A Stroll Down Memory Lane (BLOG TIME BABY)

CvS2, NCR Results, player history, respect, and Diggity. Click below for more.


I was originally gonna write a blog that was hate fueled, but I think I'll save that for another time.(soon)

So NCR(Northern California Regionals) just happened a couple days ago. CvS2 had the highest player entrants(48). The results were...

1st John Choi C-Ken, Guile/Cammy, Sagat
2nd Peter "ComboFIEND" Rosas K-Ken, Rolento/Sagat, Cammy
3rd Ricky Ortiz A-Vega, Sakura, Blanka

Anyway, even though I wasn't there I heard some good shit so here goes...

1) Combofiend beats Buktooth(2-1), Choi(Dunno, but probably 2-1), and Ricky(2-0) in the Winners bracket and awaits the winner of losers bracket.

2) Strong showing by Daniel "Boywonder and myspace pimp" Tran and Charlie "4th Dimension" Nguyen.

3) Apparently rolentos roll back canceled into lunge forward move, beats hibikis anti air fierce totally clean, and if it counter hits, you get a free low forward thra thra thra(Patriot circles).

4) Choi wins losers bracket and takes out guile for cammy.

5) Really cool considering, the grand finals were "mirror matches" (C-Ken, Cammy, Sagat vs K-Ken, Sagat, Cammy), with different grooves and different styles. (Buktooth, 2007, p. 88)

6) Choi is up 2-0 in the first set, with Combo making it even at 2-2, and Choi EDGING that fool off with a 3-2 victory. Side note: I just realized I'm sorta typing this out like Alex Wolfe use to on the now defunct shinakuma.com(or.net) Choi then wins the next set 3-1 to take home the title.

I'm pretty sure Choi gets all happy when he realizes the majority of the community really respects him. But to the new players, maybe it's not so obvious why. Yeah he plays shotos and he does alot of short short supers and does cross ups that are unblockable, but theres more. This blog can seem totally fanboyish, but you need to take into account the perspective of the top players who came from northern california.

So at the time of mvc2/cvs1 (2000?), top players like Ricky Ortiz and Campbell Tran were John Choi's punching bag. Maybe you've heard about the Choi ism of going to losers on purpose just to challenge himself more to win the tourney. Well, I'm sure sometimes it was an excuse for just getting randomed out, but I DIGRESS. Anyway, same goes for letting people win tourneys. It sounds counter productive, but not when you take into account the importance of increasing and fostering future top player's motivation and confidence. By letting us win, Ricky, Campbell, and to a much lesser and slower degree me became better players. Motivation and confidence is the key to everything. Putting aside one's own ego and "fame" for others. Choi was fucking up all the future top players before they were even known. Real shit. Dash up shinshoryukens and one pixel comebacks all over the place.

It's hard for people to relate to a top players frustration of not being challenged. I'm pretty sure Choi's gone through it most of his SF "Career". You seen videos where Choi does wakeup flashkick 5 times in a row? Yes, it's stupid. But it's probably part of that challenge he has to do to force that challenge. You know when you see that shit where some guy ALMOST beats Choi? Well, it happens all the time buddy. I see this kind of as a marker to how to judge yourself as a player. People that are able to beat Choi(especially in tournament) feel this sense of accomplishment. It's kind of like its a marker that signifies that you the shit. I guess one game situations not so much, but tell me of one person who's beaten Choi in the finals of a tourney and is NOT a top player?

Bitch