissance please visit http://forums.shoryuken.com/ and look for the section tournaments and events. there you can look for Orlando tournaments or even tournaments near your hometown. Peace!!!