Please to be finding enclosed some form of rule book for Gold Rush Aperture. No, it’s not meant to make sense.

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Format

Seeding round, then streamlined round-robin, and finally into single-elimination knock-out if we can be bothered.

Match Rules

Seeding round

Competitors will be offered a choice of at least 2 songs. At least one song shall be from ITG 1, ITG 2 or ITG Rebirth. At least one song shall be from DDR, and have similar difficulties for easy, medium and hard (and possibly expert too). Competitors get to choose both the song and the difficulty level that they play at the same time.

Players will then be grouped into groups of 4 (switching to groups of 3-5 if necessary) based on their seeding result. Players will be asked to replay the seeding song if it deemed they picked a difficulty level substantially outside their difficulty range.

Players placed in the highest group(s) will automatically be be in the highest range of seeds. Players not placed within this group cannot suddenly spring to the top. It’s a bit hard to explain that without being really waffly, but there is a serious point in there somewhere.

Round-robin phase

Players will be randomly ordered within the group. Each player will pick any song of their choice, but not a difficulty level. Each player in the group will play every other player’s song choice on the difficulty level of their choice. For the first song, the playing order is determined by the random order. For subsequent songs, the playing order is determined by the ranking of the previous song, with the person choosing the song always playing in the first pair.

Players are ranked as follows:

1. All passing scores beat all failing scores, regardless of score.
2. All passes of a higher difficulty level beat all passes of a lower difficulty level, regardless of score.
3. All passes of the same difficulty level are ranked by score. If this is equal, then they are ranked by Fantastic count, then by Excellent count, and so on.
4. All fails are ranked by score, regardless of the difficulty level at which the song was failed. Fails with equal scores are considered tied.

Example: A group of four players (A, B, C, D). A chooses a song and will play first with B, followed by C and D. A passes with 90% on medium, B fails with 35% on expert. C passes with 85% on hard, D fails with 42% on hard. C “wins” the song, as they had the highest difficulty pass. A is second, as they had the other pass. D finishes above B, because D’s score was higher than B’s despite B picking a harder difficulty level. The next song will be B’s choice, and they will play with C (the previous winner). A and D will play as the second pairing.

After all songs have been played by all players, each player’s scores are turned into a match. For groups of 4, this is a best of 4 match, and so ties are possible. The ranking within the group then determines the seeding for the next phase, split by firstly match wins, then results in matches, then by game percentage, then by sudden-death.

Example 1: Suppose the results of three songs for A, B, C are:

Song 1: A 90%, B 80%, C 70%.
Song 2: A 90%, B 95%, C 70%.
Song 3: A 90%, B 95%, C 98%.

A loses to B. A beats C 2-1. B beats C 3-0. B wins the group with two “wins”, A is second with a 1-1 record, and C is bottom with 2 losses. This is despite each player winning their own song.

Example 2: For the next group, the results for D, E, F, G are:

Song 1: D 55% exp, E 65% hard, F 0% fail, G 0% fail.
Song 2: D 95%, E 90%, F 85%, G 80%.
Song 3: D 95%, E 75%, F 80%, G 80% but with more fantastics than F.
Song 4: D 95%, E 90%, F 92%, G 80%.

D beats each player 4-0, as their pass on Song 1 was at a higher level than E. E ties with F 2-2, but beats G 3-1. F beats G 2½-1½. D clearly wins the group, and G is clearly bottom. E and F each have records of one win, one draw, one loss. They can’t be split in their individual match, but song win-loss record is better E is ranked above F. If F had got a “better” fail on Song 1, then E and F would have a single random song to decide ranking. And again, this would be at the difficulty level of each player’s own choice.

For a group of 3, this will take 6 turns to complete. For groups of 4, this increases to 10 turns, and groups of 5 need 15 songs.

KO Phase

KO phase would be a simple best-of-3, and seedings would be generated by groups. Highest seedings would be to the “highest” groups, with the lower seedings going to lower-ranked groups. To be honest, once we know that it (doesn’t) work, we’ll only carry this as far as people can be bothered as the concept will be (dis)proven.

