The Home of Chanchai VF on VFDC! (A place where I talk about VF sessions & vids)

I want to remind our #VF5US community about more ways to reach out!

This TBS VF video series has definitely drawn more players to VF! I encourage everyone to read the comments section of the videos AND ESPECIALLY REACH OUT TO PEOPLE WHO MENTION THEIR CITY/REGION & CHARACTERS TOO

I think ThatBlastedSalami has proven that the TBS brand is a driver of traffic of interest (and a force of information and knowledge sharing)!

But it is the community’s duty to retain (help and encourage) that driven interest & activity

The western VF Community is awesome!

With regards to reaching out to people who mention their city/region, it is about connecting and planting seeds for offline communities when we are in a better place—preparing for the better times. No better time than now to keep planting those seeds

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPDk6gzWmX92N9XeqbXbzKpd3d2P4Y1CU

 

FEEL THE POWER IN YOUR SOUL!
(Thanks Limyporcupine!)

 

There is so much I want to post here, though I’ve been busy. But I had a wonderful December and January in VF and want to chronicle a lot of those adventures.

That said, for now, enjoy this post I made in the VF5FS Dojo forums that chronicles Himajean’s “Underground Arena” Project!

I organized the links so you can see the first volume of this amazing project that aims to bridge the VF Knowledge/Communication Gap between Japan and the World!

Hima begins the project with a comparison of his experience with North American players and Japanese players and also proposes ideas to help improve NA VF! He follows up with an article about how to effectively improve! And I think it’s good to call it Volume 1 when he completes his current arc of the project which are interviews with top japanese players for each character! THIS MATERIAL IS CANNOT MISS MATERIAL!

Anyways, here’s a link to the post I made that makes it easy to access this content and help others find it when they go to the Dojo!

https://virtuafighter.com/threads/u...-japan-and-the-world-vol-1-by-himajean.21824/

 

I shared my personal THEORY ON THROWS & THROW ESCAPES IN VF5FS/VF5US with the Colorado VF players and I feel I should make it available for anyone interested

It is Part 2.
Part 1 said get good at GTE and DENY STRONGEST THROW.

Enjoy!

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s203...df466dc6aa8d/ef2749d3c4f49b2e942d50a3e407e84e

 

Renzo and I participated in a Q&A to help Dr. Scottnik’s awesome Competitive VF Documentary!

We understand why this Q&A could not fit in with his vision of the documentary, I have edited video projects myself, but I feel that many VF players will enjoy our answers!

I highly recommend watching Dr. Scottnik’s documentary too, it is excellent!

 

HAPPY FIGHT STICK FRIDAY!

So lately, I’ve been obsessed with arcade controller parts and have fully embraced the hobby, both in tinkering and in collecting.

Two weeks ago, I revealed my Victrix Pro FS Akuma which I had upgraded with:
* Golden Lever
* Sanwa Buttons
* Paradise Arcade’s LVT3 LED Board

and I outfitted the presentation with:
* Splitframe Black Out Stick Bag
* Oppo PM-1 Headphones

I will eventually make a VFDC post with detail and I plan to write about this hobby. But until then, enjoy this Tweet Thread I made featuring this build, as I am really proud of it!

https://twitter.com/chanchai_vf/status/1494770888893366272?s=21






There is also another amazing piece of Fight Stick News! Sanwa has now embraced customization of the JLF lever!

https://twitter.com/chanchai_vf/status/1499857000720584704?s=21

 

Overall, it was great to be playing VF again after almost a month-long hiatus!

We had a really good room with diverse styles of play last night!
* KDQ Bushido (Taka)
* Waverusher Kobi (Aoi)
* KRS Jin (Lei Fei)
* Dark Nova Void (Sarah)
* AdmiringMyHarley (Kage)
* Talon XI (Jean)
* Ice Wizarrd (Jean/Pai/Wolf)
* Chanchai (Lion)

Enjoy!

 

3/5/22 - LATE NIGHT SPARRING WITH DENNIS0201 (JACKY/JEAN)


Had an awesome time sparring with Dennis0201 on Saturday Night! We used a lot of techniques and move interactions in these matches and it was a blast!

I have it timestamped for when I fought his Jacky and when I fought his Jean! Enjoy!


3/6/22 - LEAGUE BATTLES WITH AKAI & FRIENDS


I love the Sunday league battles that @akai manages! You get a lot of good diverse VF play in a friendly but competitive format and with some fun warmups in between! I encourage everyone to join these as they are a great way to work on your VF game!

 

Last week on Thursday I was able to play VF for a little over an hour and I had wanted to try out a new Golden Lever build so I streamed some ranked, a FT5 with B_Ninja, and some games in iFIxMachine's room! It was a really great time and the chat was a lot of fun too! You can watch it here, but of course I encourage you to like and subscribe on YouTube ^_^



Here is the Golden Lever build that I used during that session. This build is still rooted in a more Japanese feeling lever, but it is pushing me a little away from my comfort zone with a gradual increase in the area of movement (we do this by using a smaller shaft) and using a higher tension than I normally use (this build uses a medium tension grommet). I list my builds from literal Top to Bottom!

