失望した

I didn't really want to write this blog, because I would get annoyed if people thought that I was using my sickness as an excuse for a poor performance at the National Tournament. Thankfully, some friends understood where I was coming from, so I felt a little more comfortable writing about it.

Last week was all dedicated to SF4 practice, I practiced with Bea immediately after work on Tuesday and did the same with Mulder on Wed. On Thursday I woke up with a fever, but I was just sick like two weeks prior so I thought it was something I'd get over soon enough. I went to Mizonokuchi that day to get more practice, but my body felt beat up and my breathing wasn't sounding so sexy. On Friday, had to work. Saturday had to work until 6:30pm, I thought about going home and getting rest, but at Nishi Sega in Shinjuku there was a 5on5 tournament and all the qualified players would be there, so I rationalized that I would be missing out on a chance to get more practice that was needed. After all this was the chance I've been waiting for, I have to do all I can to win. But, in retrospect, it hurt me probably more. The weather was colder then usual, I was low on sleep, sick. and tired from work. And I knew the 5on5 would end at like at least 11pm so that would mean I would get home after 12am and I had to wake up early to get to Shinagawa on time for registration.

Starting probably on Friday I probably seemed pretty anti-social, because everytime I started to talk, I started to cough and wheeze. It doesn't help that I have to often talk at my job. So sorry if I appeared to be unfriendly, I just didn't have the energy to start up spectacular conversations.

I looked in the mirror on Sunday and I looked really beat up. I went to Shinagawa on time, saw Nakanishi standing around and he showed me where the Inner City Hall was. I tried to take in the atmosphere and have some sort of melodramatic moment where I realize this is my time or something, but unlike usual, I couldn't think like that cause my body was just tired.

I guess a comforting thing that Campbell (Buktooth) told me later was something like

" playing at top level is next to impossible when you're not mentally ready
.... like sick, tired, whatever. "

I lost first round to a Grand Master Blanka named "Black Mamba". He's good and he outplayed me. But the Kim that played that match was some sick Kim just trying to somehow get a win. I couldn't feel hungry and I couldn't play my best. I definitely couldn't play to my best ability.

Up until Thursday of last week, I came into most of my SF4 games with something to prove, I have an energy or something that I kinda feel while I'm playing. But I couldn't bring it out at the Nationals.

What a waste of an opportunity, I don't want to say I was robbed or anything, cause I'm sure as hell not a guarantee to win anything. I can't remember if there was ever a time where I had such a strong illness during a big event. Some people asked if I had influenza(I didn't even really know what it meant), but the body pain and hard breathing, and fever sounds just about right. I'll get it checked out tomorrow. So anyway "robbed" isnt the right word, but I don't know what word to use.

Since last ~October, I dedicated 85% of all my Sundays to trying to qualify and then trying my best at the nationals. It's a pretty big deal since I work 6 days a week, thus Sunday is my only day off for me to do anything. And then to not be able to play at my best.

It just fucking sucks. Sorry to throw the F bomb out there, but I feel so discouraged and that I sacrificed so much time for nothing. The last thing I want to do is play that game. My motivation is at a stop and I really don't think I should spend more time playing. I'd rather do all the other things I postponed because I wanted to achieve some childhood dream.

So as of right now, I don't know what my Tougeki plans are. In a way, I feel like I'm chasing a pipe dream and if I really want to achieve some champion status, It would take too many years to achieve. I'm already discouraged about it. Plus Tougeki is a 2on2
format, which means if I wanted to win, I'd have to find someone that was at least average, someone that I was real friends with(not just some guy I wave to each time I see him at the Game Center, this also has to do with the difficult language barrier), doesn't get intimidated easily, and plays a good character. Those are the most ideal situations. So if I wanted to qualify ok, I could do it myself. But now, the odds are harder.

In other news, Iyo won the nationals. He was the one I was rooting for since IMO he's probably the most gifted and uncrowned champion of all time, until yesterday.

