12.29.2010

CdF #2

Some 2 weekends ago we had the second "big" meeting at CdF. As you might know, this is the only place where we can play arcade 3rd Strike in Italy. It's a private house and it's outside Milan, but the setup is well worth the trip. Also worth noting that the owner of the place, Steve, is now in Japan and will be there possibly forever, lol. We'll be able to play there again anyway though, so it's cool.

This time we had 3 fully working 3s setups (2 vs city, 1 normal), Blazblue CS and even Guilty Gear AC... Don't get all excited though, only 1 GG head showed up. We're far from having a scene for that here but whatever. Fenrir, the GG guy, ended up playing Elena in 3s so it's all good!
He wasn't the only new player this time. lalbeldc experienced the offline environment for the first time and really enjoyed it, while showing off a solid Oro. Goon went all out and for 2 days he kept playing at a very basic level just to get the hang of the game... Hopefully he'll come back for more. Jeel (BB player) and other guys played as well. Valmaniac (NE) and Togo (Q) were there as usual, doing well most of the time. Togo really stepped up his game this time! I've seen proper Q combos and patient play from him, and that's cool.

About me... I'm pretty satisfied, I didn't really lose matches I shouldn't have and I did better than usual against Fran. Still, Yun is my nightmare, not a news here. I've got a good amount of games with LEVA as well, and it's something I needed quite badly. Had a lot of fun playing him.
I feel like I'm completely comfortable to play on cabs now. When I come back to play on PS2 with the stick on my knees, well, I feel I can't really do my best now. I know, it's an excuse (it really is, especially playing Chun), but still the feeling remains. Whatever, one of the best things of a VS setup is WIN STREAKS. I love that shit. On PS2 with my opponent on my side always complaining about how harsh life is if you don't play Chun, I really don't bother much about freeplay and I actually lose a lot, using different characters. On the cab there's no way I can give up a streak easily. I had several short ones and a 54 wins one which was lovely, lol. Fran wasn't there though, and when he arrived he ended it but like on his 3rd/4th attempt. You just get the rythm when you're there. Lovely.

On sunday (this time we spent 2 days there, no ranbat on Saturday due to another of our SSFIV events happening in Milan) we had a dan'isen session too. No details on this until we can show a decent looking ranking, but things are working, in my opinion. Also, it's much easier to run this thing on cabs, with no stick switching and such. Several people had fun so I guess it's cool, even though there was as usual one single negative feedback that bothers me... Nothing much we can do I guess. We have to keep trying it, somehow, if we want to make it something solid.
If you ask me, I think this dan'isen thing has the potential to hype things up in a while. SSFIV heads are trying it as well. They follow the lead as usual, lol.

Togo's unstoppable Q desperately trying to find a way to lose this match. Think fast! You have a lead and time is running out~

12.24.2010

Game Versus Dan'isen summary

Found this on 2ch several times (anonymous poster as usual), guess it's worth some little translating work every once in a while, so here we go.

Your reference is GV's site anyway: http://www.game-versus.net/danisen/grade.html

CHARACTER / RANK / BEST PLAYER(S) / LATEST VIDEOS
Alex | 猛者 | Hiro-chan 
Chun Li | 智将 | Rikimaru www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11806613
Dudley | 名将 | Kokujin, Aiku www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm10705665 www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11641820
Elena | 猛者 | K.O, Teppe www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9457410 www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12632838
Gouki | 王者 | Boss www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9910520
Hugo | 強者 | YSB www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11232240
Ibuki | 王者 | Higa www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm10377875
Ken | 名将 | Matsuken, Nuki  
Makoto | 智将 | Boss www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm10705665
Necro | 猛者 | Yakkun, Uni, Sugiyama www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm10057679 www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12694093 www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12843609
Oro | 王者 | Hiro-chan www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12870051
Q | 王者 | TM www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12632838  
Remy | 強者 | Pierrot, Mukuremy www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9899162
Ryu | 猛者 | Vanao, Yuki Otoko, Ruu, Magu www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm10225234 www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12278491
Sean | 十段 | MOV
12 | 十段 | Nagao, Moge
Urien | 猛者 | RX, Choppa, Afuro www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9898976 www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12475756
Yang | 王者 | Furo, Boss www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12278726 www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12901065
Yun | 名将 | Yakkun, Nitto www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9910520 www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12963997

WEIRD TIER LIST

Based on the highest rank achieved by every character:
智将 Makoto, Chun Li
名将 Dudley, Yun, Ken
王者 Gouki, Ibuki, Oro, Yang, Q
猛者 Elena, Necro, Ryu, Urien, Alex
強者 Remy, Hugo
十段 12, Sean

RANK NAMES
智将 - Chisho Rank
名将 - Meisyo Rank (Coach)
王者 - Ouja Rank (King)
猛者 - Mosa Rank (Man of Valor)
強者 - Tsuwamono Rank (Strong)
十段 - 10th Dan


I'll leave any consideration to you, but it's certainly good to see every character in this. And that sort of tier list is awesome, to say the least. Mind you, it's not a reliable tier list, it's not even a proper tier list actually. But it shows that even a Q can do that much.

Also, I won't bother making those videos clickable here. Sorry :/
Anyway, if you're too lazy or if you don't interact with NicoNico (I don't see why, but your choice!), you know where you have to go: http://www.youtube.com/theshend

12.10.2010

SEGNALAZIONE - Nasce Hadouken.it




La community italiana di Super Street Fighter IV ha finalmente una nuova, definitiva casa. Si chiama Hadouken.it, e nasce dall’unione dell’esperienza di Arcade-Extreme con l’entusiasmo delle nuove leve che in questi ultimi 2 anni hanno contribuito in modo fondamentale a cambiare la scena fighting games italiana.

