Monday, August 23, 2010

GodsGarden 2.5

On my way to Tokyo, Emmet rode up with me as far as Takasaki and then got off there cuz he was gonna meet up with some girl and then go to Current later on.

King Low Tier (a long time GG player from Colorado who uses May and I-no), just moved to Japan and lives in Takadanobaba. I was supposed to meet up with him at Mikado today. When I got to Mikado, he wasnt there, but that Russian player who goes by the name Ninja and posts as Nuts on DL was there. I asked him if he saw a big black guy (KLT) and he said yes but that he already left. Ninja wanted to play me but didnt get a chance the last time we met so we got on an empty cab and played 5 games of Faust vs Slayer. He told me he wasnt very good and isnt used to playing on stick, but I was surprised. He was pretty tough. I won all 5 games but he got a couple rounds off me. He was with his girlfriend and they had to leave shortly after we played but it was good games.

Several other good people were there playing. I saw Gaku there and asked him if he wanted to team up again for the last chance qualifier but he said he wasnt sure if he can go yet so Ill wait on his answer for a bit. I ended up playing till about 11 and then I grabbed some Sukiya and headed to Shinjuku.

When I got on the Yamanote line to go to Shinjuku, I sat down and noticed it smelled a bit foul in the train. I looked to my left and the entire left side of the train car was completely empty of people because there was a HUGE pool of vomit in the middle of the floor. I was on the very last car, so in order to get to the next car, I would have had to walk through the vomit, so I was basically trapped. Fortunately it was only 2 stops to Shinjuku but it wasnt a very good smelling 5 minutes.

When I got to Current I was shocked to find that Andy was there! I hadnt even known he was coming to Tokyo tonight but he made plans to meet up with a girl he met at an international party. The bar was pretty packed for a Friday night actually. It was some random foreigner girl's birthday so that might have had something to do with it. Ayano was there too and I talked with her a bit. Bosch was DJing and playing some really crappy music for a bit but I think its cuz some of those random foreigners requested it. We started counter requesting some good stuff and eventually for the rest of the night they were rockin out and playing good music the rest of the time. Emmet showed up later too. Overall it was a fun night at Current. I hadnt been there for over a month so it felt nice to pop in for some beers. Andy's female friend had to leave on the last train and then Andy left a few hours later cuz he had plans to buy some stuff in Akihabara the next day and had to get back home at a certain time so I chilled with Emmet till about 4:30. After that, we went to PSY but Emmet left as soon as we walked in cuz he was hungry or something. I just chilled and had a beer and talked with some of the people at PSY. After that I left to go to sleep at the manga kissa.

Saturday I woke up with a headache, took a shower, and then headed to McDonalds cuz they were doing selling 200 yen big macs all weekend! After my meal, it was time to head to Asagaya. Today was Gods Garden 2.5, one of the biggest SSFIV tournaments in Japan! I had never been to Asagaya before actually, but I found the venue pretty easily. It was at a place called Asagaya Loft A, and it was basically a bar with a sorta medium sized extra room for events and stuff. The tournament wasnt scheduled to start till 5 but they opened the doors at 3 to let people in to practice a bit. I got there around 3:15. They had tons of setups lined around the walls of the room and then a main setup with 2 separate monitors for each player and a big projector in the center for all the main live stream matches.

To enter this event, you had to register in advance. I signed up with Rose this time. Originally when Super dropped, I was gonna main T.Hawk, but after like about 2 months of playing him, I decided I pretty much think he sucks and I also am not much of a grappler kind of player. I originally went back to Blanka who was my main in Vanilla. I just started playing Rose about a month or 2 ago and after sorta debating if I should main her or stick with Blanka, I finally decided I really like Rose and am going to main her from now on.

A few people I know from SRK were there such as Abelity, Scott Popular, and Bull410. I also said hi to Nemo and Tokido cuz they know me. I dont know most of the other SF player cuz I dont really go to SF tournaments ever. I played about a 9 or 10 game set of casuals against Abelity's Abel and we went fairly even with him maybe having one or 2 more wins. Then, they kicked everyone out at 4 to go line up outside to check our tickets and stuff.

After waiting for a while, I finally got back inside and played some more casuals. I fought against Bull410's T.Hawk and won. I also fought some Rufus player and got owned. I played another set against Abelity and this time I was winning more than losing and got a small streak.

