PS3 Wireless Pads Banned At Evo
Aris ON Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 2:51PM 
I wasn't aware of this. Big thanks to TestYourMight.com for bringing it to my attention. Here is the original post by MrWizard.
Evolution 2011 is a Bring-Your-Own-Controller event. We provide the consoles, games, monitors and speakers for every game station, but it's up to the players to bring the controller they plan to play. This year we are restricting the controllers players are allowed to bring to ensure fair play and guarantee the integrity of the results.
How Wireless Controllers Work
All EVO games will be run on the Playstation 3. The Playstation 3 Dual Shock and Sixaxis controllers are both wireless devices. Plugging your controller into a PS3 for the first time pairs your controller to that Playstation. This pairing will be remembered by the Playstation until you sync your controller to another Playstation. We have found no reliable workaround to remove this pairing (1).
The Problem
Since there's no easy way to unpair a controller from a Playstation 3, any player who had previously played on a game console may accidently interfer with another game in progress. Consider the following scenario
1) Players A and B sync their controllers to the game station.
2) After they finish their game, Players A and B turn off their controllers.
3) Even though their controllers are turned off, the Playstation still remember that they are paired.
4) Players C and D sync their controllers and begin the next game.
5) Player A turns on his controller and hits the home button.
6) Since he hasn't yet synced his controller to the new station, hitting the home button will interrupt the game played by Players C and D.
There are a million different ways this can happen. For example:
1) A player eliminated from the tournament puts his controller in his backpack. While he's walking, some item in his backpack accidently bumps the home button, interrupting a game in progress.
2) A player finishes his semi-final match and turns off his controller. 15 minutes later he is called for his match in the finals of the winners bracket. While syncing his controller to the new Playstation, he accidently hits the home button while before his USB cord is plugged in, interrupting the semi-finals of the loser's bracket happening on the console he just left.
3) A sore loser eliminated from the tournament maliciously presses his home button to interrupt matches.
4) A player notices that is friend is about to lose a match on a console that he had just played on. He decides to "save" his friend by pressing the home button, forcing a replay of the round.
While some of these may sound far-fetched, each of these scenarios has happened at past EVO events. Some have occurred multiple times. In order to ensure the integrity of future events, we are not allowing players to use controllers which pair themselves with Playstations.
Allowed Controllers
1) Fight Sticks. To our knowledge, all fightsticks made by Hori and MadCatz use a wired connection and do not pair themselves to the PlayStation. They are all allowed.
2) MadCatz Fightpads. MadCatz Fightpad use a bluetooth USB dongle to pair the pad to the dongle. Since they do not create a paring between the pad and the Playstation 3, they are allowed.
3) All PS2 Controllers used with a PS2/PS3 convertor. Dualshock 2 or other PS2 controllers used with a converter box to convert them to PS3 controllers are allowed. For players accustomed to using a PS3 controller, this is your best option.
Specifically Banned Controllers
1) The Sixaxis and Dualshock 3 controllers designed for use on the Playstation 3 are specifically banned. These controllers have been the source of all of our problems in the past. We realize you can make these controllers "tournament friendly" by opening them and removing the batter, but we have no good way to enforce that rule at the scale EVO must operate on to finish on-time.
Reader Comments (44)
Ok here's an idea I dont know if it works but why not make a rule to after the match have your controller pair with a not used ( as in not used in the tournament ) ps3.You could even use that as loading station for the pads.before match pair with tournament ps3 after match pair with the non used one.Youll prob need admins to check but i like pad myself and seeing pad users do well in tourneys.
De-sync ps3s / de-sync stations doesn't work because it costs money to have extra ps3s and even then people will forget to do it. People forget to report their win/losses after matches which is the most important thing to do so a minor thing like de-sync is going to be asking too much.
Lets say evo decides to allow wireless pads on the condition that players have to de-sync. There is still a chance an idiot is going to forget and ruin a match between 2 other players. Totally not fair to those players even if they DQ the idiot because it was an external factor that ruined the match. Player1 could have been up by a ton, gets his momentum stopped by aforementioned idiot, and then cant get it back together so Player2 wins. Everyone one is a loser in that situation.
Evo banning wireless pads is the right decision. They were banned in previous years according to the rules, but they let it slide too many times and it bit them in the ass every year so I'm glad they decided to release this statement so everyone can get fair warning early enough to be ready by July. Plenty of time to get a ps2/ps1 pad, converter, and some practice with them.
LOL @ jakethesnake gandildo.
people gotta accept that the vast majority of tekken players on the planet right now are actually pad players. people goin to arcades are a small minority. banning pads, even if theyve been modified to prevent sync issues, is going to alienate a lot of newcomers who got started outside of the arcade. people arent going to buy adapters, so they can practice on a pad they dont likem and then travel to vegas to get stomped while playing on a pad they dont want to use. if people want evo to have fewer players involved in tekken, thats their business. but i dont think that benefits anyone.
Fight Sticks. To our knowledge, all fightsticks made by Hori and MadCatz use a wired connection and do not pair themselves to the PlayStation. They are all allowed??