Teamless in Tokyo

Going back to Thursday night, I was about to go to sleep when I got an email from Domi. He said he wanted to talk to me about the team situation for SBO. He gave me his AIM and then we got on aim and had a chat. He asked me what my plans were for SBO quals this coming weekend and I told him I can enter both tournaments but I need a team. He said that he heard that I was going to team with HH. I told him that HH wasnt sure yet and said he might team with me if we found a good 3rd player but that HH only wanted to team up with really strong players. I told him that at this point I really had no team. I then asked him what the situation was with his team and he said they decided that he and Basara would team up with Karun. He then said goodluck with finding a team and that was pretty much it and then I went to sleep.

The next day I emailed Gin to see if he wanted to team up with me and HH, and I emailed HH to see if he was cool with having Gin on our team. I went to work and then after work I had another enkai to go to. This was the going away party for all the teachers who would be changing schools this semester. The enkai was about 3 minutes walking distance from my apartment so it was very convenient. It was pretty much your standard enkai with the usual stuff, except this time all the teachers who would be leaving gave speeches and some of them got all emotional and were crying a little. While I was at the enkai I got an email from Gin. He said he would be ok with joining but asked if it was ok with HH. I said I was waiting to hear from him and I would let him know when I got a reply. A little while after, HH emailed me and simply said "sorry, I cant do it". I told Gin that HH wasnt able to enter the tournaments this weekend and asked if he still wanted to team with me and said we would find someone else and he said it was ok.

After the 1st enkai was over we went to the nizikai where they were doing karaoke. This time I did Alice Cooper - No More Mr Nice Guy, Pretty Maids - Please Dont Leave Me (they always play this at Current), and Metallica - Battery, which was the last song of the night haha. Then after that pretty much all the teachers decided to go for some ramen at a nearby place and of course there was more drinking. By this p0int I was pretty wasted. I was drinking a lot of beer and people also offered and poored me shochu and whiskey. After the ramen place I said goodbye to the people who were leaving and walked back home at around 2 am and passed out.

Next day I woke up to find that the enkai had owned me and my head was THROBBING! Fucking enkais... they always own me for free. I set my alarm to wake up around 8:00 because I wanted to catch a somewhat early train to Tokyo so that I could have time to practice a bit before the qualifier today. I tried my best but I could barely get out of bed. I tried to force myself to eat but I only could take a few bites and then I was just like... fuck this shit I need more sleep. I took a headache pill and went back to sleep for about 45 minutes and then when i woke up again it was bareable enough to get on with my day. I eventually made my way to the train station and slept most of the way to Tokyo on the train.

Todays tournament was at a place called Pasopiard game center in Kamata. Ive never been there before but I saw a map on their website and it was easy to find. I arrived about 45 mins before the tournament was scheduled to start. As soon as I got there I saw Gin and we signed up as a duo. When writing our team name he asked what I thought was good and I said anythings if fine. He sorta scribbled on the sheet and just left it. The tournament guy asked him if it was a "W" and he was like.. sure... so that was our team name heh. We later were teamed up with an extra Dizzy player named Ouri. I only had time to play maybe like 2 matches before the tournament. They had 4 cabs going but there were tons of people and there was a long wait to play. Yosan was there and had like 20 wins with his I-no. I came close to beating him but fell a bit short. The tournament eventually started and we were one of the first teams to play. Our first match was against a team consisting of Mugen (bridget), En-Slayer, and some Anji player who im not sure who it was. Ouri went first against first against Mugen and lost. This was the only time I saw Ouri play so I dont really know how good he actually is. He did ok but didnt really have too many chances to do alot of stuff against Mugen. Then I went and lost followed by Gin who lost to get OCVed. I dont get much Bridget practice so I dont know the matchup well. Bridget has easily got to be the most underplayed character in Japan (at least in the Tokyo area). I go many weeks without playing a single Bridget after hours at the arcade and Mugen is the best Bridget in East Japan so it was pretty rough. The tournament eventually ended and the winning team was 012 (so), Isa (ed), Satoshi (po). I asked Gin if he wanted to team up again tomorrow and he said he wasnt sure if he could enter beause he might have to work. Basara was there and he teamed with Karun (who for some reason played Bridget instead of Jam, which was the first time ive seen him do it) but his other partner wasnt Domi, it was a Millia player. Domi didnt show up. I pretty much spent the rest of the day just playing casuals there. I had 16 wins at one point. I got Ouri's email so that maybe we could team up again in the future. I played against Basara a bunch of times. I was going about even with his Sol and I only played his Slayer once and beat him 3 rounds in a row. Once it started to die down I left and headed to Shinjuku.

Current had another metal event with Guest DJs. Lots of people I know were there and I told Chip, Sawa, Sushi, and Mogi some stories about my trip to Kansai. Given the fact that my head hurt so bad this morning I didnt feel like drinking so much but I did and I got drunk anyway. Nothing extremely noteworthy happened at Current so im just gonna leave it at that. I drank till closing at 5 am as ussual and slept at my regular spot.

