Get Your Tournament - Commentary
Let's ask ourselves for a moment what you would do when you play against someone in a match and they do what you believe is showing you up. And this doesn't have to be in a tournament. This could be at the local Golfland, or laundromat that has Champion Edition, or a random machine in bowling alley that has jacked-up buttons. Five hundred people are going to give you 500 different responses.
I can't imagine the emotions Ricky Ortiz had when he lost Game 1 to 801 Strider in the finals of West Coast Warzone 3. And Ricky is one of the nicest guys out there. It was the title match and Ricky was the losers bracket representative. But after that first game, where 801 Strider got hit with excessive celebration, the announcers kept on saying how Ricky was upset. Ricky had a serious look. Ricky is pissed. Ricky is going to destroy this guy. Ricky is about to get a fork and literally eat this guy's brains. Ricky is going to start the apocalypse.
Ricky went on a tear that I hadn't seen in a while, perhaps since Justin Wong defeated Andy OCR in the finals of NorCal Regionals 7 last year. Ricky didn't 6-0 801 strider. But he had a stretch during the finals that was as dominant as any player that had done that.
For 12 rounds over five games, the champ dominated 801 Strider. And in my mind, I was starting to think we would be witnessing a six-game winning streak. That didn't happen, so let's look at this.
Analysis follows the jump ...
no comments
I can't imagine the emotions Ricky Ortiz had when he lost Game 1 to 801 Strider in the finals of West Coast Warzone 3. And Ricky is one of the nicest guys out there. It was the title match and Ricky was the losers bracket representative. But after that first game, where 801 Strider got hit with excessive celebration, the announcers kept on saying how Ricky was upset. Ricky had a serious look. Ricky is pissed. Ricky is going to destroy this guy. Ricky is about to get a fork and literally eat this guy's brains. Ricky is going to start the apocalypse.
Ricky went on a tear that I hadn't seen in a while, perhaps since Justin Wong defeated Andy OCR in the finals of NorCal Regionals 7 last year. Ricky didn't 6-0 801 strider. But he had a stretch during the finals that was as dominant as any player that had done that.
For 12 rounds over five games, the champ dominated 801 Strider. And in my mind, I was starting to think we would be witnessing a six-game winning streak. That didn't happen, so let's look at this.
Analysis follows the jump ...
no comments
Last month, the YouTube user SpotATrain had 22 videos that featured the 100-game set between Daigo Umehara and Tokido. I decided to watch the whole thing because this is not 1990 and TGIF isn't available anymore. Yes, I am dating myself, and I don't care. When you hear the Snowy Railyard theme music on a loop, the brain can get scrambled.
I should have done a stat on how many times the chorus played during the match, but anyway.
There wasn't a description of why both guys went at it for 100 games; I'm guessing Tokido wanted to see how he stacked up in a 100-game series. It was very entertaining to watch; it didn't seem like there was a lull at any point of the contest. The final was 63-37, Daigo.
Now for the unfortunate news of this analysis: In watching all 22 videos, my two notebooks combined for 78 games and a 79th featuring Daigo as Hakan which I'm guessing did not count. So somewhere out there, there are 22 games unaccounted for. Out of the 78 games, the score was 50-28, Daigo.
However, 78 games is still good enough to do some statistical analysis of what happened, it's nearly four-fifths of the match anyway. There are some caveats to this. The 78 games brought on a total of 195 rounds, but nine were not recorded because they were unavailable (stream froze) or incomplete.
Basic statistics from this contest follows the jump:
no comments
I should have done a stat on how many times the chorus played during the match, but anyway.
There wasn't a description of why both guys went at it for 100 games; I'm guessing Tokido wanted to see how he stacked up in a 100-game series. It was very entertaining to watch; it didn't seem like there was a lull at any point of the contest. The final was 63-37, Daigo.
Now for the unfortunate news of this analysis: In watching all 22 videos, my two notebooks combined for 78 games and a 79th featuring Daigo as Hakan which I'm guessing did not count. So somewhere out there, there are 22 games unaccounted for. Out of the 78 games, the score was 50-28, Daigo.
However, 78 games is still good enough to do some statistical analysis of what happened, it's nearly four-fifths of the match anyway. There are some caveats to this. The 78 games brought on a total of 195 rounds, but nine were not recorded because they were unavailable (stream froze) or incomplete.
Basic statistics from this contest follows the jump:
no comments
Two Pacific Northwest teams went at it this past weekend in a 5-on-5 series which got me wondering about the future of team tournaments under this format. Yeah, we're moving into a new realm where it's no longer about OCVs or OCCs or anything of that matter. Everyone plays. Everyone gets their hands dirty in these 5-on-5 bouts.
The first time I saw this format was at Seasons Beatings V. I'm sure it's happened before, but it really came to light here. One team has its five players run a gauntlet, while the other team sets their lineup against the gauntlet runners. There was one meaningless match, the game was decided in the penultimate contest, and Team North America won, 13-12.
Jump into the shoes of a person competing in a 5-on-5 as I present you a question:
More following the jump ...
no comments
The first time I saw this format was at Seasons Beatings V. I'm sure it's happened before, but it really came to light here. One team has its five players run a gauntlet, while the other team sets their lineup against the gauntlet runners. There was one meaningless match, the game was decided in the penultimate contest, and Team North America won, 13-12.
Jump into the shoes of a person competing in a 5-on-5 as I present you a question:
More following the jump ...
no comments
In playing any versus game, the field revolves around the players as well as the game itself. This you can't find in most racing competitions, or high-score competitions, where it's you vs the game. The other person makes an effect on what you do.
So, how much do you play the character compared to the game? Is it 50-50, or is it mostly one of the two factors? There probably isn't one answer that is best. It's situational. Part of why I started doing statistical analysis was to prove that there's another way of looking at how a player performs in a match; there's more to be seen about how players act against others.
The guys at Option-Select have an entry that discusses the factors of playing "the game" and playing "the opponent." They have said that times have changed and, with the new series of games, mentality has to switch.
So, how much do you play the character compared to the game? Is it 50-50, or is it mostly one of the two factors? There probably isn't one answer that is best. It's situational. Part of why I started doing statistical analysis was to prove that there's another way of looking at how a player performs in a match; there's more to be seen about how players act against others.
The guys at Option-Select have an entry that discusses the factors of playing "the game" and playing "the opponent." They have said that times have changed and, with the new series of games, mentality has to switch.
Playing the player means that the player assumes nothing. The player will play the matchup by pushing his character to its limit, and only stop using certain moves or tactics if the opponent is punishing them. Additionally, the player might spend a little of his concentration specifically looking for moves that are punishable, expecting the opponent to use them. Furthermore, if the opponent has patterns or tendencies, the player will exploit them as soon as they are recognized, and most likely take small risks to do so.no comments
Three or four years ago, I was still very heavily into Third Strike, and if someone had asked me which of these two conflicting strategies was better, I would have argued that playing the character is the only way to go, without question. Now, I have a different opinion.
The argument for playing the character is that with this approach, the player is completely minimizing any unnecessary damage he will take. If the player assumes that a punishable move will be punished, he risks nothing by never using the move. The obvious flaw here is that the player is working off the assumption that the player will actually punish the move correctly on the very first time. This means the player is effectively limiting himself when he might not have to.
There's always a history lesson somewhere. Could be small or big, it's there. As the fighting game community continues to go, history is built with bricks and pebbles. It's constantly rewritten to the point that we don't revisit history only in July, but now every month and, sometimes, every week.
My pick for 2010 Match of the Year in North America didn't have much history. In fact, it wasn't even a tournament match, but it had as much hype and, which few non-tournament matches do, live up to it.
It wasn't statistically appealing. The winner didn't have the greatest stats. In fact, he had worse numbers than the loser and some of the numbers were glaring. The loser won more rounds!
But some of the other numbers were eye-popping. The winner pulled off five comebacks, including two that saved his match life! He also won three of the four Round 3s played in the most pressurized situations.
Out of the 23 rounds played, 19 of them had a winner with less than 50 percent health. It was close throughout.
