MS requires a demo for all their arcade games, sony doesn't. They're doing the least amount of work.

Doesn't matter to us, but a demo could really help get sales.

Congratulations, L_A! can't wait to see more of the stream archive when I have a little time. Where was your hat? I expected your hat.

Great job from Haunts. It is fantastic to see VF streams of this quality!

1. this really surprises me. too bad but fairly minor considering everything else they are doing.
4. my guess is it depends on sales. was the variable ever spelled out?
6. I quite like this. I hope it works out for VF.

Nice meeting you also...gg's and impressive usage of multiple characters...hopefully see u at 1.3 so i can level up with sum more asswhoopings by u and ur girl lol!

Haha, thanks alot mat! I had a blast playing! I'm still in shock that I was able to play a VF tournament for the latest VF game in the united states. Surreal! Jenny (SilePai) had a pretty good streak going at one point. She is a really cool chick and we have been friends since '97.

I'm gonna try to make it out for the next one but it all depends on my work schedule. We'll see and i'll keep everyone posted.

Stream was cool, still didn't get to see any Sarah Players, or Eileen either. I thought they SEGA Rep did a great job dropping obvious hints as to it's June release and that their are more VF characters in DOA5 (the roster leak kinda spilled the beans on that though). So best case scenario is early June and worst case would be late June, lets hope for early June release!!

Seems not too many people are comfortable playing against Shun.

tournament was really fun and had some great matches with everyone.

it was really great seeing L_A again. its been like 3 years since i've played the man. he's always good with pointing things out in your game and is really good at giving useful advice to help you play better. he's also good at kicking my butt.

i thought the overall level of play got better from the last time. it looked like people who got to practice at ncr picked up on the fs technology especially crazydrunk, radical reactor, soakrates, silepai and the other guy playing goh who wasn't haunts.

as usual renzo, zerochan, and haunts held it down. renzo getting alot of mileage out of that one mid that gets the stun, zerochan with the solid os vanessa, and haunts with the nasty knee stagger combo.

wish sebo and dennis could've made it out but dennis is away for school and sebo is leaving for japan today. (have a safe trip sebo! can't wait to see what tech you bring back the next time we play)

as far as my play, i felt a little more comfortable with blaze's new moveset and some of his combos. it was helpful from the first tourney and ncr to rewatch my matches from the stream and see a some of the things i could improve upon. some of the things i made a point to do was getting used to using 6p alot more after blocking 2p instead using 3p which was messing me up alot since 3p is now his old 3p+k. i also tried to make it a point to use blaze's bound more (2p+k and 2p from backturn) into kkk. it really makes alot of difference in the damage you net and how much further you push your opponent to the edge of the ring/wall for more pressure. also another thing i noticed in my play from before was i kept getting low throws from getting d/f on half circular throws so i made a point to end on u/f or u/b when going for half circular throws since it still counted as forward or back. still hit a few low throws when i didn't want but ending on the up corners helped.

some things that are still hard for me was timing on some of his new hit throws. i think i just need to sit in training mode for those because its too hard to go for them in matches as i am now and wasn't worth the risk. also some of his new shenanigans like the momentary touchdown wall attacks and tiger step stance i haven't found useful situations for yet so wouldn't try to go for them too often. also some of his moves seem to have a shorter range like 3k+g with the new animation so i would whiff alot and didn't use it as much even though it was a big part of my game in ver.c against rising attacks. just need to sit in training mode for all these things.

of course i still need to work on my defense fundamentals. its one thing to not be familiar with my opponents moveset but i need to get back into using the vf system more effectively instead of trying to abare through everything. i thought it really shows in the difference in level of play everytime i played agains L_A since he had alot of specific reactions to what i would do. it felt like a real eye opener seeing exchanges work how they're supposed to work instead of one person just trying to impose their will on the other through abare and raw guessing of what they would do next.

but yeah i had a good time hanging out with everyone. i usually hate going to tourneys and sitting around nervous waiting to play my matches but something about vf and the people that go to these tournies make it all worth it.

so thanks to southtown for hosting, sega for coming out, and ipw for a stream i can rewatch. i feel really fortunate to be in norcal and having the opportunity to play. wish more of you could come out or sega could get to other areas more for you guys to experience fs.

bah another month long wait to play again and forget everything i just learned. hope to see some new faces next month!

I used Eileen just about the whole time at STA. Not sure if its on the stream archive but not much to gather from it since i didnt do well. It was expected since i only started using her that morning on vf ps3 and have only had a few hours with the game since i bought it last week. Ive had the 360 version for years but didnt really play it due to not owning a stick for the console. Im pretty much new to vf5 vanilla in a general sense.

Also on another note ive been playing fighters (SF4, KoF, VF) with the Hitbox and now that im more used to it going back to arcade stick its quite jarring. I cant believe all the 8P inputs i fudged yesterday. But hitbox allows me to do things so easily like spod and basara combos or even just 23 cr dashes where with a stick im always inconsistent. Im sure using it long term will bite me in the ass if i ever get good enuf to play in Japan one day where theres no need for console version. I almost feel like i should put in work with both.

That sucks about not being able to transfer your custom profile. Acutally makes the item DLC very unappealing since you can't style and profile at local tourneys or a friends house. I have the old model 360 so I was hopiing to use my memory card to take with me. Probabaly not gonna get the Item DLC, which sucks since there are some I was looking forward to use.

Congrats to everyone who attended, I fell asleep during the stream as it was late here but it was nice to see you guys getting to grips with FS

I've been wondering about this, can't we make sure one person who has all the DLC makes sure to bring their xbox/ps3 and use that persons console for the tournament matches?

You can set some time aside during casuals for people to come over one at a time to create a profile and customise their character, sounds like it could be a bit of an hassle depending on the turnout but I think it would be worth it.

I'm grateful that Sega, STA and IPW enabled us to play, watch and learn VF5FS. Thanks to them and some veteran commentators, they made this event informative, fun, and siLE.

I'm also glad to see the VF community helping each other out and growing. I appreciated the lessons from LA Akira, who helps others improve in order for him to take his game to the next level, and the guides from Zerochan. Sorry if I left anyone out, but it was also was great to meet new folks while getting exposure to the game.

Let's hope LA Akira makes it back for another round especially with Ice-9 flying all the way from SG on 4/27. Then, that would be an even more surreal reunion! Until then, happy training, playing and praying =P

Guess I need to plan to go to this.

Finally watching the stream!!

I enjoy watching Gerald with his game face until SiLE sits next to him and then he's all happy and stuff.

not very far in (tournament just started): Really nice breakdown of the game community and what it takes to make a scene. one of my favourite parts of game commentary isn't a blow by blow of the match in front of you but the nice, easy banter that can exist when people get comfortable on the mic.

Yes, pretty Pai please, Plague? Take a TGIVF weekend with your wife to visit, play and eat in SF. It would be awesome to play and hang out with your sweetie Pai too =P. Otherwise, I'll catch up with you two in May for a SoCal reunion.

See you in May, then. Can not get enough people on board for this SF drive.