Konami is celebrating the one-year anniversary of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots in an unusual fashion. Instead of creating commemorative figurines or throwing wild office parties, the publisher is hosting a head-to-head Team Deatmatch Metal Gear Online tournament. Awesome.

The tournament won’t net participants prizes, unless you count adulation and bragging rights as something as worthwhile as a toaster oven or LCD TV.

The tournament kicks off on June 26, but Konami will be taking entries as early as June 23. The press release about the tournament stressed that the number of people that can participate will be limited more than twice, so we’re guessing it may be wise to jump register on June 23. Careful though: you need the 'SCENE' expansion to participate.

Speaking of entry, immediately below is what you have to do in order to sign up (as the press release reads).  Take notice the amount of menus. Even tournament entry is hard in MGO.

Step 1: Log into MGO with the character you wish to enter into the Tournament
Step 2: Go to Lobby Select and choose Tournament Registration
Step 3: On the Lobby Screen select one of the 4 tournament lobbies to register (i.e. US TOURNEY 1, US TOURNEY 2, etc.)
Step 4: Select either Join Team (pick a team off the list to join), Create Team and Submit Entry (set up the team name and password), or Solo Entry (assigned to a random team)

Will any of you participate? Or will you celebrate the Metal Gear Solid 4 anniversary in a different way, say, with beer or something? Let us know!