The first tournament, a 13-man round robin extravaganza. A machine hosting its first tournament, an organiser with no voice, and a bunch of players with a 200-mile drive home: what could go wrong?
Date: Saturday August 24th, 2008
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Qualification
Blue Group
Red Group
Green Group
Yellow Group
Loser Bracket
Quarter-Finals
Semi-Finals
Finals
Full Results
Tournament Synopsis
13 players descended to Great Yarmouth for Gold Rush’s first machine dance tournament. The field was led by a strong contingent from Portsmouth, but there was an equally large group from Norfolk hoping to hold up local honour.
At stake was a prize pool of £100, chocolate, ice cream tub lids and Wellian’s reputation as a tournament organiser, the latter not being helped by a bout of glandular fever and no voice.
Qualification
With Ghosts from DDR MAX being chosen as the seeding song, the seeding round opened up with Ross posting a 94.41, which would eventually see him sixth. Stardragon followed up two pairings later to head the boards with a non-arbitrated 96.10. Shortly afterwards, Wildfireskunk and Maxx Storm posted 97.66 and 97.53, but this was overtaken by MCW next pairing (98.70) and he became top seed.
For the locals, honours were led by veteran Mental_Mark, who was tenth with 84.15. This placed him just ahead of Kikojiu, who knocked up 84.15.
Blue Group
The three-man group of MCW, Chris and Dean was straightforward enough to sort out, with the top seed running through three 96+ scores and a 95.96 to waltz to the top of the group. Chris also picked up two wins to secure his place in the knockout phase.
Red Group
A four-man group featuring the European champion had drama that would have happily graced that tournament. After Maxx Storm had easily beaten Mark 2-0 with a pair of 96+ scores, Kikojiu managed to steal a point from 6th placed Ross by forcing a fail on Max 300 Super Max-Me Mix Oni. However, with Maxx Storm then taking two points off Kikojiu and Ross bagging a win against Mark, Ross would be able to secure his own destiny with a point of MaxxStorm. With an inspirational pick of Stop & Go Expert, he took the point he needed to claim a draw and reserve his place in the last eight. However, Mark claimed his first point of the tournament with a win on Xepher Oni, which would have been enough to prevent Kikojiu’s progress anyway.
Green Group
This group lumped Kaku in with Portsmouth duo Wildfireskunk and black_sun_rise, and he split the pair of them. Wildfireskunk topped the group after a quartet of 96+ scores, whilst Kaku picked up the points he needed to move through to the last 8.
Yellow Group
What the Blue Group provided in drama the Yellow Group provided in controversy. Stardragon and Realathlete took two wins out of two with high-scoring wins over Mental Mark and Dancing_Ninja. Whilst Mark was picking up two points two secure third in the group, Stardragon and and Realathlete provided the third 1-1 draw in the group phases, and by far the most critical.
With nothing to separate them, the pair were forced to a Chance song, which Realathlete took with exactly 96.00%, and thus forced Stardragon into a match with one of the group winners.
Loser’s Bracket
Quarter-Finals
With enough time to give those outside the top 8 their own tournament, a couple of eliminators were need to turn six into four. It was the two from the Yellow Group who fell by the wayside, with Red group counterparts Mark (2-1 v Mental Mark) and Kikojiu (2-0 v Dancing Ninja) moving forward.
Semi-Finals
In a battle of brothers, it took a win on Stargate Heaven to give Mark a a passage to a final against Kikojiu, who comfortably beat black_sun_rise 2-0
Finals
With black_sun_rise beating Dean 2-0 to claim 11th place, it was left for master against teacher in Kikojiu and Mark to repeat their earlier battle. Again the match went to 1-1, and faced with the awkward prospect of American Idiot as the chance song Mark handled the file better and finished as top local player in 9th.
Winner’s Bracket
Quarter-Finals
With three of the top four seeds winning their groups, it was unfortunate that the only one who didn’t had to face Maxx Storm. But this was the prospect Stardragon faced, and like Kaku, Ross and Chris before him lost 2-0 and saw Maxx Storm join MCW, Realathlete and Wildfireskunk.
Semi-Finals
With Portsmouth guaranteed a place in the final, MCW and Realathlete had local bragging rights to consider. This match saw four songs from ITG3 pop up, and both players won their picks to leave Hearts of Ice via chance to separate them. Despite a number of dropped holds in MCW’s 96.54, recalcs wouldn’t be enough to deny Realthlete after a 98.40.
In the second semi, Wildfireskunk managed to take one song off Maxx Storm with a pick on the nasty Dreams to Nightmare Hard, but a 97.02 on ! Expert was the highlight of a 3-1 win for Maxx Storm.
Minor final
As had been the case with his semi, MCW saw him and his opponent win each of their two picks on ITG songs. The curveball that followed was the Chance song: old DDR classic Tsugaru. A 97.45 was enough for the top seed to overcome Wildfireskunk and take 3rd place.
Grand final
Possibly worn out by his semi-final exertions, Realathlete lost his first pick of Dance Vibrations and then suffered during ITG2’s Destiny. After trying another ITG3 song in Virtual Emotion, again Maxx Storm was equal to the task and he wrapped up a 3-0 win, all three of his scores again in the 96+ bracket.
To the victor, Maxx Storm, the spoils and the ice cream tub lid. To the losers, the honour of competing. And to the machine, a decent attempt at a first tournament in Gold Rush.
Gold Rush Revolution Results
Seeding Round (Ghosts (Vincent de Moor Remix), Hard)
Results
Ross 94.41 Dancing_Ninja 75.84
Kikojui 84.15 Dean 80.25
black_sun_rise 86.68 Stardragon 96.10
Chris 90.38 Mark 82.92
Wildfireskunk 97.66 Maxx Storm 97.53
MCW 98.70 Kaku 91.75
Realathlete 96.94 Mental Mark 84.48
Rankings
(1) MCW 98.70
(2) Wildfireskunk 97.66
(3) Maxx Storm 97.53
(4) Stardragon 96.10*
(5) Realathlete 96.94
(6) Ross 94.41
(7) Kaku 91.75
(8) Chris 90.38*
(9) black_sun_rise 86.68
(10) Mental Mark 84.48
(11) Kikojui 84.15
(12) Mark 82.92
(13) Dean 80.25
(14) Dancing_Ninja 75.84
*Stardragon claimed 1 pad miss, taking his score to -41, which beat Realathlete’s -44. In any case they were both placed in the Yellow group. Chris also clamed a pad miss, but this didn’t affect the rankings in any way.
Blue Group
Rankings
MCW 6pts
Chris 4pts
Dean 2pts
Results
MCW (choosing to take first song pick) beat Chris (choosing the right pad) 2-0 (Lemmings on the Run Expert 97.42-90.68, Misirlou -Hyper Mix- Expert 97.16-84.30)
Chris (song) beat Dean (right) 2-0 (Kecak Hard 91.72-64.02, Monolith Hard 93.38-59.91)
MCW (right) beat Dean 2-0 (Sakura Hard (10) 96.51-66.08, Online Expert 95.96-73.59)
Red Group
Rankings
Maxx Storm 5pts
Ross 4pts
Kikojiu 2pts
Mark 1pt
Results
Maxx Storm (right) beat Mark 2-0 (Pandemonium Medium 97.76-84.36, Drifting Away Expert 96.78-75.43)
Ross (song) drew with Kikojui (left?) 1-1 (Un Deux Trois Hard 97.57-90.71, Max 300 Super Max-Me Mix Expert 23.74f-76.34)
Maxx Storm (right) beat Kikojui 2-0 (Vertex Hard 95.71-64.18, Lipstick Kiss Expert 94.48-81.71)
Ross (song) beat Mark (right) 2-0 (Da Roots Expert 97.80-86.??, Paranoia Survivor Hard 84-82-72.64)
Maxx Storm (?) drew with Ross 1-1 (Stop & Go Expert 88.19-91.04, Out of the Dark Expert 96.45-73.26)
Kikojui (?) drew with Mark 1-1 (Zodiac Expert 85.21-71.08, Xepher Expert (10) 77.24-82.60)
Green Group
Rankings
Wildfireskunk 6pts
Kaku 4pts
black_sun_rise 2pts
Results
Wildfireskunk (?) beat Kaku 2-0 (Stargate Heaven 98.32-94.92, Zodiac Expert 96.44-91.08)
Kaku (song) beat black_sun_rise (right) 2-0 (Freckles-Sobakasu (KCP Re-Edit) 94.66-90.85, Love is Orange Expert (8) 92.23-80.35)
