Some may know me as the classic gamer, some may only know me as the fighting gamer. Some of you may not know me at all, and that’s totally fine because you will get to know me. Today I come to you as neither of those personalities but instead as one that I’ve neglected to share with you guys. Though I am first and foremost a gamer of all types, a very large part of me is an avid collector. While I can’t assume direct control, I can bring to you guys my growing knowledge of the world of collecting as we embark on this journey to expand our horizons beyond the television screen.

Most people hear the words toy or action figure and immediately think that only children should be associated with them. What they don’t know is that toys can represent so much more than a plaything when geared toward the right audience. These figures can serve as endless inspiration and nostalgic landmarks in the brain that simultaneous gives the room they are placed in glimpses into the character that you yourself are. For those who wish to learn more, look no further as I am about to give you a brief but sufficient look into the major types of figures available to you.

Let’s start off with the most detailed of the bunch; statues. A statue is a pre-posed model that requires no assembly from the consumer, though some instances occur where you must attach an accessory or two. While a vast majority of them come already painted for your viewing pleasure, not all come with a paint job. These are perfect for the collector who wants to further add his or her own personality to the statue. As these come in a great variety of different sizes and shapes, there are are a few key differences that set apart each statue other than the details of the statue itself. The size, or scale, of the statue is the first thing that set’s them apart as each manufacturer has it’s own preferred size limitations. Special projects that don’t follow a particular line of products are subject to more freedom when determining size. The other key factor is the material the statue is made out of. Most often done from a type of plastic called PVC, statues also usually come in porcelain and die-cast metal, each with their own weight and texture to them. Since statues are primarily focused on painstaking detail and accuracy, they aren’t as mass produced as other types of figures and are usually highly sought after because of this. Supply and demand rears it’s occasionally ugly head because of this truth and the prices of statues vary from somewhat affordable to wallet emptying because of it. You can think of statues as the high end decorative end of the spectrum of toys. They may cost a bit and are sometimes rare, but damn if they aren’t beautiful and satisfying to look at.

Perfectly good example of a pvc statue. Don't look too long now!

Next up we are going to dive into the world of action figures. Depending on how awesome you were as a child, you should be pretty familiar with these imagination party starters. Now these figures are also pre-assembled but have an important detail that sets them apart from statues. They are purposely designed to allow you to pose them in many different ways, hence the name “action” figures. Since these guys are made for more direct interaction than a statue, less effort is spent on fine details and is instead spent on durability. A great action figure balances the need for good articulation for poses and the need for good subject detail and accuracy. Articulation simply refers to the different points on the figure that you can maneuver around to create desired poses and stances. The higher lever of articulation a figure has, the more joints you can move around. Even though the focus is on making sure the figure handles wear and tear well, manufacturers don’t forget to make the action figure accurately resemble the subject of the figure. You wouldn’t want a highly playable action figure of Solid Snake only to have him look like Tom Hanks in a rubber suit now would you? I didn’t think so, though thinking about it now makes me feel like I stumbled onto something here… Hopping back on track here, these figures are made with cheaper material and are easier to produce a large quantity of resulting in more favorable prices and levels of availability. Action figures are more casual of a purchase since they cost less and can even resemble statues pretty well enough to function as them. These are primarily for those who like to have fun with their figures but can be enjoyed by the wallflowers who like to just look on in admiration. 

Halo action figures ready for...uh...action!

Next we have something for the more adventurous collector. Model kits, also known as garage kits, are figures that actually do not come already assembled and instead demand that you, the consumer, build these kits yourself. Now initially one would probably think, “why would I want to go through all the effort of building my own figure if I can just buy it already made?” and there are a few answers to this question. Model kits allow for high levels of customization because you can tweak the different pieces to look how you want them to. Painting individual pieces of a figure is easier and more accurate than painting an assembled figure because you don’t have to fear any of the paint spilling over into unwanted areas. Though not always the case, model kits have been known to include interchangeable pieces such as different hand pieces or attachable accessories. When a model kit is referred to as a garage kit it means that it has no paint job on it leaving full color customization up to the person putting the figure together. Kits can either use joints to allow posing upon completion or remain in a fixed pose due to lack of articulation or being held together by glue. Each kit comes with an instruction booklet that is designed to show you how each piece fits with each corresponding piece correctly. These instructions range from easily understood to annoyingly difficult so pay attention to how complicated the finished piece looks. Although model kits do indeed come disassembled there are places that will sell completed and painted model kits but at a much higher asking price due to the labor and supplies used. Usually in good supply, model and garage kits are moderately affordable but can be more expensive the more complicated the kit becomes. Model kits are definitely geared more towards those who want to feel like the figure is their own personal extension of themselves. It’s very similar to giving a car a custom paint job. Solid Tom Hanks Snake could be more awesome than anyone else’s with your own paint touches to him. 

