Evolution Fighting Game Championships 2004
I am back from Evolution 2004. www.evo2k.com. It was huge and awesome and there's so much that went on that I can't begin to convey it all here. Many of the best players in the world were there, competing in 9 different fighting games. I am one of the organizers of the event, and I ran a sizeable portion of the Super Turbo Street Fighter 2 tournament.
Anyway, here's how I did. On Day (qualifying pools day), I did not lose a single ROUND in either game I entered (ST and GGXX). This included a win against two-time US national champion Jason Cole, in 4 straight rounds. (Um...why were he and I in the same qualifying pool? I think we really need to seed by ranking, not just by region next year.) Oh, I played only Vega the whole time in ST. Cole played Chun Li against me first, then switched to Dhalsim. I played only Chipp the whole time in GGXX.
On Day 2, I won some matches in Guilty Gear, but lost (barely) to an Axl player who made top 8. I felt like that was mine to win, but oh well. I later lost to an Eddie player who trains with the great Kensao (Chipp player), which means he had plenty of practice against Chipp. I feel I must be honest here when I say that this Eddie player completely destroyed me. It was not close at all. I finished 17th.
In ST, I had been waiting all year for my rematch with Daigo. After retiring Dhalsim, setting Bison aside and focusing on Vega, I felt I was ready. I have beat both Choi and Valle in tournaments with Vega, so I was mentally prepared to face Daigo. The brackets even worked out right for me, as Daigo was on my path. I faced Alex Valle and the winner would not only qualify for top 8 (day 3) but also play Daigo on stage the next match. I wanted to win that one so bad, but Valle proved too tricky and took the match. In loser's bracket I somehow managed to lose to Jessie Howard (Jessie, you are good, but I'm coming for you next time ;) ). So two Old Ken players knocked me out of the tournament, I finished 9th. In case you think Old Ken counters me, I invite the rest of you to play Old Ken against me in a tournament and see how you do. ;)
My claim to fame was the GGXX #reloaded tournament. I have played #reloaded like 2 times ever (one of those times was when I qualified for Team USA lol). I know the differences Chipp has in #r, but since I did not play #r on purpose (since Evolution's main Guilty Gear tournament was Non-#r this year) people did not expect much of me. I teamed up with Destin and famed Japanese Sol player Miu. We faced "Dream Team USA" of ID, Ruin, and Chaotic Blue. Those are probably the #1, 2, and 3 players in the US. I personally beat ID (top Sol) and Ruin (top Edddie) consecutively, to the amazement of the crowd. Chipp power! My friend Miu was able to clean up Chaotic Blue for me. We took 3rd place.
Oh, and I shouldn't leave out Kuni. He is the Japanese liason, since he speaks very good English. He plays ST Zangief(!) and there is nothing like him in the US anywhere. He wins the unwinnable matches and managed not only to qualify for top 8, but to take 3rd place in ST! He beat down Hondas, Balrogs, Sagats and Dhalsim's like they were nothing...all considred nearly impossible matches. I hung out with Kuni quite a bit, and with the Japanese Guilty Gear players Miu (4th place, Sol) and Kindevu (2nd place, Eddie). They're all very friendly and gave me a glimpse of much higher level play than I had ever seen before in person. I will almost certainly be retiring from Chipp and taking up a new character. For sake of surprise, I'll keep that character secret for now!
--Sirlin
August 3rd, 2004 at 10:44 pm
Chipp power indeed.
I wish I could pick up a new character, but no one plays GGXX at school so there’s no point. I’m going to try and get better at 3s and Marvel because that’s all that gets action down here. =( makes me sad though.
August 3rd, 2004 at 10:45 pm
oops, that was me, btw.
-pat
August 4th, 2004 at 7:33 am
Sirlin, this is Squire Apparatus again. I posted on your site wanting to know who you thought the best players in the world were. I also have a question about the tournament you were in. Are all game done on a stand up arcade machine where you have to use a joystick or does it change around between arcade stick and console control pad? I looked on the evolution site but I didn’t find any info as to when you should register. Just a few questions, I’m going to go into training so that I can hopefully make an appearance at one of these things. You know of any other tournaments that could get me ready as well? Thanks.