Il nuovo sito (coming soon) si propone come necessario punto di riferimento per tutto quello che riguarda la community, con news, annunci e resoconti direttamente da tornei e ritrovi italiani (e non), senza comunque trascurare le più importanti notizie riguardanti SSFIV.

Il forum invece rappresenta il cuore della community stessa, e parte con il preciso obiettivo di accogliere in un unico luogo di discussione sia le new entry e i giocatori inesperti, sia quei giocatori che preferiscono un grado di approfondimento maggiore e le discussioni tecniche tipiche della saga.

Si tratta di un progetto ambizioso e di non semplice gestione, ma siamo certi di poterlo portare avanti al meglio, con il vostro supporto. Soprattutto, si tratta di un progetto a lungo termine, con diversi potenziali sviluppi ma in ogni caso destinato a durare. Ne siamo sicuri, perché al contrario di altre iniziative italiane riguardanti Street Fighter IV, in questo caso l’unico motore è la passione, e l’unico guadagno possibile sta nei giocatori stessi. Si tratta insomma della classica iniziativa in stile AEX, da giocatori per giocatori.

Fatevi accogliere fin da subito nel nuovo forum, partecipate attivamente, entrate in prima persona a far parte della community italiana, nel ruolo che preferite. E se non vivete di solo SSFIV, non dimenticatevi del forum di AEX.
Che la nuova battaglia abbia inizio... Hadouken!

11.30.2010

11.24.2010

Ranbat #3.1 & CdF #1

6/7th November weekend. So the Ranking Battles in Milan started again, this time with BlazBlue: CS in the mix with 3s and SSFIV. I didn't play it because I don't have the game at the moment but I'll join for sure in the future. Anyway, the turnout was promising, to say the least. Good job guys!
As for 3rd Strike, the situation was quite different, and we just had an 8 man tournament with too many people missing for one reason or another. I ended up getting second place again, against Fran's Yun as usual. Good thing 3rd and 4th place were taken by Valmaniac's and Stratos' Necro. Results here, btw.
Anyway, it was a good time as usual and we chilled there till night, before reaching CdF to get some sleep and be ready for the next day. It was the first meeting at CdF with ARCADE 3rd Strike setups. Well actually due to technical reason we ended up playing on just one versus city instead of 2 vsc + 1 normal cab setup, but there weren't many players so it worked out quite well. Actually... Arcade 3s is LOVE. I finally got used to play on cabs and on this lovely version of the game, and PS2 is just... Well, we're forced to play that so whatever. But the experience is totally different. The thing I like the most is that you have to stay focused. It's freeplay, but it isn't. You can't change your character, and you don't want to give up your turn. Plus, you usually don't get to see the reactions of your opponent. For me, the mix of these elements is enough to let me play so much better that I'd usually do on freeplay. In the morning I got a 22/3 win streak and I didn't have any tension at all, I was just having fun and playing really focused. In the afternoon nothing major, Fran provided some major beatings to everyone as you'd expect and that was cool too.

Next time hopefully there will be more setups, but it's worth it anyway. CdF is a bit outside Milan and that's really the only bad thing about it. Well the place is a bit small too, but it's full of awesomeness, so it's ok.

Pic from a hot (mmm... Well, entertaining for sure!) session between Val's Necro and Tony's Dudley:



On 11/12th December we'll have another weekend here, and next Ranbat will be in January. Guess I'll post again next month then!

10.26.2010

Tougeki 2010 results and some news from italian 3s

Just a couple of lazy updates. Fist of all: Tougeki. This year's tournament was sized down but not less exciting, and that said, I'll just copy/paste the results from here:

1)井上JAPANにっと[Nitto](YU)MOV(CH)クロダ[Kuroda](KE)
2)巨人軍こくじん[Kokujin](DU)ハイタニ[Haitani](MA)ヌキ[Nuki](CH)
3)KOファミリーケンゾー[KO](YA)おちび[Ochibi](YU)ときど[Tokido](CH)
3)マーベラスヒーローズラオウ[Raoh](CH)メスター[Mester](YU)ヒガ[Higa](IB)

You can find videos of the top4 easily on YouTube, but the recording of the whole live streaming of Tougeki's 2nd day is here. You get to see... Well, the top4 and a little bit of Koshun's beasting in first round, iirc. It suck but looks like there's not going to be a DVD out this year, or at least I haven't heard of it. It's really that bad if true, we'd miss out a lot.
I won't say anything more on this subject because I discussed it to death on AEX and it'd be way too long, lol. Anyway, they put on a show (especially Kuroda acting like his usual self, Kokujin once again on fire and... Rikimaru as a "guest", lol) and I'm really glad about the results.

Anyway, let's go back to Italy for a second (damn... Actually a little more than that). Two great news you didn't wanna hear, but you're going to hear anyway: on november 6th we're going to have AEX Ranbat Milan #3.1, with 3rd Strike, Super Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue CS, and the following day... It'll be the first day at Casa del Ficcaggio (pics inside). No, don't waste time to translate it. Anyway, what am I talking about? It's just the place, owned by CPSteve, were we went sometimes to play 3s on a Versus city. Only it was actually PS2 version. But now Steve arranged the room like this:
  • 1 VS City with arcade 3rd Strike
  • 1 VS City like setup (2 linked cabs) with arcade 3rd Strike
  • 1 normal cab (1 cab for 2 players) with... Arcade 3rd Strike again
  • n normal cabs (I think 3) for other dead games like Guilty, IIX and such... Oh, arcade versions of course

Yeah... No SFIV at CdF. So, the basic idea is to have sessions (freeplay and quick random tournaments) there next to other events, like ranbats and other stuff, so we can add value to any trip to Milan.
So yeah... Feels like we have something like an arcade now, lol. Too bad it's actually outside Milan and it'll be only about once per month, so no, we're not going to improve dramatically as a scene, but it sure feels great.

