LOS ANGELES - YoMomma was on the team that won the Players Bowl VIII crew vs. crew battle, and he let it be known it was the start of something big for he and the players on his team.
The crew battle was highlighted by a win by Mr. Moss over Problem, a win that sealed the tournament championship. There were some other big highlights, including a 16-point comeback to keep the team in the tournament.
Whether YoMomma is right about his team being the best is up for debate. There won't be another major event until the Raleigh Madden Challenge in the late summer.
In this podcast, I talk to him about the crew battle at Players Bowl VIII, plus his thoughts on Madden 11 and some of the changes that are possibly coming to the game. We also brush a little bit on his run-in with Convinced.
You can listen to it below.
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LONG BEACH - Last week, Royalflush posted on the Capcom Unity blog about the scene he loves a lot -- Tatsunoko vs Capcom. I thought it was a friendly call to other communities and spectators not to give up on them, that the game is exciting and competitive.
Seems appropriate. Mention a current fighting game right now and one of two probably come up before Tatsunoko vs Capcom. I have seen these guys at various events throughout SoCal over the past few months. Action is fast-paced. Matches are intense. Comebacks are crazy. The spectators hang on every character switch, assist and combo.
From what I've seen in tournament play, Tatsunoko vs Capcom is good. A lot of the matches have been close and there have been some amazing comebacks and close calls. The K Blade vs Phampy match is a great example; K Blade made two insane comebacks to beat Phampy and win the title (I'll post the video late tonight or tomorrow).
While being good at SSFIV can build a great foundation for playing a multitude of other 2-D fighting games at a competitive level, it's not always that appealing to players who look for something else in their fighters. SSFIV can be quite demanding in terms of dexterity and execution, but it really rewards those who are spot on with both of those, while those who can't keep up with the higher-level players just get left behind. TvC may seem very basic at first, but as you continue to understand the game mechanics, the same elements of dexterity and execution are easier to achieve and heightened levels of these truly make for a skilled player.
On Saturday, I asked Royalflush about his commentary and the future of the competitive scene. What's hurting the competitive scene? Is Evolution 2010 the end-all or the beginning?
You can listen to the interview below.
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After two tournaments in the AllisFighter/iPlayWinner Online Ranbats series, Sai-Kun is the clear leader and favorite to win the PlayStation 3 division. There's a lot of factors that have contributed to his great play, but to me, nothing really stood out until I looked at his stream statistics.
Sai-Kun played three times on the stream last week and went 3-0. Yeah, champions step up when people are watching. However, he faced eight different characters and finished in a positive round ratio in all eight matchups (plus-14 for the tournament). He gave up only one round when a player switched characters (10-for-11). Just one! Haunts said a few times that his opponents were probably better off sticking instead of switching, and I agree as a spectator. The stats don't lie either.
The graphic you see above is the totals after two tournaments for the players that have been on the stream for the PlayStation 3 tournaments. Again, Sai-Kun has been unstoppable, going 7-0. But in almost every category that I track, he is the leader or near it. His .972 closeout percentage is by far the best. And his .278 comeback percentage is eye-popping (he makes a comeback 1 out of 4 times. Think about that for a second).
I imagine that Tuesday night the sharks are going to be coming after him in full force. We'll find out whether he can survive another run.
UPDATE: I should mention that if you're wondering about Cyborg. Yes, he went 0-1 on the stream and has very positive stats. He went 7-for-7 on getting the first hit and 5-for-7 in getting the first combo. But he couldn't convert those into wins.
I still have to put together the Xbox 360 grand totals. But in the meantime, the 1.2 ranbat stream statistics are ready to go.
If you want to check out more, you can download the Excel files.
Hopefully when the videos of East Coast Throwdown 2 are posted, I'll be able to chart specifically what happened in the Top 16. The matches I saw, before I had to head out for a tourney in Echo Park, were very exciting.
As for the Top 3, these guys' journey went from tough to really tough. That was especially the case for Flash Metroid, who had the weakest strength of schedule among the top three in the preliminaries, but then had a tough gauntlet to cap off his second-place finish.
The top three placers' strength of schedule:
Justin Wong: .680
Flash Metroid: .745
Inthul: .717
Inthul played 13 matches (correction: 12 matches), and only twice -- his first two matches -- he faced someone who didn't eventually win two matches. His first two opponents went a combined 1-4. As for his opponents' final 11 matches: 55-18.
Here's their strength of schedule prior to the Sunday final:
Justin Wong: .629
Flash Metroid: .556
Inthul: .642
Flash Metroid's had the rough run on Sunday; his strength of schedule increased because he faced Justin and Inthul at the end of the tournament.
LAKEWOOD - Here's the videos from the championship matches of Saturday's Primetime Gamers tournament in Lakewood. Shizza faced off against Combofiend. The first video is the first final. The second final is broken into two videos.
And no, I don't know who the kid was that was doing impromptu commentating.
LONG BEACH - The 2 Good Gaming group is putting on another fighting game event. It's Super Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6 and Tatsunoko vs Capcom. You can watch and chat below.
It's fairly well known that Gus Johnson is the new main commentator for Madden 11. In this EA Sports video released today, developer Ian Cummings makes it official. He also talks about some of the other audio additions to the game.
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Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
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