Prizes

There is no prize fund. Let me retype that in bold emphasised text just in case you missed it. There is no prize fund. If all you care about is making money from the tournament, this isn’t really the day out for you. Come back in September-ish when our next tournament is on.

Expected effect on participation

You can compare the below with the <a href=”http://www.arceast.com/gold-rush/tournaments/70-16man-entry-participation.html”>guide for participation in various ranking systems</a>.

Each player is guaranteed at least 5 songs, including 2 of their own choice. This compares favourably with seeding-single elimination (only a guarantee of 3 songs), but is fewer than a lot of other formats.

Using 16 players as a basis for 4 groups of 4, the expected effect of matches is as follows:

8 players get 1 seeding song + 3 group songs + 1 KO song (minimum 6 songs, estimated 6.5 songs, maximum 7 songs)
4 players get 1 seeding song + 3 group songs + 2 KO songs (8/9/10 songs)
4 players get 1 seeding song + 3 group songs + 4 KO songs (12/14/16 songs)

In terms of running time, the worst case scenario is 80 songs (5:20, which would even allow for a complete lunch break). The best case scenario is 68 song (4:32), which makes the duration comfortably predictable.

In terms of time spread, the format is quite close to a seeding-group-top2 format. Where I hope this format will excel is in doubles. This makes groups of 3 and 5 much more viable (as only one person can play at a time, there isn’t the “wastage” that occurs with only one person playing singles.

The next machine dance tournament will take place on April 2nd 2011. And… it’s not even a tournament. Confused? Not as much as we are.

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Gold Rush Aperture

Date: April 2nd 2011
Location: Gold Rush, Marine Parade, Great Yarmouth
Time: 10:30am – whenever people decide they want to go home, which hopefully will be some time later than 10:31am
Entry Fee: Haven’t decided yet, certainly not more than four pounds but probably a couple of quid to cover the costs of the freeplay bit, and then pay-as-you-play
Competition Rules: I’ll make them up as I go along

Entry criteria: You must be able to play the game

Prize fund: None

Gold Rush Aperture is the fifth event to be hosted on the machine at Gold Rush, and it’s the first “Tournameet”. The idea: you play and have fun and take it as seriously as you want, we run a tournament with a format so radical it will probably be an epic disaster. But that’s half the point.

Aim of the day for “competitiors”

We would like as many people as possible with as many skill levels as possible to turn up and join in a “competition”, meet some people and have fun on our machine. After the competition has ended, we’d like you to carry on playing. That’s it. Heck, we might even throw in some non-video game stuff into the day as well. It’s about having a bit of fun in Great Yarmouth (which considering it’s April I’m doing my best to sell…)

Aim of the day for “organisers”

arceast would like to try a very interesting tournament format for our next competition in September/October. However, it could do with a bit of real-life testing. And that needs people. So help us out, please. Otherwise you’ll leave poor Welly looking like a right muppet when the thing goes wrong on serious day.

Rules

Here are the current rules. They are quite close to final, not that they’re particularly binding, but barely anyone reads them anyway. Please have a look at them, I tried my best to make them interesting.

Here at arceast, we don’t like doing single-elimination tournaments much. Sure, it’s nice and dramatic, but it often means a long journey for little action. And whilst that may be great if you can disappear off in half an hour to do something else, it rather defeats the whole participation objective.

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Each of the scenarios below makes the following assumptions (unless specified otherwise):

1. Each tournament has 16 players.
2. A seeding match lasts 1 song.
3. Non-seeding matches are best of 3.
4. Each result is just as likely. Therefore a best of 3 match lasts 2½ songs, as it assumes that a 2-0 win is just as likely as a 2-1 win.
5. A song takes 4 minutes to do. This might sound like a lot, but it allows a minute of head-scratching beforehand, two minutes of stomping, and a minute of organiser faffing.
6. There is always a third/fourth play-off in knockouts.

