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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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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Today's SF4 Tournament thoughts and Notes

今日 の スト４ トーナメント + NOTES

Japanese Vega= American Bison
I hate having to explain that.

Ok, so I'm still playing SF4 a lot. Especially after work or if I have no appointments.
I like it a little more, but it's mainly because I'm winning more. GOOD REASON.

Today there was a tournament at Game Sakura INN. Thanks to INO's kindness, I was able to enter even though I showed up late. Nothing much to say here. Lately, I've been more successful because I out annoy my opponents. If I know the matchup, I'm pretty confident.
I always face versus Ryu, Sagat, and Zangief. So I don't feel weird playing vs those characters. But currently, I still don't know how to fight vs Rufus, Abel, or Blanka. Especially Blanka.

At the tournament today I played a Honda player first round and I won, but I was extremely close to losing. I don't play vs many hondas, so of course I got grabbed a couple times and headbutted a couple times. I atleast know that EX scissor kicks can punish a blocked headbutt, and you best believe I waited for those.

I use to hate how Bison played, but I became to realize, even though Bison has to play like a chicken 75% of the time, if you play that way successfully, he actually does quite well vs most of the cast. The problem is it's really hard playing a perfect hit and run character game after game. It's natural to give in to the urge to attack when you truly think the risk is worth it. Case in point...

My next match was against Takada. A strong Sagat player who smokes like crazy.
Vega vs Sagat is probably 3:7 in Sagat's favor. Basically, Bison has to put himself in risky situation's because Sagat deals too much damage too quickly. Sagat can keep Bison away very easily, so if time is running down and Sagat and Bison have the same life, It's still in Sagat's favor.

I lose the first round which is pretty close if I recall, I played good ground game and got hit with some fireballs and uppercuts. 2nd round I straight up kill the fool. It was pretty quick. Peep the vids on INO's website whenever they get uploaded. 3rd round was pretty competitive, but near the end I got hit by some more sagatness and at the very end all I remember was I correctly read him jumping back so I did jump strong strong with Bison but it just barely missed and I got kicked in the face. くそげ。

It would have felt SUPER SWEET, if I beat him. REVENGE. But it didn't happen.

NEXT TIME TAKADA, YOU'RE MINE.

Morikawa(CvS2 A-Hibiki, Bison, Blanka player) ended up winning the tournament with his homeless blue Ryu color. He's cool.

OK SF4 Notes:

So I've been listening to Gooteck's SF4 podcasts (www.gootecks.com) and I've also glanced at INO's tier list. For the most part, I sort of agree with INO's tier list, but I would change a couple of things. I also heard Combo's and Justin's tier list.

So.... as an awesome somewhat known American player, I'd like to add my piece.

Tier list goes like this hoes:

1st Zangief,
2nd: Sagat,
3rd: Ryu, Balrog(boxer)
4th: Bison, Ken, Blanka, Rufus
5th: who cares

So basically tiers don't really matter in my opinion unless you're playing the tiers 1, 2. Agaisnt zangief and sagat you have to play their game. but everyone else is different. Its a counter game just like ST in my opinion. Stupid if you ask me. You lose games because of the tiers. Anyway.

The more time you spend building meter with Bison and avoiding getting hit, I think it's more likely you will win that round.

Bison actually doesn't build meter that quickly, but hes good at avoiding fireballs and shit. But the thing is Bison with no meter is not scary at all. It is absolutely not worth it going up against a Sagat or Ryu if you have no meter. Bison cant even do the same amount of damage ryu and sagat can do without meter when bison HAS meter. You are only scary once you have meter, don't trick yourself.

I personally believe actually that even when you start a round, and let's say Bison has 100% and Ryu has 100%. Bison is actually losing because Ryu can do more without meter from the get go.

I'll write more later.

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July 2008 Team/Singles Tournament Finals and CvS2 Session Videos!

Hella vids.



