Combo Breaker 2024 $10,000 Pot Bonus part of the Pro Kompetition

"COMBO BREAKER is an annual gaming festival dedicated to competitive fighting games. Our renowned event takes place over 3-days each spring and showcases a vast number of tournaments, community activities, exhibitors, vendors, visiting artists, and more! COMBO BREAKER’s flagship event is a celebration of the fighting game genre. For 3 days this Memorial Day Weekend, players and fans from across the world will converge in Schaumburg, IL to test their skills, meet new friends, face old rivals, and share their love for fighting games."

MAY 24-26, 2024 AT THE RENAISSANCE SCHAUMBURG CONVENTION CENTER
1551 Thoreau Dr N, Schaumburg, IL 60173, USA

Registration closes for players in just a few days on May 5th! Find registration here - last checked MK1 was top 8 in entrants out of 24 games there

Combo Breaker 2024 is a Global Event on the Mortal Kombat 1 Pro Kompetition. This is the final of the 4 Global events on the tour with the most points and $ on the line until Final Kombat(the $200,00 finale of the tour)



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I'm ready!!!!

 

Gonna be super hype after how good EVO Japan was, hope everyone going has fun!

 

274 Entrants for MK1 at CB

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1787571848433037504

 

Just 274 at CB, fucking lol.

 

Out of all the majors/grass roots tournys combo breaker was know for being THE mk tournament,274 is abysmal.

They really need to get their shit together,they are falling on all fronts,SP content is a mess,progression is a mess,over monetisation is a mess,kameo systme is still in this overrestricted,1 move only,work in progress state,thats just awfull considering we are closing in on 9 months in on the game.Majority of characters desperatly need the rain treatment at the very least.

They were able to float in this unfinished state for a while and the kp character relase schedule sort of allowed them to do it, as there is always that expectation of something will happen,major changes coming etc.

I suspect after kp1 is done if they dont make big and targeted changes the to game to the correct aspects within that time and it remains like it is now,the game might fall of even harder to the point of no return,to the point even the expansion flops.

 

FWIW MK11 had over 800, I think.

I'm curious how much has to do with the game, and how much has to do with changing dynamics within the community/FGC landscape, as well as a different economic landscape.

 

Out of all the majors/grass roots tournys combo breaker was know for being THE mk tournament,274 is abysmal.

They really need to get their shit together,they are falling on all fronts,SP content is a mess,progression is a mess,over monetisation is a mess,kameo systme is still in this overrestricted,1 move only,work in progress state,thats just awfull considering we are closing in on 9 months in on the game.Majority of characters desperatly need the rain treatment at the very least.

They were able to float in this unfinished state for a while and the kp character relase schedule sort of allowed them to do it, as there is always that expectation of something will happen,major changes coming etc.

I suspect after kp1 is done if they dont make big and targeted changes the to game to the correct aspects within that time and it remains like it is now,the game might fall of even harder to the point of no return,to the point even the expansion flops.

Personally I think anyone who sees 274 entrants as terrible is part of the problem or hasn't been around long enough. This is still the second most entrants EVER for Mortal Kombat at Combo Breaker. This is still more than MKX could attract, than MKX and MK9 combined could attract when they held all titles in 2018. I think this community is the thing that is a fucking mess right now. All talk, no show, and no action. So many names I don't see entering a bracket or offline tournament


Now. Having said that - the rushed Pro Komp and rushed state of the game can't be ignored. I understand the frustrations I have them myself, but to say that these entrants #s are evidence of us as a community being dead or something just breaks my brain looking at previous years.

 

beat me to it Aqua!

 

kameo systme is still in this overrestricted,1 move only,work in progress state,thats just awfull

Just keep in mind MK1 is not an anime assist game were you fly all over the place all the time. It's essentially a 1v1 experience with added moves in the form of kameos. If anything, the main characters should be able to hold on their own with kameos adding flavour on top of that, not the other way around.

 

Just keep in mind MK1 is not an anime assist game were you fly all over the place all the time. It's essentially a 1v1 experience with added moves in the form of kameos. If anything, the main characters should be able to hold on their own with kameos adding flavour on top of that, not the other way around.

Absolutly i dont want it to be a crazy anime fighter but the way the cooldowns work and how much moves cost creats a situation were you are almost forced to use only one kameo move over and overand this is the case for an alarming amout of kameos.

