From Peter Livingston (SRK name: Etep1)

First I would like to thank the great people from Ignition Entertainment and EVO for putting on the tournament and Element for hosting. You guys did a great job handling everything and everybody. I felt like it was an overall success. Thank you guys.

I know this is a few weeks late but having just graduated from college, moved into a new place, and trying to get everything in order to live life in “the real world” has slowed me down a bit. This is going to be the first of three stops I will be making this Summer to fighting game tournaments: KOF XII in Hollywood, Devastation (SF IV) in Arizona, then EVO 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. What else is a college grad to do (besides get a nine-to-five…)?

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Battle for the South (Saturday, June 6 2009)

Tournament report – Evan Coffey (SRK & PSN: Molander16)

Because this is my very first competitive level tournament (I made it to Round 3 of the Gamestop tournament, but I don’t really count that), I’ve decided to write a tournament report.  I have 3 goals in writing this:

1) I want to chronicle my first tournament experience so that I can reminisce later.

2) I want to show the world that there is a scene in Mississippi (albeit a small one).

3) I want to give a different perspective of a tournament to the SRK community, from the POV of an average player instead of from the POV of someone already at the top.

So.

This is one of the smaller crowds in the room, at the 3rd Strike area.

For those of you that don’t know, Battle for the South was an all-day event in a suburb of New Orleans which included tournaments in six fighting games: Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Soul Calibur 4, Guilty Gear (can’t remember which one), and, of course, Street Fighter 4.  It was paid for by Patrick Henry (Vegita-X), there was a very good turnout (from what I understand, there were over 60 players in the SF4 tournament), and it was run very smoothly.  Hats off to everybody who put the event together!
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Welcome to what will hopefully be the first in great new feature series about what its like to be a tournament goer.  As big as our community was, is, and will become, the actual percentage of forum members who actually go to tournaments is fairly small.  Hopefully, these posts will give you a glimpse at the idea that going to a tournament can leave you with a lot more than just a stronger set of Street Fighter skills. The series does need a name, though, so leave a suggestion in a comment after you read.  This week’s tournament journal is from community member “DaDesiCanadian”.   The following is an introduction by him;

Hey, my name is Anant, but you probably know me on the Shoryuken forums as DaDesiCanadian. I’m also known by my IRC nickname of Jeeebus. I’m a relatively new member of the SF scene compared to the old school heads.  I started playing around 1999-2000.  It was a good time though, since that’s when the Canadian Street Fighter scene started up. Sadly the game that pulled me in was… Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter. Horrific, I know, but if it makes you feel better, I played the hell out of ST back then also. I’m 23 years old right now which means I started playing when I was around 13. I’ve been traveling to tournaments ever since I started playing. I can remember before we had our drivers licenses, we would take public transportation for 3 or 4 hours to compete in tournaments. Now that was dedication! A lot of people think I’m pretty young even now, but that’s just how the Toronto scene is. We have the old school players, but we’re constantly being swamped by new players discovering the community, even before the release of SF4. I’m probably one of the older players in the scene compared to the average right now.

A big question we get a lot about the Toronto scene is “What the hell is the “GTASF”?”

Well, what people refer to as “Toronto” is actually a group of cities and suburbs that surround the city of Toronto.  We call this the “Greater Toronto Area”. I’m actually from the city of Mississauga.  When the scene first started up, each city used to have it’s own distinct scene; Eventually the lines became blurred(mostly due to the efforts of Nagata Lock), and we just started calling ourselves the GTASF as a whole: Greater Toronto Street Fighter.  We’re probably the biggest fighting game community in Canada, surpassing British Columbia, Edmonton, and Montreal.

Jump past the break to read about his experience at “The Fight’s About to Begin”!

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Never been to a real live fighting game tournament?  Go to one every month?  No matter what your background, no matter where you live or where you are going to compete, I’d like for you to keep a travel log, or a tournament journal, of your experience.  When you get home, type it up.  Fill it with as many feelings, emotions, events, and laughs as you can.  When you are done, submit it to me at keits@shoryuken.com, and your experience just may make the Shoryuken.com front page as part of a new feature series!

Remember to keep it clean, and do your very  best to edit and spellcheck before you submit your work.  Along with any text submission must come at least 3 pictures of your trip and/or the event.  I will also be accepting video submissions, but please do not email these to me.  Just post them somewhere and email me the link, along with any text write up you are submitting with it.  Remember, we are not looking for match videos or gameplay-only related submissions.  Make your tournament journal personal, and talk about the entire experience.  The journey there can be just as much fun as the event itself!

Remember, not all logs or journals will be accepted.   So get out there and keep a detailed log of everything that happens to you on the road and at the event, and you just might get your 15 minutes right here.

Edit – Thank you for some of the replies already, but please make submissions only to the specifications above.  I am not looking to a link to a blog, I am looking for something writen specifically for this.

So you have seen our panel review of the Mad Catz FightStick Tournament Edition. Now it is time to see a side that is not often covered in product reviews. Join me as I dissect and explore the technical side of this lovely joystick. Allow me to void my warranty so you, the viewers, won’t have to. Learn a thing or two and enjoy this tech review series.

For the rest of the series, visit the playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BDEC0E72AC5926C6

Street Fighter IV is almost here!  If you’ve been paying attention to SFIV news lately, you’ve probably seen the hype and commotion going on about the Street Fighter IV line of accesories from Mad Catz (which are shipping NOW!)… Lets take a look back and see what all the fuss is about, from someone behind the scenes!  Click below for the full feature…

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Hey everyone!  Welcome to this week’s Community Crossup feature.  Today’s interview is with a true showman, the one called VDO.  If you’ve ever had the pleasure of playing him, seeing him play, or even talking to him a bit, you’d come to know one of the flashiest players and personalities in the entire community.  This man will ‘wow’ you with characters and styles you didnt think were viable over and over again.  He has even made his Rogue/Collosus/Ken team in MvC2 very famous and feared.

Today’s read is a little different from the interviews I’ve done in the past.  Usually, I doctor them up and do a lot of editing to make them professional and presentable.  This time, however, I’ve decided to leave all of Juan’s responses intact.  He has his own style of typing/talking that I feel should really be left alone, as its a huge part of his Pro-Wrestler-Inspired personality.  Can you smell what the VDO is cooking?

Real Name: Juan Tolbert
Handle(s):VDO
Birthplace: Detroit, MI
Current Residence: Detroit, MI
Age: 34 (that’s right)

Keits: When/How/What got you into fighting games?

VDO: Well to be perfectly honest its kinda weird how I originally got into gaming, sad to say but I was a victim of child abuse from the age of 4 til age 8 by my stepfather. I found myself all the time watching tv and wanting to be able to just get away from it all even tho I really didn’t have any pressures @ that age only physical and mental pain! I remember that good ole intelevision and Colecovision system, that had brought me much amusement even tho I was a random button masher. Soon it became Atari then Atari 2600 and so on and so on. The typical games were always fun but I really noticed that my “Bloodlust” began with the game Kungfu. I really tried to murder my oppenent (@ such a young age) with the utmost brutality! I know I had some issues lol.

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Here and there, I’m going to do a Crossup feature on a player I’ve never met in person.  When that happens, I’ll be having guests write the introductions for these players.

“This week’s Community Crossup features a man whose shoes cost more than yours.  Chris Jones, aka True_Tech, prides himself on his ability to whiff Genei-Jin combos and recognizing exactly who that Japanese player is after seeing an entire two second clip.  Recently, True_Tech has taken advantage of his new position at a videogame store in Colorado Springs called Play ‘N’ Trade, hosting tournaments for the local scene.   He enjoys traveling out of state for tourneys, his most recent aspiration being a trip to any state that will allow him to play Blazblue.” -Skilletor

Real Name: Chris Jones
Handle(s): True_Tech
Birthplace: Savannah,GA
Current Residence: Colorado Springs, CO
Age: 22

True: I originally got into fighting games when I was 8 years old.  My dad bought me SF:CE for Sega Genesis. I was all about that game as a kid, and this was before I had the six button pad so I would try to learn combos with no punches cause you had to press the start button to switch between punches and kicks.  I grew up here in Colorado. Both my parents are former army so playing at the arcades as a kid on the army base was a daily thing. When I was about 11 or 12 I’d skip class to play alpha 3 and mvc1 at the PX.  Around 2004 I seriously got into 3rd strike and the rest becomes the man you know and love.

