I guess this thread is ok to post this in, I posted in the GGPO forum but not many people seem to go on there.
Recently when playing GGPO my game will freeze for about a second and make a loud BZZZZZZZZZZZZT noise. I have NO idea why. It does it in every match, no matter if the ping is 30 mb or 200. I have my ports forwarded. I don’t have any torrent programs running in the background. But it’s annoying as hell, and nobody wants to play with me, and for good reason. Any ideas what the problem might be? Also, I just tried a GPPO match against myself and it still would freeze so it is definitely nothing to do with lag.
Merry Christmas to you guys too :lovin:! I’m in Tokyo at the moment. Went to Mikado today, but unfortunately all the ST machines were converted to Vampire Saviour for a tournament they were having. Seems like what I heard – that Mikado is often quite dead and it’s luck of the draw as to when competition fires up (?) – is true.
yeah that was the first place i looked, naturally…couldn’t find any help on the problem. posting on here as a last resort hoping someone else had the same issues, because i haven’t found any help at all online.
Yeah, so I went to Mikado last night (Wednesday) with the freeplay for 500Yen. Things were quiet for a while, then players started showing up around 6pm. All five setups at the front were converted to ST for the freeplay, and the place was eventually packed. Notably, VIPER was there wrecking shop along with his pink T.Hawk disciple (Shin?). There were also some good Chuns, Guiles and a decent Ryu player or two. I myself played yellow Boxer (Shiki Bison is my inspiration) and Ryu. Competition was tough as expected – I don’t think I got a win streak longer than four matches all night. There was another Boxer player there, he is a foreigner and about the same level as me, not sure who he is though and didn’t ask.
Anyway after a while I saw Hakase show up wearing sunglasses and earphones. He didn’t play for a while, but then randomly hopped on a cab and started destroying people left and right. There was a long line that included VIPER, pink T.Hawk, strong Ken and Ryu players as well as myself that all took turns at him to no avail. I think I played Hakase about four or five times, and got a round off twice but other than that it was very difficult. Obviously, he’s one of the top two Dhalsims in Japan and winning even a single game would just be highly improbable. Eventually VIPER ended his streak after maybe half an hour. By the way, VIPER pulled off a standing 720 twice that night, to which everyone watching gasped in surprise.
Hakase was also owning it up with DeeJay and Fei Long. I really appreciate seeing and playing a top player of his calibre, it kind of shows the dedication and mastery of play style required to reach that level.
Incidentally earlier in the night I played Jodim and went 1-1 before he left. He didn’t seem to be as scary or have that invincible aura that he had on GGPO. I thought to say hello afterwards but it seems he left early.
I visited HEY and whilst there were strong players everywhere (including one guy who might have been Inoki judging by his playstyle and level), there was one black Ryu player who really stood out. He was very good in the Boxer matchup, played exactly like ShootingD, and was destroying Inoki (?) as well in the Ryu mirror match with superb footsies and execution. I looked over but it wasn’t him, and since ShootingD is from Kansai it’d be highly unlikely anyway.
I had also visited Mikado earlier this week, and AFO was there tearing up some blue Ryu player. I got on and won immediately with Boxer, and from there on had maybe a 40% win rate against him. I also faced a Gief player who didn’t seem that scary in the Boxer matchup; I went 4-1 against him. Later he came to my side and I realised it was Pony, which was quite surprising. He was probably having a bad day as it took him ages to win against AFO (although it’s a tough matchup, I know).
I really wanted to see Shiki Bison play in person, but due to my own ineptitude missed the opportunity to spectate the Danisen battles at GameSpot Versus. I don’t know if he’d show up regularly though. Perhaps next time.
Anyway this has been my first experience playing ST in the arcades in Japan. I have to say that it’s obviously a lot more hardcore here, which is exactly what I expected. I knew the level on GGPO had fallen (in terms of Japanese players) over the past few years, but wasn’t prepared for this great of a difference. Most of the players at Mikado would be considered top on GGPO, compared to the existing JP playerbase as I remember it.
I will be visiting Kyoto soon, and then Osaka, so hopefully I can get some more mini-logs up for A-cho and Kouhatsu arcades respectively.
The black Ryu may have been Kawamata. He’s probably the most solid LP color Ryu in Kanto right now. Anyway, I hope you get the chance to play Shiki and see how he seems to nail things a bit better than pretty much any other boxer. It’s sort of funny how these casuals are possibly the most competitive series of matches we’ve experienced but for them, it was Wednesday.
