Tournament Review: The Chamber Presents: Bromance 4

I haven't written in my blog in a minute.  Mostly because all my writing powers, time, and strength is going into school-based activity.  If all goes well, I will be studying abroad in China next semester.  Fingers crossed!

Accurate depiction of China

This past weekend, October 27, I went to Colorado Spring to participate in the Bromance 4 tournament.  Originally a 2v2 format tournament that had too many no shows for Persona 4 Arena, so they made it singles, giving only Street Fighter 4 and Marvel 2v2 formats.  I think I was the only participant with his partner there who, ironically, helped me during the tournament.

I will only talk about one match, as there is only one video available from the tournament and only one real notable match: Grand Finals vs True_Tech.

Link: http://youtu.be/VSxNTENHIOQ

Yes:  My handle is "Ryyudo" and my opponent's handle is "True_Tech".  Feel free to comment about their typos in the title.  It'll amuse me even AFTER they change it.

The set, WHILE we were playing, had to become 2 out of 3 because of "time constraints".  There's a lot to say about this but I'll leave it at "poor planning".  I think the Tournament Organizer really screwed True_Tech's chances of winning by doing this.  More on this later.

True_Tech was one of the few remaining people in Colorado I have not played, and it was not a tournament match I looked forward to.  He plays Aigis.  The Grand Finals video is my third time playing against an Aigis.  The second time, being Winner's Finals at the same tournament (where I beat him), and the first time being some random, bad, online player.  Furthermore, I rarely see Aigis played in videos or on streams.  Making these matches slightly more challenging, but enjoyable.

My matches with True_Tech were actually fun.  Mostly because of the challenge of facing a completely new character, for me, in a win-or-die situation.  I needed to learn the match-up in a VERY time-limited environment; analyzing every situation as we played, what to expect, when to burst, how to punish, etc..

It was, and still is watching the video, a lot of information to process.  Fortunately for me, after winning the Winner's Finals I spoke with, my would-be Bromance teammate, Greg/Spineshark about Aigis.  He played around with Aigis for a small stint of time before going to Yosuke/Elizabeth, and invited me to ask questions.  

The conversation went like this

The Q&A session was rather... pathetic.  The information I lacked on Aigis was basic at best.  The things I needed to ask about made me feel like I should have lost the Winner's Finals match.  Sadly, my memory is weak at best and I only remember one thing he said, which I only used once or twice in the Grand Finals: Rolling through Aigis' 2B, the half circular bullet spray.  

Better than nothing!

The rest of the matches was figuring out how to outplay True_Tech: What is he weak to and what will he not fall for.  He was weak to jumping C, Tomoe's Air Slash, pressure, but he rarely fell for my 236A, flying double-kick, shenanigans.  Changing my play style around these patterns made the match all the more rewarding.  Rewarded with a win for playing good and calm, even when getting beat up.

I don't think I blocked a single string during Aigis' Orgia mode, and I pretty much accepted that I couldn't.  In the later matches, you'll see me trying to stay more airborne and throwing out attacks for Aigis to run into.  It was a lot safer in the air because I found out Aigi's 2B is not unblockable while airborne and True_Tech does not air-grab often.  My good play was a mix of playing against the player and the character.  Fortunately for me, I got the right amount of time to learn how to play against True_Tech, and he didn't have enough time to counter this.

Because of the shortened 2 out of 3 Grand Finals, my ability to read opponents quickly came into play.  When I started to change my game half way through, True_Tech didn't have enough time or remaining matches to make necessary changes.  To be fair, he most likely felt like he did fine because he hit me so often, so he may not have felt the need to change-up styles.  In turn, to save mentality and to work on the things I can fix, I just expected to play my games from a half-life deficit and abuse his lack-of defense afterward.

The last thing to add to video commentary, and this is completely my fault, is the functionality of my C button.  I knew it was working maybe 75% of the time before the tournament started.  I discovered it had issues when I messed around on King of Fighters '98 a couple days before the tournament.  Because KoF'98 was emulated on my PC, I figured it was an emulation issue and shrugged it off without further testing.

Dumb.

Move.

It caused some problems during my matches on Saturday, especially during Grand Finals.  I missed a lot of opportunities and combos with the lack of a 100% working C attack.  Since then I've fixed it; it seems fine after a training mode session.

During the Grand Final matches, I felt an odd sense of confidence.  I did not consider that I could lose.  Something felt really... simple about the whole match that if I continued to play my game, making the appropriate changes, I wouldn't lose the tournament.  Even after being reset on, I remained strangely calm and confident about the whole situation.  I just knew I could beat True_Tech; that his game wasn't strong enough, despite my lack of knowledge, to beat me.

I will watch the video a few more times for major flaws and things I am not capitalizing on, abusing, etc..  I feel I will get much stronger before the next tournament, King of Iron Fresh, in November.  Colorado's biggest tournament yet with a $1,000 bonus pot for Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (!!!!).  

There's only one more person I need to face in Colorado, and I don't expect to lose to him.  There are a couple who may up their game enough, so I need to be concerned.  I figure if I stick to my game plan of leveling up enough between tournaments that people continue to not be prepared, I'll be fine.

With this tournament, I am now the 5-time Persona 4 Arena Champion of Colorado/New Mexico.  As the game says "They're Unstoppable", but really I don't think people put forth the effort minus a select few because they feel like "What's the point?  Ryyudo is going to win anyway."

New Mexico TTT2 Launch Tournament videos up

Just a quick addition:  The NM videos are up, for the most part (missing P4A Grand Finals and TTT2 Grand Finals as of writing this).

Full tournament playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuAH5nIuYtTSGTW-hwJuEhckNEYB4Ungg

My personal playlist (for own matches): http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF57A31E8039C30E9

Enjoy!

Four Weeks, Four Tournaments.

This is the most exhausting month I've had.  Especially when I'm exhausted from doing a normally fun activity: fighting game tournaments.  My "Four Week, Four Tournaments" endurance test is over.  I am TIRED, and looking forward to a weekend for myself.  I'm proud of most of my performances;  I completely botched Skullgirls in New Mexico.  It isn't a huge deal, but with my perfectionist mentality, I'm still beating myself up over it pretty hard.  Despite disappointments, I feel as a tournament player I grew this past month.

Below is placing list of at tournaments that I attended.  Quotations around ranking used for very few (4 or less) entrants:

Sept. 1 - Colorado Cutthroat Connection's CutthroatCon

Persona 4 Arena - 1st

Virtua Fighter 5 - 4th

King of Fighters XIII - "1st"

Skullgirls - "1st"

Sept. 8 - Extra Fresh League Safe House's Tekken You for a Ride
Persona 4 Arena - 1st
King of Fighters XIII - 2nd

Sept. 15 - Nan Desu Kan's Video Game Room Tournaments
Persona 4 Arena - Single-Elimination;1st
BlazBlue - Single-Elimination; won 1

Sept. 22 - NM-ISM & DKO's Tekken Tag 2 Launch Tournament
Persona 4 Arena - 1st
King of Fighters XIII - 2nd
Skullgirls - "2nd"
Virtua Fighter 5 - "3rd"


4 Tournaments, 4 Weeks, 4 Persona 4 Arena wins.  Maybe I'm enjoying the game more than everyone else.  Maybe I just wanted to type the number "4" four times in a sentence!

