This is a four-part series called "The Team Concept," where we explore what has happened in the year since Justin Wong has joined Evil Geniuses. How have players in fighting games been affected by teams and organizations coming into this realm?

The message came by way of a text while I was driving home on a cold June evening to Long Beach from Irvine. A friend told me to stay tuned to the Evil Geniuses website that night for a major announcement.

The messenger didn't want to give away what was going to happen, but no need; I already figured out the news, so I raced to a coffee shop and kept refreshing the Evil Geniuses page for what was the obvious announcement, that Justin Wong was going to be joining the organization.

The response was overwhelming, to the point the Evil Geniuses' site crashed. Justin posted this message on the day of the announcement:

"I am glad to be a part of Team EG and feel like I have found a new home. I am excited about my future with Team EG and will do my best to be the best fighting pro-gamer in the world!"

It has been one year since Justin signed with Evil Geniuses and a lot has happened to him as well as other players. And that's the whole point of this three-day, four-part series. My goal in this series is to look at the idea of being on a team from several perspectives. You'll hear from a team owner, Justin, and others who aren't on teams but were. 

All because of what happened June 24, 2010.

Only a handful of players had been on teams prior to that day. Now, if a player isn't on a team, he or she is probably new to the scene, on the cusp of something big, or so old that they seem to scoff at the notion of it all. Look at the top 16 Super Street Fighter IV placers at CEO 2011 two weeks ago. Out of the 16, 12 are on a team (and a 13th would soon join days later). Seven of the top eight finishers in the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament are on a team. This would have never crossed anyone's mind a year ago.

As much as I have stayed cold to some of the changes and additions to what's been going on in the various tournament scenes, the additions of teams has been mostly a welcoming sign. When I started Get Your Tournament in 2006, the only thing I knew about teams was Le Equipe Metroid (whom I competed against in score tournaments) and all of the Halo teams in Major League Gaming. As the months passed, I learned about more teams, but they were mostly competitive in the PC realm. 

Once Justin was signed, it was as if a big bell rang and it was time for these teams to start picking fighting game players. And that's what seemed to happen. The good part is that it's not like any of these teams have picked slackers, scrubs or "guys off of Xbox Live" (go watch "I Got Next" for that line). Justin got off to a hot start days after joining the team, winning the eSports World Cup's Super Street Fighter IV tournament in Paris.

I hope more players get signed in the future. And that's the sentiment shared by everyone that I've spoken to in the past week regarding this subject. Hopefully it'll make the various scenes more competitive. And it's already insanely competitive.

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The Team Concept - The Series

PART 1: The Day That Changed Things
PART 2: Justin Wong's Year
PART 3: On a Team, Then Off a Team
PART 4: Growing a Team
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Ever wonder how Gamerbee just seemed to pop out of nowhere and roll through people at Evolution 2010? Yeah, I had that same question too. How did someone so good just seemingly come out of nowhere? Actually, he had been known but not on the level that we all see today. Initially, I thought he was one of those lucky guys that practiced the game, knew the bread-and-butter tactics and squeezed his way past the veterans.

Ryan Champ, a Tekken player and former Major League Gaming writer, said he had a hand in Gamerbee making his presence known. Here's his tale, which he titled "How I caused Justin Wong to lose at Evo 2010" (as you can tell, I didn't put that in this headline). If you want to talk to Ryan, head to his Twitter portal.

Story follows the jump ...

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In light of the amazing finals at the Irish Evolution 2011 Qualifying Tournament, I had to take a look at a certain point in the contest and see how things were looking. I mention a couple of these items in today's Stats Series podcast, so if you want to check it out, head to the link at the bottom of the post.

The first was to determine the win probability overall. Here's the chart (this will be posted on the Fighting Game Stats database later today).

 

If you don't know, the chart shows what the players' chances are to win a match at a certain point based on what the score is and what the player did in previous rounds. There's enough rounds in my database where I feel comfortable in putting this out without the numbers being consistently off.

One more note, the reason why Game 3 is repeated is because the first time around, there was no winner, thus the game was repeated.

Let's take a look at Round 3-3. At this point, based on everything that had happen prior in the match, The Hound was a slight favorite to win the match overall at 54.8 percent. It's still, for the most part, a coin flip but the Hound had it in his favor. Full disclosure: I had my stat sheet written for a second finals match.

The Hound sent Stevoknevo to 50 percent and to 25 percent first and had a massive lead. This is what I wanted to know: With the Hound having more than 50 percent health and Stevoknevo having less than 25 percent health, what was the Hound's chances to win the round at that point?

Answer: 80.5 percent.

Looking at everyone that had been in his situation, the Hound was a 4 to 1 favorite to finish off Stevoknevo.

But Stevoknevo came back with a combo that sent the Hound to 50 percent health. The Hound was still in the lead and needed probably one combo. So now what was the Hound's chances?

Answer: 67.9 percent.

So no matter what, the Hound was still in a good spot to finish things off. Then he didn't, and thus the amazing double KO, and the replaying of Game 3.

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The Stats Series - June 21, 2011 no comments

Being able to work Microsoft Excel is awesome in trying to find out the most mundane of statistics. Before I give you this random stat, let me ask you a question: Do you do better on the Player 1 or Player 2 side? 

With the exception being DDR, I've tried to stay on the Player 1 side. I don't know why. Maybe it's because it's the default position if I'm a loner and am stuck playing games where I have to start on the left side. 

What I wanted to know is whether Player 1 or Player 2 was the more fortunate of sides for the Evolution 2011 series competitors in Super Street Fighter IV. In the Top 4 of the Evolution 2011 series tournaments, there have been 41 matches played, this includes the reset championship matches and the online tournament matches.

And the winner is ...

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Not all of us were there on that fateful day seven years ago in Southern California when Daigo Umehara did that thing. You know that thing where he pressed forward and stuff and beat that one guy who was representing the regular guy like you and me. Not everyone got that moment where we say "I was there, man. I was there and holy shit it was the best thing ever."

So we're all searching for our own moment, that time where we tell people "Man, remember when (insert epic moment)." And you'll tell your friends you were watching it on the Internet broadcast or you were actually there, in person, probably a few feet away when in reality it was Row 30, Seat 10. Or maybe you were the one actually involved in the moment.

It seems as thought NorCal Regionals has always provided viewers and event-goers with those memorable moments. The one NorCal Regionals where Daigo didn't make the finals. The other one where Justin Wong 6-0'd AndyOCR and silenced the crowd.

There were a few this time around that were tough to find, but let me help out here, because they will be notable as Evolution 2011 creeps closer.

There's no denying that Joshua "Wolfkrone" Philpot has held his own, even though the game has switched to Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition. In his first opportunity to do something in the Evolution 2011 tournament season post-change, he finished in fourth place. Yeah, the game changed but so did Wolfkrone. He adjusted his game and has made it work despite the nerfs and buffs given to C.Viper.

It's the sixth time in the Evolution 2011 tournament series that Wolfkrone has finished in the top four. Ask someone to go to eight major tournaments and finish in the top four. We all have our bad days. But Wolfkrone has yet to have a really bad day. And that's perhaps the most amazing part of the tournament series. He knows he's been doing well. He knows he's a big target and expectations are going to be high (and he explains this in a podcast I'll be posting this week). Throughout all of it, he welcomes the challenge.

Right up there with Wolfkrone's achievement is Daigo Umehara, who erased the bad memory of NorCal Regionals 8 and won this time around in the Ninth Session. In the finals against Infiltration, he only got the first hit four times (one being a trade). He won all four times. 

But what I'll remember is that he had a clean EX sheet. In the semifinals against Infiltration, he was a perfect 9 for 9 when using EX meter. All nine times he used meter, he got a clean hit on Infiltration. Since I started tracking EX meter -- ironically it started at NorCal Regionals 7 -- no player had ever had a clean sheet. Not only is he insanely good. Not only does he have the ability to overpower opponents. Not only does he know how to get two combos to 50 percent (I kept telling myself "Dude, how in the world? Oh yeah, it's Daigo), but he knows how best to use EX meter. We will never see this type of precision ever again, maybe not in five weeks in Las Vegas.

