Though we got off to a late start and the tournament ran long, it was a freaking awesome tournament. There’s way too much to say, but I won’t be able to say it all. But I’ll bring up a lot of stuff and this tournament was loaded with great memories.
SF IV
In Street Fighter IV, the competition was fierce! The top 8 showed how deep and closely contended Portland’s field is. All of the top 8 battles were excellent matches with the intensity you would expect and hope for in the Grand Finals.
Everyone who watched the tournament past 11pm will carry memories of some rivalry formed by a match that impressed them. But the thing is, just about every match involving two members of the Top 8 (and a couple of others too) felt like a rivalry match. Now that’s an awesome deep and close field.
I didn’t get to see every match, but the crowd cheers and applauses confirmed many of them.
Yangsing vs. Alvin
Ben vs. Sam Y
BBH vs. Ben
BBH vs. Rayblade
Alvin vs. BBH
Andrew Tran and Slade’s matches were also great matches to watch.
In all of the matches with the Top 8, you had some ridiculous moments of inspiration (and balls). Whether it’s Sam Y’s waiting for a good opportunity to unload on his opponent out of nowhere mid-exchange or the patience of a BBH or Ben, not even letting the clock crack them most of the time. Andrew’s Blanka and Ray’s Gen changed up the pace of some matches while Yangsing’s Bison hung in there and chipped away at people.
SFIV tournament got off the ground a little after 9pm and finished at 2:15am, and it was great throughout! PROPS TO ALL FIGHTERS!
And CONGRATULATIONS to Alvin (Red Cyclone) whose Zangief took on all fighters in a lot of close battles. What might not get mentioned much about his fights is some of the Killer Instinct moments in his battles–there were some really clutch match winners coming from that Zangief and they were not accidents. FULL PROPS!
HDR
HDR tournament was fun for many things. The matches themselves were fun, though I was busy cooking a lot of food for people during it (I was happily cooking for the players though). But here are some highlights:
-What I caught of the top 4 or so matches was quite good and intense.
-The introduction of a new player in the scene, Tsunami Ken. While he got 9th in HDR, he had never played HDR before but made a good showing with his custom modded gamepad (he made it 360 compatible the day of the tournament). I saw him play some casual HDR (learning the game) and casual SFIV and I’m glad he’s really getting into SFIV. Can’t wait to see him on Thursdays! He had the patience to wait for the HDR tournament to start (it started at 2:20am–unfortunately we had issues with our setup, but that will be resolved in the future).
-I DO have respect for Sirlin… But it’s too much fun bashing Sirlin too. And the Jetay on Sirlin smacktalk was quite entertaining during the HDR tournament.
-While BBH is still haunted by the SFIV finals (it was fiercely fought and he did drag Red Cyclone into the Loser’s Bracket in the IV Grand Finals), it was nice to see some sense of comfort and redemption in his face when he won HDR in another fierce final.
-HDR tournament ran from 2:20am - 3:00am (40 minutes vs. 5.25 hours lol).
THE AFTERMATH
While The Aftermath was intended to be midnight and on… It ended up sort of being 2:20am and on.
Street Fighter IV practice on one station. It was great seeing some of the regulars like Sam B. and Slade showing Tsunami Ken more of SFIVs nuances. Greater seeing that Tsunami Ken is really enjoying it and looking forward to getting into SFIV.
Probably the most notorious and memorable part of the Aftermath was the excitement and loud laughter and enjoyment BBH, Sam Y, and Sam B were having playing X-Men: Children of the Atom on the Multicade. My personal memories of that game was that its controls were messed up for me and it was always a rough experience. But these guys couldn’t stop talking about how GREAT the game is and how broken Sentinel is. I think MvC2 really shined a light on this game and that light clicked on at the Aftermath 
But I wouldn’t know. I just know everyone had a blast and I would get questions like “How much does it cost to get a multicade like that?” GOOD STUFF!
And here it comes… I loved playing VF5 with Yangsing and Rayblade! Yangsing hasn’t even been practicing on the side, but his Kage’s growing with the matches. Solidly took me out at the end of the night (I wanted to fight some more matches but had to close up shop). Rayblade’s Vanessa is always giving me hell, but hey, I love the hell that his Vanessa provides 
I felt all three of us getting sharper in our VF games again last night. Ray and I are starting to get back to where we left off almost two years ago on VF and Yangsing is catching up. With more VF players coming on the Thursday nights… I’m excited for Portland VF again!
Final Thoughts (for the moment :P)
But this was a Street Fighter event, and I am proud that it was a Versis event.
THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO CAME OUT TO THIS TOURNAMENT! I hope Versis served everyone well and that this event was as exciting and enjoyable for you as it was for me. Let me know how it went for you, bad or good. I would love to keep on improving on it and next time will definitely get more marketing too. THANKS AGAIN!
Immitating Jetay immitating Zangief (and haunting BBH for now…)… RAH RAH RAAAHHHHHH!!!
-Chanchai
I felt all three of us getting sharper in our VF games again last night. Ray and I are starting to get back to where we left off almost two years ago on VF and Yangsing is catching up. With more VF players coming on the Thursday nights… I’m excited for Portland VF again!