Competition.

It was 20 years ago that public posts began appearing on the UltimateMK.com forum, the first by none other than Konqrr on June 12th, 2006. When the Prophet passed away in February 2006, we decided that we needed an MK specific site and forum in honor of what he did to help resurrect the arcade MK scene in the mere 5 years we knew him, so we began recruiting users from message boards, gaming sites, forum, etc, from all over the web to gauge interest.

Weeks after this process began, it was announced that UMK3 would be released later that year for the XBox Live Arcade digital platform, so we knew we had only a short time to jump on the chance and registered UltimateMK.com a couple weeks later of that year after settling on the name. We spent the next three months recruiting members and coming up with a site layout in the meantime making sure it had sufficient functionality and didn’t look like any old gaming website.

UMK would serve the community with competitive gameplay information across various MK games until 2012, then for one last time it acted as a temporary landing space for TestYourMight.com while undergoing a long, unexpected server maintenance. The forum would eventually be merged with TYM in 2012 finding its final home, adding and merging its 1800+ members, 113,000 posts and half a decade of knowledge, fun, and controversy. The earliest posts and oldest members of TYM, are actually UMK members.

UMK had a very close, family-like mod staff and this is where many of the eventual TYM mods would learn their skills that have been in use there for over 15 years now. Effectively, the bridge between our original gaming site, Darktemplarz.com and KombatNetwork.com, UMK still exists as a resource for older content that never made it to youtube, UMK3 Character Guides and links to other MK sites and related content.

A lot of info has been added and some things reworded. We are also adding YouTube Shorts within the guides to demonstrate concepts. As always, this is a WIP. Better visual organization to follow.

With the announcement of Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection to be released later this year, the UMK3 guide section will be significantly updated, and the possibility of adding other games as well.

UMK3 will be hosted at this huge major once again, May 22nd and 23rd. It is going to be treated as any other tournament and will receive stream time for at least the top 4.  I will be providing commentary for the players watching, excluding of course any matches in which I may be involved. As always, we want as many good players to come out for this as possible, but because this event is taking UMK3 so seriously, more skilled players really need to show up. Be there to represent UMK3 as it will get full attention. I should also point out that UMK3 will be displayed on a projector, and we’ll still provide a TV for the players as well, most likely a 32″ 720p.

Check out the original forum here https://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=223424 and sign up on our boards or shoryuken.com.

https://testyourmight.com/threads/east-coast-throwdown-2-ect2-run-it-back-may-22-23-2010-ssfiv.268

Do you believe in the competitive spirit of Mortal Kombat? Do you believe that it should be a respected tournament game with reasonable turnouts and more than regional influence? It is time to change the landscape of competitive Mortal Kombat. We started with UMK3, but we can do more for it, and more for MK in general.

For years, a select few of us helped rebuild a scene and achieved some level of success, garnering technical interest from the fighting game community. Previously, MK games had been regarded almost not even as fighting games at all, but at the very least, UMK3 received some level of respect because its players were adamant about sharing the knowledge and understanding behind the game. This kind of support for a game is what is needed to show others who might be interested that there is something to be interested in. Outside players cannot take seriously, a game that has players who constantly and only fight with each other about unprovable hypothetical scenarios through text, rather than just getting together with others and using application.

We decided to open a site where the existing players could learn about the ideas and strategies for UMK3 without having to sift through the hate. When a fresh influx of new competitors entered the scene in late 2006, naturally, more interest came along with it and the community expanded rapidly. However, disappointingly the community collapsed in on itself and it became clear that things were not going the direction they should, as the hate became internal. No game that started offline with everything else, should only be played online. Now, one year after the single greatest influence on competitive Mortal Kombat was left to determine its own fate, yet another wave of support is starting to be displayed.

Players simply do not want this to end. There is no reason for MK to be left in the dust. The series has much to offer, and while we acknowledge there is a large emphasis on UMK3 in particular, it is also clear that representation from the other games in the series wants to be involved. There is no reason for MK to exist merely as a regionally played game, or as a side game with a handful of players when it has nationwide support. There are tournaments held all over the country almost every weekend and with enough exposure and support, it can all happen.

It should now be more clear than ever, that this site is geared towards MK Tournament Awareness. Can we give this another chance and reawaken the spirit?

Join us.