From Bemanistyle (I don't care if I get in trouble either)

-----------------------

I heard... I could always enter even though I'll lose :D

It would be neat if Konami follows the same path as ITG's Nat Tournament.

Have Local Tournaments to see who can enter the Regional Tournaments and top Regional Players enter the final tournament to determine the winner.

Wishful thinking mind you.

It would be neat if Konami follows the same path as ITG's Nat Tournament.

Have Local Tournaments to see who can enter the Regional Tournaments and top Regional Players enter the final tournament to determine the winner.

I totally agree.  I was really impressed with the way that Roxor planned out their first national tournament.  There was a constant, gradual build-up towards the "main event."  Local tournaments were planned and held initially, and Roxor provided prizes to them in addition to giving the winners access to the next stage, the regional tournaments.  The top eight players from all of these regional tournaments then qualified for the final tournament in Las Vegas.  The end result was about three or four months of build-up for the final event, with plenty of important events happening along the way to keep us from getting bored.  It would be awesome to be able to relive that kind of stuff again, this time with DDR instead of ITG.

Unfortunately, I get the feeling that Konami will deviate from Roxor's method completely.  I hope that someone like AgoraPerry can give us some information on what the plans are, or at the very least, let us submit some ideas in the "Konami Asks" subforum.

I argee about the idea of  Konami making a "Konami Ask" in reguardling this tournament too in order to share our ideas for this event.

Any thoughts on this AgoraPerry?

o man that would be so great...i was in a DDR tournament once (in my county) and i came in second to this guy i beat twice....(don't know how that happened, i probably decided to let him have the Rock Band Grand Prize and i get the iPod Shuffle) but it was the greatest experience i ever had, and the most exciting tournament i entered. Hopefully if this goes through, im training my **** off tgt Nationals.

I want to clear some things up and answer a few of your questions, since I'm sure I know more about this than AgoraPerry does-

Konami hired me this past weekend to work with 2 of their other employees (both, I might add, are incredibly cool people) at a convention in Fort Worth to promote DDR in schools.  One of the employees there was Gail, who is Konami's Promotions & Special Events Associate Manager. She told me she was in the process of putting together a national DDR tournament, and told me some of the things she was considering doing with it.  Yes, she doesn't know a whole lot about DDR, and she didn't try to hide that.  But before any of you complain about "Konami is letting someone with no experience run the tournament wah wah this sucks!!1!1," please keep in mind that Gail is in charge of running special events for ALL of Konami's franchises, like Metal Gear, Hellboy, etc.  I highly doubt any of you know every little detail of all the games Konami curently has out, and it is unrealistic to expect her to know everything about every game Konami comes out with.  However, I talked to her extensively during the week about my experences with tournaments, both competing in them and running them.  Trust me, I mentioned the way most DDR tournaments are run, the way Roxor handled their national tournament, what kind of prizes players would like, etc.  She was very open to all of my suggestions, and I had a great feeling about the tournament after talking to her.  I spent the last 2 days compiling a 15 page report on tournaments that had information on general rules, seeding, getting the community involved, info about Roxor's tournaments, Pump's World Pump Fest, past DDR/ITG tournaments that have been big, etc, which I already have sent her way. 

In short, have faith with the tournament guys.  I know most of you have had your complaints with DDR in the last few years and with the lack of attention Konami has been giving their community.  Believe me, I have had those exact same complaints too, but I believe running a national tournament is a solid step in the right direction of helping build up a stronger DDR community. 

The only thing I can say about the tournament right now is that there is nothing concrete at all.  Konami is simply trying to plan one out right now.  Heck, there's no guarantee one will absolutely happen.  However, Konami does read these boards.  So if you want a national tournament, SAY YOU DO!!!  If you want to see a format similar to what Roxor did with ITG, speak up!  I think it would be a great idea to have Konami ask what we'd like to see in a national tournament.

Keep in mind guys I personally hope to keep in contact with Gail to help her setup a great tournament that everyone will enjoy, and I will do everything I can to help Konami run a national tournament.

Thanks for that, Dave.

