Silent Bob has 40 chronicles

1. Guitar Hero - Frets of Fury Tournament
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Mar 30 2008

   I want to thank all the participants in Saturday’s Guitar Hero Frets of Fury tournament. We had a pretty diverse crowd age-wise, but we only had one girl. We’re definitely going to have to encourage more girls to participate in the next tournament. I’ve seen some of them that are regulars at the game center who can really rip. I don’t know if it’s the whole thing about competing versus playing for fun, but I’d love to see more of them give the boys a run for their money.
   
   I want to especially thank all the players not from the Des Moines metro who traveled to join in the fun. It was really good to put names with faces for some of the people I regularly read/respond to posts on the GoG. Brandon (aka Dynafire), Zach (aka ZMaine), and Matt (aka Palpatine) were some out-of-towners I can remember off the top of my head. Thanks for all the positive comments, guys. It makes Brian (aka Boobacca) and I feel good to know our efforts made a good impression. It was also great to finally meet Ben face to face. We PM and post quite a bit, but it’s always better to make a personal connection. Thanks also to Ben for bringing up some GoG swag to give away as prizes during the tournament and for some of the skins so we can decorate our equipment at the game center!
   
   The folks from LAZER 103.3 were up there from 10:00 am to noon. Thanks to Samantha Knight, Zach (the LAZER Zach, not Ryu or ZMaine!) and the rest of their crew for making it special. Zach even went around and challenged a few of the players to impromptu face-offs while they were still practicing before the tournament started. I know they all enjoyed that, especially my 8-year-old son. R2D2 was filled up with good tasting energy drinks from the good folks at HyDrive. I know all the players enjoyed having a little extra fuel for their duels, especially when it’s FREE!
   
   Unfortunately we didn’t have any entries in the Easy division. I had really hoped we’d see all the different skill levels represented. I can totally understand being a little reticent about being in a competition if you’re still relatively new to Guitar Hero.
   
   We had a half-dozen really good players in the Medium division. The finals came down to Brandon B. and Forrest R. Brandon chose Helicopter by Bloc Party for his challenge song. The two players were neck and neck for most of the song, but Brandon pulled off a couple good 8x multipliers that pushed him over the top for the win. Forrest chose Welcome to the Jungle by Guns ‘N Roses, to which Brandon responded with a quick fist pump and a resounding “Yes!” Believe it or not, that little guy pulled out a 100% finish on the song and took the overall win. Brandon won some cash, a March Madness 08 game for PS3 and a Greatest American Guitar Hero t-shirt courtesy of LAZER 103.3, some other GH swag from Red Octane, and Ben was nice enough to give him a kids GoG shirt which he proudly wore the rest of the day.
   
   There were another half dozen really skilled players in the Hard division, including the lone girl in the contest, who opted to use a regular 360 controller instead of a guitar. I give her credit for coming out and competing against the guys. I think controller would be so much harder that the guitar. My brain just doesn’t process the notes on the screen to the buttons on the controller like it does for the guitar. There were some really close matches in this bracket, and quite a few went down to a Battle Mode song. The finals were played out by Matt Keller and Chad Ross, representing for the 30-somethings and 20-somethings in the crowd. I don’t have my notes with me, so I can’t remember which songs they played, but Matt was crowned champion for the Hard division. For his efforts, he took home cash, a GH T-shirt and other swag from Red Octane, a March Madness 08 game for his PS2 (and a big grin!). Chad also took home some cash, a Greatest American Guitar Hero T-shirt courtesy of LAZER 103.3, and some GH swag from Red Octane. Congratulations to both players!
   
   There were more than a dozen AMAZING players in the Expert division. We had lots of new faces show up for this one, so we were really glad to see some new blood. By virtue of his last win, Ryu won a bye in the semi-finals. Dynafire battled Palpatine for a spot in the finals. It was a great duel. Dynafire held his own but lost both challenges to Palpatine.
   
   The finals were epic. Apparently some of the Score Hero guys in attendance knew of Palpatine’s prowess on Cult of Personality by Living Colour, so he sort of felt compelled to use that for his challenge. It started out note-for-note. I chuckled a little bit when both activated their first Star Power simultaneously – you don’t see choreography like that even from band members who’ve played together for years! The solos on this one are insane, but Palpatine managed to impressively string together over a 600-note streak at one point and took the first song. Ryu countered with Take This Life from In Flames. He totally ripped this one up! With the two challenge songs split, we had to move to Battle Mode to determine the champion. Instead of a coin flip, they mutually agreed on Number of the Beast from Iron Maiden for their Battle. Again, this one started out note-for-note, neither guy giving an inch until some of the first power-ups were gained. It went back and forth for quite awhile. As hard as Expert is, seeing Double Notes is something to behold. Ryu got hit with the dreaded “Righty Flip” (since he’s a lefty! – most everybody who saw that got a laugh) that seemed to be the nail in the coffin.
   
   It was really cool to see the supremely talented players in the Expert division picking up new techniques from watching these two battle it out. At their skill level, it takes a lot to impress, and neither finalist disappointed!
   
   Matt (Palpatine) took home gas money (and then some!), GH t-shirt and other swag from Red Octane, a March Madness 08 game for Xbox 360 from the folks at LAZER, and a glowing green GoG shirt courtesy of Ben. Zach (Ryu) took home cash as well and swell prizes of his own. He’s got quite the burgeoning t-shirt collection from the last few tournaments!
   
   There are lots of pictures from the tournament uploaded to my profile. I’ll try to tag them with names so you can see who’s who. Thanks again to Ben for coming up and staying through the entire tournament. I know you got a lot of people that came up for the tournament turned on to the GoG, so I hope it was worth your time.

   
   

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Silent Bob has 1 comment on this chronicle.

1. BEN
   Posted On Mar 30 2008

   Hey Silent Bob, great review of yesterday's Guitar Hero III tournament! It was great to meet so many GoG members and I had a great time all afternoon. Some of the performances blew my mind and made my fingers hurt, just by watching, haha.
   
   I look forward to your next event, seeing all your gamers joining GoG, and maybe even talking about a GoG/CyberOps type of tournament event