And yeah, for anyone visiting Tokyo, don’t forget the Game Spot Versus danisen every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month. I regret that team USA didn’t have a chance to compete at a danisen when we were there. I think it’s a better test of overall skills in a situation where both players have the desire to win.
There’s a reason Nuki calls Shiki the “Genius Boxer”, and that he was glad to have him as a teammate for SBO. The dude just plays things right, and is a lot more inspiring/nice to watch than even Tsuji or Tamashima.
You’re right, I later realised that it was Kawamata Ryu. There are no other Black Ryu’s on that level in Tokyo that I know of, apart from maybe Sashishi.
Well, bit of an update. Tonight there was a random 2v2 tournament at Mikado to celebrate the New Year. I got to the place at around 8pm and played casuals for a while, doing fairly mediocre and again not getting any streak longer than about three wins. After a while lots of players started showing up, including Mattsun (incidentally from watching vids he seemed not as threatening as Aniken in the Boxer matchup, which I pretty much confirmed after playing him and having a 50% win rate over several games).
Hakase and KKY showed up, as well as the T.Hawk crew of Hiroyan, VIPER and Shin, as well as numerous famous players. I put my name down as “Gizzle” on the registration sheet, and noticed that most of the other players were actually quite well known. There were about 32 players (16 teams). From the top of my head, the following (well-known) players were present:
I was the only Boxer player there. I was also surprised to realise that one of the arcade helper dudes was actually Nakamura (he seems to work at Mikado). He looks really young too. There were some other players there, but no Claw or Sagat.
Before the tournament started, AFO came up to me and complimented me on having a nice Boxer. He said I reminded him of Shiki Bison, at which I was really surprised and flattered. I didn’t know what to say so I told him that he has a very strong Blanka (lol).
For the tournament I ended up teamed with Kawamata Ryu (!), which was kind of a nice coincidence as he was the same dude owning me at HEY earlier in the week. We introduced ourselves and then proceeded to watch the matches. Whilst spectating the matches I was pretty much mentally preparing to get raped, and caught myself rehearsing an apology to Kawamata for being so weak. Whilst we were waiting, Sashishi asked Kawamata who he was teamed up with, and I introduced myself as ‘Gizzle’. It’s kind of funny since Mattsun (who was commentating the matches) didn’t know how to pronounce it and had to ask Nakamura.
After quite a while, our turn finally came up and I told Kawamata I would go first against a DeeJay/Honda team whose players I’d never heard of. I started off badly against the DeeJay player, getting almost perfected. Somehow I recovered and managed to beat him, as well as the Honda player who wasn’t that good (for example he used the walk up super, which Rog can easily punish). I didn’t play that well but still managed to win, which of course surprised Kawamata who gave me encouragement.
More matches followed, and at some point our next match came up which was Shin (T.Hawk) / Sashishi (Ryu). I said I would go first again, knowing that I had beaten Shin earlier in casuals and knew I could win the fight. I did well in this fight, using dash uppers to counter his jump-ins cleanly and won 2-0. Next up was Sashishi, someone who I’d actually searched up a lot on YouTube as well, being a Ryu player myself. I honestly don’t remember too clearly, but I managed to win against him as well 2-0! People behind me were surprised, including Kawamata who was grinning. He told me that Sashishi is a really strong Ryu player, which I agreed. I said I got lucky. :clown: I could see Nia and Hakase eyeing me curiously as well.
Whilst we were waiting on for the next match, Kawamata asked me where I was from. I said I was a tourist from Australia, to which he asked if we play ST there too. I said yes, although our scene is pretty much non-existent and hence our level is fairly low. I also told him that I had seen vids of him playing on YouTube, at which he laughed.
The next match was against Mattsun/Nakamura. I wanted to go first again, and sat down to select character. I think I must’ve misunderstood something, because (in hindsight) it seems Kawamata might’ve preferred to go first – he was saying that Nakamura is really dangerous and strong (against Boxer). Upon reflection, I remember Graham Wolfe writing a log from 2007 where he mentioned playing Nakamura Cammy with Boxer and losing like thirty straight or something, at which he concluded that it was a bad matchup for Boxer…
So I end up facing Mattsun first, and I was actually fairly confident since I played him before in casuals and to be honest his Ken didn’t seem that dangerous against Boxer, although I was to be proven wrong. In the first round he landed a DP knockdown into knee bash loop, which Boxer can’t do anything about. In the second round, I played well, avoiding his DPs and won. In the final round, he got another knockdown and just knee-bashed me to death. I didn’t feel too bad but was honestly disappointed because I felt there was a good chance I could’ve beaten him.