Great matches stick in your head. Epic matches replay over and over in your head. How many of us can close our eyes and envision the Daigo Parry and the crowd going crazy? Yep.
And, finally, what does a match of the year do to you? It leaves you begging for more. I remember right after I saw this match I said to myself that these two better go at it again next summer with bigger stakes. I think a lot of people had said the same thing at the time.
There's plenty of runners-up, but in my mind, this was the Match of the Year the moment it was over and it stayed that way for six months, despite all sorts of different upsets and weird events that took place.
The match follows the jump ...
no comments
My pick for 2010 Match of the Year in North America didn't have much history. In fact, it wasn't even a tournament match, but it had as much hype and, which few non-tournament matches do, live up to it.
It wasn't statistically appealing. The winner didn't have the greatest stats. In fact, he had worse numbers than the loser and some of the numbers were glaring. The loser won more rounds!
But some of the other numbers were eye-popping. The winner pulled off five comebacks, including two that saved his match life! He also won three of the four Round 3s played in the most pressurized situations.
Out of the 23 rounds played, 19 of them had a winner with less than 50 percent health. It was close throughout.
Great matches stick in your head. Epic matches replay over and over in your head. How many of us can close our eyes and envision the Daigo Parry and the crowd going crazy? Yep.
And, finally, what does a match of the year do to you? It leaves you begging for more. I remember right after I saw this match I said to myself that these two better go at it again next summer with bigger stakes. I think a lot of people had said the same thing at the time.
There's plenty of runners-up, but in my mind, this was the Match of the Year the moment it was over and it stayed that way for six months, despite all sorts of different upsets and weird events that took place.
The match follows the jump ...
no comments
Early 2003. It was the first time I had been to Southern California in a long while. I had been there for writing conventions and random one-day visits so that other family members could do their thing. None of it was with the sole purpose of playing games.
CyberBeat Nation was the first time I went to Southern California for a video game-only event. This was when I was still playing DDR and there was a competitive scene.
When I first decided to play DDR competitively, I checked out all of the videos of past champions just to see how they did. And a lot of videos had an "AI tournament" label to them. That was the first time I had heard of Arcade Infinity. Soon after, I'd hear many people talk about Arcade Infinity, as if it was a Mecca to them.
A.I. has this new import.
They have the latest DDR.
Some people are playing Third Strike there. This Ken I guy is sick!
So on the day before CyberBeat Nation took place, my now ex-girlfriend and I made it a point to go there just to check it out. We arrived a little bit early and they hadn't opened for the day -- we didn't know that some arcades open in the afternoons. But once we came back in the evening and checked it out, we were both amazed. So many music games. People squeezing in like it's a sardine can. The noise level happily killing our ears. Random people playing all sorts of different games. I noticed a lot of people crowded around the DDR machine as some players were getting final practice in before the tournament.
I left the arcade with a big smile, hoping I could return soon. I did a couple times. Then I moved to Long Beach in 2007 and visited on a regular basis, whether it was for a tournament or to play DDR or Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3.
It is really sad that the arcade is shutting down. I'm sure that over the next 19 days or so, players will be talking about it, discussing what was and could have been.
I wrote a commentary in 2004 for the newspaper I worked at at the time, saying Arcade Infinity was one of the four must-visit arcades in California. I remember the other three: Golden Token Amusement in San Diego, Sunnyvale Golfland and Pak Mann Arcade in Pasadena. Two of those four, and soon to be A.I., no longer exist.
It's no secret that the arcade business is dying a slow death only rivaled by the newspaper industry. I always tell people who talk about death, "You're going to die, it's just a matter of when." Six arcades in my hometown closed in a span of two years. But I wasn't shocked because the majority of them sucked and didn't attempt to get better.
Arcade Infinity did not suck, which is why this is such a sad announcement.
If you haven't checked out Timothy Lee's article about the arcade over on Fighting Game Enthusiast, do so. He talked to owner Ken Tao about the arcade and some memories:
CyberBeat Nation was the first time I went to Southern California for a video game-only event. This was when I was still playing DDR and there was a competitive scene.
