Pineconeattack!

Edit: Re-uploaded the cell phone videos, since I found a working conversion program.  They don’t look like absolute dog-shit anymore.  Enjoy!

Well, what I figured would occur did: my first match-up resulted in me getting creamed.  I could make excuses about how I was going up against tournament-level players and how Sagat is top-tier….and I’m going to do just that.  I’m terrible with names, but I did recognize a few folks who have attended EVO and several other major tournaments throughout the country.  Once I saw those faces popping up, I knew this wasn’t going to be easy at all.

The tournament: We had about 45 minutes to mess around with the game itself and the MadCatz controllers (the FightPad, the FightStick and the FightStick Tournament Edition; more on those in a bit), as well as enjoy the free food and drinks being served.  The suite itself was pretty posh, though with that many people, it felt a bit cramped until a lot of the folk who lost started to make their exits.  It got really warm, too, which led to some B.O. stench.  You can never truly get away from that at any game tournament, it seems.  Plus, we all had to watch out for the chandelier in the middle of the room, since it hung low and had points everywhere, making it an eye-gouging trap if I had ever seen one.  I managed to do well in some of my practice matches, scoring a few victories and getting some kudos in the process.  Of course, with my luck kicking into overdrive, I biffed my first match in the tournament.

Being a single-elimination format, that was it for me.

Not terribly surprising, I know.  I went in with the intention of using Honda, but my research revealed that Honda isn’t all that great against Sagat in this game.  One of my practice matches proved that point, so I fell back on Ryu to try to give myself a better chance.  It didn’t really work, but I managed to avoid a three-round shut-out.  When I get the rest of the matches that were shot uploaded, I’ll post them (Ninja Edit: here they are):

The rest of the tournament was standard fare.  Getting back to familiar faces, I noticed a few from past EVO’s and someone I had worked with at the Apple Store before I quit.  He didn’t recognize me, which seems to be a trend amongst those I worked with there.  Maybe they work like Scientologists do when you leave the cult, but that’s an entirely different subject.  He was shooting photos, so if he uploads anything to his Flickr account, I’ll link to them.  Another local face I noticed was Josh Luera, who posts over at Shoryuken (though, for the life of me, I can’t remember his damn handle there) and also worked with my roommate at Round Table Pizza a couple of years ago.  To my surprise, he was Microsoft’s champion, which is a definite plus for giving the local scene some added kudos.  He and a guy by the name of Joe C. duked it out to decide who would be the champion between Sony and Microsoft:

So, Sony ended up taking that crown.  Which meant it was time to decide who was the final victor: Sony’s champ in Joe C. or Capcom’s king…’Justin Wong?‘  Domino-chan and I both said it at the same time when his name came up.  I looked over to the TV the final match was going to be played on to watch him waltz up, wearing a jacket that was probably worth too much money (and definitely not needed; that room got super-fucking warm).  And away they went, while I captured it with my phone:

And so, the man who has earned way too much money from tournaments got a free copy of the Collector’s Edition of SFIV and a free Tournament Stick.  Kind of disappointing, really, since I think a person who doesn’t happen to be one of the best players in the country deserved to walk away with a prize.

The controllers: MadCatz did a seriously good job with these.  The FightPad has a D-Pad that feels a lot like the old Sega Genesis and Saturn pads, along with having six buttons on the face of the pad.  This was an intentional design choice by them, as a lot of players that use a pad tend to gravitate towards the Saturn Pad for its usability.  It feels okay in the hands, but I’m not much of a pad person anymore.  I only used it once, so I can’t give a definite impression about it.  Still, it’s worth taking a look at if you are not a stick person, but are not willing to put up with using the 360 controller for fighters.

The regular FightStick reminded me a lot of the stock Hori sticks: decent, but with a lot of room for improvement.  It’s accurate and about the same size as my Hori EX, but it runs afoul of the same mushy buttons stock Hori’s have.  It has the same turbo functions as it’s big brother and should be easily moddable, if the Tournament Edition stick is any indication.  Now that’s a thing of beauty.  It’s rather heavy, but its construction is extremely sturdy.  Peeking on the inside, everything is indeed quick-disconnect, if you ever fancy to switch out the buttons for different colors.

(Picture from The Gamer Show; they also have up a story as well)

A nice touch is that the panel artwork is its own separate piece, thus getting rid of another step of work if you decide to personalize the stick to your liking; a very nice decision on the part of MadCatz.  And of course, it’s accurate as hell, what with having Sanwa parts in it.  I’m considering shelling out the bucks for one, since it is really nice and having two sticks for my 360 will come in handy.

Well, there you have it.  A rather fine event, if I do say so myself.  Huge thanks goes out to Seth Killian of Capcom (as well as the other Capcom dudes I didn’t know) for putting the event together and to Jeff Rubenstein of Playstation Blog, for inviting me in the first place.  And, of course, Domino-chan for shooting a majority of the matches.  Awesome Banana is awesome.

–Ancient Flounder