Super simple garage kit. It can get a lot harder than this.

There are a few more variations of toys but a very large majority of them fall under one of these three categories. I’ll be back to cover the other different types and how to go about looking for them. If that isn’t enough to get you sick of me, I will also bring to you guys reviews and closer looks at some good figures, even some from my own personal collection. That’s right folks I intend to be your one stop shop for all things toy related here on clgamer, from classic figures that are coveted by collectors everywhere, hot figures that are out that you need to get your hands on, to upcoming figures that you’ll wish you didn’t have to wait for. This is Krismas rolling out, I have some gundams to build..

But, all things aside I finished in the top 20 (tied 17th) which is not bad at all. My other two highest finishes were when I placed 4th at NJIT, and 3rd at an admittedly low-turnout King of the Couch in Morristown. I can confidently say that my play has improved from last year. I don’t wake up unsafely as much I used to. I still have my issues with defense (I get grabbed easily and my blocking isn’t fully solid yet) however I have gotten better at avoiding some situations. On the other side of the coin, my offense has experienced the same growth. I am trying to make the transition from being a brawler to a more refined fighter. Yes, it’s a slow one with no real metric in which to measure your success, but I’ve noticed I have been winning a bit more in ranked matches online.

I finally made a return to Next Level for the big Two tournament series. I get there, I’m excited to play, but then, just my luck, I get to play a Spam ‘Rog and his cheap El Fuerte on stream . Overall, I didn’t do too bad, but I see that the potential here. I looked way better here than I did at Apex, but I’m still too inconsistent. I missed a few key punishes but I reacted well in some situations. If you’re wondering how I did in the overall tournament, I was blown up I haven’t gone 0-2 in a while so it was refreshing to be put down for once. That means I still have work to do, but just where do I get started?

Fortunately for me, Shoryuken has many posts on how to level up your game. I have been following them when I am in the lab, however I’ve just been playing online more to see what people are doing and get a feel of what I should be doing with my character. I just don’t feel that I have enough experience versus some characters or situations. Top players have been in some fight situations over and over again, and they just know what to do without wasting time to think about it. Me? I have to think. I’m also not able to accurately manage my meters without looking constantly. I still find myself peeking when I’m mid fight. I feel that if I can get better, more intuitive with my H.U.D. management then I can do things like make better reads on my opponent by looking at his life bar, super meter or even time with ease. I’ll also be able to mentally access my situations a bit better. I think the only cure for that is experience, so I have resolved to try and make it out to more local tournaments.

I think with more practice, I’ll build up the muscle memory required to not drop combos too often. I’ve made some progress, I just need to work out the kinks. I do not easily spook under pressure, it doesn’t affect me much, so I know that isn’t the problem. I however need to be able to take my comfortable, casual state of high-level play to tournaments. The transition seems to be giving me a hard time and I think that leads to my erratic play sometimes. I’ll keep working at it!

In any case, like always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on getting better. Tweet to me guys!

While the majority of floor content was dedicated to comics, artists and similar interests, the New York Comic Con floor did have its share of video game related booths. From the retro sales provided by 8 Bit & Up, to Capcom’s large booth that just about welcomed the thousands of attendees, there was a bit of everything for convention goers to experience within the world of gaming. Speaking of Capcom’s booth, a handful of upcoming and recently released titles were on display for gamers to try out, including what captivated me for most of my gameplay time through NYCC, Street Fighter X Tekken — the crossover juggernaut that gives the best of both worlds, within the familiar confides of a Capcom brawler game engine.

