Upcoming Tournament Plans/School/misc. Thoughts

Long time no see. Sort of. I wanna keep this entry straight to the point, so here goes, as going with the first topic of the title....






Upcoming Tournament Plans


Alright, so this coming Sunday we have a local ranbat going on. If I'm not mistaken, it's the last one of the season. 2 or 3 weeks after that will be the big finale, AKA Michigan Masters, which is our biggest tournament that we hold. We usually have people from out of state come in, and most of, if not all of the players from MI come so we can determine who the best in Michigan really is. Most of the time it comes down to Alucard and Wolfkrone. Haha.

Then on the 21st, we have a trip to Columbus that we're going to make. Pretty much most of Michigan is going for that, for pretty much close to every game. We have people going for Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, Super Turbo, Super Street Fighter 4, Tekken 6, *I believe, any way. I know I'm going to try and enter it, as I would like to see where I'm at tournament wise, and what I need to improve on* and Virtua Fighter 5. *Definitely entering that one, as I feel that I'm halfway decent in VF* Not to mention all the other games they'll be having, but I'm not sure who's entering what. I know there's Marvel vs Capcom 2, Street Fighter 3: 3rd strike, and many more. All in all though, I'm looking to go there, play my best, and try my hardest to bring home some "fight money", no matter how much or how little. I'll play my best, and leave it all on the table. No sandbagging or messing around, I'm there to be serious to see what I need to improve on before Seasons Beatings, which leads into the next tournament.....


Seasons Beatings 5, aka Seasons Beatings: Redemption is the next, and probably the last Major Tournament that I'll be going to this year. After that it will probably just be local ranbats until spring, unless there's another major that I don't know about. I'm currently saving to go to this one, and selling whatever I have extra that I don't need/am not using to try and go. The reason? Well, it's not just because it's a Major, but there's going to be a lot of, if not all of the top players from the USA there, and some that aren't from the USA. Daigo, Momochi, and Choco Blanka *just to name a few* are going to be there, so I'm really hoping to try and get some matches in with them and see if they can help me out with what I'm doing wrong, or teach me something new. This one is in Columbus as well, and it's sometime in October, which gives me a little while to save. If I go with the people I'm planning to go with, It'll be a crew of 5 people that I know fairly well, so that'll be nice. Plus it puts the cost of everything at 20% since we'll be splitting it evenly, like a Hotel and Gas. But that's neither here nor there, more planning will be going on in the weeks to come, and hopefully we're all able to make it out.



School

Alright, I'm finally finishing up school! Yes,that's right, I'm technically supposed to be graduated already, but I had to stay a bit longer and do some extra Math that I needed to get done. I should be finishing up either tomorrow or monday, which will be nice. At that point I'll get a little time off, which is nice, but a lot of my friends are going back in just a little over a week, so next week is gonna be crazy, I can assure you. It's gonna be the last "hurrah" before they all go back, but I'm going to take advantage of the time to relax, play some more, and just take it easy before I start going to College online, which obviously is looking like the best option right now. Hopefully everything goes well. And while I have time off I'll be doing more studying and practicing with my Photography and such.



Misc. Thoughts

So I've been doing a lot of training and practicing lately, in preparation for Columbus on the 21st of this month. Been practicing in SSF4/T6/VF5. I've not only been practicing physically with learning my character(s) even further, but mentally as well. Trying to keep yourself calm is a skill in and of itself, and it's something that I've been trying to learn. Keeping calm against the computer or playing online may not sound like much, but it's still a match, and if you can keep calm while playing during that, you're already off to a good start.


But it's been weird lately, for a couple reasons. Whenever I'm practicing, I'm still playing physically, but mentally my mind starts wandering, drifting, and I start daydreaming. In SSF4, I start daydreaming about who I might fight in a tournament, what I would do if I fought this person, and before long, I'm daydreaming that it's grand finals, me vs Justin Wong/Daigo/Sanford, whoever it may be. A lot of people will say that there's no way I'll ever beat them, and right now, that's probably true. But I've started to take the mentality that nobody is undefeatable, nobody. They're all men. They're all human. Just like me, and the rest of us. Look at Evo 2010. Justin Wong didn't make it to the top 3, top 5, or even the top 8 for that matter. He came in 9th, losing to Vangief, a pad Zangief player, and Gamerbee, an unknown Adon player. IMO, they took the mentality of "I'm not playing Justin Wong, I'm playing Rufus. What should I do in this situation? What is he doing when I'm doing _____?" I understand that if I was to fight Justin Wong, that more than likely I won't beat him, but it doesn't mean I won't try. I understand that if I fight ANY type player, that there's always a chance. Always an opportunity for me to take advantage of. If I go into a fight saying "Oh I have to fight Alucard/Wolfkrone/Checkmate/*Insert Top Player Here*, there's no way I'm going to beat them", then there's no point in playing. Go over to the tournament operator and forfeit, because you've already lost the match. If you're not going to try your best, and put your best foot forward, why play at all?

