STR Presents: X-Mania USA AND Tournament of Legends II @ EVO 2014

blufang · July 15, 2014, 4:37am

Hey I got to catch a little of X mania, which was awesome, but completely missed TOL II. That was by far the thing I wanted to see the most in the entire tournament. Is their a vid of this somewhere?

eltrouble · July 15, 2014, 10:29am

I think Damdai and Afro are definitely Japanese-level, but MAO and the others are so far ahead of the game. Just from a brief weekend of hanging out with them and talking to them, they know so much more about the game than we do, and hopefully the future interviews will showcase some of that.

We definitely need more stronger players from the US scene to help push each other to get to that level. It’s possible, but difficult. We don’t have the advantage of gathering the country’s finest to play at the same arcade every single week like they do in Japan, so we’ll have to rely heavily on communication, teamwork, and practice to close that gap.

papasi · July 15, 2014, 11:18am

Yeah we recorded interviews with all of them except Nuki. Will take a while to upload and have someone help transcribe them.

Just some banter that are not recorded on camera

Mattsun (rebutting damdai’s claim that oryu isn’t that good): o ryu - cheap

Kurahashi : jab (black) is my original ryu’s color but in japan people start copying me so I have to keep changing (now it’s fierce). This tournament is special for me so I go back to my original color in tol2

Hanasi teaching tech monkey how to beat chicken wing with upkick - kara cancel a low forward into upkick, the low forward will make chicken wing whiff. he demonstrated it with a success rate of 1/4. it’s not easy but when you get trapped frame tight and not much life left this could be your way out.

Kurahashi doesn’t understand why US players (including damdai) use standing short before throwing a fireball. they only use jab because it changes fierce fireball’s recovery to a jab fireball. they will also use strong to fake throwing fb. he said that using short will make the fireball recovery worst.

Hanasi’s comment of Mao : mao – good player, but cheap

MAO is so confident in his game that he’s willing to MM our best guile player mars for $10. Mars only has to beat him once and Mao has to beat Mars 10 in a row. Earlier the night Mao wants to MM damdai. we negotiated a similar deal with a 6:2 odd. I bet my money on damdai. Lesson learned - always bet on MAO (zoolander made a killing in that side bet).

Hanasi explains that once hawk got knocked down, fei can harass hawk with chicken wing since reversal raising hawk will whiff. i tried it with him and indeed the raising hawk completely missed.
he’ll do jump back jab if chicken wing is blocked.

at 6am when we’re about to shutdown the salty suite, hanasi and noguchi demonstrated how to do the neg edge DP/block OS. He said if you can pull it off, you have 1/3 change of getting a reversal, 1/3 blocking the dive and 1/3 getting hit. During the demo he can pull it off 30-50% of the time.

we asked why sousoz feilong is always after hanasi in GSV. is it because sousoz feilong is better than hanasi? Hanasi said it’s because of the matchup. in GSV a lot of the stronger players at the end are shotos/guile and sousoz is a master of fei vs ryu/guile. otoh hanasi is an expert of fei vs sim/honda/gief

he also praised the US honda players since he thought it would be free but he’s having a hard time vs them.

TMF said the sousoz fei is the famous ggpo player aribon - though he no longer plays on ggpo.

free feel to post other interesting stuffs!

papasi · July 15, 2014, 11:35am

xgamer posted these links on fb

fatboy · July 15, 2014, 9:27pm

Hey! - Good times to all. It was fun to see everyone. Every time I attended an event, I am reminded how awesome all you guys (and gals) are. I hope you all had safe travels home. See ya’ when I see ya.

Battosai · July 15, 2014, 9:54pm

did anyone record Kurahashi vs Afrolegends if so please post thanks

undamned · July 15, 2014, 10:57pm

For those of you who watched the live stream of X-Mania USA, what was the viewer count, on average?
-ud

x64 · July 16, 2014, 2:33am

Thanks for the interviews/links papasi!

Random · July 16, 2014, 3:21am

Wow, I guess good players have trouble using SRKs on reaction, too (Cammy VS Zangief). Feel better about that, haha.

eltrouble · July 16, 2014, 5:04am

Nerves and tension tend to slow up hands, even for the best of players. Very difficult to control at times.

Kuroppi · July 16, 2014, 6:42am

Still recovering from Evo but time for the thank you / shoutout post! None of these big tournaments get done without the hard work from so many people.

Mr. Wizard, Tom & Tony Cannon (EVO) - for allowing us to hold this special 20th anniversary celebration, including dedicated space for us to run our tournaments and of course, X-Mania USA on the main stage and stream.

Chris Li (EVO) - Chris did a lot of behind the scene work to help us with this event. He doesn’t want the recognition but I’m going to give it to him anyway.

