Dragonslayers Ranking Battle 3.5 - SFIV - 06/02/10

Cheers fogo_rooglo for posting up the BB results, and a huge thanks to everyone who took part! Congrats to to Tsukiko, Xinkai and inferis for winning prizes that may contribute to the western world's obesity crisis.

Xinkai, hopefully we can get some online sessions on the odd weekend to train you up for France and me for Sweden! A month might not be long enough to adapt unless you have a lot of free time, so after the France event you should definitely invest in an arcade stick and get used to using one. Inputs become so much easier once you get used to it, you won't need to rely on binding for RCs, and if you're ever in an arcade with BB you won't be lost and confused!

Also Yreval, Nu v Tager is a damned nasty matchup, but I think you need to Sledge a little more often for the time being to get in close, and just block on wakeup every time since you really don't wanna risk eating another combo for free. And be careful with the Spark Bolts, since you want to be sure it hits since it'll take a while to charge up again.

Shame I missed watching the SF4 RB, sounds like I missed some cool stuff.

A very good night, got a lot of really nice games in with a lot of people. Thanks chunkis for the compliment; interesting read, I'll have to give this "in-depth response to an event" thing a go. Thanks Doom and bush, as you could imagine, I was very pleased with how I did in the tournament! I'm now going to do a big long-winded post about my experiences on the day that none of you care about so I'm warning you now

I wasn't doing too well at the start; came second in my group and got quickly put out of winner's by Chunkis' Gief. I realised that I needed to step up my game if I had any hope of beating these guys. While I didn't vow to not drop a single set from this point onwards at the time, it'll make my journey sound a lot better if we pretend I did!

Had some close clashes with The Truth, Roogle and Blag but I got by comfortably enough overall. Connecting my Ultra after getting hit by a Blanka ball is still one of my favourite things to do in this game :pac:

I didn't expect to get past 3rd once I had to fight chunkis again in the loser's final but an interesting development occured when he chose Ryu for the first match. I have had plenty of Ryu experience in my time whereas chunkis has rarely ever seen a Cammy. I took the match easily enough and the 1-0 lead proved to be helpful when dealing with the inevitable Zangief pick that was headed my way. Similarly, all my losses Vs. his Zangief up to this point proved to be a blessing in disguise. He absolutely demolished me when we had a brief set of casuals and when in the first match of the winner's bracket but there was something I took notice of but, thankfully, never really acted on. Specifically, how he was beating me. This proved useful when my past failings meant he became very eager and predictable with his SPD attempts which I countered accordingly with the most sophisticated of attacks (LOTSOFCANUNSPYK). Luckily I only had to do this for one match to secure my place in the Grand Final. Who knows what way it would've went if chunkis had another match to adapt to what I was doing! I don't think it would've worked out very well for me at all. I imagine that, in the next tournament, he won't be so quick to mess around with different characters and will, in general, be a lot more prepared for dealing with cammy. Things should definately be interesting when we meet next!

When I had to fight Newtype in the Finals I doubt I was all that confident. While we went even in quick sets of casuals earlier that day (3-3), this setting was a situation that was not unfamiliar to me and the outcome of our meetings seemed inevitable at this point. However, I somehow won my way through both sets and decisively at that. A feat I can't see myself recreating anytime soon. And of course, tradition dictates that only the games where I'm getting thrown around like a rag doll are the ones that get recorded :P

Then I had that set with chunkis that he mentioned. It's a pity I didn't get to play his warmed-up Sagat. The team tournament was fun, The Truth did all the fighting while I trash-talked to LiquidSwords about it! I only got to step in twice in order to beat Roogle and lose to Newtype.

Got my second set against chunkis after the team tournament. No Sagat or Gief though, he seemed to be using mostly Ryu before trying a few different characters (Honda, Bison and Guile iirc) against me. I was unwilling to embarass myself with character changes though after having a go at his Gief with my Ryu earlier haha. Dreddy should have an idea of how badly that went! Newtype stepped in for a few throughout as did chopper. I had an 18 win streak going at this point I think but it ended once it became a small set of me vs Newtype where we went pretty 50/50 if memory serves correctly.

I had quite a few matches against blag after this. It was pretty casual at the start what with all the Gen Vs Rufus and random selects. Once we played with our best characters things went pretty evenly. He kept me out effectively and seemed to have the match-up down a lot more than in previous encounters.

At this point I had been playing SFIV all day and decided it was time to try out something else, just in time for the BlazBlue tournament to start. I had no idea what I was doing and I'm pretty sure I was using a different button layout each time but it was fun. I think I realise how the game works now, though! Pick Nu. Spam D when away from opponent. Spam C when close. It was a fun enough looking game that I'd be a lot more interested in if Continuum Shift didn't exist. But alas...

It seemed my day was working out a little too well at this point but in order to balance things out, Mike asked me for some games ready to beat me up and remind me who's boss! So then I had that last set with him that chunkis and blag mentioned where he beat me quite handily, indeed! Despite this beating, considering my overall performance throughout the night, I'm a lot more confident about facing Newtype than I would've been beforehand. Though that could change at any moment since he's a fantastic player who is constantly improving his game.

Chunkis, too, is a fine addition to the scene. Showing great ability with multiple characters and a willingness to learn more along with the rest of us. I didn't get to do it at the time but I'd quite like to talk more about the Cammy/Ryu match-up with either of these two players, if only for all of us to improve the way we play.

To finish the night, I got put out of Blazblue and had a go at Capcom Vs SNK 2 I believe it was. It was fun but it was moments like these where the true negatives of mainly using a 360 pad showed up, since I had to use stick for the both of them. That coupled with unfamiliarity with the games in question meant swift defeats all round :pac:

Sorry for this big essay but I must've got a bit carried away! It's pretty boring just sitting here at the moment, you see, it'll not happen again :P

'FRAID NOT. YOU'RE JUST GOING TO HAVE TO READ EVERY SINGLE WORD THEN WONDER WHY YOU DID SINCE I SAID NOTHING OF ANY REAL IMPORTANCE.


Have fun.

Is there an audio book version of that post?! :pac: