

7 AMK+ ( Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance): Although the main storyline does not involve a tournament for the main characters, at this time, there WAS a tournament, going on one set up by Shang Tsung and his partner, the Netherrealm sorcerer Quan Chi, to give the Outworld native Li Mei a chance to free her people, who were currently enslaved by the two sorcerers in order to build a palace fortress over a soulnado, a means of which they could achieve their goals of ultimate power and immortality.Only when Kahn enters Earthrealm and attempts to merge it with Outworld, do the Elder Gods intercede and destroy him. Because the invasion itself is not considered a transgression of the rules of Mortal Kombat, the Elder Gods do not interfere. However, Shao Kahn, with the aid of Quan Chi, simply launches an invasion of Earthrealm instead. Liu Kang defeats Shao Kahn and wins the tournament - supposedly forcing Outworld to abandon its claim to Earthrealm forever. In the alternate timeline established in Mortal Kombat (2011), the second tournament is actually a legitimate one, proposed by Shang Tsung as a means of replacing the old system of ten tournaments.

No definite winner is declared, as Kahn's adopted daughter Kitana warns Earth's warriors of the tournament's nature before it could conclude. It also posed as a distraction away from Kahn's revival of his wife, Queen Sindel on Earth, which would force a merging of the realms regardless of the false tournament's outcome.

The rules of Mortal Kombat were slightly revised in Mortal Kombat (2011), in that they only forbid the merging of realms without victory in Mortal Kombat. Any violation of the above rules is considered an act of treason against the realms and the Elder Gods themselves, and will be dealt with accordingly and swiftly.Special powers can be used in the tournament ( Mortal Kombat: Conquest only, although it is entirely possible this rule was in place prior to the first game, storywise).Mortal Kombat, once declared, cannot be refused by either party.The defending realm's fighters cannot be attacked by the opposing realm's fighters until the tournament begins.This is the only permissible way for a realm to invade and conquer another. The Grand Champion themself is granted stunted aging and immortality until the next tournament. If a realm can garner ten straight victories via their Grand Champion or another representative of theirs, they earn the right to invade the opposing realm. Every generation, competing realms would send their best fighters into a single-elimination martial arts tournament the victor of the tournament is crowned the Mortal Kombat Grand Champion.
