Nishinippori Versus Video 072710

Great back and forth this week.



Mu (DH), Nakamu (BL), Shu (KE), Den (BX), Oonishi (RY), Hammer (OK), Sugamo Taro [Noguchi] (EH), Nuki (CH), Sasori (RY), Nikaiten (BX, MC), Toukon (CH)
vs.
Abebin (EH), Shin (TH), Aoki Cyclone (ZA), Yakitori (OTH), Tojo (CH), VIPER (TH), Musashi Kosugi Zangi, Kawamata (RY), Hiroyan (TH), Futomomo ICPO [Kusa] (CH), Hanashi (FE)

SBO Team List and Other ST News

Here are the teams that have qualified so far. Only two spots remain. Thank you to Vernon for some info.

Good luck Biran, Rambo and Damdai!

Date	Team	Players	Links
5/03	ドラゴン勢	Hakase (DH), Noguchi (CL), Tamashima (BX)	videos
5/09	生涯現役	Gian (DH), Kurahashi (RY), YuuVega (DI)
5/16	超無敵不死身	Nuki (CH), Muteki (GU), Shiki (BX)
5/23	プランクトン	KKY (DH), Kita (CH), Kikai (GU)	report, video
5/30	長瀬ＵＦＯ	Aniken (KE), Otochun (CH), ShootingD (RY)
6/06	イタリア	Abebin (EH), Sasori (RY), Oonishi (DI)	video a, video b
6/13	ベストパートナーズ	Futachan (RY), Ito (DJ), MAO (CL)	result, videos
6/20	真ソルジャーチーム	Tsuji (BX), Inro (OCH), Danjiri (DH)	bracket, videos
6/27	ヨコ・ヅナー＿クロニクルズ	Kusumondo (EH), Yabu (CA), Gunze (ZA)	videos
7/04	コーハツ四天王	Suzuki (GU), Seki (DJ), Kachu (CL)
7/11	月の石	Toutanki (TH), K (OTH), Yoshimura (DH)	bracket, videos
7/18	けものみち	Muneo (OS), Numa (BX), AFO (BL)	result
7/24	Team USA	Ganelon (CL), John Rambo (DH), Damdai (RY)	videos
7/25	Ｘ三世代	ARG (CL), The SuperStar (BX), Yuzuru (DJ)

Notes:

- The videos from June 13th are new.

- I left the team names in Japanese; might be useful if there's a live broadcast. Top-to-bottom: Dragon Squad, Lifelong Service, "Chomutekifujimi" - Super Invincible Immortals, Plankton, Nagase UFO, Italia, Best Partners, Shin Soldier Team, Yokozuna Chronicles, Ko-hatsu Bosses, Moon Stone, Way of the Beast, Third Generation [SSF2]X

- A few tough teams that have yet to qualify:

Taira (Dictator), Komoda Blanka, yaya (Sagat)

Tencho (Ryu), HAS (Fei-Long), Roku (E.Honda)

Shin (O.Hawk), Hiroyan (T.Hawk), Keishin (Chun-Li)

Here's a quick east-to-west look at some other Super Turbo tourney news:

Kanto

For last week's Versus team battle each player got two different characters. Starts off clunky, but there are some good matches in the second half.

Video from the July 24th Ooyama Newton 2on2 is available here and here. Kawamata Ryu, Keishin Chun, K O.Hawk, Sashishi Ryu.

No video from the most recent danisen day at Versus, but the rankings were updated. Kikai Guile 10th dan, Akabla Blanka 9th dan, Hiroyan Hawk 8th dan.

Chubu

It looks like there won't be a Star Cup tourney this year. They may try to do it next March instead. K Maru wrote that there may be a smaller Chubu event on the usual date (2nd weekend in October.)

Danisen events are starting up at Kasugai Five-oh this Sunday. Aka Zangief kindly uploaded this poster made by Akashachi Kancho. Live broadcast August 1st at 3pm (Japan) here.