These Vids took place sometime in July, sorry for the delay! SF4 sucks. (subliminal)

Team Tournament Finals Part 1: Saigo vs Gao



Team Tournament Finals Part 2: Vega Curry vs Mizoteru



Singles Tournament Finals: Vega Curry vs Pinokio



CvS2 Session: Featuring AO and Iyo and other people who don't kick as much ass

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Video of SBO coverage of Evolution 2005

Ah memories.

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More stupid SF4 Notes

Bison stuff

Stupid game.

Anyway, this is what I learned today.

Vega vs Guile = Impossible to win
-Guile can stop any of vega's jumps
-Sonic boom controls space.
-Maybe headstomp is good vs guile, I didn't try ex headstomp.

Vega vs Zangief = Slow and boring
-Vega can beat Zangief if he runs away the entire time. Maybe 25% attack, 75% run away
-Zangief is stupid
-I don't know how to stop Zangief's jump forward or fierce

Safe invincible moves are stupid.

I keep relearning bad habits. The more boring I play, the more I win. But I think that works in SF4.

Vega can't do big damage it seems, but maybe I'm not thinking outside of the box enough. If I block a sagat tiger uppercut, maybe I have enough time to do Saving attack level 2.
OR maybe I can do jump strong, strong, then ultra.

If anyone can even understand this,
what is Vega's biggest damaging combo?

Akuma was selectable today, but only scrubs played him. He looks cool though.

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3rd strike sucks but this link exists to show a cool vid

3rd strike was designed for scrubs

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Street Fighter 4 Notes 08/08/08

Basic Street Fighter 4 Notes

I usually post this stuff on Mixi(Japanese Facebook/Myspace), So I type in Japanese terms.

Quick lesson

Shou= Light, Chuu= Medium, Dai = Hard
Ex: Dai Kick= Roundhouse

Originally posted on August 4th 2008:

To kill time, I've been trying to learn スト４．　

Learning a new game is so hard.

ふだん、にしＳＥＧＡＣＬＵＢにいった。
I think SF4 is interesting for now, But deciding a character to use is always めんどくさい！

So far I have tried RUFUS, CHUN-LI, and SAGAT.

I can use Sagat but it's not my best style. I think my best character is someone that has great defense. And can wait and counter attack. I also like fast characters who have tricks, but I think if I want to be a strong SF4 player, I must use strong characters for now.

Bea says the best characters so far are BLANKA, RUFUS, BALROG(Boxer), ZANGIEF, and SAGAT.

I think I will try SF4 Blanka tomorrow. zenken dekiru.

-Kim

Originally Posted like 10 minutes ago on August 8th 2008

くそげ！！　じょだん。。　たぶん。。

ok english time.

Haha my win percentage in SF4 is 22% ! WATCH OUT FOR ME. I have a 22/100 chance
of kicking youｒ ass.

Today I went to Nishi Sega again to use my newly registered SF4 Card. I wanted to make my name "KIM" but for some reason they wouldn't allow me to do that, the website said I have to include numbers, so I'm now "Kim1234". Lame. I know most players don't have numbers in their name, so I don't get it.

My record today:
15 Loses
1 win !

Anyway,

Learning a new game is tough. Whenever I learn a new game, it reminds me of the fact that I'm not a naturally gifted game player. I have to lose a lot, and lose in the worst ways in order for me to learn from my mistakes. It's pretty amazing how famous players can suddenly pick up games. I'm not one of those people. I need some sort of skeleton, some inspiration for me to build on. I.E. Clockw0rk in MvC2 and Shiro in CvS2 .

Speaking of Shiro, I saw him at Nishi Sega today, because of my terribly basic Japanese I couldn't say much, but his Abel looks very cool. I would try to use him, but that means I would have to spend more money. I'm no where near complete with Rufus yet anyway.

MULDER I HATE YOUR ZANGIEF. MR. #2 RANK IN JAPAN!