The world may never know!

Persona 4 Arena brings very few difficulties so far, competition wise:  

At Tekken You For a Ride I had some issues against Dash's Labrys in Grand Finals.  Which only amounted to one round lost when I fought from Winner's side in the Grand Finals, so there was little risk involved there.

I was in Winner's side during the Grand Finals in New Mexico.  Zman came back from a 2 game deficit and reset the bracket against me, 3-2, with his Kanji.  I was frustrated.  I took off my shades and, in a UMvC Wesker X-Factor comeback, 3-0'd him in the final set.  I think the pressure in my head from my, not intelligently done, hangover was getting to me.  Shades were on.

Spent most of my day looking like Lord Knight.

I don't understand why I'm ranking so well in King of Fighters XIII.  I have not practiced what-so-ever since Persona 4 Arena released to consoles, and very little time is spent playing friendlies with the KoF crew at gatherings.  I'm using a mediocre team (Kyo, Kula, King; low damage, usually starting characters) and I seem to be able to get the KoF guys, minus Pedro, to play to my rhythm.  They still practice twice a week.  Maybe I'm succeeding better as a tournament player, learning to keep my cool in tournament situations.  It's something to consider, but I have no complains.

Skullgirls occurred in New Mexico.  Three people entered, and I got second.  Not even because the guy who got first was good, but because I didn't give myself any time to switch from P4A to Skullgirls.  I went straight into Skullgirls right after P4A grand finals.  As a better tournament player, I needed to ask for maybe 5-10 minutes, either casuals or training mode, then played in the tournament.  I feel so stupid.  I got in on his Peacock innumerable times, and couldn't remember how to do my combos.  It was only a three man tournament, yes, but I'm still beating myself up over such a simple thing to correct.

I just need to remember to take breaks and ask for things as necessary.  Not just for me, but as a tournament player.  I know what I need to do to succeed; I'm the one who knows what's best for myself.  I need to use that more to my advantage.  I didn't do it at Devastation, after playing 4 tournament matches in a row into Grand Finals.  I just continued to plow through and my mentality faded quickly during the last push. I don't know if I necessarily had Devastation in the bag if I took my breaks as needed, but I'm sure it would allow me to think more clearly.  I just need to use these opportunities and stop being so impatient.  It is an extremely important lesson to learn as a mutli-game tournament competitor.

Virtua Fighter is still "lol" and I really don't have any answers or further knowledge in that game.  I'm mostly playing like an idiot and hoping to land wild hits.  I'm so motivated, but not, to learn the game.  Considering Colorado's amazing efforts to bring to the game to life, and players interested in learning, everything the "OG" Virtua Fighter players asked for, it died off in a week.  

That's just plain silly...

This is a short entry.  I plan to make an extended entry on my trip to New Mexico once videos are posted.  I am also interested in covering some of the anime convention trip, too.  Both from the tournament/video game room to the fighting game panel itself.  I will most likely not cover anything from Tekken You For a Ride tournament, so instead I will say what I want to say here:

This tournament was a lot more fun, a lot more exciting, and much cheaper than anything Colorado Cutthroat could put together.  It was a very refreshing tournament to attend especially after the wallet raider CutthroatCon was.  This is why I love EFL:  They do it for the players, and not forwarding any sort of business or advertising agenda.  I hope EFL returns to its former glory soon, and with a large-scale tournament  November 17, it looks plausible that we can have just that.

Now that I have time to update this, I expect to get a regular schedule like Fiber!

A Different After-Tournament Mindset

One September tournament done, three more to go.

Another tournament this weekend
The week after is a sort-of tournament at the anime convention
A trip to New Mexico the weekend after where Colorado takes their money again.
And as a bonus, there's a gathering at the end of the month.  Oh boy!

My weekends are as busy as the McCallisters in Home Alone.  Only focused on traveling while slightly important things may be left behind.

Stop forgetting your kid in comical situations!

I'm making sure to keep up on my important things though:  School, studying, and homework.

To quickly recap this past weekend:

Persona 4 Arena - 1st

Virtua Fighter 5 - 4th

King of Fighters XIII - "1st"

Skullgirls - "1st"

In this post, I will explain my thoughts in each match.  Not only to get into my own mind, but to give my honest thoughts back to you...the people!

When you finish reading this blog post, you have my permission to cry.

Persona 4 Arena

http://www.twitch.tv/cutthroatc3/b/330635239

Casual matches begin at 53:00; Tournament begins at 1:31:50
Vs Jedi Mind Trick 1:06:50 (Casuals)
Vs Mini Matt 1:31:50
Vs Femoral 1:53:50
Vs NarNar 2:31:30 (Winner's Finals)
Vs NarNar 2:51:30 (Grand Finals)
Vs Mini Matt 3:20:50 (Casuals)

In the games I competed in, this was the second largest at eight people.  If I went on the streets and coerced random people to join, I would get more than this self-proclaimed "major" got.  This is one of many reasons why I don't hold Colorado Cutthroat in even moderate positive regard.  Furthermore more, the match recording they did was low quality and the sound is always off-sync.

But I digress.

The tournament began Friday evening.  Like any good tournament attendee, I began watching games to see what characters I could expect to face, and the level of play.

I did not feel threatened by anyone or thing I watched.  Even Jedi Mind Trick, the one person there who I thought could me trouble, did not level up enough for me to feel threatened.  I was disappointed.  Still, practice is practice and no one gets off easy because of my high confidence and ego.  

I played some matches before the tournament began.  I needed this so I could get used to the offline timing.  It felt great to be offline; to visually time my attacks and combos instead of guessing the timing based on the amount of lag.

Vs Jedi Mind Trick (Casuals) 1:06:50

All my warm-up matches were against JMT.  It was a nice warm-up, and I got to see his new Yu stuff.  It wasn't much more than what my other Yu-playing friends already did.  I played around with Chie's R.Action Counter on wake up.  I wanted to test the various outcomes of using it and what his responses were to a successful counter.

His mix-ups became repetitive while I caught him with a lot of the same stuff.  From the other side of the double-screen set up I could hear things about "Fucking online tactics".

Lol.

Vs Mini Matt 1:31:50

This match was overwhelming for Mini Matt.  Lack of decent Chie experience, I assume.  I did get lazy at one point where he caught me with a mid-screen Fatal Counter combo that did half my life.  I didn't know Kanji had that sort of technology!  It was impressive to watch, and good to know it exists for future matches.

I told myself "I'm not going to get hit by that again", and I didn't.  It's interesting what a self-issued command can do for you, mentally. 

Vs Femoral 1:53:50

My Naoto experience is limited.  Furthermore, my Naoto experience is the opponent doing a block string into a sweep into the double kicks special move.  So when Femoral began jumping away and zoning, I ate a lot of the traps in the first half of the first round.  I didn't know how to respond right away.  I needed to learn how to fight that tactic as quickly as possible.  Fortunately, I was able to catch up to Femoral and keep him locked down.  I didn't want him to escape like I did in the first round.  It's a pain in the ass to chase!

When my Fate Counter reached zero, I told myself "I will not get insta-killed".  I kicked up my rush down against Femoral while avoiding getting grabbed, as it leads into an easy set-up for the insta-kill.  

Vs NarNar (Winner's Finals) 2:31:30

NarNar LOVES his gimmick grabs.  He grabbed me with a variety of set-ups I have never seen before.  I already have enough trouble with the Kanji match up as is!  It wasn't difficult to adapt to, though. When NarNar tried to land certain gimmicks a second time, I dodged and punished them.  

NarNar's combos were strong.  Namely, the one he finished me with at the end of the second round.  I did NOT know it was possible to continue a combo with a One More Cancel into command grab. Learning all sorts of things about Kanji in this tournament!

Vs NarNar (Grand Finals) 2:51:30

If I've kept track correctly, I lose my first match in this set.  I, mentally, slapped myself in the face and said "I know I'm better than him", "stop being scared of his shit", and "I know everything he can do already!".  With that inspiring talk, I take the next rounds convincingly to win the tournament.

The most interesting part was around 2:55:45 where I KNEW that my mentality was stronger than his.  I abused it, along with my life lead, by jumping three times in a row.  

I knew he would continue to try and guess in a 50:50 situation with his grabs instead of giving himself better positioning and lock-down with other moves.  

I knew that he would stop guessing I would jump on either the third or fourth repetition.  More fortunate for me, it was the third.  

Lastly, I knew that whenever the jump went through, my counter hit combo would be extremely worth itand would do a lot of damage....

...Well...two for three ain't bad, haha!

While I did win the tournament, I know there's a number of people in Colorado who can beat me convincingly.  Hopefully, they will show up to some of the next tournaments.

Virtua Fighter 5

http://www.twitch.tv/cutthroatc3/b/330755191

Tournament begins at 3:34:45 

 Vs Charbon 3:58:45

 Vs Jedi Mind Trick 4:14:20

 Vs Sowen 4:39:00

 Vs Nar Nar 4:59:55

I wasn't going to enter VF5 because I hadn't touched it in a month.  Later, they decided to make it free entry and run it on Saturday instead of Friday.  This got 10 people to enter, even a few were entering for the hell of it.  Might as well see how far I can bring myself!

I felt I was going to get 0-2'd when I entered because C3T has a grip on 3D fighting game players.  Namely, Soul Caliber players.  With Virtua Fighter 5 being my first real 3D fighting game experience, I felt worlds behind.

While I would LOVE to give more insight into my play for this game, like I did with similiar to P4A, it's impossible.  My tactics were nearly non-existent and mostly guesswork due to a lack of match-up experience.  I really only have experience against Wolf, Lion, and Taka somewhat.  My match-up knowledge is severely lacking in this game...

Vs Charbon

I just watched this girl get 2nd in Soul Caliber, and now I have to face her in the first match.  "Well great, I'll win this when bears fly", I think to myself.  I figured, with how surprised some people were acting about me being a "good" Eileen player, they have not seen any Eileen players.  My only chance to win this, and any other, match is by the element of surprise.  With some luck and no real tactics, as I've only played against a single Aoi player, I'm able to pull out a win.  Even with some awesome clutch play. 

OH COME ON!  I CAN SEE THE FUCKING PHOTOSHOP!  HE'S NOT EVEN AIRBORNE!

Vs Jedi Mind Trick

I had no answers.  I've seldom played against Goh and remembered he was in the game when I played against JMT.  I tried to out random him, but he knew the game to well to allow that to happen, and he took the victory very convincingly.

Vs Sowen

She was playing VF5 casual matches for a long period of time on Friday AND Saturday. "Well great, I'll win this when Pringles flies."

No.  Really.  This shit's gotta stop.

I've never SEEN Jeffery fight in this game aside from her Friday and Saturday friendlies.  I did not know what to expect from Jeffery, nor did I have time to learn.  I took my best guesses, hoping my experience as a 2D fighter would overwhelm her 3D senses.  She seemed to have some issues with the Quick Recovery mechanic, but I had no advice to respond with as I barely understand the game myself.  I take it somewhat cleanly.

Vs NarNar

We're back full circle again, facing NarNar.  It's loser's semi-finals and I'm facing a Shun player.  It's like the Jeffery situation, where I've never seen Shun played except once or twice.  Furthermore, Shun seems 50 times more confusing to fight than Jeffery.  The video shows it: I ate a LOT of the same stuff over and over.  I was unable to adapt, or even show respect, to his moves.  "Well great, I'll win this when pigs fly" I think to myself in the final match.

Stay on the ground you fucking adorable pig at tea time!

King of Fighters XIII

http://www.twitch.tv/cutthroatc3/b/330755191

KoFXIII begins at 5:28:50.

"1st" in this game is a weird way of putting it.  

The tournament needed to get rid of their low-quality trophy labeled for KoF.  Because Jedi Mind Trick and I were the only two people who signed up that were there on Saturday night, they wanted us to play a first to three to decide who got the trophy.

Fair enough!

Vs Jedi Mind Trick

My mindset was simple going into this set.  I knew there was no way he was ready to play, at least any more than I was.  I wanted to overwhelm him with Kyo and Kula before he could get his bearings back.  Also, I was not ready with a third character.  I wanted to avoid fighting with King, my third character, as much as possible.

This tactic worked great!  Kyo was doing work!  As he got his bearings, he pushed further into my characters each round.  Finally, he reached my King in the third match, the situation I wanted to avoid.  

I believed I was screwed.  I was not feeling comfortable with King at all, even while I was playing friendlies the day before.  I resorted to poking and fireball zoning to do damage before he could remember the do's and don'ts against King.  I tried to start combos, but I failed at nearly all attempts.  Fortunately, he made enough bad plays for his life to deplete until it ended on a bad jump in.

I take it against JMT, 3-0.

Skullgirls

I was the only entrant.  I win!  I'm the best!

---

In retrospect, I was expecting too much considering it was a C3T event.  I was disappointed in the lack of competition that showed and the lack of chance to really try to force myself through multiple games.

On the bright side, I met a new face and got him connected to the EFL. :)  New players are always hype!

Well...the lack of competition last weekend gives me something to look forward to at this weekend's tournament.  Let's see how this one goes!

A Different Before-Tournament Mindset

I wanted to make a quick post, since I won't have time for a full one for a little while.  This is a short piece of what's on my mind.

There is a two-day tournament occurring tomorrow and Saturday.  I will be attending this tournament, ready as I can be.  Though, I'm not treating this tournament the same as most tournaments I've attended.  For once, I'm not playing to win.

Well... that's a little untrue.  I AM playing to win, but not with 101% concentration on any particular game.  I'm planning to enter three, maybe four, games this tournament.  Those games are: King of Fighters, Persona 4 Arena, Skullgirls, and maybe Virtua Fighter 5.  My goal is top 3 in every game I enter.

I've mentioned in a previous post that I've experienced difficulty in switching between games and learning multiple games.  I don't know how characters like Chris G and Justin Wong do it with such finesse!  I decided I will use this tournament to test my personal ability, and not my ability in a particular game.

My last couple weeks I've tried to balance heavy focus on P4A and small solo practices of KoF.  I did say I do not have a main game focus, but a majority of my time has gone into P4A because I need to be able to keep up with everyone else if I want to get top 3.  I need to warm up on Skullgirls more.  That game can go downhill fast if I don't remember what I'm doing.  VF5 has been on the back burner for longer than these last couple weeks.  I meant to get a decent session in this week, but with school as my number one priority, I didn't get the chance to.  It's why I hesitate to enter the VF5 tournament.  The tournament as a whole is already expensive as fuck and attempts to wring as much money from each attendee as possible, player or not.

