Northwest VF (Pacific NW, North America)

Heh, Panda, I forgot to clarify I was talking specifically about our last set of the night in that post above.

 

I knew you were lol.

 

Anyone going to BB tomorrow?

 

Yes. 730 maybe, ish.

 

I can't commit on it right now, but I'm aiming for another early visit ^_^

 

So for anyone at PAX, I'll be bringing my Xbox and we'll be trying to set it up somewhere for some casuals (thinking freeplay room). It sounded like Duncan, Sorias, Zig, Shaka, Zero-chan, and someone else all expressed interest. Will obviously depend on everyone's availability and everything else, but hopefully we can get this going?

 

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend, and hope a lot of people here got to experience the awesomeness that is PAX (I wasn't there this year though)!

Anyways, lots of awesome VF Action in the Pacific Northwest this week!

Tuesday, September 4th
Throwdown Tuesdays @ Best Bout Gaming (Portland, OR)
$5 for a full (7pm-well after midnight) night of fighting!
It is no longer a secret that Tuesday Nights at Best Bout are one of the best nights for fighting in the Northwest! On the VF side, Tuesdays have been downright amazing and this week is expected to be an amazing training session (right before Best Bout Beatdown) for VF with an amazing roster of confirmed players and more excellent players trying really hard to make sure they are there!

Slash is also planning to be there to lend his streaming expertise and get that TeamKhaos Stream going this week, and probably scoring for the FT5s & Training the Portland/Vancouver/Salem VF Crew has planned for this week. After that, you can expect some moneymatches in a variety of games (this has become a Tuesday norm)!

The stream will not start at 7pm, we will update people on VFDC status updates, shoutbox, and Twitter #VFDC Tuesday evening to announce when the stream will actually happen--probably within 1-2 hours. We still have kinks to work out, but we are working on them!

Thursday, September 6th
Thursday Night Fights @ GameClucks (Lynnwood, WA)
Weekly Casuals & Tournaments
GameClucks continues to support the Fighting Game Community in the Seattle-Area with their weekly and monthly events! Continue to support the Seattle-Area's best weekly fighting experience! With Best Bout Beatdown (Portland), Saturday Slugfest (Seattle), and End of Summer 2012 (Seattle) coming up--it's time for Seattle to rally the forces and make sure everyone's geared up for the regional Virtua Fighting!

Friday, September 7th
X-Factor Fridays @ Best Bout Gaming (Portland, OR)
$5 for a full (7pm-around midnight) night of fighting!
X-Factor Friday will be the perfect training spot in the Portland Area before the Beatdown on Saturday. So far, X-Factor Fridays right before Beatdown have been quite busy with a lot of excellent training!

Saturday, September 8th
Best Bout Beatdown 15 @ Best Bout Gaming (Portland, OR)
Portland's Premiere Fighting Game Tournament (Monthly)
The Beatdown is Portland's Premiere Fighting Game Competition and it is this weekend! Last tournament had an amazing VF turnout despite some players being unable to make it--the same is expected for this weekend. After a Top 16 finish at Evo, R_Panda won Best Bout Beatdown 14 overcoming an epic series of matches with Yangsing. OMNE also showed why he's a force in the Northwest VF scene!

The Final Showdown Tournament is scheduled to be the first tournament at Best Bout Beatdown 15, so expect the action to start around 3 or 4pm!

More details on the event page!

 

I had a really good time tonight!

That said, I think it was a good session to get everyone more focused for this weekend's Best Bout Beatdown. I know pretty much everyone came out feeling like they could and often do play better, so I think having this session this early in the week is a good jolt! Looking forward to what everyone brings to the tournament this weekend!

I'm also glad we had a good amount of activity on the stream! HUGE THANKS TO SLASH AND HIS GF FOR RUNNING THE STREAM! We really appreciate it and I'm looking forward to the new system too!