Each format is summarised as follows:

• Expected duration: how long the tournament is most likely to take
• Lower and upper bounds: how long the tournament could take in the best and worst case scenarios
• Play split: how many songs and matches each player would get, expressed as minimum/estimated/maximum number of songs.
• Advantages and disadvantages of the format
• Anything else noteworthy

Seeding into single-elimination KO

Expected duration: 48 songs in 3:12 (8 seeding songs, 8*2.5=20 last 16 songs, 4*2.5=10 quarter-final songs, 2*2.5 semi-final songs, 2.5 songs for 3rd, 2.5 songs for 1st)

Lower/upper bounds: 40 songs in 2:40 (8 seeding songs, then 32 KO songs) or 56 songs in 3:42 (8 seeding songs, then 48 KO songs)

Play split: 8 players get 1 song + 1 KO match (3/3.5/4 songs); 4 players get 1 song + 2 KO matches (5/6/7 songs);, 4 players get 1 song + 4 KO matches (9/11/13 songs).

Advantages: Easy to run, easy to understand.

Disadvantages: There’s a huge imbalance between the amount of playtime for the bottom half and the top four.

Notes: 32/40/48 songs is the spread for a single-elimination KO, which I’ll use a lot later.

Seeding into double-elimination KO

Expected duration: 81.75 songs in 5:27 (8 seeding songs; 37.5 single-elimination KO songs (due to no 3rd/4th place necessary); 2 sets of 4 loser QFs = 2*4*2.5=20 songs, 2 sets of 2 loser SFs = 2*2*2.5=10 songs, 2 sets of 2 loser finals = 2*1*2.5=5 songs, 1 winner v loser match = 2.5 songs, 1 possible rematch = 1.25 songs).

Lower/upper bounds: 66 songs in 4:24 (8 seeding songs, 30 single-elimination KO songs; 16 songs for loser QFs, 8 for loser SFs, 4 for loser finals, no rematch) or 98 songs in 6:32 (8 seeding songs, 45 KO songs, 24 loser QFs, 12 loser SFs, 6 loser Finals, plus a rematch of 3 songs.

Play split: Volatile due to extra matches in loser bracket. Weakest 4 players get 1 song + 2 KO matches (5/6/7 songs). Winner gets at least 1 song + 5 KO matches (11/13.5/16 songs) if no final rematch needed. Very possible some people play more than the winner does.

Advantages: Prevents one bad match ending the tournament.

Disadvantages: Long. Complicated. Tournament much longer and more complicated if persons 17 and 18 enter.

Notes: Tried this once with about 24 people and one dance machine. Nearly lost the will to live.

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Seeding, group phase, top 2 to KO phase

Expected duration: 80 songs in 5:20 (8 seeding; 4 groups of 6 matches = 4*6*2.5=60 songs; 20 songs for 8-man KO).

Lower/upper bounds: 64 songs in 4:16 (8 seeding, 4*12=48 group phase, 16 KO phase) or 96 songs in 6:24 (8 seeding, 4*18=72 group phase, 24 KO phase).

Play split: 8 players get 1 song + 3 group matches (7/8.5/10 songs); 4 players get 1 song + 3 group matches + 1 KO match (9/11/13 songs); 4 players get 1 song + 3 group matches + 3 KO matches (13/16/19 songs).

Advantages: All players get a decent number of songs.

Disadvantages: Gets complicated with 17-19 players as groups of 5 needed which can nearly double the group time.

Notes: Losers can also have their own bracket, as in Gold Rush Revolution. This adds 16/20/24 songs (1:04/1:20/1:36) to the tournament. Better than double-elimination in most ways for 2/4/8/16/32 etc fields.

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Modified Swiss

Expected duration: 100 songs in 6:40 (4 rounds of 8 matches = 4*8*2.5=80 songs; 20 songs for 8-man KO).

Lower/upper bounds: 80 songs in 5:20 (4*8*2=64 songs; 16 songs for 8-man KO) or 120 songs in 8:00 (4*8*3=96 songs; 24 songs for 8-man KO).

Play split: 8 players get 4 group matches (8/10/12 songs); 4 players get 4 group matches + 1 KO match (10/12.5/15 songs); 4 players get 4 group matches + 3 KO matches (14/17.5/21 songs).

Advantages: No seeding round (i.e. everyone getting bored of hearing the same song 8 times in a row). Everyone gets lots of songs, increasingly with players of their own ability. Two losses can still be enough to win the tournament.