Karl Wickman (Sergjiev) - Karl did an unbelievable amount of work, including building the kurosticks (which I still can’t believe that he gave to me), streaming the Super Turbo Saturday shows to help promote ST and ToL II/X-Mania USA, getting early to the venue on Friday and Saturday to make sure we were set up in time to start at 9:30AM, then streaming all day both days including volunteering to help out the Vampire Savior community by streaming their Top 8 during X-Mania USA.

Alex Monin (Bernie) - This whole thing probably doesn’t even take place without Bernie once again lending us his cabs and CRT to use for the weekend. And also prepping the cabs with the USB converters and prepping the main cab for streaming. It’s not easy moving those cabs in the Vegas summer heat so please thank him when you get a chance.

Brian Grissom (Undamned) - Big thank you to Brian for bringing two CRTs and UD-CPS2s and USB converters for us to use for the tournaments and casuals afterwards. And also providing a UD-CPS2 for the winner of ToL II.

Reginald Tuttle (Mr. Tuttle) - Tuttle was a huge supporter with the donation drive and was also the man responsible for renting the 3rd cabinet from Watson to give us a cab we could use for casuals while the tournaments were taking place. Without his help, we may not have been able to bring a couple of the Japanese players over and help provide them an enjoyable experience.

Damien Dailidenas (Damdai) - Without Damien, maybe X-Mania USA doesn’t happen. He was able to influence Mattsun to run X-Mania USA on stage even without Japanese cabs. Also a big thank you to Damien’s wife for helping with e-mails to Mattsun.

Papas Si (STR) - Papasi does a lot of work behind the scenes with planning and he did an incredible job with Chris and Harmon running the brackets for both ToL II and X-Mania, He also took the Japanese players to dinner on their last night here, which was a very nice touch.

Chris Hatala and Harmon Tam (Ghaleon & Nomrah) (STR) - Chris and Harmon worked their butts off running the brackets with Papasi and made sure we got everything done in time. In fact, we finished ToL II an hour and a half ahead of schedule.

Josh Cooper (JoshC) - For the huge task of organizing the Salty Suite and helping us cover some of the tournament expenses.

Eugene Lin (eltrouble) - Eugene provided commentary, help with planning and also a lot of work promoting ToL II/X-Mania and the whole ST scene with Karl on the Super Saturday shows.

Victor Fontanez (Sp00ky) and crew - They coordinated with us and helped us test everything on Thursday night so there weren’t any technical difficulties when ST hit the stage on Saturday night. Sp00ky even bought equipment dedicated just for running ST on the stage.

Darryl Austin (MuffinMan) - Darryl pitched in and volunteered to record matches on the kurostick UD-CPS2 station for ToL II and X-Mania.

Terry Cox (Zaspacer) - Terry helped out with so many miscellaneous tasks and did relentless work in getting everyone to sign the ToL II poster. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get three signatures because they were so busy. But yell at those three for that, not Terry.

Brian Dawidowicz (Fatboy) - Brian helped us bring all the equipment, prizes, etc. in his SUV, provided a ton of commentary and help out with miscellaneous tasks as well.

Brendan O’Dowd (Hanasu) - Brendan provided a lot of great commentary and was also a big help translating for the Japanese players.

Julien Beasley (Zass) - Julien also helped out with a lot of help translating for the Japanese players, especially under some stressful circumstances.

Boeken - Boeken also helped with some translation at the Salty Suite and also with some interviews I believe.

Zhi - Zhi graciously helped us out with an interview with MAO, Mattsun and TMF.

Ken Olaku & Tai Olaku (Dark Gaiden & Vintage) - Ken and Tai provided us once again with another awesome promotional banner to help make us look professional.

Christopher Vogel (Spartanfan) - Chris helped out with a bunch of commentary and also with a bunch of setup on Thursday night.

Ryan Yabuta (Blastcity) and Armando - I don’t know the exact details but I believe they helped us out with equipment and support with streaming.

Mark Julio - Markman - Markman graciously donated three Madcatz sticks for us to customize into special X-Mania USA prizes.

James Chen and David Graham (Ultradavid) - For all the promotion they do for the ST scene and ToL II/X-Mania USA.

All the TOs and others that were involved helping with ToL II qualifiers all over the world:

Michael Power (Zero1) - IIX 25th Anniversary - UK
Eric Small (BigE) - Winter Brawl
Alex Valle (Calipower) - So Cal Regionals
Larry Dixon (ShinBlanka) - Final Round
Chris Chou & Javier Moreno (Ranma0005 & Javi) - Texas Showdown
Robin Palm (Renegade) - Civil War
Terry NG & John Choi (Kineda & Choiboy) - Nor Cal Regionals
Arturo Sanchez (Sabin), Henry Cen & Ben Fong - Next Level
Chris Hatala & Jesse Baker - Arcade Legacy
Michael Yu (Airslash) & Chris Anderson - Northwest Majors
Walid (Waldo) - Stunfest
John Gallagher (Sweet Johnny Cage) - East Coast Throwdown
Mike Watson - Super Arcade
Kenny Ng (Unessential) & Russell Ordona - Toryuken
Johnathan Kincaid & Ryan Tang - Saltmines
Don - Don’s Arcade

