The PAX 2009 Rock Band Tournament!

MrPulsar

VThornheart wrote: »

It'd be neat if we did something like the qualifying round determined what "bracket" you'd be in, so like there could be a competition between people who are of epic level, but lesser tournaments for those of lesser skill levels... like the minor leagues. =)

From what I've seen of most tournament it is seeded so that the 'best' players are as far away from each other as possible. It helps with the stress level of the tournament and ensures that the last round will be a truly epic one to watch.

I could be wrong though.

slacktron

MrPulsar wrote: »

VThornheart wrote: »

It'd be neat if we did something like the qualifying round determined what "bracket" you'd be in, so like there could be a competition between people who are of epic level, but lesser tournaments for those of lesser skill levels... like the minor leagues. =)

From what I've seen of most tournament it is seeded so that the 'best' players are as far away from each other as possible. It helps with the stress level of the tournament and ensures that the last round will be a truly epic one to watch.

I could be wrong though.

Then what are the chances of putting together a "performance tournament" that is independent of skill level, but judged on the on-stage antics of the band?

Zellpher

This should be fun.

PunkJr

slacktron wrote: »

Then what are the chances of putting together a "performance tournament" that is independent of skill level, but judged on the on-stage antics of the band?

That would be SO much fun...

Infidel

Last year the competition was pretty impressive. If you play just for fun, go ahead and play! But yeah, there's a lot of experts about.

I imagine our team will enter again. :^:

VThornheart

PunkJr wrote: »

slacktron wrote: »

Then what are the chances of putting together a "performance tournament" that is independent of skill level, but judged on the on-stage antics of the band?

That would be SO much fun...

Limed for "That would definitely be awesome, and I'd enjoy that a lot more than a mere points-based competition, even though I'd enjoy a points-based competition as well... I just know I'd have no real chance of winning in the latter." =)

DaNerd

slacktron wrote: »

Then what are the chances of putting together a "performance tournament" that is independent of skill level, but judged on the on-stage antics of the band?

Very low, probably because it doesn't require you to play the game at all. Normally I'd suggest a hybrid tournament, but I've yet to see a hybrid GH/RB tournament that went well.

DStalefish

Everybody's a winner when it comes to rocking out.

VThornheart

I don't think he was recommending hybrid Guitar Hero/Rock Band, I think he meant more like having people be "judges" of performance "quality" instead of points judging performance "accuracy". It wouldn't be as absolutely definable as point systems are, but with impartial judges it could be entertaining! =)

Squirminator2k

VThornheart wrote: »

I don't think he was recommending hybrid Guitar Hero/Rock Band

He wasn't.

VThornheart wrote: »

I think he meant more like having people be "judges" of performance "quality" instead of points judging performance "accuracy". It wouldn't be as absolutely definable as point systems are, but with impartial judges it could be entertaining! =)

Except RB/GH tournaments held in this manner generally don't work, which is the point DaNerd was making.

Jediknightkarl

if i can convince my other friend to come. (he has a pass but cant get out of work. then our RB the Caprica sixes will be there

JeTmAn

So, who needs an expert drummer? I tested myself on Panic Attack and Painkiller the other day and I got around 80%. Not good enough to pass on my own, but I think with a full band I could weather them if needed. Of course almost any song short of that difficulty I can handle without much problem on expert, and naturally any song I could do on hard. I'm a pretty good drummer, I'm just not quite good enough to play at the highest of high level expert difficulty.

VThornheart

Ohhh, now I see. I thought... bah, it's too complicated to explain what I thought he was saying. =)

Elgaladwen

I'm (usually) expert on vocals, depending on the song, if anyone needs a singer. Perhaps I will wander around during the band-forming time. I do like playing Rock Band quite a lot.

slacktron

I play drums and would like to get in a band for the tournament.
I'm not super intense competitive, I just want to play some Rock Band at PAX.
I'd say I'm average. I don't practice any particular songs or look up optimal overdrive patterns or anything like that. I try to do my best and get the best score I can, but I'm mostly in it for the fun.