August 7th, 2004 at 8:41 pm
Evolution has gone all console so you can use a gamepad or stick. The BEST way to find out about upcoming tournaments is to register on www.shoryuken.com and look under upcoming tournaments. Find an arcade that regularly has tournaments and start attending, practicing and meeting new people.
Some warning tho’: be ready to lose. You will face many losses starting off, before you start to win or hold your own. Fighting games will humble you.
-OneEyedJack
August 9th, 2004 at 9:05 am
Thanks for the info Jack. Trust me I’ll be well prepared to lose and I’ve been humble before so that won’t be anything new. I’m going into intense training, so hopefully I’ll be well prepared to adapt and take on all oncomers. We’ll see though.
Squire
August 9th, 2004 at 5:00 pm
Kurt Squire?
http://www.free-conversant.com/gaming_journals/
Read Masaka’s in-depth posts about evo and one other past tournament. Quite a good and indepth read.
If you have the bandwidth, do check out Ode to the Two hit combo. It is a massive 320+ MB dl and it is one amazing piece of artistry. You name the game - i think it is in there! I honestly never thought that 2 hit combos could be so complicated. Awesome and evertaining!
-OneEyedJack
August 11th, 2004 at 8:12 am
No, I’m not Kurt Squire. By the way, who is he? Anyway, I’ll be sure to check both of those sites out. I’m getting into training so that I can possibly make an appearance at a couple of tournaments, so it’s cool to read up on some info. Thanks again Jack.
Squire Apparatus.
August 18th, 2004 at 9:17 pm
http://content.health.msn.com/content/article/92/101852.htm?action=related_link
David Boudreau
August 19th, 2004 at 11:17 am
Nice report, thanks for posting.
- Derek
August 19th, 2004 at 6:53 pm
Last night, I had a good Super Turbo session at the local arcade. My performance was actually all over the place, but then steadily got better and better by the end. During this Olympic season, I decided to practice the NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) techniques of “Ai-chan”, the young Japanese female table tennis competitor. After every single round that I won, I would squeal a startling “NYAAAH!!” just like Ai-chan, whether it was because I did something good, or my opponent messed up. Ai-chan is supposed to be some kind of child prodigy for table tennis. She acts all sheepish and innocent on camera interviews after the match– “neurotic” even– but I suspect that’s all a cover for her real tactic- to use the NYAAAH! shriek to distract her opponent. Hasn’t someone thrown a paddle or two at her during a match out of frustration yet? Any calls of unsportsman-like conduct? I guess she’s considered too young and cute. The NYAAH happens to be the automatopea of “meow” in Japanese- but not to confuse her with the Chinese player from Australia– or the other Chinese player from the US.
This NLP thing is prevalent in sports. Ai-chan is using it to keep herself in the zone, I suspect- just like sports teams congratulate each other on their own team on every little play made, no matter how small or insignificant. The thing I don’t quite understand yet is that it’s said after the fact. When you say your NYAAAH before the critical/high pressure moments, it doesn’t help much because you haven’t actually done anything- it’s all pre-Execution. So, is it all merely to keep you inside the zone, for as long as possible? Just to keep us from becomming neurotic, and get more hypnotic?
Are there any high level fighting game players that have any particular well-known tics like this? The mailman only delivers on Sunday, etc.? I was saying “boo-yah!” for a while, but pre-Execution sometimes, which didn’t get me to the zone if I “relied” upon saying the boo-yah before a round. Then it was “woooooo!!” but I found myself confusing this one with genuine surprise when something unexpected happened in the game, good or bad. It seems that you have to say your NYAAAH not just when you do something right, but also when your opponent does something _bad_. That seems a little cruel to me though- and I need to justify more clearly how this is helping me.
David Boudreau
August 30th, 2004 at 7:43 am
David, hell yeah it’s helping you stay in the zone. I say do it as often as one likes because I view it as a tactic that can keep you focused while possibly throwing your opponent off. Now don’t go screaming in the person’s ear, that could get you looked down on and things could get out of hand.
