It's obvious why the Big E Gaming tournaments in Philly have been the bigger DOA events over the years. (Even though most of the ones who've posted in Maryland haven't shown up to play competitively @Nightpup @My Affliction @Telly-Da-King @JusTheBest29 @THE_WORST_KOKORO @Juan The Man @Rich...
Not surprising when you look at how the world's network traffic is. Generally you'd expect more technological players on the east since it's a denser population with more cities.
It's a big fighting game area.
Unfortunately, the primary difficulty is in getting them to meet up. Mainly due to most that don't currently, are minors and parents aren't too supportive of leaving the minors to 'play games' at a house or comic shop.
The local gaming meetup for fighting games and card games. It's right off I-95 & I-695 near UMBC.
http://www.xanadu-games.com/
They generally meet up every Friday. Typically the DOA players just meet up at my house about 10 min away to avoid having to pay venue and having better seating...