Get in touch with Ryan (DukAmok). He can probably lend you a hand with the tournaments. Oh and hey he works for Konami now so that gives you an extra incentive to go and talk to him.

I'll see what I can do for getting an official "Konami Asks..." on this.  For now I'm just going to second EvilDave219's comment that you should post what you want to see in a tournament here.  Use this thread to share your tournament ideas and opinions.  If it is decided that the "Konami Asks..." forum will include a question on what you want to see in tournaments then you could post again there.

Thanks for your post, EvilDave219, and for sharing that information.

Get in touch with Ryan (DukAmok). He can probably lend you a hand with the tournaments. Oh and hey he works for Konami now so that gives you an extra incentive to go and talk to him.

I already talked to him about it last week and he's already on it.  Keep in mind that his department (Project Development) is different than Gail's (Marketing) and they don't have direct interaction, but I'm told he already left her a memo.  Also keep in mind a bunch of the marketing people are out of their office this week because they are running Konami's booth at the New York Comic Con.

For now I'm just going to second EvilDave219's comment that you should post what you want to see in a tournament here.  Use this thread to share your tournament ideas and opinions.

Okay.

An official, Konami-organized Dance Dance Revolution national tournament has been something that I've wanted to see for years, and is something that I have been especially hoping for since the creation of this site.

So far, I've been very disappointed with the DDR-themed contests and events that have been advertised on this site.  I have no interest in creating a new DDR character, nor do I have any interest in submitting music to be included in future DDR titles.  I want to participate in DDR competitions that actually involve me playing DDR, not drawing pictures or composing music.  So naturally, the breaking of the news of a possible DDR national tournament in the works is very exciting for me.

As I said in my last post, I felt that the system that Roxor used for their national In the Groove tournament in 2005 was perfect.  I won't repeat my reasons in this post, but I would really hope to see Konami follow a path like that one, with local tournaments and regional tournaments all leading up to the big main event.

Another idea that I had was for the tournament to have multiple venues through e-Amusement.  Having a set number of machines across the country that are made to participate in the tournament would make it a lot easier for some to attend.  Obviously, if the tournament only takes place at one single venue in the USA, some simply won't be able to make it because of distance, travel fees, and other such responsibilities.  Being able to play against your opponent online through e-Amusement would help to fix this.  I think that this is a pretty long shot, though.

I think that my greatest fear is that this event won't happen at all.  EvilDave says that it is a possibility, and the fact that nothing is concrete yet makes things pretty iffy.  Now that the potential for a national tournament has been noted by Konami, I sincerely hope that they'll go through with it. 

The bad thing about a national tournament (ATM anyways), is that they would play it on a SuperNova 2 machine I'm sure. And that throws some states at a disadvantage because we don't all have a (working) SN2 at all (especially with e-amuse).

 Would this tournament be like the Namco one 3 years ago or would it be somewhere in the middle of the US to give everyone a fair advantage to fly/drive in? I know it's not concrete but I'd like to know what sort of plans are going into where this is and how they're going to get people to get adjusted to the game. 

 IMO, it should be like the Namco national tournament though. I don't know if all of you were a part of that but this is how it went: Every Namco arcade posted banners for the tournament on a specified date, then had individual tournaments with individual prizes BUT then the winner of each arcade had a chance to win the national portion of the tournament. They played 5 songs (mainly aimed 10 footers) and recorded the total score that person got. They sent it into Namco and the winners were announced on their website (and by mail?). Then each person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) received their money in a check form i'm assuming. 

Have Konami post on as many forums or just somehow broadcast it to everyone and have sponsored arcades and such. Then have them post a list of participating places and have an individual but national tournament on their website. Granted you wouldn't find out if you won right away or not, but it saves people a BUNCH of money by (switching to Geico rofl) flying/driving/food/lodging. That would appeal to much more of a variety of people because the younger crowd can't always go to things like this and there would be many more people involved and it would motivate many more people to keep playing this game.

That's my 2 cents :P 

JJK -

So far, I've been very disappointed with the DDR-themed contests and events that have been advertised on this site.  I have no interest in creating a new DDR character, nor do I have any interest in submitting music to be included in future DDR titles.  I want to participate in DDR competitions that actually involve me playing DDR, not drawing pictures or composing music.  So naturally, the breaking of the news of a possible DDR national tournament in the works is very exciting for me.