I played through the setlist in the OP. Tried 'em all on Expert, and if that failed went to Hard. On a lot of these I suspect I would get a better score if I did them on Hard, as I can usually get in the upper 90s percentage-wise.

Spoiler:

The Main Drag,A Jagged Gorgeous Winter:
Expert Fail - 27%
Hard 78,175 - 96%

Avenged Sevenfold,Almost Easy
Expert Fail - 46% "Almost Easy?!"
Hard 85,750 - 92%

Kansas,Carry On Wayward Son
Expert 121,700 - 94%

Mastodon,Colony of Birchmen
Expert Fail - 9% the Colony made me their bitch, man.
Hard 68,175 - 89%

Lush,De-Luxe
Expert 48,875 - 87%
Hard 96,450 - 98%

Nirvana,Drain You
Expert 47,025 - 83%
Hard 93,275 - 92%

Fleetwood Mac,Go Your Own Way
Expert 103,400 - 89%

Duran Duran,Hungry Like The Wolf
Expert 99,575 - 93%

Bon Jovi,Livin on a Prayer
Expert 109,450 - 97%

The Donnas,New Kid in School
Expert 98,050 - 98%

Bang Camaro,Night Lies
Expert 89,825 - 89%

Blondie,One Way or Another
Expert 89,050 - 91%

L7,Pretend We're Dead
Expert 83,826 - 88%

Elvis Costello,Pump It Up
Expert 71,350 - 86% --Run at end nearly did me in

Steve Miller Band,Rock'n Me
Expert 109,425 - 96%

Guns n Roses,Shackler's Revenge
Expert 77,325 - 90% --First time I've heard this song

Paramore,That's What You Get
Expert 93,725 - 94%

Jimmy Eat World,The Middle
Expert 75,425 - 96% --Favorite song in the set. Too bad it's a low scorer.

Smashing Pumpkins,Today
Expert 105,725 - 95%

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones,Where'd You Go?
Expert 76,650 - 93%

And that's it! I am now in severe need of showering.

BillyMorshu

My preferred instrument is vocals (expert), but I can also play hard on drums and hard/expert on guitar/bass.

I usually FC songs like Almost Easy, Colony of Birchmen, Carry On My Wayward Son, and some other ones on the list of qualifying songs.

However if it's a song I don't really know/hate it, I do horrible (like "Shackler's Revenge" and "That's What You Get").

I may not sound like the best vocalist in the world, but I can hit the right pitch (I can perform some songs very well though), and if needed on certain songs (for added performance), I can do screams/growls on songs (like "This Calling", "Are You Dead Yet?", and "Cuz UR Next" even though DLC is not a guarantee in the tournament).

So if anyone needs a vocalist that's played all songs at least once (had to play some songs I hated because of Endless Setlist 2...), I'll probably be wandering around the area for a bit.

Send me a PM if you're interested!

niq24601

Oh and one more ... last year there was a "No Green Grass Until the finals" rule. It might be nice to have a "no Green Grass or Panic Attack until the finals" and then do those two songs.

Squirminator2k

I second that motion.

Kwisatz Haderach

DaNerd wrote: »

You wouldn't be playing Rock Band, you'd be playing air guitar, two things that do not combine.

At least, they didn't combine well for Guitar Hero...

http://www.toystoreinc.com/servlet/the-5915/Guitar-Hero-Air-Guitar/Detail

DaNerd

My friend actually got me that for Xmas, Kwisatz. I haven't touched it since I brought it home.

whypick1

On the subject of a points/performance based tourney, I was actually in one (and it wasn't a small-time tourney either). Way it worked was in the local round, it was based only on score. Highest scoring band from each venue advanced (well, for the most part; they weren't all on the same page which is something that needs fixing) to the regional round, and from then on it was half score, half look/act. Now, how those two parts tied together to determine the winner was a bit arbitrary (in one of the regionals there was a tie, and no one seems to be quite sure how that happened), but it seemed to work out OK.

I guess I should point out that my band will probably be playing (not the one from above). I'm not going to give you any clues as to who we are and how good we are. Forget it.

Whoops, did I drop something?

niq24601

I swear I posted this already ...

