3.07.2011

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.

2.06.2011

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"

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!