Tournament.... Fever

I started off the weekend on Friday night by heading right for Shinjuku Sportsland. Upon entering the arcade I noticed they had a sign up for an Accept Core tournament to be held the next day so I made a note of that and intended to go. I made plans over dustloop PM with a guy named Dying Chipp. He is from Singapore and is actually friend of Axel's. I played some Gear for a bit and waited for him but he didnt show up after a long time. I mailed Rod who was waiting for me at Vegas telling him I was gonna head over there soon. I was right about to leave when he finally arrived afterall. He pretty much just asked if I was ElvenShadow, I said yes, and then he got on the other side of the cab and we played a shit ton of games. Our first set of games ended with me winning 16 games and Dying Chipp winning 2. Though many of them were very close. Also somewhere in there I beat some I-no twice, a Sol twice, and then after I finally lost to Chipp that 2nd time, I went to play some BB and lost twice against Ragna. I wasnt warmed up at BB at all yet.

During our epic battle, Rod (Honnou) and Matt showed up cuz they were wondering why the fuck I wasnt at Vegas yet. I told em he showed up afterall so they stayed to play some games.

I went back to gear and beat some Faust twice. Then I played a bunch more games against Dying Chipp again and this time he started to adapt much more. The final score this time was 15-7 in my favor. Chipp is one of my hardest three matchups in the game so I knew it was only a matter of time until he started getting some more wins on me. He really actually has a solid Chipp. I would say his 2 biggest flaws are that he doesnt go for throws nearly enough, and he always jumps when doing corner pressure like at the same time every time, so its easy to just run out from underneath him to escape corner lockdown sometimes. Other than that though, he was at least on par with most average Japanese Chipps and better than most US Chipps I have fought. I also squeezed in one game with Rod against his I-no and won before we were ready to leave.

It was getting late so we decided to go to Current. Rod said he was gonna sit this one out due to money being tight. Matt and I took Dying Chipp to Current. On the way there I finally got to talk to him a bit since we just did nothing but play at Sportsland. His real name is Richard (so I will just call Dying Chipp, Richard from now on cuz its easier to type).

Basically, when we got to Current, it was deader than a cemetary. It was like, Sushi, Mogi, Masami (the guys that all work there) just sitting around talking with Bosch and I think one other guy was there but I forgot who it was. We stayed for like 2 beers and then decided we would have a better time checking out another bar.

We made our way over to GODZ which turned out to be a good choice. The place was pretty packed, though I didnt know most of the people there aside from the staff and this one guy named Jackie and some random Finnish guy. We just drank lots of beer and requested lots of songs. Some random drunk chick who said she was like 40 and looked like she was in her late 20s was hitting on tons of guys but was there with 2 male friends who were keeping her in check. She told me I was handsome and im just like... thanks. One of her friends spent a good while talking with Richard. I wasnt listening to their conversation but they seemed to be having fun.

After that we went to PSY for more beers. Mai (not the Mai whos apartment I stayed at last time) showed up randomly with Masami. I guess she stopped by Current later and they came together. At some point Ayami showed up out of no where and then just left heh. Once again we stayed till a little passed 6 and then got some drunken McDonalds breakfast. The security guard (yea at a McDonalds) was being a dick and wouldnt let us use their bathroom until after we ordered food (and we were hungry but we had to pee), but whatever.

After eating we all just went to the manga kissa and slept there.

The next morning we woke up and went right to Vegas since its across the street. Not much action going on, but Richard wanted to play me more so we had another long Faust vs Chipp war. The final score this time was 12-9 in my favor again. Richard once again played very well. After that I lost in a close game to a Robo-Ky and then beat a Testament and a Faust twice.

Right around this time it was time for us to head over to Sportsland for that 2 on 2 AC tournament I discovered the previous day. Matt had to stay behind at Vegas to wait for his girlfriend since his phone was dead. When we got there it was pretty dead. We were surprised to see no one there. Shortly after, Rod showed up and then we saw Shoot who was there working. He informed us that the tournament was actually ladies only (this is like the 3rd time this has happened to me at Sportsland, I need to start reading the whole sign and not just the game, date, and start time).

Well since we were there and no ladies had even showed up yet, we played more casuals. This time vs Richard we went 8-3 in my favor. I also played Rod's I-no again and beat him but then he played me again and won. During our games of casuals, females started to show up. I didnt know who any of em were except for this one HOS player who has glasses whos always around. Among them was this cute I-no player I never saw before (among the like 6 girls that showed up she was the only attractive one). Rod played her in a mirror match and beat her and enjoyed trading some I-no strats with her. I could tell he was totally digging her but since hes sorta like dating Tomoko now he didnt really like ask for her number or anything.

After that we all went to get Wendys and I got a cigar. After leaving, Rod suggested we stop by Sporstland again to check it out. When we got there, it was obvious he wanted to see female I-no again since he spent a great length of time talking to her and showing her I-no strats lol. Matt was still no where to be found. After Rod had finished his private tutorial, we headed out. Rod had to actually leave to meet up with Tomoko but said he would hit us up later at Current.