...But that's a story for another time.

Four games... this is ridiculous.  I'm shaking my head at the thought.  Regardless, I feel my goal is reasonable...

Maybe...  

It's rare that I doubt myself this much.  Hell, the many use of ellipsis (...'s) shows that lack of confidence and great amount self-doubt.  I don't want to set my bar unreasonably to "I'm gonna fucking win all these games!"  In turn, I don't feel my drive, or my confidence, is as high when I'm not gunning to be THE BEST.

Wish me luck.  I might need luck more than anything...

Return of the Mack: The Anime Panelist.

Man... These past weeks were filled with busyness and distractions.

Also, I just found out, after a Google search, "busyness" is a legitimate word!  But I digress... 

Between preparing for school and (no surprise to anyone) Persona 4 Arena's release, along with other things, I've spent much time away from my blog.  I apologize to all you numerous avid readers out there!

...Yes, that was VERY blatant sarcasm.

Among the "other things" is a project I am working on:  Doing a panel at an upcoming anime convention with a friend.

I know!!!
Me!
...At an anime convention!

Heck, I barely know AMERICAN shows!  Alright, then!  In spirit of the anime convention: Any pictures I use for this specific blog entry, I'm using anime!

The panel is called How to Beat Your Friends at Fighting Games!  It's a panel on... How to beat your friends at fighting games!  We are envoking the untapped and unknown bloodlust laying dormant in random casual players' hearts.  They will leave our panel and murder.  Everyone. (in fighting games.)

Getting Head: Without Buying Diamonds.

To explain: We are presenting beginners, intermediate, and advanced information to playing fighting games.  We will cover a variety of do's & don't's, tips & tricks, and techniques that people can use (semi) right away when they play people in the video game room.  An interesting project for me.

The reason I call this a project instead of something actually fun-sounding is because I still consider it actual work.  As I stated in a previous blog entry, I am terrible at explaining things.  I have the teaching ability and comprehension of the teacher from Charlie Brown, complete with a needed translation.  Thankfully, we plan to do this with sheer basics, starting from the most basic of all: Street Fighter.

We plan to use either Street Fighter 2 or Street Fighter 4 to explain and show examples..  The reason for this is many notable fighting games after Street Fighter 2 took the basic functions in the game and applied it to their own game.  Many of the terms, techniques, move types, special moves types, and character styles from Street Fighter 2 are seen in many other fighting games.  Street Fighter 4 is identical to Street Fighter 2 in many ways, and it's current.  Street Fighter 4 will resonate better with the audience.  We are still undecided on this as the information is the main concern.

What I'm scared of dumping too much information on my "students".  We're covering a myriad of subjects from simple to more advance techniques.  It will take some practice to execute consistently, but can be tried right away.

To give a run-down of our alpha presentation, we start with Beginner and Intermediate information:

Commonly used terms:  Hitstun, blockstun, explaining how frames work; NOT hype, salty, or bodied.

Uses of normals, specials, and throws:  Explaining that specials are a tool to make normals, or other specials, work optimally, instead of being a "spam for damage" mechanic.

Mix-Ups, Cross-Ups, Tick Throws: Techniques to creatively use normals, specials, and throws.  Each subject explains their use in specific situations, gives examples, and demonstrations

Safe Jumps, Empty Jumps: Going into jumping mechanics.  Options available instead of "I'm gonna jump at my opponent, no matter where I am, and try to hit him".  Dispel the thoughts behind "fireballs are cheap" somewhat.

Combos: Explaining that while they're an important function, don't live and die by them.  They're great, they generate hype, and they're the most impressive thing to watch in fighting games.  Still, it is an advance-level skill.  The player must first learn how to open up their opponent so they can start landing combos.  This is why the subject comes later in the presentation.  Missing a combo doesn't just mean missed damage.  It can mean bad positioning, getting thrown, or punished by the opponent's combo.

Meaty Attacks: I current have a section for this, explaining the use of specific attacks while the opponent is standing up.  I'm not sure if I want to keep this in, yet.  I feel it's TOO much to pick up right away, along with the possible issue of time constraints.  This will most likely be the first to go if we have to rid of anything.

Next is the Advanced section; what to do after you have the above tools:

Baiting Actions, Conditioning: Ways to get into your opponent's head and have them act or expect something incorrectly.  To stay random, but smart, and to make your foe dance in the palm of your hands and look like an idiot.

If you can get an FGC male to dress like this, this pictorial metaphor is complete!

Gathering Information: The importance of being able to watch your opponent, other players, and using resources to gather information.  Also, to have and ask questions.  When you stop questioning you are either the best in the world, or you're dead.  We will give website to access for deeper understanding, learning, and networking.

Then we close the panel with some do NOTS of fighting games.  If they take anything way from the panel, we want it to be THIS part:

DO NOT not block

DO NOT do wakeup dragon punch 8 times in a row

DO NOT obsess over combos when you can't hit the other guy

DO NOT throw your controller like gootecks did that one time

and so on... ;)

This is subject to change over this weekend when my friend visits here from his college town.  We'll run through the presentation and get recordings or videos of matches to explain certain elements and techniques.  

Most of the above material will probably stay put, if not be added to, except Meaty Attacks.  In particular, one thing that may be added is hitboxes. We are not sure how in-depth we want, or need, to cover it.

My friend and I conversed some about hitboxes during the first day of planning the panel:

I think it's a bad idea to get into hitboxes.  I feel it's not the sort of thing that can be explained quickly and easily.  Furthermore, it is information that can't be used near-immediately.  

My friend wants to show off hitboxes in-depth.  Show how the whole game runs on rectangles and squares, and how the hitboxes and collisions themselves work, what each hitbox means, etc..    

Our current solution is that we'll quickly show off hitboxes.  Just explain how the hit-detection, and attacks like non-shoryuken anti-airs work.  Anything that can be covered in three to five minutes.  Though, the more I research, the more I feel the need to teach hitboxes after all.  Still, my main intention is to keep the panel simple.

My goal at the end of the presentation is to have the attendees leave with thoughts in their head on how to appropriately play fighting games from the basics.  To try and add to the simplicity, I think it may be a good idea to a hand out a "study guide" of what was covered in "class".  Teacher status!

Bad ASS teacher status

(Searching up "Anime Teacher" in Google Images merits near pornographic results.)

I'm nervous, I won't lie.  My fear lies in conveying the information properly; not in the public speaking.  I actually enjoy public speaking a lot!  I just want to keep the presentation as simple as possible.  I'm afraid of over-complicating the subject or not explaining things correctly and sending people off with incorrect or confusing information.  This project is definitely a first of its kind for me, but I'm excited to get to try something new!  Suuuper excited!

One thing that's been fun while researching for this project is when I start doubting if we really should be doing this panel or particular subjects in the panel.  Thoughts like "Oh this is so basic, no one needs to learn this," or "People can learn off so many websites now, they don't need me!" compile in my head.  When I think these thoughts, like a sign, I see something that fully restores my faith in doing this project.   For example: I see a GameFAQs thread asking "What's a tick throw?", a fair question, and see the response:
"just press Light Punch & Light Kick to throw 

tick throw = grab, throw etc... have no idea what "tick" is there for"

...