While I did have some time with Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, I held back on unleashing a massive blitz on this one, mainly because it’s under a month until its release. Street Fighter X Tekken is still a season and a half away, and offered some rather intriguing possibilities. Players select a team of two fighters from a roster that’s split between Tekken and Street Fighter combatants. The gameplay is a mesh of Tekken style combos and juggles, with the super combos and chain combo attacks from the Street Fighter universe. Players can tag in their partner at will (pressing both medium attacks at the same time) or initiate a switch mid combo (by pressing both medium buttons during a combo, or by “launching” your opponent with both heavy buttons simultaneously.) If one fighter on either team loses all their health, despite the health of the partner that’s waiting in the wings, the round is lost, so swapping in and out at the right time is a major key to victory. It’s a game mechanic that feels a lot like Tekken Tag Tournament.

While the build available was still not close to being complete (about 30 characters or so available, with many more still being announced and added in as the weeks pass), it’s amazing how fleshed out the combat system, visuals and everything in-between was. While the Street Fighter character models have not really changed from their Street Fighter 4 counterparts, they still move gracefully, with colorful and lively backgrounds to boot. The Tekken characters have transferred over well, though they do look a bit more detailed than their Street Fighter counterparts. They still look magnificent together, though they play even better. While my Tekken skills are beyond rusty (I cannot remember anyone’s 10 hits, elementary three hits and such) I was told that utilizing the first four attack buttons (light punch and kick as well as medium punch and kick) feels similar to the four button attack set up from their franchise releases. Many Street Fighter commands have been added in, such as Hwaroang’s dive kick being a quarter circle forward and a kick button in the air, or an offensive roll across the ground with Kuma buy inputting quarter circle forward and a punch button on the ground. Juggle states have been added as well, which has become a staple in the Tekken fighting engine. If you  jump up and attack a jumping opponent with an attack, they will fall down slightly slower, and be open to continuation attacks on the ground, such as a light, medium, strong into a hard punch + hard kick character tag attack, into a continuation from there. Ryu can even anti air a jumping adversary that is in the corner with a light shroyuken and have enough time to throw in a light medium and heavy kick standing into a tag attack, and so on. Add in a super combo to each Tekken fighter (which are more cinematic than their Street Fighter counterparts) and you have a bulk of the gameplay offered by this crossover combination.

Though the Street Fighter cast does have a few fighters that seem to feel a bit too similar to each other, picking a Tekken fighter opens up quite a bit more diversity. Tekken brawlers such as Kazuya and Heihachi may a few moves that look and feel similar, they are not as bogged down with redundancy as Ken, Ryu, Sagat and others that share more than enough moves and strategies. While Street Fighter characters may rely on projectiles more than anything, if those Tekken fighters get in on their opponent, it could be a lot tougher to thwart. Street Fighter has always had a balance of keep away and up close characters, but having all of these Tekken fighters added into the mix gives the experience less of a keep away, and more of a strategic battle to see who can get in first and stay in there the longest.

If I had to complain about anything from this build, it would have to be a couple of balance issues, as well as those pesky health bars. For the latter, it’s just too irritating. Between the bouncing and vibrating whenever someone gets hit, to the color scheme used to indicate life lost and such, the life bars are more of a distraction rather than a tool to dictate how much health a player has left. It’s difficult to discern where an opponents health is at, or even your own, and the shaking these bars do whenever a hit lands just makes thins even more obscure. Trying to get an accurate tab on your partners health proves just as daunting. The balance issues stem more from the usual overpowered grappler builds. Zangief and Hugo can rip off massive chunks of enemy health with a command throw (more than they ever were able to do in the Street Fighter 4 and Street Fighter 3 series respectively), and even more with an EX command throw (EX attacks utilize one of the three EX bars gained during battle, to perform the same move with a bit more “oomph” to it.) I’ve generally had issues with how overpowered command throws can be from characters like Zangief throughout the years, but this is nearly as absurd as Capcom Fighting Evolution, which was painful enough. Also, utilizing frame traps all but prevents a person from tagging their partner back in. While there are definitely ways of circumventing this annoyance, it’s a shame that they can be such a focus, as they were with certain characters in the Street Fighter 4 series.

Even with my minor gripes (and to be completely honest, only the health bars provided more discomfort and annoyance), I absolutely ate up all that Street Fighter X Tekken provided at New York Comic Con. I’ve had my apprehensions over this collaboration when it was first announced, but as time passed, and as I got a hold of a playable build, I felt all my worries evaporate, and replaced by an elation and anticipation that I hadn’t had for a fighting game since Marvel vs Capcom 3 was first announced. While Tekken fighters may not feel as similar as they did from their own franchise, having a different style coincide with the Street Fighter style of gameplay does offer new possibilities and layers of depth throughout. March 7, 2012 has been marked as Street Fighter X Tekken‘s release date, and I’m already marking off the days on my calendar until I get another chance to fart in phire’s face with my Kuma!