Once 5 rolled around it was time to start the tournament. They kicked things off with a speech from some of the staff. I have no idea why, but they poured this disgusting looking concoction consisting of like Tea, Coffee, Soda, Milk, Redbull, and Beer or something. It was like some crazy mix of a bunch of shit. One of the staff members tried to chug a whole glass of it but failed. After that, he gagged a few times but held it down, lol. Then, they told everyone to report to their pools. Gods Garden is unlike most Japanese tournaments in that it is not single elim. First, everyone is divided into qualifying pools. There were a total or I think 8 pools with about 7 people in each pool. Every pool would be a round robin and then the top 2 players from each pool would advance. They had a separate TV for each pool and then also the main TV that was being run on the online stream also had some select matches chosen to be played on that as well.

They called my first match and last minute, they decided to put it on the live stream. I didnt really want to play my very first match on the stream so it made me pretty nervous. My opponent was a Guy player named R. You can see the entire match here (my match starts at exactly the 15 minute mark on the vid). I guess the guys announcing knew who I was cuz they mentioned that I was a Guilty Gear player. I didnt play as well as I would have liked. Mainly my execution was really off. I guess my button press timing was off a bit and I missed a few strings. Also in round one, when I hit with ultra 2, my soul throw attempt came out as crouching fierce. Round 1 was really close but I lost by just a bit. Round 2 was also fairly close and at the last part of the round, I tried to do ultra 2 but got a random EX soul reflect and got killed. If my ultra came out I probably would have won the round. I dont know why, but Rose's ultra 2 is just a double qfb punch motion which normally I would have no problem doing, but they made this particular ultra extra sensitive and unless you do it EXACTLY PRECISE you will get random soul reflects. This happens to me a lot in general when I play and I have seen plenty of other Rose players have this problem too. In any case, the Guy player was really good and he out played me regardless.

So with my first match as a loss, it was a bit discouraging but I still had a chance to make top 2. My next opponent was a Claw player named Route . Surprisingly, I handled him pretty easily and won both rounds! My next match was a Cody player named Karono. I did well against him too and got another win! My next match was against MahShojoZangitan (Magical Girl Zangitan), who is one of he best Zangief players in Japan. I was expecting to get outright owned in this one but I actually put up a pretty good fight. I ALMOST won round 1, and round 2 was still a decent showing on my part but I still lost. After that, I had to fight a Dictator player named Titimonda Honda. Dictator (and probably Boxer) are like the hardest matchups for me to win, so I knew this was going to be rough. I struggled pretty hard against him and didnt win any rounds. At this point my record was 2-3 so it seemed as if my chances of making top 2 were already shot. I had one more match left though, against an Akuma player named Asuka. I won both rounds, making my final record 3-3. It would have been cool to qualify for the top 16 but I guess I at least did decent and didnt completely scrub out. The 2 players who advanced from my pool were Zangitan and R.

These are the people who qualified in each pool.

A group
1st HIROPON (STH) 2nd GGsen (HKN)

B group
1st tokido (GOK) 2nd Nao(BRG)

C group
1st Nemo (CHU) 2nd tk584 (ADN)

D group
1st Haneyama (CHN) 2nd Arai(BRG)

E group
1st Maho syoujyo Zangitan (ZNG) 2nd R (GUY)

F group
1st nakanishi (RYU) 2nd Tonpi (CVP)

G group
1st Aqua (IBK) 2nd Hisaya (KEN)

H group
1st tomato (CDY) 2nd keke (CHN)

After the pools finished they had a short break. I pretty much started drinking from here on since I already lost. They had Suntory Premium Malts on tap! They also had Suntory black on tap too! Fuckin delicious! I also ate some Fish and Chips. They wouldnt let us leave once we entered or we couldnt get back in so I was stuck eating their food, but it wasnt bad.

Before finishing the regular tournament, they ran the ladies tournament, which consisted of only 3 players... a Juri, a Claw, and a Sakura. All 3 of them were pretty cute and they seemed like they werent too bad at playing either. The Claw player ended up winning. After the break, I fought against some Fuerte player in casuals and beat him 7-2. I continued to drink throughout the rest of the time. I got a good buzz going and probably ended up drinking about 10 beers by the time the event ended but I kept my buzz at a level to where I could still play pretty well. The winner got an arcade stick as a prize.

