Guitar Hero II (PS2) Competition at local karaoke bar

[rbudrick]

Hi Folks,

The local Karaoke DJ at a bar I frequent is going to do a GHII competition, but he isn't sure how he should play it out (rules, etc.)

Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? I know he wants to pace it out over several weeks and on Wednesdays only, but that's about it. I figured I'd ask you guys if you ever heard of such a competition and see what the rules were and report back to him.

Any ideas, advice, or stories?

Thanks!

-Rob

[studvicious]

Have people "register" for what category they want to compete in: (Easy, Medium, Hard)

For the 1st round, random people are picked from the easy category where a random (easy) song will be picked. The winner goes to the next round and the loser goes to last chance looser bracket. Everyone competes to the same song.

Rinse repeat for every category

For the 2nd round, random people are picked from the 1st round winners where they will play a random song. The winners go to the next round. THEN random people are picked from the looser bracket to play the same song as the "winners". Whomever looses this round goes home. :)

Rinse repeat for every category.

Then just keep doing that until you have a winner, double elimination style. That way if you mess up on a song and lose you have that second chance to redeem yourself.

In the end you would have 3 winners:

Hard - Nice Prize
Medium - A Price
Easy - Here's a ribbon

Just some ideas..

And I would have someone pick the song from a hat RIGHT before the first pair started. That way you don't have people practicing 1 song the whole week to get the leg up on the people that didn't.

[Mr. Smashy]

I've been in a few competitions and watched a few more. The biggest mistakes that I've seen at Guitar Hero competitions are when they connect the PS2 to an HDTV over composite. Even getting the lag compensation set just right in Guitar Hero 2 is a bit of a pain in the ass. If you have a display capable of 480p, get some component cables and enable progressive scan.

Only the official Red Octane guitar controllers should be allowed in competition. Competitors should be permitted to use their personal guitar controllers if they wish.

Style of play would depend on the amount of people competing and the timeline. Song selection should always be random and drawn from a hat (except for possibly the final song). Should you do a "best of 3" elimination, 5 songs should be drawn with each competitor choosing one song not to be played that round.

The quickest way to run a bunch of people through would be a 2-man Pro Face-Off where the winner proceeds. Hard should be the standard difficulty but Expert should be fine if both competitors agree to play at that level.

The final and semi-final songs should be performed in Quick Play so that each player would have the screen to themselves.

Giving competitors some practice time is usually a good idea.

Whatever you do, don't make every group of competitors play the same song to see who gets the high score. Nobody wants to listen to a cover of "You Really Got Me" thirty times in a row. Also, try to only have one copy of the game going at a time. In a karaoke bar, this shouldn't be a problem. Make sure that the competitors and the spectators can hear what's being played. People that play on Easy and Medium have no business being in a Guitar Hero competition.

[studvicious]

People that play on Easy and Medium have no business being in a Guitar Hero competition.

I thought about that too, but what if there was a bunch of people interested that have casually played it a few times and on the flip side there was 1 or 2 people that are experts? It would be a bloodbath. :) This way you could let some people have their fun and at the same time let the pros battle it out amongst themselves.

You'd probably get a lot more people to sign up if they knew that they weren't going to be completely humiliated right away.

[Mr. Smashy]

I thought about that too, but what if there was a bunch of people interested that have casually played it a few times and on the flip side there was 1 or 2 people that are experts? It would be a bloodbath. :) This way you could let some people have their fun and at the same time let the pros battle it out amongst themselves.

You'd probably get a lot more people to sign up if they knew that they weren't going to be completely humiliated right away.

You make a good point. Still, I'd factor in the size of the town and the publicity of the event. If it goes on for several weeks on Wednesdays, I'd expect them to adapt to the demands of their clientele fairly quickly.

[theshizzle3000]

Just don't play Freebird, Jessica, or Fall of the Pangea or you will be there all night.

[Slate]

Just don't play Freebird, Jessica, or Fall of the Pangea or you will be there all night.

And unless they're sure, They should not play these songs on expert:

Freebird
Jordan
Six

[rbudrick]

Freebird was pretty easy on expert, I thought...I got through it on second try...almost on first. Beast and the harlot, Psychobilly Freakout, and a couple others were the ones that gave me trouble.

-Rob