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.

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.