With SBO coming up this week, I thought it’d be cool if people gave a bit of information about their favorite teams. Doesn’t have to be a whole lot, but some basic information, who they beat to qualify, why their team has potential, etc. etc. would all be cool to write about. A lot of the community is in the dark about certain teams because everybody plays a different character or watches different vids, so now would be the time to rep who you’re rooting for.
I’ll try to condense the team write-ups so that people can view it all on the first page. If you can only write about half of a team, do it anyway and I’ll try to leave some open room for future edits. I’ll of course give credit to the authors.
Try to keep the dickrider, nuthugger shit to urself. It’s just like reppin your favorite basketball/baseball/football/soccer team before FIFA, Finals, the Superbowl so don’t be a dumbass.
Oichi of Versus City did a Power Players analysis on the 31st so when writing up about your team, try to put a bp count next to their name. You can find the latest bp here. If you can’t find the player on that list, just give a general BP ballpark number. Also write their block number so I can keep it in order.
I’m a Honda player so I’ll try to give some info about the honda teams.
B-1 Block - Umeso (EH~65k) / Dashio (VI)
Umeso: a.k.a. Namameso, is a Honda player that only became popular recently during the start of SBO quals. Kim1234, one of Japan’s best dictators happened to post some videos of a SBO qual where Namameso was spamming jab xx handslaps constantly. He’s probably the one who set off the HHS crazy train that all the worlds Honda’s jumped on including Akimo, Eduardo and Mike Ross to name a few. He is also probably Japan’s best Honda at fighting Sagat, Honda’s worst match-up. Very offensive player who tried to qualify with FZ at first but is now qual’d with Dashio (are they the same viper?). This guy has given Shiro/Iyo’s team a lot of grief as he knocked them out local finals in the past.
B-2 Block - Itabashi Zangief (ZA-91,166) / Fudo (RY)
Itabashi Zangief: When you speak about Zangief in America, the first thing you hear is what a retarded character and the second thing you hear is he loses to Sagat for free and just sucks at high levels (unless your name is UD in which case you go on and on about how you’re fcking dead on knockdown, which is true). But, when the Japanese talk about Zangief, they treat him like the devil in big mother fcking Russian form that resides at the top of the tier list. The reason for this big difference is America doesn?t have any solid giefs while Japan has Zangitan, Bouya and Itabashi. The key difference between the US gief and the Japanese gief is that the Japanese giefs are content with slapping the shit out of you with normals, making you guess until you shit your pants with cross-ups and lariat, and could care less about SPD most of the time. They realized a long time ago that SPD is just a once in a while utility (much like oicho and TT) while beating you down with a big hairy dude with powerful ass normals is better, especially when your hand lights on damn fire and glows green. At GodsGarden, Itabashi almost never SPD?d and was content with doing shortx3 xx ex greenhand and just milking the OKI until everybody just broke down and started crying. Some other big accomplishments he has are winning a ton of Nakano TRF?s and probably a lot of other local Japanese tournaments. He is(was?) also a grand master and a VF5 champ with his partner Fuudo and won a fairly big invitational tournament a month or two back, eliminating a Sagat in the grand finals. It?s pretty apparent though that Ojisan, Daigo, Mago and probably Bonchan beat him down for free, and Akimo hasn?t lost to him for a very long time now either, but if the bracket goes his way, he could be on the stage or in the finals. For sure.
Nohoho says:
Itabashi Zangief (“Itazan”)
Evo 04 VF4: 1st
SBO 05 VF4: Top 8 (Shun)
Evo 07 VF5: 1st
SBO 08 VF5R: 1st (w/ Fudo, Joe)
B-3 Block - Bon chan (SG) / Togawa (RY)
Bon Chan: While I was in my nerd trance and typing this dictionary known as a team information thread, a friend asked me who were the underdogs of SBO this year. Immediately, I thought of three names: Eita, Maeda, Bon Chan. When people talk about Sagat, they usually only mention Mago, Ojisan and maybe RF, but honestly, Bon Chan deserves a mention as well. I remember 2 or 3 months back when I saw Namameso, Japan’s best Honda at taking down Sagats, take on Bonchan, and get worked. Namameso usually shats on even above average Sagats so clearly, I was impressed when I saw him struggling against Bon Chan. After examining Bon Chan’s play a little more, I realized he did a lot of things right including holding his ground (he didn’t do that jump back all day nub shit a lot of bad Sagats do), he zoned with high tiger shots extremely well, and only used relatively safe block strings and combos. After reading about Bon Chan on IPlayWinner.com, getting 20 win streaks at Big Box, my assumption that he was a top tier Sagat was confirmed. Now I’m not sure Bon Chan will win SBO, even though it’s definitely possible, but expect a lot of upsets caused by this guy cause he’s definitely looking to prove that he’s one of the best. He’s jumped to rank 6 in all of Japan as of 8/12/09 so look out.