When I first decided to play DDR competitively, I checked out all of the videos of past champions just to see how they did. And a lot of videos had an "AI tournament" label to them. That was the first time I had heard of Arcade Infinity. Soon after, I'd hear many people talk about Arcade Infinity, as if it was a Mecca to them.
A.I. has this new import.
They have the latest DDR.
Some people are playing Third Strike there. This Ken I guy is sick!
So on the day before CyberBeat Nation took place, my now ex-girlfriend and I made it a point to go there just to check it out. We arrived a little bit early and they hadn't opened for the day -- we didn't know that some arcades open in the afternoons. But once we came back in the evening and checked it out, we were both amazed. So many music games. People squeezing in like it's a sardine can. The noise level happily killing our ears. Random people playing all sorts of different games. I noticed a lot of people crowded around the DDR machine as some players were getting final practice in before the tournament.
I left the arcade with a big smile, hoping I could return soon. I did a couple times. Then I moved to Long Beach in 2007 and visited on a regular basis, whether it was for a tournament or to play DDR or Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3.
It is really sad that the arcade is shutting down. I'm sure that over the next 19 days or so, players will be talking about it, discussing what was and could have been.
I wrote a commentary in 2004 for the newspaper I worked at at the time, saying Arcade Infinity was one of the four must-visit arcades in California. I remember the other three: Golden Token Amusement in San Diego, Sunnyvale Golfland and Pak Mann Arcade in Pasadena. Two of those four, and soon to be A.I., no longer exist.
It's no secret that the arcade business is dying a slow death only rivaled by the newspaper industry. I always tell people who talk about death, "You're going to die, it's just a matter of when." Six arcades in my hometown closed in a span of two years. But I wasn't shocked because the majority of them sucked and didn't attempt to get better.
Arcade Infinity did not suck, which is why this is such a sad announcement.
If you haven't checked out Timothy Lee's article about the arcade over on Fighting Game Enthusiast, do so. He talked to owner Ken Tao about the arcade and some memories:
It’s Friday night at AI. The busiest day of the week for the arcade and it’s close to a full house. The two rows of Japanese cabinets that were once empty on the Monday night are now occupied by button pushing fighting game addicts. The two featured cabinets of Super Street Fighter are as busy as ever. One bystander throws a bronze shiny token on the flat surface where the stick and the buttons are located. 20 tokens total on the surface. Two more players turn to each other with agonized looks as one player raises their hand in a last-second victory. Ken looks on at the budding scene before his office and shakes his head. His face blank as he exclaims that this was nowhere near the packed house he used to have back in 2003.no comments
Tao’s intentions to keep the arcade open are strictly for the same reasons he goes to work, the people. “I know most of the people out there like a friend. The arcade, to me, is just a business but the people out there are now my friends. I still get excited for the games that are played, especially when my friend is playing it. I’m not interested in games, just my friends that are playing it,” Tao said. As long as the community exists, arcades will still be relevant. The current movement of casual sessions and face to face imitates the model that made arcades so popular in the early 90s. “The people are why I stay playing. The amount of friends I’ve made in this community, you find some really interesting people. Back in the SHGL days, I did make a lot of friends there. A lot of them are still friends,” Chen said. “Nowadays, with the Street Fighter scene being as big as it is now, I feel like I have a lot more friends. The competitive drive is there as well and keeps me coming back to play, but honestly, it’s really the people. If fighting games go purely online, the scene will not go anywhere because it’s really about being together and having a great time with people.”
Hope you all have a great Christmas if you celebrate the holiday.
This is also a friendly reminder to sign up for the PlayStation 3 version of the Evolution Online Tournament. You can win a trip to Evolution 2011 just by beasting online players. Go here to sign up. no comments
This is also a friendly reminder to sign up for the PlayStation 3 version of the Evolution Online Tournament. You can win a trip to Evolution 2011 just by beasting online players. Go here to sign up. no comments
Because coverage of fighting game tournaments include doing stats and bring you a different type of analysis, I figured the Get Your Tournament shirt should reflect that.
