Very rarely will I personally travel far for a tourney. AA is pretty damn far for a tournament, and I’ll bet many Detroiters feel the same way. “Local” tourneys aren’t really a priority nowadays, when we can just go to a friends house and game for hours for free. I went to an AA tourney, and wasn’t really impressed. The sticks were horrendous. I chose to believe that isn’t the norm, but for that day, not good. It was great to put faces with the names on these forums, but from a gaming standpoint, it need work. Keep in mind, this is not a reflection on you, Zodd. It’s the whole atmosphere that fails. I don’t know if you guys do this in AA, but on a weekly basis, someone, somewhere is gaming at their house. Robo, Terrell and George all welcome the core of the community based in the Metro area at various times during the weekend.The community still thrives, just not with sign-up sheets, brackets, and video arcades…
Both Hollow and Obot have valid points.
Personally, I’m retired…plus the fact I can’t travel like that anymore due to bad health, so I host FNG. Lazy way to hang out with the community.
Maybe you could pm a few of the guys that used to show up regularly to A2 see what the deal is. Perhaps they do not want to discuss their reasons out in the open…I’m not sure.
Dam, I miss the arcade scene.
However, good luck with future A2 tournaments, Zodd.
I disagree. Even if you said this lightly, I strongly disagree. What you do today, is reminiscent of what my uncle used to do when he stayed in Warren Manor, but on a much grander scale. It is a tremendous service for the community, and is a constant reminder of the stock we come from. I also plan to do the same when I buy a house. Your the good Example of a gamer. I have very few friend/rivals outside of the gaming scene, and I appreciate what you do.
Speaking of rivals, Judgment day, my Makoto tried to call your Alex, and she said he didn’t pick up, or return the call. It’s been a while since they danced…
Robo I played u alot in many of your rare SNK games. And I still see new stuff…like the last time I was at FNG and seein Tim play A3 ad Rival Schools. I though he was a just an SNK player. And Grego I love HF ask Uber…I’m not too found of ST but I’ll play it if u desire some comp then i’ll be glad for the challgthere is nothing i won’t try. whether it’s SNK til CapcomI’ll play it. Whether it’s 2D or 3D I will go at it. I learn from my losts. And yes I played VDO,Techno,Robo,Biz,Massu,Hollow,UberIVy,OBot,Ali,JIn Master,Joshi,Tim,Deity,Super Jen, the new and the old…And I can say i’ve learned from them all.
Okay. With this post in mind, I feel the need to say something.
When CvS2 was big, well before Obot came to the scene and we had ranking tournaments, I think the concept was on point. To sum it up, we had 1 tournament at Nate Grey’s house (Flint) and 1 tournament at Wizzards per month. So it was a biweekly that was joined by the players of Michigan, to cater to all major areas. I won’t go into more detail on how it was done, simply because it won’t work for a game that approaching 4 years, especially with nothing standing out on the Detroit front anymore. We must adjust to the times as we see fit to accomodate as many Michigan players as possible.
A lot of replies I agree to, particularly Obot’s 2nd reason. What initially began to kill the CvS2 scene was the # of tournaments that was done. The idea was to prep the players attending the Evolution 2002 tournament (Final Showdown, TKK, AVX, and myself) so the tournaments went weekly. That was fine, but the weeklies continued well after Evo ended, and it completely watered down the interest…with little to no diversity. Zodd, Saturday is the perfect day for tournaments. But not EVERY week. I think a lot of people are taking advantage of the ‘day off’ concept that is Saturday and use it for a day of relaxing. Once every month or two would be more ideal.
Also, I saw flyers at Pinball Pete’s when I was there, but nothing else in regards to advertisement. For what it’s worth, Lycan really pushed his tournament through word of mouth and made a post beyond the Michigan thread, with at least 3 weeks notice. That gives people the time to make time to attend.