I woke up the next day feeling fine, aside from a little tired but that was fixed with some coffee. First thing I did was walk right across the street and went to Vegas. It was pretty dead. There was one guy there and I beat him 8 times in a row and he kept picking all sorts of characters. Then he gave up and left so I said fuck it and went to get food. Todays qualifier wasnt scheduled to start till 6 pm so I had lots of time. It would be in Koiwa which is East of Akihabara so I figured id stop there on the way for some games. When I got to Akihabara there were a few people and as time went on it began to fill up. No noteworthy people were there and I ended up playing a Jam player first who was pretty good and beat him. Then I played a Millia and lost twice in close games and then won the 3rd time. This then lead to a 19 win streak and I eventually beat the game because no one there could win against me and they started to give up and just play other people. Upon beating boss I-no I took it as my cue to leave. I eventually arived in Koiwa station. From there I honestly had no idea how to find Leisureland game center where the tournament would be held. After much walking around and asking people for directions I eventually found the place, it was pretty easy to miss.

When I got there it wasnt too packed yet and there was about 2 and a half hours until the tournament was to start. I figured I would just play some casuals while I waited for signups. There were only 3 cabs and one of them wasnt working until someone eventually came and fixed it so wait time was still kinda high. As time went on, people suddenly started showing up in masses. Gin was there and he asked who I was teaming with. I said I had no team and he ended up having a completely different team now. I was just thinking like... wtf... he said he wasnt sure if he could go and then he shows up with a new team and didnt say shit about it. Then eventually the tournament director comes out with the mic and starts making announcements. I figured it was time for signups but then he already had a clipboard with a signup sheet that was already maxed out with 24 full teams. I didnt even know signups started yet and somehow there was already a full bracket. I asked him if I can still enter and he said the only way I could is if someone was a no show. I waited by the front desk as they called each team up to check in. I noticed that Basara and Domi were there, but they didnt even team up with Karun this time, they instead teamed up with Mitsurugi, the Zappa player who I had teamed with a few weeks back at a Vegas 2 on 2. This really kinda upset me because they knew I needed a team, and if Karun for whatever reason couldnt show up, I would have thought they would at least have the decancy to mail me and ask if I wanted to join but at this point it became CLEARLY obvious that they had absoloutly no desire to team with me. I love Japan and all but I really hate the indirectness that goes along with Japanese culture sometimes. If Basara never wanted to team up with me in the first place, he should have just said no outright when I first asked him months ago just like everyone else who I asked who said no. At least this way I wouldnt have wasted all this time with fucking around with thinking I was on their team and could have been more active in my search for another team. Granted Mitsurugi is a good player and all but it just seemed so unexpected and last minute. Neither Basara nor Domi said anything to me the whole time I was there. I didnt really feel like even talking to them honestly. So it turned out that all the signed up teams were there so I was stuck leftout with no team and couldnt enter the tournament. I wasnt in a good mood so I decided to just go get some food and then come back and watch since at this point it was already late and there was no point in going back to Akihabara to beat up more scrubs when all the good players were here.

The tournament was 24 teams and was split into 3 brackets of 8 teams each. The top team of each pool would go on for a 3 team round robin finals. When I came back to Leisureland I noticed Domi was playing. It was their first match and he went first for the team and he OCVed his opponents. Shortly after, Gin's team was up. They were up against Machaboo/Sharon/female Millia team. Gin went first and lost to female Millia, then their Eddie player also lost to her. Their Bridget player beat her but then lost to Machaboo. Domi's team eventually went again and he OCVed the next team as well. Kaqn was there and his team all lost to some Slayer player but I dont know his name. Then there was another match for Machaboo's team and he got an OCV for his team. At one point Osaka B and FAB showed up. Osaka B said hi to me and showed me the qualifying certificate that his team won. They had gone to the Chiba qualifier earlier in the day so they would be playing in the final qualifier for the spot next weekend in the Chiba series of quals at Game Chariot. I was wondering why I hadnt see them yet so that explains it. Soon after was Domi's teams next match and they were to play against Inoue's team which consisted of a Dizzy named Natsume and an ABA who ive seen around but I dont know who he is (not Die-chan). This time Mitsurugi went first and lost to Dizzy. Then Domi went and lost to Dizzy as well. Basara barely beats Dizzy and then loses to ABA. After this it was time for the final 3. The final teams were Machaboo team, Inoue team, and I dont know who the other team was. They only had the team names written on the brackets and not the individual player names. At this point it was getting very late and I had to leave by 8:15 if I wanted to catch the last train back to my town. Had I entered the tournament and actually got far I was prepared to take the Shinkansen if need be but I didnt feel like spending the money for it if I wasnt even playing. I had enough time to watch the first match of the finals. It was Inoue's team vs Machaboo's team. ABA went first against female Millia and defeated her. Then Machaboo defeated ABA. Up next was Inoue vs Machaboo which was really close and intense but Inoue pulled ahead and won. Then Sharon proceeded to defeat Inoue in another nail biter and the final match was Sharon vs Natsume and Sharon won the final round with a pixel of health left with a standing dust. At this point I had to leave so I dont know who won the whole thing but Machaboo's team was in the lead.

I had originally made a mistake and thought there was a qual in Niigata next weekend but upon closer inspection theres not! So next weekend I will head to Chiba for the last prelim on Saturday followed by the finals for that spot which will be on Sunday at Game Chariot.

still need a team though...