The Dude Abides

Friday night I played GG casuals at Mikado. There was a good amount of players. Kunihiro was there and he was doing well as he often has been lately. I played him 3 times and we went 2-1 in his favor. He said he was down to team up with me again for the first set of quals which will begin during golden week. I played a lot of good matches and overall did well. Sam and Emmet both eventually showed up as well.

After leaving Mikado, Sam went home. Emmet and I went to Current. On the way there near Shinjuku station, there was a Turkish kebab stand so we got a kebab each but they ended up sucking. The pita was burnt, and it was only meat and cabbage. I wont buy one from that guy again.

When we got to Current, it was sorta dead and almost all random foreigners. We stayed for a few beers and then Emmet wanted to go check out Tokyo Loose to see how it would be earlier since we always go there late. It ended up being pretty much the same as always... a bunch of skanks and bad music. At one point, Emmet was like bending down to get something from his backpack and some random skanky chick just like starts rubbing up against him cuz she thought he was trying to dance lol. We only stayed there for one drink and then we left and went to Zin.

When we got to Zin, it was closed. Bummer. So then, we went to PSY, which ended up being dead with only one customer there. We had one beer, and then went back to Current.

At Current, it was still mostly foreigners but Chip was there now so I talked to him for a while. After Current closed, Chip went with us to PSY again. It was still dead as when we left but at least I got to talk to Chip. For some reason I was really tired though and ended up drifting off towards the end, so we just decided to leave after that. Emmet and I went to the manga kissa as usual.

The next day, Emmet and I went to Akihabara because they were having a special Super Street Fighter IV preview event in front of Sofmap. We got some kebabs first though and then headed to the event. Sam and his friend Nick met us there too. They had 2 setups (one xbox and one PS3) with sticks in front of the store outside. It was nice out so it was pretty cool. The line to play was pretty short so we got to play a lot of times. We were there from around 1:30 to 4:30 (except Sam and Nick who got there a little later). The characters I tried out were Blanka, Juri, Cody, Adon, Hakan, Ibuki, and T. Hawk.

I am a Blanka player in SFIV but I dont really like what they did with him in Super from what it seems (they didnt do much to him). His jab ball doesnt go as far so you cant do the same whiff to throw shinanigans. He has a slightly faster walk speed and slightly faster crouching fierce and I think his hop supposed to be faster too. His new ultra seems more useful than his old one (can punish full screen fireballs which I confirmed vs Deejay but does bad damage, and works as a decent anti air). Even with all this though, his blanka ball is still too unsafe. I might still use him but I dont think he will be my main anymore.

Between the new characters that I tried, I liked Hawk, Cody, Juri, and Hakan the best. As of now, I am leaning towards maining Hawk. I never was much of a grappler guy but Hawk's normals are seem to be very very good. He has a lot of great pokes and zoning tools and I love good zoning. A lot of his normals have very good long range which I also love. His special moves all seem pretty useful as well. The new condor spire seems pretty safe and I was able to tick into his command throw off of it pretty consistantly (though I dont know if it was just cuz my opponent wasnt good or not). The dive seems like it might not be very safe on block but is great for mobility purposes and will at least beat a lot of things if used right and also knocks down. DP seems decent but not the best, but its something and you can combo into it which is nice. Im not used to doing 360s but im sure I can learn pretty easily. I still dont know which ultra I want to use mostly. I just used the anti-air one cuz it seems like it would be more useful for the sake of variety but I only played 2 matches with him so I didnt get to test it out that much. In any case, he seems like he would work well for me so I will consider him for sure. I never really liked his character design all that much but to me, the way the character plays and how fun they are to use is much more important to me than how they look. If he has a good color I will be happy enough I guess. Too bad his alternate costume looks bad.

I also really liked Cody, and Juri, and Hakan seems fun but a little more gimicky and since I was playing Blanka before who was extremely gimmicky I might want to stray away from that, plus if im gonna use a grappler, Hawk seems like more my style. Adon seems kinda weak and I dont really think I will use him. Ibuki I wasnt really considering cuz shes too rush down oriented and low stamina but I just wanted to try her out for fun.

Emmet seems like he will use Deejay or Sim, and Sam was leaning towards playing Rose or maybe Gouken. Nick just played Sagat the whole time trying to get his new angry scar combos to work.

A lot of people at this play test seemed kinda scrubby. Not that I am a SF pro or anything but some of these guys were notably bad. There was this one guy who was trying to win SO HARD! He was like making all these exertion noises when he played and was hitting the buttons all mashy and looked so proud of himself whenever he won a round (even when people let him win to extend the play time cuz it was only one game and then both players had to go back in line, no one stays on) and so upset when he lost lol. I got stuck playing him like 2 or 3 times which sucked cuz I was just trying to test stuff out mostly. It was good that I got play with Emmet and Sam most of the other times though so we let eachother try out a lot of combos, setups, etc. I probably got to play a total of about 8 times. Each time we played, the Capcom staff gave us a Capcom notepad and Capcom pen, so I have a ton of them, especially since Sam didnt want his so I got his plus mine too.

