If you can visit one fighting game tournament a year, you should choose Combo Breaker.

I see that statement every year on Twitter after the event ends, posted by people from every sub-section of the fighting game community. This is my second Combo Breaker event, and it will not be my last. I’m trying to come back every year.

There’s a lot to cover, so I’ll separate this into sections to share my experience.

Volunteering

This is the second major tournament I’ve volunteered at. I was chosen to run two brackets in two separate games, and enter match results into smash.gg during pools.

Even though I missed the volunteer meeting, the staff and experienced volunteers made this extremely easy for me. Running brackets was super easy with the directions listed on my paper, and entering match results online was simple (though I already had experience with that from Michigan Masters 2018). Plus, there were always people around to answer my questions.

All volunteers were given access to a break room which was a blessing after spending hours on my feet. They even paid volunteers for their time!

I only got in four time slots of volunteering, but next year I definitely want to do more.

Pools

Every single setup at Combo Breaker had an Astro MixAmp with a headphone splitter. So if you brought your own headphones (or even borrowed them from Astro on site), you could have game audio . This is next level tech that I hope gets implemented at many more events.

As far as my performance:

TEKKEN 7 – 2 W, 2 L

The King of Fighters XIV- 0 W, 2 L

Mystery Game- 1 W, 2 L

TEKKEN 7 was a great learning experience. Through the weekend I got to face some of the best players in the world. And personally, not going 0-2 means I might be doing something right.

The Second Ballroom

I didn’t discover this until near the end of day 1, but there was a whole other ballroom to visit! That place had arcade cabinets, two extra streams, more setups for casual play, and Ladders.

I wish Ladders were more prominent. It’s a great concept: round robin games that you can play whenever, with the winner getting a prize at the end of the day. However, it wasn’t very well promoted and I couldn’t tell when Ladders started and ended without asking a lot of questions.

It’s a great idea and a good alternative to regular casual games, but they should be louder about where it is next time. Put up a a sign!

My goal for next year’s Combo Breaker is to get out of pools in Tekken 7 and get on commentary for at least one game.

I can’t say enough good things about this event. Go to it if you can, even as a spectator there are fun things to do in and around the venue. I’m already setting aside vacation money and requesting days off for Combo Breaker 2019.