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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Thoughts on this weekend's tournament

So I haven't been able to make a thorough post explaining my thoughts on this weekend, so here we go.

AWWWW YEAHHHH, it's on. I get to compete in the national tournament next month on the 18th of January. After I qualified, they gave me this huge Willy Wonka ticket looking thing and that's my pass to get in the nationals. Ever since I had the honor of representing the U.S. back in 2004 at SBO, I've always wished to have another chance to compete on that grand stage. Making top 8 at Evolution and winning Evolution West is a difficult challenge, but I think because of the Japanese tournament format and because I strive to do things that other people have yet to do, Japan's huge National tournament brings back an excitement that I don't really feel that much for Evolution. (I love run on sentences)

I think it's undeniable of the fact that most foreigners that compete at SBO, get peaced out first round. There are several exceptions(Justin and Ricky winning the last chance tournament and getting far, Pyrolee,Arlieth, and Frankie3s almost making top 4 at the first SBO, this years 3s team winning first round), but for those exceptions, theres a lot of cases where fools lose first round and get sent packing. So I mean, I think most U.S. players worry about that. You're in another country, playing on their turf, playing in their tournament using their format. And BTW, it's the biggest tournament of the year, if that doesn't affect you, you must be Brock lesnar or something.

At the 2004 SBO, Buktooth and myself lost first round. We were hella in the lead during our matches and due to Campbell's execution skills and bad luck he lost. Due to my inability to control my bad habits, I thus lost as well. You can think what you want, but this is what I think. Of course, if a player outplays me, I own up to it and I recognize it. I'm not perfect player and of course I get outplayed, but I feel just like NEO, that I can control the outcome. If I commit to my gameplan, I can win the match. But like usual, even though everyone has a gameplan, it's natural to stray away from that gameplan. And it has happened to me a billion times in SF4. Controlling my bad habits and learning more about the game is the key IMO for me to do well at the National Tournament.

I believe, thanks to having good teachers and people to play with back in Norcal, I have a solid foundation for Street Fighter. I guess what's most obvious is my ground game and patience. But those are basics, even if you have good basics, you can't apply just only that to a game and expect to win a National Tournament. The key is to fully understand the game. And I understand SF4 to a decent degree, but there's many things I'm unsure about. For example, some setups I have with Bison, and what is the best punish for this specific situation. Actually yesterday I played two Viper players(I think their names were "I N C L U D E" and "IF END") and I got totally destroyed. Granted their are only about 3 or 4 Vipers that hand me my ass like that, I still gotta recognize it and respect it. Theres shit that I don't understand and they totally outclassed me those games we played. Learning more about the game, frame data shit, and what are the most high damaging combos I can do to punish ___, good and safe attacking patterns/angles that put me in a advantageous position, etc. is important. You ain't gonna win any fucking National tournaments being lazy and hoping to win. Being hungry can only take you so far, there'as a whole lot of losing(and beatdowns to hand out) I gotta do if I want to achieve Champion status.

So after I beat the guy I thought I had to beat to win the tournament, they announced even though I won, I have to play another person who won a tournament in a different area. So basically I win the tourney at 4:10pm or so, and then I was told at 5pm I have to play this other guy. As I'm about to leave, some guy looks at the bracket and asks me if I was the winner. I say yeah, and run to an arcade with 16 SF4 machines. I told myself "Dammit Kim, this is the closest you are going to get to qualifying and you better use these last 50 minutes to do whatever you can to win that spot"

So I run to that arcade(the name of the arcade is "HEY") and practice like a madman. I decided to keep my mind and hands constantly moving, so I did a whole lot of attacking. You know when you truly feel something good is about to happen, you become possessed to win, well that was Kim on Sunday. So I finish my quick practice session and walk back to where the tournament was being held. At 5pm, I find out my opponent was the same guy who asked me if I was the one that won the tournament. IRONY AT IT'S BEST.