Kawamata then faced Mattsun, and played pretty well going 1-1 but ironically lost in the final round to a kneebash into super chip. It was really close though, they both had almost zero life left and he could’ve taken it – I guess that’s the randomness of ST. Afterwards I thanked and apologised to Kawamata, but he seemed amiable. He seems to be a really friendly/easy-going guy overall.
The final was Mattsun/Nakamura vs N.Shogatsu/(some Dic player). Nakamura was on fire all night with clutch plays, and managed to take out the Dic player. Unfortunately he had to face one of Cammy’s toughest matchups next and couldn’t beat Shogatsu. Mattsun came next, but he seemed to choke against Shogatsu, and it was a fairly funny match that came down to the wire, and Mattsun choking at the last minute. So Shogatsu’s team ended up winning (fitting too since his name means New Year).
By now it was past midnight and I had to head to Shibuya to meet a friend. I said thanks and goodbye to Kawamata, who thanked me as well. I wish I could have taken a photo or something because the place was packed and the atmosphere was incredible. The Japanese scene really is something different. Hakase lost early on yet was watching on, each match with a smile or laugh on his face. The players are really friendly and there’s a real sense of community.
Overall it was a really good experience and a fitting way to end my stay in Tokyo and the year as well.
I can speak basic Japanese, it’s still somewhat broken but apparently I have really good pronunciation so people probably get confused (I’m Chinese) thinking I’m some retard Japanese who can’t speak properly.
Boxer isn’t that popular of a character here, from what I can tell. In an interview after Evo 2005, Gian said that there are a lot of players using Claw, Boxer, O.Sagat in the US (basically top tier), whilst in Japan, Guile, Ken and N.Sagat are really popular characters that don’t get used as much in the US.
Funnily enough, during casuals I was having a hard time against an orange Boxer who was pretty damn good. Later I found out it was Hakase. Dude’s just good. Too bad he lost in a mirror match against KKY during the tournament. I really wanted to fight a Dhalsim with yellow Boxer (I know this sounds gay, but Shiki Bison is that inspirational; you can see the influence he has had on Boxer players in Japan).
Not really just “top players,” they are pretty much the cream of the crop when it comes to fighting games. The message is getting repetitive, but we do not care: the truth must be spread.
Since I’m leaving Japan tomorrow, I thought I might finish up my mini-log series with a small update. I visited Kyoto, and of course checked out A-CHO, however the arcade only had one cab with AE at the time, and there was no (good) comp in sight. Bit of a let down to be honest, but I guess I found out first hand that the Kyoto scene for ST is pretty dead. Must be more comp in Nagoya which I didn’t visit. Later, I also checked out Kohatsu arcade in Osaka, though again unfortunately I missed the best time as they’d had a massive 2on2 tournament just after Christmas with all the top Kansai players. Nonetheless on the nights I went there were some strong players, including an amazing Dic player who uses the beige color.
Finally I returned to Tokyo today (Wednesday) and visited Mikado one last time for the freeplay. Most of the regular crew (including SHIN@Hawk and Kawamata Ryu) were there. Kawamata spotted me and said hello. I told him I’d be leaving Japan the next day and might as well pay one last visit to the arcade, heh. He laughed and nodded. Really cool dude.
I did better this time than previously, at one point getting a streak of about eight wins. Although overall it was still patchy; the level was just that high. SHIN (pink T.Hawk player) seemed to have trouble in the Boxer matchup because I had a 80+% win rate against him, and he kept doing things like jumping at me which is cleanly countered, DP’ing randomly etc (although Hawk, especially N.Hawk, basically has to rely on random knockdowns). I also played Muneo (O.Sagat), and had about 25% win rate against him. He knows how to punish every possible move that Boxer tries in this matchup. My execution needs work as I lost quite a few winnable matches due to flubbed moves. Shiki Bison makes it look too easy in those [media=youtube]W4VCqbKGUQ0#t=2m55s[/media] vids.
Anyway, that’s it for now I guess. As I was leaving Mikado I thought to myself, “I won’t be here again possibly for several years” which was a poignant thought, and the same obviously applies to Japan as a whole. Most likely will be a while, but I’d definitely like to return. Like so many before me, I’ve made the pilgrimage to the mecca of ST and come away enlightened. Definitely visit if you can! :woot:
Maj just did another one of his awesome ‘five questions’ series, this time with Justin Wong, and Maj threw in some Super Turbo related questions. Here’s the one that will probably get the most attention from the SFII scene.