Another big change coming

It's about 2:30 p.m. Within the next 30 minutes, you're going to see the new-look Get Your Tournament.

It will have a much different feel to it and will be a lot more user friendly. Bear with me, as it will take the rest of the week to get the site back to full strength. I do think it will be worth it, and I hope you like it.

While this portion of Get Your Tournament will remain up, the majority of the posts will be transferred over to the new site.

Enjoy!

A ratings boost for Major League Gaming

On Major League Gaming's Web site, they made note that there were nearly 1.4 million streams of the weekend broadcast that took place in San Diego a couple weekends ago. Also, they hit the mark with the young viewer. You can read more right here.

The live online broadcast of MLG’s competition drew a Male 12-34 audience comparable to or larger than many traditional male and youth-focused cable networks and many major cable sporting events. Moreover, viewers watched for an average of 81 minutes, revealing that audience wasn’t just sizeable, it was also deeply engaged.

Viewership of the TV-quality broadcast, with live commentary and graphics, doubled from the debut broadcast at the Meadowlands less than two months ago:

• 270,000 total unique Male 12-34 viewers
• 81 minutes average viewing time per viewer
• 1.4 million video streams
• 360,000 hours of video consumed

That is amazing, considering that broadcast viewing, in any medium, on a Saturday is the weakest of the week (which is why you don't see great sitcoms shown on Saturdays, because people aren't home).

Remember when the Patriots went 16-0 by beating the New York Giants? That drew in 34.5 million viewers. But because it was on a Saturday, it never had a chance of breaking any records even though the game was shown on three networks!

So if you think about what M.L.G did, it's amazing. Remember, they're only pulling people in through their Web site. There wasn't any television broadcast. And yet, they get 1.4 million streams.

Give "Master" the MVP, just do it

Is there someone that's going to show up in the next two weeks and just put up insane statistics to take down Emmanuel "Master" Rodriguez of the Dallas Venom? If he or she is out there, I'd like to meet them in person.

There was all of this talk about how the "Dead or Alive 4" division in the Championship Gaming Series was supposed to be the toughest in the league. With that, you'd expect the best person to be 7-2, and the worst person to be 4-6 or something close to that.

That makes Rodriguez's 10-0 all that more special.

Look at the limits he's been taken to:

Perfects: 1
1-2 Rounds: 8
3 or More Rounds: 1

He's given up a total of 17 rounds, which averages out to 1.7 rounds per contest - in the toughest division the league has.

The next best Dead or Alive 4 player, San Francisco's NinjaCW, has given up 35 rounds, and he's taken three losses (7-3)

As I've mentioned before, last year they announced the MVP award after the championship match. But even if by some stretch of the imagination that Dallas doesn't get there, can Rodriguez's efforts be trumped by someone else?

I also mentioned that I predicted Rodriguez to go 10-1 into the final matchup of the season -- against last year's best player, Ryan "Offbeat Ninja" Ward. But that would mean that Rodriguez would lose to Jeremy "Black Mamba" Florence before then. Rodriguez is so on a roll, it would be hard to stick to that prediction.

The flier for Axis Gaming's Brawl Major

The qualifying course

The qualifying course for the "Mario Kart Wii" tournament on June 28 in Rancho Cucamong a is ...

SNES Mario Circuit 3

Remember, you're ranked on your best lap.

Good luck, and see you Saturday.

A sports version of the double-blind pick

When I first started playing in Melee tournaments, I never knew why the blind pick was established. I figured that two players would keep switching characters until one person said F it.

As time passed, I learned.

Here's a sports example of the blind pick being put to use.

Apparently unsure of how the rules handle such an oddity, the umpires didn't stop the cat-and-mouse game until Venditte walked toward the plate and said something while pointing at Henriquez.

Umpires and both managers huddled and the umps decided the batter and pitcher can both change sides one time per at-bat, and that the batter must declare first.

The ruling favored the pitcher, since he gets to declare last.

About seven minutes after he first stepped in, Henriquez struck out on four pitches as a righty against a right-handed Venditte and slammed his bat in frustration. Staten Island won, 7-2.

There are some reports that say that in this rare instance, the pitcher must first declare what arm he is throwing with. Then, the batter can go to whichever side he chooses.

I have seen an ambidextrous pitcher before, when I was covering local sports in my hometown area. In high school sports in my hometown area, left handers and switch hitters are very rare, so that pitcher was going mostly right handed.

Chat with Tsquared today

Major League Gaming pro Tsquared will be on ESPN.com today as part of an online chat. It is scheduled to take place at 1 p.m.

Tsquared and his team, Str8 Rippin, are coming off their win in San Diego this past weekend where they pretty much rolled by everyone.

And I think he had the move of the tournament. In a Capture The Flag round, he grabbed the flag from his teammate and was barely feet from home base. An enemy player got in the way. Tsquared dropped the flag, threw a forearm to the guy to kill him, grabbed the flag and put it in home base for a point. All of this happened in the span of 3 seconds. It was an amazing move.

Anyway, you can send questions to ESPN and Tsquared right here.