Disadvantages: Difficult to follow, nightmare to manage without a computer. Not designed for events with one “table”!

Notes: Similar format to how Gold Rush +1 worked, except all went through to knockout. 2^n+1 players increases the time over 2^n players by a factor of about (n+2)/(n+1), for example 17 players take about 20% longer than 16, 33 players increases the already epic schedule by about 17%.

Tournament 3: missing pens, reduced options and a very bizarre win condition. Read on…

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Date: Saturday May 15th, 2010

Quick links to:
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
KO Phase
Results

Tournament Synopsis

A year on from MAY-hem saw a tournament with the potential for even more drama than its predecessor. +1, with +1 rule per round, was set to bring a whole new perspective to the meaning “win condition”.

Three quarters of the field from the previous tournament returned, although Wellian was sitting it out in preference to being a geek in the corner. The top “seed” was consequently previous runner-up Kikojui. Also returning for a third attempt at victory were Kramm and Dancing_Ninja, while Flash_UK and Genesis also added to the East Anglian contingent having a second attempt at victory.

Making a return trip from the south coast was Realathlete. He and Coaster_Crazy were returning to Gold Rush after taking part in Revolution nearly two years ago. Could they repeat their performances of last time and usurp the locals?

The other two players in the pack saw a relatively new player in Rhea making her tournament debut, whilst freestyler Captain Charisma was making the transition from the five-panel game to four panels.

Aside from being different in its use of the Swiss format, none of the competitors knew what the additional rules were, which immediately disqualified Wellian as he know what they were.

Round 1

Round 1 was drawn to be the dreadfully-titled “The Square Opposite Go”, revealed to be a reference to Monopoly’s Free Parking square. No additional rules applied, which allowed people to get into the tournament sensibly given the fascinating match-ups on offer.

The big match featured the big guns immediately, with Realathlete drawing Coaster_Crazy. It also saw the battle of the girls in Rhea and Genesis and the chance for Dancing_Ninja (3rd at MAY-hem) and Kramm (4th) to get a good early win.

The opening match saw Captain Charisma get thrown in at the deep end against Kikojui. Despite putting up a good fight on Can’t Stop Fallin’ in Love (Speed Mix), Kikojui powered away with a 2-0 win on Mongolian Grill. Genesis also notched up a 2-0 with a double on Gold Rush and Let’s Get Loud.

The big guns then traded songs, winning their picks of Disconnected Mobius and The Promised Land. The random song ended up being one of Wellian’s own files, although The Beauty of Silence is a somewhat more serious file than I am the music man. Despite a sight-read of 97.01%, RealAthlete’s 98.46% gave him a 2-1 win and left Coaster_Crazy with the consolation of a good tie-breaker score.

Last match saw Dancing_Ninja lose out on Pademonium hard, and then get beaten by just 0.10% on Tough Enough for a 0-2 start, leaving Wellian to scribble a few notes before joining Flash for a bit of fun between rounds.

Round 2

Round 2 saw the machine temporarily relocate up north. “Yorkshire DDR”, complete with awful attempt at an explanation in accent, saw the enforced modifiers 1x and Overhead, and a difficulty limit of 9. Hard luck to those who don’t like low speeds!

Genesis, who generally plays at lower speeds, was up against Kikojui first. In the spirit of the game, Kikojui picked out the horrendous vivid noteskin, and consequently lost both Hot Limit and the desire to have colour vision. Following up with 5th Mix classics Matsuri Japan and Afronova Primeval, a 2-1 win put him top of the table. Joining him on top of the table was RealAthlete, who picked out a 2-0 win over Kramm in double-quick time.

Then the first controversy. Having stolen Flash’s pick of Pink Dinosaur, Coaster_Crazy was undone by a misfiring right pad on Do It All Night. With the pad fixed over lunch, he returned to bag random song I Like To Move It for a 2-1 and get his first win on the board. Rhea then saw her pick of Your Rain as Dancing_Ninja, cleverly using boost to get some extra speed, added a 2-0 to his tally.

Round 3

At this point only two people had a perfect record, yet six were on 1-1. RealAthlete, fractionally ahead of Kikojui at this point, would attempt to define a clearer leader with the restriction of the M300 mod. The round was cryptically called “Max: 300”, although in the loosest sense of the word cryptically.

