“happytang can win tournamets!”
lolololol best pic ever
Not to be an ass or anything, but hella people are once again jumping on Kuroda bandwagon.
Apparently from what some Japanese 3s players were talking about after SBO, not many people can understand the level of sophistication Kuroda plays at. He’s godlike and almost one whole level above everyone else that plays 3rd. Kinda scary :crybaby:
The other players who are on near his level apparently are Hayao, MOV and Boss.
I’d go more into detail, but it might be boring stuff. Unless you’d like to hear more…
…so isn’t that a legit reason to join the kuroda bandwagon? lol. kuroda is the real deal folks.
Please elaborate.
Part of what has made this year more interesting is seeing a clearly defined group of players who seem to be above people who appeared to make up the very top tier of 3s players (Nuki, KO etc.)
Heavy agree, man.
Generally, Most devout players of a game, once they start learning stuff about it, can pick out and see and understand at least to some degree the decisions that are being made when they watch better players play. Even if they can’t reproduce anything nearly as spectacular themselves, they can recognize what makes the top players so good.
I personally don’t know much about 3S, but I think 3S players are so intrigued by Kuroda because so often they don’t understand what he’s doing… and yet he still brings in the wins. There’s more to his appeal than showmanship, the low-tier mystique, or even his raw skill. We just don’t get him, and we reeeally want to because he’s proving that he’s actually better than anything we do get. That’s why I like to watch Kuroda play.
The day I can figure out what Kuroda is thinking is the day I drop 3S and never look at it again.
(In accordance, this would probably also be the day after I win SBO. 
)
I’m sure a lot of people would like to hear what opinions are like over there…go for it.
For me, I didn’t stay at a hotel near SBO when I went, i stayed in a capsule hotel in Akihabara…i dont actually know the closest/cheapest hotel.
For tickets, they do sell them at the door (for general admission, it was 2000 yen, or about 20 bucks for the WEEKEND. Don’t lose your ticket, cause it can get you in all 3 days!), and the reserve seats are sold in advance. You’ll prolly be able to find a seat in the free seating area (at least i had no problem finding one for Arcana and Melty finals).
As for a prepaid phone, I dunno, but they did ask for a phone number. They obviously didn’t call mine, but I would just find a friend with a phone and put that number. I doubt theyre gonna check.
In order to participate in the last chance qualifier, you need to buy a program guide. In the guide, there’s one sheet for LCQ. It was 1300 yen this year, but the booklet included is really cool and def worth the price. There are a couple people who speak English there, so you shouldnt have a problem. Getting there by train is really easy cause theres one stop where you can see the building that it’s at from the station you get off at.
There’s quite a few SRKrs that go to SBO each year, you should try to meet up and go as a group, it makes it easier.
thank you very very much…i appreciate that
go on…did kuroda himself say that Hayao,MOV, and Boss are near his level??
Oh the phone thing is only if youre entering Last chance quals. If you’re not gonna enter, then you def don’t need a phone. Its just something you put at the bottom of the sheet.
i wanna play against ur green ken again! in the future! :china:
I went this year, stayed with justin and some LI people, was good times, met up with heartnana I think at the lock up.
what we did:
order your airplane tickets as soon as you know SBO dates, they WILL be 1k+. Go american, go continental, either way TRY to get a direct flight. poor KO fiend got laid over TWICE once there and once back, second time was in honolulu, lucky bastard.
Get your hotel reservations in. I stayed with wafflez at a Sakura hotel in Ikebukuro, where iloveu, justin and our friend dave (owner of videogamecentral.com) stayed on the floor above us. with 2 people, the hotel room was alright, kind of small, but worth the price 9k yen a night (90, so 45 each) with 3 people, its obviously more affordable, but dont expect to sleep well. Keep in mind though, that was hotel reservations we made last minute, so you CAN find better!
Where you stay is really up to you, but I suggest somewhere on the Yamanote line (it will make so much sense when you go there, the japs have a great transit system), this means places like shinjuku, shibuya, sugamo, ikebukuro. each place I mentioned has some pretty good arcades with ikebukuro having the least, but hey, I had a taito station 2 minutes walking distance from me, I got my early sf4 on.
For daily expenditures. I alloted $1500 for spending for 13 days. I thought I was going to hit it, I was very off. I ended up spending $600 of that, and I wasn’t being stingy, I was eating well and playing a lot. I’d over allot money just so you have a piece of mind when you go there. For money, I highly suggest you check with your bank, see if you can use an international ATM and use that. You get charged a very minimal service fee, but you don’t have the hassle of carrying large sums of cash with you and having to exchange it with a constantly fluctuating price. The ATM always gives you the most up to date market price, so for like 30,000 yen, at a rate of 109 yen, I got charged $272.00 (money I took out) with an overhead fee of $2.89 so totally $276.89, it was awesome.
Also, when/if you go, try to know some locals, or ask people like ElvenShadow (very cool dude, thanks for everything btw), HeartNana, Bas (awesome guy, loves drinking!) and others to show you food places. Ask Jwong and he will say yoshinoya and the occasional sushi (yoshinoya is a place where you sit down, get a rice and beef bowl for like $3 and leave, quick and easy and feels healthy). Stay away from very touristy spots as they charge you an ass ton.
Thats about it, don’t go there expecting mad cheap electronics though, thats what chinas for 
-Kesh
Yeah I went to the lockup, which guy were you? I met like, 6-7 new people there, lol.
And yeah, no mad cheap electronics, but mad cool electronics, lol.
Just going to arcades and eating well won’t cost as much as you think. However, its when you start going to stores and picking up a ton of stuff that it gets expensive. “I never had a JP Ps2, but they’re so cheap here! Oh crap, now I need a buncha games, and they’re so cheap used!” Yeah they’re cheap, but it adds up. Its worth it tho, but it depends how you spend your money. I say one thing is to not worry about how much you spend at arcades because that takes away from the fun of playing there. Just keep popping credits if you want to play, and that makes the experience all the more fun.
As for SBO, i would go only on days when you want to see stuff. For me, I didnt have any interest in the games being played except like, Arcana and Melty. That friday night (Tekken, ST, VF night), there was a big arcana 3v3. Sat, (hokuto, 3S, kof98 day), all the top arcana players were gathered at the joybox arcade in shinjuku. I would focus on one or two games specifically if you plan on playing top players. If you’re just looking to see ALL the games, thats cool, but if you only really play 3S, you dont need to go to SBO on Fri or Sun, and chances are, theres other tournaments for 3S on one of those two days that would suit your interest better. Just cause SBO is there all three days doesnt mean going all 3 days is the best choice. Personally, VF kinda bores me, and while its cool watching high level matches, theres much better events going on at the same time, scope those ones out, and itll be more fun, otherwise youll prolly be sick of SBO by sunday, haha.
good stuff and thanks to you…and also kesh for givin a rough estimate of the cost of things over there…ill do my best to be prepared…maybe like a month or 2 in advance ill make a thread for ppl who are planning to go to SBO and ask to post links to pages that might help as well as finding ppl to go with :tup:
thank you guys for the info 
p.s- hows about that info on the kuroda business lol…like whats that other stuff that you said might bore us but ultimately wont lol 
hey i was at the lockup too that night. sorry i forgot names i was a little buzzed before i even arrived. im ryan by the way.
HeartNana/let blood run, I was the indian guy, kinda sat at the exact opposite of fubarduck and you, on the same side as jwong
It was great times
damn not one alex player made to sbo this year
and good job to wong’s and pyro’s team for reping the us