Merry christmas to all ST folks, and screw hit-confirm combo fighters!
Alright, so it’s that time of the year again for a Japan ST travel log (see last year’s here and here). I’m currently in Japan again and thought it would be cool to participate in the Nagata Shogatsu tournament on Dec 31st. Mini-log follows – apologies in advance but I actually don’t remember the details of the tourney (like who won, lol) because I was too busy talking to VIPER the whole time. More on that later.
So I got to Mikado pretty early around 5:30pm for some casuals, but it was pretty dead. There was a Zangief player there whose face seemed oddly familiar, he used black color Zangief. For some reason I thought he was Gunze even though I know Gunze uses a different color 'Gief. Turns out he was “TMF” (aka ToMoF) a dude who I’ve played on GGPO before, although I didn’t realise it was him at the time.
It continued being pretty dead for a while, but instead of heading to HEY Akihabara as I’d planned earlier I instead played some retro games (which Mikado is known for) to kill some time. By now it was around 8 or 9pm and more people were starting to trickle in. I noticed Mattsun at one point testing the microphone, so it looked like the tourney was about to start.
It was going to be another random 2v2 tournament (as is the tradition for the N.Shogatsu tourney at Mikado). Although this time there was an added stage before the actual tourney where the team members would play each other to determine 1P or 2P side (?). I was kind of confused about that but went with the flow. There were around 32 players roughly, but I’ll only list the names that I remember.
List of players present (missing some):
[LIST]
[]Ryu: Kurocchi, Shiro, Kurahashi, Shin
[]O.Ryu: Mayumura
[]Ken: Hamaki, Mattsun, Tonegawa
[]Guile: Tsunoppi, Yoshio
[]Chun Li: Fujinuma
[]O.Chun: Jenety
[]Zangief: Cellotape, TMF, Pony
[]Honda: Abebin
[]O.Honda: N.Shogatsu
[]Cammy: Nakamura
[]T.Hawk: VIPER
[]Dhalsim: KKY
[]Boxer: Gizzle (me), and this other guy whose name I forgot
[]Claw: Kachu (?) <-- at one point I asked this guy if he was “Kachu”. He denied it saying that Kachu is from Kansai (i.e. not Tokyo/Kanto), and although they use the same green Claw, he’s a different person. But playing this guy and comparing to vids of Kachu, I could have sworn it was the same guy…
[/LIST]
There were also quite a few notable names that didn’t show up, like Hakase for instance. I was looking forward to seeing Kawamata Ryu again (from last year’s tourney) but he along with Sashishi also didn’t make it.
Everyone then drew lots and I got randomly teamed up with VIPER (!). I introduced myself and said that I had no preference for either 1P or 2P; VIPER said he preferred 1P. So we then waited a bit for our turn, then played a match against each other where I lost quite quickly. VIPER showed how he is one of the best Hawks for his sense of when to DP in the matchup against Boxer, which is basically what that matchup revolves around.
After a while our first match came which was against the team of Shin and TMF. Shin was using Ryu instead of Hawk for this tourney, and I felt pretty confident about his playstyle, so I went first. I won the match against Shin and then faced TMF (who I’d played tons of casuals earlier against) and won again. VIPER was sitting next to me and whenever I landed some big chunk of damage he’d shout encouragement – “eh, hai, ey!” etc (I’m sure everyone has heard this kind of thing in tourney vids).
Some time later it was time for our second match, against the team of KKY (and someone else who I can’t remember lol). As usual I go first, where I lost quite easily to KKY. Although I’ve practiced and done well against good Dhalsims such as HYDLIDE on GGPO, KKY executes everything to a slightly higher level and I couldn’t do much during the match. Given the fact that KKY has practised against the likes of Shiki Bison, I would’ve been surprised if I’d won that match. So I step down and VIPER takes the seat, but our hopes are pretty slim given that it’s Hawk vs. Sim. Sadly, he also loses to KKY quite convincingly and we’re out of the tourney.
At this point VIPER returns to a far corner of the crowd and I go up to talk to him. I wish we’d moved closer as I couldn’t follow what was happening in the tourney from that far away.
So I basically reintroduce myself as a foreigner (important because I don’t speak Japanese to a native level), and I also apologised for us losing in the tourney, to which he reassured me that it was nothing. Following is a summary of what I can remember from our conversation:
[LIST]
[]VIPER has been playing ST for more than ten years. He only started playing T.Hawk after X-Mania 7, when the Hawk duo of Toutanki and K famously typhooned their way to 3rd place (in a 3v3 tourney, no less). He said he’s been playing Hawk for around five to six years.
[]I told him that I played ST online, to which he asked if I was referring to HDRemix – I said no, this was on a PC. At this he asked “GGPO?”, to which I said yes.
[]He doesn’t play online, although he mentioned that YuuVega apparently is on HDRemix (classic mode) like every day.
[]I told him that he was regarded highly as an expert T.Hawk player overseas and has “overseas fans” (lol)
[]Whilst talking about overseas players, he mentioned talking to Damdai last year about the level of foreign players (?).