With RealAthlete opening with a 98.22% on Freckles, the players then failed to register a point between them on Paranoia Respect. Kikojui then picked up a brilliant win on random song Spin Chicken to split the points, although later results would keep him in second place.

The other matches all finished 2-0, with Kramm having his third tough match of the day in losing to CoasterCrazy – featuring the bizarre yet entertaining pick of Reaf expert – Dancing_Ninja sticking two past Captain Charisma and Flash doing likewise with Genesis.

Round 4

And so to the final round, with the rule that demonstrated the tournament in its glory: “Lucky Seven”. Not content with again limiting difficulty, this time to only 7s, but the win condition for this was to get as close to 77.77% as possible.

Having already faced each other, RealAthlete and Kikojui would have to face one of the three on 6 points. The man with the long straw was Flash, who got the right to face a player on 3 points instead of the leaders.

However, having already faced Realathlete earlier in the day, CoasterCrazy had to face Kikojui in a repeat of a drawn best of 2 match from Revolution. He took the first song, Since U Been Gone, but then again got hit by pad misses in What Is Love. Radius medium would decide it, and Coaster_Crazy took himself to the top of the leaderboard with a 77.37%. Dancing_Ninja then threw a spanner in the works with a 2-0 win over Realathlete, and joined Coaster_Crazy at the top of the table.

Flash’s long straw seemed to get shorter when he picked out dangerman Kramm as his pick, but a 2-0 put him safely though. However, last match saw Captain Charisma and Rhea face off: the winner safe, the loser almost certainly out. They each won their opponent’s picks of Freeway Shuffle – where Captain Charisma produced the “best” performance of the round with 77.83 – and Cartoon Heroes, but Rhea’s win on Genie In A Bottle sent her and Genesis through and Captain Charisma out.

Knock-out Phase

Quater-finals

With just Captain Charisma and Wellian missing out on the end phase, eight people had to make their way through. Opening the quarter-finals was Dancing_Ninja, who very kindly took pity on Rhea, a player with a matter of months of experience, and promptly picked Disconnected Hyper on expert. A 97.09% on Mellow followed, one of the ladies was out.

Coaster_Crazy, meanwhile, had done all the hard work of winning the group stage and yet still had to face Kramm for a second time. He opened with a sensational 98.98% on Da Roots, but Kramm came back with his own pick of Hardcore of the North with a winning fail. This left a random song – on Hard – to decide it. It was only Chromatic Blitz, one of a handful of 11s on Hard on a machine of 1500 songs. With Coaster_Crazy having sneaked in front over the middle section, he pulled away to a 92.76%-91.08% victory.

RealAthlete by this point had already pushed out 2-stars and and three 1-stars. Not content with making it eight stars for the day on Chopstix, he then posted the first 3-star performance of the day with a 99.36% on Mouth hard and comfortably win 2-0.

This left Kikojui and the increasingly dangerous Flash_UK. Flash bagged his own pick of Candy (UFO Mix), and then shocked last year’s runner up with a 76.30% on Kikojui’s pick of Paranoia Survivor to work his way into the last four.

Semi-finals

Semi-finals time, and Dancing_Ninja and RealAthlete traded songs to their strengths (Hyper Hyper for the enduring Ninja and Hearts of Ice for the handy Athlete) to open the first semi and leave the obscure 100 Second Kitchen Battle as the random song. An unknown song for both, RealAthlete took it when he spotted the slowdown and DancingNinja didn’t. The second semi saw Coaster_Crazy comfortably beat Flash, with 97.72% on Chikara and a 98.15% on Dragostea Din Tei (English Mix), leaving Flash to prepare himself for a third-place play-off and the right to win his entry fee back.

Finals

The first song of the play-off was a close run fail of Infection, with Dancing_Ninja taking it by just under 3% despite not making it to half-way. Flash then struck back with Max 300, leaving another obscure decider in You Leave Me Alone. A star performance from Dancing_Ninja of 96.35% was enough to beat Flash’s 94.03%, and secure third place.

