SBCC Gamefest

At long last I've lost my fightan tourney virginity (Smash Bros. didn't count) this past Saturday. I entered the SFIV tourney at the Santa Barbara City College Gamefest at a whopping $5 entree fee. You've most likely never heard of the event before reason being we having no real fighting game scene nor good players. Regardless it was fun and I've learned that real tourney experiences are dangerously addicting.

The SFIV tournament consisted of 16 contenders with nearly half of 'em repping Microsoft's almighty d-pad (and losing their first rounds). My first opponent in particular was a Japanese Ryu main, perhaps a year older than I, equipped with a fancy see-thru TE stick. "Great, my first opponent is Daigo" were the first thoughts to run through my head. Before the tournament started however I had already ran through some casuals to prep myself up and sedate my shivering knees, so by this point I was pretty calm. Still, being my first real tournament battle I wasn't sure what to expect.

I pick Guile, match starts, Sonic Boom. Due to that anxiousness though I end up falling for stupid dps, miss obvious throw techs, and flop the first match. At this point though I figure, hey this guy isn't even that good, why did I lose? Realizing I'm actually more skilled than my opponent, I was able to overcome my nervousness and quickly turn the next matches around. The tournament was running best 2 out of 3, and I was able to plow through the next two rounds with ease (my opponent was more nervous than me by this point). Victory, a handshake, and nod to the ref guy to confirm my win.

Next I'm matched up against an ambiguous brown minority who mains freaking Sakura of all characters. Never have I ever come across a Sakura main ridiculous enough to actually learn how to use her. As such, I did not know the matchup at all, but I learned quickly that: you don't jump in (cr.hp), you don't dash in (cr.mk > ex shippukyaku), and you don't Sonic Boom (shippukyaku/ex shouoken). Frustrated, I lost and was tossed into the losers bracket.

The losers bracket progressing much slower than the winners, I took this time to observe some of the other matches. Interestingly there were no Sagats, few Ryus, no Rufus, yet a ton of Balrogs and Zangiefs. I witnessed the punk Sakura main who beat me lose to a lariatgief which managed to heighten my mood a little.

Back in losers, my next opponent was one of the many Balrogs, unfortunately. While I'm not a stranger to the matchup, I've never been one to fair well against Balrog. This one in particular knew what he was doing using well reaction headbutts, TAPs, and EX dash punches. Like I said though, I know this matchup. He made the mistake of testing me the first few rounds with Focus Attacks to which I responded with flash kicks and I was able to stop him from EX dashes through my Sonic Booms with EX Yomi Boom. However that didn't stop me from eating my fair share of headbutts (into Ultra).

They were actually real fun sets that went back and forth until the final round of the third set. He was too easily baited into headbutting costing him the match by a sliver of life (ok I chipped with EX Sonic Boom).

And lastly the final set I played was against an E. Honda main. Just like Honda, he was a big, happy fellow and I could guess he knew his way around Honda. I was right. Abusing buttslam oicho mindgames, I ended up getting my ass worked. What I should have done was punish buttslams with airthrows more often but regardless, he proved himself to be much better than I winning both sets.

In the end I placed a surprisingly high sounding 7th place. While I didn't stick around to watch the finals, I believe the Zangief from earlier had won accumulating a small yet appreciable $56.

But by the time I dropped out of the tournament I had been there for nearly 4 hours and had enough of the gamefest. Before and during the SFIV tourney I played a few rounds of Tekken 6, Melee, Brawl+, and watched a bit of the Starcraft 2 Beta (which looks beautiful btw) on the side. At that point I was much too tired to watch the rest of the tourney so I decided to leave. Before going I thanked one guy in particular who was generous enough to let me use his Xbox 360 HRAP3 stick for the tournament, though the joystick was pretty crappy. All in all it was a fun experience, meeting other people in person who enjoy playing fighting games. I'll definitely be going again next year repping Santa Barbara in SSFIV as the second worst fighting game scene in California (San Luis Obispo is garbage!).

Quote of the night: "I fucking hate Russia." - angry larietgief victim