What if instead of a style tourney, we let the Freeplay Stage audience vote on style? Then give away prizes to the top vote-getter. I'm pretty sure theirs enough down time in the tourney that competitive bands will be able to hit the freeplay stage at least once. Ideally there's be a ballot you could tear off of your badge, but we could just make people write down their GT or badge number or something.

I'm assuming my band, No Boston After Midnight, will get bounced before Sunday, so I can do the vote counting then. If you are interested in helping out with prizes or manning the ballot box, add a reply or send me a PM and maybe we can make this happen on super-short notice.

slacktron

I actually thought a little about how an audience could reliably rate a band.

Then only thing that came to mind was downloading a decibel measuring application to a smartphone and writing down the maximum applause noise level achieved.

The louder the applause, the better the act.

CRCelf

So, me and my fiancee are searching for a Bassist and drummer to join up with for a band... We both play on hard/expert. He does guitar, the one song he absolutely will not do on expert is Snow(which is DLC anyway, so probably a moot point) I do vocals, have to play hard on certain songs because they are too low and gravelly for my girlie voice. PM me if you are interested.

mrcalcman

I really can only do expert vocals. I can play the guitar parts but not very many of them on expert. I would be interested in joining a band. I don't know about being onstage but it could be fun. Check out my scores online my xboxlive gamertag is : Huhnerficker

DStalefish

slacktron wrote: »

I actually thought a little about how an audience could reliably rate a band.

Then only thing that came to mind was downloading a decibel measuring application to a smartphone and writing down the maximum applause noise level achieved.

The louder the applause, the better the act.

Or the more friends they have in the crowd.

Diamond 333

Band in need of a singer and/or bassist... Our band did fairly well last year loosing to last year's winners... Please send a pm if you are interested (gamertags h2233 and KevinDDR)

Squirminator2k

niq24601 wrote: »

I swear I posted this already ...

What if instead of a style tourney, we let the Freeplay Stage audience vote on style? Then give away prizes to the top vote-getter. I'm pretty sure theirs enough down time in the tourney that competitive bands will be able to hit the freeplay stage at least once. Ideally there's be a ballot you could tear off of your badge, but we could just make people write down their GT or badge number or something.

I'm assuming my band, No Boston After Midnight, will get bounced before Sunday, so I can do the vote counting then. If you are interested in helping out with prizes or manning the ballot box, add a reply or send me a PM and maybe we can make this happen on super-short notice.

Not to sounds rude, but this is not a great idea.

MrPulsar

My two cents about "style" and "judged" based performances. They're crap, and I say this based on experience.

The Harrah's Challenge in Las Vegas was in this style and the judging was awful and one sided, usually the first band to play didn't win, and the last band to play won.

I've been in two performance based tournaments, I won both but I don't really see why. I just did small movements now and then and hit a lot of notes. I later figured out it is because we played last, the judges were afraid to give perfect scores early on and grew more comfortable as more bands played. Also, in other tournaments, judges may even score based on if they liked the song or not. My friend played Guitar Hero 2 for one of these once, and she chose the song "Jessica", the judges all gave her a bad score because they couldn't stand the song. Anyone that played "Laid to Rest" got a really high score from the judges. There is just no way of avoiding the timing, attitude, or bias of the judges,

The fact of the matter is, performance judged tournaments will never be fair unless it is a computer capable of monitoring these things with no bias what so ever, and that's some sci-fi shit right there.

Score based is the way to go, unfortunately. But even people who are not great at the game are capable of high scores if they just use overdrive correctly.

niq24601

MrPulsar wrote: »

My two cents about "style" and "judged" based performances. They're crap, and I say this based on experience.

I think this is why I like the "vote for your favorite band" idea. Yes it can be just as crappy and dependent on order and song selection as judges. But rather than being at the whim of four or five judges you're at the whim of the hundreds (thousands?) in the audience over the day. Yes, it favors people who have more friends in the audience. (but srsly, if you're bringing 50 friends to PAX so you can win the RB style challenge, find something else to do w/ your money). I mean we all know the People's Choice Award is never the best song or music video, but it at least reflects something.