Kansai

Ko-hatsu is going to start running ST ranking battles on August 22nd. Alternating regular singles and solo 3on. Also they may get in on the danisen action. Presumably all of the rankings will go up on the main site. It'll be nice to see Super Turbo events go nationwide like Third Strike.

Also at Ko-hatsu: MAO (Claw) and Mori (Boxer) won a 2on2 this past Saturday. They took out AniOto in the semifinals.

Tougeki Trials in Tennessee - DreamTR Interview

With the American Super Battle Opera qualifiers coming up next weekend, I thought it'd be fun to check in with the tournament director, Jason Wilson. He's a really tough old schooler who has been running tournaments big and small for many years now. Good luck to everyone heading down to Nashville to fight it out!

Quick blog news: 1) I updated the previous post. 2) AFO (BL), Muneo (OS) and Numa (BX) Q'ed for SBO. 3) No more updates until next week.

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NH2: Could you tell us a bit about the qualifier venue, Game Galaxy? How has running the arcade been going so far?

DreamTR: It's been quite a ride, we've been open since Nov 2008 and it's not our only location with arcade machines, it just happened to become a centralized location for us to grow out of by pure random luck. We opened with about 60 machines shared with another person and now we currently have 125 machines on the floor and another 80 or so in storage. I used to actually "draw" arcade room when I was in elementary school, trying to create the perfect arcade with rooms based on genres (and when I saw game rooms like this in Japan I was amazed) but I thought I was probably going to open more of a game store when I got older as opposed to an arcade purely based on arcades being relatively extinct these days.

I'm pretty sure we agree that fighting games are more exciting when played in an arcade - why do you think that is?

The essence of competition is played out better in a public venue. People always argue that they can play at home for free and just hang out there and do what they want, but not every community has players that want to go to other people's houses and at a public place it is bit more exciting knowing you have to "win" to stay on the machines. Comfort levels are there at home, but learning to adjust (especially in a tournament setting) is crucial and first learned at an arcade. People also have to realize that many schedules conflict, and the joy of an arcade is that communities can gather and use it as a central gaming hub/meeting place that will only breed more competitive nature as new people "see" the VS battles going on and become intrigued by this aspect of gaming.

What made you want to run the SBO ST qualifiers?

Super Turbo to me is a legacy game and it is the last of the arcade Street Fighter games still being played. No home version was ever agreed upon as a suitable comparison for the game and I think based on EVO's track record with different games each year on multiple consoles/arcade for variations of Super Turbo and even Anniversary Edition one year really conflicted a lot of players at one point, but hardocore players all agree the arcade version of Super Turbo is the only suitable version. I think with CVS2/3s at least having multiple playable home versions and a lot of people overlooking the classic mode of HD Remix as a suitable practice venue, you have what really is an important arcade game that is still holding up well in pockets of the United States and telling that it is still a viable game in Japan.

Who are some of the tough local players at Game Galaxy? Which characters do they use? Any special tactics people watching the stream should look out for?

Our strongest players all play Super Street Fighter IV (including myself) almost exclusively and because of the age difference in players, not many of the HD Remix players ever cut their teeth on a real arcade Super Turbo machine. Our strongest Super Turbo player is not entering the tournament, but our second strongest in the state, Tad "Alphakami" Griggs, a Chun-Li player who placed top 5 at Final Round in years past, will be entering as well as Jacob Ford who won our Super Turbo qualifier tournament allowing him to automatically be in the semifinal bracket in the first of three SBO qualifier tournaments we are holding on July 24.

Have you found time to get some casual games in? What characters have you been using lately?

I stopped playing Super Turbo the day Street Fighter IV came out. I have played some casual games but the lack of serious competitive gamers for anything other than Super Street Fighter IV in the arcade creates a large void for anyone who does come up to play the game since 99% of the players will play SSF4 instead. When I do get a chance to play ST these days, Zangief seems to be my character of choice, but I always used the entire cast, so it just depends on my mood.

