I personally hate tournaments that restrict song selection.  Then again, I haven't been in a PA tournament in about 2 years.  I would recommend the following limitations to song selection:
-NEVER EVER EVER REQUIRE SOMEONE TO DO A 10.  This is a convention, not a super major DDR tournament that everyone's going to be flipping out about.  Keep the attitude relaxed.  If someone's not comfortable playing a 10, and they express that, that should be respected.  I'll be more than happy to play any song on Extreme against anyone except for PSM or PSMO, but if someone picks one of those songs against me, I'm just going to switch it to light mode, reverse, and dark and freestyle it, because my asthma, anemia, and low blood pressure restrict me from being able to play those songs.
-If you have two players who are well-matched, don't let them play 7's or lower unless they're particularly technical songs, such as l'amour et liberte or Heaven is a '57 Metallic Gray (Gimmix).

Other than that, keep it loose.  Again, it's a con.  There are going to be people entering who haven't played DDR competitively before.  Most of the people there are going to be expecting a relaxed, primarily social tournament, which is what they should get.  Not that people shouldn't or wouldn't be trying their best--you just don't want people leaving the tournament feeling like they just took a badly coordinated test with a steep curve that didn't favour them.

Well, I'd like to move it but really the timeslots were already booked by other events. Is there any chance at all you guys can make it? Come on up if at all possible! I really want this to be big and good!

Oh, by the way, AMBER FLOTASTIC AWESOME HARNER will be helping out with the tournament and stuff. And entering. Anyway. Yeah. COMPETITION!

Card elimination is alright, and since there will be indecisive jerks like me at the tournament, it's probably preferable. But:


This is an extreme example, but if I meet someone in the early rounds that I feel I can ONLY beat with a 10, I should be allowed to pick a 10. People are good at what they're good at, and limiting their choices just makes the tournament unfair. It would be the same if you forced people to pick 10's in the early rounds and then moved down to 9's and 8's. There's no point in slanting the tournament one way or the other.

edit: Furthermore, there are some pretty arbitrary 10 ratings on DDR. I know there's only one in Extreme, but you should consider bag. The only difficulty in that stems from its BPM and its difficulty to PA, and as you probably know it's not in the same league as The Legend of Max or Maxx Unlimited.

edit^2: ONE MORE THING! I think most people will probably not pick 10's in the early rounds because they will simply not be warmed up, and they might not want to tire themselves out.


Yeah it is pretty unlikely that I'll be able to skip class/work to get up to Sakuracon that early. Can we possibly move it to Saturday?

I really am not too picky on how it goes down.

If you're interested, I've hosted a handful of tournaments over the years and usually people seem to like them. If you're interested, you can check the thread of my last one: http://www.pnwbemani.net/smf/index.php?topic=617.0

It should explain the basics of how it worked.

I'm OK with "any song goes", but I strongly urge you to build up the pressure and start with 8's or so, then move up to 10s for the finals. That way you give everyone a chance to "warm up" and you don't hit some of the less skilled players on round 1 with PSM. And for those thinking "Those noobs will loose at some point, why does it matter?" - It's simple: anyone who deserves the grand prize should be skilled at PA and Survival. So the winner should be able to out-PA his rivals on the easier songs at the beginning, as well as beat them at the hard songs near the end.

Of course, this is simply my 2 cents. It's your tourny, do with it what you will.

P.S. I saw on the SakuraCon DDR page that the tournament is tentatively scheduled for Friday at 3 PM. I don't want to make things a pain in the arse for you, but I've got a steady job that doesn't get out until 5 (not including the time it would take to get to the convention), and I'm sure I'm not the only one in this situation. I may be able to take a half-day off work, but I'm not certain. I know I'm probably older than most of those that will be competing, but you still might want to consider those of us with 9-5 jobs.

NCAA double elimination rules, Round Robin for the final four, no songs off-limits at any point, final destination.

I'm staff this year and am running both a Tetris the Grand Master tournament alongside a DDR Extreme tournament. Please check the Sakura-Con boards for info. I'll probably be mostly posting stuff there because it's easy and will hit most attendees, but I'll be sure to cross post here too.

Anyway what format do you guys want?

Any news on if there is going to be a tourny this year? If so, are there any details available yet?

hm, ive never been.

I'm trying to get one put together.  Still waiting to hear back about whether I'm confirmed for staff or not.  If I am, I'll be there with a full ruleset and registration for a Freestyle tournament.  From there, it's just up to people to sign up.  I ran the DDR tournaments last year, and I was asked to come back as staff for this year, but they've kind of dropped the ball with communications, and I've had trouble getting a hold of them lately.

I have no clue if theres going to be one.  Would be nice though.

Am I in the right to assume there will be a DDR tourny?
and if so, can there be a freestyle one?
PWWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAASEEEEEE!