The AmeriKen (Sa) that should come home (vids included)

Classic Fighting Games Street Fighter IV
1

Well I got back from Japan the day of SBO but and one of my goals was to meet Daigo and get his autograph and I did, but the most surprising that I found in the street fighter seen at Big Box (top SFIV arcade in Japan) was a Sagat player named Kenneth also known as AmeriKen and U.S.D.A. I saw him play at Big Box with now card at the time as he crushed a 42,000 or something BP Akuma and I asked him where he was from. He told me he was from the US but had been living in Japan for 2 years and played SFIV in Shinjuku, Safari, and Big Box ever since SFIV came out and he always played with top Japanese players. Right when I met him he invited me to the GodsGarden tournament where he was voted in to play in. I was star strucked when he introduced me to Mago, Ojisanboy, Nemo, Daigo (AGAIN!!), Shiro, Bonchan, Tokido and ahh it goes on. He was on respectful terms with them because they all respected his skill. He is ranked #48 in Japan as of 2 days before SBO according versus city as you can see here.
http://www.versuscity.net/2009/08/12/street-fighter-4-power-players-19/#more-684

He also participated in the Shiowaza 5 v 5 tournament. He was an AMAZING Sagat player and the only thing I could think of was how he would fair if he returned home to the US and participated in our events.

So I wanted him to be known by us, his own countrymen so I took the chance to record some of his matches. I did not get all them, but the videos that I do have are him fighting Marn, Tokido, TKD, Shiro, Mago, Daigo, Radiowave, Itabashi Zangief. He beat Marn, Tokido, Radiowave, and Itabashi Zangief and when I say that I am not declaring that he is the better player just because he won a casual match at Big Box, but I truly believe that his skill is amazing and he could easily be one of our top players. He lost by a hair with Mago, Gave Daigo some trouble, and got beaten pretty badly by Shiro.

The fights I did not have was him beating Uryo and Kindevu at Big box but I am truly sorry do not have video of it. And about the videos I am posting. You will see that his name is U.S.D.A but I assure you that he is AmeriKen, he lost his card so he got a new one. And in Magos fight his card did not register because it had to be renewed but for the footage of this fight I have proof that it is indeed him and Mago fighting because you will see them. Also with the Tokido fight you can not see Tokidos name but you will see him playing. I hope the quality of these fights will also help prove that he is AmeriKen even though his card says U.S.D.A. Kenneth really showed me an amazing SF scene when I was there and introduced me to all the top players and got me pictures with them so the most I could do is spread the word that we do indeed have an amazing and powerful street fighter player over in Japan who can definitely hang with the best. Now if he could only come to evo.

And if you are wondering why he was not in SBO its well obviously he did not qualify nor did he try, because he told me his lack of Japanese keeps from knowing about a lot of the tournaments there. The craziest things about this guy is that he does not have the game at home and only plays at Big Box after work. It is because he plays with the top players that hes learned all the tricks and matchups. He didnt even know what EVO or SRK was but after I filled him in our scene here he was completely surprised and was interested. I hope we see him more of him in the future and hopefully he will come home soon and share with us his skills. I hope you all will check out these vids. MOst of the fights are posted here

http://www.youtube.com/user/shinobaka

2

I remember seeing him play at Godsgarden and being pretty impressed. Of course he got scraped by Mago in that one match, but honestly, a grand master title speaks for itself. Seeing as how he has like 90k bp, and plays Sagat, I’m not surprised his name gets around cause Big Box seems like a pretty small community. I’d laugh if he came to EVO and wrecked everybody cause of the US not being used to good Sagats.

I don’t think most of the Grand Masters really play SF4 at home do they? It seems like playing a few hours a day at any of the better Jap arcades will make you infinitely better than playing on XBL…

Jeebus Shiro scraped him O_o…

3

I must say, that’s pretty cool that even by just playing casually after work in Japan he’s on the same level as most top players here

4

I wonder if the Japanese share their strats amongst each other, or if they hold them close to their chest.

I know back home in the Philippines, arcade players would discuss strategy and matchups with just about everyone, so long as you were part of that particular arcade’s group. You could hit three arcades in a day, and each would have a different group of locals with their own “style”

5

This guy is a monster.

