And I placed quite well. More on that later....
Let me back up to earlier today, about 1pm. I wasnt going to initially enter the Tournament, held at Digital Mayhem in Wallingford, due to a part time Job I now hold at a Supplement Shop on Saturdays from 11 to 6. Ironically, I have the opportunity to play Tekken 6 pretty much all day: My boss has a PS3 behind the counter alongside a nice 20' WideScreen LCD. As long as customers are tended to when they show, he doesnt care if I play one bit. The only problem between this Job and this Tournament is that I was supposed to work until 6. The Event started at 5. Go figure that I have growing interest in Tourneys when I dont have free time!!
My boss shows up around 2 and sees how slow the store is. "Dude, you should close up at 5 since theres nobody here." As soon as he said this, the idea came to mind: Im going to go. Somehow. So I go onlne and get info I need from Tekken Zaibatsu. I give Digital Mayhem a call and ask when its going to be the absolute latest to show. "The latest you could show is 5:15" said the man on the phone. I darted out of there at 4:40, giving myself a good 35 minutes to literally speed to Wallingford.
Interestingly enough, Google gave me the proper directions: Exit on to Route Five, make a right, and Viola!! But one problem.... the exit was incorrect by about a good 5 exits as there are two ways to connect to Route 5 from I-91. So there I am at 5:01, on Route 5 knowing Im off-kilter somehow, trying to get a sense of direction as I have a slight inkling as to where I am. I stop at a local Gas Station and literally leave my car running with the door open as I dart to the clerk to ask for directions. "Its a good 6 miles up that way, you should have gotten off later on I-91!!" DOH!! To make a long drive/story short, I weave through local traffic and pull up to Digital Mayhem at 5:17. I literally just made it. A sense of relief came through me as I forked over my 15 dollar entry fee.
The place was phenominal. There were at least 20 PC monitors and another 25 CRT's set up to play everything from Halo 3 and Modern Warfare 2 (Towards the front, about 5 TV's), to Warcraft (A hefty 15 monitors took this space up by the front counter), SF4 (6 Televisions were set up for this), KoF12, Guilty Gear, CvS2 and SSF2TRemix (4 Televisions shared these), and the main attraction for me, Tekken 6, which had only 4 Televisions. TMNT Tournament Fighters gets honorable mentions as it was by itself on a Laptop being Emulated. That was awesome. I felt bad for Tekken 6 as the crowd for SF4 was at least 4 times bigger. Regardless of who was playing what, you had this tremendous sense of awe and fun with at least 60+ people getting their game on. Cans of RedBull and Bottles of Bawls decorated those in-between TV spaces, and Steel Fabricated DDR Mats were being occupied for viewing of whatever fight was going on. A few peeps were sprawled out on HUGE BeanBag chairs. Awesome.
I first meet Andy and his brother Dan as the Tourney setup was underway. Those two were very friendly as they shared a PS3 DualShock Controller and Tekken 6 opinions with me as things heated up. The funny part was that I beat Dan 6 times in a row with my Yoshimitsu as he played King. I mostly owned those matches, but he got a few rounds in. I didnt want to play him too much as he would get comfortable with my playstyle, so I took a short break to see who else was playing. The only issue with sharing controllers was that there were only 2 Dual Shocks floating around. I needed one as the idea of Andy and Dan leaving early and leaving me stranded. I approach the Organizer and ask "Do I have time to pick up a controller??" "Yup" he said, "But make it quick as you can, I can put your name towards the end of the list." I now find myself rushing, again, up the street to WalMart. Thank god it was only up a half block!!
Im running as fast as I can from my Car to the Entertainment section just for a freggin' Dual Shock controller, which I was holding all day at work, AND which I have sitting on this Computer Desk that Im typing at. Thats twice I forgot a Controller. But I NEED this one..... and theres none on the Sales Floor. I swear some entity is keeping me from getting what I need!! A useless Wal-Mart clerk says that "We just stocked the rest of them this morning...." Nope.... NONE are to be found. So I then run as fast as I can back to my car, and all while moving quickly, about 15 ideas are running through my head as to how to get my hands on a controller with being time efficient. Im now speeding carefully through the next lot to see if theres a Gamest.... RADIOSHACK!! RadioShack had a few left. So I literally throw 60 bucks at the clerk and dart back over to Digital Mayhem.
Its time for my first match.
I play against an OK Miguel who had nothing to throw at me but Jabs (1,DF+1, 2, DF+2, variate, repeat). There were a few 1+2's in there, but I practically won with no problems. The problem with facing this series of jabs is that they all come out rather quickly and for a few matches, he whittled me down to a very miniscule ammount of health. I get 2 for 3. I advance.