That said, I understand why people would think this is just as lame as having judges. T_T.

whypick1

MrPulsar wrote: »

My two cents about "style" and "judged" based performances. They're crap, and I say this based on experience.

The Harrah's Challenge in Las Vegas was in this style and the judging was awful and one sided, usually the first band to play didn't win, and the last band to play won.

I've been in two performance based tournaments, I won both but I don't really see why. I just did small movements now and then and hit a lot of notes. I later figured out it is because we played last, the judges were afraid to give perfect scores early on and grew more comfortable as more bands played. Also, in other tournaments, judges may even score based on if they liked the song or not. My friend played Guitar Hero 2 for one of these once, and she chose the song "Jessica", the judges all gave her a bad score because they couldn't stand the song. Anyone that played "Laid to Rest" got a really high score from the judges. There is just no way of avoiding the timing, attitude, or bias of the judges,

The fact of the matter is, performance judged tournaments will never be fair unless it is a computer capable of monitoring these things with no bias what so ever, and that's some sci-fi shit right there.

Score based is the way to go, unfortunately. But even people who are not great at the game are capable of high scores if they just use overdrive correctly.

Definitely valid criticisms. For bias, the 2nd place band in the finals got screwed over because they drew Ramblin' Man and one of the judges gave them a 4 because, and I quote, "I don't like Southern Rock". That was some grade A bullshit right there.

For score/talent, see every motherfucking band that picked Give It Away in the local rounds (we had the distinct pleasure of beating one of them; they'd have won had they not mistimed an OD activation).

DaNerd

If you want to do something performanced based, there is literally no reason to do it with Rock Band. You should just do air guitar, it is the exact damn thing as far as judging is concerned.

MrPulsar

No voting, none of that, it's just crap no matter which way you take it in.

Also to whypick1, yeah, the harrah's thing was just crap all around. So glad I was too young to enter it, I would not have had fun.

The style they're using for this tournament is the best, by far. Both teams pick 1 song, tie breaker picked if necessary. That prevents things like score capping and everyone playing the same song.

Also this brings me to another question. Can your band pick the same song more than once in the tournament? I know at Sakura-Con you could only pick a song once.

All I have to say is thank gawd they made this score based and not performance based. Would have been lame x100000000. Also it's a nice break to do team oriented stuff instead of single player Guitar Hero tournaments. They were fun but, just a bit too stressful.

skeltonath

My band is short one member, and we will go on as a 3-man band, but I'm sure my bandmates would rather I not voxbass, haha.

Is there an expert bassist out there who would like to join the winning band from last year? :mrgreen:
If you're interested, PM me, and we'll talk.

The DIMD

If anyone needs a vocalist I can gold star pretty much every song on the game.

JeTmAn

Has anybody actually been getting a band together as a result of this? Expert drummer here, saying please PM me if you need someone to drum

Squirminator2k

JeTmAn wrote: »

Has anybody actually been getting a band together as a result of this? Expert drummer here, saying please PM me if you need someone to drum

Yes.

The DIMD

Squirminator2k wrote: »

JeTmAn wrote: »

Has anybody actually been getting a band together as a result of this? Expert drummer here, saying please PM me if you need someone to drum

Yes.

Well, in that case, if anyone needs an expert vocalist, PM me

JeTmAn

The DIMD wrote: »

Squirminator2k wrote: »

JeTmAn wrote: »

Has anybody actually been getting a band together as a result of this? Expert drummer here, saying please PM me if you need someone to drum

Yes.

Well, in that case, if anyone needs an expert vocalist, PM me

Maybe we should just call ourselves a band that needs a guitarist and bassist :^:

The DIMD

JeTmAn wrote: »

The DIMD wrote: »

Squirminator2k wrote: »

JeTmAn wrote: »

Has anybody actually been getting a band together as a result of this? Expert drummer here, saying please PM me if you need someone to drum

Yes.

Well, in that case, if anyone needs an expert vocalist, PM me

Maybe we should just call ourselves a band that needs a guitarist and bassist :^:

DEAL!