FFA Ranbat 8/13/2011 (L-L)

Another event I hadn't planned on attending (or even knew about) - I got a call about it and Hugo101 wanted to attend and needed a ride there so I decided to enter. Nothing special to write about except that the pool was small this time compared to the usual FFA events but I think this was due to the Insert Coin(s) tournament in Vegas. Or it could have just been a good summer weekend and nobody really cared to play. 


I lost my first match the ever random play style of El Fuerte. The following is sort of an excuse- I still don't know the matchup. I have no idea what counters what and I'm convinced there's no way to avoid Tortilla grab or his general knockdown mixups as Hawk (Yes I'm still using Hawk-why? AE Ver. 2012). EX SRK does not get you out of well timed crossups or grabs by Fuerte so escape comes down to not getting caught in the first place which is basically impossible. With tournament pressure and my opponent being all over the screen I had to play his game and jump/dive/attack frantically to keep up. It was one of the messiest matches I've had, almost like watching someone who had only picked up the game days before. Although I managed a round or two, I was out muscled by Fuerte's strength (ha ha..). As far as matchup experience I recently played about 10 matches vs SeeDogPoo, a player from the East and he beat me 9-1. A good Fuerte has an advantage over Hawk just by speed and randomness. 


My second match was against a Guile player who I had fought a few times before and had won every set. His play style changed in our tournament match and resulted in a comeback victory. I got caught off guard several times one of which I took 4 of Guile's ST. FPs in a row - now that was embarrassing and lead me into a mini-depression in the middle of the match. He played very defensively (as most Guile players do) and whenever I got him to one corner of the screen he managed to escape, and in that matchup letting Guile switch sides turns the balance in his favor by tenfold. 


While the tournament continued on after my ejection I played casuals on the other stations and played very well winning most of my matches. I don't know if my brain "turned on" after the tournament or what, but I should be trying to eliminate part of that possibility by warming up before the tournament as much as I can. I should be showing up earlier and playing for an hour to get my brain thinking in "6 buttons and a joystick" mode.


Hugo101 ended up with first place, so good work there. He also pointed out that I need to start putting effort into memorizing matchups and their details. The problem is that I'm aware of that but nothing is saving in my memory. Reset...

Evolution 2011 Preface

Up until last weekend I wasn't sure if I would be able to make this year's 3 day fighting game extravaganza. I had registered early in April, scheduled vacation time at work and was ready to go except that I didn't fully plan out the financial aspects of the trip. Where would I stay? How would I get there? How much money would I have to survive on? Those are probably the most significant questions that needed to be answered and planned for.  At EVO 2010, I came with a meager budget that only allowed me to stay for one day in a dingy hotel outside the strip. After barely sleeping from a massive allergy attack from the dirty room and desert pollen I swore then that I would have a nice room at the same hotel as EVO the upcoming year. Having to drive to the strip was a hassle as well. So here we are at EVO 2011 and I didn't get a hotel and didn't save any money. Jeesh-what's my deal? Next year if I'm still interested in the fighting game scene I won't do this again, or so I say. Why not start now just in case, with SmartyPig? Fortunately I had some help from giving family members and I'll be heading out this afternoon. I found a room to split for 4 days with people I've never met. Let's hope it works out! If not, I suppose this will be a short trip like last year.


So what's it about? Primarily a massive tournament, but also a vendor showcase, a game developer panel, interviews with top players, and short films. What about the competitive aspect of the event? I'm going to compete in a tournament against a record number of people. I've heard that there are around 6,000 entries this year (combined for all the featured games), compared to 2,000 last year. The competition will be much stronger because the players who are tournament minded now have 2 years of practice, and also there are more top international players. At EVO 2010, I didn't win any matches (lost to Guile and Abel.) This year I'm not going into the tournament with such heavy weight on my shoulders about trying to win. It's unrealistic to expect to win with my character choice (yes, even though I swore off T. Hawk I don't really have a choice at this point). Why not learn another character? It takes a lot of time and energy. I could say I didn't have enough time to learn a new character since the release of AE but if I would have dedicated every day to the job I might have been able to pull it off. But winning matches in a huge tournament? Real difficult. So this year I'll be playing my matches with less pressure on myself and just go to check out the scene and maybe get some sun at the pool-be a tourist.


563 miles to go

DIZeLAN 6/25/11 (L-W-L) and the end of T. Hawk.

Although I didn't plan on going to this tournament at DIZeLAN , even up to the day before, pending other plans, general laziness, and reluctance to (for the first time) enter a tournament using a character other than T.Hawk, something told me I had to do it. I have to give credit to Hugo101 and WonderChef for inspiring me to go by asking for a ride there to test their skills in SSF4:AE, MK9, and MvC3. I only the other hand, was only interested in SSF4: AE. This would be a significant event for me because as I said, would not be using the character I have entered every single tournament since the release of SSF4 (unlike SF4 which of the two or three tournaments I entered, used Ryu). 


Hugo101 and I picked up WonderChef and arrived around 11:30. DIZeLAN is an 80 mile round-trip drive so it would be a full day event for us. Joe and BeeJay had just opened up shop and they were still setting up stations. I had to get practicing as soon as possible. I thought the tournament for SSF:AE was scheduled to start at 12 but instead MvC3 came first. This worked out positively for me as I was able to get an hour or so of practice in with Yun and Fei Long. Yun is a new character that is widely recognized as the best in the game. Fei Long is a top tier character (modeled after Bruce Lee) as well, possibly 2nd or 3rd best at this point in time of the ever transitioning tier list. 


At first I thought I would play with Yun, then switch to Fei if I lost. The point was not to fall back on T. Hawk. I even registered in the tournament as "No More T. Hawk". I would be using Fei for the first time in a tournament, and possibly for the first time ever ("day one Fei") as I had only tried a few things with him in training mode in the months past. During practice, I felt I learned quite a bit, getting into the motions of muscle memory and and setting patterns down. Some other players were helping me out too. One o'clock rolls around and the tournament begins. 


My first matchup I actually don't remember what happened or who I played except that it ended in a loss. It's a total blank. However my second match was against a player who was at his first tournament, new to the game, and using one of the new characters, Oni. We shared one thing in common with our new character choices. I defeated him and went on to my next match against someone who knew multiple characters so I didn't know what to expect. He chose Sagat, and we went all three games and I lost by a hair. Interestingly, I was hardly disappointed but instead content with how I played for only having played Fei for a couple hours. One of the other players was eager to see me play and insisted that I should have won the match. Thanks for the reassurance, wish it would have turned out that way. It was nice to have someone admire a day one Fei. 


Yes, I'm hopping on the supposed bandwagon and moving to a top tier character. Some frown upon people who switch and others like the talented Shizza see it in a much more realistic sense. At ReveLAtions, Shizza told me he felt that if you're losing, you should switch and that the majority of other players aren't even seriously paying attention to your decisions-so who cares? T. Hawk takes too much effort and I'll explain this in a future post. For now, he's on the farthest back burner. 


One thing that I love about Fei is that Flamekick shortcut (F,B,F,K) this makes it very easy to anti-air an opponent. At this early stage I feel his speed allows me to be more coordinated, it's as if I have cat like reflexes especially with the shortcut. I don't know any of his matchups or specifics so this makes it hard to elaborate on how I played in the tournament. He seems to be a counter character and I think I should be effective with him. Off to study Mago from Japan, and hopefully get some practice from XBlades and Hugo101. 


One more thing- sorry IkeTakeda, we were too far out when you called. Next time.