Well, I don't feel THAT strongly, but I needed the anime.

This kind of actual response reassures me that I MUST do this, because I assure you, the "tick" isn't in there for fun.  If I don't do this, people will continue to throw out baseless knowledge!  My friend claims this exact process occurs with him too when he begins to doubt himself.

We in there now!

Wish me luck!  Though I don't need it: I have skills!  Show time is about a month away.  Until then, school and Persona 4 Arena!

Handling Losses (and wins?)

Anyone who's had the "honor" to play a long set of any game with me knows I get salty as fuck.  I'm not as bad as Scumbag or Filipino Champ, but I get pretty damn infuriated.  Furthermore, it's always directed at myself.

As I see it, nearly all of my matches are mine to win or lose.
If I win: I'm doing good...usually.  We'll get into that in a couple paragraphs...
If I lose:  The other person didn't win, I lost.  It's almost never that the other person "won".  Only when I honestly feel that playing at the top of my current knowledge and ability would still not get me a win, did the other person win.  For example: My match against Bala at EVO.  That was him winning...along with me losing.

I'm very hard on myself when playing matches, and each loss only adds to that.  I try to have fun with my matches to keep a more easy-going mindset, but it doesn't always work when I go 0-5, 0-10, etc..  It's something I'm trying to manage better, as I've mentioned in a previous post on this blog.

I hate losing.  Straight up.  I will get mad at myself, my character, controller issues, whatever.  I will NEVER get mad my opponent.  Once again, I'm losing the match; they're not winning the match.  I'm the one who's not playing good enough to take the match, so I have no one else to blame but me.  I rarely ever think my opponents are good enough to straight beat me when I'm at my best.  Where's there's a will, there's a way.  I have to will to win, and there's some way to it, even if I don't win match after match after match.

"At my best" is an interesting concept, too.  I'm very rarely "at my best", and I don't believe most players ever tap into that full ability often, if ever.  I define "at my best" as me being able to close my eyes, play the match out in my head, and legitimately imagine myself beating them.   If I play the match out mentally and I don't have an answer for many of their tactics, or can't fathom their next move, I know I'm beat.

My saltiness is subsidized some when I face a good player.  A player who I think is "winning" more than I'm "losing", but not FAR ahead.  Someone who I can take a legitimate round from every now and then but in addition, I learn from my losses because they're matches I really have to struggle in.

It's extremely frustrating, but I understand the necessity to learn from losses.  If I can see something new and different while exploring possibilities, I would rather lose more than win.  Even if that involves plenty of cussing and raging, to their dislike.

Sadly, my anger is not only limited to my losses.  I'm also a sore winner at times.  If I don't win matches in a skillful capacity, it upsets me.  Though, to a much lesser degree.  Winning by luck, missing a lot of inputs, or dropping many combos and still pulling a win makes me feel like a fraudulent scrub, which makes me feel like scum for winning.  It's an awful feeling to win without performing smartly or skillfully.  If I wanted to win without skill, look like an idiot while doing it, and pretend I'm good, I'd just play Marvel vs Capcom 3.  People already do that, if YouTube's videos and comments are any indication.

This can be as discouraging as losing.  When the "wins-in-ways-I-don't-want" pile up, so does my stress.  It's still a failure on my behalf for not playing up to my expectations and abilities.  So, I will get salty at winning.  I feel it stems from embarrassment: failing in the face of other people when I KNOW what I'm doing, and acquiring a victory.  It only makes sense that if I fail or play poorly, I should lose.  When I win, I want to win with everything I have!

That's what my victories are soaked with.  Yes, even that "other thing."

The positive outlook in this is that I'm always thinking, win or lose.  Even if the answer doesn't come to me right then and there, and that rarely happens, I'm able to keep it in my head, sleep on it, and wake up in the morning still a little upset. This provokes me to look for answers so I do better next time.  I want to learn more, so I don't lose in the same manner.

Many people are afraid of failing.  Many people are afraid of making mistakes.  It's human nature.  I often tell myself and others, "Don't be afraid to make mistakes", a quote from one of favorite authors, Robert Kiyosaki.  People are so afraid of making a mistake that they freeze up when it's a time to take action.

This also applies to fighting games.  People who are afraid to try things will end up blocking all game, or throwing out a desperate attack that puts them in the exact situation they were avoiding in the first place.  Difficult times require hard thinking.  One's losses and mistakes should be handled in this manner.  I make a lot of mistakes and I have a lot of losses.  Therefore, I'm thinking all the time!  Instead of putting blame on the other player being better, using better characters, cheap tactics, etc., learn what went wrong and what you can do about it.

This creates a better player quickly because they will carry that knowledge with them.  It will never be forgotten.  It stays with a player due to the human brain remembering the bad times to protect itself in a repeat situation.  So unless getting beat over and over is a fun time for you (don't get me wrong, for some people, "if you had fun, you won!" is their "gameplan"), make use of what your brain telling you, and don't get beat again!

Don't get beat again!!

The EVO Experience 2012

So for those of you who may not know: I went to the EVO World Championships in Las Vegas on July 6 - 8; the largest fighting game tournament in the world.  Obviously, this is getting its own mega-post.  So get cozy, it's gonna be a lengthy one!

Because EVO is such a large tournament, they break up the whole tournament into multiple smaller tournaments for each game to quickly cut down the number of participants.  If a player makes it to the end of each smaller tournament, they qualify for the next part of the tournament.  Brackets can be seen here (while available) for examples.  All tournaments are double-elimination.  The order is:
Pools - Pool consisted of 16 people at EVO.  The top 2 players advance, one in winners bracket, one in losers bracket.  They remain in the same position as they move to the next portion of the tournament.
Quarter-Finals - Another tournament of 16 people or so, taking the top 2 from each pool and placing them in these brackets.  Top 4 advance.
Semi-Finals - This is when it gets to about Top 16. Top 8 advance.
Finals (Top #) - Usually this is Top 8, but can be Top 16 (making Semi-Finals Top 32).  These will decide the final ranks for the tournament players, winner takes all.

I went to EVO mainly to enter King of Fighters XIII.  I'm ass at the game, but I love it so much.  I wanted to take the trip to learn more and play more.  Vegas sounded like a fun trip to take, anyway.  I planned to play Skullgirls while there but the game is dead in Colorado.  Any passion I had for Skullgirls was taken to the grave.  Furthermore, I enjoy King of Fighters XIII a lot more, regardless.



-------

Thursday's Travels

My flight to Las Vegas was scheduled to depart around 6:45 PM, so I had a whole day to just lounge around and wait.  Well, I would be lounging around but I was so damn restless and excited that I hit training mode a few different times during the day while waiting to leave to the airport.  Around 2:30 PM, my ride took me to the airport.  I wanted to leave for the airport early, so my ride could get back before rush hour traffic.

I get through all the security, make it to my gate with pleeenty of time to spare only to hear an announcement over the intercom talking about my flight to Las Vegas...and that it had been delayed to depart at 10:30 PM.

Oh...

My god...