What you see above is the official Get Your Tournament shirt. It's available through Zazzle, and you can buy it by clicking here.
I'll be giving away one T-shirt this week, so stay tuned. no comments
On this day, four years ago, I did something crazy. I started Get Your Tournament. I wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone that's come to the site. I also want to thank the Bloguin network for helping out this past year, they have been great to work with. This might have been the most up and down year (for the site and me personally), but I think things will continue to get better from here now that I have a clear focus for what the site is truly about -- statistical coverage of fighting games, and news about the Madden series.
And if you missed what I said on Twitter yesterday, I do have a couple Get Your Tournament shirts coming in. Once I receive them, I'll give one away, and then give you the link to buy some if you choose to. I also still have one more set of trading cards to give away.
And everyone likes to talk about secret projects and whatnot, so I'll say I'm working on a secret project. There. Now I feel like I'm in the club. But seriously, thanks for coming to the site to check out the analysis of some big-time matches. no comments
And if you missed what I said on Twitter yesterday, I do have a couple Get Your Tournament shirts coming in. Once I receive them, I'll give one away, and then give you the link to buy some if you choose to. I also still have one more set of trading cards to give away.
And everyone likes to talk about secret projects and whatnot, so I'll say I'm working on a secret project. There. Now I feel like I'm in the club. But seriously, thanks for coming to the site to check out the analysis of some big-time matches. no comments
UPDATE: There's a big discussion happening on Smashboards regarding this topic.
Super Smash Bros series designer Masahiro Sakurai loves the community so much, he said any future game in the series will not be like Melee, which is probably the best competitive game in the series.
In an interview with Famitsu, Sakurai talked about his love of building and creating Melee. Translation: good luck finding some.
When he helped create Brawl and it was released in 2008, it got a lot of positive results initially, and it became the best seller among the three games in the series. But then players, mostly competitive, realized that one character wins nearly every tournament and is overpowering, and moves that made the game competitive were taken out.
Oh, and let's not forget about tripping, because no, we couldn't have wave dashing, that would be too competitive.
After reading his comments -- 1Up translated the Famitsu interview -- fighting game fans should be happy that developers like Katsuhiro Harada and Yoshinori Ono show up to major events to talk about their game and go on Twitter to hear suggestions and feedback.
Yeah, I don't think Sakurai will be going to Apex 2012, Genesis 2 or an MLG Brawl tournament (if there is one). He has said in the past he is not a competitive person and hopes for ties if at all possible.
Super Smash Bros series designer Masahiro Sakurai loves the community so much, he said any future game in the series will not be like Melee, which is probably the best competitive game in the series.
In an interview with Famitsu, Sakurai talked about his love of building and creating Melee. Translation: good luck finding some.
When he helped create Brawl and it was released in 2008, it got a lot of positive results initially, and it became the best seller among the three games in the series. But then players, mostly competitive, realized that one character wins nearly every tournament and is overpowering, and moves that made the game competitive were taken out.
Oh, and let's not forget about tripping, because no, we couldn't have wave dashing, that would be too competitive.
After reading his comments -- 1Up translated the Famitsu interview -- fighting game fans should be happy that developers like Katsuhiro Harada and Yoshinori Ono show up to major events to talk about their game and go on Twitter to hear suggestions and feedback.
Yeah, I don't think Sakurai will be going to Apex 2012, Genesis 2 or an MLG Brawl tournament (if there is one). He has said in the past he is not a competitive person and hopes for ties if at all possible.
However, he has one particularly deep regret: the game's accessibility level. "I had created Smash Bros. to be my response to how hardcore-exclusive the fighting game genre had become over the years," Sakurai said. "But why did I target it so squarely toward people well-versed in videogames, then? That's why I tried to aim for more of a happy medium with Brawl's play balance. There are three Smash Bros. games out now, but even if I ever had a chance at another one, I doubt we'll ever see one that's as geared toward hardcore gamers as Melee was. Melee fans who played deep into the game without any problems might have trouble understanding this, but Melee was just too difficult."no comments