I used to pull out victory poses(poses of the character that I was using) after I won a match or during the match depending on the game. Like in Mortal Kombat I,II, or III as soon as I got the fatality off and match was over I would immediately say something like “Fatality” in a deep, creepy voice or I would do the pose. The pose was much more humiliating I found out, so I kept doing that one. Plus, it amused me(hey, I’m a loon, what do you expect). In Killer Instint, it was the same thing, but even more insane because once the ultra combo set in, I just dropped the “stick” and stood up and stared at my opponent, or sometimes walk out of the room to let him watch his demise by himself, or if I was at the arcade I would immediately turn around and have a conversation with someone while letting him watch the horror being displayed on the screen. All these things are somewhat like a taunt, but at the same time can give you energy while depleting your opponents energy. If they get angry and try to fight harder the next time, they can sometimes be unfocused. But my favorite thing to do is to do nothing at all. I find that we all have ways of displaying our energy as to what gets us hyped up, so I say everyone should find what works for them and do it. Just don’t touch the other person or yell in his ear and you’re cool.
-Squire Apparatus
August 30th, 2004 at 9:54 pm
Well if you direct taunts directly _at_ the other person, how is it acceptable in either case? Whether you shout in his ear or give a NYAAH, that’s just a matter of degree. Where do you draw the line?
On a recent air flight back from New Caledonia, I saw the onboard movie “Along Came Polly” that featured Philip Seymour Hoffman (the guy often confused with Jack Black). In this movie, his character had a TON of NYAAHs during the basketball court scene:
“Raindrops!” (for his jumpshots, to get the ball to swish through the net)
“White Chocolate, comin’ thru!” (warnings of layups, and a dunk attempt)
and a few more. But the thing is, these NYAAHs did absolutely _nothing_ for him. He kept throwing up bricks every time. The NLP stuff clearly was not working here.
I know it was just a movie, but what’s to say that wouldn’t happen in real life competition? The link should be between your own actions and the NYAAH; not between your NYAAH and the opponent’s failures/mistakes.
-David Boudreau
August 31st, 2004 at 7:07 am
btw Mr. Aparatus, I recently came across this, to answer your question up top of who is Kurt Squire: http://www.cmpevents.com/GDe04/a.asp?option=G&V=3&id=252950
It’s from a website on Serious Games Summit.
-David Boudreau
August 31st, 2004 at 1:55 pm
Man, Kurt Squire sounds pretty heavy duty to me. So he’s basically teaching something like a videogame culture and theory course. I would’ve loved to have taken something like that when I was in school. Sounds like the University of Wisconsin has some good classes going for it as far as videogaming is concerned. I’ll have to read up on what he has to say. I’m sure it’s interesting stuff. They have a course of study in Nevada that’s all about games(though I think it may just be casino games, but…)it would be interesting if they happened to do videogames as well.
But back to the essence of the NYAAH. I understand what you’re trying to say, but even if the NYAAH is between your actions and your NYAAH, will the opponent be able to discern that? If I was on the basketball court and I say “Coming thru, booyaah”. That’s going to be seen as a taunt to the people you are playing against, but to you it’s sort of like raising your power level. I think that everyone is different in how they get hyped up to play well. Even when I lose in any fighting game, I get hyped up because it’ll be like “this person defended everything I gave him and then some, I’ve got much to learn, but it was fun and exciting”. That’s how I feel sometimes when I’m playing. But when I’m real serious and it’s clutch time, I won’t release a “NYAAH” till I’ve won the round. Yeah, I only talk stupid smack talk when I’m around friends or around people who just like to do it constantly. It turns more into a mental battle then.
-Squire
September 3rd, 2004 at 8:11 am
I hope our author didn’t forget about his blog here. Anyways, I had another Super Turbo session this week. I did horribly, but I won’t blame the NYAAH thing yet, my timing was just sluggish and way off. I’m sayin it was a little dry this week, but just wait til I get my raindance on, then we’ll see some a those raindrops. Who wants a taste of the white chocolate here, I’ll break you off a chunk.