Tomorrow will be the first day I have missed work in 2 years. I'll go to a doctor in Tamaplaza to get myself checked out. For the past two days, I've been having the shivers, and I wake up cold or drenched in sweat. Hot and Icy just like how people always knew I was. I think I'm getting better now, but I need to get myself checked out regardless.

Take care,

Kim1234

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SF4 Notes: VS BEA(Rufus)

Here is the beginning of my post.

And here is the rest of it.

Today I played vs Bea(Probably the best Rufus). There is 9 Rufus's at the Nationals this coming Sunday, so playing vs the best Rufus, is gonna serve me well.

I still think because of the Bison factor(he doesn't do much damage), Rufus has advantage over Bison. It is probably 6:4 in Rufus's favor. Rufus sometimes(but not all the time) has to put in some work to get in, but Rufus can make all his effort worth it. damaging combos that are safe on block and the ability to combo an ultra　ちょう　やばい。

Today I played about 30 games exclusively versus Bea. My numbers may be off but the score was something like.

BEA 4 wins Kim 1 win
BEA 8 wins Kim 1 win
BEA 5 wins Kim 1 win
BEA 1 win KIM 2 WINS BABY
Bea 5 wins Kim Dead...

To save face, a huge percentage of the games he won, went to the last round of a 3/5 round game.

But yeah, whatever, I'm putting in the work to do well. Now it's just all about knowing counters, staying mentally solid, and good old fashioned luck.

I guess I wasn't feeling it too much, but now I'm feeling the intense pressure I put on myself when there's the biggest tournament of the year. This isn't CvS2, and I don't know the game inside out, so I feel a bit anxious about what to expect.

I decided to use Mouko's suggestion and ask other players what is the number 1 thing they hate about facing a bison player.

Bea's answer was 1) stand roundhouse and 2) scissor kick.

He said Rufus has to escape out of scissor kick by doing EX crazy kick, he has no other answer. I don't know how true that statement is, but there could be some truth to it. From my experience, scissors can be stopped with certain normals that are stuck out ahead of time. I'm sure someone is going to disagree with something I mention. But to them I'll say HOW MANY NATIONAL TOURNAMENTS HAVE YOU QUALIFIED FOR? Respect that.

Anyway, now onto the notes:

Vs Rufus

1.) EX crazy kick is still the most deadly move to watch out for in that matchup. Bea was mixing it up and I don't have any answer that beats all the options Rufus can do afterwards.

I know if you block all of them he is not safe, but there's not one counter I can think of that I can safely and mindlessly do. BUT I am thinking that I can block the crazy kick, then mash on low short and always cancel it to scissors. when I do that motion, I immediatly press focus and if he chooses to do the overhead stomp move, I can absorb that hit and do something damaging.

Bison's Ultra has missed everytime I did it. now yes, I know you can do it to punish the ex crazy kick. but today, no matter if I did it late or as a reversal, shit wasn't hitting. ideas or knowledge is welcomed.

2.) Rufus is too deadly upclose, the notion of "YO MAN JUST NEVER LET HIM GET NEAR YOU", I'll bet 8000 Hot dollars you never played against the best Rufus. At high level play anyway, you gotta divert from your overall gameplan sometimes. Cause th opponent is always challenging you. Even though in the overall scheme of things, attacking with bison isn't worth it if the opponent can do more damage easier and safely, you gotta do random attacks and also attack to stop him from doing whatever he wants. Even though I'm proud of my countering skill, I can't win all my games by doing that.

Rufus can punish a whiffed low short and tech throw my doing an immediate off the ground dive kick after making you blocking a dive kick.

NOW, this is something I will hopefully find the meaning to later. Bea said, instead of tech throwing with down/back and jab+short, instead I should use down/back + jab,+short+STRONG PUNCH.

Ok, so I don't know why I should do that instead but, I am thinking of two reasons why it might be useful.

- because of the magical property of bison's low strong according to scrubby dan's post. Yeah no idea if it's true.

-and because that you can tech throw and at the same time low strong will hit rufus out of the air. Again, just speculating.

3.) After baiting a EX crazy kick, I usually jump back and can land a full jump in combo. however two things are also likely to happen.

- I hit him only out of the air and thus can't land a real damaging counter

- he mashes on the flash kick ender after the EX crazy kick and it trades with my jump back attack. good shit. again ideas anyone?

Next opponent: MULDER's ZANGIEF on Thursday!

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More SF4

!HUH?.

..

So like do you want to hear some dope bison shit, like a confirmable high damage combo? a way to deal with people not attacking? well sorry pick another character.

Since tiers are strong in this game, (imo it's more difficult getting around tiers in this game compared to CvS2) the player being better has less of an effect in SF4. With Bison, theres a limited amount of abusable things. And even if you're in a good position on the screen, the risk reward ratio depends on the amount of life you have. Since you have to take into account that Bison can't do big damage(i.e. an ultra) unless you're opponent is nervous/gives it to you/doesn't know how to play vs you. You really can't be sloppy.

The Bison player that won the singles tourney this past friday is good and all, but he's too sloppy with his headstomps. It's too easy to bait that(or actually hold back on the stick like SF4 players usually do) and kill bison. Then what are you going to do? Walk forward and lose your charge? Do meaningless devil's reverses to build hardly any meter? Oh wait, you can do another random ex headstomp! Go Bison.

If I decide to train for another big tournament(aka SBO), I will definitely take into account the tier list. Maybe Blanka, Viper, or Akuma.

I just remembered something from way back in my adolescent SF years.

Bas once told me that if you want to win a tournament(Japanese tournament), you don't always have to play vs top players.

It makes sense to me now. In Japan, there's so many scrubs and at the same time above average players who you can play against and still learn from and be able test shit out against.

Of course playing vs top players is gonna make you better. But as we know, winning a tournament isn't attributed to all skills. I.E. tournament brackets and luck.

In simple American terms, this is called sandbagging. If a character like Bison is gonna win a huge tournament like this, I see no other way to approach it.

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UGH SF4 NOTES 01/02/08

.! Another hate filled post

!.

Once again in preperation for the Nationals, I entered another SF4 Tourney. Even though, I had a feeling of satisfaction when I qualified(a feeling that you can't get through something else), I really don't like this game.

I have less patience then the old Kim, so even if I really want to win, I can't make myself turtle 100% anymore. But time and time again, I see it through my eyes that there's many players winning by turtling up and attacking(or rather do a random offensive and safe special) 20% of the time. I attack maybe 35-40% of the time. It's also how I want to play now.

These players don't have da skills to force opponents to make mistakes, they hope for it. when the clock hits 20 seconds, then each player hopes to score a random hit that puts them in the lead.

So basically, ok, I have what... 3 weeks to do this back to them. Everyone thats saying "oh SF4 is the truth" and "it's such a good game, I'm having so much fun doing nothing while pretending I have skills", I'm going to make this game so boring for these wack players.

I wrote down quite a long list of Bison ideas , but 90% of them aren't possible. very discouraging to try to innovate with such a limited character and fail. So I tried, and now I know what tools I have to use(LACK OF). There's not gonna be much testing now, just solidifying my gameplay.

Today's Tournament Notes:

- Bison's scissor kick over and over again on fuerte is apparently really abusable. If fuerte has an ex stock, he can ex run forward and absorb two hits of the scissor kick and combo me to death. but if he has no meter, I don't think he has an escape. so do it over and over again. if you hit with it or hit fuerte out of the air, back off slightly and do another low short into blocked scissors.

- Bison's anti airs are so frustrating. getting hit out of ex psycho crusher as anti air really sucks. I want to experiment with Bison's up close fierce as anti air.

- I've seen ryu's super fireball punish a blocked akuma low roundhouse, wonder if Bison's super can do the same, or forward scissor kick cancel to super.

- rufu's immediate dive kick off the ground can punish a whiffed low short. deadly...

-If you end a combo with a psycho crusher, you can charge up for an immediate level 2 focus.

- Mizoteru is the ぶっぱ　master.

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My News Years Resolution

!.

