So…what’s good tomorrow (Saturday 1/12)? Not sure what my plans are but I’m sure a VF session could happen, got my stick from Preppy today. I also have mon. and tue. off. Maybe something then?
How’s the portland scene doing? I figure still going strong, but was still curious. I’d be down to travel down there from some VF if anyone wants my # pm me(this goes for people in WA).
Surprisingly enough, I don’t have your number. I’m probably going down to Seattle some time in the near future outside of Zach’s with Phil, so I might PM you on that.
dual post–somehow I hit ctrl-space or enter or something to cause a premature post…
As far as I can tell, Portland scene has been doing pretty well but not active as a whole crew all that much lately.
Rayblade is improving and not just with one character, he’s seen dramatic improvement across a variety of characters and he’s gotten better as a player overall. I think online play has really pushed his game forward. The only weakness I’ve seen and it’s like 80% fixed is the dodging-too-much weakness. It used to be that Ray would dodge almost always when poke exchanges happened. He doesn’t do this so much anymore, but sometimes I am able to trap him back into the habit. I’m posting it now so he can see my take on it, but seriously, he’s almost fixed this weakness completely last I played. The places he needs to try to break the habit (and make it more of an option and not a habit) is in cases where he gets hit by the opponent’s low punch. That seems to be the last place where the habit remained last I played him. If I hit him with a low punch, he might start dodging everytime that happened. But with some characters, he found character specific ways of dealing with it. As part of that weakness, he used to always dodge down. He actually mixes it up nowadays, but sometimes still leans on a direction if you can figure out what it is in the match.
All that said, Ray is way stronger now and it’s a pure joy for me to fight the guy. Gives me absolute hell, but that’s what makes VF so fun!
@js’ game is definitely improving imo, but not in obvious ways. I would liken it to his game getting more and more tuned. The experience of more and more players (playing online, having bigger get-togethers in Portland) will help his game a lot and I think he’s definitely one of the top dogs in Portland already. But his game does need “expansion” but it has been slowly expanding.
I’ve seen dramatic improvement in Thomas (Aoi) and Hellsap (Lion). Their understanding of the game really shot up and it shows. There are weaknesses to be sure, but they understand the nature of those weaknesses nowadays and they make a lot of great adjustments. Again, their improvement has been dramatic.
Jetay’s game, last I saw, is still improving steadily but a playing more, a large variety of opponents, and expanding his repertoire are going to be really important for his game if he wants to improve more. Learning how to utilize more of Pai’s arsenal will be huge for his game. At least based on last I saw him play.
Fatbear’s been very busy with stuff all around. He is improving a bit, last I saw, but the guy is busy it seems.
Mackinzie is now able to practice more often and play online a bit too. He’s also good at rallying people around now and then and stirring enthusiasm. I look forward to more VF with him and his pals.
I finally played Ratgoat in person at Winter Select and that was a great time. The guy’s Shun is very solid and improving. That guy is strong! At the moment, Portland has the four horsemen of VF in the form of Rayblade, @js, Ratgoat, and myself.
Actually, if @js and Ratgoat meet up, it will be very interesting and both players would improve a whole bunch. I’d give Ratgoat the edge at the moment, but @js would catch up and it would be very entertaining to watch Brad vs. Shun. As far as the local Portland scene goes, @js and Ratgoat meeting up would really help I think. @js needs more variety in his opponents and Shun is so radically different from what he’s used to fighting against. Ratgoat would also get to see the other top Portland player and fighting against Brad will help his in-fighting.
As for my game, it hasn’t improved in the past 3 weeks or so. It saw a shot in the arm about 4 weeks ago, but that blade has dulled as I’ve been focusing more on work. I still have a lot of awful bad habits, I still traverse certain flowchart trees in the same order, it’s very frustrating.
Since the Seattle get-together we’ve had Winter Select which was an awesome tournament held by PSU’s Random Select Club. I got to play a bit with Jimmy again there and Paul Lee. Played a good amount with Ray, but he was in second gear since he was focusing on other tournaments. Played a ton with Ratgoat and that was a blast.
We also had the Versis Gresham Grand Opening, which is my work. We had one VF setup (could have had another VF setup, but I wanted to let “the other Andrew” play Puzzle Fighter) and played matches with the above mentioned crew + Kabukimono. I hope to play with everyone again soon.
I’ve had a few private sessions as well, but usually when I’m on break from work.
The Random Select guys have been playing more and more and I see an improvement in their game.
I haven’t seen Shinryujin for awhile, but I hope to play more VF with him when I get back from Thailand.
Going to Thailand (tomorrow) is going to be a good shot in the arm for my game though. T^5 is a great player who I played against in VF4 and the guy was a top Tekken player way back in the day. VF4 won him over during the T4 days and he absolutely loves VF nowadays. He’s a specialist with the more straightforward characters like Jacky, Kage, Brad, etc… He also has a vicious Vanessa.
There’s also Buong who is a fun guy to play with. And I’ve never met some of their other players like JimmyBiscuits (who is a white dude in Thailand) and a guy from China who is supposed to be the new top guy there.