I got some good advice from our 3rd Strike champion though, who was telling me certain times when I should use Dhalsim’s fb yoga fire more often. We covered a lot of ground we’re both familiar with, but I was happy to get the discussion going at all. You know, it’s so damn difficult to discuss strategy because of just how… CONTEXTUAL fighting games are to speak about in any common terms. Just the distances, compartive recovery times, frames catching up, etc. make it so hard just to describe a particular situation or common circumstance as it actually could go down. There are just so many subtleties in what we usually consider basic and might assume. I heard Diago practices a lot, with an example of him staying up all night for hours and hours with some friends just practicing guile’s low fierce in ST. Hm I could do that! Well… maybe not tonight. I’ve got NYAAH practice.
btw it seems the media is calling it “SAA!” not “NYAAH!”. At the game center, my friend said it was “TAA!”, as her kiai. In any case, when she got back to Japan, Ai-chan got a little fed up with the media asking about it, so she wouldn’t even provide an answer to reporters. The fame must be getting to her. If we’re lucky, maybe by the time she becomes an adult she’ll have gone the route of the cursed Diff’rent Strokes childhood cast. Did anyone watch her games? If I was in the audience there, every time she _lost_ a point, I’d be screaming back a good “NYAAH!” for a brainwashing technique- maybe she’ll get confused and her brain will begin to associate the NYAAH with losing just as much as winning, and then her lucky charm is all gone. Or at least, distract her enough to generate some “neurotica” so to speak, and break the hypnosis she appears to not only be under, but the entire audience as well. As they’re escorting me outside, I’d still be shouting “You know you want the media attention! No more of your annoying Jedi mind tricks little girl!!”
-David Boudreau
September 14th, 2004 at 7:59 am
I went to Maryland for a week and actually ran into SVC: Chaos. I have never, ever, ever seen this game at an arcade, but where I come from there are hardly any real arcades left. I decided to play(it took 3 tokens, damnnn!!!) and I beat this guy who was using an SNK character(can’t remember who he was using) and I put Akuma to the test(just trying to freshen up some skills). Amazingly, I won and I was amazed seeing that it was my first time and this guy had basically beaten the game except for a few guys.
The game had an SNK look to it and a friend of mine told me that it was because SNK did the graphics engine for this title instead of Capcom like in its previous fighters. I said “oh” and went about my business. Unfortunately I did end of losing to the computer who was playing as some guy who tossed whirlwinds all day and just stood still. I was informed that he was an old King Of Fighters boss and was ridiculously hard then, so it made since that I got trounced. Anyway, it was fun and I hope I can play it again soon. There’s nothing like the rush you get from playing a fighting game or am I the only one who thinks that.
-Squire
September 14th, 2004 at 10:26 pm
Actually, if you’re talking about getting any rush from playing against the _computer_ in a fighting game, that’s just insane. Never play the computer!! I recently bought a used fighting stick controller for the Dreamcast, and practicing Super Turbo and 3rd Strike. The training options, esp. 3rd Strike are great. But I also played some ST games in Arcade mode. It’s ridiculous. I was reminded of just how horrible the computer cheats. I have been trying to see how many Super finishes I can get in one game. “oh, the human busted out some attack there, guess we’ll have to cut straight to a hitting frame before his move even develops that far, to squash it.” I knew that a long time ago but after all these years, it is no easier (and definitely no more fun) to see how far I can get against the computer. This doesn’t even relate to the “just figure out the pattern” people talk about. Well, the one notable exception is Dee Jay. Just keep doing roundhouse spin kicks, and he will do his very best to get hit cleanly by most every single one. If you’re playing Ryu that is, who has the _knockdown_ spin kick. Just start the round that way. He will get knocked down in all likelyhood. then walk right up to him and start it again. Yay, this is fun. Uh-oh, Cammy is next. “YOU, LOSE,!” states the computer, very matter-of-factly. In ST, the voice explains it like that, blatantly indicating that it had something remotely to do with any notion of our own skill, and not it’s own frame-robbing cheating.
If there’s anything to the NYAAH! thing, that must mean we all have lower self-esteem just from the fact that we’ve played the CPU, and been brainwashed with that message all these years: we lose. We should organize a class action suit against capcom or something for this crime of our social development and potential.
ST is great, but the value is NOT in playing the CPU (same is true for just about every other fighting game). (Well, maybe not SVC Chaos, apparently.) You have to play against people to appreciate a fighting game. Otherwise, just go about your business, because playing the computer is meaningless.
David Boudreau
February 8th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
Your new character better not be Millia…but she’s the only one remotely crackrabbitish I can think of.
Plus she’s a god.