_.

BEAT DOWNS ALL YEAR LONG

just kidding, I'll tell you later

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Today's 2on2 Tournament and SF4 is definitely not turtle game

If there was a pill for patience, I would be ODing right now

Entered a 2on2 tourney today with a balrog(boxer) player.

So this is my lesson that I will forever learn over and over again.

'If you are frustrated or angry or in some not happy state of mind, it's useless trying to learn while playing. take a break, then come back stronger. You're not going to win any games off good players while flustered'

But yeah, since I feel this pressure to do well at the national tournament, I'm forcing myself to try and learn something. But I don't really know if I'm learning much while being flustered. I have a ton of experience playing in tournaments, and I refuse to give my opponent the win at the nationals. I have to keep my mind and confidence strong. This is the chance I've been waiting for. I don't want to accept defeat and call this another learning experience.

At SBO 2004, that was the case, there was not a very likely chance of us winning CvS2(Considering Ricky decided to not go, leaving just Campbell and I). So I can categorize that as a learning experience that I was fortunate enough to experience.

But SON, this is different, I've been to many tourneys at this point, gained some pretty sweet accolades, and gained a lot of valuable experience. My main lesson being self control. I'm ready for that win, and my biggest enemy is myself.

I easily wasted 1500 \ today, I just kept challenging my opponent's moves. so here you go for you fellow bison players.

Never headstomp after these situations on sagat

1) after a standard bison combo.
2) after landing an ultra

I am trading life and money for knowledge and it's fucking expensive.(trademark sirlin)

I lost to several Balrog players today(Aiku, Aojiri Guile, MEMPHIS). there's many times where I'm doing quite well, but they land a trick and I'm dead.

That's the thing about bison, he doesn't have any high damaging tricks. so I'm always playing cautious. I don't know if anyone realizes it, I'm sure anyone who has a clue realizes how much work Bison has to put in.

But whatever, I'm sick of complaining. If I am seriously incapable of using another character after the nationals , I'll consider quitting this game. Bison is too limited .

You'll see the vids later on INO's website, but the most prominent memory in my mind is almost beating Ino's team. I was able to edge out a win vs Ino which was probably mostly one game magic, but I was also about to beat his partner(Aojiri Guile).

After I lost, every game I played after that seemed to have no purpose. I really wanted that win vs Aojiri.

So this is my lesson, if you currently have no patience, you are useless playing SF4.

hopefully later this week, I can find time to practice with Ino or somebody.

Peace

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SF4 Notes 12/26/08

This game ____!

yup

Today was a tourney and I proved my hot qualifying tournament status by losing first round. Respect that.

It’s so easy to lose here. The good thing about tourneys is that when you lose you really remember it. So my tournament reminders are…

Basically today my execution was pretty bad. so I need to figure out how to keep my execution on point. A pseudo theory I have has something to do with your hands being cold. If my hands are cold I move less CRAZY. But that wasn’t the case today, I just mashed too much and didn’t run as much as I usually do.

Basically, for me, I feel there’s a particular timing for me to practice and be able to learn from it. if I go to the arcade out of habit or to try and force myself to practice, my result sucks. I feel today was like that. sorry guys, I add a lot of psychological thinking and reasoning to my SF talk.

I’ve been keeping notes about shit that I want to test out but I need someone to help me test it out.

One thing I notice every time I land a super or ultra combo with bison is that I have no way to keep the momentum.(at best I get to whiff one sweet ass devils reverse). After you land bison's super(and you're near the corner), he actually slides into the fucking corner like a dumbass. So now I did decent damage but, since I hit the opponent previously he probably has an ultra now and I’m in the corner....FANTASTIC.

I was in Naka-Meguro the other day and I glanced at the Tougeki monthly magazine. The magazine included an up to date tier chart. So apparently sagat and ryu are now at the top, which is ok with me. it makes sense, those guys boss around every character. and who's in the next tier?