The first thing I have learned is that you are as good as the people and where you play. Meaning if you are an online warrior and you’re hunting people that are less skilled than you, you’re probably going to lose using online tactics offline. Also if you play within your circle of friends and you’re the best among them you are big fish in a small pond. My pools had no players from NYC in it but it was people from Canada,Seattle and other places so I was learning about the rest of North America. And I was doing pretty well. I am not a top player in NYC by any means but I was beating people who were the best or pretty good in their regions. I lost to the best ‘Sim player in Canada last game last round and was lack of match up experience that did me in. I also lost to a good Canadian Rufus after mind-fucking myself.

Exactly what my losses felt like

Which brings me to my second point, New York City is tough. NYC because of the sheer amount of people living in the the area has a higher amount of players than most states. The transportation allows these players to travel all over the city to play each other in tournaments often and congregate for sessions to just get better (8-bit dojo is an example of this). Going to a random local tournament you’d have to deal with guys like Dieminon, Arturo, Sanford Kelly, etc. It would be different living in another state where you’d maybe only see one or no big names there. The best example of this is in a non video game sense is take a look at the NBA, there was a point where the Western Conference was stacked. The teams were just so good, Lakers, Spurs, Jazz, Nuggets, Suns, Blazers ,etc. That teams that weren’t bad at all (and maybe be a mid to high seed in the Eastern Conference) still were very low seeds in the playoffs. New York is that tough for no reason Western Conference.

I owned the Eastern Confrence free.

A game play thing that I’ve noticed at EVO is that no one blocks.Not they they are always attacking but everything works at EVO. Part of it I theorize is because everyone’s so hyped up they want to put their stamp on the tournament ,provide hype or just dominate the match. Also there’s a level of familiarity that is lost when you play total strangers. All your set ups will work because no one has seen them before, so people fall for almost anything (I.E. Phoenix inferno at the start of a match) at least once or twice in your 2 out of 3 set. If you know what a character does,how a team operates, common set-ups and strategies before you get to EVO or any tournament for that matter you are going to do well for yourself.

A key thing is that you have to play with confidence and swagger. You have to have the confidence in yourself make those big plays, great reads and get stops when you need them. The people who beat me were pretty much pushed to the brink and they steam rolled the person that was waiting for them in the finals. The person in the finals talked a lot of garbage about how he had his pool in the bag and it was free. However the look in his eyes said other wise. After my first match against the same guy asked me for my gt (gamer tag) and said I looked familiar, some confidence eh? He looked concerned that he’d have to play me at some point. I would have liked to beat him but I guess that’s for another day.

Keep doing you

The last thing I picked up is that the community for the most part is full of good people. Maybe it was just my experience but as a player who sucked horrifically in Street Fighter IV to someone who is pretty decent in Arcade Edition, I can tell you that part of my growth basically came from the community. Other players like Justin, Arturo, Jago, etc were always beating me up but giving me knowledge. Playing at tournaments people have always been willing to talk and share stuff with me helping me understand their character in relation to my own. Evo was no different people were willing to share info, the ‘sim player that beat me told me that the match up depends on if I can get in or not and that me personally I should take more risks to do so because ‘sim cannot really punish too hard. I had theories about this but now that just confirmed it.

During Evo I got some pretty bad news first that our trailer/pilot was denied (boo) which was understandable because we definitely had some technical issues. The news that really got me was about my dog. I’ve had this dog for 16 years. She was/is like one of my best friends ever. This video sums up everything how I feel and went through in the two days I was back from Vegas:

The day she passed I was wreck and I really wasn’t up to full power, (I don’t feel that I am still but that’s another story) it definitely affected my thought process and how much I functioned for a bit. After while things sorta got back to normal I played in a few tournaments and did some events. At the first Guard Crush post Evo I did alright finished in the top 30 out of 55 which isn’t too great but I also took top 8 in the Japanese style tournament they had.

Here are some matches from that:

The Samsung Experience in NYC had a SF tourney that i attended with the weird gimmick of having to win a certain amount of matches before you can even play in the tournament. Basically I finished top 16 and got scrubbed out. I deserved it because I wasn’t ready mentally. I took my loss like a champion and I headed home.