Those are two moments I don't think people will cling onto as their moment. The one that everyone will indeed probably remember is Justin Wong winning the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament, bringing all of us wannabe sports-talk callers more fodder for "the Monday show." Relax, everyone. We're all going to be OK. It's not like the top players were going to stay home and just give the championships to the international players. 

Justin's 6-0 beatdown was a perfect message to send.

He's not playing around anymore. He's the second player to get a 6-0 finish in a finals, the other being "NerdJosh" Jodin two months ago. A 6-0 finish is history. Four in a row, and the eyes start to get big. Five in a row and all you're hoping is that you didn't say anything that could jinx things. I remember typing on Twitter after the fifth win that I hope I didn't jinx it by saying "6-0," like the announcer that won't tell you a no-hitter is going because he's afraid he'll blow it.

Perhaps a loss like what happened in Orlando is what was needed to get the wheels going. A win gives us fans hope that something good will happen in "our game."

I'm sure there will be plenty other events that viewers and event goers will point to and say that it was their "I saw it" moment. NorCal Regionals seems to do that.




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In looking at the stats of the Revelation's final between Daigo Umehara and Mago, one figure stood out, the EX connections. Daigo out-did Mago in that category, 14-3. I openly wondered about it and Rewilson aka HiRisk808 on Twitter posted this note:

Well, Fei isn't about using and connecting EX a lot. EX rekka is more of a frame trap or just to get in closer. Mago did more FADC's than Daigo though, lol. Hint: Yun doesn't need to FADC but his EX moves are more useful in the Fei match (ex throw, ex dragon kicks). Did Mago even connect a EX command grab? In that matchup alone, both characters rarely need to use EX meter. Yun uses it only to escape pressure or gain ground and the same for Fei. Normally Yun saves for genei-jin while Fei only uses meter for FADC combos. Those stats alone tells us how the matchup is played haha.

Unfortunately, I don't track the exact move done with EX, only if it was a hit (C), blocked (B) or empty (E, no damage). If someone connects on a super, it's four EX connected (4C), and if one of the twins gets a hit after activating Seiei Enbu or Genei Jin, it's four EX connected as well. So with that in mind, let's look at the progression of the match and see how exactly Daigo did get this advantage.

1-1
Mago: Connected FADC (B and E)
Daigo: None
Winner: Mago

1-2
Mago: Blocked FADC (B and 2E)
Daigo: Genei-jin connected  (4C)
Winner: Daigo 

1-3
Mago: None
Daigo: Blocked FADC (B and E), Blocked FADC (B and E), EX Connected (C)
Winner: Daigo

2-1
Mago: Blocked FADC (B and E)
Daigo: None
Winner: Mago

2-2
Mago: Blocked FADC (B and E), EX Connected (C)
Daigo: None
Winner: Mago

3-1
Mago: None
Daigo: Connected (C)
Winner: Daigo

3-2
Mago: Connected FADC (C and E)
Daigo: Genei-jin connected (4C)
Winner: Daigo

4-1
Mago: Blocked FADC (B and E)
Daigo: Blocked FADC (B and E)
Winner: Daigo

4-2
Mago: Empty
Daigo: Genei-jin connected (4C)
Winner: Daigo

Rewilson is right on. Looking at the numbers again, if you take away the three Genei-Jin supers that did damage, then Daigo only did one EX move that connected. I'm sure that Daigo was saving his EX meter for Genei-Jin, much like how a Dhalsim player saves up for Yoga Flame super.

Another note, Daigo won every round in which he had an EX connection; he was 4 for 4 in those situations.  no comments

Tokido won the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament at CEO 2011. It was great, then very anti-climatic, as Tokido took control and defeated Justin Wong in the second championship match.

And yes, Japan claims another major championship on American soil. I asked people on Twitter to post headlines of Tokido's win if it were to be in a newspaper. Here are some ...

@binkley - JWongg Can't Control It; TTC Tokido wins CEO 2011

@Robertmto - Phoenix, Tokizona

@Robertmto - Phoenix Rises, Japan Soars

@bomberedx2 - MURDERFACE - "Stay Free USA"

@dancegrenade - Murder Face Murders The Face of Marvel

Junior F. on Facebook - Japan Says, "USA YOU'RE FREE"

Rob T. on Facebook - On Notice: USA Lost Its Edge(?) 

