When you enter a gaming tournament, you usually know what you’re in for. Unless you’re entering a mystery game tournament. Do that, as dozens of people did at the Combo Breaker event in St. Charles, Illinois last weekend, and you’re playing the notorious Dong Dong Never Die. That’s just for starters. Weird picks followed in bracket after bracket throughout in one of the weekend’s most entertaining events.
Mystery game tournaments are exactly what they sound like: players make their way through the bracket having no idea what games they’ll be playing. Sometimes the competitors will be lucky enough to get a legitimate title they’ve played before, but more often than not they’ll find themselves playing Soulcalibur II on Dance Dance Revolution dance pads or even stepping away from the digital world for a few games of Don’t Break the Ice.
First popularized by the Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament (or UFGT) in Chicago, mystery game tournaments have continued at spiritual successor Combo Breaker.,This year’s Combo Breaker installment started off with a bang. While other players competed in games like Street Fighter V, Killer Instinct, and Capcom vs. SNK 2, some of the mystery game tournament’s 135 participants experienced one of the most notorious, “so bad it’s good” fighting games in existence, Dong Dong Never Die. An independent Chinese release that utilizes digitized graphics akin to early Mortal Kombat installments, Dong Dong sports a cast of classic characters such as Albino Anime Guy, Female Iori Yagami, and of course, Mario.
While it may not look like much on the surface, there are a number of strategies players can employ when competing in a mystery game tournament, the most important of which amounts to “find and abuse the cheap shit.” This tactic became vital to veteran competitor Ari “Floe” Weintraub’s success when he came face to face with Way of the Warrior later in the bracket.
Another digitized fighting game, Way of the Warrior was one of the earliest titles developed by Naughty Dog before they found success with the Crash Bandicoot series. It’s complete crap, but this crappiness helped Floe secure victory after he discovered that a character named The Dragon is capable of completely locking down the opponent with his lightning legs attack. At one point, he even held up the controller to show the crowd how easy it is to execute.
But don’t let this fool you into thinking only fighting games are included in the mystery pool. As the tournament marched towards its dramatic conclusion, players competed in mini-game collections Muppets Party Cruise and Move or Die as well as Windjammers, the greatest sports game of all time. The grand finals came down to who could perform best in Twinkle Star Sprites, a puzzle-shmup with a competitive mode that allows players to send additional bullets and enemies toward their opponents.
As you can see in the clip below, eventual champion KAZMER took his victory over Floe seriously, much to the chagrin of community members online. “Rick, give me my shit!” he screamed at Combo Breaker tournament organizer Rick Thiher, his shit being the same style of trophy given to the weekend’s other champions and 50% of the prize pool. While he didn’t get far elsewhere, KAZMER succeeded where it counts: a randomized bracket full of the weirdest games imaginable.
While the format has been adopted across the globe, mystery events remain a vital part of Midwestern tournaments and their unique charm. The experiences they offer—from brackets where you never know what game you’re going to play to auction tournaments where competitors sometimes pay hundreds of dollars to play their favorite character—are always just a little bit different than tournaments on the coasts, making them must-visit affairs every year.
Combo Breaker works hard to maintain the aspects of the fighting game community most likely to disappear should formal eSports events become the law of the land. The event sports open brackets and huge lineups featuring popular and obscure games alike. The mystery game tournaments are always the simplest representation of the scene’s grassroots appeal, and this year’s competition was no different.
For more mystery game action, be sure to check out the Twitch archives courtesy of Team Spooky and BGCallisto.
Ian Walker is a fighting game expert and freelance writer. You can find him on Twitter at @iantothemax.