Wildfireskunk (song) beat black_sun_rise (right) 2-0 (Spaceman Expert 97.78-69.62, Mouth Hard 97.93-91.10)
Yellow Group
Rankings
Realathlete 5pts*
Stardragon 5pts
Mental Mark 2pts
Dancing_Ninja 0pts
*Stardragon won coin toss (heads) and chose left pad for chance song. Stardragon lost to Realathlete 0-1 (The Last Kiss Expert 84.64-96.00)
Results
Stardragon (song) beat Mental Mark 2-0 (Himawari Hard 98.49-92.36, AA Hard 97.43-77.89)
Realathlete (left) beat Dancing_Ninja 2-0 (B4U Hard 97.90-85.10, Birdie expert 97.68-78.43)
Stardragon (left) beat Dancing_Ninja 2-0 (Kind Lady Hard 97.13-84.55, Crash Hard 97.91-85.97)
Realathlete (song) beat Mental Mark (left) 2-0 (Hand of Time Expert 88.37-75.44, Freckles-Sobakasu (KCP Re-edit) Hard 98.46-93.74)
Stardragon (song) drew with Realathlete (left) 1-1 (Tribal Style Expert 96.08-94.84, Hearts of Ice Expert 91.79-94.63)
Mental Mark (left) beat Dancing_Ninja 2-0 (Doll Hard (8) 90.37-87.68, Paranoia -Respect- Hard 50.19f-5.86f)
Loser’s Bracket
Quarter-Finals
Mental Mark (song) lost to Mark (left) 1-2 (Hasse Mich Hard 67.64-61.11, Pandemonium Hard 24.10f-30.58f, Exotica (ITG3 OG version) Expert 19.27f-74.31)
Kikojui (left) beat Dancing_Ninja 2-0 (Dead End Hard 75.95-62.29, Paranoia Survivor Max Expert 54.91-6.63f)
Semi-Finals
Dean (right) lost to Mark 1-2 (Paranoia Evolution Hard 86.34-84.36, Monolith Hard 64.75-68.36, Stargate Heaven Hard 80.69-88.24)
black_sun_rise (right) lost to Kikojui 0-2 (Vertex Expert 7.29f-16.67f, Tsugaru Hard 68.48-80.53)
11-12th place play-off
black_sun_rise (right) beat Dean 2-0 (A Hard (8) 82.65-7?.??, We Know What To Do Expert 83.9?-73.91)
9-10th place play-off
Kikojui (right) lost to Mark 1-2 (Can’t Stop Fallin’ In Love Speed Mix 81.85-81.95, Robotix Hard 84.44-80.22, American Idiot Expert 72.00-69.76)
Winner’s Bracket
Quarter-Finals
MCW (song) beat Kaku (right) 2-0 (Disconnected Disco Expert 98.05-87.53, Bag Hard 95.81-90.99)
Realathlete (right) beat Ross 2-0 (My Favourite Game (ITG1) Expert 94.19-92.34, Queen of Light Expert 98.07-63.17f)
Wildfireskunk (song) beat Chris (left) 2-0 (Soapy Bubble Expert 96.20-58.02f, Do What U Wanna Do Expert 94.38-90.50)
Maxx Storm (left) beat Stardragon 2-0 (Dawn Perpetual Mix Expert 97.49-94.50, Utopia Expert 97.72-87.78)
Semi-Finals
MCW (right) lost to Realathlete 2-3 (Dawn Expert 94.89-96.31, Dreams to Nightmare Hard 93.95-74.71, Riders Unite Expert 97.72-98.23, Stop & Go Expert 94.76-88.45, Hearts of Ice Expert 96.54-98.40)
Wildfireskunk (right) lost to Maxx Storm 1-3 (Vertex Expert 94.32-95.52, Dreams to Nightmare 93.65-84.98, ! Expert 89.93-97.02, Sun Son Sunday (Orange Mix) Expert 91.68-93.40)
3rd-4th place play-off
MCW (left) beat Wildfireskunk 3-2 (Hardcore Symphony 14.88f-92.21, Smells Like A Chocolate Hard 96.30-95.67, Summer Speedy Mix Expert 29.39f-51.63f, Dawn Perpetual Mix 98.89-97.09, Tsugaru Hard 97.45-96.71)
Final
Realathlete (song) lost to Maxx Storm (left) 0-3 (Dance Vibrations Expert 97.44-94.54, Destiny (ITG2) Expert 0.00f-97.56, Virtual Emotion Hard 92.92-96.28)
Final Rankings
1st Maxx Storm (£50, GRR Chocolate Trophy, 1st Place Ice Cream Tub Lid)
2nd Realathlete (£25)
3rd MCW (£15)
4th Wildfireskunk (£10)