Richard and I headed over to Club Sega Shinjuku to play more BB. I ended up getting a 9 win streak with Arakune which was cool. Richard was just playing the game for the first time and decided to learn Bang (big surprise lol). After playing there a bit, we headed to Joybox but after only being there for a bit, I got a mail from Matt saying that Alpha Station was THE PLACE for BB action! They have 4 cabs at 3/5 rounds for 50 yen a game! That beats any other place ive been to so far so we took a quick train ride over to Okubo station and checked out Alpha station. Lots of very very good players were there. They only had 2 GGAC cabs now to make room for the 4 BB cabs. Matt wasnt there when we arrived but eventually showed up. We played some good matches against various people. Some Rachel had 20 wins when we got there and I soon found out why. Inoue eventually beat him though and ended up getting like 17 wins with Jin.

Eventually it was getting late so the 4 of us (Matts girlfriend Akiko was there too) walked to Current. On the way I got some food cuz I was really hungry. Tonight at Current was the Finnish Xmas Party. When we arrived, I was shocked to see tables full of free food. Im not talking about Currents free "Tasty Junks" (aka some chipps and pretzels and nuts and shit). They had like full cooked turkeys and pasta and sausages and salad and cookies and all kinds of shit. It was free to get in too! Everyone offered me food like right away. Mostly all the Fins were there except the Snus man couldnt make it cuz he was actually in Finland right now... bummer. A few Current regulars were there but this was much more like a standard xmas party with just talking and eating and not so much like the typical current party where everyone goes nuts and dives off the bar and shit. A lot of the Finnish people there were older and I had never seen them before.

After a long night of drinking, Eventually I got hungry after a few hours and that food was still sitting out so I had some Chicken, pasta, and salad. Matt left early with this girlfriend to hit up those Okubo love hotels. Towards the end of the night, I was debating whether or not to go to PSY cuz I was kinda tired. Rod never showed up either. As we were leaving, Masami asked me "are you going to the usual place? You know where I mean" and im like "eh... im kinda tired" and hes like "cmoonnn..." and im like "alright fuck it, ill go"

When I got to PSY, SPG Chris was there and a few other various people. Chris was cool and bummed me a few cigarettes. After one beer I was really getting tired and started passing out. Masami never showed up, that bastard. Richard suggested we leave, so I finished my 2nd drink and we headed out to the manga kissa again.

When we woke up, the plan was to go to Alpha Station again for more BB casuals. Matt and Richard all met up with me there and we started to just play casuals. The place got filled up quite fast. At around 3 pm we decided to go get some food at Subway. On the way there, I didnt bother putting on my sweatshirt cuz it didnt seem that cold out and it was only like a 3 minute walk. One thing that was odd about this Subway was that they had the drink machine as self service yet they didnt offer free refills. WTF is that? I didnt even noticed the small sign that said no refils. So during eating the whole time I helped myself to more drinks anyway but then they told me I couldnt do that on our way out. Haha oops!

On our way back to Alpha station, I once again didnt put my sweatshirt on. I really should have, because I felt very very cold. When we got inside Alpha station I had this tingly feeling all over my body, kinda like when you have a fever. Well, thats exactly what I had! A fucking fever! Just from being outside without my sweatshirt on for like 3 minutes! When people tell you not to go outside without a coat on, fucking listen to them! I know I will from now on!

We now noticed that they were setting up what looked like a tournament! I had no idea there was a BB tournament going on there today! It was already just starting actually. I asked the guy running it if we could enter and they said they had strict rules or some shit so only one of us could enter, so I asked them to add my name to the bracket. After a little waiting I had a use the toilet but it turned out I had enough time before my first match. My first match was against a Noel player and I just annihliated him. I just got him cursed and just kept throwing bugs all over the place all while constantly resetting the curse with various D attacks and the poor guy couldnt get anywhere near me. Up next I had to fight this really good Rachel player. He looks very familiar, like I should know him from GG somewhere but I cant put my finger on from where. He told me to just pick what side I like, he didnt even care about doing RPS, you could tell he was very arrogent and wasnt very worried about my begginer Arakune. Well I guess he didnt have much reason to be because he knew exactly how to deal with Arakune very well and was able to handle me pretty easily. I got some damage off him and stuff but he beat me convincingly.

After that I just felt very tired. Playing with a fever took its toll and I just sat down on the bench against the wall and fell asleep for a while. At about 6:00, Matt woke me up and said they were gonna go to another arcade so I finally got up and we headed out. On the way to the station, Richard suggested I just go home early since I wasnt doing so well. That sounded like a great idea cuz I was fucking beat.

I said bye to them there and headed back to Gunma about 2 hours earlier than usual. I had a wait a whole hour to transfer at Takasaki station since the train schedule in Gunma sucks big hairy nuts.

This whole week ive been sick as hell, with a bad fever and some of the worst and most painful diarrhea ever. Im still sick now but finally mustered up the energy to type this shit up.

I doubt Ill go to Tokyo this weekend, probly best to just make sure im healthy for the holidays. Ill be leaving for Chicago on Dec 23rd so I should rest up while I can.

This will be my last blog post of the year. I will follow up next time with a blog entree about Frosty Faustings!