Keits: What is the ‘PX’?

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This week, I bring you the man who won Super Turbo at Season’s Beatings 3 in Columbus, Ohio.   One of the most unassuming and unintimidating people you will meet out there… until you play him.  Frustrating defense and smart reading of every move you are about to make will teach you not to sleep on even the most innocent looking players.

Real Name: Brent Werling
Handle(s): immortal, immortalbmw, Vega, Rick Roll (any NHL ‘09 players here?  just try to score on my brick wall goaltender)
Birthplace: Decatur, IN, USA
Current Residence: Decatur, IN, USA
Age: 29

Brent: I have been addicted to video games and just all sorts of games in general for all my life.  I will play anything from board games to card games and real life sports, but my favorite from the get-go was always video games.  My parents were quitting video games in their mid-20’s when I was born (games like Zaxon on Colecovision were their favorites from what I understand.)  When I was like 4 years old even before I started school I would spend time playing whatever we had around the house.  I remember Vectrex with those little plastic layers you could put over the monitor to make it look like the games had decent graphics.  Haha.  But the point is I had all sorts of old systems like the Atari 2600 and 5200 around so I played the collection of games my parents had and just got addicted from day one.

Although my parents had soon given up playing games they were such nice folks that they allowed me to keep playing and this often included trips to arcades.  Now Decatur is a small town in Indiana but about a 30 minute drive up north to our 2nd biggest city of Fort Wayne gave me the chance to play coin-op games and I’m talking the classics.  I feel fortunate to have roots in old school gaming and arcade gaming in general.  Even to this day I’m still a huge fan of the arcade, sort of like Jason Wilson who runs the Midwest Championships.  Anyway, I would play any type of arcade game as a youngster.  Pacman, Dragon’s Lair, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, NBA Jam… STREET FIGHTER (yah the original) which I remember had two different versions.  One had six buttons in the traditional layout we’ve all come to know and love but another had two bigger buttons which could sort of sense how hard you pushed/hit them.  Depending on how much force you put into it was supposed to determine what strength of attack.

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The holiday retail rush is over, so now I have more free time to devote to bringing you features and articles again.  If only there was some way I could get paid to do this, so that I would not have to make you wait a solid month for content…   hmmm….

Today I bring you James “Humbag” Cardoni.  A man you’ve probably met if you are a midwestie, or been to a midwest tournament, Humbag is easily one of the most down to earth and likable people I’ve met in my travels.  He gives back, too.  He has run tournaments of his own, and is often seen handling a bracket at any event he attends.   Be sure to corner him if you see him and say “Hey I saw you on SRK!”, then prepare to lose to his Dudley.

Real Name: James Cardoni
Handle(s): Humbag
Birthplace: Evansville, IN
Current Residence: Champaign, IL for school and Normal, IL is home
Age: 20

Keits: When/How/What got you into fighting games?

Humbag: I have always been a videogame player for as long as I can remember. The first fighting game I remember playing has to have been Mortal Kombat on the Super Nintendo. There was something about two guys on screen beating the living crap out of each that got my attention. Of course I was really young so I did not get to play as much as my brothers but I did watch a great deal. Fast forward a little while to the first fighting game I was actually decent at, Killer Instinct. I was at the mall one day with my family and like usual, they dropped me off at the arcade to do their shopping. As soon as I walked in I saw a large crowd huddled around a Killer Instinct arcade cabinet. After squirming through the mass of people I finally got a look at it and was blown away by how good it looked. The characters, the combos, the blood, the music, the announcer. They were so freaking awesome to me that in one minute I had a new favorite game as a young kid.

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