After the event was over, we went to the new Club Sega Akihabara to just check it out and play games cuz its like right there. I played one match of GG vs some Zappa, won, and then no one else challenged me so after like 7 stages of arcade mode I got bored and just left my game. Everyone else was messing around with some other stuff. Overall there wasnt really a reason to stay there long.

We left and then got some awsome Akihabara kebabs AGAIN cuz Sam and Nick wanted them and I was down to have them again anyway cuz they are really good.

After that, we went back to Mikado. Emmet stayed for a little and then left to go drink with some girl. Sam and I stayed at Mikado till closing. I played a ton of good casuals once again, and there was plenty of comp and great players there. Got a few small win streaks too. Before we left, Sam already slammed a few beers and at first wasnt gonna go with me to go drinking but changed his mind.

We went to Current where Emmet was already there. Last night, my heartburn was sorta bothering me slightly more than usual from just drinking beer for whatever reason. The doctor told me I should try to drink a bit less because too much drinking can cause an over abundance of stomach acid build up which will damage my ulcer more. I decided I should try to see if I can find another drink that is safer for me to drink all night. I came up with the idea of trying to drink White Russians all night. For those who are unaware, White Russians are Vodka, Kahlua, and milk. They are also a good value cuz you get a little extra alcohol in them compared to a regular mixed drink with just one shot. So I drank those all night and it actually seemed to work pretty well. I got pretty drunk and didnt seem to experience any pain. I also didnt even bring any snus and will no longer use it anymore.

So anyway, we started off at Current, it was a little better than last time but still not like super packed. A little less gaijin though. Some random oafish rude gaijin dude came up to me and asked me to scoot over a stool except there was not open stool next to me. There was one like 6 people down. So I said to him there was no where to move. Then hes like "That curly haired guy over there looks like he would be easy to push over. Cmon, make it happen!" This guy was really obnoxious and a table just opened up in the back so we just moved there cuz tables are cool anyway and i didnt really wanna deal with this fool. While sitting at the table we invited Chibi Testament to sit with us cuz she looked bored. At some point, Sam and Emmet went to the conbini to drink and they met up with Sachiko. We didnt stay at Current all that long and eventually met with the others and headed to Zin.

This time it was actually open. There were 2 people at the bar who left shortly after we got there and later on a big group came and sat at the table by the door. Also this one other metal chick came who was friends with Chibi Testmament. I got more white russians. Hibiki was bartending and later on she left and Yoshi came.

The night was going fine until Emmet made a joking commet to Chibi Testament saying everything about her is child-like except her face. She at first seemed like she was just pretend pissed off and pretended to beat Emmet in the head with an empty bottle which was fine. Then she went too far and suddenly took Emmet's beer bottle which was like 1/4 full and dumped it over his head! Emmet was pretty pissed about this. He took it pretty well though. She tried to say it was Japanese style and he shouldnt get mad but thats a bunch of BS. They argued a little and eventually she was talking shit so Emmet came over to her and asked her "So if its Japanese style would you mind if I did the same thing to you?" She said she wouldnt mind, so he took her beer and dumped it over her head too. A little got on Sam's pants. We were pretty surprised. After that he left with Sachiko and went back to Current. Chibi Testament then started crying and stuff and getting all emotional like she often does. Sam and I didnt really wanna bother with all this crap so we soon after left and went to PSY.

PSY was pretty packed cuz it was some drunk chick's birthday or something. Hibiki was there a long with a lot of PSY regulars. I got another White Russian but it tasted weird. It turns out that when Chi-chan made it, she forgot to put Kahlua in it. When I ordered the next one I asked her if she put Kahlua in and she apolagized for fucking the other one up so I got the next one for free! Sweet. Later on, Masami showed up. We stayed till closing. I was really awake and wanted to drink more. We asked Masami if he wanted to go with us to Tokyo Loose. Funny thing was he already knew about that place and seemed to think the same of it as we do but decided to go anyway just for more drinking.

It was more of the same there, but I ordered a White Russian there too and they made it really fucking strong which was awsome, so that alone made it worth going. After watching a bunch of fools and skanks dance around to bad music for a bit, we called it a night and I went to sleep.

The next day, I woke up, got some food, and then met up with Emmet in Shinjuku. We then went to Mikado. It was dead at first but started to get packed over time. I played like 3 hours of casuals. Nothing really noteworthy to mention but it was fun. We left at like 6 pm and took the train back together. I played some PSP and napped and Emmet was watching some UFC matches on DS.

Thats about all for this weekend. Next weekend theres nothing really specific going on as far as I know but I will probably go to Tokyo again for more casuals and drinking anyway.