All the tournament matches can be found here: http://www.twitch.tv/strikefirstco/b/315736519 .
You even get to hear my handsome commentary voice ~<3. I'm Ryyudo/Jamaal on any of the matches by the way.
Also stated in previous post, the tournament turn out was... meh at best. None the less KoF was pretty much full showing.
To get into the Colorado KoF scene a little...
There's about 8 total of us who play consistently. Won't be going through all 8, though.
The guy who wins all the KoF tournaments is, appropriately, named Pedro. Yes, he's Mexican and he's leagues above the rest of the community, in my opinion. He's on his maybe 4th team and is still beating everyone else. He's a hard one to really keep up with.
Fuck Pedro.
As for threats there is Edgar, KrsJin, and Recon (sorry anyone else who may be reading this from the Colorado community, for whatever reason. Step up your game). And while I say threats, the only one I really got to worry about at this time is Edgar.
Recon currently plays like... five-hundred seventy-two thousand different games. MvC3 is his main game. He loves it, it's his favorite, and I respect that. He places very well every tournament. He also really enjoys KoF and is playing that also. He is also solid in SF4, and seems to enjoy Skullgirls to a point.
Basically, I think he plays too many different games, especially him being most invested in Marvel. Still, I'm glad he plays, he's great competition.
KrsJin is really good but...
...KrsJin is MIA from everything ever for unknown reasons.
You made us seem not-racist for so long...
Edgar is a threat. I lose to him in random intervals, and not even for good reasons I feel. None the less, I lose.
He's definitely getting better, but I don't feel like in the right ways. I don't know if I can speak as this is my first KoF game and he's been a huge fan since Fatal Fury (the KoF before KoF) days. He plays with more pokes (hitting with the tips of limbs of attacks) where I play with more pressure and combos (running at the opponent and fucking their face).
In our matches, sometimes the pokes wins, sometimes the pressure wins. I feel in the long run of this game, pressure and combos will win once I learn how to react better to his jump-in attacks. Pedro tells me to use low attacks on jump-ins, and it's been working. But it's just such a weird and foreign concept to me so I don't react well enough.
Fuck Pedro.
Everyone else at this time is pretty low stress and not-too-difficult to beat. Not to say the rest aren't getting better, but at this time I'm not threatened by them.
So I made it through most of the tournament without much problem, which can be seen from the matches if watched or skimmed through.
---
Before the match started against Edgar, I heard the commentator say, "he's rubbing his head thinking of what to do here." There, I'm trying to get into my, new, anti-Edgar mindset. He's a guy who likes using really prioritizing moves (attacks with the ability to beat out a lot of other attacks) in the air and poking from the ground. Thankfully, he doesn't combo often, because he'd be a lot better if he knew how to confirm into damage.
Earlier that week, I had played online with a person I had met through SkullGirls, JennyCage. A really good KoF player who beat me pretty mercilessly for about an hour. She laid the hurt, but I couldn't have been more thankful... and somewhat embarrassed, haha! I at least wanted to take a single match! She had a very aggressive, fearless play style. She would shorthop (think half a jump in Street Fighter, or when you tap A for a split second in platformer games) often and keep attacking and pressuring.
I decided this is the kind of play style I need more of. Especially against Edgar who always attacks from the furthest distances possible with his pokes.
This meshed with my first video I, finally, got to watch of myself playing KoF.
This took place at an anime convention, AKA "everyone-was-so-FREE" tournament. With this footage, I could reflect on my actions and see what I was doing wrong. The only other guy who knew how to actually play is the one in the video above for the finals. Even then, I don't consider him much of a threat at this time.
From that video, I realized I do NOT respect wake-up game (when the opponent is on the ground after being knocked down and getting up) and get hit with a lot of stuff because I don't time anything correctly. While it's a good plan over all, I don't ever do something to fool my opponents into doing something stupid, so I become more predictable than a Disney Princess movie. And I don't look very pretty in a dress.
...I guess I'd look prettier in a Prince Charming's arms though, hmmm...