From here, the tournament became a regular 16 man bracket but it was double elimination and best 2 out of 3 instead of just one match like in pools. Grand finals were 3 out of 5. They had occasional breaks in here as well in which time more casuals were played. I fought a Gief player and went 2-2 with him. Also during another break I played Abelity again and we went pretty much even again this time. Most of the time just kept drinking though. I also got some chieck and fries. Here is basically a summary of the rest of the tournament after pools.

Stage 1
Tomato (CDY) 2-1 Aru (GUY)
tonpy (CIV) 2-0 GGsen (HAK)
Nakanishi (RYU) 2-0 Hisaya (KEN)
Shojou Mahou Zangitan (ZAN) 2-1 tk584 (ADN)

Losers Stage 2 Results
tomato (CDY) 1-2 Shojou Mahou Zangitan (ZAN)
Tokido (Akuma) 2-0 Nao (Claw)
Nakanishi (RYU) 1-2 Arai (Claw)
tonpi (CVI) 2-1 Hiropon (STH)

Losers Stage 3
tonpi (CVI) 2-1 Tokido (GOU)
Arai (Claw) 2-1 Zangitan (ZAN)

Losers Stage 4
Arai (Claw) 2-0 keke (CHU)
tonpi (CVI) 2-0 Haneyama (CHU)

Losers Stage 5
Arai (Claw) 0-2 tonpi (CVI)

Losers Finals
Aqua (IBU) 2-1 Tonpi (CVI)

Grand Finals
Nemo (CHU) 3-0 Aqua (IBU)

Final Results
1. Nemo (Chun-Li)
2. Acqua (Ibuki)
3. Tonpy (C. Viper)
4. Arai (Claw)
5. Keke (Chun-Li)
5. Haneyama (Chun-Li)
7. Zangitan (Zangief)
7. Tokido (Akuma)
9. Tomato (Cody)
9. Nao (Claw)
9. Nakanishi (Ryu)
9. Hiropon (Seth)
13. TK584 (Adon)
13. Hisaya (Ken)
13. GGsen (Hakan)
13. Aru (Guy)

You actually can watch the entire stream here.

There were a lot of really clutch and hype matches and I had a lot of fun watching and drinkin some beers. One of the clutchest matches was Zangitan va tk584 (ADN) who pulled out a really good last minute clutch win. I felt kinda bad for Zangitan though cuz he got stuck fighting Seth in winners first match which is like a really bad matchup.

Also, the super hype announcer dude was fucking awsome this time. He stop commentating somewhere in there and just sat and watched. I think he got pretty drunk. Him and this other dude who was also drunk kept shouting random shit and were especially giving Zangitan a hard time. It was pretty funny.

I was glad Nemo won since I know him and he is a fellow GG player. I was sorta rooting for Tokido as well though but Nemo took him out. It was a good fight. I thought Tokido would have given him a harder time though.

After it was over, Nemo got like a bunch of awards and money and some of the other top finishers got money too. I played casuals against this one Gen player named Matsudaira drill (he used the shirtless costume with yellow color) for a while. We started off going 1-1 and then I broke away and got a 4 win streak on him. He told me I was really good! I was really surprised cuz I actually dont feel like I know how to fight Gen very well. We had to stop playing because he got called over to play some request matches on the stream against various people. Apearently this guy is pretty popular or something. Also, near the end, I asked Tokido if he would play me in casuals cuz I have never played him before. He played me in 5 games and I lost all of them but I was able to take a couple rounds. His Akuma is sick. I just couldnt block his shit. In any case, it was good experience. Tokido is a really nice guy.

The event finished up at 4 am. I went outside and talked with Abelity and grabbed a beer from Lawson and we waited for Bull410 to get his stuff. We then went to McDonalds where I had another beer and a 200 yen big mac. By now, the trains just started running so I headed back to Shinjuku.

I wasnt quite ready to sleep yet so I went to PSY lol. I stayed there for about an hour till it closed. There were a lot of people there and some regulars like Eli and Ken from GODZ. It was fun. After that, I just went to the manga kissa, but I stayed up for like an hour surfing the net.