Lastly, there doesn’t seem to be a dedicated scene that I’ve seen convince people to attend Ann Arbor. I don’t care what others say, if you want competition, you’ll attend with reason. No one would attend Wizzards given the conditions, but the competition is what made it great. Now that Cheese Master is gone, and the Karoukis Bros don’t play, outside of HaiGuy from the Zaibatsu, no one has really made themselves noteworthy to convince people to attend Ann Arbor for competition. That proposal for the CvS2 Team Tournament I made, for example. Detroit, even without a local arcade, VDO, Julian, or Keshawn, could still gather up 15 decent players for 3 teams if it was 5-on-5. Ann Arbor cannot.
Umm…and finally…hopefully this doesn’t come off the wrong way, but I notice that gaming seems to calm down after I hold tournaments. Like…people have the mindset of ‘if Judgment Day’ isn’t throwing it, it’s not worth it, or ‘after this, I’m taking a break’. I dunno. It seems to happen every time.
So what I recommend is starting a group of gamers without the people who originally gave a name to Ann Arbor, to re-establish your front. I’d say a minimum of 15 total…this goes beyond CvS2. Even Wayne State has done this. It should be Ann Arbor’s turn.
Seriously, if the Michigan fighting community chooses to evolve, it has to go beyond where we’re at now. FNG, for example, is a HUGE plus. Without it, I think Michigan would basically disintergrate in gaming acknowledgement. But while FNG helps, I don’t think it’s the total answer. And if it was, I know Robo wouldn’t want 30-50 players in his living room…! 
Ideally, that’s the amount of players we actively need in Michigan…or at least semi-proactive players. So I guess all I’m saying is that someone needs to step up regardless of console, platform, or location. And if it’s not working, again, rethink your strategy and adjust. That’s pretty much the fighting game concept anyway.
Meanwhile, I mentioned it on the Zai, but Mayn Event V (as it will be called) will be on May 12-13 of this year. I somehow managed to talk to the actual owner instead of management, and he’s personally seeing it through from beginning to end.
He will call tomorrow regarding Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection’s release date for both of their existing machines, as he’s aware of it being the focal tournament more or less.
I also mentioned KOFXI. I told him that Michigan…Detroit in particular is renown for SNK. So in light of that, he will research this as well (as I have). However, since it’s on new hardware, it will cost more money. So the arrival on this game will not solely depend on what I will say, but will be a heavy influence.
I want this game to arrive to Michigan by the first week of April at the latest. That gives people a good 6 weeks to prepare and adjust for what I have to offer in May. My job here is to convince the owner that KOFXI will be well worth his purchase, and that they will make money off of it. In order for me to make the push, I need some guarantees that people will play this game in preps for Mayn Event V. It, like the other tournaments hosted (except for the CvS2 Team Tournament), will offer a cash bonus for the 1st place winner. And money if you don’t even make the Top 3…but I’ll keep that to myself for now. So my goal is for KOFXI to have the 2nd highest turnout of the 4 tournaments that I host.
Lastly, my personal opinion while thinking of my next tournament is that when I held the $500 tournament, it was a concept that worked for Michigan, and a lot of areas…finally something different (Akin to Massu’s Grudge Tournament which was genius). And in a day where almost every tournament offers money, I must offer that in addition to other…criteria…to get people to play. Because even offering loot to the 1st place winner still has a flaw.
Thanks for reading my essay.
PS: Alex has two left feet. But he’s gonna buy a right shoe next week and learn how to…dance! 
The way you guys keep on talking about cheese_master I would have thought that fool won Evo last year or something.
Just because he was the best then does not mean he was the best there ever will be. Everyone in Ann Arbor has stepped their game up since he’s left. In fact I think we’re all better without him.
But I guess respect is earned not given, right? So I’m going to stop throwing these weekly’s and start coming to Detroit.
I play CvS2 and am a Padawan in 3S but I’m down to thrown down in anything. I’ve played 'em all before and I learn fast.