And last but not least... At the last Videogames History in Monza (you now, the first post of this blog is all about the 2009 edition) early this month we actually tried out the dan'isen system. I think it needs some work to be perfect but it might work, we'll try that again for sure. Maybe during ranbats, maybe at CdF... Depends on many things. We're still in beta phase, lol.
Meaningless first results shows LEVA at 5th dan (Ken), Mitsu at 4th (Ibuki), me (Chun) and Fran (Yun) at 3rd and about 10/12 other people behind. We'll see how this turns out, hopefully it's going to be a lot of fun... If people understands it.

9.18.2010

3rd Strike bracket @ Tougeki / SBO 2010

Just found it on 2ch:

流氷 VS 海外勢 (1)
マツケンアイクWithメグ VS 井上JAPAN  (2)

KOファミリー VS 韓国勢 (3)
ピーチパワーボス VS くずさんにか けろ! (4)

巨人軍 VS 海外勢 (5)
紅星鏡 VS 中大ひろちゃん (6)

大魔王乱舞 VS 当日枠 (7)
マーベラスヒーローズ VS 台湾勢  (8)

(1) VS (2) (A)
(3) VS (4) (B)
(5) VS (6) (C)
(7) VS (8) (D)

準決勝は
A VS B
C VS D

So:


Umezono (CH) / Yuki Otoko (GO) / Yaoichi (KE) 流氷 [Drifting Ice]
vs.
5 Star (KE) / Ken I (MA) Team Apocalypse [USA]

Matsuken (KE) / Aiku (DU) / Furo (YA) マツケンアイクwithメグ [Matsuken Aiku with Meg]
vs.
Kuroda (KE) / DDNitto (YU) / MOV (CH) 井上JAPAN [Ino JAPAN]

Tokido (CH) / Ochibi (YU) / Kenzo (YA) KOファミリー [KO Family]
vs.
Team Korea

Rikimaru (CH) / Momochi (YU) / Boss (MA) ピーチパワーボス[Peachpowerboss]
vs.
kuzu (MA) / Takojo (YU) / Nihiro (UR) くずさんにかけろ![Kuzu-san nikakero!]

---

Nuki (CH) / Haitani (MA) / Kokujin (DU) 巨人軍 [Giants]
vs.
Marko (CH) / Billy Kane (YU) / Nikola (DU) Team Nadirovic' [FRA]

Koshun (CH) / Roshihikari (YA) / RX (UR) 紅星鏡 [Red Star Mirror]
vs.
Nakashii (IB) / Choppa (UR) / Hirochan (OR) 中大ひろちゃん [Chou Hirochan]

Yakkun (YU) / Vanao (RY) / Uraken (GO) 大魔王乱舞 [Great Demon Flurry]
vs.
last chance

Raoh(CH) / Mester (YU) / Higa (IB) マーベラスヒーローズ [Marvellous Heroes]
vs.
小旭 (MA) / Asika (UR) / 雷宴 (RE) [TW]

Raoh's team qualified at Cooperation Cup: STREET FIGHTER III 3rd STRIKE Wiki*
Higa wasn't on the winning team but whatever, I remember this line up trying to qualify this year, so I'm glad they made it somehow.

Edit: updated with info from 5 Star

9.10.2010

LOL LEVA


From: http://www.takehana.tv/qss/index.php?itemid=2462

In other news, we might be able to try out Dan'isen battles here soon. Fingers crossed, I think it might work but who knows.

8.31.2010

Japan 2010 write up

So I really went to Japan in the middle of August for a couple of weeks. Still feels so unreal... I mean, the fact that I'm back in Italy now feels unreal. Everything else was just as expected. Even if I missed a few good places, I had the chance to see a lot of Tokyo and enjoyed it in pretty much every aspect. I also could experience things that are not exactly touristic so I'm really glad, even if I had to sacrifice a lot of my 3rd Strike time. I won't go into details here, but it felt right that way, so I didn't play much but I'm ok with it. And I was able to fully attend one of the best 3rd Strike weekends ever, I guess. I'll miss Tougeki but really I can't complain, Cooperation Cup this year was so much bigger, maybe I'd say more important also. Whatever...

First interesting thing was Dan'isen at Versus during the Coop. Cup weekend (on Friday). I went there early and found like... 10+ 3rd Strike machines to play on. I was shocked in a good way, and I was even more when I started winning during the real thing. I wasn't really used to cabs too so... Well, it didn't last long. I soon found players I got stuck to, and the Dan'isen format is just as cruel as it is fascinating, so I never got out of the first isle of cabs where we were fighting between dans 1-3, I guess. But I'm not really sure. Anyway, a lot of people started coming and eventually the wait to get a turn in was too much, so I kept sucking and sucking, lol. A lot of the top players where there already, even from outside Tokyo. I think the whole Kansai expedition was there already. I played Chinta and he's just too smart. Then I played CASA for a few matches and after winning my first one she came on the other side to talk me and it was really nice. She was friendly to me all the time and I really appreciated it! I had small talks (small indeed) with other players as well (MOV, RX etc.), but really nothing much. Some guys can't really speak english too, and it's kinda not easy for them to deal with a situation like that, I think. After a while I felt such a bad player that I stopped any form of interaction anyway :/
So sorry TheShend, I wasn't really able to spread the news that you love them all, but I'm sure every 3s player knows that, lol.
Too bad also because people like Koshun, Rikimaru and Raoh looked really friendly all the time, but whatever. Yeah, I was mainly interested in Chun players, of course. And I've got to say that Koshun really impressed me the most. He might not be the best out there but his play style is awesome and actually solid at the same time. I also got to see him play Hugo for a while, lol!
Anyway, that day I also met Ryan (let blood run on SRK) who also went there all weekend and is a really cool guy. Also solid, experienced and clever at the game! Good times, too bad we missed some extra 3s stuff but that was my fault.