However I learned that friendship is magic because on Sunday the guys at the 8-bit dojo chipped in and got me this incredible Cammy shirt along with a picture and a thank you for putting stuff together. The all knew that I was down and they did so to cheer me up and it did. I was able to get off my sorry butt and get back in the saddle with this writing gig. So it’s back to buisness and that’s buisness as usual.

So yeah that’s what I learned after EVO.

I spent a good amount of time after my loss just watching the rest of the SF tournament. I took a ton of pictures which are available here, I bumped into Kara and she did an amazing job as usual taking photos and those are available for your viewing pleasure here.

To be honest most of my time after the tournament was a blur of watching Sidekicks, hanging out at the pool. I would watch finals and support my friends (most of the east coast players, Justin and a few others). Watching those matches unfold felt like wrestling matches because they were full of flash, technique and substance. Especially Justin’s amazing Akuma only comeback with no X-factor.

The place blew up with Yipes on the microphone. And we were all on our feet yelling and screaming. In a word, it was Hype. I feel honored to be able to say I was there when Poongko powered up and perfected Diago’s Yun.

As much as people say they hate A.E. the place was absolutely coming down when Latieef defeated Diago. There’s a reason why Street Fighter is the main event and not Marvel and it is for moments like these.

The overall experience of Evo is tough to put into words. It’s one of those things where you have to be there to fully appreciate it for what it is. I was able to hang out with people I have not seen in a while,meet some new friends and party with kindred spirits. After Evo was all said and done I went to the Strip and I hung out with Chris G. at the Gameworks arcade. It was not anything like Japan’s arcades but it was nice to be in one. I got to play the Sonic fighting game (I used Knuckles) and played some VS Outrun and I got to play some Pump it Up after many year s(I was rusty as hell and sweating like a Baptist preacher on Easter Sunday). Speaking of you guys need to check out the Balrog movie (posted up top).

I did score some pretty sweet interviews with a few of the players and I will be uploading them once I transcribe them. It’s pretty interesting what the feel is important for players to work on.

What song did I play for my music in Outrun? I played the greatest song ever, Night Flight, of course.

Thanks for the support on Facebook and followers on Twitter

I was up and exercising at 6 A.M. and made my way down to the pools with Chris G to the main hall. Needless to say I was wowed by the size size of the venue. It took a little bit of searching but I found my pool which was 10 and I checked in. I saw that my match was at the end of the bracket so I watched the matches that preceded it like a hawk. Gathering as much information as I could about each players play style,the characters that they used and trying to relate that to the match up versus my killer bee. In the pool there were two no shows. Which struck me as weird why would you register for Evo and then not show up. When I was getting ready for Evo I didn’t not register until I had my flight and hotel squared away, it was more expensive but it ensured that I would officially be playing and not giving someone a free ride. In any case the characters in my pool were E.Honda, Dan, Vega (Claw), M.Bison (dictator), Rufus, Dee Jay, Dhalsim, Ken ,Cody, Zangief, Cammy (myself) I don’t remember the other ones they must have not made an impression on me. I was a little bit nervous because I sat through a few matches and I did not know how good my opponent was going to be. I was paranoid that he was some unknown killer and I’d start my Evo travel in losers.

When my name was called I sat down and put Applejack down at the station and then set up and made sure my stick worked since I had to do some surgery to it before hand. The reason why I brought her with me is to calm me down, she was with me in the arcades in Osaka and Kyoto and it allowed me to tune everything out and focus on the match. My first match was against a Cody. I know the match up for the most part but sometimes Cody can become a problem. I tested the waters with a opening hooligan and the dive kick ambiguous cross up. Once I saw that he had no answers for it I just locked in and went pure rush down. For the most part I did pretty and perfected him in the second set once. I baited his Ultra (he picked Ultra 1) with a high dive kick and punished. I really steamrolled my first match. I posted on Facebook results and it was waiting for the next.

My next match up was against a Bison player. Usually the standing roundhouse (heavy kick) or standing forward (medium kick) shuts down much of what I want to do. I have been practicing a bit more against Bison so I can punish things better on block such as his Ultra 1 and his EX-Psycho Crusher.However this Bison did none of that. He did a lot jumping around and teleporting on his wake up. The first round I took a lot of damage trying to chase him down but I closed it out. After the first hit or two I would back off and force him to come to me if he wanted to win. After a few seconds of him jumping backwards he realized I wasn’t going to chase him anymore. I took a few steps randomly towards the center and just waited, eventually he came to me (that’s what she said, pause) and I beat him.

