Ibaraki VIP CvS2 tourney 1/10/10

I got to the arcade really early because I didn't have anything better to do and I wanted to see Yane vs. Bocchan. I always thought Bocchan was the best K-Groove player in Osaka, and he's finally getting his recognition... but Yane may possibly be the best K-Groove player in Japan now. They were supposed to play 20 games, but somewhere along the way it became a 30 game series. After 20, Yane was up 2 games (11-9), but in the end it was a 15-15 tie. I got to play Bocchan a lot, and it took me a while to figure out Yama vs. Cammy... but he's just a lot better than me.

The tourney itself was about 16 people. My first match was against Parker (N-Iori/Blanka/Sagat I think). I OCV'd with Yama pretty easily. From what I can tell, he's a casual player. My next match was against Chari. I played him at the Tsuji Cup last year and won fairly easily. Now, with Yama, I won even more easily - I OCV'd him. This set me up against Tsugu in the finals of our bracket. I won the rock-paper-scissors to get the 2P side. Yama vs. Iori was pretty even I think. The thing I remember most about our match was the Bison-Chun round. I turtled more than I ever turtled in my LIFE. I literally sat there and didn't move (I can't really remember, but I must have been ahead thanks to Yama). He kept trying to bait me into moving, but I wasn't even looking at the screen. I intentionally avoided watching him so I wouldn't get baited. After a LONG while of turtling, I started doing random psycho crushers too. After hitting with a couple I worked in some walk up throws as well. He made a bit of a comeback by nailing my c.forward with a c.strong into super, but I was able to win with my Blanka in the end. Tsugu's been telling me that my Blanka is the one that gives him the most problems. I don't believe that. I am very, VERY ghetto with my Blanka. The only thing I think I do differently from anyone else is wake up upballs. Tsugu thinks it's really good, and that Bas doesn't do it but SHOULD. I honestly don't know...
Anyway, I won my bracket and RCK (A-Sakura/Bison/Blanka) won his bracket. It was double elim, so everyone got a second chance. I don't remember any of the matches except for Tsugu vs. Code (A-Vega/Bison/Blanka). Tsugu was winning by a LOT and had Code down to pixels. For some unexplained reason, he tried to chip him to death with a low tiger cannon. Code got out of it somehow and came back to win. Deshigitsune took his bracket in losers, so it was me vs. Code and Kitsune vs. RCK. RCK beat Kitsune. I don't remember the details. I was kind of nervous about my match with Code. He's improved a lot since the last time I played him (Tsuji Cup). He put Blanka first against me when we played in casuals and gave me a lot of problems. When he put Vega first against me I was able to win. Anyway, I won the rock-paper-scissors for 2P, and in order to get his Vega first, I selected my team out of order. I always pick my characters in the order I play them - so I select Yama, then Bison, then Blanka. I did a bit of a mind game during the selection though. I picked Blanka, then Bison, then Yama, but still kept Blanka a ratio 2. I wanted him to think I was going to put R2 Blanka first to take care of his troublesome Blanka, and end with Yama vs. his Vega (which was in my favor during casuals the day before). He bought it, and put his team in the order I wanted it....





but it didn't really matter. His Vega nearly took apart my entire team. My Blanka had to use meter to take him out and avoid an OCV, and I lost the match. That put me up against Kitsune.
He put his Chun Li first. I kind of like that matchup for Yama, but I rarely face any K-Chuns. His JD skills were really good, but he jumped in on me when I had full meter and he was raged or one JD away from being raged. I had one thought on my mind - anti-tripguard CC and whether it connected or not, I was going to waste away his meter. The only problem is, I got a close s.fierce instead of an activation, he JD'd that and supered me.
Bison basically built meter for my Blanka, who came in and did his job. I got behind by a lot though, and had to go for broke on a non-guaranteed CC. He blocked it, but I went into crazy mode and did some jungle hops to confuse him. I connected with an electricity toward the end of my meter, and canceled that into a super. That put me in good shape. I was still behind, but it wasn't by an insurmountable difference. The problem was, he was raged. I went into hit and run mode, but he read a backhop and did a low tiger cannon on me. I died and took 4th place.

Capcom Olympics 1/9/10

Last weekend was the Capcom Olympics at a-cho in Kyoto, followed by another CvS tourney at Ibaraki VIP in Osaka. I decided to head down the night before to scope out the place, but no one else was there. I crashed in a manga cafe and headed over in the morning. Tsugunosuke was there playing RF, and Tsuji and some other Gifu player was there (K-Rock, Nako, Geese?). I got some wins and also lost a bit, but I felt good. When the brackets were set, I felt even better. I got a bye for the first round, and in the second round I had to face Dari. I barely beat him in the team tourney at the Tsuji-cup last year, but now I had Yamazaki on my team. We played on the main cabinet, so there's a slight chance that the match was recorded. My Yamazaki ROMPED. I took out Geese and Rugal with Yamazaki, and wanted the OCV so bad that I used my meter against Sagat going for the jumping roundhouses CC. He blocked it and I eventually lost the round. My Bison came in, and I basically just wanted to build meter with him. I have a lot of confidence in my Blanka recently, so I didn't care too much about losing Bison. It turns out, that's exactly what happened, only sooner than I'd have liked. The last round was pretty close I think. If I remember correctly, I won with an airguard-break CC.
Next up was RF. He's using Team Ricky now, but he also didn't know what to do against Yama. I think I got through one and a half characters with Yama, and eventually won. I don't remember too much about the details, only that he missed a CC with Sak against my Blanka, and I got the hell out of there. Beating him put me in the top 8.
The top 8 bracket was determined by drawing cards. I accidentally took two and put one back. The card I kept was #1, which meant I had to put my name on the bracket first, but I could put it anywhere. What that meant was, I could decide WHEN I was going to play, but not my opponent. I decided to get it over with quickly (I hate waiting) and put myself in the first slot. #2 to decide was YSK, the only other A-Groove player in the top 8, and he uses Sakura-ARE. He demolished me in casuals, so he decided to put himself against me. When it came time to play, I won the rock-paper-scissors for the 2P side. My Yama did decent but not great. But I built meter for Bison. I think I connected an anti-air CC against his Sakura to take her out, leaving me with no meter against his Blanka (I think). Anyway, it was a pretty close match. He won with a walk-up-activate on me, so my tournament ended in a 4-way tie for 5th. Yane played Chari next and won. Tsugu played Daidouraku and lost (the official story is that he couldn't get his mind off of the cute maid at the cafe in the arcade...while she WAS hot, the real story is he finally got worked by somebody else's Chun). Deshigitsune beat Sacchansan in the other first round match. Yane then got worked by YSK, Daichan beat Kitsune, Yane beat Kitsune, and YSK beat Daichan.

1. YSK (A-Sak/Blanka/Bison)
2. Daidouraku (N-Akuma/Rolento/Chun)
3. Yane (K-Geese/Blanka/Sagat)
4. Deshigitsune (K-Chun/Hibiki/Sagat)
5. Me (A-Yama/Blanka/Bison), Tsugunosuke (N-Iori/Chun/Sagat), Chari (C-Honda/Vice/Sagat), Sacchansan (K-Cammy/Blanka/Sagat)

After the tourney I played Yama-Gief-Blanka in casuals and got 17 wins. Go figure. All in all, it was a good day.

Nagano

After some moderate success at a few of the Shibuya ranbats, I decided to go traveling to test him out. On Thursdays I try to play at Daytona in Warabi. The competition level is low, but it lets me try things out and get good practice. Tsudanuma Ace is a lot more skilled, and I can get good experience against P-Groove and Morrigans. Ekoda is close to home, but it's always the same 2 or 3 people there. For New Year's Eve, I went with Bas up to Nagano to play people there. Everyone says it was easier to beat me when I used Gief. I got a few OCV's with Yama, as well as some good experience against Yama (albeit K). Tao-chan, the best Gief in Japan, also recently dropped Gief for Kim. He can use basically anybody though. His Bison is a lot better than mine - I realized I need to use c.fierce and c.strong as pokes more. It was a lot of fun playing everyone there. I'll probably head over there again next winter (I love areas with snow!).

Getting up to date...

okay, I changed my team a while back. I now use A-Yamazaki/Bison/Blanka. I've always thought A was Yamazaki's best groove, and I knew he was a better character than Zangief, but I wanted to stick by my character. But it just seemed time for a change. I think I've done all I can do with A-Zangief - more than anyone would have expected. I still use him in casuals, but Yamazaki is my new "bidness" character.