スト４ Notes:

1. ) Rufus can do crouch shou kick, crouch shou punch, crouch shou kick crouch shou punch, ex spinning ball (But I can't do the combo off 4 attacks). I tried out the combo and was only able to do crouch shou kick, crouch shou punch, ex spinning ball... I don't understand SF4 combo engine.

2.) You can pin the opponent down to the ground with Rufus dai kick, if they block it, Rufus has frame advantage.

3.) If I'm stuck in the corner and my opponent keeps jumping on me, I think I'm going to try to dash out next time. I tried Rufus's d/f chuu kick but it's too slow.

4.) I don't yet know how to use EX spinning ball yet. It acts as Vaccuum and it looks very useful. I played vs Matei a little today, and he would always teleport away when I was near, I'm sure I could EX vacuum his ass if I react to his teleport.

Maybe the best way I can play Rufus is to read my opponent. His combos do good damage. So instead of concentrating on ground game all the time like I usually do. I should just work on avoiding getting hit and landing combos.

If I can force my opponent to jump, i can do big damage. Jump dai kick, EX CRAZY PUNCHING HANDS is a lot of damage.

Hopefully I can make up some setups for after I land a basic rufus combo. I need to make my opponent confused which side he is on, so I can continue pressure. After crouch shou kick, spinny ball, I usually do a cartwheel, but it's not good enough. I sometimes see people follow up with an immediate jump dai punch, but that sucks too. Hopefully he has something.

Can anyone here even read this?

I miss CvS2. and Kimura Kaela

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CvS2 3on3 Team Tournament 07/13/08

New videos from the 3on3 held on July 13th 2008

Sorry for the poor camera work in some of the matches.. the arcade doesn't allow recording so we had to be especially ninja about it.

Winners Bracket:

Pinokio(K), Mii chan(K), GAO(K) vs Gunter(A), Kim(A), Bea(A)
Match 1
Match 2
Match 3

Kosaka(A), BAS(A), Mizoteru(K) vs Sakamoto(P), Kisshi(A), AO (K)
Match 1
Match 2
Match 3

Losers Bracket:

AO(K), Sakamoto(P), Kisshi (A) vs Kim(A), Gunter(A), Bea(A)
Match 1
Match 2
Match 3

Yane(K), Ken/Vega/Sagat(C), CHAPA OU(C) vs Gunter(A), Bea(A), Kim(A)
Match 1
Match 2
Match 3
Match 4
Match 5

Winners Finals:

Mii chan(K),GAO(K), Pinokio(K) vs Kosaka(A),Mizoteru(K), BAS(A)
Match 1
Match 2
Match 3
Match 4
Match 5

Losers Finals:

GAO (K),Pinokio(K), Mii chan (K) vs Ken/Vega/Sagat(C), Yane(K), CHAPA OU(C)
Match 1
Match 2
Match 3
Match 4
Match 5

Grand Finals:

Mii chan(K), GAO(K), Pinokio(K) vs Kosaka(A),Mizoteru(K), BAS(A)
Match 1
Match 2
Match 3
Match 4

Mizoteru(K) vs Pinokio(K)

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June 6th 2008 CvS2 Casual Match Videos!

Enjoy!

66 minutes of hot CvS2 action. Peep Iyo's Sagat. It's hella good.

-Kim

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My New CvS2 Team

OH YOU WANT TO KNOW DON'T YOU?!

Yeah. Haven't really wrote much about my actual CvS2 progress lately. C groove is dead. If not dead, I'm so incredibly bored playing it. At least for my team, the way to be effective vs good K and A groovers is boring. It's all about defense with my team and K/A groove has so much freedom to do whatever they want. So in accordance to this, I am choosing to finally sell out. That's right, I am dropping the team I have played for 5 years.

My new team?

A GROOVE

ROLENTO, BLANKA, ANOTHER.

