Digital Deathmatch Tournament needs your help

As the old Monty Python phrase goes, “And now for something completely different.”

In the interest of doing something a little bit more creative and different than just spouting off about games that are out and games I want, I’ve decided to meld together two of my favorite childhood pastimes – videos games and pro wrestling – into something I’m tentatively calling the “Digital Deathmatch Tournament.” I’ve been toying with the idea for some time now and decided that it’s time to actually do something with it.

So here are the rough deetz that I’ve got running around my brain – a 16-man tournament, featuring non-super powered game characters (like Max Payne, for example) minus superhero characters (like Batman). A certain level of “suspension of disbelief” will be employed so as to make match ups more interesting (this is partly where pro wrestling comes in) so matches consist of a little more than “Isaac Clarke slices Gordon Freeman in half with his plasma cutter – flawless victory.” Though this is a deathmatch tournament (also drawing on pro wrestling) so a bit of the ultraviolence will definitely be in store.

I’ve got it at two brackets of 8 right now – an East and West division if you will (though the divisions aren’t based on anything right now). Each character will enter the match with a melee weapon and a ranged weapon. I was originally toying with the idea of flipping a coin to decide whether characters would bring in either a melee or ranged weapon – but then I thought, “Screw that – why choose?” I haven’t decided on where to set these matches – maybe in some third-party location, maybe a coin flip would decide who had home-field advantage, so to speak, but like I said – these are just rough ideas at this point.

The last and perhaps most important aspect of this will be the participants. I have a list of entrants in mind – except my list is only 15 characters long. I need one final suggestion and I need your help. I tried to make these cross-platform characters for the most part but I’m not ruling out console exclusive characters. Here is my list:

-Isaac Clarke

-Gordon Freeman

-Max Payne

-Chuck Green

-Alan Wake

-Dom Santiago

-Mordecai (Borderlands)

-Ezio Auditore da Firenze

-John Marsten

-Eddie Riggs (Brutal Legend)

-Ethan Thomas(Condemned)

-Zoey (L4D)

-Jill Valentine

-Alec Mason (Red Faction Guerilla)

-Johnny Kibutz (Lost and Damned)

Before you start – yes I know Clarke and Freeman wear protective suits, that Eddie Riggs is part demon (And before you give me the ‘oh noes, spoilerz!’ c’mon man…if you didn’t play Brutal Legend by now, you aren’t going to) or whatever, just remember the whole “suspension of disbelief” thing and go with it. This is for funsies. Damnit.

I’ve been sitting on this idea too long and it’s time to make something of it. And the sooner I have a 16^th, the sooner I can start.