Saturday it was pre-Cooperation Cup day, so a same character 5on5 tournament. I wrote about it on SRK, so I'll just copy/paste:

Went there today with let blood run for this pre-cooperation cup tournament. The atmosphere is just... I can't really describe it. The love for the game is still so high you can't imagine, and Versus is like second home for so many players.
Anyway, I arrived there early and they asked me if I wanted to sign up. I didn't know it was possible but sure I was down for it, so they hooked me up with a random team (and the characters were all different). They had 8 groups of 3/4 teams each, most of them were "regular" same-chara teams though. I was in the same group as Boss team, so you can imagine how it went. MOV+Riki were in the same group as Nuki's team. Once again MOV beat Nuki so easily it's unreal. Anyway, top 8 was:

Oro team vs. Yang (KO) team
Dudley team vs. Ibuki team
Chun (MOV etc.) team vs. Elena team
Q team vs. Makoto team

Semi finals:
Chun vs. Makoto (went down to last match, round and pixel MOV vs. Boss, crazy stuff)
Yang vs. Ibuki (Kuroda arrived just in time to give this team A LOT of advices and tips during the matches)

Final:
Makoto vs. Ibuki

Higa is a genius, and somehow it seemed like team Ibuki could have made it but I think Haitani shut them down completely after a few matches. Fun moment, the Ibuki team had to choose the next player and the crowd suggested Kuroda, lol.

So yeah, team Makoto really won, after all. There also were so many sick moments from the low tier teams, so many. Q, Hugo and Necro were fantastic. I'm not into Remy that much, but even that team was on fire.

Looking forward for the real thing tomorrow!

And tomorrow came. It was a long, long day and it was worth being there every minute. The event was streamed live so I won't go into much details, but congrats to Mester / Raoh / Jiro / Matsuken / Takayuki for pulling out an unexpected and spectacular win... It was really great to attend it in person. MOV / Rikimaru / Boss / Ochibi / Kowappa was the team to beat, but also Kokujin's team was on fire. Honestly, I didn't think Kokujin could lose that day. He was mad hype all the time, during every Tengu Stone people started beating the floor following his lead and such, and when he had to play, he was just out-smarting/jungling/whatever everyone, one after another. But that wasn't even enough. Incredible tournament.
At some point I was jut sit on the floor watching some matches and this asian guy came out of nowhere speaking perfect english. So I answered his question and then asked him what's the deal, lol, so I found out he's actually MegamanXZero from Holland! Oh well, so good to meet another fellow 3s player from Europe. He told me the usual story, when SFIV came out their 3s community completely switched to the new game. That's bad :/
We'll never drop the game here so I felt kinda lucky for that, even if the situation in Italy is just... Let's not even talk about that. But yeah, at least we'll keep having tournaments and stuff. I also wanna try something like dan'isen because it has potential even here. We'll see... Anyway, glad to meet him as well.

Ah, I wrote about this as well on SRK... So here we go again:
I was stupid enough not to ask who got Tougeki's special spot. But given that Matsu is already qualified I'd say the team is probably going to be Jiro, Mester and Raoh. Raoh is... I don't know, he's definitely not as good as the other Chuns and he does a lot of crazy random shit because he likes to do so but... He's always at the right place at the right time. This is his 3rd win at Coop. Cup and now he probably gets to qualify to Tougeki as well. He's got some magic :o

Tournament was so great and I'm glad there was a good live streaming. So many things to say that I'm probably going to forget 90% of them.

YAMA. This guy is definitely the best 12 now. I've seen him take down so many people and so many characters every time. And I think his "random" team (signed up on the spot) got to the final bracket as well. He's that awesome. Oh, and he's NOT Yamazaki.

Thanatos teamed up with the same Elena player as always for preliminar (2 spots were open). Yes, a 2 man team again. On a 5on5. I don't get it but he's awesome. Btw, they were OCVed by... Yama.

Jiro is that big.

Kuroda: yeah, every time you see him he's the same. Same clothes, same umbrella-plastic bag setup. Super-pale. He never really plays, not even one game. But... He looks kinda ok with the world :o
Always talking with someone, always helping out teams or players while they play and stuff like that.

Oh, Rikimaru looked quite pissed off for how the tournament went, I felt bad for him. Always yelling and hyping it up, he takes 3s so seriously. And honestly everyone here does, that's what makes events like this so godlike. You could have said that it was a free win for Neo Champion Road or whatever it's called, but no, every good team was here to do their best and all of the top teams knew that they could win. And most of the times they were screaming like crazy...
Oh, talking about that, Kokujin is the loudest as usual. During tengu stone the crazyness reached its max, lol. They were like hammering the ground or something. And... I couldn't believe he eventually lost. He was in total destruction mode, you've seen it. Amazing.

It's worth noting that they had an extra floor all weekend long for higher grades of dan'isen and the tournaments. So it was like... 10+ machines for freeplay in the 3rd floor + tournament setup with 4 other machines on the 4th floor. A 3s paradise.

