Tecmo Bowl & R.B.I. Baseball tourney (Omaha)

[Omaha Cy]

Saturday July 24th @ DJ's Dugout: Miracle Hills location 777 N. 114th street Omaha, NE.
Tecmo Bowl @ 12PM, R.B.I. @ 6PM.

3 game opening round followed by elimination stages. Consolation games for early eliminations. Cash prizes to top 5 players & trophies for 1st place. Additionally we're throwing a small cash prize at a few other placing games.
This event has a lot to offer competitors of all different skill levels.

17 Systems/TVs are provided along with cartridges & controllers.
Weather permitting we'll have 2 outdoor gaming stations under tailgate tents.
$20 per tourney, or enter both for $30. Military ID gets $10 off either price.








In the previous 5 years this event has attracted players from 8 states & a province of Canada. We're expecting at least 2 new states represented this year.
Spectators are welcome to enjoy some DJ's Dugout food and sit in on this event. We've booked both party rooms & should have ample space for players & observers.

Additionally we're hosting a free retro gaming event the night before as the we set up the equipment. This will primarily feature a host of NES & SNES 2-player vs games.
Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, NHL 94, Ice Hockey, Tyson's Punch out, Super Mario Kart, Pro Wrestling, NBA Jam, and many more.

Details: TecmoBowlNES.com
Facebook: EventPage

 

[Omaha Cy]

A good portion of the tourney format, procedures, team selection process, etc can be found below in the signage that will be at the event.

In addition to playing these games for over 30 years, I've attended events in 9 states/10 cities.
I've put those experience to use and created our unique format & set of gameplay rule for the Omaha event.

 

[Omaha Cy]

8 cartridges from Ebay arrived recently. Goal is to accommodate a turnout of 30 players with extra equipment for cartridge & controller malfunctions. I probably have another 12-15 controllers packed up, which are not pictured below.

Some of the best players bring their own controller. They have a certain feel they like about the directional pad or the buttons. I certainly have a few controllers I take with me to an event. You really want the 100% feel & responsiveness if you're a top player.







The largest Tecmo Bowl tourney I've been at had 40 players in Cincy in their 7th or 8th year running it.
Also been to a couple 32 player fields in Columbus Ohio & Pittsburgh. Really hard to top that type of turnout, but ideally you want everyone playing at once to plow through the format.

The 2019 Dr. Mario Natl. championship in Pittsburgh had about 50 compete at a convention. It had a qualifying round throughout the day & anyone could enter. The top 20 or so returned that night for the actual championship rounds. I played for fun and got annihilated by some of the pros that traveled in from different states.

 

[Omaha Cy]

Omaha Storm Chasers had me bring out some gaming equipment along with Lead Innovations(video board trucks/trailers) for a R.B.I. Baseball esports night last Friday. Here's a few videos.

Little kid goes yard with Willie McGee! McGee has a very low power rating. This was fun to see.


Pre-game set up before fans were admitted to the stadium


Had some dads play RBI with their sons along with a few groups of 2 or 3 kids. Later in the night had a whole team of 8-10 year old kids play. They played for a solid 30 minutes, but were NOT impressed with RBI.

 

[Jammin’]

Right on man, This is pretty cool ! Brought back a lot memories of my youth, needed that today

 

[Omaha Cy]

Checking that all power cords & HDMI cables are in the boxes and ready to go for next weekend. Got a ridiculous deal on these Retron HD systems a few years back and stocked up.
The Retron HD is a quality system for the price with HDMI output. However the sound and color aren't great reproductions of what you got on an old Nintendo. With that said, the smooth fluid gameplay is what matters.


I used to own 12 or 13 working Nintendo systems, but even with new pins installed they tend to be a bit glitchy. Moving to new equipment was the logical step. I think I still have 5 NES left.


The AVS system is the best you can get. There is a nes cartridge playing system with HDMI and AV output that had a built in emulator and some other odds and ends. The name of it escapes me, but it's $500! I'm a nut bar, but that's too much for me to even think about buying.
AVS is still expensive, but great 720 resolution image and perfect sound. The AVS is used for our late rounds and championship games.

I have another HD top loading system made by Gamerz Tek. Pretty solid with possibly better color and sound than the Retron HD. For the price, really good unit.

 

[Omaha Cy]

This year's tourney had some 1st time attendees, which added representation of 3 new states to our tally (Kentucky, Wisconsin, and South Dakota). In 6th years we've had players from 11 states and a province of Canada attend.



Canada had representation in 2016/2017, and likely again in 2022.

A Trigonometry/Geometry instructor from Glenwood Iowa (Nathan Merz) won the Tecmo Bowl tourney. He will have the trophy proudly on display at his desk at school this year. Many staff and students have taken in interest in his gaming endeavors.
Nate's been to tourneys in 6 states typically placing 2nd/3rd/4th, and he finally came out on top. Nate formerly taught at Woodward Academy, which always has a decent amount of Cyclones football players on staff working with the kids. Lots of good stories he's shared with me over the years about those experiences with ISUFB players.

R.B.I. Baseball tourney championship went to Victor Lipari of Omaha. He's attended 5 Omaha RBI tourneys, winning 4 of them, also getting 2nd place in 2019. He works as a realtor here in the Big O. Victor has a ridiculous 41-5 all time record here playing RBI at this event.