I completely agree.  One of the other things we actually got to talking about was how I personally felt about this site, and I told her possible ways it could be improved.  Konami does want to get as many people as possible on this site, and there are several things I believe could help.  Running a national tournament and providing information here is definitely one huge way to get more people to sign up.  I'd love to see a "Konami Asks..." topic on how we, the community, believe the site can improve.  I won't go off here on things I feel the site could improve on, but I'd really like to make a topic on it. On the positive side, I was also told that Konami plans to do "lots" of promotions, events, and giveaways through this site in the near future to help bring more people to it. 

Another idea that I had was for the tournament to have multiple venues through e-Amusement.

Besides the fact I doubt we will see wide implementation of e-Amuse in the US any time soon (especially considering most arcades don't even have SuperNOVA 2 yet), there is also a possiblity of people cheating if all scoring was done online.  It's a small possibility, yes, but the fact that people could submit scores using more than one person (especially doing something hard like HDVO), or the fact someone could hack timing windows would effectively destroy the competition.  I agree though it would be nice to  essentially let everyone participate in a national tournament without having to travel.

I think that my greatest fear is that this event won't happen at all.  EvilDave says that it is a possibility, and the fact that nothing is concrete yet makes things pretty iffy.  Now that the potential for a national tournament has been noted by Konami, I sincerely hope that they'll go through with it.

I say it's a possibility because I don't want to get everyone's hopes up and then if something happens everyone will be disappointed.  However, given the fact me and Gail talked about tournament stuff all 3 days of the convention I was at, she was interested in attending the ITG tournament in San Diego this summer to see how tournaments are run, and she asked me to email her stuff pertaining on how to run tournaments, then I'd say they are fairly interested at this point in doing so.

CartoonHero-

The bad thing about a national tournament (ATM anyways), is that they would play it on a SuperNova 2 machine I'm sure. And that throws some states at a disadvantage because we don't all have a (working) SN2 at all (especially with e-amuse).

Agreed, though keep in mind that SuperNova 2 was just recently released in arcades.  A Dave and Busters about 30 minutes away from me was literally one of the first arcades to upgrade to SN2 in the nation, and that was less than 3 months ago.  From my understanding the tournament would most likely be much later on in the year, which means more arcades by then would have SuperNova 2.  It didn't take too long for places to get SuperNova 1 (by about 6 months the majority of arcades with DDR had one).

Would this tournament be like the Namco one 3 years ago or would it be somewhere in the middle of the US to give everyone a fair advantage to fly/drive in? 

While there is no concrete info, it definitely would be something you'd physically would have to be at.  The way Namco went was horrible, and I'll explain why below this. 

IMO, it should be like the Namco national tournament though. I don't know if all of you were a part of that.

Haha, I actually took first nationally at that thing when it was held almost 3 years ago (kinda hard to see, but here's a pic of the letter Namco sent me congradulating me for winning and some of the stuff I won from them - http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/EvilDaveSTG/Weeeee403.jpg). ; However, it was a mess because the individual places that were running the tournaments didn't know what they were doing.  At my tournament, the person who was running it had no idea what NCAA seeding was, and me and my friend Winston (we seeded first and second, respectively) had to play each other in the second round because of that.  To make things worse, Namco also originally announced that the winner was someone who had submitted a score that was literally impossible to obtain in 5 songs.  And believe it or not, Namco ended up doing the exact same thing with their national ITG tournament.  Long story short, these types of tournaments don't work because it's easy to cheat or lose track of scores.

I agree that it's a pain to try to travel somewhere, but I think if Konami holds a national tournament scheme similar to what Roxor did with ITG, where there were regional tournaments and the winners of regionals got free travel to the national tournament, it would really help.  I think if there were also other things at the tournament, like the unveiling of a new DDR arcade version or other top Konami games, people would be more willing to come.

