Monday, February 23, 2009

Handheld Game Inn Current

Casuals at Vegas on Friday night were pretty decent. Matt showed up and we played till about 11:30. My record for the night was 29 wins and 11 losses. Most of the losses (about half) were against this one same Eddie player (not sure who he was) who was pretty good. I eventually did beat him though. There were several top players there and I got a win on Bleed’s Johnny too. Mekemeke showed up all late towards the end and I didn’t get around to playing against him.

After leaving Vegas, Matt and I met up with Akiko who was waiting at the manga kissa using the internets. The 3 of us then headed to Current. It was a little slow with only maybe about 10 people there but it was fun times anyway. Rod showed up all out of no where at around 1 or so. He stopped by Vegas after we left there and played Mekemeke a bit and then came to Current. Rod busted out his DS at Current and we were sitting at the bar watching him play Final Fantasy IV remake on the DS. He was just about to fight Dr. Lugae in the Tower of Babil. This is IMO one of the hardest fights in the game, espessially if its your first time playing it and you dont know what to expect. I told Rod if he could beat it on his first try I would buy him a beer. Basically Dr. Lugae has a spell that switches the damage for the battle. Meaning, healing things will hurt everyone in the battle (you AND him) and damage dealing attacks heal. He can switch this effect at random anytime. Rod somehow got super lucky cuz his party would have been totally wiped out but somehow his Rydia was immune to the effects and just wouldnt die. Everything was just healing her. I dont know what he had equiped but it ended up saving his ass and he won the battle since Rydia wouldnt die LOL. I bought his lucky ass a beer. Not much other noteworthy stuff went on there. After they closed at 5, Rod, Matt, Akiko, and I decided to go do Karaoke for like 2 hours. We brought our own booze so it would be cheaper. I bought a bottle of rum and we just passed it around and took swigs. At one point, I went to go take a piss, and in the hallway, I ran into a bunch of people that usually go to PSY. They said they had a room down the hall from where we were at. I popped in and said hi and the 2 of the bartenders of PSY and like 10 PSY regulars were all there. I told them maybe we would join them later. We sang till like 7:30 or something and when our time was up, Rod went home and the rest of us went to join the PSY group for a bit. We didn’t stay long though since it was already really late and super crowded in there and we already paid for our room so we didn’t wanna get charged for theirs too since we weren’t singing or drinking there. After getting some food, Matt and Akiko went home and I went to the manga kissa.

The next day, I woke up at around 2:30 pm. I stopped by Vegas since its right there. No one was playing GG so I just decided to try some SFIV for the hell of it. I picked Akuma and lost a few times to this one Ken who I kept almost beating but just falling short.

The night before, Rod and Matt were talking about checking out TRF to play there for a change of pace so it sounded good. No one else was up yet so I just headed over to TRF on my own and told them to meet me there.

While I was walking around in the shopping mall that TRF is inside of, I randomly ran into Hot Zappa and her boyfriend the yellow Robo-Ky player (I don’t know his name, from now on hes gonna be called HZB = Hot Zappa’s Boyfriend). They said hi to me and I told them I was gonna go play at TRF, they were just shopping.

When I got to TRF, I was disappointed to see that they had no GG cabs set up. TRF is a really small arcade so depending on the day, they often switch out what games they have going in the cabs. Today they had 2 BB machines, like maybe 3 pairs of SFIV machines, and a bunch of Hokuto no Ken. I ended up playing 2 matches of BB, one was vs another Arakune and I lost. The 2nd one was vs some Jin player and I came within like a pixel of beating him but lost to him too. Im still super shitty and rusty at BB cuz I never play it and I havnt learned any good combos hah. I tried some SFIV and picked Akuma again. I kept fighting these 2 really good Zangief players and a good claw player. I probly played about less than 10 games of SFIV and lost all of them. Some were very close though. Once again, another game I hardly ever play and I see these guys stat cards with like multiple thousands of matches on their cards so I don’t feel that bad about losing to them lol.

After a while, I was growing weary of TRF so I just said fuck it and went back to Vegas for GG. On the way back to Vegas while leaving the mall where TRF is, I stopped by the tobacco store there and picked up this giant fucking super long cigar from the Philippines.

There were lots of people at Vegas now. Rod showed up at some point. I played casuals pretty much all day. I was playing really bad at first cuz my thumb still hurts from last week but after a while I either started to get used to the pain or it just subsided a bit and I was started to play very well. Several big name players were in and out throughout the day. While we were playing, Rod busted out his DS and was playing the Final Fantasy IV DS remake between matches. He was at the tower of Babil 2nd visit and just fought Rubicante. Eventually Matt showed up all late. I didn’t keep a record of my wins and losses or anything but towards the end I got a 30 win streak. It was eventually ended by Rod’s Slayer.

At that point, Rod and I were hungry so we got Ramen while Matt waited at Vegas. I loaded my ramen up with way too much fucking garlic and it was pretty tasty but after a while I couldn’t finish the soup anymore cuz it was too garlicy. After eating, we got Matt and then headed to Current again.

Tonight at Current was supposed to be a Party Hard night which is usually when tons of people come out, but it ended up being just like the night before with maybe slightly more people. A few regulars showed up but it was just a low key night mostly. Antti and a few of the Fins were there but they left pretty early. I busted out that huge cigar I bought earlier and it took like 2 hours to finish smoking it. It was so big that towards the end of it, I had to put it out for a while cuz it was making me feel kinda sick. I don’t think it was the greatest quality cigar but it did taste pretty good until it started to get so harsh towards the end. Just about the entire time we were at Current, Rod was playing FFIV on his DS and Matt and I were just sorta watching him LOL. I was telling Rod some stuff like where to go for some secrets. He beat the whole Land of the Summoned monsters and Sylph Cave during the time we were at Current. This was his first time playing FFIV and Matt is also playing it now but is way earlier in the game. At some point, Yago and Saeko showed up and they suddenly just busted out their PSPs and started playing Monster Hunter 2nd G on it. Current had turned into a fucking game center with drunk people and metal. Sweet. Throughout the night, people came up to us and we were all having these in depth Final Fantasy conversations and stuff. Everyone in Japan seems to love FF games LOL.