Zangief and .... FUCKING BISON

That's right, dictator bison.
I do realize that my character isn't the worse. In fact, I believe actually he can fight 85% of the cast fine. you see, but the problem is bison isn’t easy to maintain at high levels. Bison has very little comeback ability, so this means unless your opponent is average, doesnt know how to fight you, or sucks, You cant do what you want in this game. That’s why I find this game boring at high levels. Bison has to play a near perfect game. he cant attack too much and he can't play defensively too much. and if you play like this... ok you can do well most of the time. But can you do that every game?

Realistically speaking, you can't outplay the opponent every time. if you have guys that are constantly challenging you and motivated, playing a near perfect game ain’t going to happen all the time. No matter how many times you listen to eminem's 8 mile song, you’re going to eventually lose. EIGHT MILE!!!!

Bison's advantage of fighting most characters well comes with a price, and that price is getting punked and making a whole lot of mistakes.

For example:

If Gief does random saving attacks and you want to punish it. don't use ex scissors. if you react late or some timing is off. the scissor kick can whiff. since everyone always cancels the saving attack into backdash. Gief can backdash and avoid it and spd/ultra/super you. However, if you use ex psycho crusher, it stays out and can punish the backdash. but its much slower and gief might be able to block. but its cool cause somehow bison is 3rd or 4th best in SF4 for some reason.

Back to the original topic, yeah so if you guys could recommend some magical setup after landing a super or ultra, please give me ideas. If this is possible, it would be really useful. Because of damage scaling when opponents are around 30% or so, a super/ultra usually doesn't kill someone. But if I could do a super or ultra immediately afterwards, it would definitely chip. However, when I land either the super or Ultra, I'm in no position to guarantee a chip win. If I do the super, I slide into the corner and I lose my charge(maybe theres a way for me to maintain the charge by switching from left to right or something). And If I land the Ultra then I'm about 2 inches away from the opponent and any attempt to get close is not good enough since, he will have woken up just as I am getting ready to attack.

ALSO, whenever I try to chip with Bison's Ultra, 2 terrible things happen...
1.) Because of the Ultra's hella slow speed, they simply jump out or use some invincible move to get out. In this game, moves don't lose to ultra, if they both have invincibilty, they just go through each other.

2.) Their EX special actually beats my Ultra. Proving that EX invincibility is just as good or maybe better then ultras?

But it's cool, cause Bison is 3rd or 4th best somehow.

Also, I’ve been getting bullied by Sagat's tiger knee trap. if I have no meter and I’m in the corner, I don’t know how to get out. my only idea is to teleport, but since I’m in the corner, all my teleports will leave me next to him.

so far I know, if I block the last hit high I get pushed out a little farther. so if I’m midscreen I’m able to backdash away.

I saw some pretty genius shit earlier today. so if Sagat does some normals into tiger knee, Ryu and Ken can whiff a low forward to get super low and avoid the tiger knee then hit sagat.

That is my next idea, even though I have no idea if bison is fat in this game, I suspect none of his normals will make as low as Ryu or Ken. But its a good idea. Also I should try to back dash out of the gap in the tiger knee. Might be hard to do every time though.

Here are my SF4 notes, if you got ideas or can even understand what I mean, help an American out. DO IT FOR AMERICA!


Bison Notes

1.) duck under balrog kick rush punch , whats the quickest move to use to punish

2.) knock balrog down, cross up, balrog does ex kick rush punch on wake up, counter with stand forward or dash up stand rh?

3.) counter akuma teleport back(against naori i did anticipate teleport back, level 1 or 2 saving attack, ultra) .. im not sure but hopefully capcom made it so that if you hit akuma with level 1 focus during the recovery of his teleport, it counts as a counter hit.

4.) unmentionable parlor trick ! .

5.) same as above but use saving attack first (HA! take that bitches)

6.) setups off throw, 1.) walk up cross up 2.) dash forward, cross up 3.) headstomp to the other side.

7.) setups off ultra? super

8.) guaranteed ultra chip setups

9.) block gief green hand, mash on stand fierce, psycho?


Sigh, this like a job or something, but hey I wanna do well at the nationals right?

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