I know you're not the Tennessee / Kentucky Super Turbo coach, but just pretend for a moment: what would you tell local guys to focus on when fighting Phil's DJ? Jeron's Bison? Immortal's Vega?

Watch Phil's charge times, respect his wake-up abilities, he has a hard time with grabs, Jeron you have to concentrate on knocking him down and crossing him up more, and since you really can not jump at Immortal you have to hit him low and knock him down with ground game mixups and sweeps.

Looking past the qualifiers, what advice do you have for the winners for doing well at the main event?

Get accustomed to Japanese style Astro Cities as much as possible in arcades in Japan before the tournament. Everyone has their own comfort zone and like in the old days, this is one of those tournaments where you will need to get used to the layouts, cabinet, and noise. Other than that, just relax, take a deep breath and represent the USA well!

I want to wrap up with something a little different. You guys have a wonderful line-up of Pinball games. What goes into keeping the machines running? What are some of your favorite pins and why?

Proper cleaning and ordering of parts and maitenance. We would put more pinballs in there if we had room, but they don't make as much money as we would like, therefore we have to be careful with how much we spend on them.
My favorite pins are Elvira and The Party Monsters, Demolition Man, Tales of the Arabian Nights, and The Sopranos. We have a lot of good ones at the arcade like Theatre of Magic and Addams Family; most of those really are from a time period where I was playing them at locations that involved Street Fighter but they were the "side pieces" and they really were something I completely enjoyed over the years when traveling to arcades. There's a ton more pinball machines that I love, but each one of them will have a specific piece of history moreso as to when and where I played them as opposed to why I like them...

Vampire Savior Tourney News

Art by Moljib.

Darkstalkers Combination Cup 5

The biggest Vampire event of the year, the DCC, has been scheduled for October 10th. There will be singles contests for both Vampire Hunter and Vampire Savior. Usually they have a VS 5on5 the night before, too.

Leading up to the main event will be four preliminary contests for the Chubu, Tohoku, Kansai and Kanto areas (no Kyushu this year.) Winners get a seed that lets them skip the first round.

Nagoya Monogatari 7

This year's Nagoya Stories tournament is happening this Sunday at Urban Square Osu. After the finals the winning team will fight amongst themselves to determine the DCC seed winner. There will be a singles event the night before at Shiogama Space Shuttle.

Warm-Up Tourney
Singles
July 17th at 9:30pm (Japan)

Nagoya Monogatari
Three on Three
July 18th at 5pm

Both of these events are going to be broadcast live:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/vslive
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ゲームライブ配信

UPDATE 7/18: You can watch the stream archive here: winners' bracket, losers' bracket and grand finals. There are some issues with that first link — sound cuts out, Gama no Abura not really familiar with VS, missing bottom-half semis — but things pick up in the losers' bracket. Haitani, Dara and Oboro teaming up set up lots of great Kansai vs. Kanto cards.

2010 Winningest Players Through June

DD has been keeping track of who got the most first place finishes.

Total Wins
7 - Kosho (Bulleta)
3 - Kuma (Sasquatch), DD (Sasquatch), Shimatsuya (Jedah)
2 - bow (Aulbath), Kaji (Lilith), Dara (Demitri)
1 - Atsua (Lei-Lei), Umi no Ko (Aulbath), Osakana (Aulbath), Oboro (Victor), Nan (Bulleta), Ouchi (Jedah), Komemaru (Zabel), Nakanishi (Bishamon), Orekon (Felicia)

Singles Victories
5 - Kosho (Bulleta)
3 - Kuma (Sasquatch)
1 - Atsuta (Lei-Lei), DD (Sasquatch), Nakanishi (Bishamon), Orekon (Felicia)

You can check out some of the Kanto events on the stream archive on Sakamoto's account. Also: concept matches, talk shows and commentary on other games.

Versus SBO Qualifier Videos 071110

Nikaiten kindly uploaded the whole thing. Gian brought the hype. Fate brought us O.Hawk mirror action.