• Handle: GL Bat Top (Engraved Gold on White)
• Shaft: 10.5 mm Silver Shaft
• Collar: GL SQ “Squirckle” Collar
• Body: GL White Body
• Core/Bobbin: GL White Core
• Grommet: GL Blue 50A (Medium)
• Spring: GL Medium Spring
• Bushing: Silver Bushing & Ring
• Actuator: 16.5 mm Black bearing
• Switches (All): Omron V152 1A5
• Switch Spacing (All): 15.5 mm
• Lubricant (Plastic): GL Plastic Lubricant (Molykote?)
• Lubricant (Metal): GL Metal Lubricant
• Buttons: Crown 202

I originally meant to use a Ball top but forgot to change it before starting the stream.

What Is The Golden Lever?
We are used to thinking of arcade levers (sticks) in terms of them being as one whole unit. However, in the past ten years as more players play on console, we are seeing more customization of all forms of controllers--including arcade levers.

The Golden Lever is not exactly "just a lever" or "just a stick." It is best to understand that it is a platform and began as a modification project in the Tekken community--specifically in the Korean Lever community within the Tekken Community. I'll make a thread about The Golden Lever sometime, but it helps to understand that Golden Lever was originally the Golden Project which provided cool replaceable parts to the Myoungshin Fanta levers which were popular among Korean Levers. Eventually, The Golden Lever has become its own brand and the owner of Golden Lever and his staff have made special custom Golden Levers for Homestay Akira and Jin Kage.

The stock Golden Levers (currently offered in Low Collar Korean, Full Collar Korean, and Japanese style) have good traits but are not the focus at all--they are just the starting point. Most players who take the plunge to get a Golden Lever should pickup a few parts on the spectrum they want to play (Korean or Japanese) and plan to tweak their Golden Lever in their quest to find their Perfect Lever or at least understand their True Preference.

Anyways, I'll create a thread about Golden Lever to document my journey with it (I really love it, but I am studying other levers too) and also help people understand what is the deal with it. Warning: Golden Lever is a deep investment, it's expensive (way more expensive than other levers/sticks), but I have to say it's a really wonderful product and platform and it has changed my view of this hobby.

I am not saying you should get a Golden Lever. I do plan to help others understand what it is though and at least share my experiences with it ^_^

 

On Monday, @Dark Nova Void and I played an awesome 50 Game Gauntlet!

A lot of stuff to work on, but it was great fun!

 

i missed out on this article the first time, so i will read it now!

Tokido’s VF Origin Story

Harada’s Bar Feat. Aoky & Tokido Pt1 was awesome!

 

The last half of March had some awesome sessions! I’ll post them here:

iFixMachine: Chanchai joins VF Hayato’s Room - March 15, 2022


KDQ|Bushido - VF Time - March 15th, 2022


Sunday Morning VF5US Akai League, Battles, and Chat - March 20th, 2022


AWESOME SATURDAY NIGHT VF5US w/ HotSauceNelly, JakeJung, Ryozokawasaki, Dennis0201, Dark Nova Void, TalonXI, and More! - March 26th, 2022


Sunday Morning VF5US Akai League, Room w/ The2ndCap & KillaKilla321 & KungFuSmurf - March 27th, 2022


Tags: @VFhayato @KDQlBushido @akai @HotSauceNelly @Dennis0201 @Dark Nova Void

 

@VFnumbers is back!

On Sunday, April 3rd, I ran into Numbers on Ranked as we were probably both warming up for @akai ’s Sunday League!

So wonderful to play with Numbers!



I had also had a wonderful time as usual playing in Akai’s league battles and I also had a sparring session with a new player MountainDewFKR who I have been interacting with in the Korean-Lever Community!

FKR s a great guy and he’s been practicing VF and focusing on Goh. He plays a lot of Tekken and Alpha 2 and I am so glad he is playing VF!

Given his experience with VF, he is already very strong! I think what he learned from our sparring session was that 2P kills strings, including 2-hit strings that have a high. And also that Fuzzy Guard is incredibly vital and creates a major skill barrier if one side is not using it much at all. I know he’s practicing fuzzy guards already! He’s going to be strong!



Also, here’s Akai’s video if the event! Lots of great stuff!



and here is BlurringM’s video too! Like and subscribe these guys!

 

I was able to make time for Ranked today and it was great—I even ranked up to 39! All strong opponents and it was a lot of fun! I also had a sparring session with Anger the Masses!

Thanks for the battles:
@VFnumbers
KingSeti
BrodiMan
AngerTheMasses

 

https://twitter.com/chanchai_vf/status/1513983037553315840?s=21&t=qcDhAMWxhFAxAz3raQo2sA


I donated a bonus prize for the Top 4 #VF5US competitors at #TexasShowdown on April 23rd!

Cheering for everyone competing to have an amazing time! Also, please check out the @SaigaDOS Booth at the event! They have awesome SEGA & SNK Swag!