And yes the characters should be able to have their own utility and gamplans and then kamoes add to it but bith aspects are scuffed,thats the issue.

 

Personally I think anyone who sees 274 entrants as terrible is part of the problem or hasn't been around long enough. This is still the second most entrants EVER for Mortal Kombat at Combo Breaker. This is still more than MKX could attract, than MKX and MK9 combined could attract when they held all titles in 2018. I think this community is the thing that is a fucking mess right now. All talk, no show, and no action. So many names I don't see entering a bracket or offline tournament


Now. Having said that - the rushed Pro Komp and rushed state of the game can't be ignored. I understand the frustrations I have them myself, but to say that these entrants #s are evidence of us as a community being dead or something just breaks my brain looking at previous years.

I mean comparing numbers when it was essentially the birth of the scene compared to 10 years later and numbers being lowere or around the ballpark of 10+ years ago is not a good thing imo.

Me or anyone else looking at the numbers and stating an opinion on it is not the problem and its very irresponsible of you to state that.The problem is nrs actions in terms of the games release and the community attitude towards legacy players.while in other communities old school players and legends are respected and uplifted in this community you see mass ridicule if an old school player flops in tournament,discouraging past top players from enterning tournaments in new games.

I didnt say these cb numebrs mean games is dead,i simply said considering CB is THE mk tournament out of all the majors the numbers are rather low.

 

Personally I think anyone who sees 274 entrants as terrible is part of the problem or hasn't been around long enough. This is still the second most entrants EVER for Mortal Kombat at Combo Breaker. This is still more than MKX could attract, than MKX and MK9 combined could attract when they held all titles in 2018. I think this community is the thing that is a fucking mess right now. All talk, no show, and no action. So many names I don't see entering a bracket or offline tournament


Now. Having said that - the rushed Pro Komp and rushed state of the game can't be ignored. I understand the frustrations I have them myself, but to say that these entrants #s are evidence of us as a community being dead or something just breaks my brain looking at previous years.

I am clapping, and will continue clapping.

You, Brady, Destroyer and @Mikemetroid should all come to Chattanooga and help me figure out where the hell all the players are at. I miss offline competition so bad.

 

Numbers ARE low. There is no getting around that. This isn't 2011 or even 2015. The amount of people that are "in the FGC" has exploded since then. NRS has just absolutely failed at capturing them.

Reasons for this are numerous. There is no denying that if it launched in the state that SF6 did, even with the exact same gameplay and art style MK1 has now, the entrants would be multiples higher than they are right now.

Functional online, industry standard modes and a lack of game breaking bugs goes a LONGGGG way.

 

Numbers are low because the pillars of community don't actively promote events. It wont make them "money". Everything must be handed to them on silver platter. They want a million bucks? Bring people to events so sponsors can sell shit and get that 1 mill. Fuck

 

And yes the characters should be able to have their own utility and gamplans and then kamoes add to it but bith aspects are scuffed,thats the issue.

Yeah, that's been the biggest hurdle in this game as far as gameplay goes. A good portion of the main cast seems a bit underwhelming. The good thing is NRS is heading towards the right direction by adding new moves and reworking characters.

 

Numbers ARE low. There is no getting around that. This isn't 2011 or even 2015. The amount of people that are "in the FGC" has exploded since then. NRS has just absolutely failed at capturing them.

Reasons for this are numerous. There is no denying that if it launched in the state that SF6 did, even with the exact same gameplay and art style MK1 has now, the entrants would be multiples higher than they are right now.

Functional online, industry standard modes and a lack of game breaking bugs goes a LONGGGG way.

I think it's hard to say this when SF5 launched in an even worse state and the players came out and supported it anyway.

The difference is that those communities will support their scenes no matter what, even when things are bad. That's how you build, recognizing that new patches and new games will always come eventually. Rather than discouraging people from attending, and trying to kill your own community over momentary disappointment.

Rather than celebrating the fact that many of the game's best players will be at CB and building on that, we'll complain that 200 more pot monsters from ArcSys or Namco didn't enter our game. It's a self-defeating mentality.

If we want the community to grow more rapidly, we need to be way more constructive, and less destructive to our own scene.

 

I think it's hard to say this when SF5 launched in an even worse state and the players came out and supported it anyway.