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If you have any, post it in the comments.  no comments

When the 2007-08 NFL season began, the Madden community was ready to get into action, and that meant going to all of the Madden Challenges, preparing for the next Players Bowl or studying up for the upcoming Mid-Atlantic major events. This was my first full season covering it on Get Your Tournament, and I don't even think I was ready for the surprise.

Actually, it probably wasn't a surprise to see everyone use one of two teams. The game at the time was built to where imbalances were noticeable. It's not like what it was in Madden 11 or what it's going to be in Madden 12.

I tried to block out all of the negativity surrounding the lopsidedness. So what if everyone was using only two of 32 teams? It was about the players and how THEY played. And then I started doing research of tournaments back in the day just before I got into the scene. It was all Atlanta Falcons. Sure, you'd get the occasional Jacksonville Jaguars user, but he'd get blown out by the second quarter.

One team dominating every Madden tournament season is nothing to shrug shoulders about. But in the 2007-08 season, it was two teams. You had to use either the New England Patriots or San Diego Chargers to even give yourself a chance to win. And the strangest part was, neither was a counter to the other.

So when Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out a year later, I didn't understand why people were so up in arms about Meta Knight being the best. OK, so what if he was the best and so what if everyone used him? I was used to this in another tournament scene. Apparently, I was in the minority, and for the next couple of years, there were talks of banning him from tournaments (he's still not, if you're wondering).

Now we're getting it again. The twins in Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition are good. They're not just good, they're really good. Like they-took-their-talents-to-Arcade-Edition-and-only-self-stupidity-can-stop-them-from-dominating good. This is the fear of most tournament players, that all we will see is Yun or Yang win every major championship. That could be true.

Maybe this is just a tendency we have as competitors. It can happen in any competitive realm where we see something initially and say "Holy shit, we have no chance" (examples are the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies, Alexander Karelin and Chong Li).

Then we realize that we can either join the army and be the best user of the over-used character, or play some "A tier that seems F tier" character and try to beat the army of top-tier users. This is where a motivational speaker would come in and challenge you to find your inner beast and pick that below-average character. That person would give you a glass of two raw eggs, yell in your ear, make you punch a slab of tri-tip, and give you that extra drive to rise above all.

Let's just say, if that message was sent in Madden or Brawl, barely anyone listened. So I don't expect it to be either with Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. The twins will dominate and will win every major tournament because nobody wants to motivate themselves to break through the army, and then we will all bitch that there's no variety. Oh well.

Funny thing is, I have met a couple Madden players over the years that have intentionally not picked the best team. At Mega Bowl 5 in 2007, JRhodes went with the Dallas Cowboys, which were good but not great like they would eventually be in the next 2 years. He said his gameplan was to not pick the Atlanta Falcons and instead, find a team that can hold them down. 

At the initial tournament in the 2008 Madden Challenge, Young Nephew won using the Minnesota Vikings. Not only that, he dominated. That was a weird pick, but I understood it seeing as though they had Adrian Peterson, so you basically could just run up the middle and control the clock (a harbinger of things to come that season).

When we talked about why he used the Vikings, he assured me that they weren't the best team in the game, but that he used it because he knew how to beat the best team in the game, the Cowboys. So why not pick the best?

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The room of about 200 or 300 was rocking. People were shouting, some exhaling after holding their breath for so long. They were cheering on what looked like a story only made for Hollywood, a kid out of Orange County was about to lay the final hammer on the nation's best fighting game player on Northern California's biggest stage. 

And then all of a sudden, as slowly as someone turns a knob to turn down the volume on a stereo system, that's what happened to the crowd at the Domain Hotel. Like God just turning down the volume on all of the people's mouths. Instead of a mix of expletives, cheering and sound effects, all there was within a span of a couple minutes was sound effects from the game. And more sound effects, and more sound effects, and a lot of "Rufus. Wins." If you've ever watched a Peaceful Jay stream alone, that's what it sounded like. You could clearly hear the game and that's it.

One year ago, that's what happened.