So now I'm in it for the long run.  From 3:30 to 10:30 I'm going to be sitting at the airport.  This became a full-time job, and the only payment I got was a $5 voucher to use at "any U.S. airport", which wasn't accepted when I tried to use it in Las Vegas because it wasn't marked by the people who gave it to me...

Whatever, there's only so much I could do anyway, so I begin playing my Devil Survivor 2 on my Nintendo DS.  Not even 10 minutes pass before I hear behind me, in an excited and too-loud-to-be-that-close-and-yelling-in-my-ear voice, "What game is that?!"

I look back to see a younger looking boy, maybe 14 or 15 years old, in the airport seats behind me, staring at me wide-eyed and smiling with glee.  I, politely, respond "Devil Survivor 2."

"Oh.... you're good at it, huh?!" he yelled enthusiastically again despite, obviously, not knowing the game.

"Yeah, I guess I am?"  I said, unsure of how to respond.

"You wanna see my DSi?" He yelled again with his same unending pool of excitement.  I assume it was because he found one of his own "kind": people who like video games enough to play in public.

I mentally responded "Not at all".  But, I smiled and said "Sure" anyway.

Thirty minutes later of watching, mostly, not-entertaining Flipnotes animations, and him turning to me and yell-asking "That's funny, right?!", his little brother comes over and asks if I know anything about Bakugan.

I think "No, fuck off kid." but respond, "I'm not familiar with it."

"Do you want to play?"

I mentally responded "Not at all".  But, I smiled and said "Sure" anyway.

So now I'm playing Bakugan Battle Brawlers, which is a terrible "fighting" game.  Big brother is telling me to use this certain dragon dude because he's the best, but  I decide to try all four characters because I wasn't about to take information from some scrub before going to EVO! (<- 100% actual thought)  I was going to break this goddamn meta-game in two.

I am now a Bakugan Brawler.  Bitches love Bakugan Brawlers.

After trying all the characters, I found the character that worked with me the most, and started winning with him from there.  The kid said I was cheating....

...To be fair, I was trying my best to get to that "cheap shit" point of the game, I won't lie.  So yes, I was trying to "cheat", but I don't make allowances for young boys!  I gotta level up my game before EVO!  Gonna run Bakugan money matches on the place!  Gotta work on that meta before I get there and body fools.

(In all reality, the game was still ass.)

The whole experience was made more awkward and annoying by their dad, who was just glaring at me the whole time like I woo'd them over to me.  I'm just thinking, "Dude...you have the power to pull them away at any time.  They're YOUR fucking kids, don't look at me like my DS was some kind of tool of a pedofile and that I'm some kind of molester waiting for his chance."  The dude looked hardcore as hell, too... like worked for a drug cartel or something.  Eventually, I make a call to my friend, Jill, to get away from the whole situation.   I make SURE the conversation goes long enough until I board the flight.

I get on the plane, excited that I'm finally going to leave.  I look over to my right and across the aisle, guess what two kids I see?


Oh you have GOT to be kidding me...

...Fortunately, they were silent, so I got to listen to my music the whole trip there.  Thank goodness.

I finally get to Vegas, and go ahead and pay for a shuttle to where I'm staying, Caeser's Place.  I, as ordered by my friend I was staying with, I sent her a text when I landed, a call I got on the shuttle, and text when I got to the hotel.

Somehow, and I'm not even logically sure how, they are half way across the strip when I arrive at the hotel.  It wasn't a short trip either, though not synonymous with a SLOW trip: I had the Crazy Taxi of shuttle bus drivers.  He sped so much, ran so many lights, honked at people who were in crosswalks legally, and still almost ran over a number of people and almost got into many car accidents.  My original thought of "Oh, I'm the last stop?  That's great, I get to see a lot of stuff!" turned into "Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck!  Maybe I should just walk from here?!  Oh fuuuuck I'm too late!!"

I've waited nearly 10 hours to get into Vegas and my hotel due to delays.  I'm tired, mentally exhausted, and now I have to wait for my friend to come back from halfway across the strip.  Well that's fine, nothing to be mad over anyway, I mean...Ya know...It's whatever...


OF COURSE I'M GODDAMN FURIOUS!

I just prop myself against the fountain in the registration lobby, trying not to fall asleep right there.  I just feel so exhausted and angry, and I thank my wonderful friend Jill for being my rant-to gal during all this.  Seriously, give her a round of applause, she saved me from two different situations.  After angstily texting with her for 30 minutes, my roommate I'm staying with shows up.  I don't say much, go to my room, apologize for my bad mood, but don't say a whole lot more.

I prep for bed, but all the tiredness I had before disappeared.  I couldn't sleep now that I was here.  I rolled and turned and nothing was coming for more than short, 10 minute bursts.  I finally sat up, and just stared out the window, letting all of the tournament excitement sink in.  Thoughts rapidly flowing through my mind...

"Am I good enough?"  "Can I land that combo"  "What happens if I get in this situation?" "I hope I get to play Bala" "Ugh, I'm going to go 0-2, aren't I?"  "If I go 2-2, I'll be happy...right?"

At some point when the sun was coming up, I finally caught an hour of sleep before my alarm went off.

Tournament time.


-------

Friday's Fights

I get up, shower, and stretch some to wake myself up as much as I could.  I even did some push ups to get the blood flowing.  I got my arcade stick and walked out to the ballroom where EVO was being held.  My pool was at 8:00 AM, so I wanted to make sure I was on time.  

When I arrived, I saw some guys from New Mexico.  I took the time to chat with them as some other fellas from Colorado showed up a bit later.  The doors to the event did not open on time, like any U.S. major tournament, and the tournaments started around 8:30 instead.

While there were some amusing chants of "LET!  US!  IN!" some people took it too far.  Namely, one plus-sized fellow who was trying to get everyone "hype", was instead pissing a lot of people off because he was loud, annoying, and possibly VERY drunk, or other drugs, at 8:00 in the morning. When he was met with resistance, he really tried to start shit.  Called people pussies when they wouldn't fight him(?), and even when they walked away, he kept going on and on about their salty vaginas', their moms, anything to try and get them to swing at him.  

I'm a patient guy if I, logically, understand why I'm waiting.  I understood the reason for the wait, but MAN, I wanted to be inside instead of being stuck near this dude! Haha!

Finally, they open the doors to EVO.  The opened doors functioned similar to a broken dam.  I look for where I need to check in at while moving through the rushing torrent of other EVO-goers.  I'm not the biggest dude, and I don't have a large-sized and/or bad-ass girl(or boy)friend to protect me, either.

Note to self:  Get bad-ass girl(or boy if desperate)friend to protect me next year.

And this is my girlfriend, Heidi.  She enjoys hurting people and long walks on the beach decorated with the people she killed.

I arrive at my pool, check in with the pool runner, and await my first match... which actually never happens.  Apparently it's just a guy who wanted the shirt, which is a shame as it was PZPoy and he is actually decent at Marvel.  So that "wins" me my first match, and I advance.

While waiting I'm watching as many matches as I can, trying to see what everyone is doing, who to watch out for, besides Igl|bala: the number one seeded person in the whole KoF tournament.  While watching, I was rather surprised...

There was only one person (besides bala) I was concerned about possibly losing to.  The one guy who seemed to have good grips on what he was doing was a Duo Lon player.  I studied his match closely so I could be ready for what he could do.  Most players were getting beat by his Duo Lon alone, so I became afraid that I could be next.  Even if I took out his Duo Lon, I didn't know what his other characters did.  What consoled me is that I probably had more Duo Lon experience than most of the players there (yet again, another KrsJin mention).

I played the Duo Lon player after my first tournament match I got to play, which I bodied him hard. I was surprised to find out that while he's good with Duo Lon, he probably plays in a group of people who have very few answers for Duo Lon's shenanigans.  Because of that, he didn't seem to have answers for when I was able beat out a lot of his attacks, or when I punished his teleport moves.  I was able to rip through his Duo Lon, and the rest of his team, rather quickly.

The reason for the rest of his team being rip-able like a wet piece of paper I believe is because he only got to warm up with his first character, Duo Lon, in his previous matches.  Because of this, he came in cold with his other characters.  With my answers to his Duo Lon and overall match advantage, I was able to take it against him and advance.

Next came bala in winners finals of the pool.  This was the high-achievement goal I wanted to reach.  The 100G/Platinum Trophy achievements.  Leading up to my match with him, bala asked who he was playing next.  His friends and colleagues pointed to me, quickly followed with "He's free", "He's nothing to worry about", or something similar.

...It's not like they were wrong, but FUCK, I'm standing RIGHT HERE.  If you took 4 steps forward, you could touch me!  I'm not good at King of Fighters XIII, okay, but this does not equate to being deaf!

Regardless, the match with bala went poorly, but I feel it was the best I could do with my 8 months worth of knowledge in ANY King of Fighters game.  He played the exact same team and order as Pedro, the top player in Colorado: Mr. Karate, Hwa Jai, Flame Iori.

From the two matches with bala, because I obviously went 0-2, I realized that his Mr.Karate, compared to Pedro's, is not that good.  I really think Pedro's is a lot better, and I went through bala's Mr.Karate without much issue.  On the other hand, bala's Hwa Jai was MUCH better than Pedro's.

I don't have any answers for Pedro's Hwa Jai.  With bala doing things I haven't seen, in addition to the things I already have trouble with when playing against Pedro, he completely wiped my whole team out out with his Hwa Jai.  Still, I was able to make it to his second character in both rounds, so that's a personal victory.


This moves me into losers finals.  I'm spending the time before the losers finals match thinking through my game with bala, but doing my best to focus on the next one as I'm one match away to making it out of pools;  Trying to refocus my game on being aggressive and not scared, which happens often to tournament players.  


The losers finals match begins, and I instantly rush down his ass.  With him having characters like Athena and King who are really good at keeping people out of their zone, he was not expecting this and could not respond.  A few good reads and combos later, I take the first match very convincingly, only having any trouble on his last character, Yuri.  This gave me a lot of confidence going into the second match, knowing that my game plan worked and worked well.


The second match begins.  I, once again, go on the offensive.  I make it through his first character, Athena, pretty easily again.  When I got to his King, everything went downhill quickly.  


I kept running into fireballs like an idiot while trying to chase after him, taking a lot of free damage and almost none of it from combos; all of it from my impatience.  The first match caught him off-guard but now that he had his bearings, I was just giving him the round from being too brainless.  I lose the second match in a shameful manner.  I give myself a little time to think about what just happened, before starting the third and final match.  I remembered a little piece of advice when fighting against King, "Walk.  Don't run or dash."  As I've never played against a King before, I don't have much match-up knowledge.  With this advice alone, I begin the third round.


I take a little more time to analyze what he does in certain situations with his Athena, as she is also a zoning character.  I play smartly around his attacks and punish him, quickly taking out the character again.  Next comes King.  Using my advice I remembered, I walked to catch up to him, instead of trying to run to get in.  Surprisingly, it's a stupidly strong tactic.  Given your reaction time is good enough, you can block fireballs from REALLY close range if they throw it.  Eventually, he backed himself into a corner with his runaway fireball game.  I took this opportunity to attack freely, beating his King, which left his last character, Yuri.  


I have some experience against Yuri, so this match was not entirely new to me.  Just the same as the first match against my opponent: I rush him down into a corner quickly, then I play smart and LET him make mistakes trying to get out of the corner.  He makes the biggest mistake against my character, Kim, and does a neutral jump while I'm half a screen away.  

Kim likes people being helpless at about half a screen away.  


That's right, I Neomax'd him as a punish.  I even swiped my arm at the last kick because I was feeling myself so much.  Of course, the guy was NOT happy, saying it was unnecessary.  I could care less, he neutral jumped in a poor spot, he ate the punish.  I take the final match, 2-1, advancing into the quarter-finals pools.  Score one for Colorado KoF!


I was pretty damn happy.  I accomplished my reasonable goal: go at least 2-2 in pools; and then some: face bala, make it out of pools.  The quarter-finals started on Saturday at 10 AM, so I had some time to spare until then.

First, I watched two other players from our state, Edgar and Spineshark, play in their pools at 10 AM.  Edgar made it out of his pools, in losers also.  Score two for Colorado!  Edgar played really well and I believe his style of using a lot of strong normal moves did him well in catching all his opponents off guard.  He also combo'd a lot more, one of Edgar's main problems leading up to EVO.

Unfortunately for Spineshark, he did not make it out of pools.  He went 3-2, so he did well.  I believe his impatience did him in some as he faced people who liked to jump a LOT, but Spineshark did little to punish the jump-ins.  He leveled up hard about a week before EVO, just in time, and it really showed in his matches.  He said he did better than his own goals, so I am happy for him.

Lunch and a beer later, it was time for Pedro to play.  Pedro, being Pedro, played, generally, well.  He had some issues in playing his Hwa Jai game properly.  I don't know if it was nerves or what, but he was basically playing with only two characters and still doing well.  Pedro made it out of his pools in losers bracket, but not without devastating others.

A girl from Japan by the gamer tag of Mepu competed in the same pool as Pedro.  She had an awesome play style:  She carried around a giant pillow and a footstool.  When she played, she set the pillow on the floor, sat on her knees on the pillow, and placed her arcade stick on top of the footstool.  Everyone was watching her because she was such a unique player...and that she was from Japan, cute, and playing really well.

She may have been a bit of a fighting game celebrity already, upon further research.

Pedro faced off against Mepu in the losers finals of his pool.  It was a good match.  Pedro hardly knows the Goro match up so it became very close at the end of each game.  Pedro pulled through, advancing from his pools, but Mepu was very distraught by her loss.

After the match, some fans of Mepu wanted to take a picture with her.  She complied, posed, and did her best to smile... But it was too late.  She was obviously on the verge of tears.  After the picture, she took her footstool/pillow combo to a corner near where the match was played, and she started crying.

She continued to cry for around 30 minutes.  Her boyfriend, I assume, was comforting her for the first 10 minutes before he disappeared.  I never saw him come back, either.  She probably wanted him to go away for the time being, or he possibly had a tournament to attend to. Regardless, the joke is that he when he whispered in her ear before the match, he said, "If you don't win this match, we're done."  Eventually, two friendly Ibuki and Chun-Li cosplayers comforted and stayed with her until she was able to get up and leave.