Toukon (Chun-Li), Muneo (O.Sagat), Numa (Boxer)

Toutanki (T.Hawk), K (O.Hawk), Yoshimura (Dhalsim)

Choshu (Ken), Gakuzan (Zangief), Haru KING (E.Honda)

AFO (Blanka), Pony (Zangief), Mattsun (Ken)

Komoda Blanka, Taira (Dictator), yaya (Sagat)

Shin (O.Hawk), Hiroyan (T.Hawk), Keishin (Chun-Li)

T.Akiba (Blanka), Fujinuma (Chun-Li), Nia (E.Honda)

Yoshio (Guile), Aomori (Claw), tomo (Ryu)

Chika@8doors (E.Honda)

Kotaka Shoten (Guile), babynine (E.Honda), VIPER (T.Hawk)

Nasusim (Dhalsim), Muro (O.Hawk), Hanashi (Fei-Long)

Naoki (Boxer), Choudenseihou [Cross] (Fei-Long), Yuzuru (DeeJay)

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EDIT: this week's team battle is here. Toutanki (Zangief) in addition to the usual suspects.

※続きはDVDでお楽しみください

h/t 592

Versus SBO Qualifier 071110

K a.k.a. Dragon Boy (O.Hawk), Toutanki (T.Hawk) and Yoshimura (Dhalsim) won a blue ticket.

Yet-to-qualify teams include:

ARG (Claw), Prince (Chun), The SuperStar (Boxer)

Taira (Dictator), yaya (Sagat), Komoda Blanka

Mr. S (O.Hawk)*, Nekohashi (Ryu), ?

Toukon (Chun), Muneo (O.Sagat), Numa (Boxer)

Mattsun (Ken), Pony (Zangef), AFO (Blanka)

Shin (O.Hawk), Hiroyan (T.Hawk), Keishin (Chun)

*Dara said that Nekohashi would try to drag this guy to the a-cho contest. Seems unlikely, but it would definitely create some extra hype for ST to have the top online SF4 player in the mix.

Super Turbo Videos

Ko-hatsu qualifier vids over here and Five-oh random 2on vids here. I guess I didn't notice at the time that the teams were re-randomized each round.

Losing is for Losers

Good luck to all Evo 2010 participants! This is from the September 2009 issue of Harper's Magazine.

From a March email by Michael Kinahan, coach of a soccer team for girls aged seven and under in Sciuate, Massachusetts, to the children's parents. After parents complained to league officials, Kinahan resigned, saying in his resignation letter that the email was meant to be "a satire of those who take youth sports too seriously for the wrong reasons." The email was obtained by the Patriot Ledger.

Congratulations on being selected for Team 7 (forest-green shirts) of the Scituate Soccer Club! My name is Michael, and I have been fortunate enough to be selected to coach what I know will be a wonderful group of young ladies.

Okay, here’s the real deal: Team 7 will be called Green Death. We will only acknowledge “Team 7” for scheduling and disciplinary purposes. Green Death is not a team but a family (some say cult) that you belong to forever. We play fair at all times, but we play tough and physical soccer. We have some returning players who know the deal; for the others, I only expect 110 percent at every game and practice. We do not cater to superstars but prefer the gritty determination of journeymen who bring their lunch pail to work every week, chase every ball, and dig in corners like a Michael Vick pit bull.

Some say soccer at this age is about fun, and I completely agree. I believe, however, that winning is fun and losing is for losers. Ergo, we will strive for the W in each game. Although we may not win every game (excuse me, I just got a little nauseous), I expect us to fight for every loose ball and play every shift as if it were the finals of the World Cup. As I spent a good Saturday morning listening to the legal-liability BS, which included a thirty-minute dissertation on how we need to baby the kids and especially the refs, I was disgusted. The kids will run, they will fall, get bumps, bruises, even bleed a little. Big deal; it’s good for them (but I do hope the other team is the one bleeding). If the refs can’t handle a little criticism, then they should turn in their whistles. My heckling of the refs is actually helps them develop as people. The political-correctness police are not welcome on my sidelines. America’s youth are becoming fat, lazy, and noncompetitive because competition is viewed as “bad." I argue that competition is crucial to the evolution of our species and our survival in what has become an increasingly competitive global economy and dangerous world. Second-place trophies are nothing to be proud of. They serve only as a reminder that you missed your goal; their only purpose is as an inspiration to do that next set of reps. Don’t animals eat what they kill? (And yes, someone actually kills the meat we eat too — it isn’t grown in plastic wrap.) And speaking of meat, I expect that the ladies be put on a diet of fish, undercooked red meat, and lots of veggies. No junk food. Protein shakes are encouraged, and while blood doping and HGH use is frowned upon, there is no testing policy. And at the risk of stating the obvious, blue slushies are for winners.