I win 1st round, I lose 2nd round, and I controlled the 3rd round pretty convincingly, with the exception at the very end. I land some combos and pokes to bring it down to about 70% me, 25% him, suddenly he lands a out of no where uppercut focus cancel combo, and it's fucking even now. I do some hot mashing, and I win eventually in the end. I'm sure I slammed the buttons in unadulterated hypeness.

As you can probably tell, I'm pretty proud of this achievement, but it doesn't end here. I'm actually quite honored to be in the same group as other players I admire, such as Dan, Shiro, Mulder, Mizoteru, and Iyo. But I want to keep moving up, I can keep the admiration for others, but I gotta CEMENT MY LEGACY INTO STREET FIGHTER HISTORY or whatever dramatic ass phrase you want to include here.

I'll write more later, PEACE

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12/14/08 Akihabara Qualifier for the Japanese National SF4 Tournament Results

12/14/08 Akihabara Qualifier for the Japanese National SF4 Tournament Results

1st K I MMMMMMMMMMM (Bison)
2nd Sagat Guy( Sorry I couldn’t read his name)
3rd Blanka Guy(His name was actually a smiley face looking thing)

So on January 18th 2009, the National Street Fighter 4 Tournament will be held in Shinagawa(Tokyo, Japan). The only people who are allowed to compete are people who won qualifying tournaments held throughout Japan.

Usually, I’m not this obnoxious, but I think today it can slide…. I’m pretty proud of this tournament win and also of the hard work I’ve put in to becoming better at this slightly above average game. I am thus, the only foreigner who qualified in the National Tournament. Did I just make history!? Best believe it son. So basically next month, I have a chance to do what I’ve only until now, dreamt of doing. I will use my red, white, and blue skills of justice and timeout every single opponent I play against at the Nationals. (obnoxiousness off)

If you can read Japanese, here’s a list of the winners of the qualifiers that have been held so far.

http://www5.atwiki.jp/koko100/pages/116.html

(Obnoxious Biased CvS2 Note: THERE ARE MANY PLAYERS THAT QUALIFIED WHO HAPPEN TO ALSO BE CVS2 PLAYERS, coincidence? I think not)

This is for the people that probably have no idea how qualifiers in Japan work…

So throughout Japan there are qualifying tournaments held at arcades. I’ve been to four qualifying tournaments thus far, and at least two of them have had different formats. Some have had single elimination 3 out of 5 round matches. Some are the standard 2 out of 3 round format. What confused me initially was that there are two brackets, and on each bracket there is a label for the person that won the bracket called “Congratulation Champion”.(singular, not plural) So I assumed that two people qualified at each tournament, but I found out that’s not the case. I guess I should have realized that last week, when Nuki hella jetted out of the arcade after losing to Iyo in the finals.

For dramatic purposes, after I “won” the tournament, I found out in fact, I have not qualified yet. Even though I won the tournament, at 5pm, I had to meet another dude who won a tournament in a different area. We have a play off, and the person that wins that match is considered the champ of that region. So I had an hour to trip out before I had to play the guy. Since I’m overly competitive in Street Fighter, you can imagine how I must have felt. I thought I had it in the bag, then suddenly I gotta wait to play another mystery opponent.

The guy played Sagat and had a pretty good win lose record. I don’t remember his name, but I just know he was Bea’s friend. I was in control most of the time, but near the end, he hit me with a seemingly random tiger uppercut into focus dash cancel into ultra. Of course, since this is me we are talking about here, whenever I win a tournament, I always have to BARELY win. Never can I just dominate the opponent. I was pretty worried at that moment, since we both had about 5% left. Thanks to my timely mashing skills, I edged out the win.

My hardest match was probably against Itobashi Zangief, who you will remember as a previous Evolution and SBO Champion. He usually Zangiefs me up, but I think I played pretty well against him today.

In other news, Mizoteru and Nuki also qualified today.

JESUS CHRIST GUYS, don’t you hate it when people post up their own tournament wins!?

PEACE

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