The Green Line vs Red Line matches were amazing. Big ups to the everyone who took part and for making every match so exciting by generating some of the greatest hype I’ve seen in competitive gaming.

I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. Especially the newer players. I hope you guys were able to get as much out of this event as possible with our fundamentals and frame data classes as well as become better acquainted with the regulars.

If you’re curious, you can read some of the experiences from people who were at the event here. I encourage anyone who went to post up.

Videos from the event will be uploaded. Including those of the classes. However, I’m not sure how much of it will be uploaded since there is 5 hours of footage to sort through and some audio problems have cropped up in some of the videos. I think it’s clear that the camera we’ve been using needs to be retired for good sometime soon.

Thanks to Thirty Nine Store for donating the Street Fighter phone straps as prizes for the lucky draw.

Once again, thanks to all who came. Please stay tuned for news of future events. We hope to see you there!

I’m surprised that after the successful Iluma tournament turnout, there are still so many people shying away from getting real action down in the arcades.

To most of the people who joined the tournament and did not do well, I only supposed they joined without having any real interest in getting better at the game eg. competitive spirit, seeing that the crowd at the BB machines are either the arcade regulars or casual mashers. Either that, or they belong to the console PSN/Live crowd, and its understandable why they avoid playing in the arcades (to save money etc.)

Its great that guys like prinnydood, Mono-GTR, Barewolf, Pablo, Rucky and Hannybal (The most prominent members i can remember atm) are showing their mettle in the arcades. I also recognise icecube who teamed with Chichiboy and he has no fear in trying to get better at the game, which is also the right attitude.

Also a thumbs up for the new female players for giving Blazblue a good run: AKA Revive and her sister. I don’t know how long BlazBlue will hold your interest for, but having the drive to prove your ability ingame is respectable. BlazBlue is NOT Hello Kitty Online and I’m sure that you girls command alot more respect out from us compared to other people for wanting to prove that fact.

Regarding the console players. I feel disappointed that many will not become good at the game. BlazBlue is a precision game where fast reactions and sharp counters contribute to wins. Online play is generally not the same, no matter how lag free you feel the game is. I would liken it to be as if people were playing soccer underwater.

Players transiting from Online to Offline would receive a rude shock as they receive punishment one after the other executing moves that worked at home simply because it is too laggy to block on reaction. There are also those players who have potential at getting better at the game due to their creativity and strength of mind who will simply flower in the arcades instead of stagnating at home. Reason being that they can actually play the game the way its meant to be played: fast furious, and unforgiving.

Some people play the game, some just press buttons for fun. I hope more people start playing the same game that arcade regulars and I play.

If anyone is truly interested in getting into the arcade community please do not hesitate to talk to us in real life! Unless you are totally creepy or more of an asshole than I am, you would be welcome to hang out and we can learn to get better at BlazBlue. As always it is your prerogative to speak up and out, so don’t lurk too much ^_^

Yes yes, I finally got off my lazy ass to do the write-up for KO Round 1’s Tekken segment! Mind you, I wasn’t here for the whole thing, due to work unfortunately >=(, but here goes! Photos courtesy of the awesome Ms. Weiting of TKA. With some erm…liberal Photoshopping by me =P.

The tournament was to start at 1pm while reporting time for contestants was 12.30pm, but the competition arena was filled with people way earlier on, mainly Tekken participants eager to get those crucial warm-ups before the tournament.

There was a sense of anticipation and camaraderie as people within the community greeted each other and engaged in warm-ups. It was weird moves galore as players tried to get use to the newly changed sticks, which seemed a tad bit too slippery for the players to handle – quarter circle forward (qcf) motions often ended up being quarter circle forward UP WHOOPS!

Surprises came fast and early this day, even before the tournament started. Most shocking was the mysterious disappearance of one penguin…

No lah, he wasn’t banned for being too gosu-godlike in Tekken. He did very much wanted to take part, but that meant abandoning his teammates in the concurrently held Blackshot competition. Incidentally he and his team went to take the first prize for that. Ahh….the heavy price of being talented in just about every game you touch. Nevertheless, I’m sure he’ll be back to terrorise us in future tournaments!

With Dreamboat out of the tournament, it was anybody’s guess as to who’s gonna win this whole gig. The top three favourites were Shin aka <chaos> Shin, Jianhua aka <+loss>Julia Roberts aka Lilidoll aka Nina Ricci aka a whole lot of other nicknames depending on who he’s using and Anthony aka <+loss>U/F+4+3 aka Nameless. Seriously guys, stick to one nickname can ><** Makes my recapping a whole lot easier.