On Sunday, I had no particular plans other than playing GG casuals at Mikado. I had 2 more 200 yen big macs and then headed to Mikado. I was shocked to see that it was PACKED with GG players and it was only like 2 pm. They had 12 AC cabs set up and they were all full with people waiting. It turns out, today was a 4 on 4 GG team tournament. There was no particular reason for it, but Nage wanted to set it up so they let him run it. I had no idea it was going on, but luckily for me I was able to enter. I signed up and I was paired with a random team. My team ended up being MK (JO), and a Zappa player and a Chipp player, both of whom I didnt know.

Our first match was against Takuya (FA)'s team. There was a Millia, a Sol, and an Axl on his team but I dont know their names. Chipp says hes inexperienced so he wanted to go first. His opponent was Takuya. CH lost both rounds. Next Zappa went. He won the first around and lost the next 2. Then MK said he hates Millia so he just got on the machine next. I hate Millia too and its a bad matchup for Faust but oh well. He won a round and lost 2 rounds. Now i had the responsibility of OCVing a 4 man team... yay. In the FA mirror vs Takuya, I won the first round, lost the 2nd round, and won the 3rd round. Up next was the Millia player. Lucky me. I lost the first round, made a clutch comeback to win the 2nd round and lost the 3rd round but it was pretty close. I dont know who the guy was but he was really good. Oh well. It was just some random tournament I didnt know about so whatever. I had fun anyway.

I stuck around till 9 playing casuals. Kunihiro showed up later but he didnt know about the tournament either. I got a lot of good games in and beat some good people. I beat Kazuki's DI the only time I played him. I also beat Melon's ED, his KY twice, and his SL once the only times I played him. I played Gaku a few times and lost 3 and won 1. I lost to Kunihiro's Anji like 4 times. There was this one Jam player that was talking to me. He was pretty good and got like a 19 win streak but I ended it on my 2nd try. I also played Ain only one game and I beat him again! This time he didnt get all pissed and slam the cabinet but he didnt rematch me. I think the biggest win streak I got was like 12 or something that day. Also, Ogawa was there and I fought his Eddie only one time. I lost the first 2 rounds but then I came back and won the next 2 rounds. Taku and a few other guys were sorta watching and when I won the 2nd time I heard him yell "reach!" and then he was like kinda cheering me on for the final round. It was really close but I lost. Oh well. Oh yea and also before the tournament, Ogawa came up to me and randomly asked me how to say "Ganbarimasyo!" in English so I told him its basically "Let's do our best!" Also, Kakishi (AB) was there and I asked him if he could team with me again for the last chance but he said he probably wont be able to enter at all.

Oh yea, and I didnt watch the rest of the team tournament cuz I was busy playing casuals, but the winning team ended up being Inoue (OR), Satou (JO), Maruken (BA), Kazuki (DI).

At some point I ducked out to get another big mac and I ran into King Low Tier in the ally! He said he ended up having to leave early on Friday cuz of school related stuff but that he would start having more free time around the middle of next week. He said he hasnt really been playing any fighting games but that he is gonna start playing GG and probably Melty pretty seriously now that hes in Japan. He went with me to get a big mac and then he left cuz he had to go back and do more school stuff.

So yea, I played a bunch of other various casuals too. When 9 rolled around, I had to take my train back so I said bye to a few people and left.

Next weekend on Saturday, there will be this Tokyo game night Final Rounbats thing going on. Scott Popular, Bull410, and Abelity invited me to come. I knew about it and sorta wanted to go before but I was busy with quals. Now that I have nothing in particular going on I can go check it out. There will be a SSFIV ranbat and casuals for other games and pizza and stuff so it sounds like fun. After that is Current's 9th Anniversary Party! It should be hype as fuck, so I am going to have a pretty busy Saturday next weekend!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey bozac i have a guy from japan that speaks like 0 english that plays FHD with us over the net. is there any way you would have some time to translate for us. i know its pretty tall order but i would really appreciate any help at all.
-mike
shadowcharlie

Anonymous said...

bozac-
this is mike.(shadowcharlie) im talking or trying to converse with a japanese FHD player. he speaks 0 english and has been using excite to translate which of course is a waste. is it at all possible for you to do some mediating for us?
please let me know

ElvenShadow said...

yea sure dude. just email me or send me a pm on srk or dustloop or something