So, outside of that special weekend I had a few other chances to play 3s, but nothing too noteworthy. Too bad I missed Sportsland freeplay, Mikado freeplay (I think) and Game Bingo tournament... I really wanted to go to that one but had other things to do and I don't regret it. Ryan went and placed very well (I think 4th) in the singles tournament as well. Good shit! Other than that I had another short dan'isen experience and I went to Mikado a couple of times. Enough to get a grasp on japanese 3rd Strike and to try and see so much sick stuff I can't even tell (I won't say who is always sleeping and who was sleeping on who, lol), but not remotely close to enough to level up seriously. But it's all good.

Mikado is great, by the way. I really like Takadanobaba and Mikado is just your perfect "default" arcade. Other than 3s they have other good stuff like Arcana 3, BlazBlue and of course Guilty Gear. It's like the place to be for Guilty, I guess. They had some tournaments when I was there and it was BIG. Plus they have random events for old games, a lot of shooters (I saw Akai Katana and it didn't really impress me... At all) and generally a lot of interesting people is there all the time. They also have some girls seriously into shooters, in particular that interesting hybrid that is Senko no Ronde. Good stuff.

That's pretty much it, I guess, and I'm tired of writing anyway :/
The trip was overall just as great as expected, and 3s was just a part of it. But since I don't plan to stop playing it anytime soon... I guess there's no rush, and there will be other chances to come back here and learn more. Hopefully soon. In the meanwhile, Fran is there until the end of September, so good luck to him and to us and eu teams at Tougeki!

7.25.2010

Tokyo trip

Yeah that's right and totally confirmed: I'll be in Tokyo for the first time in August, from 10th to 23rd. It's something I've been willing to do for years, and even now it's not the best time, that's why I'll go for just 2 weeks, but I felt like doing it NOW. For several reasons. Of course one of the things I'll do will be to play 3rd Strike with the best players in the best possible environment for that. It won't be the major part of the trip but it's important and I'm looking forward to some good interaction with players, improvements and important experiences from that.
Of course it would have been to good to visit Tokyo and attend Tougeki as well, right? So they moved Tougeki in September during Tokyo Game Show (which I really don't care about, btw) for me. Thanks!

But then something happened. Randomly looking for the best times to play 3s at Versus, I stumbled upon this:
http://www.game-versus.net/danisen/

「超3rd祭 3DAYS」 エントリー受付開始!


8月13日(金) 第3回全国統一段位戦 15:00〜閉店  >>段位戦公式サイト
第2回全国統一段位戦から大幅パワーアップ。台数増台&4階特設会場も開放致します!

8月14日(土) プレクーペレーションカップ 受付:10:00〜 開始:17:00
同キャラ5on5祭。同キャラ5人チームメインでの大会。通常通り2ペア3カードでのチーム構成も認めますが、なるべく同キャラチームでのエントリーをお願い致します(笑)
>>Webエントリーはコチラから 仮締切:8月8日(日) 本締切:8月13日(金)

8月15日(日) 第9回クーペレーションカップ 受付:9:00〜 開始:10:00
毎年恒例、闘劇'10FINAL最終予選を兼ねた3rd界最大規模の5on5。当日は㈱エンターブレインによるライブ配信を予定しております。
>>Webエントリーはコチラから 仮締切:8月8日(日)(パンフ掲載) 本締切:8月14日(土)



Awesome. Everyone will be there, probably, and it's basically a 3s 3 days madness, with a special dan'isen battle, pre-Cooperation Cup (5on5 same character teams) and finally Cooperation Cup 9. I couldn't ask for more, and then... Let Blood Run on SRK said he's going to be there as well. That's so great on so many levels.


TLDR: I wanna be there already.

7.01.2010

ICL 2 weekend

I was asked again to be the admin of Inferno Cyber League. Last time was a blast and it's always great to work with Inferno eSports, so of course I agreed.

So last Saturday I arrived in Milan and met Fran and Togo at some station. We headed to Steve's where the versus city equipped with... My 3rd Strike on PS2 was waiting for us. It's always great to get the cab feeling here in our arcade wasteland, but I gotta say that the time to adapt to the controls and the huge-monitor-in-your-face is just too much. Too much for just some hours of play, of course. I'm looking forward to get used to that when in Japan, actually, because that's THE WAY to play... Anyway, more news on that little thing I just mentioned coming soon.
After hanging out a bit, playing again and stuff like that we eventually met LEVA at Fran's, so basically we had a full night of 3rd Strike which was way, way more than awesome. "I VIDEOS MENTONO", btw.

Whatever, after a grand total of 3 hours of sleep (second day in a row, pretty much), it was time to move to Monza for the SSFIV tournament. It went down like this:
1) Sean
2) Shirl
3) Sciedi
4) BlackHole 85
5) Leva
6) Rushing Monkey
7) Padsi
8) Kelgar

It was fun, smooth and the level was pretty high. I won't go into much details, except for the fact that the tournament was OUTDOOR. The sun was pretty much beasting on us, so that's something to try again on a slightly cooler season, but it definitely has some potential, along with many obvious issues.
Oh, by the way, lurking AEX you'll find pictures, videos and results summed up in a post... Sooner or later.

Whatever. Other things to talk about? Japan, MOV, Tougeki, Continuum Shift etc.
But I know I'll be too lazy for all of them.

