Hadouken: Penny-Arcade EXPO Recap!

This past weekend MarkMan ventured off to Boston for PAX East 2010! The expo is a great place for gamers… Especially fighting game fans! I was on hand to visit with the fighting game fans and to spread the love about TEKKEN 6, Super Street Fighter IV, and BlazBlue: Continuum Shift! Check out my recap by clicking below!

Recap by Mark “MarkMan” Julio

PAX East was great!

I had a great time hanging around and supporting the events there.

Penny-Arcade EXPO East is a grand event for gamers of all walks of life. Being a veteran to PAX Prime (Seattle), I was really looking forward to the event’s debut in the East Coast. It was my first time in Boston and I was blown away by the amount of people and the level of happy gaming going on.

The first day I visited my good friends at Aksys Games to see that they had BlazBlue Continuum Shift and Death Smiles going on in their booth! They had a good amount of traffic all weekend, as did almost every other booth! The East Coast gamers came out in full force!

Mad Catz sponsored the Rock Band 2 competition and the Street Fighter IV tournament held by PAX East. There was also a surprise appearance from Super Street Fighter IV in the console freeplay room! My good friend Seth Killian from Capcom was also there so we can share/spread the SSFIV love.

I went to the SFX-360 Gamers Gone Wild VIP party on Saturday night. My good friend Princess Aura entered the Rock Band 2 tournament with a killer team of Uzman, StarSlay3r (Star from PSN’s The Tester), and SWooZiE from WCG’s Ultimate Gamer fame. Princess Aura showed just a taste of her gaming skills by killing it on the mic and wowing the crowd with her awesome vocals. StarSlay3r rocking out on the guitar was no surprise; that’s why she’s the best in the business when it comes to guitar gaming! SWooZie and Uzman also held it down and let their gaming swagger/energy move the crowd. They ended up taking first place without a problem!

I had a ton of business meetings throughout the weekend, but one fun one was at the GUNNAR bus/booth where we did a mini Mad Catz photoshoot (again starring Princess Aura) as she posed all pro like with the Mad Catz Super Street Fighter IV Tournament Edition “S” FightStick and the sleek GUNNAR “Jem” gaming glasses. Princess Aura is an attractive girl… I’m used to hanging out with her but after seeing the awesome photography skills of Josh from GUNNAR, I was blown away at how the lighting/his photo skills/and her beauty… it just took my breath away.

I met a lot of gamers in the console free play room. Tons of people came up to me for the fightstick keychain promo that I’ve been pushing. Saw a bunch of custom fightsticks!

Did a few interviews… I got to meet a lot of CAG, GAF, and fighting gamers in general! Signed a few sticks/took a few photos etc. I love Boston, it was SUPER cold, but the food was good… so <3 !

Had a great chat with fellow TEKKEN player and East coast TEKKEN ambassador, fighting GM. We talked about the TEKKEN scene and the exciting new opportunities for TEKKEN at World Cyber Games and MLG! TZ’s SpartaMA and Guregu were also on hand to support the event!

For more pictures from this PAX weekend, please visit my flickr page here.

BTW, one last day for the Super SFIV PAX promo! More info here.

Special thanks to Mike and Mark from GUNNAR Optiks, SFX-360’s Ross Furman, Tritton, Capcom, Penny-Arcade, Aksys Games, NoobTube, Empire Arcadia, and everyone else!

Hadouken: GGL National Tournament Begins Monday!

The TEKKEN 6 GGL competition is soon under way with the Practice Ladder now live and the actual Tournament Ladder beginning Monday, Nov 2nd through Sunday, Nov. 29th, followed by a Playoff Bracket beginning Dec 2nd and a Live National Final on Dec 12th in San Francisco, CA! Register now to participate! For more details, click below and be sure to click on the RULES tab after choosing a system ladder.

GGL – TEKKEN 6 ONLINE TOURNAMENT

Hadouken: TEKKEN 6 PAX 2009 ROUND UP!

We’re finally back from PAX! The 2009 Penny-Arcade Expo played host to over 75,000 + gamers from all over the world for one action packed weekend of video game fun! SD TEKKEN and our friends at Namco Bandai Games were on hand to give thousands of gamers a chance to experience the fight of their life with TEKKEN 6! Click below for our full report!

Seattle, Washington. I remember it well. It was a in the mid fifties, rainclouds lurking like vultures, and the cool breeze made sure we all remembered… We’re not in Southern California anymore. It was a nice change of pace from the scorching weather that we’ve been experiencing lately in San Diego.

PAX fever was in full swing. Downtown Seattle was riddled with gamers. You could point them out from a mile away, in fact you probably wanted to otherwise you’d be able to pick them out via smell. Working together with our great friends at Namco Bandai we held a series of TEKKEN 6 tournaments (one for each day of PAX).

The reception/interest that TEKKEN 6 garnered was amazing! About 300 gamers signed up for the weekend of tournaments and we gave away big prizes to each day’s champion. On day one Seattle’s very own EBM and Super Joe went head to head for the daily championship. At the end EBM’s Eddy sent Super Joe’s Jack-6 to the scrap pile with a decisive victory to claim a PlayStation 3 Slim console!

On day 2, a new set of challengers stepped forth as nganfiction’s Law/Nina took on Monked’s Alisa in a very close final set where ngangfiction barely squeaked out the victory!

On the final day of PAX, in somewhat dramatic fashion, the runners up from day 1 and 2 ended up making it to the championship match! Monked and his Alisa would take on Super Joe and his Jack-6 in an epic super robot war! Super Joe pushed himself to victory securing the final prize of the show. Seattle ended up holding down the fort against all comers claiming the title for each and every day of PAX! Congratulations to all the winners!

A very special shout out to all Namco Bandai staff and our wonderful TEKKEN cosplayers that helped make the event cheerful and run smooth! Thanks guys!

Another special thanks to the Seattle fighting game scene! It was nice to hang out/chill during the long weekend! We hope to see you guys at future TEKKEN events!