Monday, April 26, 2010

Finding Teammates

Friday night I headed to Mikado alone. I started off right away with a 13 win streak. I eventually lost to a May. I was still in the process of putting an SBO team together this weekend. Kunihiro said he would team with me for the upcoming tournaments but I still needed one more team mate. Theres this ABA player whos pretty good who always talks to me named Nanase. He came and sat by me and was talking with me a bit so I asked him if he could join my team. From next weekend is the start of golden week with lots of holidays. The very first SBO qual is on next Sunday in Saitama. Then there are 2 in Ibaraki and one in Tochigi the following days. Nanase said he could join me for the Saitama tournament on Sunday. He cant make the other ones though so I still needed to find one more team mate for those days. Anyway, there were a lot of players and I got tons of good matches in and stayed till closing.

After that, I went to Current. It was packed with a bunch of random foreigners I didnt know. SPG Chris was there with a few other people I know so I sat with them. We eventually decided to go to GODZ. We stayed at GODZ for a bit and we ran into a Swedish dude there named Johan.

We all left GODZ together and the people I was with didnt really wanna go to Current, so Johan said he knew about this awsome "rock club" that he was gonna show us. As we started walking there, we realized we were walking near Current. We asked him what the name of the club was and he said it was called Current! LOL. I couldnt help but laugh that he was "showing" us where Current was. Once we realized that, everyone else said they would just find some random place to go drinking in Kabukicho. I decided to just go back to Current anyway so I went with Johan.

It was still pretty much the same there. I talked with Johan a bit and he was saying how he might be able to hook me up with a job at the company he works for sometime in the future so thats pretty cool to know I might have that option.

After Current closed, I went to PSY. The other people I was with earlier were there and it turns out they just ended up going there the whole time due to not being able to find anywhere better lol. I stayed till closing and then went to sleep.

Saturday, I went to Mikado again right away. It was slow at first but a few people were there, and gradually the place got really packed and there was tons of comp there. Kunihiro showed up and we talked about our SBO plans. He said he will enter the Saitama one for sure. He said he will go to the other ones only if we find one more guy cuz its really far and going with a 2 man team is kinda risky.

Also, The I-no player who I teamed with sometimes last year named Yuki messaged me saying he wanted to meet up. He had never been to Mikado before so I met him by the station and showed him the way. I asked him if he could team with me but he says he hasnt been practicing and has mostly been playing online reload for some reason, so he said hes not really in any position to enter a tournament. I played him, and he did seem a bit rusty but not completely terrible but i figured it would be best to find someone else anyway.

After playing for a bit, I took Kunihiro and Yuki to the kebab place and we got some kebabs and it was delicious as usual. Then we went back and played more. My top streak of the day was 11 wins. Tons of top players showed up. I played Maruken's Baiken and beat him on my first try which was cool. I played him like just a couple more games after that and didnt win again but they were some good matches anyway. Eventually around 9 pm, Kunihiro and Yuki left. Towards the end of the night, I was fighting against a pretty good Ky player. I had like a 6 game win streak on him or something at one point but he kept trying. The funny thing was, every match was like down to the wire with like one hit between who won and who lost but I just kept squeezing in the last one. Right before they closed, I talked to him and said good games and told him he had a solid Ky. I asked him if he wants to team up for SBO sometime. He said he doesnt enter tournaments much but said he would be willing to try so he will team with me at some point in the future. He says he cant go to the far away tournaments but at least hes another option to team with for ones that are pretty near Tokyo. His name is Usuda. After closing, I left.

Andy, Ryan, and Sam were all supposed to come to Mikado but no one ended up showing up. Emmet went to another international party and didnt come to Tokyo last night due to an enkai.

I headed to Current alone and Emmet was there when I arrived. Chip showed up too. I asked him what he thinks about MvC3 so far and he says it looks like it might be good but its too early to tell.

Also, Terry showed up and had a rough day at work, so he was really in the mood to get smashed. He kept buying everyone shots over and over. He must have bought us like at least almost 10 rounds of shots. Emmet and I also bought a round. It was pretty insane. Eventually Terry got too wasted and could hardly stand for a bit so he went home around 3:30. At some point I got really wasted too and passed out at the bar for maybe a half hour. I woke up with marker writing all over my arms and on my neck. Masami and Emmet busted out the black marker on me. Fair enough, I fell asleep so whatever. I washed most of it off in the sink but some was still sorta visible.

We stayed till closing and I think Emmet went to a love hotel with Sachiko. At this point, my memory sorta cuts off but I went to PSY, I think with Chip or something. I dont really remember anything about PSY but I know I was there. I think maybe Masami showed up too. I was pretty wasted.

I woke up the next day in the manga kissa with one contact lens still in and my contact lens case still on the desk with the bottle opened. I must have just straight up passed out while taking my lenses out lol. I also checked in around 6:30 according to my receipt meaning I stayed at PSY till closing. I still felt slightly drunk but no hangover. I didnt have any pain in my ulcer really but I ended up taking another super black shit, which means there was some internal bleeding going on. I really shouldnt have drank all those shots but once I got drunk enough and someone keeps buyin em for me I dont really think about saying no heh. I guess ill have to be more careful next time.

I got some food and then met up with Emmet. I went to HIS travel agency to check some airfare prices. Right now tickets to the US are really expensive so Im still not sure if I will end up going to visit this summer. If I dont, I might go to another country in Asia with Ryoko since its cheaper. Im still thinking about it.

After that, we headed to Mikado. I was surprised to see that they were running a 5 on 5 tournament for GG when I got there. It had already started and I had no idea about it, but Johnny-o was cool about it and put me on one of the teams that hadnt played yet. I played a few casuals while I was waiting for us to play and won like 4 in a row and then they called our team.

My team had Tsu (ED), an Anji, Sol, Robo-ky, and me on it. I dont remember the exact order but 2 of my team mates went first and I think they beat 2 guys. Then like 2 guys lost to a pink Faust player. They sent me to go next to take him in the mirror match. It went 2-1 and I beat him. Then I had to fight a Slayer, and I lost 1-2. I think Tsu beat the Slayer and then everyone lost to JT's Millia, and that was it. Oh well. I was glad I at least got to play.

After the tournament was over I left and saw Ryoko when I got home.

I mailed a bunch of people in my phone trying to find another team mate for the Tochigi and Ibaraki SBO quals. I heard from Akira the Axl player who says he pretty much will be busy all of May but would like to team with me in the future. Also, ASA the potemkin player said he cant enter due to having work those days but also might want to team up later. Im still waiting to hear from about 6 other people and can possibly mail others if those fall through. Hopefully I will find someone else to team with. In any case, next week officially starts SBO quals so I am pretty hype for that. With that and the release of SSFIV this week, im gonna be playing a lot of fighters.

2 comments:

AnshulJ said...

hey mike,

where in utsunomiya is this arcade you talk about - i did a search on tsurumaki arcade and google gives no results... i'm in utsunomiya for a few days and would like to check out this arcade... :)

thanks.

ElvenShadow said...

try this link

http://maps.google.co.jp/maps/place?hl=ja&lr=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=%E5%AE%87%E9%83%BD%E5%AE%AE+%E3%81%A4%E3%82%8B%E3%81%BE%E3%81%8D&fb=1&gl=jp&hq=%E3%81%A4%E3%82%8B%E3%81%BE%E3%81%8D&hnear=%E5%AE%87%E9%83%BD%E5%AE%AE&cid=4003578131845437282