Final 5R Kumite Report

Last Sunday in Kobe there was a VF5R kumite event, heralded as the last one before the release of Final Showdown this week. For those who don’t know what a kumite is, Sega basically brings in one or two of the top players in the country, and everyone who attends is able to fight them at least once, and if you beat them, your match is broadcast all across the country via VF.tv and you receive a special player name plate. For the final kumite, two star players showed up; Senningiri and Kiyotaka, using Kage and Akira respectively. The other players who also show up include Chibita, Koedo, Fuudo and others, but this time we had the honor of fighting some of the guys from outside of Tokyo instead.

Before the kumite started, Sega had officials clearing out the cabinets so that everyone would be able to see the action when it started. As soon as 3pm hit, participants signed up and paid their entry fee (100 yen, or $1… love Japan events!), and then we were called up one by one via lottery draw. Since we had two players in the kumite, they were switching off every 5 opponents until everyone played. The first kumite event I went to was for VF4 Final Tuned, in Tokyo, and it drew around 100 ~ 150 people to face Chibita, the “God of Virtua Fighter”. This time around, the event was much smaller, with I believe 30 participants and about 15 ~ 20 observers. Blame it on the slowly declining popularity of Virtua Fighter, or blame it on the fact that it was a blazing 38 degrees outside on that day, but there weren’t that many people compared to the old days. I heard that the kumites the day before in Osaka drew 20 and then 90 people, so it’s possible that having three kumites in a weekend was simply too much for most people. If they had only organized one event, they may have drew more people.

I was one of the last players to go up, and I had to face Kiyotaka’s Akira. Not only is he a star player, fully endorsed by Sega, but he also has the second highest rank in the entire game! Now, you may think that these players may go easy on weaker opponents, but they don’t. They’re at these events to flaunt their skills and show everyone just how good they really are, and don’t hold back. Even against some of the kids and female players that showed up, they didn’t let up… for the most part. They gave both kids and female players one random mercy round, but after that it was all business. If you were a guy… they showed no mercy at all. I lost to Kiyotaka 0 – 3, and I swear to god the match must’ve lasted 20 seconds, it was that bad. I regularly fight against a lot of Tougeki-level players at Monte, but I have never faced them in a tournament before. If this is how they are in serious mode, I should be glad that I’m only fighting them in casual matches! Out of the 30 players who entered the kumite, only one person beat Senningiri, and no one beat Kiyotaka. After the kumite was over, Sexy Saito, Sega’s event announcer, called out the crowd and asked if anyone wanted a runback against either player. Naturally, all of us wanted one, so we did it again… and no one beat either player the second time around.

Once the runbacks were finished, the event was finally over, and the Sega staff started to pack things up. We all went back to casual matches, with Kiyotaka and Senningiri taking the time to talk to some of us while we were waiting for our turn to play. I didn’t get much time to talk to either, but I did say to Kiyotaka that it was fun playing him and that he was super strong. Right after that, I jumped onto the machine and pulled off an 8 game win streak, and then an 18 game win streak, ha ha. I guess star players may beat me down, but at least I can hold my own against everyone else!

 

Nice to hear, thanks for sharing. BTW what sort of title did the player who beat Senningiri earn? Or is this "nameplate" just a fancy looking frame around the player's on screen name?

 

The title that you get is the same kind that this Lion player has... the 0911 part. It's at the very top and it is always displayed on your profile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOYPn87KM5U

 

Cool man, I enjoyed reading about it. Is Chibita still as strong as he was in the VF4 days? And who's this Kiyotaka, how come I've never heard of him?

 

Awesome, Reno.