Keith Abbott of Euphoria Gaming

The past year has seen many local groups rise to the occasion and provide a vast array of tournaments for the Arizona gaming community. Keith Abbott, founder of Euphoria Gaming, is no different in this respect and spoke with The Pause Button on the groups’ hopes and plans for 2012.

As Euphoria Gaming plows into 2012 with their Super Marvel Madness finale on Saturday, as well as several planned free tournaments, the group has alot of potential to grow and change within the coming months.

Abbott first founded his own gaming group, Euphoria Gaming, in 2010 in an effort to support and flourish a West Valley gaming scene. He started off by hosting small tournament gatherings at a local shop called GameTag in Litchfield Park. The competitions began to receive good receptions and Abbott decided to pursue more.

After running multiple small tournaments in games such as Capcom vs. SNK 2 and the like, Abbott decided to officially name his group Euphoria Gaming and move on to running slightly larger events in different venues. Unfortunately, due to the closing of GameTag within a year, Abbott was forced to re-examine his plans and adjust his strategy.

“It was hard,” said Abbott in a Saturday interview. “Because the West Valley didn’t really have any place to go to other than GameTag and once it closed it was alot harder to find a spot to hold stuff at.”

Hazem Ibrahim of Team Hazmat (left) and Keith Abbott of Euphoria Gaming (right) working at a competition. Photo courtesy of Keith Abbott.

The group took a temporary hiatus as Abbott changed plans. Euphoria re-emerged more so in 2011 with hosting several tournaments such as the Bloodlines and Arcana Blaze series of competitions held at various venues such as Gotham City Comics and LAN Speed Games. Abbott cited the support from local gaming groups such as Team Hazmat, as well as the venues, helped fuel his plans for more competitions.

“My purpose is to help AZ gaming and grow the scene and welcome new players,” said Abbott. “I want to grow the scene and get alot of stuff going in the state for upcoming games.”

Abbott and Euphoria Gaming are definitely not alone in this aspect, as the group has received much support from other local gaming groups. Abbott mentioned that the new year will hopefully see the birth of an official Euphoria Gaming website, logo, and bigger and more varied events.

Euphoria’s next event will be the finale to their Super Marvel Madness series on Saturday at the University of Advancing Technology, where they will be joined with Team Hazmat. Following that, the group has plans to host numerous free tournaments for Soul Calibur V, King of Fighters XIII, and Blazblue CS: Extend.

For more information, follow Euphoria Gaming on Facebook for event information, as well as keep an eye on The Pause Button for posts on upcoming events.

Both LAN Speed Games and Team Hazmat are hosting events this week in Peoria and Laveen respectively.

First off is LAN Speed Games with their traditional Lock-in/All-Nighter event on Friday, in which they take a group of entrants and seal them in the building with nothing more than pizza, soda, and various games to keep them company.

The Lock-in costs $17.50 for a sign-up beforehand, $20 the day of, and will start at 10 p.m. going all the way until 8 a.m. Saturday morning. LAN Speed has confirmed that only about 10 seats are remaining so participants may want to register quickly. For more information, check out their official event page.

For those of you keeping track, this weekend aligns itself for the second official round of Team Hazmat Hazbats. On Saturday, the team will be hosting their ranbats for both Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition (ver. 2012) and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

The action will start off at 3 p.m. with casuals and sign ups, with $5 venue and entry fees into each tournament. For the full rundown of rules and info, check out our previous post or the official event page.

The device on its own appears to be similar to a tablet, but as explained in the video, offers up a personalized screen for multiplayer integration. Players can apparently get their own screen on the Wii U controller, in addition to their own split piece on their television of choice with which the game is playing on.

The controller itself is fairly large with a touch screen, what appears to be an IR receiver on the front, two analog sticks, a d-pad on the left side, a four button layout on the right hand side, various pause, start, and home buttons on the front, and two sets of bumpers on the back of the device.