After they closed, a big group of us all headed to PSY (except Rod who went home). It was pretty packed there since PSY is such a small bar and we all piled in. There was this one girl there who was sitting all by herself like in the back towards the entrance. Kunko and Matt were like telling me I should go talk to her cuz she looks lonely or something. I was just like um ok sure… so I said hi to her and made small talk for a couple mins and it turns out shes like the girlfriend of the owner of PSY and was just waiting for him to get off work lol. Once PSY closed, at first, everyone was talking about how they wanted to go to keep drinking more but then suddenly it just sorta fell through and everyone went home. Matt and I got food and then went to the manga kissa to pass out.

Sunday we woke up and the only plan for the day was to enter a 3 on 3 BlazBlue tournament at Club Sega Shinjuku. Matt, Rod, and I planned to enter together. I preferred it this way since all 3 of us never play the game and suck at it, and I would feel bad if I dragged down actual players were currently play the game seriously. Even though I know im in no shape right now to be entering BB tourneys, I figured it would be fun anyway since MIU would be running it and people would be playing GG casuals too. Also, my voice was shot pretty bad after I woke up, msot likely from that harsh fucking cigar, so I sounded really funny when I talked all day.

Matt and I showed up and signed up just before it started. I mailed Rod but he didn’t reply. While we waited for the tournament to start, I played a few games of BB and got destroyed by this one v-13 player. I have no idea how to deal with that matchup. I cant seem to get in on her. If I try to teleport to the other side she just waits and anti airs me as soon as I come out. If I try to move forward I just get barraged with garbage. Same with if I try to summon curse stuff. There seems to be a small area of the screen I can safely summon a cloud in the air, but it doesnt do me much good if I just get hit again when I try to get near her and it goes away hah. This was the first time I fought a v-13 who actually knew how to use the character well. Im sure once I actually learn the matchup it wont be so bad but it certainly seems like she can deal with Arakune pretty well. After that I played a bunch of GG casuals. I got a few games in vs Zero’s HOS and almost beat him but just fell short. Once the tournament started I kept playing GG casuals for a while cuz my team got a bi first round and wouldn’t be playing for a bit. I eventually got a mail from Rod saying he just woke up and probly wouldn’t be able to make it in time.

Club Sega appearently just got these awesome brand new HD cabinets and they looked really nice. They had BB hooked up to some of them and they had one hooked up with GG. They were just setting them up and testing them so they probly just got them not too long ago. I played GG casuals on the nice one and got like 6 wins in a row and then they called my match for the BB tourney so I had to get off. Our match was vs Keba’s team. We went against their Rachel player first. Matt went first for our team with his Noel. Matt hadn’t touched BB in forever and Rachel beat him. I went next and got perfected first round cuz he got me in a loop of combos into knockdown into frog summon pressure and I just couldn’t get out of it cuz im not used to how to get out of stuff in this game. Next round was much better and I was doing very well but I just took too long and time ran out before I realized and he had a little more life than I did. Rod never made it on time so our 2 man team was defeated. I didn’t care at all and just went back to playing GG for a while. After people stopped playing GG, it was about time to just head out and go to Vegas for more GG casuals.

Eventuaslly, all the players who were playing in the BB tourney at Club Sega, came to Vegas to play GG (and some BB). It was a GREAT day for casuals and tons of top players came out. A lot of them I havnt seen in a while. Among them was Isa and 012 who don’t often go to Vegas. Suzume and Bleed were there, Natsume and Baim, Hot Zappa and HZB, FAB was there but he was just playing BB the whole time. Imo and Inoue came too, as well as Zero. There were a ton of other big names too but I cant remember them all. Later on, US Bridget showed up as well as Yuki, the orange I-no player I will be teaming up with from time to time for SBO. I asked someone who won the BB tourney and the winning team was Tokido, Yume, and Inoue. A few highlights of the day were tons of people trying to beat Isa’s Eddie and him beasting hard. I beat his Eddie once which felt pretty nice. Imo and him were going at it a lot and I think I saw Imo beat him twice total out of a ton of times. Also, Seta (the Faust player who was on Hase’s SBO team last year) was there and I played him in one game and beat him in the mirror match which felt nice. Also, Suzume was there beasting hard with his Johnny, and he had like a 24 win streak and I beat him and ended it after a couple of tries. I was talking with Baim a little bit and she was asking me how often I practice and I told her that I only play on weekends and she was like “you only play on weekends and you are this good? Amazing!” I was just like..
“naa ive still got a long way to go.” My final game of the night was against HZB’s Robo-Ky. I beat him and then I had to get up and leave cuz my train home was gonna be coming soon. I said bye to Baim and Hot Zappa who were standing behind me and told them I had to leave. On the way out I said bye to HZB and told him good games.

Matt walked with me to the station and then I headed home. Overall it was not all that eventful of a weekend but I had a lot of fun anyway and I was playing extremely well, espessially on Saturday night and most of the day on Sunday despite my thumb still bothering me. Im very excited about next weekend’s big G3 event at Game Chariot. Saturday will be a singles tournament. After that is the big 23 vs 23 event. Then on Sunday is a special 5 on 5 tournament followed by some other special event that isn’t specified yet. It will be fun to play in the singles tourney and get some good casuals in, as well as watch the hypeness of the other events. Next weekend should be a great weekend for Guilty Gear action!

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