Justin Wong pulled off a 6-0 to beat Andy OCR and win NorCal Regionals 7, then known as Super NorCal Regionals.

A 6-0 is when the losers bracket finalist wins the tournament without giving up a game. That doesn't begin to tell the tale of what Justin did to Andy in that title match.  I mention one of the major numbers in today's Stats Series podcast, which you can check out at the end of this commentary.

There aren't too many 6-0 title match finishes in a game because it's so hard for anyone to win six consecutive games. Justin made it look fairly easy (sorry, Andy). In trying to figure out the anatomy of a 6-0, there's nothing that can be pulled except that a player wins and continues to win.

But I doubt anyone will match what happened in this title bout. Here are some of the stats: 

• Justin was 9 for 10 when he got the first hit and 10 for 11 when he got the first combo.
• He only landed 13 EX hits out of 34 used (.382). Compare that to Andy, who landed just 3 EX hits out of 16 used (.188).
• Justin didn't get hit by an EX move until the eighth round of the matchup. By then, he had already reset the contest and was a moment away from being up 1-0.
• Justin nearly went 5 minutes of game time without getting hit by an EX move. The average player gets hit by an EX move once every 55.3 seconds.
• Even though they played 1 round over the minimum, it could have been a couple more. Justin had to make consecutive comebacks to keep the streak alive.

There have been 6-0s where a player barely wins. Sanford Kelly squeaked by so many times against Arturo Sanchez that it didn't feel like it was 6-0, and then holy shit, Arturo didn't win, how was that possible? In between, there are players that start off questionably and then get stronger as the match progresses. 

But with Justin, it was fifth gear from beginning to end, and we will never see that happen ever again.

The Stats Series podcast for May 30, 2011 

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The beauty of seeing every match of a tournament is knowing the drama and tension from start to finish. Few tournaments broadcast these days allow for that to happen. This past Thursday, however, the guys that run the Peaceful Jay Stream began their Salty Conflict Online tournament series. Every match is broadcast on their non-stop channel. 

I was able to watch the whole event and track the stats of all 31 matches. Everything is now available on the Fighting Game Stats database.

The tournament page is here, and that includes each player's offensive and defensive performance. You can also check the tags and follow each bracket as it progressed, or each player.

I should admit that I am puffing out my chest a little bit at this accomplishment; I have in the past done stats for every match of a tournament, but those were 8- or 10-player events at the very most, featuring just 16 or 17 matches. The Salty Conflict Online featured 32 players, some known, some new, playing under the most pressurized of situations; a 1-game single-elimination format.

How will players handle the pressure that comes from a 1-game, single-elimination tournament? We will see as the weeks go by. Looking at the numbers, the players aren't handling it that well.

All major offensive stats are down. First-hit win percentage, first-combo win percentage, combo rate and closeout percentages are all down. The most telling is the closeout percentage, which is a very poor .795. Anything under .825 -- and the tournament average is .830 -- and one has to wonder what is going on inside a player's head.

In the 132 rounds played, there were 26 blown leads. Out of the 16 players that won at least one game, only five did not blow a late lead: Aquasilk (six chances), Arturo Sanchez (five), Watchtower (four), Ramen Addict (four) and "Lamerboi" Andrew Nguyen (three). Latif accounted for five of the 26 blown leads in the tournament. Then again, he played the most rounds -- 25 -- and reached the finals. His closeout percentage was .705; he had 17 late leads and blew five of them.

In the finals against Porkloaf King, Latif blew two late leads, and they were fairly significant. The first enabled Porkloaf King to win Game 1. The second came in the ensuing round, and Porkloaf King took the early 1-0 lead in Game 2. Latif won the next two rounds, so again, I throw out the "what if" card. If he doesn't blow that second lead, they're playing a third game. Then again, a follower will point out that Latif had two chances to force a Game 3 and did not.

There is one ray of hope when it comes to the players closing out rounds; 24 of the 26 blown leads all happened before the Final Four.

Will players tighten things up come Thursday? Stay tuned. I'll be updating the page and making it as in-depth as possible. The more we get to see full tournaments, the more we'll know how a player truly plays from start to finish, especially under the most pressure of situations. no comments