So I made more of a play style to reflect Edgar's love of using invincible moves, or Dragon Punches (DPs) on wake up, but enough to get in there and fight. Me being impatient and pressuring in short bursts, then make him impatient enough, while I'm being patient, and waiting for him to do something wrong. It's not an exciting match at Judgement Day 2, but it was effective enough. So I take it against Edgar 2-0.
---
Next up is the finals of the tournament against Pedro. I think one of my problems against Pedro is I can't consistently keep different styles of pressure against him. But he does crumple over having to block too long eventually where I get a combo. He plays the same game against me, but better. Much better. Still, it's the only ammunition I've got. Pedro even threw in a bonus $50 for the winner of the tournament, as an extra incentive. He was definitely feeling himself, and I respect that.
So I face Pedro's 4th team he's created for this game. The fact that I have to beat this guy in two sets, best of three, is just really heavy on my shoulders. I can feel the weight of the world against me and while I don't believe it affected my game play, it was still a shitty feeling to have.
Nearly all my matches using Kula go well enough. I do a lot of good pressure and tricks to make him second guess himself and then get opened up for a combo. I play pretty well overall, enough to take two matches from him, the most I've ever taken(!). None the less, his Mr.Karate is too strong and my King/Shen are far too weak, especially Shen.
As the games go on, I start becoming too defensive, making reckless mistakes, and my mentality is just dropping off hard and I can't keep my head in the match well enough to even pose a threat. There are times I just straight up stop blocking for reasons unknown. The things I want start to fail me, I'm dropping combos all over the place and, as it should have been long ago, it was over: 2-3 Pedro.
Fuck Pedro.
If Pedro were water and I were a dog getting smacked in the face by water, then this would be a convenient and completely relevant picto-metaphor.
I was happy that I was able to take two matches from Pedro. Still, I crumpled so bad at the end it's annoying...
...Not just annoying, I'm straight disappointed in it. I don't mind losing as long as I can say "I played well." I had that feeling after the Devastation BlazBlue tournament, I did not have that feeling here.
I think my biggest problem with Pedro is that he does so much stuff that I just don't understand how it works. With Edgar, I had this whole plan and anti-tactic for him specifically. I could think up ways to beat him and to use his own game against him.
With Pedro, all I know is that I can sometimes beat him with Kula if I apply enough pressure. No complicated plans, or even simple plans. I really just don't know my options against him besides punish his rare mistakes he makes. That's one thing I'm hoping I can get good enough to understand what parts and pieces make him so good, then fight with him on even ground. I'm just not wrapping my head around something here.
While they played KoF friendly matches after, I was in the Skullgirls tournament that started after the KoF tournament, so I didn't want to try to mix the two games. Especially after I played my first match of the Skullgirls tournament. I got hella beasted on because I kept forgetting there were 6 buttons, but I picked it up and won in the 2nd and 3rd rounds to take the win. I wonder how people have such strong mentalities to play multiple games in the same tournament. I'm jealous.
Also I was salty over my loss and didn't want to play, but I didn't want them to know that. :) But shhh...
I play through the Skullgirls tournament, not losing a single tournament match and take it all: 1st place.
While you would think that's far more exciting and I'd have a lot to say about it, I really honestly don't feel I know what I'm doing yet. I'm just doing general pressure. I don't know any of Painwheel's combos that are really damaging, I don't have much of a game plan besides "fuck their faces", and just playing smart was enough to pull out first place. Considering that was week 2 depth into the game, I don't have much to talk about for it yet.
So now, there's no events for a while in Colorado. There's a small break from ranbats, tournaments, etc. I figured this would be a good time to pick up a new character. I feel like I'm not grasping Shen well enough at this time and playing him terribly. Despite the irony of it being my Twitter name, I'm dropping Shen at this time.
At least I'm finally feeling comfortable enough with KoF to pick up a new character. So hopefully this works out pretty well, but we'll see when I get to actually play people.
Tl;Dr: Scumbag Jamaal. Complains when a tournament is too easy; Complains when a tournament is too hard.
