AEX Ranbat Milan #3.4 + CdF session

I'm tired.

Nothing much to say about the ranbat, results were pretty much the same as usual with some minor drama here and there... Togo getting his revenge on... Kelly (no less!), me almost winning winners final against fran only to choke and die immediately and such. Whatever. The important thing probably is that I'm tired. I'm tired of the way italian players (especially the supposedly most dedicated, or stuff like that) treat the game. That's it. I feel personally touched by this because I gave everything I could for the game and even for them, and I'm not receiving anything back. What I want is plain and simple: have some competition to get 2nd in a ranbat. With more players on my stupid level or above even the other guys that now can't beat ME would improve much faster. Otherwise it's pretty useless, we might as well stop doing this monthly and just have random events every once in a while.

It's not about how many people enter a tournament (last turnout was better for 3s than SSF4), it's more about WHO enters.

Really, I understand every single situation (some better than other) but it's too much now, people take these things for granted or don't care enough. Oh, but OE is coming soon! That will get people back in the game again! How disturbingly hypocritical does that sound? To me, a lot.

Whatever, whatever. Anyway, I want Cooperation Cup 2 to happen, this year. This would lead me to talk about the subject of "how to drag the SF4 players to a tournament" but I won't even get started. I just want to say that I'd like a 3on3 3s tournament and about 30 players, but who knows what could happen. A 2on2 with about 20 players is way more realistic.

Anyway on sunday we went to CdF for some arcade action. The setup is now pretty sick, with 3 vs city or vs city-like cabs and a nice piece of forniture that is the original Game Sakura sign that fran bought. Nothing special happened, we could play a little bit with LEVA and that was cool, the BlazBlue guys played some 3rd Strike as well and that's pretty much it.

May = ranbat #3.5 and another CdF session.

3s Italian ranbat #3.3, CdF and ARCANA

I don't even remember when it was, I just remember that fran won the ranbat, Mitsu with Urien got 2nd, and the fabulous RushingMonkey got 3rd place. LUN? 4th. Lost to fran and Mitsu. I won't indulge on any consideration about that. It was a bad 3s day.

CdF on the following sunday was awesome. Mitsu's first time, LEVA, val, togo, fenrir, lalbelcd and the usual suspects were there. We held the first and only LUN's cup in honor to my recent graduation (ah, it happened the day before the ranbat, so the ranbat was on the 19th, good to know). Of course I was the mastermind behind it, but don't tell anyone. It was single elim, one match format, random seeding. I mean, total random seeding. We should do this more often because no one was really prepared to it, and the tension took its toll. LEVA won, fran 2nd, LUN 3rd, TOGO 4TH! Way to go, toghella-san :/

Speaking about my graduation, I've got a job too. It was about time, I know... Whatever, I'll be working in Padova in a few days, and I'm already living in Mestre with Fenrir and other students. Good thing is: I get to play Arcana Heart 3 everyday with Fenrir. Yeah we'll play 3s too but Arcana is just this awesome. We you get the arcana fever you don't think about anything else, you don't sleep, you don't eat, you just want to try out that new arcana on Eko. No, I'm kidding. I don't even have the game, lol. But you get it, it's a damn good game. It's the GGXXAC of anime fighting games, the system is brilliant and mature, it's complex and deep... But never too hard, and the general design never fails to amaze... It's a good game (TM).

Last but not least, PANCA-time: RushingMonkey is a good-mannered and clever guy, and he's also so handsome that fighting game girls ask for his pictures all the time (girls, you can find some on AEX -> galleries, you know). With this kind of credentials, why should't he play more 3rd Strike? I don't know, go ask him. I did my part by saying that he's still a fantastic 3s player. Oh no, I didn't! But yeah, he is. It's good to get out of the jungle for a while, you know.

3rd Strike italian Ranbat #3.2 and CdF #3

So let's get this year started. Resistance is futile but we do like futile things, so here we go, another 3rd Strike weekend in Italy. A couple of weeks ago we had ranbat on Saturday at Casa dei Giochi and freeplay day on Sunday at CdF, 3s only. Low turnouts, same results as ever (1 Fran, 2 myself 3 SpinalB), just a small danisen session to keep things going. I'll handle things from now on with a mundane list, because today I'm in that mood (actually it's just easier):

• my Ken is getting a little bit better (4th Dan now, ehm), and that's cool. Sometimes things gets desperate with Chun, you need to have a backup plan. Like... Badly
• italian 3s players are not dedicated and every few months it gets frustrating
• during the ranbat some SFIV players came to us to try out the game, we'll have at least a new head next time... All good
  
• Rushing Monkey is a beast (paid adv). No seriously, we played quite a lot of 3s and he should get back at it seriously. Like... Enter tourneys as well or come to CdF for a full "re-education" (more like brainwashing) session. He doesn't feel comfortable enough with the game now, he's just rusty
  
• Jack is back! Maybe. Good to see him playing again. His urien is now 3rd Dan as well
• I was able to see Nev, BR1, RAX, 1c0n and Goon as well during the weekend, as part of something similar to a small shooting games reunion... Well nothing special actually games-wise but it was good to see them again, it always is

Let me conclude saying that me, Fran, Valmaniac and Togo (ownz_u) are the heroes of this game. We're keeping it alive, that's it. There are many, many 3s players around Italy but they seriously need to think about how much they care about the game before it's too late. This includes everyone.

Slightly related note: 3rd OE is scary. Please don't fuck it up Capcom, no HD and no "rebalance" (LOL) or we're screwed. Seriously. Also, Arcana Heart 3 is sick. Too good to be true. I don't have the game but I play a rather silly Luck Eko when I can at Mitsu's.


Jack is back, and he's after you. "This burrien is anblogaboooooool!!1"