Grats to Sam Y aka Fatbear for knocking me off the stream, your Akira is so much freaking fun to fight against! I'll see what I can do to at least get some session time in with you soon if possible!

To tonight's VF Crew, thank you guys so much for making it out tonight: Mackinzie, Slash, OMNE, R_Panda, AJS, Yangsing, and Fat Bear!

For those that are interested, here are the links to the Stream Archive! I will say that Portland brought some very fun games, but it wasn't our competitive A-Games tonight, but I think this session really jolted everyone to really bring it this weekend! Best Bout Beatdown 15 should be pretty freaking sweet ^_^

Part 1 (Casuals begin at 1:14:30; Rotations start at 1:31:35)
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

 

A note to my fellow jacky player AJS

I watched some of the stream and There were a few things i wanted to point out:

1. You almost never use 1p, Gotta use that move more. Move is too good

2. Gotta practicing hitchecking 6pk. You went unpunished for it alot but you really gotta learn to hitcheck that move No need to commit to the K so much. You arent playing online lol.

3. Use more of jacky's spacing tools. 3K+G most importantly. That move is freaking awesome for spacing.

4. Dont backash so much. Self explanatory.

5. STOP DROPPING COMBOS!

6. Use Iaigeri more in pressure situations. it isnt just a combo move

 

FIRST OFF HUGE THANKS TO SLASH AND HIS GIRLFRIEND FOR RUNNING THE STREAM!!! I was glad to run into you again, I think I haven't seen you since Evo and glad to hear things are going well.

Also huge thanks to everyone that made it out or watched the stream. I'm sorry I didn't put on a better show, something felt off with all of my games that I can't quite put my finger on. Even when I was winning or playing well, I didn't feel like I was playing right or making good reads. I'll do what I can to remedy that along with being more aggressive about making sure good matches (money matches even) don't get played off stream!

Chibiaya, thanks for the critiques!

100% agree with everything posted, focusing especially 4 & 5. A lot of my back dash stuff has gone unpunished, but it's been something that's a pretty recent hiccup in my game. I think I've played Chanchai online too much and picked up this habit from him

I'm guessing most of the "I need to hit check 6P" comments came from the games vs. fatbear? Not sure, maybe against Chanchai as well? I'll have to go back and make notes on those games. I have a lot to work on that's for sure. I know I cracked a lot against fatbear and that caused a lot of my fundamentals to go out the window, even in those late games that I was winning.

I'll be perfectly honest, I can't hit check very well off of 6P that hits ducking opponents. I think I need to practice reading the life bars to see when to hit check for CH 6P, 6P when opponents are ducking and just regular 6P hit or block. I still fuzzy guard after 6P hits normal hit, when I should try attacking with something else, like P, 2P or another 6P. Right now I've developed a habit of only looking for the (now huge) yellow flashes and hitting 6P. In my ft5 vs. R_Panda on stream, I counted 4 CH 6P that I didn't follow up on, 2 (I think) 6P that hit ducking that I didn't follow up on and 1 6P that I went into thinking I had blocked a move and had advantage (it was a wake up situation where I was -5). Honestly, if I'm hitting 6PK without hit checking, it's because I can hear my opponents buttons or know their habits well enough to do it. It's a BAD BAD BAD over read to make. If I'm going to make that read, I should usually just 6K for the combo instead.

About not using 1P. Well, I used to use it but took it out of my game. It's not a move I'm particularly fond of actually. I don't like the risk/reward with the canned follow up being high and the SS being easily seen and punished. This has been my experience with it, but maybe I've just been using it wrong. I'm interested to see why you like it so much.

I have no real experience using 3K+G as a poke except against Shun because it sobers 1DP. I've never really considered this to be much of a strong poke, because from the ranges I would think to use it I'd rather hit with 6K+G. I started messing around more with 6K+G after seeing you using it at the same spacing I've been using 3K, but I guess since it's half circular and knocks down is why you like it? Again, not sure but I'd love to hear more of your opinions on it.