6.21.2010

[27/06/10] Inferno Cyber League seconda edizione


News ufficiale: [LINK]

E' con enorme piacere che l'Associazione sportiva Inferno eSports in collaborazione con CoolerMaster e Sapphire, annuncia la seconda edizione dell'ICL - Inferno Cyber League.
Il marchio prende vita per offrire un nuovo servizio dedicato a tornei ed eventi legati al mondo degli sports elettronici.
Questa nuova manifestazione avrà luogo il 27 Giugno sempre al Lan Point Monza, a due passi dal centro storico e dalla stazione ferroviaria.
Le discipline, si perchè per questo secondo evento avremo ben due giochi, prescelte sono: il nuovo Super Street Fighter IV ed il sempre verde Starcraft:Broodwar, che giocheremo per l'ultima volta in attesa del nuovissimo sequel in uscita il 27 Luglio. L'iscrizione sarà come sempre gratuita, con succulenti premi per tutti! [...]
Per qualsiasi informazione potrete rivolgervi a info AT infernoesports.com oppure direttamente al sito www.infernoesports.com


Insomma, Inferno Cyber League torna dopo il successo della prima edizione, sempre con la stessa organizzazione by Inferno eSports + collaborazione tecnica di arcade-extreme.

Il torneo di Super Street Fighter IV, sempre caratterizzato da iscrizione GRATUITA e ricchi premi per i primi 8 classificati, si svolgerà nella consueta location del Lan Point di Monza. Per tutte le informazioni sull'evento, tra le quali ovviamente formato del torneo e regolamento, vi invitiamo a tenere d'occhio e partecipare a questo topic.

>>>IMPORTANTE
Fortemente consigliata la preiscrizione: [LINK]

5.31.2010

Yang matchups chart

K.O recently posted something really interesting on the best 3rd Strike blog in the world. It's a matchups chart for Yang based on the opinion of the best Yang players around:

http://3rddiary.blog104.fc2.com/blog-entry-240.html
     ロシ氏    フロ氏      2代目トル王   トルネコ
CH  2:8   3:7    3:7     3.5:6.5
YU   4:6    4:6     4:6     4:6
KE   3:7    4:6     4:6     4.5:5.5
DU   4:6    4.5:5.5  3.5:6.5   4:6
UR   4:6    4.5:5.5  5:5     4.5:5.5
MA   4:6    4:6     4.5:5.5   5:5
GO   5:5    6:4     5.5:4.5   6:4
RY   4:6    5:5     6:4      6:4
OR   5:5   5.5:4.5   6:4      5.5:4.5
EL   4:6    5:5     5.5:4.5   5:5
AL   6:4    5.5:4.5   6:4     5.5:4.5
IB   6:4    6:4     6.5:3.5   6:4
HU   6:4    5.5:4.5   6:4     5.5:4.5
Q   6:4    5:5     6:4     5.5:4.5
RE   6:4    6.5:3.5  6:4     7.5:2.5
NE   5:5    5.5:4.5  6:4     5.5:4.5
TW   7:3    8:2     7:3     7.5:2.5
SH   6:4    7:3     7:3     7:3

I know it's messy, but whatever. It works. The players are:

ロシ氏 = Roshihikari 
フロ氏 = Furo
2代目トル王 = Tokura
トルネコ = K.O

Don't mind the silly nicknames (Toruneko, 2nd generation Toruneko, something like that), it's them. Tokura recently entered Genki Cup as Nidaime Toruneko, and K.O as far as I know used Toruneko in the past.

Bottom line: Roshi, why so much hate? Lol...

5.30.2010

3rd Strike JP players' tier lists

Just randomly found this on 2ch. So yeah, take it for what it is, probably just personal opinion of some japanese player. But it's interesting and doesn't look that bad, afterall:

●1999〜2001 黎明期
SS にっと(ユン) ヌキ(春麗) シロいたち(まこと)
S リキ(Q) 彦根(ケン) J(まこと)
A でく(ユン) 梅原(ケン) マッチ(ゴウキ) ときど(ユリアン)
B ラオウ(春麗) メスター(ユン) アイスマン(春麗)
C シャオ(いぶき) MOV(春麗) ヌル(ユリアン) ラキラ(春麗) だんな(ダッドリー)
D ボス(ダッドリー) あなご(ユリアン) Ryo-chin(レミー)
・みてから迅雷

●2002〜2004 成長期
SS K.O(ユン) ウメハラ(ケン) スペJ(ケン)
S メスター(ユン) ヌキ(春麗) にっと(ユン)
A J(まこと) マッチ(豪鬼) いっせー(ユン) 平井(ケン)
B ボス(ヤン) ラオウ(春麗) 松田(ユン) オナニズム(ユリアン)
C 弟子犬(ケン)梅園(春麗) RX(ユリアン) いづ(まこと)
D こくじん(ダッドリー) はやお(ヒューゴー) AFM(春麗)
・背水の全ブロ
・シャオキャラ使い

●2005〜2007 安定期
SS ヌキ(春麗) K.O(ユン) RX(ユリアン)
S クロダ(Q) こくじん(ダッドリー) はやお(ヒューゴー)
A MOV(春麗) ウメハラ(ケン) 松田(ユン) スペJ(ケン) にっと(ユン)
B シロいたち(まこと) 弟子犬(ケン) 梅園(春麗) ボス(ヤン)
C 平井(ケン) マッチ(豪鬼) ももち(ユン)
D メスター(ユン) あるか(いぶき) ラオウ(春麗)
・SGGK
・幻影ゲージ回収
・エイジス動画

●2008〜2009 円熟期
SS MOV(春麗) ボス(まこと) ももち(まこと)
S クロダ(Q) ヌキ(春麗) 力丸(春麗) RX(ユリアン)
A やっくん(ユン) 弟子犬(ケン) K.O(ヤン) 井上(まこと)
B こくじん(ダッドリー) ハイタニ(まこと) アイク(ダッドリー)
C シロいたち(まこと) 雪男(豪鬼) ちんた(ケン) 猿(ユン)
D おちび(ユン) ミモラ(まこと) ときど(春麗)
・Vスラッシュ
・まことn択攻め