P.S. Lycan’s tournament was only the beginning… Cue Sagat laugh
Man, Massu’s grudge match tourney was gold. The buildup was fantastic-I never thought you could play an out and out Heel character in real life, but Massu, Terrell, and VDO did an amazing job. I remember how packed that arcade was when they had their match against Chad, Biz, and TKK, and how those fuckers came SO close to winning despite Chad throwing the match. That was incredible-it was what, a mere sliver of life?
I recall Biz practicing that bison paint the fence combo a lot for that match, and me vs nate grey was a fun little midcard event. Hell, I think I still have that video package Roy threw together after the tourney about the main event match.
FNG is great, and always has been. Personally I always liked going their over Wizzards, simply due to the variety and the fact that you really got to see all the major players in one spot guaranteed. The days of KOF 2001 can’t be topped, when there’d be like 20 people in there every friday doin matches in that game. Me and Scotty have unfinished business in HF as well, we’ll have to go a few rounds next time I’m at an FNG. Same with Hollow. Hell, even today having a place to have actual competition in Neo Geo Battle Colosseum, Guilty Gear, KOF, 3rd Strike(before it was big)and Samurai Shodown is something that many areas can’t say. When I get my own place I definitely want to set up a similar event, simply because of how much damn fun it is.
That said, if there were NGBC or Tenka tourneys held about the area, I’d definitely be interested in throwing down. I’ve played enough of both with my buddies around here lately that I think I’d stand a chance.
Hollow’s just kissing ass because he broke your couch, Robo. :v
don’t look too deep into this, but…
I personally love hosting get-togethers for gaming. Right now, I don’t got the place for it, but I’m moving into a place of my own soon. From there, with the 3 TVs I already got and multiple systems, I might be able to run something.
But like I said already, don’t look too deep into that – Never know what could happen between now and that time.
for now, just expect Toppercool and I to show up at each FNG we can. We may be new blood to everyone there, but we don’t give up easy.
:lol: - ha, ha, ha!
And so it begins… The evolution of Michigan gamers as a whole.
Only time will tell what wonderful beast emerge from this process.
Shut uuuuup…
Uber, if shit goes the way I plan, you’ll be able to relive a whole lot of old tourney footage from a time long gone. Give me time…
lol, true dat.
FNG is a great thing…never have I met so many cool guys on the gaming front (cept’ for one) …but one day I swear, we are all going to fall thru the floor and into the basement one day. :lol: - lol
I had hoped to move to a bigger house by now (with no upstairs and huge basement for FNG gaming)…but the powers that be have made this impossible…so far. It really doesn’t matter, I still consider FNG a huge success (for the local gaming community).
well, at least i got epeople talking about this shit…
JD-just to clarify, tournaments were supposed to be bi-weekly, not weekly. Kalonji was throwing them, not me. It was posted in the tournaments and events thread at least 3 weeks before it started. And it is hard for ann arbor to get as many people as detroit for a team tourney when we have about 1/10 of the people that you guys do in the city itself, just less people here, especially when you count the detroit suburbs as well. And as far as getting a minimum group of 15 people, i just dont think that is a possibility in our area. Also, you are mistaken about who ann arbors best players are.
On a seperate note from that, i think all the regular players around here are willing and interested in playing the newer snk games, we just dont have anywhere to play them, none of us have ps2s that can play imports and we dont have any of those games at the arcade, which is where we all play. I would be dfown to go to detroit and play you guys as well, but that is not up to me, cuz i have no wheels atm and i think the general feling around here, is that people dont want to travel, or even play sometimes, unless some $ is on the line.
I dont know, us all talking about this is the step to unifying the scene anyway though. I believe that if we keep this discussion going we will b able to figure out some way to create more comp for more games, which i guess is really the goal.
btw, JD- I can garuantee that i would plat kofXI if they got it at pete’s, and im pretty sure that if i started playing it the other ann arbor players would too, even if they didnt initially intend to, so that machine will get play from ann arbor, but still the problem arises of people from out of town not wanting to come here to play…but i dont know, maybe we could have some practice tourneys or something to get people out here and motivated, they could even be free, jap style or something.