6

Thats tight! I would like to visit Japan for the food and meet some of those guys!

7

I played against him a couple times when I was in Japan. He is indeed quite godly with that Sagat of his. :slight_smile:

8

too bad ameriken woke up TOO LATE and couldnt be my partner for sbo because of this…so i didnt get to play in lcq. i was kinda sad esp cause i was watching him beast on niggas on casual play and im like WTF WHY COULDNT U GET HERE ON TIME NIG!!

but hes good tho. me and ameriken are like 2-2 i think in casual play? being here hes def used to fighting jpn style of play tho

actally real talk its all about GIRL SAGAT AT BIGBOX BEASTING ON NIGGAS. YJDK

9

Pictures?

10

eff that, videos sonnn

11

you surely filmed it right sabin

12

I really like the way he (AmeriKen) plays Sagat.

13

Actualy all the top players at Big box are extremelely cool with one another… Ameriken told me that Mago knows a bit of english so they discuss Sagat techs now and then. Ameriken and I were discussing the differences between the US and Japan and he told me that over in Japan they only play for a past time and for pride and he told me he was surprised when he saw how we all act at Evo but then understood that we have a lot of trash talk here because we are indeed americans and that we are playing for money. I have more causal vids too that I might upload tonight of just us all standind together at Big box chilling Bouya, MAgo, and Tokido all seem like very nice guys to me and Daigo was truly a robot, but I saw him smile here and their I have pic I would like to share too.

He also told me that right now in Japan Tokido recently started some Sagat Antithesis with gouki and began killing Sagats left and right and all the top gouki players are beginning to give Sagats a run for their money. He also told me that Daigo fell off from number one months ago because Oijisanboy and Mago found some kind of Sagat glitch that allowed faster tigershots and tiger uppercuts… but maybe he was talking about karas? The craziest thing about this guy is he explains our revelation we find here so simply because he discovered them with a convo with MAgo or Oijisanboy.

14

Very nice Sagat, thanks for the videos.

15

Well I uploaded some more videos of the Bog box scene and I also more videos of Marn vs Daigo and Bouya. I dont think they are worth because Marn’s back is blocking 1/4 of the screen as he fights Daigo, but you can still see and imagine what is going on. And I only got 2 10 or 15 sec segments of Marn fighting Bouya one clip in the beginning of the macth and one of the end of the match where Bouya wins. Marn did a decent job over there at big box in my opinion… i wonder if he remembers me… nice guy

16

I’d think he was better if he used his DP’s for jump-ins instead of during opponents block strings, besides that good use of normals, and he understands spacing - except his tk spacing is a bit off, regardless he’d beat me, but yeah he’s pretty good.

17

Guess there wasn’t enough space at the Big Box for Marn. :lol:

18

Funny thing is that he just emailed me from Japan asking me how he could post in this forum haha, like I said that guy has no idea of our SFIV community here and so I told him that I would love to introduce his skill to everyone here with vids and such. so I hope he’ll figure out how to register soon so you all could discuss his Sagat skills and the SFIV scene over in Japan. Haha I’m just a above average SFIV player and street figher fan my whole life who was visiting my fiance in Japan and it was all just chance that I met AmeriKen the day after met Daigo on gay little quest to find him. (heh I’m a Ryu player) and he gave me something better which was the chance to meet and play pretty much all of Japan’s top players by introducing me to them (inlcluding Daigo, AGAIN!) and inviting me to God’s Garden… it was Nirvana for me… heh like I said I’m just from Oklahoma heh so yea I hope it explains my excitement

19

so where is the videos?:rolleyes:
…nevermind

20

heh funny,

BUT! since I am not in the main East or West Coast Street Fighter IV scene at all because I am from Oklahoma, it was the first and probably only time I will ever meet Marn and… I thought he was a pretty nice and cool guy, but I have been looking at these forums more closely lately and yea I guess he has it tough here, but yea he has skill but I dont what it means coming from me, but yea I fought his Viper and wow… I hope you all are enjoying the vids though I was pretty nervous recording them at big box and looking like a dumb tourists (which I was)