I watched and laughed because I'm an insensitive asshole.  I'm not letting Pedro live this down for the next couple months because I'm an insensitive asshole.

With that, 3 out of 4 Colorado KoF players made it out of pools, not including those who entered only for the shirt.  That's pretty damn good!  I'm more proud of myself because unlike Pedro and Edgar, I don't have any history of KoF experience; I'm coming from straight scratch.  This closes KoF for the day for Colorado.

I "participated" in Skullgirls.  Though, by the time I got to play, I was a few drinks under.  Oops.  Furthermore, I had to play Severin first round.  Oops.  He pretty much did his patented long combos to me. My next match didn't go a whole lot better.  I could combo, but I couldn't block worth a shit due to sloppy, drunk reaction times.  I forgot who I even played in the second match because it was much later, which means more drinks.  He came up to me later and said that he played me in Skullgirls, where I responded, "I really can't remember... but good job!" hahaha!  Oh well~  Went 0-2 in Skullgirls.

I spent the rest of the day continuing to drink, party, and brag about Colorado's KoF power.


-------

Saturday's Showdown

I woke up Saturday morning with a bed all to myself because my roommate went off and got drunk elsewhere and never came back <3.  The best roommate (when I can get into the room)!  A lot of Colorado guys were playing in their Marvel pools at 8AM, so I headed down early again to be in attendance. 

I got to catch a number of matches from the early morning Colorado Marvel pools before the KoF quarter-finals pools started.  Most of the guys did well.  I believe three advanced out of pools: one in winners, two in losers.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch the whole thing because my KoF quarter-finals pool began.

My first match was against a Mature player.  I have NO clue what to do against Mature as we don't have a Mature player in Colorado.  A lot of it was me guessing through the match-up.  I didn't know what was punishable, barely know what her moves are, and I think he caught some wind of that on our last round (score was 1-1) because he got really aggressive with Mature.  All I could do was guess.  While it was enough for me to bullshit through my first match, it didn't work on the second and third matches.  It shut me down hard, and that's where my tournament life ended, sadly.  

While upset, I wasn't disappointed.  I performed well despite the lack of match-up knowledge.  And right then and there, I became hungry for the next tournament, the next major, the next year as a whole to really get to learn this game more and do even better next time!

Because my match was so early, I got to catch Edgar's first match.  He lost in a similar manner: lack of match-up experience against Raiden.  This guy's Raiden tore through Edgar so badly, it looked like he shouldn't have been Top 32.  With no advice to offer Edgar, I had to watch Edgar get brutalized and eliminated.

Pedro played well, despite continuing to have trouble using Hwa Jai.  Pedro made it to semi-finals of his quarter-finals pool, but lost the same way Edgar and I did: lack of match-up experience.  A Goro player was his block, yet again.  The match itself was good, but the other player was too much for Pedro, eliminating him from the tournament.

We were all planning to do it anyway but we clearly saw the necessity to pick up new characters when we got back to Colorado.  The lack of match-up experience through the whole roster was our greatest weakness.  Since EVO, we've all started on learning new characters, so we'll see how this helps us when we go out of state and play again.

No one is ready for the man who fights for Cancer cures.

I took this time to get drinks and walk around the rest of the tournament floor where certain companies set up booths to show off their games.

Played a single game of Persona 4 Arena where some guy just went hard on me when I didn't even know the controls.  He knew this; I asked him what the controls were.  Whatever, he's dead whenever the game comes out, anyway. /salt

Played Spy Party quite a few times.  The creator of the game ran the booth.  He implored everyone to read the instruction booklet first, and then play two practice games, one from each role: the sniper and the spy.  I was concerned at the amount of information to take in before the game could be played.  Though, once I got through my first games, I found it to be really really fun!  It's definitely worth a check as it's the kind of game that always keeps you on the edge of your seat; a constant intense tension that most games do not have.

I finally got to play DIVEKICK!  It was everything I imagined and more!  The game is incredibly fun!  Parodies, jokes, and Easter eggs hidden all throughout the game.  It is made for the modern day fighting game player.  I went back there a couple of times with its long line because it was worth it.  I implore you to go ahead and donate to their Kickstarter so that they can bring DIVEKICK to the PC.  Give this friend a DIVEKICK!  But if friendship mean nothing...!!

Throughout the day, I got to speak with a few other people I've seen at previous majors, too.  I realized how quickly one's friendships can expand with others who don't even live close to you.  The social aspect alone is a really fun experience.  To commemorate the evening chat, Juicebox gave me a condom.  Hahaha!

The rest of the night was spent hanging out with the New Mexico crew, exploring Vegas and making ridiculous jokes about everything ever.  Found out I have no game against girls drunker than me, too!  I knew the exact lines I wanted to say, but man, drunk me moves so mentally slow, and drunker girl moves so mentally fast!  

Maybe she should be playing fighting games, not me...

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Sunday's Surprises

Phew, finally to Sunday.  Stick with me a little bit longer, because there isn't as much to type about here, trust me!

Sunday is EVO's finals day, where everyone gathers to watch the finals of each tournament.  Some of the New Mexico crew went to the ballroom early to grab good seats for the day.  I came down a bit later, finding where I was sitting: The last row of the first section with 7 others, so we were rather close to the front.  Two others in our group showed up with bags of McDonalds.   They purchased a number of different breakfast sandwiches and hash browns to keep up fed while watching the tournament. 

Awesome!  And by "Awesome!" I mean I felt like a gross pig by the end of the day.

I later made a similar run for lunch when I had a break, during the finals of SFxT.  Outside of small breaks to move around between games, I sat in my same spot for about 12 hours.  

Anyone watching the stream could hear the cheers, yells, and excitement in the background.  Yes, you can hear it, you know it's going on, but it's completely different when you're IN the hype. People go buck WILD in the crowd, then YOU are the one who is going buck wild.  The hype sweeps over people to yell, scream, and act like a damn fool.  I love it.  At some point during Marvel, people started booing Filipino Champ.  I personally love him as a player, so when he started raising his arms to bring in the hate, myself and a few people in the audience, stood up and raised our arms the same.  People laughed and boo'd, it was all in great fun.  Incredible matches all around though.  All the finals were just insanely hype to watch.  Even Soul Calibur V, which I have hardly touched.

KoF finals were the craziest, though.

After a whole day of sitting, when Street Fighter 4 ended, my EVO day was over.  I went to buy one of the Colorado players a drink, because I bet (stupidly) against Infiltration who made a mockery of top 8 in Street Fighter 4, so I ended up missing the Street Fighter 2 tournament finals that happened after.  Damn!

Because my friend had her flight early Monday morning, I spent the night just chilling with her around the casino.  Not because she necessarily didn't want to sleep, but some other people from New Mexico who had to check out of their hotel ended up crashing in our room, leaving no spots to sleep (we thought there would only be two of them; there were five).

My flight was at 10 AM, so I decided not to sleep until I got on my flight.  When I did, I crashed HARD for the entire trip back.  It was a good close to my restlessness throughout the weekend of EVO.  I got to see so much, do so much, and enjoy so much while there.  I even dreamed of next year's EVO as I slept through the flight.  I didn't come close to doing everything I wanted to do in Vegas, or EVO!  I can't wait until next year.  I'm hungry to do better...and the training starts now!

LET'S GO EVO2K13!!!