Japan and Beat Tribe report 2005

Just so there's no confusion, ice-9 is talking about the Lion player fuudo, and not the Kage player that goes by the ring name fudou. The differences in (english) spelling is subtle but the names are entirely different.

Jeff and Danny, good luck in your quest to rank up! Jeff if you see Chemeru around, see if he can play his Goh. It was pretty sick last time I saw it, and I'm sure you'd pick up more than a few things from him!

 

Continuing onto our second day...

First Taste of VF in Japan
Friday, 11th February, 2005

Today marked our (Nin and I) first day of VF play in Tokyo. It was a cold afternoon when we arrived at Club Sega Shinjuku, where I noticed mukatsuku_shun standing outside about to make a phone call. We greet and I introduce him to Nin, then we head downstairs into the "Battle Arena". The Battle Arena is the basement floor of the arcade where all the fighting/versus-style games are located.

Anyway, I don't recall many specifics from our first session, but I crept up a rank or two. As the afternoon went on, the arcade was filling up with more VF players, along with more cigarette smoke. As Andy noted, many famous and well known players were now here, so a lot of the time we tried to squeeze some games in with them. After a while we took a break, and checked out Spot 21, which was a smaller arcade just around the corner. The competition there wasn't as fierce as it was back in Club Sega (notable lack of famous players for example), but you could always find a pretty good challenge there, especially in the lower dans.

It was at Spot 21 where Shou challenged me to a ranking battle. We were both the same rank, and as Andy already mentioned, it resulted in a simultaneous promotion for me, and demotion for him. (Revenge for the past Evo Semi's /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif)

We met up with my friend Atsushi, who had just arrived from Osaka. He used to live in Sydney during the time of VF4, Evo and the beginning of FT and was a regular VFer along with myself and Nin. We had all agreed to meet up again in Japan this year, and we had already arranged our tickets well in advance of knowing when the next BT cup would be on. As coincidence or sheer luck would have it, it turned out to be on the first weekend of our stay. It made our reunion all the better since we've always wanted to enter our aussie team in a big event like the BT cup, and finally our chance had arrived.

So after a while, we headed back to Club Sega, which was well and truly packed now. Many of the famous players were having ranking battles which was really exciting to watch. One of the more memorable ones for me was watching Tsuchikumo (pai) vs Fuuraibou (jacky) battle it out, while everyone else's attention was on the 'bigger' names who were currently playing. I was particularly impressed with Fuuraibou's Jacky, just amazing to see in action. I had seen him previously in a few clips but it doesn't compare to watching him act and react in real time. Keep an eye out for this guy, he's up there with Haijin IMO!

After a while we all headed off as a big group for dinner, and we finished up the night catching the last train back to Roppongi, and just reminiscing on the day/evening that just went by. We were all on a VF high that night, and it was a sign of many good things to come.

Club Sega Shinjuku Tournaments
Saturday, 12th February, 2005

As Andy mentioned, on Saturday we split up into two groups. Rod, Kazu and Andy went to Yokohama for the all Akira tournament in the Pasopiard arcade. I'm sure Rod can share a story or two from there. Nin, Atsushi, myself and mukatsuku_shun, Shou and Adam decided to go to Shinjuku Club Sega again to participate in the SBO qualifier tournament (teams of 3-on-3).

I don't remember what happened, but I ended up playing and losing first for our team Aussie Beef, and we eventually lost in the first round /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif That was my first taste of the cut-throat tournament scene in Tokyo, and it is truly unforgiving. If you don't have your A-game ready, then you might as well not play.

We later found out that they were also holding a qualifying tournament for Kakutou Shinseiki 3! So we all stuck around and joined in that. This was a single man tournament, and again, I lost out in my first round to a pretty strong Goh player. (Had I won, I would have had to face ShinZ in the next match /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif)

What was funny was my friend Nin had a bye in the first round, and then for his second round match, his opponent failed to show up, so he proceeded to the third round, the final 8, of the tournament not having played a single game! Unfortunately for him, his first match was against Hanabi Lei which he lost 0-3. Hanabi Lei eventually went on to beat Fuudo in the finals and qualify for KS3.

It was a really busy and eventful day, having taken place in two tournaments but we saw it as good preparation for the BT cup which was on the following day.

After notching up two quality days/nights of VFing in Tokyo I had come away with impressions of how truly great this game is. I was also reminded at how futile the attempts we make online to discuss tiers and perceived imbalances in the game. In my first two days, I had seen and experienced more than I had ever hoped for. I had pretty much played against every character at a high level and it only reinforced the notion that any person can compete with any character if you put the effort in.

So what you see in movies is only a filter, and really biased one at that, on the current state of play in Japan. I saw so many great players I had never heard of before and watched so many great matches I wished was being filmed so that others could see. Many of the famous players also had highly-ranked sub characters. Chemeru's Goh was scary as shit, Koedo's Jacky is a combo maniac and Kurita's Brad has some wicked Vanessa-like setups (I wish I could remember them!!!! >_<) Kurita really knew his flow charts to the very frame, and you'd expect no less since he's the Brad writer for Arcadia!

So this is just a quiet message to those new players still looking for a character to play -- pick anyone that appeals to you, stick to that character and learn them inside and out. If you're surrounded with similarly-minded people then you'll enjoy the game for a very long time.

 

So Saturday night, the night before the BT cup, we all decided to head back "early" to try and get some rest since we had to get up early start the next day. As it turned out, Kazu had arranged for Kyasao, Daimon Lau and Burun Burun Maru to stay with us for the night. They came down from Osaka and needed to crash for the night before BT. How cool was that?

So of course, we didn't really get to sleep early at all. It must of been 2am+ by the time we all slept, and we had to get up at around 6am.

AUSSIE BEEF! at BT
Sunday, 13th February, 2005

At this point, team Aussie Beef consisted of Nin (Aoi), Atsushi (Lion) and myself (Kage). We had two other players from Sydney who we wanted there as well, but they couldn't make it. So that left us with 2 players short. Thanks to mukatsuku_shun, he found out that Raoh's team could no longer make it to BT, and so he and his friend, Majin, were available and agreed to join us. For those at last year's Evo, Raoh was the Lau player, and his friend Majin plays Kage.

Since we couldn't get a seed like the other two forgeign teams, we had to go through the qualifiers. Unfortunately, qualifications were scheduled to start around 8:00am and we agreed to meet Raoh at the venue by 730am. Well, we were running a little late, having to change trains and all, and unfortunately we didn't arrive until 8:30am.

Funny side story: on the train on our way there, this guy sat directly across from me and I could of sworn he was the spitting image of Heruru. Later turns out that it was Heruru, as we met up with him the following day.

Anyway, we left the train station running while on the phone with Raoh who was giving us directions on how to get there. We didn't stop running until we were inside the venue. Raoh was nice enough to have bought our tickets for us in advance so we avoided the long queue that was building up outside.

It wasn't the best start to the morning. We were late, and now feeling tired from the run, lack of sleep, lack of food, etc, etc. Now we had to compose ourselves since we were due to play at any minute. Our group tournament was already in progress!

We talked amongst ourselves to decide on which order we should play. Raoh thought it'd be best if us Aussies went first, and then he and Majin would play last. The order we agreed on was Nin, myself, Atsushi, Majin, then Raoh.

While we waited, we bumped into Yamagishi-san who was running around. We greeted and I introduced him to my aussie team mates. It was great seeing him again. Being the nice guy he is, he was apologetic for not being able to give us a seed for the tournament, but he said should there be another event next year, he'll see to it that we do. Regardless of our current situation, we were all completely accepting and understanding of it, and ensured that Yamagishi-san knew that. We didn't want him feeling bad for us in any way. For us just to be there and take part in the event was reward enough and we let him know that. We weren't suffering from delusions of grandeur. /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

So eventually our team is up, and Nin starts off. Their first team member is a Kage player, and he eventually takes Nin out in 5 rounds. Next up is me, and again, another close match. Andy recorded this one on his camera so hopefully he can capture it soon. The end of the match was cruel and painful for me. We were both low on health and I had just knocked him down, closing in to apply some okizeme. As he rose I did a KG-cancel fake hoping to bait a dodge or just get him to freeze up, and then quickly followed by a ++. But what did he as he rose was +.... which beat my attack, and the ensuing combo resulted in my KO. That really hurt. /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Anyway, this Kage player went on to eliminate our entire team. The final result wasn't really indicative of how close the matches were, but at the end of the day a 5-0 loss is just as bad as a 5-4 loss when you're playing single elimination. When I later checked out how the group bracket was progressing, I found out that the team we lost to eliminated the next team 5-0 as well. A small consolation for what it's worth.

After our elimination we just resigned to having fun for the rest of the day and night.

The entire event went for a gruelling total of 14 hours, and a post or thread can't really do justice to the experience of being there, and my recollection of just the morning's events is taking long enough, so I won't give a blow-by-blow account.

Since we were all so tired, we found ourselves catching naps now and then during the day. While we were awake though, we watched many matches on the big screen, which were always showing 5 machines live. The screens were big enough so that you could watch them from anyway, but since there were no seats, it was hard to get "comfortable" on the concrete floor. Somehow we managed.

During the many times I walked around to either stretch, go to the bathroom, get some food/drink, etc, I bumped into quite a few players who remembered me from Evo. The first was Koufu Megane, an Aoi player, who I first met at Evo2003. He approached me and said hi, which I thought was really nice of him. He also remarked on my Kage's "kyuu k g" (9k+g) which became somewhat of a signature move for me at Evo. But little did he know how ironic it had become for me to lose to that very move in this tournament /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif Koufu's team go on to eventually win the tournament.

Later on, while getting some food, Bearcrusher Pai approached me and said hi. We had a short conversation (her English is very good) about various things, and I asked her if Kurita was around. He was, and I later caught up with him as well. I bumped into Neo Tower a few times as well, whom I actually met the previous night at Shinjuku. Neo Tower's team made it to the finals, and it was nice to see his strong Jacky play, taking out Itoshun's Brad (who was currently on a 2 player streak), and go on for his own 2 player streak, eventually losing to Koufu Megane's Aoi.

The finals were really close. Itoshun's Brad looked like he was going to run away with it at one stage until he was stopped by NeoTower. NeoTower then evened things up until Koufu came along. Koufu takes out two players before losing to Rarita, team History's last player. Then Koedo comes in and takes out Rarita, winning the 7th BT cup.

Jin's Kage didn't even play since Koedo's Kage eventually took it out. But watching this team, Daibatsu Punch, for me was a delight since it consisted of my (then) two favourite players -- Jin and Itoshun. However, during the course of the tournament I was liking Koedo's Kage more and more. His play was truly exceptional throughout the entire tournament, and well deserving of the MVP award. Jin seemed to pretty much be in the background for his team.

OK I'll stop there, even though I know I'm forgetting a whole bunch of stuff. Two last things I'll mention:

1. Why the team name Aussie Beef? Well, for those of you at Evo2003, you may remember this house party video, then you'll recall the comical ending with Yamagishi-san referring to me and saying "Aussie Big" with Ohsu Akira and NeoTower in laughter. I was recently informed that, in fact, he wasn't saying "Big", he was saying "Beef". He was making reference to an Ad campaign for Aussie Beef in Japan, where they'd make the "A" sign with their hands. I found this absolutely hilarious, and as such, adopted it as our team name. /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

2. Buy the DVD! Support BT and treat yourself to some amazing play and a slice of history!


p.s. the security guard at the venue was a constant source of amusement and entertainment /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif sorry that I can't reveal any more than that.