By Ann Nakamura
Arcade Tournaments. If you are an active arcade-goer, you have probably seen a tourney of some sort happen at your local arcade. Whether it was Providence at Round 1 Eastridge, Best of the West at Sunnyvale Golfland or the well-famed and known EVO in Las Vegas, tournaments are everywhere regardless of their genre. Today at the Arcade Hub, we’re taking a look into the first music-game tournament that will be held at Round 1 Eastridge on April 30th. And what better way to ring in the first music game tourney than with Pump it Up?
Pump it Up is a dance game created by Andamiro in 1999 - 2000.
This game is equipped with a dance pad with five panels and the premise of it,
if you are familiar with music games (in particular, Dance Dance Revolution),
is that the player steps on the corresponding arrow panel that is displayed on
the dance screen. This game has had many upgrades and versions over the years,
and with the latest iteration of Pump it Up called “Pump it Up Prime”, players
from all over the Bay Area have been coming to practice their skills, master
songs, unlock new content and build a community. On April 30th, the
very first Pump it Up Prime tourney of the Bay Area will be taking place at
Round 1 Eastridge, led by Kevin Tan,
a big community advocate and leader of the Pump it Up community. He has been
running Pump It Up tournaments since 2013, and has led the United States Pump
Festival, a national tournament for players all over the USA. We took him aside
to get a couple of words from him.
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| The official banner for the PRIME tournament at Round 1 San Jose. |
This
is the first music game tournament to be held at Eastridge Round 1. How’re you
feeling about it? Enthusiastic? Worried?
Kevin
Tan (herein “KT”): I am absolutely excited that I had the privilege of working
with Eastridge Round 1 to organize the very first music game tournament in the
location. Obviously, as with any tournament, there is always a worry
about problems arising, but I’m also excited because there has been a lot of
interest in a tournament at Round 1 from even when the location first opened!
What
are we going to expect from this tournament? New and old players? Different
brackets? Anything in particular?
KT:
I’ve invited a lot of players who have attended previous Pump It Up tournaments
in California and Las Vegas, and I am hoping to see a lot of the new and
upcoming players who started playing at Round 1 and have made astounding
progress. The brackets for this tournament are the same as the previous
FanimeCon tournaments. First, I will talk about the speed divisions, the
divisions in which players compete for the highest scores. There are two
speed divisions, one for players at the intermediate level and one for players
at the highest level or the international level. There is also a
freestyle division, a division with less of an emphasis on pure score and a
strong emphasis on presentation and looking good while still hitting the
arrows.
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| Pictured is Tim Bolosan, playing Prime during the first months of Round 1 Eastridge's opening. |
How
has the planning been in comparison to other tournament locations? (working
with Round 1 to put on this tournament)
KT:
The staff at Round 1 has been easier to work with than I initially expected.
There are still certain details that are being discussed, but it is
extremely exciting that Round 1 Eastridge is willing to make the process of
organizing tournaments easier.
Is
there anything you would like to tell to potential spectators? Potential
Entrants?
KT:
To players thinking about entering, please do not hesitate. One thing I
like to emphasize is that, although players are competitive, players should not
feel embarrassed about their tournament performance, nor should stronger
players look down on the less skilled. No matter how you do in this
tournament, the most important is to simply do your best and try to have fun
doing it, because tournaments are not only about the competition but about
meeting great people. To the spectators, I hope that the performance of
the spectators will be entertaining enough to impress you all. I also
want to emphasize that, although the game can look extremely intimidating from
watching the tournament, please remember that the game itself does have
beginner modes for you to enjoy, so the game is not only it’s hardest skill
levels. I hope you will be encouraged to play and to play together with
us.
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Interested in the Tournament? Want to get more information? Visit the Tournament's Facebook Page at: https://www.facebook.com/events/806301666141956/