I'm using Justin as an example, I know that more than likely I'll never play him, but it's just the point. So many times I hear/see people say "I'd never be able to beat *insert name*, even if I tried." What kind of a cop-out is that? What's the point of even playing then? It's just so annoying to hear that.



And then, going to my second thought. It's been really weird lately whenever I'm playing Tekken 6 or Virtua Fighter 5, moreso VF5 though. It's weird that I've played VF so much over the years that I have the muscle memory and visual clue/reaction as to what to do combo/attack wise. There's times where I do an attack, and I don't expect it to hit, I'm just playing footsies or poking, and it hits and sets up a combo. Then my fingers just automatically follow up with something. It's weird, but kinda cool. *laughs* Same with Tekken 6. I'm using Bob, and learning him, but there's so many times where I get a counter hit or a juggle lands, and then by just muscle memory and reaction I automatically follow up. I'm guessing that's a good thing to have/do, since when it comes down to where I'm in a high pressure situation, knowing that I can pull off a combo/reversal/throw escape, etc., is a good skill to have. I can sit there and just know that I can fix/follow up with whatever just happened., which I think works to my advantage. I haven't gotten to that point in SSF4 though, at least not with Honda. I haven't learned him that well yet.





So that's about it for this blog entry. It was long, I know, but I've had a lot going on, and just a few things on my mind, so I figured I'd share. If you've made it this far, congrats for sticking through it, and thanks!



-Q

Joseph Gordon Levitt=SF2 Fan?

Nuf said. Watch the video. Near the end he gives a shout-out to Street Fighter 2 from his childhood.


The man knows his stuff, he speaks the truth.

Recent Thoughts/SSF4 Tourney

Wow, it's been a long time since I updated this blog! Man, it feels weird, but also feels good to be back. I've been super busy since Midwest Championships, with schoolwork, photography, and my Street Fighter playing, as well. lol.


So basically to sum it up, I came back from MWC exhausted, but I had fun when I went. Although I was somewhat happy with my performance, I still felt that there was something that was holding me back, or something that I was doing wrong. I started researching, and searching myself to possibly figure out what that was. My conclusion? I figured that I wasn't playing with the right character. So there started my long mission of trying to find a new main. I jumped from Sagat to Rufus again, to Bison/Blanka/Balrog/Cammy/Ryu...the list goes on. I kept jumping and jumping for the next couple months...


Until a week or two ago. I was running through the trials in SSF4 to try and get the icons for each character, and I ran across E. Honda. I thought he had some nerfs, but it turns out very little, if anything at all was changed. He was doing some massive damage, and I found that I was able to naturally Piano his Hundred Hand Slap combos with little effort. I decided to give him a shot and see what I could do.


It was love at first sight. I loved the damage that I could do with him. Granted, he has a hard time with fireball characters, but I love high-damage characters, hence the reason I used Sagat in Street Fighter 4. I still use him in Super Street Fighter 4 now, but I have to play him a lot more carefully and patiently than I did in SF4. I still see some results with Sagat, but I'm really liking Honda so far. So I hit the lab, and I've kept practicing, and Honda is now my main.




So I've been using him exclusively for about a week and a half or so now, and I had my first local ranbat with him today. Overall I think I did fairly well. I went 4-2, and fought some good people. I ended fighting the top player in Michigan, Wolfkrone, for my 3rd match. It was a great match, his Viper was a beast, as usual. I thought that Honda's EX Headbutt could stop the Burn Kick mixups, but that wasn't the case. Seems that they've stopped that in SSF4, which is alright. The matchup would have been almost unwinnable for Viper at that point, if it did. The first game I just kept on doing a lot of Buttslams, which Viper seems to have no answer for, and Wolfkrone said he personally didn't know what to do when I was doing that. I mixed it up the first round of the second game, and took it, barely. I was up one round and one game, and then.....IDK. I just stopped doing what I was supposed to. I decided to try and style on him, and went to try and build meter, as to try and go for Jab --> Hands --> FADC --> Ultra 2. I went for it, when he had about half a bar of life, and it would have killed him...