Thanks, Tournament Organizer @_iambic_

 

Had a wonderful time on Sunday!
Slept in and woke up late, so I was only able to participate in the last League Battle of @akai ’s Sunday League Battles. Unfortunately, my connection was a mess at the time, but it was good to see everyone else and it did lead to me having a good session with @DRE !

I will TimeStamp the session starting with the battles with Dre in the embedded video here, but you can see the whole thing if you like. I will also embed Akai’s Video of the League Battles as well as BlurringM’s video of his Sunday League Battles and matches!

Special Notes: Was wonderful to see AyuFanBoy vs. @daRockReaper in the VF.TV Matches!

Enjoy!

 

There was another awesome session last week, and I forgot to post it here!

Last week I joined a room started by @GenesisFrenzy and Koenraku ( @Elite ) and the matches were great! KDQ|Assassin, SpaceTime66 and @Paul68kdmd joined too!

A wonderful surprise was @Juicebox_FGC who joined the room shortly after I chatted about him!

Talon and CrazyDrunk (banok) joined too!

SpaceTime has been working on Jeffry and that is not an easy task, but I believe it will help develop more skills and add perspective too! Jeffry can be tough because even though he hits hard and throws are good, he has trouble cracking open defenses. So Jeffry players end up having to lock in on what the opponent wants to do and finds ways to punish those choices. It is not easy at all. Keep at it Space Time!

Juicebox looked pretty comfortable returning to VF and the contrast his Akira had with Paul’s Akira made the room extra awesome, imo. It was hard having to fight two very different Akiras with different repertoires.

Paul was arguably the strongest player of the night, with the highest win% of the evening. Paul’s Akira is incredibly damaging and I cannot wait to fight it again! I have some things for his Akira for next time, but I also expect he’ll be stronger and have even more elements then, too!

Talon’s Jean has gotten a lot stronger and is fighting more players overall. I do think that Juicebox provided constructive recommendations the next day on stream to help Talon take his Jean even further!

CrazyDrunk is still playing VF and I’m so happy to see it! I think he has been preoccupied with a certain card game series lately!

At the very end of the night—sorry, way early in the morning at the end of the session—I demonstrate fuzzy guard for DomPressesButtons. I also show a few things like Guard-Throw-Escape and Reversal-Throw-Escape-Guard too!

In any case, the Wednesday session last week was a blast!

 

Saturday, April 16th, 2022: While I was in town for a family trip (wife’s birthday), JakeJung and I were able to finally meet in person and we had a nice, socially distanced, offline session at the hotel I was staying at!

It was a blast and we enjoyed chatting up on some topics and just having some great, offline VF!

Thanks so much, Jake!

 

@GenesisFrenzy was expressing some of the challenges they’ve been feeling in VF compared to how it feels playing another FG like SFV. I offered my take on this unique feeling and the frustrations.

Source: https://twitter.com/genesisfrenzy/status/1516612434068267010?s=21&t=Qx_7YQQ2op0EbMNa3JjodQ

UPDATE: it is pretentious of me to think this trait is unique to VF. But I do think VF is uniquely relentless about the points I will make below.

I’m going to respond in different parts of this great discussion

Hard to explain it til someone feels it. You feel it now.

Before you feel it enough, it sounds basic when I say in VF you attack the player. This should mean more now.

And speed is valuable for conditioning.

With sequencing and speed you can create a lot of pressure. And while basic pokes and small mixups do low damage, they can give you information on the opponent’s thresholds, when they get frustrated, lose patience, tilt.

AdamYuki’s advice is learn to mixup and don’t hesitate.

Do not hesitate is important bc it is incredibly intimidating. It creates the sense of “I don’t give a fuck!”

When you guess right in rapid succession with no hesitations, the pressure you create is insane and many opponents will crack.

Plans will fall apart & you dictate.

The biggest problem with hesitation or slowing down includes losing the resource of frame advantage but it is a bigger problem than that. The biggest problem is it emboldens the opponent and it often telegraphs bad or desperate choices in mixups. It telegraphs a lot.

So again, VF is a very different fighter in that what you are able to fall back on is usually not a dominant strategy. It’s usually a fight-instead-of-flight response and establishing dominance over the pace.

You will fall deeper behind if you worry your plan has failed.

So instead of planning so much, you should be observing, responding, and challenging.

What your opponent should do can help inform, but…

You really are fighting a war about what they’re doing now and you’ll find better answers looking at their current (smart or dumb) actions.

People who worry too much about “honor” or “rules” or “what is good/bad” usually get the most stress, experience the strongest cognitive dissonance mid-fight, and actually are usually the easiest opponents to read.

The fight is happening now and the useful informations are LIVE.

Proper respect in this game is challenging what is happening.

The joy in VF happens when the fight is a dialogue of actions, reaction, and challenging ideas expressed in fight.

Telling me in words what I should or should not do is disrespect. Respect with choices that beat me.

 

A year ago, WiremanFGC made this cool video