My third match was against Dhalsim in the semi finals, the winner got to beat the snot out of this annoying Dee Jay player who really had an easy run to winners finals. Funny enough before the match he told me good games and no matter what beat that annoying Dee Jay player, I agreed and we played. Even though I almost beat Arturo I have no ‘sim match up experience. I did practice a little bit before I left on how to beat the teleport set ups but that was it. I got exposed the first set. The second match I was fighting a bit more comfortably and I was able to take that one. The third he beat me clean. My problem was I didn’t know how or when to punish his limbs, consistently. In the first set I almost won on around but then was close to having a time over victory but got impatient, I should have just taken the chip damage rather than try to punish the Ex-Yoga Fire. I still would have been up on life barely. I can point to some key mistakes I made. I was thinking that maybe I should have safe Cannon Drilled a little bit more. He apparently was the best ‘Sim player in Canada. He would go on to beat that Dee Jay and get out of pools.

As tough as it was to not beat myself up over those mistakes, I had to pull it together to play my next match. It was a new set,new game new opponent that had its own set of challenges. I would be facing a Honda player. I had to rally and make up for that loss. A good friend recorded the match so you can watch it. I think it will do better than my words.

My final match was in the semi finals versus the Rufus player. Who said the same exact thing to me that the ‘sim player did ‘Beat that Dee Jay, he’s talking way too much shit’. We both agreed and the fight was under way.

The first match first round was tough. It came down to pixels of health. I punished one of his moves wrong and he was able to punish my punish. And it was a real heart breaker. He went on to win the first set. I came roaring back in the second closing out one round by punishing his Ex-Messiah Kick with my ultra (finally got it right). The second round I just applied pressure until he eventually cracked. It was tough reading him because he went from playing offensive to defensive but he would switch randomly. He would not give me any chance to get in, he also didn’t ever try to use any of his anti-airs against me and opted to punish my jump ins on landing. The last game was very tense each of us taking rounds coming down to the last round. He played better and opened up the lead and never looked back. And that was the end of my Evo tournament experience.

I learned a bunch from this experience and just being around the other players. I’ll tell you about it as I get ready for the next Evo.

Thursday (28th) was my flight out. I originally was slated to leave for Las Vegas around noon-ish but then my flight got changed and I ended up leaving at 4p.m. However I also got a direct flight there instead of having to transfer which ended up working out in the long run because I got to Vegas a little bit earlier. That meant I could get to the hotel at a decent time, unwind and get ready for combat. I approached this weekend like a fighter, nothing too crazy the night before and after I just relaxed and took it all in (that’s what she said).

On the way there I mentioned that I felt like I was in Enter the Dragon, what did that feel like well it was very paranoid. I spend most of my time in the airport lobby refreshing Twitter, Foursquare and checking all the #Evo2k tweets to try and figure out who was there. I also spent a lot of time sizing people up and trying to figure out if they were players or not and most importantly if they were in my pool. I spent hours profiling people and potentially figuring out what characters they used. When I got off the plane that was made easier. In the span of five minutes I had twenty different people ask me what game I am there for and who was my main. Keeping cool and using my assassin skills I learned in Street Wars I said C.Viper was my main with Yun as an alt. I kept the poker face as I said it and talked about my trouble with Fierce Feint Fierce. I didn’t want to reveal any of my tech (technology) before the tournament. It was pure Kung-Fu treachery.

The Rio itself as a hotel is crazy, it has nightclubs, restaurants, shops two types of pools (normal and topless) and huge convention halls. Checking in I easily spotted some very familiar faces as well as some new ones. This being my first major I was impressed with the amount of space that was inside of the hall. I haven’t seen that many set ups and chairs (again first major) in one place before. The size of the convention center was bigger than about 100 8-bit and ups (maybe I’m exaggerating a bit). However this is the first night so I had to keep it simple in terms of my nightly plans. I got to my room and was pleased with the lay out, not going to like but I felt a little bit like a rock star. I was so used to the cramped hotel rooms in Tokyo and pushing the limit of most standard hotel room occupancy, it was really nice to sleep in a bed the entire weekend. I had no real trouble falling asleep that night. As I knew I had to be up early for my pools so I wanted to give myself time to exercise and properly wake up to be ready to play at my 8 am pool.

