UltimateMK.com will be hosting UMK3, and possibly MKII tournaments at Summer Jam this year. Mostly like MKII will take place on Saturday as a free side game (or at most a $3 entry fee), and if we have time, maybe a free PSX MK Trilogy Tournament, but that’s just an afterthought for now. Big thanks to Big E, who invites to all the majors he runs and we try to be there as often as we can to ensure a smooth tournament with all the necessary tools is possible for the dedicated players who turn out.
UMK3 will be hosted on Sunday and at the very least the top 3 will be streamed. I’m hoping we can get the semis for at least the losers streamed as well, but we’ll take the Winners Losers and Grand Finals. It will be played on MAME, and projected on our own smaller setup (50″ on the wall) for casuals if there there is room, otherwise, it’ll be run on a TV.
We will supply at least 5 different dedicated UMK3 arcade sticks based on our personal inventory, and at least 2 PSX gamepads. Remember, gamepads are very annoying to configure over and over in MAME when someone wants their shoulder buttons a certain way, so please be prepared to play on a specific configuration. We will try to get that squared away if possible early on, so if you have a specific gamepad you wish to play on that you will use for other games, we will need to configure it and make an additional setup for you. It might be best to try what we supply first and see if it works for you.
Right now, for UMK3 we have at least 16 players expected, with more to come so we’re looking at:
UMK3:
1. Shock
2. 9.95
3. Summoning
4. iloveu
5. AC1984
6. SweetJohnnyCage
7. LI MAverick
8. DarkRob
9. Comeback Kyle
10. Julian
11. DreemerNJ
12. BlueIX
13. Kona
14. Flare
15. Steve N.
16. Al Dagod
17. JusDave
18. Malevolencia
19. Juggneetto
20. REO
21. MRIGOTBASS
22. Sans Power
23.
24.
If this list holds, we’ll most likely exceed 20 with additional players. If any players are missing from the “likely to be there” list, let me know. If the tournament reaches 32 players, Eric will throw in another $50 to the pot.
We are planning on doing some more casuals on Sunday July 11th, with me, Phil, Rob, and Simon. Hopefully we can perfect the streaming method this time. The time I’m looking at to start no later than 8PM EST and run til midnight the latest. Since we have all day to set up, we should be able to get things started earlier. It will probably be the last time we use ustream before we move to Justintv.
Approximate start time is 8PM. Shock, 9.95, Dark Rob and LIMaverick represent some more stream testing for UMK3. We’re going to attempt to do direct video feed with a mic or webcam tonight on the players.
It’s looking a lot better. I’m liking sweeps, uppercuts, the jabs, canceling, juggling. Mileena’s roll hits normally from a distance it seems, but the flip it makes them do is like Rain’s MKT Lightning, which is weird, and for some reason they don’t flip when getting hit by the Forceballs, which again I don’t understand. In fact, I don’t know if the Forceballs will be as dominant as they were in UMK3, gotta see more. Sub’s slide making them flip and having juggling properties similar to whatever game that was in previously is a good add for him. Scorp looks to have possibly the forward teleport, air throw definitely, but that stupid ass overhead pop up. If that can’t be blocked low, I’ll say fine, but smashing someone down like a frigging basketball is idiotic. Cage’s counter move looks good, and he gets a jab juggle to flip kick after. XRay supers seem interesting for now. Glad to see a lot of old special moves return like the Ground Freeze, Scissor Takedown, air throws, etc. Not a whole lot of blocking displayed, but it is in there and it looks like the character actually responds to the contact of the hits, where as in the previous games they were plagued by poor collision response during blocking.
That’s it for now, I’ll have more thoughts as I watch more.
1. Joe “iloveu” Ciaramelli
2. Shock
3. AC1984
4. Chin
5. John “SweetJohnnyCage” Gallagher
5. Sci cvs2
7. Alex “blueNINE” Smith
7. Rob “Dark Rob” Schillaci
9. Nose
9. Oscar Camarena
9. Seas of Cheese
13. Jeron “Hiro” Greyson (EMP)
ECT2 was the best competitive fighting game experience I’ve had so far in the 9 years or so I’ve been involved. I have played in many different tournament games but everyone know the game I play is UMK3. The community finally got to be represented and treated like a real game. Fortunately we had LI Joe in the finals to get some real hype going and the watchers interested. Always a pleasure. Congrats to Simon on placing second. You are ever improving your game.
We have a great crew now working to keep UMK3 coming to tournaments regardless of the turnouts and outcomes. 9.95, Summoning and Dark Rob are all locals who are heavily involved in various aspects whether it’s supply equipment, running the brackets, etc. We’re very glad to have players who host major tournaments, like John, Joe, and Big E and support the UMK3 scene continually.
I was able to do two interviews this weekend about the UMK3 scene and we really appreciate that kind of interest coming out of random fighting game fans. As always, there were a number of onlookers during casuals and the opening brackets who gave uninformed sideline criticism of the game, but we’re use to that. That important thing is, there were far more onlookers who were actually interested in the game, and asking questions, or commenting that they never knew any MK game could played at a high level.
All in all, this is a huge step, and I hope it opens the eyes of some of the great players who have thus far outright refused to make their presence felt in a real tournament environment. Thanks to all the players who showed up, Tim Static, a pleasure to meet you and thanks for your continuing support in the UMK3 community, and the other organizers from Seasons Beatings
I just wish I knew my mic wasn’t turned on during the stream, as my commentary was legendary, but fortunately only one match.
Full results and match videos will be available soon. I have a lot of info to get.
Over the last few months we’ve opened the tournament section of the forums on a test basis to see how things would go after having closed them for one year. So far, things have gone well and our regrouped moderation staff has worked out fine, if only monitoring one forum.
We have decided to fully reopen the forums and remember, respect the moderator staff first and foremost as well as the other members. If there is a real issue and you feel the need to contact the admins, please make sure you have a case based on the rules of the site and not what you think the rules should be. Everyone is welcome but everyone is welcome to follow our rules.
The moderator staff has been carefully chosen so if anyone has a personal issue with anyone we have selected, you should remember to just act as if you are a new member and use the proper etiquette everyone else must. This will ensure that you will have no problems.
Also, ECT, hosted by John and Joe is coming up in under 10 days, May 22nd and 23rd, taking place in Morristown, NJ. Anyone who wishes to attend, please check the tournament and matchmaking forums for details on booking rooms and signing up.
Currently the list of players is approximately 20 – 25 and the top 8 will be streamed live on Sunday with the other major tournaments. This tournament should be the biggest one of the year and the focus on UMK3 is something that hasn’t been seen in some time.
We are very happy to host for players from all over the region, and sometimes travel over 1000 miles just to play competitive UMK3 in person. This ECT will be no different as there are players slated to attend representing 6 states currently.
I encourage anyone within reasonable traveling distance to make the effort and come out for this tournament and show the rest of the fighting game community that there is depth and support for the UMK3 scene. Our numbers have recently topped some of the other side tournament games and we would like to see this start happening at tournaments in other regions.
UltimateMK.com is a sponsor for ECT, courtesy of site user and moderator Tim Static, who will also be attending the tournament itself. You can all thank him for that showing of gratitude towards the site, as he does whatever he can to support it, even when it is not asked or required.
Again, thanks to everyone who has participated on the site and we look forward to seeing some activity on the forums once again.
Big thanks to Tim Static for sponsoring ECT on behalf of UltimateMK.com. Tim is one of the biggest supporters of our site and helps us out in many ways. This was a sudden and unexpected display of generosity on his part and we all appreciate it.