[]I asked him how he managed to get that good, especially with his propensity to do standing 720s at least once a match. He replied that in the early stages he referred to internet resources and info to learn Hawk techniques, and then he would at practise at home (on Playstation).
[]I asked him which arcades were the hotspots these days for ST – he replied “Versus” (i.e. GameSpot Versus), but only on Tuesdays and Sundays. He said he’d be there on Tuesday for the Ryu-Guile battles (?), and I also said I’d make sure to be there too.
[]Since I use the same yellow Boxer as Shiki Bison, he asked me if I modeled my Boxer on Shiki’s. I said yes, for sure. Referring to Shiki, he said that he is truly the strongest player (“志木バイソンは間違えない最強です。”) I asked him if it was true that Shiki had actually taught Tamashima how to play Boxer – he said yes, it was true. Up to then I’d thought it was just a random rumor I read on the internet, but if VIPER says it’s true then that’s pretty amazing. VIPER was basically saying how insane Shiki is for knowing all these weird glitches and techniques – which is kinda true considering how many new techiques I’ve seen “pioneered” by Shiki in various vids. He also mentioned that Shiki doesn’t really participate in tourneys that much, and if I wanted to see him in action he’d probably be using Guile (that’s if he even showed up to Versus, which it seems he hasn’t lately).
[]I specifically asked VIPER if he had heard of this guy from Mexico called “djfrijoles”, but unfortunately he said no. (LOL).
[]I also asked him what his least favorite/most difficult matchup was, to which he replied “Dhalsim”.
[/LIST]
There’s probably other stuff I forgot to list but that’s most of the relevant stuff. Like I said earlier, I couldn’t really follow the tourney closely whilst talking and standing far away from the action, so I don’t know who actually won but it might’ve been KKY’s team. In any case, the tourney finished pretty much exactly at midnight. Afterwards, we kept playing casuals. According to VIPER, this would be an all-nighter (final close at 10am). I got in some good sets against Shiro Ryu (4-5) and also VIPER himself, where I initially did mediocre but ended up with a decent streak going. When he lost Shin (pink T.Hawk) would come on and I could immediately see the difference in playstyle between master and disciple. As I played VIPER more I gradually got a better sense of how he plays, so we ended the set pretty even with even a slight edge to me.
I couldn’t stay that long (since I was pretty tired anyway and had to get up early) so I left at 4am. VIPER showed me the door at the back since the front entrance was already closed and gave me directions. I said my thanks and goodbyes and finally headed off.
Overall it was another successful tourney experience, and I’m glad I went again this year. There’s nothing like an ST tourney in Japan to welcome in the New Year.
hahaha I owe you one homie ! thnx fer that!
Nice write-up. btw I think Viper was being humble- referring to Internet resources etc. when I think he came up with or perfected a lot of elite techniques, and talking to the other top Japanese Hawk players ought to confirm that. I didn’t realize how good he can be until Hiroyan said mentioned it esp for some Hawk techniques, and Hiro’s blazed past tons of top players himself with Hawk. And yeah when Damdai came for SBO 2011 back in Sept they had a chance to chat and play (again? probably also in 2010).
haha TMF hooked everyone up on GGPO
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/19483833
edit
LOL LISTEN TO THE COMENTATOR SAY GEEEEEEEEEZLE
edit 2
shogatsu worked mattsun O_o
I’m sure this was posted before but does anyone have a translation of this page?
http://beastdaigo.jp/versus_chap5.shtml
He talks about a lotta different stuff, including footsies etc.
There is an update at NH2’s blog. Did not make much sense to me. Has he lost his password or something? It’s been some time I do not hear from him at all.
nevermind
that arcade looks funnnn. sad face for the st machine being unoccupied
It looks like an awesome arcade to go to, you boys in Belgium are lucky to have it. I agree with moocus though, it’s pretty sad ST is sitting in the middle of all these cabs, and being forever alone 
You might want to consider posting that thread in here as well:
http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?forums/world.119/
You’ll get some more fellow Belgians interested in the place. Hopefully some of them won’t mind trying an old ass game for nostalgia.
Haha, awesome. I entered.
Super Turbo in NYC 4/13/2012
!!!
Awesome, I hope your event turns out great.
A few questions, there’s no stream URL, yet you say that there’s a stream provided by Dick Wolf, and there’s a weird url attached to that, might want to correct that.
Also, you’re kind of vague as to how future payouts are going to work. You say winner(s) take all, but that could encompass anything from 100% to 1st, or a 70/20/10, or a 60/30/10, etc etc. Might want to clarify.
How are you confused with the pay out of winner(s) take all? You win singles, you win all the money. Your team wins teams, they win all the money. There will be no 70/20/10 etc splits.
As well Min is still questioning at the moment if he is going to switch stream service or not. Once this information is settled the link will be updated.
Going to have a stream of Super Arcade ST, if you guys want to watch, here’s the link. It should be up around 6pm or so.
How did people get good playing this game against the cpu. I turned it to easiest, and it gives me one free jump in a round before i lose, lol.
American ST cpu is one of the hardest computer opponents I’ve ever seen in a fighting game. The game will actually read your inputs and input what is exactly needed to beat you.
On a side note, sometimes watching the computer is a good way to see something totally wacky that works