Hey folks, it's been a while.
For those of you that don't know, After playing Vanilla in 2009, I started playing Super Street Fighter IV competitively this year. Looking back, 2010 was a huge year for Street Fighter and fighting games in general, and I was fortunate enough to go to some major events and witness some of the most hype moments of the year. In this feature, I'll go over various personal experiences and trends of the year from a competitor and fighting game fan perspective -- particularly SSF4(though I'll touch on some other fighting games that I play) -- that made 2010 special.
First tourney:
I'm new to the fighting game scene. Without going into too much detail, I played TCGs and DotA competitively(also played SSBM casually, but I don't count it as a traditional fighting game) before Vanilla SF4. That being said, the end of 2008 into 2009 was when I started practicing and playing fighting games. Because fighting games and even using joysticks were new to me, I wasn't ready to enter tournaments, instead opting to play casually with about seven of my friends with the goal of learning fundamentals, executing combos and leveling up with/beating them and of course preparing myself to join tournies.
Once I moved to SoCal for school though, I couldn't play with anyone in person, so I had to settle with netplay.
The first tournament/major I went to was actually NCR in November '09, but I went just to watch and experience a live event. Now, the first tournament I competed in was a fundraiser that my friend Matt and his church youth group New Life held back in January. It had a small turnout (about 12 entrants), but that helped me ease into tournament play. It didn't have the pressure of a major, but there was still a bit of prize money and pride on the line -- not to mention some folks watching; I knew most of the people there, but not everyone so I got to meet and network a few new people, whereas previously I only played my friends and on XBL; and while it was small, there was a good amount of hype for the matches (thanks to Jon for providing godlike commentary).
As for my performance that day, I went 0-2 with Sagat against my friend Angelo's Honda and Matt's friend Corey's Guile. In the random 2v2 I got 2nd with my friend Marc aka I.Say.Yah (he did all the work lol).
Release of Super Street Fighter IV:
Ah, April 27th. The day Super Street Fighter IV came out. The weeks before the game came out were a painful wait. The weekly official blog entries revealed balance changes like Sagat's nerf on his standing short, new stages like Solar Eclipse, and in-game features like Team Battle. The gameplay vids from Las Vegas Fight Club, 1UP Game Night, and other press demos made me want to play even more.
The allure of Super was that it added a bunch of new and returning fighters to the cast, balanced certain characters which made lower tier characters more viable, and the new features like Replay Channel and Endless Battle topped it off nicely.
Another thing to note is that Super came out in the U.S. a day before Japan, meaning the U.S. would have the game the same time as them, putting both countries on equal footing in terms of play time. Now there were no excuses for the U.S. losing because Japan had the game longer than us. Not only that, but Super was a console-only release at the time, with no announcement of an arcade version, which Japan was used to.
April 27th was also the day that spelled doom for my studies that semester -- I played way more than I should've lol. Also, about a week prior to the game's release, I got sick. During that time I stumbled upon TeamSp00ky's infamous 24-hour live stream of SSFIV because they got a hold of the game before street date. Gah, terrible timing to come out.
The road to EVO:
Some last minute grinding at my house before EVOAfter watching the EVO 2009 finals stream between Justin and Daigo with a bunch of my friends live, I made it a goal to travel to next year's EVO to not only watch but compete. Once my friends and I made arrangements to go, we decided to train with EVO in mind.
After Super released, I was invited to play at Matt aka Figs/iGauge who I met at the New Life tourney; he also played SSBM with my friends in the past but also converted to SF4. This was the first time I played casuals at an acquaintance's house, but it was a great learning experience. As we played more casuals at his place we became training partners and friends with his friends Jon and Aaron. And oddly enough I managed to meet my friend Curtis who I knew in elementary school and we somehow crossed paths again ten years later thanks to mutual friendship.
While upping my time in the lab and against my friends, it still wasn't enough if I wanted to advance in the brackets at EVO. Since I barely had any tournament experience, it would've been too big a leap to play from a local fundraiser to the world championship, so I wanted to enter a few more local tournies to get somewhat more comfortable with tournament play.
I like to play a stream on my PC while we play casuals at my house, and one I tuned in to watch every week over the summer was the Starbase Arcade freeplay stream:
Shoryuken: Starbase Arcade Thread Wed Super SSFIV $5 Freeplay
I was a regular Starbase stream monster because high level players brought some great matches on the stream station, commentators like RodgerDodger and a_Rival interacted with the chat, offered insight on the matches, and poked good fun at the players with hilarious overlays and taunts. Basically, Starbase looked like genuine fun.
Starbase was exactly what we were looking for. Owner Video Bob has been kind enough to house freeplay casuals every Wednesday. You can read all about Starbase, Vdon (the TO), and Team Galactic Donuts, Starbase's crew here.
It was the perfect fit because we got exposed to a variety of players and characters with different skill levels. At Starbase, I could play pros like BLG FilipinoChamp, Crizzle, and BLG Vangief and even local killas like Doug, Harrison, and Hoodaman. Hell, I even got to play and meet one of my favorite Sagats in Vanilla, Haunts. They also hold impromptu tournaments and there's usually a stream station, so if you feel like showing your skills to stream monsters, you can (BTW, playing on a stream feels different if you're not used to a "crowd" watching). Nearly everyone there is friendly and willing to give advice. For example, after losing my very first tournament match at Starbase to Hoodaman's Honda, I asked him how I could improve in the Sakura/Honda match-up and he gladly answered. That's one of my goals at Starbase: to ask questions. Getting feedback from different players really helps you realize the holes and bad habits in your game and that helps.
I went to Starbase twice before EVO and it certainly helped me get into the competitive mindset. Now my friends and I are regulars at Starbase (I usually go whenever I'm on break from school).
Buddy and fellow TPL contributor Shoop fights BLG Vangief in a tourney at Starbase.
Next entry covers EVO, post-EVO and the release of Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition.