Sure.  Texas can be part of the Southwest and the South, because it's so big.  And because Momo lives there.

So I guess I'll just post here instead of DDRfreak now and everything will be OK.  Right?  RIGHT!???

At first it was a community thing, with tournaments as a central part of that.  The community in Colorado sort of stopped caring though.  I don't think I even really do play DDR anymore.

Max 2 followed by Supernova

I pretty much only play 4 panel with the bar, especially in competitions.  There are minor exceptions, like when I just feel like playing different, when I'm up against someone who isn't very good, or when I'm playing Remember You, but that's about it.

5 Panel and up is a different story (5, 8, and 10 panel that is).  I don't bar on Double because I don't really know how, and because I play more Pump Nightmares than DDR doubles.  Since No-bar is a pretty big thing in pump I just figured I'd make a go of it.  It's not like I have to worry about timing in the game, lol.  I only bar Pump when it's 5 panel, when the song is Dignity or harder, and (on Pump: Pro) when I'm trying to beat someone's score and I can't do it otherwise.  This generally only happens in the 98-100% range.  Pro added timing, so I add bar when I need to improve my timing.  But in general Pump is just a different animal.

Guys, you need to understand the math here.  Arrows are zero-sum relative to the DDR mix.  Any time you put an arrow in a chart, it has to come out of another chart.  Don't ask me what the ceiling on arrows is though, but clearly it's low enough to prevent 16th runs.  Otherwise there would only be like, 10 15's in the mix instead of 300 8's.

lol

 Suggestion list (because lists are easier on the eyes).

1. Memory Card/USB Slots

2.  Yes harder charts.  Maybe not 15's, for now

3. 16th runs.  16th runs.  16th runs.

 4. Distribution?  Well, make sure the learning curve doesn't become a cliff.  But I would honestly go for about 8 new envelope pushing songs per mix (13's or 15's or whatever), 10-15 12-ish type things, and 20+ new 11's/10's.  Then just put in however many lower difficulty stuff you want.  I take that back, do whatever you want with other difficulties, but only make 8 5's or so. Have them be awesome.

This is a rough suggestion.  Arch0wl I believe, who seems to be pretty much right on the money in general, has already pointed out that trying to dictate which songs should be stepped at which difficulty is problematic, and leads to thing like the kind of ridiculous boss song syndrome that the Supernova's have been exhibiting.  So, flesibility is fine.  Just giving a general idea here.

Do all those things and I'll be pretty happy regardless of anything else.  If you redesign the pads though so that they aren't as recessed, I'll probably die from joy or something. 

I wear Men's UK Gear GT-02's, because I was totally all like "man, what's the most epic shoe I can find online".  I dunno, it seems like they're breaking already (after 4 months or so), even though they're military cross-trainers.  I've done some stuff in 'em though.  Like passed Summer for the first time on a poorly maintained upgrade cabinet, AA'd The Legend of Max, and gotten half decent at Pump. 

 I sorta wonder if shoes even make a difference.  I mean, if a disproportionate amount of the top 50 players in the world all wear the same thing, then I'll probably go out and buy it.  But it doesn't seem that way.

I'm pretty sure Jadin would eat most Japanese IIDX players for breakfast.

http://www.bemanistyle.com/sims/simfile.php?id=20452

Well, considering Konami acquired it... ITG, lol

but seriously.  I like DDR Extreme arcade.  A good, large song selection, a timing window that's become the standard for comparison, memory card support, and stepcharts that work with the inferior DDR cabinet style pads.  Supernova added the ability to input initials in non-oni courses, which was cool, but all of the"hard" charts just sort of jumped the shark, memory slots dissapeared, and the incentive to play oni kinda went away (why play a difficulty which never shows up competitively and restricts your song selection if you don't get anything special from it.  Although sometimes when the choice is between 3 songs for a dollar or an oni course, I'll play it).  I didn't have too much of a problem with the timing window change though.

Hands, mines, and rolls aren't necessary, although I'm not opposed to them.  However, DDR seems to be absolutely phobic of 16th runs, and so when it's tried to make songs difficult it's resorted to stupid gimmicks like putting jumps everywhere and having random stops or speed changes. 

People who talk about "fun" like it's a counterpoint to difficulty, just don't get it.  There's no reason something difficult can't be fun.  There's no reason something gimmicky like Chaos can't be fun.  I will say one thing, and that's that there is a solid amount of demand for various types of stepcharts.  Different dance game mixes have a different feel to them based on how they were stepped, but let's look at this critically.  ITG had "stop and go", DDR had Chaos.  A lot of Pump NX stepcharts seem to make use of the same gimmick.  Energizer Hard had the same structure as Max 300.  So there is enough variance in most dance games for there to be overlap in styles of chart. Making the variance even is probably the best way to go.  If you're really worried about people complaining about difficulty...

well, why would you be?  I mean, making Oni/challenge into it's own difficulty won't stop anyone from playing heavy.  There are people who have played the game for years still on standard.  For the longest time, I couldn't play ITG on challenge so I only played on hard.  Aside from that though, you could follow pump's example, take harder songs, or songs which employ gimmicks or new types of stepping and call them "another" difficulties.

I'm going to pretty much agree with everything arch0wl said about distribution of difficulty.

You could also always take advantage of talent within the community.  Or, y'know, just put memory card slots on your machines.  Then good players would actually have an incentive to buy the home versions (they don't now), and people could make whatever steps they pleased if they didn't like those available on the machine.

My answer is: yes

Pump is great.  I like Pump Pro better, though.  Timing windows are nice, USB support and a sensible online ranking system is cool, and Feels just like that Night NM is pretty much my favorite doubles chart of all time. 

If Canada and Mexico enter, it would be an international tournament though.  heh. 

Ok, suggestion shortlist time

* Multi-tournament structure for preliminary determination of skill

* Media coverage for the entirety of the final tournament.  Even if just privately hired amateurs who upload the videos to a konami website.

* Paying for airfare or hotels for the final tournament would be nice.  However, if this is unfeasible simply posting hotel information (and directions to hotel from airport, and to competition from hotel) would do wonders.

* Hold it on DDR extreme arcade?  lol

*  Allow bar.  In preliminary tournaments, forbid 10 footers until the semi-finals.  In the final tournament allow 10 footers at all times.  Use rules to compensate for pad errors.  Seed the brackets, use double elimination.

That's really it.  I second many of Sporks suggestions, especially the bit about talking to locals about where would be best to hold regional DDR tournaments.  Although I think there might be a hidden motive in suggesting Denver for the finals.  The initial tournaments may have to remain open to type of DDR machine.  Colorado effectively has 2 good condition Extreme machines and one mediocre condition Supernova machine.  A competition held on a well maintained Extreme will be more skill determinative than one held on a crappy Supernova, regardless of what mix the final tournament is held on and even with rules to compensate for pad errors.  This is in part because people will change their style of play to compensate for bad pads, and in doing so will deviate from optimal form even if just in the tiniest amount.

"It's "except", and even putting that in, that's not a complete sentence."

 No it isn't.  His grammar was a bit off, but he definitely meant to use the word he used.

I don't think Konami acquired the designs for the ITG2 dedicab, because that was actually made by Andamiro.  Unless they find a way to engineer something roughly equivalent, or better, it doesn't really make sense to manufacture ITG.  DDR cabinets are very difficult to play ITG on, what with recessed arrows and all.  Some other issues seem to exist.  Unless the game's code is significantly altered, the R21 patch will still be able to be applied, which is likely a serious concern for Konami.  I like R21.  It seems to be a legal issue, however.  I would love to see ITG brought back, even without R21, but only if it was done right.  Maybe get the community involved.  There's more talent available for ITG style stepchart making in the community than in Konami, most likely.  No offense meant to Konami, the style of stepcharts between the two games are just very different. 

A home version would be much easier to produce.  It would likely work as a gauge for interest in the game.  Although I don't know that there's really that much of an overlap between the home and arcade market.  At any rate, I think that's where ITG3 would be mostly likely to show up, if anywhere.  At least in the near future.  Not saying any of this is plausible, but it's my estimation of how things should or would have to come to fruition, if at all.

I like Pro, for the most part.  Funky Tonight was butchered, Naissance Nightmare is offsync, Handsome Character is constant speed, and Gun Rock's ending makes it almost impossible to pass (I've done it once), but aside from that and a few other things it's a solid game.  To whoever said that full songs aren't in the game, that's false.  Or at least, there are extended songs.  Wi-ex-doc-va, bemara, etc.  Pump players seem to dislike Pro because it makes gameplay more timing focused than combo focused.  Let's face it, Pump it up doesn't have timing windows.  Personally, I don't get what the fuss is about.  A full Superb or full perfect combo is still a full combo, and learning how to actually time things is never a bad thing.

As for ITG (ITG2 on a dedicab, that is), I like it better than DDR.  There aren't any dancing games that don't have their quirks.  Like D2R's offsyncness, Highs off u doubles' lack of comprehensibility, Supernova's... most things... On the whole, ITG and DDR are both good, solid games.  Once I started being able to consistently AA 10 footers though, DDR kind of got boring except for when I'm going for a AAA, and that actually gets tedious.  I'd rather work on improving my Utopia score from a 95 to a 98 than continuously try and AAA L'amour.  I just enjoy being able to do consecutive 11's (and trying to get to the point I can do consecutive 12's or 13's) more than trying specifically for AAA's.  I don't really like any of the new DDR 10's, either.  Fascination Maxx -Eternal Love Mix- heavy is probably the exception.

As for songs?  I dunno.  As long as it's not You're Not Worth the Paper or Love this Feelin' , I pretty much don't discriminate.

DDRM POSTED: yo kilroy ready for the turny

 That was an awesome tourny.  Like, 8 people tied in greats.  I wish I hadn't been sick though.  I'm just looking forward to MMSD... hopefully.  Do you know if you're going yet?