The Thai players are going to be tough if T^5 is any indication. T^5 learned VF in St. Louis around the same time Shousama got into the game and their mentor was one of my early VF friends, Sumeragi. Sumeragi was a very strong (by western standards) player from either Taiwan or Singapore and his game was very no-nonsense (he did play Lau after all). I learned a lot during the VF3 days just playing against Sumeragi. T^5’s game and clear logic are very similar to Sumeragi’s game.
T^5 can read matches well, understands the mechanics of the game well, is able to execute high-level defensive techniques well, and times his delayed attacks and throws well. By all accounts, he should be able to destroy me, but we’ll see if I can hang in there. I’m looking forward to fighting against the Thai players soon and I’m happy to hear they’ve been excited about me playing against them too. It’s gonna be a lot of fun.
They do play very solid games, so I hope I improve myself on how solid I am.
Anyways, that’s your Portland VF Report!
-Chanchai
Nice, I played Andrew today(came across him randomly online) and his Brad was too vicious.
I gotta step up my game.
Yeah, that was hella random and tight. I didn’t know it was you, but damn, I knew that name sounded familiar… I think I saw you post your GT somewhere before. Haha, sorry about the lag, I’m hoping to improve that tonight. I’ll message you when you get on again.
For anyone who wants to play, my GT is ajs XBL (I’m so original :wgrin:)
I take it you meant me? Name’s Jamie 
I’m hoping to get back into games before the summer starts, but I really don’t know. Starting February, I’ll be taking 5 classes at once and also have to work on my Senior Project. Sometime after I get my bearings, though, I might be picking up a 360 for VF5. Maybe I can actually hang with the top dogs when I have a console to practice on more than once every couple months, eh?
http://gamecap.fan-site.net/vf5.htm
some matches from vf 5on5 tournaments. you can see few matches of mine.
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah Yosuke!
I’ll be watching those videos when I have the chance.
ggs Ray! i need to work on my defense! your versatility with other characters is craazy! wish they added character select in the patch so you didn’t have to go back through the menus.
Since people like to hate on anything with Virtua and Fighter in the title a list of what the update brings…
Ggs edjge!
Playing with various characters is my way of “counting frames” so I can feel firsthand if something does or doesn’t work.
I like the new update for what it does and I agree about having to step out of a match to create another room if you wanna play another character, but my theory on that is this:
“AM2 doesn’t want to add another 30-60 seconds of waiting time between matches while people counter match each other”. It’s already bad when people don’t know how to hit “A” in order to start the match.
I’d personally like to see a Stage Select option since some stages are better suited for certain characters than others (ie. Kage, No Walls).
EDIT: Have fun in Thailand, Nick! If you’re reading this from abroad, can you tell us about your current experience with the Thai-VF crew?
RBX PTS
There is a rough stage select option, ray. You just have to use “custom match”, instead of “quick match”, but I think it even works in ranking mode. You can’t choose specific stages, but you can general things like “no walls”.
ggs mike! Sorry for cuttin out so early but I need to get some sleep. If anyone is down for a few matches when I wake up, i’ll be more than happy to get pummled.
Sorias, I’m talking about being able to select stage immediately after a match. Just as you can “Fight again”, I’d like to be able to “Change Stage” but with the same characters.
Selecting a stage while making a room is no different than stepping out of a room and choosing a new character and making a room. I just keep it on Random.
RBX PTS
Anyone have any suggestions on how to learn throw escapes? I can do it fine in the dojo (duh), along with ETEGs, but when I have to apply them in-game, I totally lose it. Does this shit just come with experience? More reaction or anticipation?
Ah, that’s a seperate issue than, rayblade. The whole point of “Fight again” is skipping that loading screen. I think they figured if you have to sit through that anyway, there’s no significant difference in jumping out to the whole menu system or just the stage select.
And ejdge, the first step is probably to find the times you can’t do anything else, and start inputting throw escapes just by default. When you get crumpled, anything that puts you at -12 or greater, and immediately following a reversal attempt all come to mind as some examples. The goal is really just to get used to inputting the command, do it quickly and mindlessly, don’t worry too much about success. Once you’ve got that down, then start worrying about which throw your opponent may use, or when they might attempt to throw during less guaranteed situations.
Also, it’s pretty much all experience and anticipation I’d say. That is, throws are right at the limit of being so fast, as to be impossible to escape just as a reaction. Simply learning the inputs for every possible throw your opponent can use, and learning to prioritize those escapes is a huge hurdle, that I personally haven’t yet taken the time to get over. Throw escapes are, honestly, very hard to do consistently, and I don’t think any of us up in Seattle are at a level where it’s really going to make or break our game (except possibly Mike, he’s getting pretty accurate with Blaze’s throws), but that’s just my $.02.
GGs to Sorias. Your Aoi is a pain in the ass.
lol… uh, thanks? Those were some great matches, though. Sorry I started easing off and giving you those 8-win streaks at the end, I started spending too much time baiting reversals for practice;; Damn it felt good to finally reverse Devil’s dance, though… I hate that move so much.
You need a mic!!! That would have been even more fun with some discussion between matches.
Props to Chef Frash. These are some great vids for fundamentals
Vid 1
Vid 2
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