A player from Kentucky this year was new to Omaha, but I've played him before in Ohio & Kentucky. He finished 2nd & 3rd in Tecmo/RBI... which is very difficult to place that high in both events.
A new player from Iowa City placed 5th in Tecmo & 4th in RBI. Certainly added some skilled players with those 2. Each year the field gets more challenging.

 

[Omaha Cy]

Clip from the championship game. Everyone else had concluded their games by then.


Clip from early on in the RBI tourney


I've had a lot of in-depth discussion with a film maker about filming a documentary for next year's event. He's gotten the green light with his distributors. Retro gaming has taken me to many places, landed me in a sports illustrated article, frequent guest on a podcasts, etc. Funny how a hobby has opened these doors.

 

[isucy86]

Not a video gamer- 70's childhood and drinking much of my non-working hours in the 80's

But I was surprised to find out a couple years ago that Strato Matic baseball is still popular. Thought the idea of cards and dice would have fallen to the side with electronic games. Just shows you people have a nostalgic love for the "good old days".

 

[bsaltyman]

I’m curious about the RBI tournament. In elimination rounds, is it one game and move on, or is it the best of three series or something? If you’re playing more than one game it could affect how you use your pitchers.

 

[Omaha Cy]

Not a video gamer- 70's childhood and drinking much of my non-working hours in the 80's

But I was surprised to find out a couple years ago that Strato Matic baseball is still popular. Thought the idea of cards and dice would have fallen to the side with electronic games. Just shows you people have a nostalgic love for the "good old days".

I know a guy that has a stratomatic league. Its probably rare to find them, but its still a thing.

 

[Omaha Cy]

I’m curious about the RBI tournament. In elimination rounds, is it one game and move on, or is it the best of three series or something? If you’re playing more than one game it could affect how you use your pitchers.

Tourney opens with 3 games of group play to determine everyone's seed. From there it's single elimination until the semi finals, where it switches to best of 3 through the championship.

There are always a few inexperienced/bad players that typically get all the lowest seeds. If we have a field of 20 players, the top 5-6 guys from group play typically have a really easy round of 16 game.

The round of 8 is still single elimination and gets dicey for the 3-4 elite players. An elite player often doesn't separate himself from a good player on the score board by much. The elite player just tends to have things locked down and keeps the game in hand as they grind through.

In 6 years, we've only seen one of the top guys get bounced in the round of 8 of RBI. They typically find a way to pull through to the semifinals where best of 3 becomes a major advantage for the favorite.

Side note, we don't do a traditional best of 3 where you go to your 2nd starter in game 2. The match-ups changes/resets for each new game. We observe the rule of only 1 starting pitcher though, unless the game goes into extra innings.

 

[bsaltyman]

Tourney opens with 3 games of group play to determine everyone's seed. From there it's single elimination until the semi finals, where it switches to best of 3 through the championship.

There are always a few inexperienced/bad players that typically get all the lowest seeds. If we have a field of 20 players, the top 5-6 guys from group play typically have a really easy round of 16 game.

The round of 8 is still single elimination and gets dicey for the 3-4 elite players. An elite player often doesn't separate himself from a good player on the score board by much. The elite player just tends to have things locked down and keeps the game in hand as they grind through.

In 6 years, we've only seen one of the top guys get bounced in the round of 8 of RBI. They typically find a way to pull through to the semifinals where best of 3 becomes a major advantage for the favorite.

Side note, we don't do a traditional best of 3 where you go to your 2nd starter in game 2. The match-ups changes/resets for each new game. We observe the rule of only 1 starting pitcher though, unless the game goes into extra innings.

Sounds like fun.

Do players pick their own teams, or is it randomly decided? I haven’t really played for a decade, but I always like to be the Minnesota Twins. I doubt I make it over there for the tournament, but I’m mostly just curious.

 

[BurgundyClone]

I know a guy that has a stratomatic league. Its probably rare to find them, but its still a thing.

Where?

 

[Omaha Cy]

Sounds like fun.

Do players pick their own teams, or is it randomly decided? I haven’t really played for a decade, but I always like to be the Minnesota Twins. I doubt I make it over there for the tournament, but I’m mostly just curious.

For RBI Baseball, the team selection process is as follows....

Coin toss winner names the match-up of the 2 teams. (NY vs MIN for example)
Coin toss loser has 1st choice of team. (Minnesota)
Coin toss winner takes remaining team and has option to bat 1st or last. (NY and bats last)

With the format of the tourney, most everyone gets to play 7 games at minimum. Occasionally a few people skip out on playing some of their consolation games after being eliminated.
That can result in only 6 games for some. Other who make a deep run into the semi-finals and championship(with best of 3 series) can play up to 11 games max. Each tourney runs a good 4+ hours.

For some of our competitors this is the only Tecmo or RBI they play all year, so they really love the long format and volume of games.

 

[Omaha Cy]

Where?

Turns out he plays History maker, which is a tabletop baseball game. He says its the same concept. He's on one of the larger cities in Wisconsin. Don't recall which one.

History Maker Baseball — PLAAY Games

www.plaayclassic.com

 

[BigJCy]