Pokémon Battle Revolution Tournament Information and Rules 

• When you arrive at the tournament, you must check in with the tournament organizers.
• Tournament sign-in will be open from approximately 1:15–1:25 pm. Walk-in registrants will be accepted only if pre-registrants have not arrived by 1:25 pm.
• No new registrations will be taken after 1:25 pm. We will begin the tournament once all players are signed in.
• All players may remain for the entire tournament. Cheer your friends to victory!
• Trash talking is allowed, but no swearing or bad behavior.
• The tournament may end early.

Tournament rules

• The tournament will be played in a round robin format.
• Players will combat using their own DS or DSi handhelds and their Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, HeartGold,  SoulSilver or Platinum.
• Certain Pokémon are forbidden. The forbidden list can be accessed at http://www.smogon.com/dp/tiers/uber
• Players will be assigned numbers at registration and will be paired randomly.
• Players five or more minutes late to any round will automatically take a game loss.

On tap will be Mario Kart Wii time trials. Players will get the chance to be stacked up against racers from all seven continents! For those of you with an artistic bent, we will be playing our brand-new Just Dance Disney Party for Kinect and LEGO Rock Band on PS3.

If you prefer good, old-fashioned board games, come by and try out two new ones, Crossways and Tapple (check out instructions for playing Tapple, below), both donated by USAopoly. And we have many others: Come by and see!

This event has always been popular with families and solo gamers. Come one, come all!

You will all be waiting to hear about the Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros Brawl tournaments we ran in July (!). They were as exciting as ever. You probably have seen in other blog entries that contestants are seeded into brackets, NCAA-style, with lower-scoring players matched up with the higher-scorers. Those can be most interesting games to watch, and July’s Mario Kart tournament was no exception. 14^th-seed Vijay went all the way to the finals. 4^th-seed Raifer won the tournament.

It was brother against brother all through our Super Smash Bros Brawl brackets and Johnny beat his brother Tommy in the final.

As always among gamers, good sportsmanship was in evidence. Winners and losers would high-five each other for playing a great game. Veteran players could be counted on to give tips to newbies on getting around obstacles and making higher scores. They were fun tournaments for everyone.

This winter’s tournament will be a Pokémon Battle Revolution on January 3. Bring your DSi and play against each other on the big screen. Watch this space for more details…

The more players, the better the tournament! If you haven’t registered yet, there are openings in both. Remember that only students who have finished fifth through eighth grades are eligible for the Super Smash Bros Brawl in the afternoon. Players who have finished third through eighth grades may register for Mario Kart in the morning. Simply take your St. Charles library card in hand and register here or call the ASK ME desk 630-584-9390.

• When you arrive at the tournament, you much check in with the tournament organizers.
• Tournament sign-in will be open from approximately 15 minutes before the tournament start. That is 9:15 am for Mario Kart Wii and 1:45 pm for Super Smash Bros Brawl.
• Walk-in registrants will be accepted only if pre-registrants have not arrived by five minutes prior to the tournament start.
• Wiimotes , nunchuks and wheels will be provided.
• All players may remain for the entire tournament. Cheer your friends to victory!
• Trash talking is allowed, but no swearing or bad behavior.
• Prizes will be Target gift cards.
• The tournament may end early.

Tournament Rules–Mario Kart

• Players may pick any character. Players also may switch characters between matches.
• Races will all be run as VS.
• There are four available cups with four courses each for the tournament. The cups and courses will be randomly selected for each match. Available cups: Flower, Banana, Shell and Mushroom.
• There will be three qualifying rounds. Qualifying rounds will be three- or four-player races. Players will go into the game’s sudden death matches if tied at the end of a race.
• You will have two minutes to respond when called to play. If you do not arrive within the two minutes, you will forfeit your match. (You’ll receive zero points for that match.)
• During qualifying rounds, players will earn points based on how they finish (40 for first place, 30 for second place, etc). At the end of the three qualifying rounds, players with the top 16 scores will advance to the elimination rounds. If we are running behind, or if we begin with fewer than 16 players, only the top eight players will advance.
• If multiple players are tied at the end of the qualification rounds, tiebreaker match(es) will be held. Tiebreaker matches will follow the same rules as the qualifying round matches.
• Final rounds will be two players versus each other, seeded single bracket elimination. Seeding will be done based on qualifying round scores.
• The scorekeeper will determine when a match begins.
• When a match is ended, players must leave the score screen up for the scorekeeper to record the results. Passing this screen will invalidate the match and all players forfeit.
• All normal Mario Kart play is allowed, including using short cuts and teaming up.
• Tournament organizers have the final say in all decisions.