Your still not seeing the real problem. YOUR scene needs to improve. If you say you all can’t get more than 15 locals to attend a tourney, that’s a thorn in your sides. Not ours. Wizzards threw local tourneys, and those who travelled were simply icing on the cake. You got it backwards. Metro ppl aren’t going to travel 40 minutes to an hour, just to see maybe 4-10 locals, and 15-20 ppl they can see at a friend’s house in 10 mins. It’s simply not worth the drive. I personally hate paying for parking, also.
Get the weight up in your community. We can’t help you with that. That has to build up on its own. Wizzards never depended on travelers, because we had a huge local scene. That took years to develop. When John Choi and Ricky O came to one of our random tourneys the first time, it showed we had a solid foundation within our own area. You all need to do the same. Remember, ppl travel when they KNOW there is an abundance of solid competition. AA simply doesn’t have that yet. The abundance part, not the competition part.
I do believe in regards to the best in AA, JD was referring to the past, Zodd, not the present.
On another note, if you all want to play a game, find a way. Chip in, buy a PS2, get it modded. Buy the game(s). Invest in joysticks if you don't have them. Make it happen. That's what we all did. Thing is, we don't even have an arcade home, but instead of complaining about it, we still found a way to kick each others asses. The MI Comm is stronger than ever, IMO. We just need a home...
(Waits for Ivy’s words of encouragement to the masses)…
Or when there is someone’s $500 to take… hehe.
Uh since someone told me my name was being tossed around, I’ll just make my comments on that:
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Even when I was in AA, it was hard to get people from Detroit out to AA tournaments. So me leaving or staying is unrelated to the problem.
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The reason people don’t go to AA is because the only people who cared to travel to AA was: TKK, VDO, AVX, and Terrell and JD in the earlier days and Obot would hook people up w/ rides. Rest of the guys, just showed up if those guys went. Since VDO moved, and TKK disappeared… AVX and Terrell probably don’t see much reason to go.
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The game is old. Its 5 years now. Most people got tired of this game because they didn’t like roll canceling (if isn’t apparent by the number of people who can’t roll cancel or don’t know how to play against it). 5 years later, they aren’t about to suddenly pick it up again.
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Detroit guys tend to live their success vicariously through VDO or TKK. So even if you can beat ____ but you can’t beat VDO or TKK, ____ does not respect you, even though he/she is a worse player than you.
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Arcade tournaments piss people off because there is always some people who aren’t use to the controls and may have trouble executing on it. Console tournaments make people happier because at least when they lose, they can blame it on themselves for not owning a better stick.
Thats all my opinion.
On a more important note… the Lions better do well next year with all the coaching changes. I take so much shit from Redskins fans because I cheer for the Lions over their team.
I agree completely with this (which is why I own one of the best sticks in the state [ask about it]).
And I?ll add that I don?t want to here anyone from AA say to me ever again “I can?t play on console, or I don?t like playing on console?”
Really arcades are on the way out (if you didn?t know that), so if you want to keep gaming your going to have to go to where the gamers go.
I know your not talking about that modified Tekken stick?
Stop it. It’s as loose as a hooker after the superbowl weekend…
Mine isn’t the best, but it suits me. Old MAS stick I played on for 10+ years, black convex buttons in a Pelican base, compatible with Xbox, PS2 and something called a game…cube.
Modding a ps2 is easy as shit. My buddy Brandon found the fliptop and bootdiscs for playing imports can be found online pretty damn cheap-what was it, 20? 30 bucks? From there you can play actual imports or just burned copies of the games.
It’s how we play tenka and NGBC when we can’t go to robos. It’s not particularly difficult to do.