...if I didn't mess it up and get EX Oicho instead. D=


Missing it killed my momentum, but I brought it down the last hits of the last round, which I was happy with. I went into losers, beat a Zangief, and then had to go up against a local Balrog/Ryu player, Rusty. I don't know the matchup with Honda vs Balrog at all, so it took it pretty convincingly. *He was rushing me down like crazy, and I wasn't sure what to do. I'll learn it over time, though. I'm just starting out with Honda.* So I went back and forth at the character select screen, wondering if I should choose Bison and play footsies with him and go with Knee Pressure, or just use my old stand-by Sagat. I decided to go with Sagat, Ultra 1. *In case I got counter crumple or FADC Uppercut. He wasn't doing much jumping so Ultra 2 wasn't beneficial in this case*


So I played it patiently, because I REALLY didn't want to lose to Rusty, no offense to him. So I turtled, turtled, and turtled some more. Played footsies, anti-aired when I needed to. It was close, but I pulled it out against his Balrog. He then rushes back to the Character select screen and pulls out Ryu. Oh boy. Here we go. "I'm done", I thought. But then I just told myself mentally that if I just played it patiently, I could beat him. I'd done it before, and I could do it again.


I got a counter crumple 2 or 3 times with FA, and went into Ultra 1 after it. Got the C. LK --> C. LK --> C. MP --> Low Tiger shot blockstring a few times. I was mainly doing that to be safe, I wasn't feeling risky enough to do uppercut, as it was 1-1 at that point, so I was being super super safe and patient. He tried jumping in a few times, and I anti-aired him rather well. I was able to pull it out, though. In Rusty's defense though, he was going from Balrog to Ryu, which is a drastic change in characters. I was happy I pulled it out though. I was all excited, then I heard behind me:


"Yo, Q. We're up next." I turned around, and behold, who was standing there?


Perfect freaking Legend. I even told him just as he sat down: "You're one of the two guys I didn't/don't want to face." He laughed, and asked who the other guy was. I told him it was Alucard. I can't deal with Rush-down Balrogs that well. We laughed, did the button check, and picked our characters. No matter what, I was picking Honda the first game. I saw him run to Akuma, which I was somewhat happy with. I felt that if I got in on him I could do decent. But as soon as I picked Honda, he ran over to Seth. 3-7 matchups ftl. Ugh. There wasn't much I could do, as I didn't know the matchup at all.


I played my best, and took a round from him, but he pulled it out that game. I switched to Sagat, since I knew the match relatively well from playing a friend of mine, PapaRhino, but there was only one problem: He didn't play anything at all like PapaRhino, so I was kind of puzzled as to what to do. It was a fun match either way, though.



So in closing, the tournament went well. I took 5th place, which I was extremely happy with, being that I had just picked up Honda and it was my first tournament with him. I wasn't upset to who I lost to, as I lost to the best player in MI, and probably the best in OH. Nothing to be upset about. I'll continue to practice, and hopefully when I go to Columbus next month for a big tournament, I'll do well there too. Honda FTW!




So that about wraps this up, I just felt like updating and talking about what went on at the tournament today. It was pretty fun, overall. Except for Rusty running his mouth when me and Perfect Legend were playing, I feel that it threw both of us off our game a bit, not that the outcome would probably have changed. *shrug* It was really annoying, man. No offense. Next time just keep it down, if you would please.




This is Q, signing off. I'll try to update again soon, and let y'all know what's going on. Peace.

MWC Results/Thoughts

So while these people in the Deviantart.com chat are taking forever to answer my questions on a camera, I'll go ahead and update my blog really quick. BTW, this picture that see over here, On the left is Wolfkrone, the top player in Michigan. He placed 4th at MWC this weekend. On the right? That's Alex Valle, who took first in the SSF4 Singles tournament. That's them fighting in teams, with a bit of editing on my part, of course. ^_^



This past weekend was Midwest Championships, a major Fighting Game tournament held in Chicago, at the Crowne Plaza hotel. Really nice place, by the way. I was able to go with a group of Michigan players, which was a blast. The drive out there wasn't too bad, but when we got lost it was pretty upsetting, since it was supposed to be about a 4 and a half hour drive, it turned into 6 and a half. Ugh. Nothing to really say about the drive itself, other than that it was full of hilarious joking/comments/statements.