This left a final of Coaster_Crazy and RealAthlete, a repeat of the big match from Round 1. As before, they traded opening picks of Feels Just Like That Night (Coaster_Crazy taking his song 97.92% to 95.67%) and Unspeakable (RealAthlete hitting back with a 98.82%-98.37% victory) to leave the final song of the final match: Quickening. Hardly the most memorable of songs, yet a fitting performance for the final: both players over 99%, but Coaster_Crazy gaining revenge with a 99.36%-99.13% victory.

Full Results

Players listed on the left picked a song first.

Round 1 (No special rules)
Captain Charisma 0-2 Kikojui (Can’t Stop Fallin’ In Love (Speed Mix) [Expert] 85.10-90.38; Mongolian Grill [Expert] 0.47-81.49)
Genesis 2-0 Rhea (Gold Rush [Hard] 73.12-63.94; Let’s Get Loud [Hard] 82.82-59.85) RealAthlete 2-1 Coaster_Crazy (Disconnected Mobius [Expert] 98.97-93.88; The Promised Land [Expert] 96.79-97.04; Beauty of Silence [Hard] 98.46-97.01)
Dancing_Ninja 0-2 Kramm (Pandemonium [Hard] 28.03-34.22; Tough Enough [Expert] 88.29-88.39)

Round 2 (1x Overhead; No modifier combinations unavailable in DDR 5th Mix; Maximum Difficulty 9)
Genesis 1-2 Kikojui (Hot Limit [Hard; DDR Universe version] 67.76-58.00; Matsuri Japan [Hard] 89.93-79.95; Afronova Primeval [Hard] 78.61-82.50)
Kramm 0-2 RealAthlete (Sexy Planet (Mono Mix) [Expert] 91.05-97.15; In The Heat Of The Night [Hard] 0.07-6.89)
Flash_UK 1-2 Coaster_Crazy (Pink Dinosaur [Hard] 76.02-92.36; Do It All Night [Hard] ?-?; I Like To Move It [Hard] 80.86-93.17)
Dancing_Ninja 2-0 Rhea (Sexy Planet (Mono Mix) [Expert] 80(ish)-4.10; Your Rain (Rage Mix) [Hard] 82.36-0.00)

Round 3 (M300)
RealAthlete 1.5-1.5 Kikojui (Freckles (Sobakasu) [Hard] 98.22-91.10; Paranoia Respect [Hard] 0.00-0.00; Spin Chicken [Expert] 83.68-82.83)
Coaster_Crazy 2-0 Kramm (Birdie [Expert] 98.32-81.72; ReaF [Expert] 3.54-0.00)
Dancing_Ninja 2-0 Captain Charisma (S.A.G.A [Hard] 21.97-21.79; Sana Morette Ne Ente [Hard] 89.65-85.51)
Flash_UK 2-0 Genesis (Butterfly [Expert] 89.96-79.69; Classic Party Triathlon [Hard] 76.37-73.68)

Round 4 (Difficulty 7; target score 77.77%)
Coaster_Crazy 2-1 Kikojui (Since U Been Gone [Hard] -0.08/+0.22; What Is Love [Hard; DDR Universe 3 version] -2.78/-13.18; Radius [Medium] -0.40/-1.59)
Dancing_Ninja 2-0 RealAthlete (Test My Best [Hard] -0.17/+1.81; Mickey [Hard] -0.09/-0.67)
Flash_UK 2-0 Kramm (My Favorite Things [Hard] -0.57/-1.45; Moving Higher [Hard] -0.69/+1.48)
Rhea 2-1 Captain Charisma (Freeway Shuffle [Hard] -5.10/+0.06; Cartoon Heroes [Medium] +3.59/-8.42; Genie In A Bottle [Hard] -20.44/-77.77)

Quarter-Finals (No special rules)
Coaster-Crazy 2-1 Kramm (Da Roots (Folk Mix) [Expert] 98.98-95.94; Hardcore of the North [Expert] 12.63-31.59; Chromatic Blitz [Hard] 92.76-91.08)
Flash_UK 2-0 Kikojui (Candy (UFO Mix) [Hard] 87.489-84.41; Paranoia Survivor [Hard] 76.30-75.05)
Dancing_Ninja 2-0 Rhea (Disconnected Hyper [Expert] 82.86-15.42; Mellow [Hard] 97.09-76.44)
RealAthlete 2-0 Genesis (Chopstix [Hard] 97.30-80.89; Mouth [Hard] 99.36-87.71)

