History of Southern Kombat
*up until 7/7/21
In order to go into the history of Southern Kombat, we must talk about the first online tournament I ever ran.
UMK3 Revival took place on August 18th, 2018. It was a traditional double elimination bracket with 9 participants. I enjoyed this turnout and it was a fun tournament to run. At this time, I was not really known the way I am today as I was not a YouTube creator or a powerhouse of a player that was notable.
I had plans to make UMK3 Revival a bi-weekly online tournament. I was quickly discouraged after the amount of players registered for UMK3 Revival 2 was near to not enough and I had to post-pone it for a few hours which brought it down to 2 participants. I would not run another tournament until 2021. I had the idea sometime during 2020 of a southern regional tournament series to bring a little more southern representation to the UMK3 community. Most of the UMK3 competitive community hangs around the northern states and the only "southern" players I could think of are Trukuu and myself at that point in time. Come around 2021, and I felt like it was time to shoot my shot with online events.
Southern Kombat I
The concept of Southern Kombat was born! Southern Kombat I was region locked to only the Southern States. I only intended it to be a Southern Regional and I gave a rough list of states that qualified to compete. This was to combat things such as lag while also giving some headroom for those with Wi-Fi connections. This was also the tournament where I had a rough idea of some other names in the Southern Region of the United States. The tournament had 4 participants.
Turd Baby: I had actually heard of Turd Baby because of CKK, but I was surprised to find out that he was also from Mississippi!
xCounterWeightx: I had already known of this player, but I didn't know he was from Maryland.
Trukuu: I first met Trukuu back in either 2018 or 2019. He caught my eye because apparently he was a Classic Subzero main and I also started out as a Classic Subzero main so I wanted to learn from somebody that was more experienced. I wouldn't talk to him for a year or so because I just wondered if he was still hanging around Mississippi and he was actually doing some events in Starkville at that time.
RC00: That would be me! :P
Ultimate Southern Kombat
The idea for Ultimate Southern Kombat had set in after the small success that was Southern Kombat I. Ultimate Southern Kombat would serve as the offline event for the southern region of the U.S. I had made a small announcement making some people aware of the idea. The only issue came down to times I was available. Trukuu was awesome when it came to helping me out with resources and we were good for the most part on paper. Sadly, my passions outside of UMK3 conflict with trying to run an event. I most likely would not be able to run this tournament until 2023 or 2024 (around the time I graduate high school).
Southern Kombat II
Southern Kombat II will be the first Southern Kombat tournament open to all participants in North America. Once this tournament is completed, this thread will be updated.
Hey RC! It's great to see an official timeline with "the lore". I really enjoyed participating in SK1, and wish you luck with your future TO'ing endeavors. It can be discouraging/frustrating having repeat events with low to no turnout, but it often comes along with the territory of supporting niche games you love. Even though your large, offline event is cancelled for some time, I hope you'll continue to pursue online organizing when possible. Even with small turnouts Round-Robins and casual sets can make for some worthwhile competition. In the meantime, I wish you luck with your other pursuits. I'll definitely be looking forward to any future announcements!