Of course, I'm going to stick with Rolento and Blanka, my signature characters and they happen to be godlike and usable in A groove. My third character however is a mystery. I've tried Sakura, Vega, and Bison. And I find problems with all 3 of them. I can't do Sakura's custom consistently and I also think she can't catch runaway characters. Vega is kinda my style, but I'm not interested in using him. Bison I can use a little, but he has no ground game. I'm running the entire time, then when I get meter, I'm able to do a lot pseudo mindgame shit .. aka hella throws.
I might just stick with Sagat in A groove. Hella ugly character, but atleast he has a ground game. His custom does big damage too.

As of right now, I can think of a few things I don't like about Sagat in A groove.

1) Punishing whiffs from max distance is impossible with A-Sagat. What am I going to do. Custom, low roundhouse, then what?

2) Still no mobility, just like C Sagat.

3) Using Level one's means I'm left with no custom to use.

4) No effective block damage custom

5) If my guard is flashing, how will I avoid getting killed.(No safe level 2's)

Onto the good things...

1) High damage custom

2) Good ground game

3) Yay

So there was a tournament today actually, and I did horrible. No patience at all. That's suppose to be my strong point, but not lately. Execution sucks And I keep dropping customs. I feel a little let down by my performance. Today was a bad cvs2 day, but next tournament may be different.

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May 23rd 2008 CvS2 Casual Match Videos (Over one hour of footage!)

Casual Match videos from May 23rd 2008. Who loves you?






Ok, so I figured this was probably the easiest way for me to provide footage for all CvS2 players. The method isn't so bothersome, so I believe I can upload hella match footage like this on a weekly basis. As long as you don't have OCD and care about individual match clips, I'm sure everyone can be able to enjoy this.

Recording in most arcades is a big no no. But fortunately the most popular CvS2 arcade in Tokyo doesn't care!

I really dislike shaky camera footage, so most of the videos I will be uploading are going to be fixed. Since the arcade has a lot of traffic coming through, there isn't much room to put the camera without someone knocking my shit over. So I found a pretty sweet place to leave my camera(and it's Japan so no one is going to steal it). The bad part is that once in a while, you will see people walking by the camera, so you might miss like a second of sexy CvS2 action.

So here's where I add my piece... Obviously I've had this site(www.crazyasskim.com and now this one) for a while now, so this is what I would ideally like to see people doing...

People often watch the vids I provide and that's cool. Occasionally people will post something about the videos. 80% of the postings being something like "Nice videos herrr herr".

As weird of a request as this sounds, watching vids and THAT'S it is lame. Watch these players play, improve your game, steal from them if you will, get ideas from them. Don't know how to do something? Ask on SRK forums, post a comment on THIS WEBSITE. I'd love to see CvS2 get more appreciation and publicity. Post more on SRK. PLAY MORE at the arcade. Push over a kid, tell him about my website. Etc.

Have fun, respect

-Kim

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Japanese CvS2 Players

Some quick info on the players you may or may not know

Yo,

So often after work I stop by Shibuya to endulge in some Capcom Vs Snk II. I've been thinking about writing about the CvS2 players here for quite a while, but I haven't had anytime to do it, but I'm sure there's many fools that want to know what's up with CvS2 over here.

First of all, the 'scrubs' are amazingly patient over here. More so then most top players in America, IMO. Here, top players and even the scrubs are not afraid to spend the whole 99 seconds(for each character) building meter, or running away, or even *gasp* attack. I think the stigma in the U.S. still holds true, in that everyone is pressured to play fast. If you don't, you're name is Justin Wong, you're trying to be like Justin Wong, or you use low tier or something like that. Speaking of Justin, I'm sure he will be proud to know that almost every Japanese player knows who he is(even though I've only asked like 5 people, somehow my stats are correct).

Anyway, on the flip side, I think the American players who are top and who choose to play fast, are extraordinarily talented in adapting to gaming situations. I still have not played another C-Ken who adapts faster then Choi. I have not played another Vega that can frustrate, outfootsie you, and somehow still stay unpredictable as well as Ricky, etc etc. Anyway, if you haven't watched it already, Choi vs Ricky from a recent AXIS tournament is now up. You can view the matches hmmmm... HERE.

