Hey guys, well I was over in Singapore from Thursday and just got back. Outside of guitar hero, there was possibly something better. The Bugis Virtualand Arcade! And a big K.O tournament going on on the same weekend in the same hall. So, there are people that have flown over from Korea and Japan (Poongko, Laugh and Itabashi) for this tournament so it was amazing to see them irl.
On the first night, I thought hey I better see how good this arcade is compared to Yifans.
Actually multiply it by 20 and you have the Bugis arcade. Every fighting game like ever is there. There are about 10 linked up SFIV cabs, so you play whoever is available. Plus like 8 or so T6BR machines and 4 or so BlazBlue machines. And did I mention it is 50c per game!!!
There are at least 2 double sided machines of all the mvc series and sfa series and every other sf series. I played a couple people in xvsf and mvc2 and amazingly owned them.
But back to the SFIV. This is where all the pro players gather, just some sorta examples, everyone seemed to never miss a combo, and each combo seemed to be the max damage combo they could pull off in each situation. Every single player pretty much plinks all their moves (though plinking a 2-hit combo is a bit over the top for me). And just great consistency and frame data knowledge.
Initially I was getting pretty slaughtered, but $5 later, I started beating a few. And around the end of the weekend, I was probably at a 50% win rate against all the K.O players (hey they had t-shirts on). I really think my general skill has gone up, just from this weekend. If I had enough Singapore money I would've bought a TE straight up (about $303 NZ dollars), but I'm probably gonna get one shipped right now from Capcom.
Watching these guys play was just amazing as well. Itazan just doesn't ever lose. It's crazy.
I talked quite a bit with two of the head guys of the Round1.sg forums, Aheda and Yagami (amazing Fuerte player). They were real awesome guys and I even managed to give them an NZism card which I happened to have in my wallet from the last grind session. They sounded real interested in getting to know the oceania and other asian countries. So where better than to direct them here.
This was the event to be at, every match was just amazing to watch and playing with such good people was awesome. Head over to www.round1.sg for details of all their awesome stuff. If I had time, I would live in that arcade.
Shot Mason! Thanks for the update man
I love it how this seems to excite you more than your win xD
Awesome stuff man, both on your performance in GH, but in your arcade experience and upskilling also :)
Get any vids? Or able to direct us to any?
Quote from: massi4h on July 07, 2009, 02:44:07 PM
I talked quite a bit with two of the head guys of the Round1.sg forums, Aheda and Yagami (amazing Fuerte player). They were real awesome guys and I even managed to give them an NZism card which I happened to have in my wallet from the last grind session. They sounded real interested in getting to know the oceania and other asian countries. So where better than to direct them here.
king for the day
This was the final match on Saturday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-4ln1uosFQ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP2TvQCfKL0&feature=related
Itazan vs Pei Hoon.
Most of the videos are here: http://forums.round1.sg/index.php?topic=367.msg4503#msg4503
Wish I had a camera, I woulda taken pictures of the arcade and all the places for you guys.
Thats a nasty Gief
What's a plink?
Quote from: CrazyMobius on July 07, 2009, 03:30:28 PM
What's a plink?
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?p=6580641
Good players I got to play and lose to (casually):
Itabashi, played his ken, was one of my first games at the event. Got completely destroyed. He spaced everything perfectly, I couldn't approach him at all.
Tetra, I actually almost beat his bison (his main). He had like 5% hp on the last round, when we had 1 each.
Aheda, his Rufus beat me pretty bad.
Yamagi, my akuma can't win like the easiest matchup, his El Fuerte. He won't let me ultra him ever.
Poongko, was playing at the arcade and Yamagi gave him Fuerte, he destroyed me even more and I saw him doing that loop pretty far in on a few players.
Laugh, literally can't touch his Ryu, it's amazing.
And some apparently local player from what I heard who was real good, he had racked up 20 wins and I was so close to beating him twice. Probably only attempted one demon as well. I'm starting to not need to rely on them at all, unless the chance arises. Like when blocking this guys vega ultra and immediately doing a reversal ultra ftw. That was awesome and made me feel pro :D
Heaps of other K.O / Round1 members, which the games were much closer and I managed to beat the intense 8 year old who was beating a few adults.
@Smoof, yeah gotta admit the guitar hero stuff was awesome and I'm glad I won. But I woulda stayed at the arcade til 7 in the morning if I didn't have to get up at 7 to go to the venue lol. I'm not gonna be happy going to Yifans ever again.
See any new tricks you wanna share? =P
Press the buttons really fast and put on a mean serious face. Make lots of noise (hence the plinking).
Some pretty cool stuff happened on stage, like the using ultra in the last 3 seconds for timeout. But nothing really to say. Just get pro skills lol. Keen to still lose my first match at xlan to kevin.
Fight up the losers bracket to 2nd!
Quote from: massi4h on July 07, 2009, 03:58:06 PM
Press the buttons really fast and put on a mean serious face. Make lots of noise (hence the plinking).
Some pretty cool stuff happened on stage, like the using ultra in the last 3 seconds for timeout. But nothing really to say. Just get pro skills lol. Keen to still lose my first match at xlan to kevin.
Jump back air fireball all day long Mason. Teleport to the other side. Rinse and repeat.
Grats on Guitar Hero BTW dude.
Quote from: massi4h on July 07, 2009, 03:43:49 PM
I managed to beat the intense 8 year old who was beating a few adults.
lol stevens kid ::) ::)
Yeah the west coast guys have been using the ultra timeout trick for a while now. The timer keeps counting down at normal speed while the ultra is in startup animation, in case people don't know.
Thats awesome mason , you lucky bastard
Would be so cool to meet up with communities like that and grind it out.
Yagami and poongko both have excellent El Fuerte's. Heard something about poongko managing a 10 hit RSF, which is retarded.
Its quite interesting watching the videos from Korea. They have a similar general style of play to us. Its a good balance of risk/reward. Almost bridges the gap between Japan's "Dont lose" philosophy, and America's "RAWR AMERICA!! I WILL BEAT YOU DOWN FOO' " approach. Theyre just a bit further ahead in skill level than the New Zealand public.
I do generally think that a lot of our higher level players could definitely hang in Korea though.
I would lvoe to play laugh and poonko's Ryu... seriously.
Quote from: zosla on July 08, 2009, 09:45:58 AM
I would lvoe to play laugh and poonko's Ryu... seriously.
I wouldn't mind having a crack either. Poongko plays a lot like Hue imo. Flashy, but relatively safe. (Probably a touch safer then Hue if im being honest :P)
Thanks for the post man, insightful stuff.
Be cool to hear some more war stories at the nationals in August.
When I played the average players, I could do alright against them, I guess my playstyle was pretty weird for them (everyone here is used to my playstyle, so my money just pours out). But as soon as I play the compete top level players, I don't stand a chance at all. Their reactions to everything I do are just so fast.
Wicked, sounds like it was a awesome trip, congrats on GH also. :D