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!