Save your game?

I’m facing my demons more than anything else. I’m not nervous about the competition at this point I’m worried about me. I know what I can do but I just wonder what version of me is going to come out and play. It’s like I don’t know if my superpowers are going to work every time I leave the house. But this is why we play, to find out what happens. I discovered that I was in pool 10. We’ll see what happens and I’ll keep everyone up-to-date with twitter and Facebook .

Aside from tournaments I’ll be checking out the pannels, snapping photos and interviewing players. I’ll do a few posts as a player and media so you guys can get a good feel of what’s going on without being there.

Here’s the schedule for EVO
Thursday, July 28th

2:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Early Badge Pickup, Outside of the Pavilion Ballroom
10:00 PM: Official Evo Pre-Party @ Insert Coin(s)

Friday, July 29th

Tournament Schedule

8:00 AM – 6:00 PM: Pool Play, SSF4:AE, MK9
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Quarterfinals, SSF4:AE MK9
8:00 PM – 11:00 PM: Semifinals, SSF4:AE, MK9

Panel Schedule

10:00 AM: Feed the Stream Monsters: A Guide to Broadcasting Fighting Games
12:00 PM: Skullgirls: A New Age of Heroines
2:00 PM: Inside the Mind of the Beast: Daigo Umehara Exposed!
4:00 PM: Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Past, Present, and Future!
6:00 PM: Screening, Bang the Machine

Saturday, July 30th

Tournament Schedule

8:00 AM – 6:00 PM: Pool Play, MvC3, Tekken 6, BlazBlue CS2
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Quarterfinals, MvC3, Tekken 6, BlazBlue CS2
8:00 PM – 11:00 PM: Semifinals, MvC3
12:00 AM: MvC3 EC vs. WC 5 on 5 Exhibition

Panel Schedule

10:00 AM: King of Fighters XIII: Panel and Discussion
12:00 PM: Street Fighter III: Online Edition, Reinventing a Classic
2:00 PM: Namco Bandai – Get Ready for the Next Panel!
4:00 PM: New Directions in Street Fighter X Tekken
6:00 PM: Screening, King of Chinatown
7:15 PM: Screening, Focus

Sunday, July 31

All times are approximate! We will also have some surprises in store throughout the day.

10:00 AM: Blazblue Finals
12:00 AM: Tekken 6 Finals
2:00 PM: Mortal Kombat 9 Finals
3:30 PM: SF3 Third Strike Exhibition
5:00 PM: Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Finals
6:30 PM: Screening, Balrog: Behind the Glory.
7:00 PM: SSF4:AE Finals
9:00 PM: Closing Ceremonies

I see the line in the sand it’s time to find out who I am. Vegas is about to find out about this phire.

Additional information about the tournament schedule and your bracket placement will be made available a week before the event on the EVO website. See you in Vegas!

I am wondering what the brackets will look like. I will post them when we find out about them.

So I have been coming out of a bit of a slump recently. When I was in Japan I leveled up considerably however due to the fact that I spent a lot of time working on the pilot for the New York Television Festival much of the momentum I had was lost. I’ve since then went back to my hourly a day practice with sessions on Friday and Sunday. I’ve sort of recovered it. I printed out a ton of frame data to try and figure out how to beat the common moves that beat me. I can’t punish things with Cammy’s Spiral Arrow as I would like, so this means I must be more efficient when I am hunting down that damage.

At a recent session a few members of the 8-bit dojo were helping me out and critiquing my game. Cripsy told me some key things, that first I don’t finish my combo I always go for grabs and two that I should just do the combos I know which are damaging. I stick with simple combos which is ok but it leaves the door open for come back factor. He said I should do heavier hitting combos to put the round away quicker. I was struggling with a Fei Long player and once I started really doing big damage the fight became way easier. Before the advice he would beat me 3-1 or 3-2, after it I was beating him 3-1 consistently.

Jay V. (Galarian) pointed out that I was not cheap enough. The hooligan set ups and traps that I usually do once or twice a set I should be doing it at least once or twice a round. He also thinks I should mix up my walk up throws and tick throw way more than I normally do. It’s tough for me because I feel that I don’t want to be cheap. Manny,a really good player, also feels I should expand my mix up game. Rhys told me something that Justin (Lemon) told me but not in depth. Rhys told me to stop doing random things to see how people react, once in a while it’s fine but unless I’m sure I should play safe, especially when I have a life lead. I like to play a bit wild but it is solid advice that I will try to keep in mind when I’m playing.