We got to the hotel, dropped our stuff off in the room and took a breather for about half an hour. After we were settled in, got the bedding situation under control, we decided to go out and knock on some hotel doors for casuals and/or moneymatches. We slithered through the hallways, leaning up against doors that we thought we heard Fight Stick button presses and people talking about Street Fighter. We looked for a little while, and came across a room with a group of players from Minnesota. We went in, played a couple casual matches, but then one of their guys started talking a ridiculous amount of crap, one of the biggest mouths I've ever seen/heard in my life. It quickly escalated to a Moneymatch, where it was a 5 on 5, for $10. They won the first set, but it was obvious for a few reasons. One, we were all still stiff from the drive out there. Two, we were obviously tired from the drive out there. Three, the TV's the hotel had were lagging a bit, so we dropped some critical one-frame link combos. And 4, they had been there all evening and had been playing casuals, so they were all used to it and adjusted. We lost the first set, again, but then we ran it back and won the 2nd set, so we broke even. We called it quits and went back to the room to play some casuals of our own, and to just rest up for the tournament.


The next day, I couldn't sleep, and was up at about 7:30-8:00am. Got up and went outside, and me and one of the guys started roaming the halls looking for casuals. We looked and looked, but didn't find anything. We ended up going to the Minnesota room again, and played for an hour or so, then went down to where the tournament was going to be held to see what was up. We went in, looked around, saw nothing of interest at the moment, and went back and just waited for the 10am registration to start. I had a feeling that the day wasn't going to go right. It was the one time in my life I wish I was wrong.



The tournament registration starts, ends like a flash, it seems, and then the tournament itself starts. I planned to run Juri the entire tournament, but if I was counter-picked I'd use Sagat. Simple enough. The one thing I didn't want for my first match was to fight a Blanka, and to be on the stream. Lo and behold, my first match is against a Blanka, and on the stream. Oh boy, this day is going great already, isn't it? I beat him with ease, since I knew the matchup. The crowd was cheering for Blanka at first, but I had a lot of them cheering for me at the end, which was reassuring and invigorating. Winning my first match under such pressure boosted my confidence, so I reported the match, and waited for my 2nd match. It was against a Zangief. I wasn't too comfortable with the Juri/Zangief match yet, so I just ran Sagat, and got another win. I was on a high and on fire at that point, I felt so confident, like I was ready to take on the world. Or so I thought.



Then it happened. We had over 350 people there, in a very cramped space, and I was called to my 3rd match. By the time I got over, I was told, "You're not playing yet, if you want you can go sit down for the time being." I figured it was a pre-mature call, and I would just wait. One hour goes by. Another hour. Then they said they were starting Loser's Bracket. I wasn't called yet, and I hadn't lost a match. What the heck? I went over to investigate. Turns out the guy I was SUPPOSED to fight had gone up and reported that he played me and won. When I heard that, my heart just sank, and I felt a piece of me die inside. I knew this weekend was going to be terrible from this point on. I was right. They researched it and found out he lied, and they gave him his $10 entry fee back, and let him go on in the tournament from what I can see. They threw me up against some random guy, and I lost. Obviously, after what I'd just been traumatized with, I wasn't going to do well. I made a bunch of stupid mistakes, and because of that, was knocked into losers. I waited for my next match. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. 5 and a half hours later I finally get called, and I lose that one. You honestly expect me to win on a laggy TV after waiting for 5 hours, hungry, afraid to go get some good food for fear of being DQ'd? Sure, they had burgers and some hot dogs, and I had one, but it wasn't super amazing. I was still hungry, mentally exhausted, and my feet/legs were killing me. Playing Super Street Fighter 4 in a competitive tournament at a major was the FURTHEST thing from my mind at this point.


So now I'm out of the tournament, and I was furiously upset, ready to smash everything and anything I could get my hands on, but I composed myself, and went back to the hotel room to relax. I proceeded to tell anybody and everybody what had happened, and everyone I said that story to was just utterly shocked. The guy was a terrible player, so that just added to the fact that he didn't want to play me because he knew he'd lose. The worst part? There were no pros in the bracket, and I watched who I would have had to fight to get to the top, and you know what I found out?


I would have placed 3rd. Yep. No lie. The winner of our bracket was one of the WORST Balrog players I've seen in my entire life. He played no matchup correctly, yet somehow won. Probably because of the mental exhaustion people were under. I sat there and watched, and I knew I could have beaten him. So because of this guy lying about my match, I was not only cheated into Losers and out of the tournament, but cheated out of a 3rd place trophy, and good money as well. Yep. But that was just the beginning.



The next day, I had entered the Super Puzzle Fighter HD Remix tournament, and we entered the SSF4 team tournament, 3 on 3. Me/Mike/Keits, the runner of the tournament teamed up, since his Cody was pretty good. Mike more than did his job of carrying us. Why's that? Because everybody was a counter pick to my character, Rufus. Everybody picked Gief/Blanka/Honda/Seth/Sagat, and the list goes on. Every match I fought except for one was a counter pick. The match I fought that wasn't a counter pick I won, which was against a Vega. He was alright, but I just rushed him down in the corner and ended it quickly. We end up losing the 3v3, because we ran into a team that was all counter picks to our characters. No problem, I'll make it up in Puzzle fighter. Right?



Nope. I win my first match, then the 2nd match I went up against an absolute beast of a player. He'd been playing the game since it first came out for PS1. He was considered a Veteran, and I had been practicing in the PSP version, which is pretty different from the HDR version for the 360/PS3. I struggled big time, but he won it. I'm in losers now. I win a match, then I go up against Keits, the tournament operator. He wins the first match, then I win a match, then he wins a round, and I win a round. Final round, make it or break it time, Steve. You can do this. I let him pile me up so I could just end it with one blow. We had gone back and forth, but I knew I could beat him if I tried. I finally get the piece I need, and my screen has one last spot to put it in, and if I mess up this drop, I lose. I make the drop, I win. Guess what?


My X button died, so the piece didn't rotate before I hit Up to instantly drop it, and it cost me. They did absolutely nothing about it, either. Yep. Screwed over again. Everything that could have gone wrong, did. A 10-man tournament for Puzzle Fighter and I couldn't make top 3 to bring home a trophy because my luck was so bad.



Oh, and I got Alex Valle, a veteran SF player's autograph. The problem? One of the michigan players AaronS used the stick and smudged off the name. Yep. Can't win.



All in all it was a fun trip, but it sucks that I got robbed so badly for it, especially after seeing how far I could have gotten and the money that was mine, but stolen out of my hands. There will be other Majors. There will be other tournaments. And they won't know. They won't know the beast that will be coming for them, the unknown rookie that will come in and sweep. As salty as I am about this whole thing, the trip was still fun, and I took away a good lesson:

Always be mentally prepared to face the utmost worst circumstances, and most of all, be patient, be calm, and play YOUR game. Dont' ever give up until it's over, no matter how bleak the situation. Never Back Down. So my motto after all this, the saying that I'm going to live by for these tournaments now....



"I'll Continue To Fight, Till I Collapse."


This is Q, signing off. Hope you all have a great day. :)



Shoutouts from the tournament:

Alex Valle: Shame we didn't get an interview, was really looking forward to it. Next time I'll harass you until you do it, lol.
Marn: Good to see you aren't a jerk now, or not much of one. Looking forward to playing you soon, shame we didn't.
Floe: Great Juri, really inspirational. Hope to get casuals with you as well, maybe you can teach me some things and we can compare play styles.
Wolfkrone: Hype matches, every one. You were definitely the person to watch. Good Job on holding it down for Michigan, you made us all proud.
AaronS: Good stuff as well, you did good.
DeeDogg: Was cool getting to know you, hope to run into you at the local tournaments some more and play casuals.
PersonMan: Don't wear the Pokemon hat. Ever. Please. Other than that, yeah, cool hangin' with ya.
Keits: Good job on running the tournament, I enjoyed it. Mostly. I guess. lol.
Cali group: Thanks for the stream, that was enjoyable. Hope to see the footage uploaded so I can see my one good match that I had.
Seb: Great finally meeting to you and talking to you for a sec, even if it was onoly for just as we were leaving the hotel, hope to meet you again.
Dude from my local Library, AKA Ubersaurus: Next time tell me you're going, we'll play casuals. Was great seeing you again, didn't know you were into SF! Lol!
Skisonic: Good meeting you. And by meeting I mean saying "Hi" and that's it. lol.
Markman: I didn't recognize you until you were pointed out in a picture, else I would have come over and said hi to you, and probably interviewed you. Next time!
Chauncy Talon: CHIPS AHOY!!! HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS MONEY MATCH HYPE! Good stuff, man, you were hilarious.
Mike: Thanks for carrying us in Teams. lol. You had good matchups and wrecked shop.
And lastly, but CERTAINLY not least:
Mom and Dad, thanks for letting me go. It meant more than you could ever imagine. It was super fun. :)


Anybody else, if I didn't mention you, it was a long weekend, so you know who you are, keep up the good work, and hopefully we'll cross paths soon.


And now for some photos of the event:
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