The Wii U seems to be self sustaining on its own, so the thought of using it on a television screen with an apparent “home base” device seems a bit redundant. However, more features remain to be seen, which the company has promised to reveal at the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo  in June. 

After seeing this, are you more or less interested in the Wii U? Let us know in your comments below!

The team is hosting their official “Hazbat tournaments” a.k.a. ranbats (ranking battles), starting off this Saturday the 7th at their hangout in Laveen.

Team Hazmat has officially announced they will be hosting a season of ranbats for both Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition 2012 ver. and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on every other Saturday for the first three months of the year. The schedule for them is as follows:

-January 7 

-January 21st

-February 4th 

-February 18th 

-March 3rd

Every ranbat will kick off officially at 2:00 p.m. for casual play and sign-ups, with SSFIV: AE 2012 battles starting at 4 p.m. and UMvC3 following at 6 p.m. Everyone is welcome to enter, with a $5 venue fee and $5 entry fee per tournament. The entry fees will be split into a grand winners pot and a tournament pot, so if you win on any given night, you will also be awarded a pot prize as well as points.

Ranking battles is of course about building up your skills, so the team will award points to 1st through 8th places in each tournament every ranbat. First place will be awarded seven points, second gets five points, third gets three points, fourth gets two points, and fifth through eighth placers receive one point apiece.

At the end of the season, all the points will be totaled up to see which participant ranked the highest, not only to crown the best of the best, but also to award the ranbat grand winner pot.

The ranbats will also be streamed on Team Hazmat’s official Twitch.tv channel. For more details, please visit their official event page.

Our friends in Tucson at Arcade-in-a-Box will be hosting their boot camp for the revitalized Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (2012 ver.) on Wednesday.

If you truly want to build your skill from the ground up, there’s no better way to do it. The boot camp consists of three stations divided by beginner, intermediate, and expert level rotations. Players have to climb the ladder in various promotion/demotion matches in order to be placed in the next station up.

But if you’re a beginner and worried about being perfected into humiliation, there’s no worries, as AiAB has instilled the “Latif Rule” where no single player can have a win streak longer than five matches, giving everyone a chance to play and participate against different opponents.

The event costs $5 for entry and is set to begin at 8 p.m. until midnight. For more information about rules and matches, check out the event page from Arcade-in-a-Box.

Image courtesy of LAN Speed Games.

The crew at LAN Speed Games in Peoria are throwing a huge New Years’ Eve bash to welcome 2012 with open arms, as well as prizes, giveaways and ridiculous amounts of gaming.

The event will take place on Saturday Dec. 31st at 6 p.m. and run all the way into Jan. 1st at 10 a.m. making for a mind-numbingly awesome 16 hours of gaming to be had.

The bash will be similar to their previous lock-in events where participants will be “sealed” into the venue and treated to all manner of pizza, tournaments, and festivities.  Entrants need to pay $30 in advance at LAN Speed Games (or you can call in) to reserve a seat and slots are apparently filling fast so the sooner you grab one, the better.

Check out their official Facebook event page for more info.

Photo courtesy of Taiyou Con.

The event will be taking place on January 6-8 Taiyou Con at the Hilton Phoenix East/Mesa hotel.

AZHP will be hosting tournaments throughout the weekend. As per usual practice, the crew will host open and casual gaming throughout the event as well, but their tournament schedule is as follows:

Friday-
Arcana Hearts 3 – 2 p.m.
Naruto Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 – 4 p.m.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl – 7 p.m.

Saturday-
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike – 12 p.m.
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 – 2 p.m.
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (ver. 2012) – 5 p.m.
Mortal Kombat – 8 p.m.

Sunday-

Blazblue: Continuum Shift II – 1 p.m.

Tickets for Taiyou Con are currently available via their website for $30 (until Dec. 31st) so you have plenty of time to mark it on your Christmas lists for that anime/video game lover in your family.

Photo courtesy of Saboten Con.

