Got to the Javits Center pretty early today to catch the first games of the day at around 10:00. Flash lost his first two matches in the morning, which sucked, but seemed to give him some focus for the rest of his games. There were some really great matches with his Wolf versus Cidkid. Dennis0201 was in this group as well, and definitely stepped it up, playing Rayblade for the remaining spot. For lunch, we grabbed pizza at this place in Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton? which was definitely a breath of fresh air compared to the other midtown prices we’d been paying for things. The WCG party at ESPNZone Times Square was pretty fun, and could not have been cheap, with that many people and an open bar. Though it was nice to unwind a bit, have a few drinks, and play Daytona, no one really wanted to cut loose since tomorrow was the finals for most of the games aside from Guitar Hero. I headed back to the hotel and to sleep pretty early, but from what I heard, Flash ended up staying up late talking, and Dennis was trying to fix a button that was broken on his stick.

Sunday came and I grabbed some food and ended up taking a wrong turn after stopping by a Duane Reade to get an umbrella, so I got to the Javits center after the first round of matches had been played. Flash was on a roll, and the momentum just carried him through. The videos for the finals are linked below, they was solid play from everyone, and it’s easily some of the best play from a tournament in this country. There’s not a whole lot else to say, I’ll let the matches speak for themselves.

All in all, the WCG event was very well funded, organized, and run. I had a great time, and the tournament was well placed at the New York Anime Fest, which was not insanely crowded, being a first-year con. This year’s games came at a time when the VF community is not at its largest, what with people bound for SF4 or Tekken or proclaiming their retirement in threads on VFDC. What Flash said was absolutely true: VF has by far the most mature and friendly players– it’s one of the few fighting games that I would say actually has a community. Which is to say, not many other games have players who, after the finals, have a tradition of the winner buying all the players dinner. Rayblade stayed up until 4 helping Dennis fix his stick. Shag did a great job of working with the WCG and the players as a liaison, so there were no “WTF?” moments in terms of rules and so forth. VF has always been a small community, but as a result, it’s one of the most cohesive and welcoming, and I hope that never changes.

» Continue reading “WCG Nationals, Days 2 and 3 Wrapup”

Grabbed a sub from Subway (I’m seriously getting sick of that place), and headed over to the Javits Convention Center at around 11. Walking from Times Square all the way there is really pretty lame, but it can’t be helped. We were told to be there at 12:30, but had to wait around until the con actually opened at 1. The format for the tournament is that the pool is divided into two groups, 1 and 2. Group 1 plays a double round robin on Friday, and group 2 on Saturday.

So in my pool was Denkai, Dennis Shih, Xyzzy-something, and Rayblade. My first game was against Xyzzy’s Eileen. I didn’t know the matchup, but he was right in saying that I lost because I played differently in the tournament than I did in casuals afterward, where I beat him quite a few times. Took a couple of rounds against him, but lost 2-0. Next was Denkai, who always seems to pick Shun against me. I wonder if it’s a counter pick vs. Pai? I did all right against Denkai, but never really expected to beat him. I was happy I managed to take a couple of rounds. There was an hour long break, and we had to wait in the players’ lounge for a while to walk across the stage as VF5 reps. After that, I played Rayblade’s Vanessa, to whom I lost 2-1, and Dennis, who I beat 2-0 Grabbed some crazy cheap pizza in Hell’s Kitchen, then went back for round 2. I did worse in that I didn’t win any matches this time around, but I did win more rounds, I think. I lost to Rayblade 2-1 again, and it went down to the last round, I think, with Dennis.

Got some casuals in, which is usually the real draw for me. Even played some SF4 casuals, but only because I’m done playing. There was word that some guys were heading out to Chinatown Fair, but I don’t know if that went down. I generally don’t like mixing Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter, so maybe I’ll get that SF4 and 3S action in next time.

So I’m writing this from one of the Bolt buses to New York, Chief_Flash and I left Washington at 6 or so, and hit the traffic up I-95.  We passed Newark Airport not too long ago, and the city lights are just starting to come into view. VFDC is buzzing with people talking about or on their way to the tourney, and some people are posting that they’re at the hotel already. We should arrive in Penn Station momentarily, and then we’ll be lugging all our gear to the subway and the hotel. Looking forward to getting some sleep tonight and warming up tomorrow. Flash informed me that the group A and B matches will be round robin, so that’s how Friday and Saturday are going to be spent, with the finals bracket on Sunday. We’ll see how that goes. I have my laptop with me, so I’m hoping to at least post a daily writeup, if not more frequent updates, which will be here and on my Twitter.

Played a bunch of matches against GodEater VFDC’s Jeffry.  We went for roughly 20 matches, and I probably won 5 or so.  He was very consistent in punishing Bokutai stance, and has a pretty solid ringout game.  Apparently, I need to break down-back throw a lot more often than I have been.  Also, he threw out a lot of knees vs. Bokutai, which works unless I do something like punch, which I didn’t know at the time.  In any case, great games, though I was getting frustrated, and didn’t have a clue what to do by the end.

Had the VF guys over here yesterday with two setups, and got a lot of good practice, and great games in.  My execution was better, throw escapes were only OK, I did more sidestepping than I have been since I started up again, and I didn’t rely overly much on PPP.  I’m still really paranoid about accidentally pausing during matches, and I want some better buttons anyway, so I might try to pick up a 360 Tournament Edition stick soon if I can find one.

Had some good matches against Stompy from VFDC and his Lion.  Lion is a real challenge for me because he’s just quicker and has a better mix-up game than me, so I can’t use my usual strengths, and I’m very out of my element.  Related to that, I know now I need to learn better abare– right now I just end up mashing punch like a scrub, and it’s not very effective.  Knowing good defense, and how and when to defend are parts of my game that I want to try and improve.

So it turns out that I’ll be attending the WCG National Finals for VF5 in New York. This is awesome, and I’m really excited to be heading up and visiting with the NY crew and get some good games. I am, however, pretty out of practice, and this blog will be mostly about me getting back up to par with Pai.

So I’ve gotten a lot better at a lot of the cancels I need to do with Chun, but using them in a match is the big question.  Learning the b.FP xx SA2 is really hard for me for some reason.  I think I understand now how to do it, it’s just a matter of consistency.  It’s just two half circle motions, and timing the back Fierce with the beginning, and the Roundhouse kick at the end of it.

Played some SF4 for the first time in a while by accident when Eva(n) challenged me to some 3S and I didn’t bother to read the IM that carefully… whoops!  That went all right, though I need to setup GGPO and 2df soon so I can actually get online competition whenever.

Also, I’m linking a Third Strike blog, http://3rdstrike.wordpress.com/ since it’s dedicated to the game.  I’ve been playing Third Strike since it came out (not to say that I’m any good), so it’s always interesting to get a relative newcomer’s take on a game that’s been out for so long.

I’m going to try to make more frequent smaller updates rather than biweekly super-updates like I’ve been doing to keep things pretty brief and easy to read.  I’ve been practicing canceling into super from the most basic setup, crouching (mk) forward, which I have down pretty well now.  I do a quarter circle, hitting mk when the joystick is at down or down-forward, and then another quarter circle forward and kick for the super.  The downside to this is that I have to hit it pretty early in the first quarter circle for it to work at all, so integrating it into an actual match and footsies is pretty hard.  I’m going to double check if there’s any other way to do it, joystick technique is fairly new to me.  My other issue is with hit confirms; it really doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of time to check before doing the super, but it’s necessary as a basic part of the game.

This blog is now hosted at dashupthrow.com!  So the name of the old blog wasn’t especially easy to remember, but hopefully the DNS entry will propagate relatively soon.  Also, the blog is now hosted over at wordpress to take care of upgrade issues, so I can hopefully spend more time playing fighting games and telling you about them.