Semi-Finals (No special rules)
Flash_UK 0-2 Coaster_Crazy (Chikara [Hard] 93.76-97.72; Dragostea Din Tei (English mix) [Expert] 83.81-98.15)
Dancing_Ninja 1-2 RealAthelte (Hyper Hyper [Expert] 53.86-48.92; Hearts of Ice [Expert] 74.05-98.14; 100 Second Kitchen Battle [Hard] 90.40-95.90)

3rd Place Play-off (No special rules)
Dancing_Ninja 2-1 Flash_UK (Infection [Expert] 29.12-26.26; Max 300 [Hard] 65.61-80.89; You Leave Me Alone [Hard] 96.35-94.03)

Final (No special rules)
Coaster_Crazy 2-1 RealAthelte (Feels Just Like That Night [Expert] 97.92 – 95.67 [Expert]; Unspeakable [Expert] 98.37-98.82; Quickening [Expert] 99.36-99.13)

Final Positions

1. Coaster_Crazy
2. RealAthlete
3. Dancing_Ninja
4. Flash_UK
5. Kikojui
6. Genesis
7. Rhea
8. Kramm
9. Captain Charisma
10. Wellian

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?

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Date: Saturday August 24th, 2008

Quick links to:
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.

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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)

For some reason, we thought we’d do it all again. A switch in tournament format, a switch in sync, and a switch in the position of the cabinet. Oh, and Welly got to join in this time…

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Date: Saturday May 9th, 2009

Quick links to:
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Full Results

Tournament Synopsis

Eight players descended on Gold Rush for the second tournament on at the arcade. A new computer, new tournament structure, a new set of competitors and a new special prize for the winner. But who were these eight protagonists?

Wellian and Toraneko were looking to maintain local honour. Although both were present at Revolution, neither took part in the tournament. With “home advantage” in their favour, could they use the song list to their advantage to win the trophy?

Returning for a second crack at victory were the double-act of Kikojui and Kramm, who finished 10th and 9th at Revolution. But with both playing better and Kramm fast improving, could they be taking the trophy to North Norfolk?

Alongside them were two new faces, Aaron and Tar-Q, both also making their competitive débuts, who were also representing the North of Norfolk. Maybe these unknown quantities could provide the winner.

Does Dancing_Ninja count as yokel? maxxx_unlimited certainly doesn’t, but they had both made the journey to Great Yarmouth – maxxx from Essex – to try and break up the Norfolk party.

Round 1

The most significant thing about Swiss tournaments is the completely random first round. Unfortunately Wellian had lost his marbles (or to be more precise his pool balls) so out came the pieces of paper.

Pick of the first round matches was top of the bill Kramm v Kikojui, a repeat of the loser’s final from Revolution. Opening the billing was Kramm’s pick of Dawn Perpetual Mix, but it was Kikojui who took first blood with an 88.48%. Kramm recovered to take the reverse pick with a 96.49% on Sexy Planet Momo Mix – the highest score of the day – leaving the music wheel to pick the deciding song.

Cue Wellian’s intervention, firstly to trigger the Chance and secondly to apologise profusely for “choosing” his own file “I am the music man”. Kikojui won the match, but it was a sideshow to everyone else dancing around like embarrassing dads at a wedding.

Elsewhere in round 1 Aaron pipped Toraneko 2-1 with a random pick of Yozora no Muko, whilst Dancing_Ninja beat maxxx by the same scoreline thanks to a win on Snake Charmer. It would be Wellian who finished round 1 top of the tree however, with a 2-0 win over Tar-Q.

Round 2

The winners kicked off round 2, with Kikojui safely navigating his way past Aaron 2-0 to book his place in the final. Wellian opened up his match with a 90.48% on Xuxa expert, but Dancing_Ninja struck back with a sightread 96.36% on Whoomph!. The final match was the thoroughly awkward Can’t Help Falling In Love, which Wellian sneaked through 92.78%-92.32% to book his place in the top match at round 3.