I'll translate just the last one:

●2008〜2009 Mature period [lol!]
SS MOV (CH) Boss (MA) Momochi (MA)
S Kuroda (Q) Nuki (CH) Rikimaru (CH) RX (UR)
A Yakkun (YU) Deshiken (KE) K.O (YA) Ino (MA)
B Kokujin (DU) Haitani (MA) Aiku (DU)
C Shiroitachi (MA) Yuki Otoko (GO) Chinta (KE) Saru (YU)
D Ochibi (YU) Mimora (MA) Tokido (CH)
・V slash [edit - Fugo says: whiffed dive kick -> EX dragon kicks with Yun]
・Makoto select and attack [option select?]


Random thoughts about this:
  • of course many, many players are missing, but that's fine
  • K.O, why so low now? Definitely an SS player in my book
  • so the entire K.O Family team is pictured as pretty average despite Tougeki's results. Can't agree so much with that
  • Kuroda's just an S? Considering he played Q in the last Tougeki and this list consider just one character, I agree
  • Shiroitachi was an SS back in the day?
  • SGGK is dated 2005~2007, right when the CH-YU matchup went from 3-7 to 5-5. Well, ok. I trust that, despite still feeling an advantage for Yun. But that's mostly because I'm the Chun, I know
  • would be awesome to understand exactly all the technical notes

5.16.2010

AEX COOP. CUP 1 weekend

Been lazy about this... Anyway, we held this tournament in Milan on April the 25th, at the usual place. It was right after the ranbat season and just before Super Street Fighter IV, perfect timing to do something different. Teamplay is always a cool thing so this time it was the main concept behind the tournaments, with the nice bonus of the first BlazBlue tournament in Italy. So it was like this, SFIV -> 3on3, 3s -> 2on2, BB -> 1on1. I actually wanted 3s to be 3on3 too, and we had the amount of people to do so, but Fugo and Fran suggested otherwise, so whatever. At least the tournament became more unpredictable this way, even though it was all about the 3 best teams hands down: me+LEVA, Fran+Gogu and Fugo+mitsu. But more on this later.

I'll try to be short on the useless stuff. Tournament was Sunday but I managed to reach Milan on Saturday, getting together with 3s heads and eating at Oscar's, an epic pasta place where I wasn't really able to finish off my stuff. Just epic.
After that we met for the first time Vernon from Rome and Stratos, that traveled all the way from Naples with Manlio! This is real love for 3s...
A lot of great / new people showed up the day after as well. I'm mostly talking about the BlazBlue guys (what a great crew, let's keep it up guys) and all the people that filled the 12 spots available for 3rd Strike. We had our usual players plus people from south (team Borbonacchi) and Ziano from center Italy. Great playing with them and see that they did pretty well in tournament too.

Anyway, the day started with BlazBlue. I'm playing and enjoying it A LOT. To be honest nowadays I'm playing BB rather then SSFIV... Anyway, everything went pretty well except for my (lovely) Noel knocked out by two Litchis (Galrod, who I play A LOT online, and Wronged, "old" PS3 player). But no problem, I got to top8 anyway (7th place with Ronove), and Galrod got second place after Kazikal (Noel/Nu), not without some bizzarre pad drama, lol.

Street Fighter IV went like this: team Rome (Beralius, Sean, Shirl) was definitely out of luck for the day, team Milan (Rushing, Bucio, Coden) could have won but didn't, team Torino (MAO, alexarandom, Rambo) won mostly thanks to Rambo, a dictator that proceeded to timeout every-fucking-one to death, viewers included. I gotta say that this game was, and still is, boring as hell. I just can't stand some (a lot of) matchups/characters... Whatever, to each his own I guess.
Oh, good showing from team Milano2 (leva, spinal, trapy) as well. 3rd place, definitely the surprise of the day.

ZZZZZZZZ anyway

Ok, now the main thing. This 3s tournament was probably the best ever because of too many reasons. Me and LEVA played badly most of the time because we're mostly playing other games right now and... Who am I kidding, that's not the right reason for me. Look at me vs. gogu. I had it, did a terrible mistake at the end of 2nd round and then immediately switched my brain off. And against fugo I was doing something like that. Last round, huge lead and I end up winning with only thanks to a lucky hit at the end. Chokkini-time...
Whatever. It went down like this: first of all we defeated Ziano+CFC (DU/MA), then it was WSF already and we defeated Mitsu+Fugo (MA/UR) to enter top3. So in WF we finally met fran+gogu (YUx2, damn) and lost by a hair. In LF we met mitsu+fugo again and won again, only to lose in the first set of GF. MVP of it all was gogu. I talked about him enough, he got serious about the game and with fran he's been the most dedicated player in the last months... Good stuff guys. Of course me and LEVA weren't so happy about the second place but really, between those 3 teams it could have gone in any way. Definitely a great challenge, I want more and I know I'm not the only one. Also, the finals were actually - for once - pretty hyped. This game will never die.

Highlight of the tournament? Accidentally dropping my stick on LEVA's feet after our victory in LF, lol. You can hear him scream in the video too! Talking about the videos, here's the playlist of top3:
>>> AEX COOP. CUP 1 - 3rd Strike 2on2 videos <<<

Oh, our team was named JINBE-SAN. Just wanted to let you know.