BTW, best comment of the night goes to Slash in my first game against Chanchai on stream. Right after the second round of getting my ass kicked around the ring or almost rung out, he said/asked me "Change the stage?" I couldn't do anything but laugh and nod yes on that one, hahaha.

 

Did not realize Yangsing now calls himself Gangnam Style

 

BTW, for clarification, there's a lot of Button Listening (or at least noticing) in Portland, lol. We all play close to each other, and I even let the other players play angled a bit behind me lol (which means they can see if I'm struggling or not on wakeup situations, etc...), so like okizeme reads are often based on seeing/hearing buttons push. I don't really do that, but it's what it is and that's been in console (and Western Arcade) metagames a lot.

That said, despite this, okizeme success and wakeup rate is still pretty normal anyways so I think it's just more mental than anything and then the only occasional actual "tap confirm."

The only thing that really gets ruined is how long one stays on the ground and does nothing.

AJS and Panda are probably the most obvious ones who do this. AJS is also very cautious so he tries to press his wakeup options "quietly" but this has occasionally resulted in his character's wakeup option being too slow. Panda's pretty good at this. If Yangsing (I mean Gangnam Style) does it, I haven't noticed it that much and I don't think it even affected the outcome that much, but I know for sure he's at least aware of it. But his actions seem to be less reactive and more read-out.

I'm primarily guilty of this in situations where someone doesn't hit buttons and I just pounce right away.

Again, this thing is what it is... I don't personally put too much stock in it. I personally prefer to play on a Versus City style layout where player's are across from each other, but again... it's what it is, and for the record, at least in Portland, I haven't seen it be as effective as people would like to believe--just a little effective in situations where the choice is to mash or not to mash, mainly.

I prefer to have my eyes on the screen, but again, I'm guilty of "noticing" by hearing or from the corner of my eye.

 

I'm too busy thinking about/listening to gangnam style to notice

 

Heh, you did seem distracted last night. Picking up hot chicks at the children's park in Gangnam?

Maybe picking up on lil Aly Raisman?

 

KG|Slash and his gf did an awesome job running the stream on Tuesday.

Now KG|Slash has gone the extra mile and uploaded all of the individual matches to YouTube and organized a Playlist ^_^

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0Y_yk0ZApLR9JEsfvoCu-phInDZlj_KT

Now I can (more easily) catch that AJS vs. Fat Bear match I haven't seen yet!

 

I actually hate sitting behind people because of the temptation to see or even accidentally glance at my opponents hands. Especially bad when I get a catch throw and I can't help but hear what their stick is doing (which gives a clue to what throw break they are now breaking based on what throw I might think they were previously trying to tech - still a guess, but one more additional clue I shouldn't have). I really try to keep my eyes averted too. In AJS' and my money match I was sitting slightly behind him and I had to keep from looking then too. I don't want my and my opponent's proximity to have an effect on the match, but I don't know what to do about it for casuals. I'm sure lots of my reactions are based on what I hear.

 

Best Bout Beatdown 15 is live and streaming! Http://www.twitch.tv/teamkhaos/

 

vf???

 

Originally they told me VF would be earlier because they felt it would better accommodate the fathers in the group (myself, AJS, Fat Bear). But it looks like they moved it.

I am unable to participate because of work... but I'm excited to watch it and they will show it. I will post an estimated schedule soon, but best is to ask on the stream chat (I just got home from taking care of a lot of stuff).

 

BIG REMINDER: Saturday Slugfest III is happening THIS WEEKEND @ Dante's in Seattle!

And trust me, the best way to train for a big tournament (like End of Summer) is to play more tournaments, especially a big monthly tournament like the Slugfest! It's also the best way to stay competitive, honest with yourself, and feel the adrenaline rush of competition as a fighting game player! If I could go to Dante's, trust me, I so would! Good luck to everyone who goes this Satuday!