The difference is that those communities will support their scenes no matter what, even when things are bad. That's how you build, recognizing that new patches and new games will always come eventually. Rather than discouraging people from attending, and trying to kill your own community over momentary disappointment.

In our community, rather than celebrating the fact that many of the game's best players will be at CB and building on that, we'll complain that 200 more pot monsters from ArcSys or Namco didn't enter our game. It's a self-defeating mentality.

If we want the community to grow more rapidly, we need to be way more constructive, and less destructive to our own scene.

Look, i'm all for supporting the game and still play it. If life stuff didn't keep getting in the way I would have gladly spent thousands of dollars on travel and fees by now.

But, there is no defense for the low numbers. Some people might be highlighting it for the wrong reasons but the responses against them are mostly nonsense. The game has glaring issues, and anyone with friends outside of the NRS subsection of the FGC has heard their valid complaints and reasons for why they don't play it.

Also, yes getting the pot monsters from other games would have been fantastic and a great step in growing the community.

 

not that i care about the numbers very much, but it's worth remembering that this is the first time a new nrs game came out and combo breaker wasn't the very first or one of the first big tournaments for it, never been on the opposite side of the year from the new game's release date. anyway i'm excited for mk at cb, i think it's gonna be really fun

 

It is very much a community problem rn, the devs are taking this game in the right direction. We got our krossplay, the new characters have been extremely fun both main and kameo and the last patch we got was great. We have to look inward, at our own community and the ones around us who are basically waiting to dance on our grave at this point.

Regarding the latter part, it seems that every chance they get someone (a few occasions very big names in the FG community) is talking shit about our game, first it was some huge YouTuber screaming that DBFZ should replace us at evo, then it was Damascus talking shit about peacemakers animation, then it was Chris G who was spouting about the game being a failure due to sometimes having network problems, literally days after we got our best update and a huge pot bonus increase. Idk what the issue is but shit like this does hurt us, reminds me of DNF where before the game could really take off everybody formed an opinion that it was terrible and it definitely hindered the game issues with it aside. At a local level the game gets hardly any representation, there are multiple, tournaments all over Long Island running newer games and older a like, ONE group runs MK.. there’s a massive regional taking place soon on the island running every new fg that’s come out recently, except MK. This game is scarce when it comes to locals and that hurts us bad and it needs to change.

when it comes to us though, Aqua is right people gotta get off their ass and go where they can compete, our game is primarily online when it comes to comp and that’s fine but if we could have a strong offline scene as well it would be golden. The TO’s that do run our game need us to go support it can’t be one sided. Another issue is that our two biggest players, the ones any casual thinks of when it comes to MK are sonic and ninjakilla. Two players who do absolutely nothing for our community, hardly compete and hardly promote our community or use their platforms to help us grow. Sonic in my opinion has caused more harm than good on multiple occasions bashing tournaments they have competed in ( don’t take this as an attack on their character I’m sure both are wonderful people) but both could be doing a lot more to help the game that made both of them as prominent as they are.

Right now the devs are doing their part, I know it doesn’t excuse the terrible start we had but a lot of the issues rn are on us for a huge part. Sorry for the essay but I’ve been extremely passionate about this subject, love MK want the bullshit to stop, I’ve done my very fair share of criticizing the game and the devs but right now we got some serious work to do if we want numbers to boost.

 

Personally I think anyone who sees 274 entrants as terrible is part of the problem or hasn't been around long enough. This is still the second most entrants EVER for Mortal Kombat at Combo Breaker. This is still more than MKX could attract, than MKX and MK9 combined could attract when they held all titles in 2018. I think this community is the thing that is a fucking mess right now. All talk, no show, and no action. So many names I don't see entering a bracket or offline tournament


Now. Having said that - the rushed Pro Komp and rushed state of the game can't be ignored. I understand the frustrations I have them myself, but to say that these entrants #s are evidence of us as a community being dead or something just breaks my brain looking at previous years.

I am not trying to be disrespectful here, although because its me and this is TYM it will undoubtedly be taken as such...