Blarg. Is this going to be US Only ? :/

Someone needs to point out that there are other countries in the world, too. :(

Don't worry Moose, I have a feeling this tournament will be open to Non-US people like us Canadians for example. There were a few Local and Regional Tournaments that took place in Canada during Nat05 I would also like to add as well.

Speaking of Local and Regionals Tournaments, I think we should allow people to play DDR Extreme or DDR Supernova 1 for those tournaments in case those locations don't have a SN2 around since there is plenty of Extremes and Supernova1s around. 

We should also have a Practice Day before the Final Tournament to allow people to get used to SN2.

Just a few ideas. 

I'm pretty sure when Roxor ran NATs there were never any regionals for any place outside the US (Canada, Mexico, etc).  Of course anyone who wanted to participate in the national tournament in Vegas was allowed to, and there were people from England there.

If there was a National Tournament, I would definitley go to at least watch.

I'd try to go depending on who went that I know. I go to tournaments to chill with old friends, not so much the tournament itself.

What would there be for tournament setup? Would it just be "best score wins" on whatever random sn/2 song? doubles tournament? nobar? freestyle?

sounds hot if it goes down. I'd love to get some sweet Konami gear too at the tourney like they have at Bemani Top Rankers (Konami jackets for staff). Time to reprezent Hawaii ftw

it's probably gonna come down to PA/MA moose. i highly doubt they'd do a no bar tournament because then they wouldn't be promoting their full video game since the bar is part of the platform. freestyle is so dead, i doubt they'll throw that in. they may do a doubles tournament. that'd be fun to watch.

This would be pretty intense! But if they do go by regional ranks not a chance I'd make it in.... rynker, winDEU, Cosmic Pope, etc. lol I'd love to participate though.

The tournament i went to held local tournaments first, i came in first place in one of them so i was instantly going to the GRAND tournament. At the Grand Tournament, they held many types of "challenges" aside from the Main Event, they had a "who can get the highest score on this song? (Flowers / Terra)" which i won and got a free DDR-themed t-shirt, they had a "Fascination" challenge where whoever got the highest score on the highest level got a free t-shirt (also won and got the t-shirt), they had a "freestyle" tournament where (that's right) you freestyled on the mat and there were judges who gave out scores...i did well, but not TOO well lol, but they didn't have a doubles tournament (although that WOULD have been nice to see). If they ever announce a National Tournament, i would sign up with lightning speed, REAL LIGHTNING!!! lol and if i don't go to the National Tournament, oh well, but i would know i would go to the Regional Tournament...if i ever get lucky and gt the National Tournament, that will be the best day of my life! =)

Hey, Never really posted here, but here's my $0.02.

First off, regardless of the rules or even how far I'd have to travel, count me in.  I try and make it to large scale events, and this would most likely be one of the larger ones for me to end up at.  But just for the sake of it, I feel that a few things could be done to help with making this event work for everyone everywhere.

First off, I'm going to have to go ahead and agree that the best first step would in fact be to have smaller regional tournaments, located in larger cities.  Provide free airtravel to the actual national competition (or at least put the winners up in a hotel room for the duration) for the winners of these smaller competitions.   By doing so, more people will be able to make it to the events, and overall, it would probably be good for appearance sake by showing that you care about your customers, or at least your Fan Base.

During these regionals, have someone who has been around in that area run each competition.  Choose the locations wisely too, some states (like Colorado here) have very few machines that work well at all.  If you make sure that the event starts off with good working machines, in a positive environment, it will help keep people happier.  The best way to do this is to just ask around.  I'm sure there will be many people out there who will be more than happy to provide any information about locations  if you mention this event :)

Don't count Canada or Mexico out either.  Yeah, it may be more difficult for citizens of either country to get out here to compete, but it will show that you care about the fanbase even moreso.  

Will the actual National Competition, make sure it's in a Large City that is easy to get to.  I understand that the Konami Main Offices for the US are located in California, however, it may not be as easy for people on the East Coast to get to.  On that same note, Holding it in Boston or New York would make people out on the west Coast upset as well.  I would suggest using a more central location, somewhere in the midwest, Chicago or even Dallas would work great. Denver, too maybe.  They're located right in the middle, they all have airports, and many convention centers that could be used for the event.