Ok so on to the players I've played against since moving here...

1) Kisshi: It seems he has dropped A-Iori and is trying to figure out another character to use. He usually uses, A-Iori/Sakura/Kyo but recently I've seen him use Akuma and Vega. This guy is the most technical person I've ever played in CvS2. One game I saw him do jump back air fireballs and safe block attack strings the entire round, if the opponent jumps, with 100% perfect execution, he does rc short hurricane kick and combos into custom and continues to run away. I think maybe the reason it's so amazing to me is cause of the Akuma stigma people always have. 'oh he's so weak, if I get hit once I will lose so much life and my sperm count will decrease by 50%'' That's right.. 50%. Anyway, Akuma having an invincible hard to catch teleport, jump back airfireballs, and perfectly executed short rc hurricane kicks... shit is pretty disgusting. Disgustingly DOPE. Anyway, his Sakura is way solid and his Kyo is just like Sakura in that you will get chipped if you are P or K.

2) AO: I think the the letters stand for his initials, but I don't know the guys name. So for now, let's just say that A.O. stands for Akira Oyama . Anyway, He plays K-Ryu/Kyo/Sagat. His attacking is on point and his character weaknesses are all covered up by his JD ability. His style is different from the usual sloppy K groove rushdown. He plays fast, but in a kind of articulate/calculated non messy way. Think of Combofiend's K groove, but NICE LOOKING(Take that Combo). His K-Ryu really stands out. Obviously there aren't many K-Ryus out there(who are good), but AO's knowledge of the game and JD ability makes Ryu a force to be wreckoned with. He knows when to throw fireballs that are safe to RC Blanka ball, etc.

3) BAS: Whatever.

4) Sakamoto: Best P groove in Tokyo. Plays P-Kyo/Geese/Sagat and parries everything. Possibly he tries to parry too much. But when he gets it, you're dead. When I first came to Tokyo, I think I lost to him like 8 games in a row. Every game his Geese would somehow magically land that stupid screaming super. Anyway, P groove is very not weak.

5) Dan: If you're reading this, you better know who DAN is. The realest C-Ryu/Ken/Sagat on the planet SON. He doesn't show up at the arcade too often, but when he does he's wrecking shop and doing it with style. His ground game is pretty admirable and with those terribly mid tier characters, only he can do what he does. You rock Dan.

6) Mulder: Haha, this fool will turtle like no other. But seriously, his C-Chang/Guile/Rolento is buff. Apparently, he likes the X-files and beer. Tell me one person who uses C-Chang in America? Fuck that, tell me someone who uses Chang in America? Exactly. Do not sleep on Chang. If he hits you once, you are deader then a dead deady dead. I still haven't tested out how to counter RC Ball chain thingy, but it looks pretty much safe. Good defensive tool for Chang. Big damage super, good jump ins, Freddy Kruger assist, and the ability to take huge chunks off of your guard bar makes Chang a deadly ass character. Oh and Mulder's guile and rolento are nice too! Imo, he is one of the more patient CvS2 players out there.

7) Mii Chan: She is a girl and she plays CvS2. That's already awesome. Mii chan probably defies the odds in that she actually knows how to play. K-Sagat/Mai/Cammy. Of course she has to use Mai, cause shes a girl, and girls have to represent that girl power at all times. Couple days ago, I saw her jiggle with mai for 60 seconds and not press a button. That's tight.

8) Pinokio: He is the new INO. Rushdown ability and weird attack strings. Usually uses K-Kyo/Chunli/Cammy , but also plays a billion other teams in casuals. His Cammy is his best character, and for a rolento player, that means 90% of the time my Rolento dies.

9) K groove Geese Chick: HEY GIRL IF YOU'RE READING THIS. CALL ME, WE CAN MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

Matane,

-Kim.

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