These are my views and not necessarily the views of the league (but they should be). I recognize that my school of thought may be an ideological shift from conventional norms. But it is imperative that we all fight the good fight, get involved now, and resist the urge to become sweatxedo-wearing yuppies who sit on the sidelines in their L.L. Bean chairs sipping mocha-latte-half-caf-accinos while discussing reality TV and home decorating with other feeble-minded folks. I want to hear cheering, I want to hear encouragement, I want to get the team pumped up at each and every game and know they are playing for something.

We are all cognizant of the soft bigotry that expects women, and especially little girls, to be dainty and submissive; I wholeheartedly reject such drivel. My overarching goal is develop ladies who are confident and fearless, who will stand up for their beliefs and challenge the status quo. Girls who will kick ass and take names on the field, off the field, and throughout their lives. I want these girls to be winners in the game of life. Who’s with me?

Go Green Death!

Versus Danisen Videos 070410

10th Dan

Kikai (Guile), KKY (Dhalsim), Muteki (Guile), Nakamu (Blanka), Kusumondo (E.Honda), Muteki (Chun-Li), Naoki* (Boxer), Gian (MC)

Don't miss Muteki and Kusumondo's corner combos. *I had this nickname wrong in earlier posts.

Tsuwamono

Muteki (Guile), Nakamu (Blanka), Gian (Dhalsim), YuuVega (Dictator), AFO (Blanka), Nuki (MC)

Some terrific matches here. Nuki calls short back step rolling -> bite Burawaza, secret Blanka technique.

Saijo Plaza Game Corner SBO Q 070310

Suzuki (Guile), Seki (DeeJay) and Kachu (Claw) took it. Only four (+1) more; ARG is taking his sweet time.

EDIT: turns out Kachu swept ARG, Prince and The SuperStar.

"Extreme Fighters"

Your humble blog editor spotted these guys in a capsule vending machine at the supermarket.

G-Com Wajiro SBO Q Videos 062710

There are some fluctuations in the sound levels.

Misc. Match

Finals Block 1

Finals Block 2

Finals Block 3

Dhalsim, DJ, O.Zangief team

Kuni* (Dictator), Yurika (O.Zangief), Giondaiko (DJ)

Yuzuru (DJ), Toukon (Chun), Muneo (O.Sagat)

Kusumond (Honda), Gunze (Zangief), Yabu (Cammy)

* Kuni (Zangief), Kuni (DJ), Kuni (Dictator) <- three different guys

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By the way, Yaya, Komoda and Taira were all at the Yokohama Vision tourney today. stream archive

Gamer's Vision Ranbat Live

This Saturday's contest is a 2on2. Since we're half-way through SBO Qs, the ST action should be hot.

July 3rd
8pm (Japan)

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/gamers-vision/

SBO Main Event

SSF2X has been scheduled for Sunday, September 19th. Super Battle Opera is going down alongside the Tokyo Game Show at Makuhari Messe. Might be a nice thing for international competitors to check out.

Tsurumaki Solo 3on 062710

Results from earlier this week. There should be some videos shortly.

13 entrants

1st AFO (Blanka, Boxer, Fei-Long)
2nd K (Ryu, Boxer, Fei-Long)
3rd Pony Mura (Zangief, Dictator, O.Hawk)