Full results for every game and stuff will be up on arcade-extreme sooner or later. In the meanwhile... Play more BlazBlue!
Really, do so. I'm loving Noel a lot (playing her properly feels kinda great, plus learning all that stuff was almost natural... Great feeling) but I'm actually looking forward to play Tsubaki on Continuum Shift. More on this in some other post, maybe.

3.14.2010

AEX Ranbat Milano - season 2 results

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
  1. Fran (YU) - 185 pts. / center
  2. LUN (CH) - 115 pts. / left
  3. SpinalBlood (KE) - 100 pts. / right



Street Fighter IV
  1. Rushing Monkey (CA) - 165 pts. / left
  2. Coden (SA) - 128 pts. / center
  3. BlackHole85 - 118 pts. / right


Read everything about season 2 here!

3.13.2010

AEX Ranbat Milano #2.8 - season finale!

Oh yes, it's over. It's been a long season, with many difficulties to face but it's been great anyway. Let's put it down as it is: our scene is poor. In many ways. We've had some major tournaments in both Milan and Rome with sponsorships and stuff, but ranbats are just put together for passion. It's supposed to be some regular meeting that offers players something more than just freeplay. It's precious tournament experience, and the ranking should motivate everyone even more. Too bad some people here up north didn't understand this at all... SF4 players, of course. I won't go into details, but it's so stupid and so italian that we have good players that will never show up because... Woah, whatever. The support for 3s has been ok instead. Nothing crazy, but at least the game is still alive. There are still a number of problems that I won't name in order not to type a gigantic post, but let's sum it up like this: the competition is still not good enough. And I'm in the not good enough category, just to be perfectly clear. We all need more TIME and even more dedication. Because that's it, we're just a few players, so we need more efforts. This game is the cruelest game ever. And also, coincidentally, the best.

But let's go to the point of the post. Oh, the tournament took place on february the 27th.
SF4: who cares. Oh well, congrats to Kelgar for his first top3 (with Chun), Rushing (CA) won again, Coden second. So the final standings for the season are... I'll post later about it.
3s: decent turnout. My main concern was EXG / gogu with his Yun, and I had to face him in the first phase. The scenario was like this: winner gets a supposedly easy road to the final, loser gets to face Fran in semi-final. I won almost easily because clearly gogu was way more nervous then I was, but I played him a lot during the 2 days we spent together and I know for a fact that both of us could have won. He's really, really good now. And usually more concentrated and on point than me, to say the least.
But let's go back to the subject. In an unexpected upset, Makhbeth (YA) beat Spinal (KE) to get to my semi. Makh is not (yet) an expert 3s player so it wasn't a big problem to reach the final, but it was good to see him get 4th place (he later lost the 3rd place playoff against gogu), and hopefully he'll keep playing and improving.
He also got second (IIRC) in the scrubs tournament we've held for the first time. That's right, we've had a quick 8 men bracket set up randomly just for... New players and SF4 heads, lol. BlackHole85 (KE) ended up winning that, so now he's a well known SF4 player and the king of 3s scrubs at the same time. Woah!
Whatever, the big boys (ehr...) tournament went as you could expect: I got destroyed by Fran in the final. I just let it go, again :/

Good times chilling with Togo and gogu afterwards. Late night dinner with pasta and Nutella (no less) and all night long 3s session with gogu (Togo passed out too soon, lol). Great games indeed!
The day after Makhbeth joined us and we went to Steve's house to play 3s (other people were there playing SF4, of course) with Fran also. It was PS2 version but on a Versus City. Great feeling, but it just wasn't the real thing, you know... Ehr, it's ok if you don't, really.
Whatever, it was good times.

Later on I'll post the final standings for second ranbat season of both games. Be prepared for some fancy shots...

2.01.2010

AEX Ranbat Milano #2.7

So... The 24th of this month (first time on Sunday!) we had our ranbat 7 out of 8. Ahbi from UK (and shoryuken.com) was in town so he visited us and played a little bit, and also Tonda came to take very good pictures. Very good to see some new faces!
And guess what? RushingMonkey (Cammy) got second place securing the season's victory in SFIV. He won 3s last year so that's 2 in a row in 2 different games! BlackHole85 (Ryu) won this tournament and it's a first time, so good job. Now on our stuff...
It was a one day trip for me and mitsu, so very stressful. Anyway, I was moderately optimistic because I was playing fine the day before, and actually my game was really OK even after the day of the ranbat, but on that day, well... Ugh. My mind was just empty all day, and Chun can get really predictable and useless when you're like that. I got 5th place anyway, knocked out by mitsu's Ibuki. He played Ibuki all the day and did great, getting 3rd. Good shit! I also have to add that even though I'm not happy about how I played, the top4 players are better then me anyway. LEVA won as usual (but using Urien!), fran (Yun) reached the final after an extremely close match against Fugo (Urien) that later on lost to mitsu for the 3rd place. Judging by the level of top4, it was one of the best 3s tournaments in Italy in a lot of time, so that's positive. The turnout was ok too. Vids and full results will arrive soon, check AEX if you're vaguely interested!
Next... Oh well, later this month this season will end. It was long and difficult in many ways, but sure it was a lot of fun. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to confirm my general 3s second place, but that doesn't matter much. I'm not so happy about this season because at least a couple of times I could have done way better, even though my first second place was not bad at all. But more importantly, we have to start thinking about season 3. There will be Super Street Fighter IV for sure, and I'd say BlazBlue too. 3s will last forever, obviously. But in orderd to be able to do everything, we need some serious reorganization and some kind of fund raising as well. We'll sort things out, I'm sure. Things are happening in Milan, Rushing is trying to have regular meetings for local players, so hopefully more people will support the tournament scene as well in the next months. There might be some other good news, but that's it for the moment, I guess!