I had an awesome time last night!
First off, thanks to SSP (TsunamiKen) for the kind words earlier. It is much appreciated and I hope you always feel welcome in this community and that it keeps providing you with fun and progressive competition We missed you last night, you also bring about a fun enthusiasm, and I hope you are well!
Kendrik, totally understandable and you gotta do what you gotta do I’ll admit we sort of tease a little bit about betting one which day you’ll show up, but we mean it with just a teasing respect. I really look forward to meeting you, but don’t feel too pressured, when the time comes it comes! And as usual, it should be a fun day
On to last night… Thanks to the following players for attending:
- MetalxHealthx
- Yangsing
- Bumperfront
- Derick
- Raishinken
- Full Metal Ross
- Fat Bear (Sam Y)
- Rayblade X
- Sam B
- Bobby
Main games of the evening were SF4 and VF5. There was an MvC2 demo session between Sam Y, Ross, and Jetay I think. Fun stuff! Also, the Multicade got quite a bit of ST: Grandmaster Challenge action throughout the night. Mainly from SF4 players waiting in line or taking a small break.
I had a good time playing some Version B VF5 with Raishinken and Yangsing. Also enjoyed analyzing some of Raishinken’s replays from his WCG matches! I wish VF5’s replays had the features of VF4’s and Evo’s replays (slow motion, etc…). Jetay saw me restart to the beginning of the match often.
Sam Y/Sam B/Yangsing SF4 arena was fun to watch too! Well, it was really a practice session, but I enjoyed watching! Sam Y even landed 6 hits of “that one El Fuerte combo” (the one that might be able to go to infinite) on Sam B.
Everyone knows how much I love playing VF5… I had an awesome time last night in the two sessions of VF that we had I think it was the sharpest I have played in two years (from when I went down to California twice that year, playing days of VF5).
As usual, Ray and I are so back and forth it’s nuts when it’s my Lion vs his Vanessa. He solidly wins the first 3, I win the next 3, we streak back and forth. Fun stuff!
And we keep throwing more characters and Yangsing (and Raishinken in the future) to hopefully help build some experience and confidence against other characters. I had fun watching Yangsing fight it out against Ray’s Eileen. Yangsing’s Kage vs. my Jeffry were some of the most fun matches this week for me and it was quite even, I think Simon won most of those matches before 4:30am (by 5:00am he was dead tired and I think I streaked on his mental fatigue).
Metal, it was great to finally meet you! We didn’t chat much, but I wanted to let you enjoy more of the SFIV action, and it seems like you did! Though I have too much fun doing Sagat’s EX-Tiger Upper --> Ultra, as Sam Y says, “you (Chanchai) need to use a better combo.” Despite the easy execution, its requirements are too situation specific (you either need to be anti-airing cleanly or nailing every hit of the ex upper) and there are generally better options. First thing that comes to mind is Tiger Upper --> focus-cancel dash --> f+HK --> Ultra. Harder to do, but works just about every time you could want it to (just don’t do it in the deep corner). Another good thing that Sam pointed out to me is doing an ultra if you land an ex-tiger-blast on a cornered opponent. The reason I don’t do any of these is because I have not put the time, effort, and will power into it–I’ve been lazy and that’s not good. That said, you’re very solid and I hope you got to fight with Ray’s Gen too! It’s nice to have another Gen player!
Bumperfront, glad to see you got an SF4 stick! Though I know you still can’t wait until you get your tourney stick! Always fun chatting and always fun playing, man! After a week of having the arcade stick at home, I think it’ll feel quite natural, or at least natural enough
Finally… Sam B. asked me a very good question and it’s one I really want to answer (in the Northwest VF thread) when I have more time:
“Don’t you think throws are too powerful in VF?” (and I think he’s more implying VF5 than anything else, but I’ll talk about all of VF).
It’s a great question that I have heard quite a bit from non VF players. Again, I’ll post about it in the VF thread eventually. But my short answer:
“Throws aren’t too powerful in VF. But they are strong and the way they are implemented is probably the biggest difference between VF and almost all other fighting games. VF throws have weaknesses that they do not have in other fighting games and how many throws a character has and how many worthwhile throws they have are important factors in the character balance of the game. I think they are what make VF matches happen the way that they do (sounds silly without explanation).”
-Chanchai