Yamaoka is a composer for the studio most widely known for his compositions featured in the Silent Hill series of video games, most notably Silent Hill 3. His most recent sound work includes the 2011 demon shoot’em up title Shadows of the Damned. Yamaoka will join fellow video game guests Phil LaMarr, the voice of Vamp in the Metal Gear series, and Troy Baker, voice of Vincent in the game Catherine, at the convention.

[UPDATE: Saboten Con officials further announced that Yamaoka, along with Troy Baker and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, will be putting on a Silent Hill music concert on the Saturday of the event. Your mind blown yet?]

It appears that Saboten Con is bringing out the big guns for their venue move to the bigger (and hopefully better) Glendale Renaissance Hotel for the event on September 1st through the 3rd.

With that, why not check out our awesome (and recently recovered) interview with Reuben Langdon at the 2011 Sabo event?

The team plans to host two tournaments on Saturday at their hangout spot in Laveen.

The casuals will kick off first at 5 p.m., then the first tournament will start at 7 p.m. with Marvel vs. Capcom 3, followed by Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition 2012 ver. at 9:30 p.m.

There will be a $5 venue fee and a $5 fee for entry into either tournament, with a pot split going for the winners. The team is requesting that competitors bring their own controllers and arcade sticks.

As always, the team will also be streaming the tournament action on their twitch.tv channel all night.

"Alright guys, we win this match and I'll buy the first round of hot cocoa. Deal?"

Many will likely choose the latter, as the Pause Button’s own IncreaseBlue has opted for in this chilly weather. She’s gotten the chance to peruse some of winter’s biggest titles and offers her thoughts below on what might entertain during those harshly cold days.

IncreaseBlue-

Not that I’ve had bucketloads of time or anything, but I have managed to sample some of the big titles for this holiday season and the pickings are pretty good so far.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations-

Unfortunately Assassin’s Creed Revelations seems to follow more closely to the Uncharted formula in that it’s pretty much the same as AC: Brotherhood, except this time you notice it a whole lot more this time around. You follow Ezio around once again as he attempts to chase Altair’s ghost and unveil his secrets, all the while Desmond is left to try and not be driven insane (because you know, we’re playing in his head after all).

ACR makes only a few game changes like the hookblade, but these won’t throw anyone off who was used to even ACII’s controls. The story is ok and the multiplayer is challenging, but if you’re not in it for stabbing your friends online, you can easily finish this game in a weekend. Rent it first.

"I told you not to eat the last gingersnap!"

Batman: Arkham City-

Hey it’s not exactly brand new, but it’s still on tons of Christmas lists I can tell you. Arkham City pits Batman himself in a large baddie-filled metropolis that he has to find Joker in. The story is about as long as Arkham Asylum (can take up to a weekend) but the side missions and stories prove far enough material to take up weeks if you pace yourself.

The gameplay is solid and the story introduces some villains we missed out on the first time around (any Penguin fans out there?), so it proves a strong experience all around. Buy it if you loved Asylum, rent it if you just want to entertain yourself running around as the Dark Knight.

Saints Row: The Third-

If you think this is weird, you ain't seen nothing yet!

Even if you’re not a follower of the previous games, Saints Row has likely piqued your interest at some point in time with its viral marketing and focus on the absolute silliest concepts ever to find in a game.

Indeed Saints Row 3 plays out like GTAIV and AdultSwim put through a blender, but the insanity that is the result is extremely entertaining. The main story revolves around the commercialized “Third Street Saints” gang trying to regain their street cred in the most ridiculous of ways. Chances are you’ve heard of some of the wacky side missions so I won’t give anything else away, but this game is designed to make you laugh like an immature 13-year-old and keep playing for a few solid weeks. Rent it if you’re curious on the experience, but buy it if you thought GTAIV was just too serious.

As I said, I’ve only sampled a small bit of the huge blockbusters out there (I don’t yet have adequate life force in me to subsequently be sucked out by Skyrim) but it’s a solid list for any who have passed up some releases and need some games to preoccupy them during the holiday times. That being said, what have you guys been playing to keep warm this winter? Let us know in the comments below!