MKX had 273.. literally the exact same number as MK1 now, so its not really correct in saying MKX could not attract this. Also, when it comes to community growth, the other 2 of the "big 3" fighting game scenes have grown by A LOT.. Mk started to grow in Mk11 and now has regressed 10 years. Meanwhile, not only have the other 2 of the "big 3" fighters exploded with their scenes, even games like GB, GG, etc seem to be getting more community support. At EVO, 3RD Strike is over Mk1 and that game came out 25 years ago. Its true that 274 is NOT bad.. but its not good either. Hell.. Mystery game tournament doesnt have a "pro komp", no $200k finale, no 10K pot bonus for mystery game tournament.. yet it doubled MK1 in entrants

MK used to have growth.. MKX was bigger than 9, MK11 was actually bigger than MKX with offline entrants.. MK1 has IGAU numbers.. NRS scene has stopped growing, at least with its offline tournament scene and the online one isnt far behind.

Not in any way saying MK1 is done. Just saying that NRS cannot continue to take the VERY slow route in completing it.

Attached are the Combo Breaker 2015 stats, this was the first CB for MKX and actually the first CB. MKX had the most entrants of ALL games.. MORE than even tekken and SF. Look at their communities now, thats growth.. In fact, as I pointed out, even the mystery game tournament has grown, but not MK.. nope.. MK1 has regressed the MK scene back to 2015

 

You lot are all insane.

It is LITERALLY THE 2ND LARGEST TURN OUT for MK EVER at ComboBreaker.

There are 5 regular weeklies and 2 monthlies that get as much every time. R1p gets 400 DAILY.

Anyone that says mk1 competitive scene is weak is either full of shit or ignorant.

I WISH there was a scene like this when I had the reflexes to compete.

 

You lot are all insane.

It is LITERALLY THE 2ND LARGEST TURN OUT for MK EVER at ComboBreaker.

There are 5 regular weeklies and 2 monthlies that get as much every time. R1p gets 400 DAILY.

Anyone that says mk1 competitive scene is weak is either full of shit or ignorant.

I WISH there was a scene like this when I had the reflexes to compete.

I literally just showed MKX had the exact same result.. Let me go a bit further..

Attached are the Combo Breaker MK11 numbers.. over 800 entrants, the competitive scene was growing. Counter argument is that MK11 was literally within its fist 2 months at that point. Also attached are the EVO 2019 numbers.. You will see we had over 1500 entrants and were VERY close to the entrants of games like SF and Tekken. Our competitive scene was growing and very close to the other 2 major competitive fighting game scenes. However, those games have competitive scenes that continued to grow while the MK scene regressed 10 years. In fact, in current times at EVO MK's numbers are lower than 3rd Strike atm (a 25 YEAR OLD GAME). Why? MK11's last 1-2 years rubbed many the wrong way and then MK1 still being unfinished even 8 months in also has rubbed many the wrong way. I have no doubt they will roll out at least 1 MAJOR update after EVO and get the game where many would love it to be, however taking so long to get there while doing many band-aid solutions in the interim has many ppl not wanting to compete offline.

You also mention the online scene.. Is it dead? Absolutely not. Is it even close to the other 2 major fighting game competitive scenes? Not even close.. Again, those scenes continued to grow, we did not and MK1's still unfinished state is a HUGE reason. You also must understand that its always the offline scene that's the first to go, the online tournament scene follows. If MK1 does not get completed sooner rather than later, the online scene will take a major hit while the offline scene will become non-existent.

I do not understand what the issue is with acknowledging that, YES.. THERE IS AN ISSUE.. NRS absolutely cannot continue the slow motion route. Blindly ignoring the obvious just to be "positive" makes no sense. The game is not dead, but right now NRS is not doing it any favors. Finish the game and I believe things will begin to grow once more.

 

Two things can be true at once:

1. MK1 has the 2nd most entrants for an NRS game at a combo breaker event ever, which is pretty good for the NRS scene
2. MK1 has way fewer entrants compared to some of the other popular FGC titles, which is disappointing since I assume that's where people want the NRS to grow to eventually.

 

Finish the game and I believe things will begin to grow once more.

Are there some specific things that NRS needs to "finish" that will lead to community growth? I just have a hard time pinning so much of this on NRS and on the game. To me the state of MK1 right now compares pretty on par to the state of MK9, MKX, and MK11, and least when it comes to things like balance and competitive gameplay.

If the goal is to see more community growth, then that seems to be more on the community itself than on NRS or MK1 the game.