My next opponent is a scrappy Law, who defeats me, by mixing up low sweeps/kicks/punches with basic keep away moves (F,F+3, F+3+4). This is the reason why I hate playing online so much and why this Tourney was so goddamned awesome: I cant practice DF parries at all online, and people playing here do an excellent job of mixing things up. If online was as solid as offline, I would have had a better job timing my parries. I win one out of 2. I move on to the losers bracket.
Im now spectating and talking with people, and I come across a player, which ironically, I havent seen since Tekken Tag in the Arcade that I always speak of!! I remember his face, but I forgot that his name was Mark. The coolest part was that he remembered me using Yoshimitsu back then, battling it out with Marlon (The Manager back then) and our local company. I observed some of Mark's matches: He used Yoshimitsu a little bit (As he played him back then as well) but played as Miguel with some interesting scrapping tactics. Now offensive and defensive ideas are starting to open up as I see people pull out some interesting move choices.
With all of this observing, I completely forget that theres a losers bracket, so I approach the orgainzer and ask whats up. Im now facing.... Dan?!?! He rolls his eyes when he sees me. "Ah man, Im playing you?? Shit!!" I try not to laugh too hard as I thought that this was ridiculous as Im certainly in like flinn, as long as I dont go soft for feeling bad beating him senseless earlier. I nab him 2 in a row. I give the orgainzer the results.
And excitement was building up even moreso at this point as matches were getting heated. There were lots of Bruces, an amazing Lei Wulong who told me he played on Korea for a Year.... "Dude, wheres my IC card!!" he shouted as he played; Michelle (Who domintaed!!), and another Yoshimitsu player who catches my eye by the name of Jose. This dude, who I play later on as Im going to elaborate further down, was pulling off some really amazing Noko style combos that juggled the bejesus out of a mistake ridden opponent. Awesome stuff as Im learn even more tactics just by observing. Just as Jose and I start to talk some more, Im up again. This time against....
Mark!!
The dude I played regularly 10 years ago was suddenly crossing paths with me again. I expected him to go the Yoshimitsu route, but he picks Miguel. I nail him hardcore, 2 to nothing, expecting him to do much better. We shake hands and I report my win to the organizer. My next match came right away.
The dude picked Bruce. And beat me.
Not totally though. First of all, the guy was awesome, like MrNaps Bryan Fury but using Bruce's combos instead awesome. There were also people pointing him out saying he was the guy to beat. Playing against him meant one little mistake and you literally flew across the screen, spending lots of health in the process, eventually crashing into a wall splat. I figured his game out and came back for the win in the second match. He came back in the third. I was out, but with a sense of awe rather than disappointment. And this is when things started to get more interesting. Jose and I start talking again, taking a spare Tekken 6 station in the process and literally play for the next 100 minutes non-stop, trading ideas, strategies and amazing matches throughout. When all was said and done, I would say that I won 80% of those matches, and each victory was earned with the difficulty of as if I was working out for crying out loud!! This guys Yoshimitsu was actually quite good, with juggles that were inspired by Otokonoko at the cost of at least 40% of your health. I started getting comfortable with playing and scored awesome victories using Heihachi, Paul (its nice to be able to time reversals!!), Kazuya, King and Armour King. I felt exactly like I did 10 years ago, and it was simply awesome. Even moreso with amazingly loud and insane cheers coming from the SF4 area to our left. Crazy shit!!
Amidst the excitement of playing Jose, I figured I would at least see where I placed in this small time Tekken 6 Tourney. I look at the beacket and see..... 5th!?!? 5th place for not being in a Tournament like this for 10 years!! Not too shabby, no??
Unfortunately, the night drew to a close.... Digital Mayhem was open till about 1, but everyone was booking out at 10:30. A sense of disappointment came across me when I found out that DM is closing its doors come November 29th.... Such an awesome community that I learn about at the last possible second. Go figure....
A tremendous shout out goes out to Jose, an awesome Yoshimitsu player (He goes by the name "Shintomitsu") who mentioned YOT(!!), Y2K Bakura from Tekken Zaibatsu (He organized the Tekken side of things) and ThePestazoid from Shoryuken's forums (I believe he is the main organizer). Honorbale mentions go out to everyone else I didnt have the pleasure of meeting as everyone there was friendly and just plain cool. You dont find that often!!
Keep the competetive scene going guys!! No online game will ever, EVAH account for a strong in-person tournament community.
-Saikoro
Zaibatsu Results!!
http://www.tekkenzaibatsu.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=114899
Visit Digital Mayhem's site here: http://www.digitalmayhemlc.com/
This post was edited by Saikoro (2009-11-22 07:07, 10 years ago)