B-4 Block - Mago (SG-340,676) / Nemo (CH-207,457)
**Mago:**Mago, like Daigo, needs no introduction. He is one of the most solid 2d fighting game players on the planet and has been to EVO countless times to show the world how Japan plays CvS2. This time around, he’s repping Sagat, who he used in CvS2 as well and has a firm grasp of the top BP spot (55,000 bp more than anybody else). This guy wins more tournaments than I have fingers and toes including very competitive Nakano TRF’s and just won GodsGarden pre-sbo tournament in convincing fashion, taking out Daigo and Akimo easily. Things he does well that US sagats still don’t have a good grasp of are fireball trapping with f+rh, kara-cancel tiger uppercut/knee/shot, light attack links (dirty ass short and jab combos) and solid ass spacing (he does whiff a lot which Uryo punished hard). This is the guy to beat this SBO.
B-5 Block - Iyo (DH-121,252) / Shiro (AB-148,592)
Iyo: Anybody whose played CvS2 probably knows who Iyo is. He is the only competitive dhalsim/maki player and one of the most patient players in existence. He, like Yoshio, would rather time out than give you the chance to get extra meter with a blind rush-in. A very calculating player, he put Dhalsim on the map with his 1st place finish at Japan’s Nationals and ridiculous ultra setups. Since then, he hasn’t made much noise, but don’t count him out or you’re gonna pay. A few noteworthy characteristics about his playstyle are he is fantastic at playing up-close and can tech throws extremely well (most japanese players can). During Japan nats he took out two of the worlds best giefs despite the fact that everybody said the match-up was unwinnable or stupidly stacked. One of the last to qualify for SBO, he’s got things to prove considering he attempted 12 sbo quals and lost 2 block finals before he could finally clench a spot. Has a tendency to fall to Chun-li and Viper due to their nasty up-close mix-up. Lost to Nuki/Daigo in a huge sbl qual finals upset match where nuki comes back with a focus attack against a far fierce and goes straight into a full damage ultra.
Shiro: Shiro has always been a big name in the fighting game scene and has amazing execution. It really shines through with his Abel play as he is the highest ranked Abel in all of Japan(ranked 7th overall!). It?s no surprise he?s Iyo?s partner because he can definitely hang. Some noteworthy accomplishments are numerous high placements in Nakano TRF tournaments, 2-1 record against Daigo in the latest Kumite, and a very good placing in the Japan National Tournaments. [media=youtube]xNrEvfXfFgU"[/media] Despite an average performance at GodsGarden, all it takes is a good day for him to make it to the finals stage at SBO, guaranteed.
Nohoho says:
Shiro
SBO 03 CVS2: out 2nd round
SBO 04 CVS2: out 2nd round (w/ Dan, Daigo)
SBO 05 CFJ: Top 4 (Jedah/Yun) (w/ Iyo)
SBO 06 HnK: out 2nd round (Toki)
SBO 08 HnK: Top 4 (Raoh)
Dream Fighters Festival 2007 HnK: 1st (Raoh)
B-6 Block - Gosho (RU) / Kyabetsu (VI) - AcedicEnema
Gosho (RU): A.k.a., Oogosho or Sweat Sweat. Itabashi calls him “The strongest Rufus in Tokyo” so why haven’t people been hearing about this guy? Hell if I know, but the lack of videos hasn’t helped. SBO achievements include winning KOF 2002 at SBO 2003 and being the only person to get into top 8 in 98UM at SBO 2008 without using Krauser. Known for using grapplers in KOF (Daimon, O.Yashiro, Ralf), characters which typically require a strong sense of spacing and good yomi, which might explain why SF4 was a relatively easy transition for him.
Kyabetsu (VI): Don’t know much about him except that he uses rushdown characters in KOF 98 (Kyo, Iori, Orochi Chris, Chizuru)… which doesn’t say much. (Emil could probably jump in here and write a wiki entry). Won KOF Neowave for SBO 2005. Managed to qualify for the Godsgarden tournament, which is no mean feat by itself, then got peaced out by Mago in the first match and Gasshuku in losers.
He eliminated Kim1234, the famous US CvS2 player in block a finals. -pieguy
B-7 Block - Mizoteru (BL-15k new card) / Ichi (SG)
Mizoteru: Every morning, Mizoteru probably wakes up and says to himself, “Today, I’m going to be as annoying as humanly possible with Blanka.” That said, he makes good on this promise to himself cause he’s a beast with Blanka. If you haven’t figured it out already, realize now that Blanka is just one really annoying son of a _____ and everybody hates fighting him. Mizoteru is in fact so annoying, that he’s been deemed the Green Devil. Siiiick name bro. Things Mizoteru does well? He’s the most patient blanka in the world and [media=youtube]CJj64hRcYhA"[/media] He will spend the whole damn round pressing d+PPP in order to not give up his life advantage and will poke at you with blanka’s weak and annoying ass offense until you rush in blindly and get murdered. True story. Because of this, characters with really solid/safe offense give him a bit of trouble while characters like Chun-li/Abel (not shiro so much) are food for him. Heaven forbid that he ever knocks you down, expect to piss your pants blocking that meaty cross-up ultra or the cross-up blanka ball. Did I mention he also spams electricity to build meter if you don’t go after him? Seriously, I envy Mizoteru’s extreme annoyingness and patience cause nobody in the world can piss off that many people without playing guile.
Ichi: Writing this description, I’m assuming Ichi is the same Ichi that plays virtually every fighting game on the planet well and who flies across the entire eastern hemisphere playing random players like Yamazaki93. Ichi is a bit of an oddball player because he, like Dragon Boy, can’t make up his mind. He plays Ken one day, Sagat the next day, uses Ken at GodsGarden and tournaments but qualifies with Sagat. WHAT!? Honestly, he just confuses me because he is a very solid player who can definitely hang (he’s beaten shiro/[media=youtube]RCENiQR6r_g"]ojisan/[URL=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMUNNbCIZZ0”[/media] at Nakano TRF’s w/ ken) yet he qual’d with the character I’ve never seen him play. Maybe it’s a different Ichi? Either way, the guy’s solid but a bit inconsistent (Bonchan and Gasshuku destroyed him at Godsgarden), but everybody has a bad day.
B-8 Block - Daigo (RY-263,609) / Nuki (CH-138,900)
Daigo: I really did not want to write about Daigo because everybody already knows about him, but here it goes anyway. The guy flies over the Pacific Ocean, plays in a 1040 man tournament and doesn’t lose a single match. He has the most legendary street fighter comeback ever recorded in history. When he was a teenager and played Vampire Savior, he was in the arcade and racked up a 150 win streak. After finally giving up due to being tired (not losing), on the way out he mentions to the manager that the middle punch is broken. He’s ranked top 3 in BP and could crush you with his monstrous ego fronted by his emotionless face, if he wanted to. At GodsGarden you saw what he was capable of.(strong, strong, strong, sweep… WTF!!!) He gets mad messed up by Viper mix-up apparently, but it’s Daigo, so I expect some bullshit out of no where followed by a victory.(seems like Uryo beasted everybody tho…)
Nohoho says:
Vampire Savior Nationals: 1st (Bishamon)
1st SFA3 Nationals: 1st (V Akuma)
2nd SFA3 National Team Tourney: 2nd
3rd SFA3 Nationals: 1st
Beat Live Cup Third Strike 3on3: 2nd
CVS1 Nationals: 1st
SBO 03 CVS2: 2nd
SBO 03 GGXX: Top 4
Evo 03 GGXX: 1st (Sol)
Evo 03 3S: 2nd (Ken)
Evo 03 CVS2: 2nd
Evo 04 GGXX: 1st
Evo 04 3S: 2nd
SBO 04 CVS2: out 2nd round (w/ Dan, Shiro)
SBO 05 3S: 1st (w/ Nuki)
SBO 05 Capcom Fighting Jam: 2nd (w/ Dan)
Evo 06 GGXX Slash: 2nd (w/ RF, Kindevu)
4th Cooperation Cup 3S Teams: 1st
Vampire Hunter DCC2: 1st (Pyron)
**Nuki:**One of my favorite players of all time to spectate is Nuki. He has undoubtedly, the best execution in the friggin world. One frame links are an afterthought to him and he pulls ridiculous 20-hit combos out of his ass with Chun-Li! He’s also a winner in my book because he has his own style. He just doesn’t look at the the tier list and pick from top 3. Everybody knows Chun-Li sucks in this game, yet he still plays her and wins. He wins a lot! Honestly though, I expect Nuki to do well, but don’t think he’ll take it all, at least not by himself. He seems to have problems with certain match-ups, although the Chun’s dodged the El Fuerte bullet this time around. Either way, I wouldn’t be surprised if EVO’s 3s Champ pulls out an SBO win, simply because he’s THAT good. At EVERYTHING. To this day, it still surprises me that Nuki did so well with Chun and Akuma in CvS2, since the team is literally built with paper mache’.
Nohoho says:
Vampire Savior Nationals: 2nd (Bishamon)
SFA2 Nationals: 1st (Chun)
1st SFA3 Nationals: 2nd (V Akuma)
CVS1 Nationals: 3rd
CVS2 Nationals: 1st (N Ryu, Blanka, Sagat)
Evo 02 CVS2: 2nd
SBO 04 3S: Top 4 (Chun) (w/ Boss, K.O)
SBO 04 CVS2: Top 4 (w/ Inoue, Tokido)
SBO 05 3S: 1st (w/ Daigo)
Evo 05 ST: 2nd
Evo 05 3S: 1st
SBO 06 3S: Top 4 (w/ K.O, Kokujin)
SBO 06 VF4FT: 2nd (Aoi) (w/ Chibita, Osu Akira)
Evo 06 3S: 1st
SBO 07 HSF2: 1st (Chun) (w/ Kurahashi)
Evo 07 3S: 1st
Evo 07 VF5: 2nd
Evo 08 ST: 2nd
Evo 08 3S: 1st
SBO 08 ST: Top 8 (w/ Tokido)
1st Cooperation Cup 3S Teams: 1st (w/ Joe, Tokido, Shao, Match)
5th Cooperation Cup 3S Teams: 2nd