Other special thanks:

Seth Killian (s-kill)
Paul Dziuba (souperfx)
Myung Kim (Gamecenter)
Inaba-san (Godsgarden)
David Boudreau (XSPR)
Yuichi Takahashi (Nekohashi)
Nakamura
Kusumondo
Tonegawa
CrasherJ
Glenn Cravens
Jim Sejas (Rekkaken)
Jason Cole (AfroCole)
James Romedy (Simpower)
Ernest Delgado (Yogaboy)
Nathaniel Ridad (Fudd)

All the Japanese and international players who came and participated (MAO, Kurahashi, Kent Hiramatsu (Mattsun), Hanashi, Noguchi, TMF, Nuki, Daigo, Tokido, Orf, Balcork, Isimorn, RetroRic, Spidercarnage, Megadarve, Hokuto, JimmyBones, IM Amazon, Minibok) - It’s always great to have international players competiting in the tournaments and this year we had the most we ever had. A quick shoutout to Robin Prv, who unfortunately couldn’t make it at the last minute. Everyone wishes you were there!

Everyone who came out and supported and participated in ToL II and X-Mania USA! We had 96 players for X-Mania USA and had to turn away players during pre-registration because the tournament had capped and 80+ register for the ToL II pools, not including the 25 players who were already in the Top 32. Our participants have grown every year at Evo!

Last and not least, all the people who donated to the donation drive. Without your support, we would not have been able to make this tournament as big as it was. I will try to have the unsigned posters (for those who donated for those) printed this week and will try to ship the posters and t-shirts hopefully in the next week or two.

Anyone else I may have forgotten (hopefully no one)!

This is the last tournament I will be organizing (sorry Karl!) but I’m positive there will be a big ST presence next year at Evo! Those of us who were there early Monday morning saw Mattsun help me pass the torch to…

dramatic pause… Damdai! No pressure there, Damien.

But I will continue running the STR website and will still help behind the scenes a bit with some things.

-kuroppi

oldschool_BR · July 16, 2014, 7:07am

I watched most of it, and it was at least 600 most of the time. Even during world cup 3rd place game. The Japanese used another link, so we can’t know the overall amount which watched the event.

mrdhalsim · July 16, 2014, 7:43am

Such a great show with the tournaments Kuroppi! Such a long list of dedicated contributors working together to make it all happen. I watched it all live and was impressed to see the stream hold up with the limited bandwidth Sergjiev had to work with. Good job to all the Arkadeum stream commentators, and it was great to see so many people. I think it is good to get many people because it makes it feel more like you’re there. Huge shoutout to MrTuttle!

papasi · July 16, 2014, 8:25am

thx to xgamer again. i’m gonna relive the top32 again now that i’m fully rested

BoggleMinds · July 16, 2014, 9:33am

Thanks to you Kuroppi for all your hard work, for being such an instrumental figure in reviving ST at EVO, and for bringing us such awesome tournaments! お疲れ様でした！

Looking forward to more hype next year!

blitzfu · July 16, 2014, 5:59pm

EVO 2014 Xmania Finals Full 3 v 3 Super Turbo SF2
Team Japan 2 vs Team Special Forces starts at 48:25.

Many thanks to Kuroppi and everyone that brought us ST at EVO this year.
So many Japanese players! I still can’t believe they came out.
MAO with the swag! LOL
I was hoping to see Kusumondo and Kurahashi (blue Ryu), too bad they didn’t make it.
Anyone know if any of the Japanese players will come out next year? Assuming ST at EVO comes back.

blitzfu · July 16, 2014, 6:16pm

Wait, so this Kurahashi (Jab Ryu) is the same as the other Kurahashi (Fierce Ryu) is the same as the famous Guile player Kurahashi?
I thought it was 3 different players with the same name. LOL

Nice.

How do you do this?

Xgamerz · July 16, 2014, 8:24pm

Thanks papasi.
EVO 2014 TOL II & XMANIA USA

papasi · July 16, 2014, 9:31pm

There is only one kurahashi! Mars asked for a FT5 guile vs guile in the salty suite. I believe this is the first time he played guile that weekend. And his guile is freaking crazy good, no rust at all. Hanasu have that captured iirc.

You neg edge all 3 punches. The motion that he did is very fast. But it’s not the simply full half circle like many people said.

I believe he did a DP from the direction of the wall and ended in half circle the other way. So he covered DP in both directions, and block assuming claw will cross up. However this is all very hard to time.

And look at what eugene found

Battosai · July 16, 2014, 10:07pm

Papasi can you please post footage of Afro vs Kurahashi and mars vs valle thanks