The losers matches saw Toraneko chalk up a 2-1 win over Tar-Q and Kramm pick off maxxx 2-0 to take their records to 1-1. Kikojui led the standings from Wellian at this point.

Round 3

The winner of the Kikojui-Wellian match would win the tournament, but With four players on 1-1 records and two of those ready to move to 2-1, the loser wasn’t yet guaranteed second place.

Wellian again picked his own file – a theme for the tournament – but popped out Chronologie VIII (a One False Move clone) and led 1-0. Having seen Kramm take Wellian’s machine record for Baby Seal earlier in the day, Kikojui picked it but both players forgot to change their scroll mods. Wellian coped the better of the two, stumbling to an 88.24% and the victory.

Despite Kikojui dropping 2-1, his tiebreakers meant that he would finish in 2nd place. This was despite Dancing_Ninja and Kramm recording 2-0 wins over Toraneko and Aaron. They finished 3rd and 4th, with Aaron finishing 5th. Toraneko, however, dropped to 7th due to maxxx’s 2-0 win over Tar-Q.

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Gold Rush MAY-Hem Results

Round 1

Kramm (choosing song) 1-2 Kikojui (choosing left pad)

Dawn Perpetual Mix SH(9) 87.17-88.41
Sexy Planet Momo Mix SX(7) 96.49-94.08
I am the music man SH(8) 19.40-60.39

Toraneko (left) 1-2 Aaron

Dead End SH(9) 80.92-82.97
Days SX(8) 85.78-80.04
Yozora no muko SH(8) 76.10-87.91

maxxx_unlimited (left) 1-2 Dancing_Ninja

Feels Just Like That Night SX(11) 17.06-75.01
Pluto SH(9) 78.22-9.66
Snake Charmer SH(8) 87.81-92.68

Wellian (right) 2-0 Tar-Q

Misirlou Hyper Mix SH(9) 93.40-78.11
Max 300 SH(10) 73.09-19.92

Round 2

Aaron (left) 0-2 Kikojui

Cartoon Heroes Speedy Mix SH(9) 27.57-88.42
Fly Away (ITG3) SX(9) 81.78-89.86

Dancing_Ninja (song) 1-2 Wellian (left)

Xuxa SX(11) 70.28-90.48
Whoomph! (there it is) SH(7) 96.36-93.42
Can’t Help Falling In Love SH(7) 92.32-92.78

Tar-Q (left) 1-2 Toraneko

Hogism SH(7) 82.28-82.81
Paranoia Survivor SH(10) 13.30-13.22
Night In Motion SH(8) 83.45-92.48

maxxx_unlimited (left) 0-2 Kramm

Hand of Time SX(10) 29.31-85.36
Sakura SH(10) 66.97-80.53

Round 3

Kikojui (left) 0-2 Wellian

Chronologie VIII SX(10) 76.36-86.04
Baby Seal SX(9) 84.74-88.24

Kramm (left) 2-0 Aaron

Drifting Away (ITG1) SX(9) ?-?
Lemmings on the Run SX(9) 80.93-17.03

Toraneko (left) 0-2 Dancing_Ninja

Hands Up SX(11) 28.13-76.35
Flying High SH(8) 93.24-88.83

maxxx_unlimited (left) 2-0 Tar-Q

Saints Go Marching SH(9) ?-?
Healing Vision Angelic Mix SH(9) 89.89-5.46

Final Rankings

1st Wellian (Prizes: Milk Bottle of Intrinsic Awesomeness, baby seal, Toraneko)
2nd Kikojui (£50, one metric pint of cherry Onken)
3rd Dancing_Ninja (£30, bag of Cadbury’s Buttons)
4th Kramm (£20, gashapon of Boo I bought at Sainsbury’s at the last minute) 5th Aaron (one litre of Lucozade Energy Original)
6th maxxx_unlimited (230g bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk)
7th Toraneko (Wellian)
8th Tar-Q (Wooden Spoon of Last Place Consolation, bag of Haribo)