Personally, I feel that I need to stop completing combos that end in an unsafe special move. That means trying to tame my disobedient left hand from doing motions. I’ve also scoured the net for some Cammy tutorial videos to see if there is anything that I’ve missed in my Cammy development. I found a few vids that I will be watching and scribbling some notes down from.

To be honest I don’t know what the level of competition is going to be like. I did struggle at Guard Crush teams but that was partly my fault for being rusty mentally and too much Xbox Live.I think after Evo I will keep playing in tournaments and keeping sharp. Off to the Lab.

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I have been spending a good deal of time in the lab (training mode) working on my character. I played Lemon often and even one of the best M.Bison players on the East Coast (Twisted Jago) have played some matches and gave me pointers. I definitely feel more confident when I play because I have an offense now besides mashing dragon punch and just using cannon drill unsafely. I actually took the time to understand  this version of Street Fighter and spent some time playing other characters a little bit . I have a better understand of what characters do and a little bit of the tendencies that a player may have (shout out to Jago for putting me on to match up psychology) which has improved my decision making. My execution is the biggest thing I’m working on right now (that’s what she said). I feel that not having to worry about dropping (missing) my combos in the fight will free up my thought processes to react and figure things out. Worrying about missing combos every time I landed a hit was my biggest issue.  When I look at the matches I won on Xbox Live or offline, I look impressive, like an American Sakonoko (top Japanese player)  . When I look at the matches that I lost I just look clueless. I don’t know if I am mentally taking myself out of these matches.

Luckily I’ve been running the 8-bit Dojo and playing against a group of players of a similar skill level so I’m always competing. At the Guard Crush it definitely helped to have Mark and Rob there to offer some coaching as to what I was doing mid-match. Some of the things that they’ve noticed that I’m doing wrong  is that I am playing too fast and that I am very impatient. In casuals I just stalk them down and then just pressure relentlessly. In tournaments I’m playing faster than I usually do and I can’t figure out why. Maybe it’s because I think I have to win as quick as I can to save time or it could because I am so used to organizing and running my own events that I conditioned to play the hurry up and go offense to finish my match to get back to doing my job as tournament organizer. Either way it’s so God-damned annoying, it frustrates me to no end as to why this keeps happening. Last year, my issue was going 0-2 and out being practically free. So now I’ve been winning some matches I just can’t get over the hump.

Part of the issue I think is that I revert back to the Guilty Gear days and mashing out DP (dragon punch,what did you think it was) because I felt safe using Sol Badguy’s dragon punch move. I feel that my biggest weakness is my defense but I play mainly offensive characters so I feel that a strong defense for me is just a great offense. However the current generation of Street Fighter games beg to differ. Defense and conservative play for now seems to win depending on the character that you play. I unfortunately play Cammy who’s built around rush down. Not that I am blaming my character for anything, I am just accepting that I have to be aggressive (B-E Aggressive). So what’s a player to do? I have to play aggressively but conservative aggression right now, I just can’t go crazy like everyone tells me to do with Phoenix in MVC3 or just run at people all day like I used to do with Mr. Badguy.

Maybe another part of my issue is nerves. I have not played in that many tournaments for video games. I played a bunch of Basketball tournaments yes but that’s usually a team affair and once you score your first basket, mentally seeing the ball going through the rim settles your nerves. Also usually before most games you get a scouting report on teams so you know what to expect after tip off. In gaming not too much I don’t know what to expect from random players and sometimes I play down to their level. Top players don’t scare because they represent challenges that I want to overcome. I’m close to a mid-major college program that does well against the higher profile schools but get blown up by no name colleges in the middle of nowhere.

The biggest issue I feel is my inconsistency. Some days (I’ve mentioned this earlier) I look really good, other days not so much. It’s tough finding that level of play that I know I can sustain indefinitely. I feel some of it is practice, there’s a mechanical element to it but then I feel a good portion of it is mental and the other parts is just pure experience. The best I could do for right now is just practice and then play online to get used to seeing different strategies and having to adjust to them in a short amount of time.

What do you think? What is your advice on this situation? I’d love to hear it.