Tournament Rules–Smash Bros Brawl

• Players may pick any character. Players also may switch characters between matches.
• During the tournament, all “items” will be turned off.
• There will be three available stages for the tournament. The stage will be randomly selected for each match. Available stages: Battlefield, Final Destination, and Smashville.
• There will be three qualifying rounds. Qualifying rounds will be four player matches. Match time limit will be four minutes and three stock lives. Players will go into the game’s sudden death matches if tied at the end of a match.
• During qualifying rounds, players will earn points based on how they finish (40 for first place, 30 for second place, etc). At the end of the three qualifying rounds, players with the top 16 scores will advance to the elimination rounds. If we are running behind, or if we begin with fewer than 16 players, only the top eight players will advance.
• If multiple players are tied at the end of the qualification rounds, a tiebreaker match will be held. Tiebreaker matches will follow the same rules as the qualifying round matches.
• Final rounds will be two players versus each other, seeded single bracket elimination. Each match will be five minutes with three stock lives. Seeding will be done based on qualifying round scores.
• The scorekeeper will determine when a match begins.
• When a match is ended, players must  leave the score screen up for the scorekeeper to record the results. Passing this screen will invalidate the match and all players forfeit.
• Tournament organizers have the final say in all decisions.

There’s room for more contestants in both tournaments, so take your St. Charles library card in hand and register here or with ASK ME desk staff in Youth Services in person or by phone 630-584-9390.

Calling all St. Charles gamers! On July 18,2013 we will be running two video game tournaments. We just don’t know which! We are relying on you to tell us which are your favorite among three games. Two will be chosen to take place in the morning and the afternoon.

Please leave a comment, indicating your grade level this school year and your two favorite games among Mario Kart Wii, Kinect Just Dance 4 and Super Smash Bros Brawl. Due to the rating, only students who have completed 5 – 8 grades will be eligible to register for a Super Smash Bros tournament, should that game be chosen. Thanks!

Some of the new games include: For DS, Chimpact, Etrian Odyssey 2 and 3, and Scribblenauts. For 3DS, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon and Wipeout 3. For PS3, Ni No Kuni Wrath of the White Witch is coming. For Wii and XBOX360 with Kinect, Just Dance Disney Party.

These are just a few of the games coming. For more titles, look at the Library Quick Lists under Youth and Video Games. If you don’t see your favorite, please ask.

Favorite games right now are the old standard, Kinect Adventures, and Twister, a new “twist” on the old Hasbro board game. Other games that cycle in are Kinect Sports, Kinect Sports Season 2, Carnival Games and Kinect Joy Ride. Each day is a new challenge! Come on by and try something new or boost your skill at an old favorite.

On January 4, eight boys in grades 3-5 joined in competition using DS handhelds with their own trainers and collections of Pokémon in our first-ever Pokémon tournament. We chose Battle Revolution because it is the Wii game that can be played using the DS as a controller. This way, we were able to project the battles up on the big screen so that everyone in the room could watch and participate. The competition was heavy all the way to the end as the combatants were fairly evenly matched in skill. One emerged as Pokétopia Master. We were very happy to have Gabriel agree to judge. He even played an exhibition game against the winner. If you would like to see more tournaments like this, please let us know!

The general information and rules are:

When you arrive at the tournament, you must check in with the tournament organizers.
• Tournament sign-in will be open from approximately 1:15 – 1:25 PM. Walk-in registrants will be accepted only if pre-registrants have not arrived by 1:25 PM.
• No new registrations will be taken after 1:25 PM. We will begin the tournament once all players are signed in.
• All players may remain for the entire tournament. Cheer your friends to victory!
• Trash talking is allowed, but no swearing or bad behavior.
• Prizes will be Target gift cards.
• The tournament may end early.

Tournament rules
• Players will combat using their own DS handhelds and their Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, HeartGold, SoulSilver or Platinum.
• Certain Pokémon are forbidden. The forbidden list can be accessed at Smogon University’s Uber list.
• Players will be assigned numbers at registration and will be paired randomly.
• Players 5 or more minutes late to any round will automatically take a game loss.