But you can be never too quick to dismiss other up and coming young players, namely the “King Brothers”, as the community has come to dub them – Perfection and Imperfection. In fact, one of them (Imperfection was it?) placed 3rd if I recall at the last major tournament during last year’s Anime Festival.

Also a strong contender was Pinoy Sensation, Zap Hwoarang, here in Singapore to work for the next few years, but can be found pwning people in the arcade and taking part in tournaments instead. Tsk tsk.

There was also quite abit of a last minute scramble as a few participants were no-shows. Luckily we managed to fill the spaces with a couple of very sporting Tekken regulars – Elf, Johnathan and Team Japan. Our friendly host, Yagami (he’s like one of those multi-hyphenate artistes: Tourney organizer-host-SF4 player-Tekken player Yagami!) rounded up the last-minute replacements. Thanks a lot guys!

Meanwhile, one of our top favourites, Jianhua, who was using Julia (<3!!! Yes I’m biased towards Julia but it’s MY recap so HAH!) silently contemplates his winning strategy:

Eh? Well, maybe he was closer to contemplating this instead:

There we go! Skye, the TKA staff in the background seems to be able to see Jianhua’s thoughts hahaha.

Overall the tournament was a lot of fun and it was great to see a good mix of old players and newbloods in the scene taking part. Sure we weren’t as large in number or as gungho as the SF4 crowd, but it was a pretty good atmosphere overall. Personally I find that tournaments bring a community closer together and you can find yourself talking to people you’re usually content to glare/give the evil side-eye at during normal arcade sessions. So maybe with more tournaments in the future, we shall be more comfortable in making noise!

It could also be that our resident shit talker Noobkken wasn’t around so it was quieter. Bwahaha! All was not lost however, thanks to a bunch of rabid Shin fans with a special “We Love Shin” named card character and robust chanting of encouragement to their idol.

Yagami was a great commentator, drawing in a crowd to watch the tournament and introducing the audience to the world of combo juggling, side stepping, weirdass names (to the Tekken uninitiated, the game allows player to use game cards where they can customize and rename their characters) names and even weirder customizations. He proved to be a kickass competitor in the competition as well – his sneaky little Ling Xiaoyu managed to progress all the way to the top eight in the tournament!

After all the dust has settled from all that furious competing, the three favourite players mentioned in the beginning of the article did not disappoint and went on to place first to third in the competition:

1st – Jianhua (Julia)

Jianhua’s been playing since Tekken 5 but it’s only recently that he’s taken part in competitions, despite his obvious talent in the game. Having taken first place in the last major tournament in AFA 08, he’s slowly blossoming into becoming one of the more famous local Tekken players in the scene, playing a variety of characters, most of them female, with equal ease and skill.

2nd – Shin (Steve)

One of the veterans of the scene, Shin, a former KOF champ, started playing during the Tekken 4 era. His Tekken style might not be super flashy, but he is armed with a killer gamesense and strong winning mentality. One of the more seasoned players, he has travelled around the region, mainly Bangkok and Manila to experience the Tekken scenes there.

3rd – Anthony (Law)

A relative newcomer, Anthony started when Tekken 6 rolled about. He has improved tremendously however in a short span of time, mainly due to his dedication – I remembered at one of time it was like he could be found in the arcade practicing everyday! Probably holds the record to having the most number of play counts on his Tekken 6 IC card.

Congratulations to the winners and to everybody else: thank you for your support and train hard! Tourney play is very different from normal play at the arcade as some of you may have experienced by now. The rush of adrenaline and the nervousness can get to you and if you don’t know how to handle it, it may cause you to mess up combos you usually never miss and make mistakes you usually don’t make. Those who take control of that rush will find themselves punishing openings and blocking moves they’ve never punished/blocked before.

Phew! After all that wall of text, here are some pictures to have a look at. Enjoy!

First we have the General Shots…

Our awesome tournament set-up. Thanks to Virtualand!

Our ever supportive Tekken community!

The prizes

Bernard from Virtualand: Sleeeeppeeeeee…..I want to play SF4…..

The After Tourney Interview!

Since I wasn’t there to witness what was said, I shall completely make up my captions here!

“Yes! I won because nobody can withstand my boyish good looks! BOYBAND POWER!!!!”

“Haiz…it is true. Although I had the “We <3 Shin” club of fanboys, it was too weak to withstand the awesomeness that is the BOYBAND POWER”

And…here’s the Prize Giving Piccies!

I thinkI made it to the top eight of the tournament. But was unable to be present for prize giving *sobs* Oh! To miss out on my photo-op moment!

Pig-sign boy. Err, sorry, I have no idea how to write your nick.

Team Japan

Our host with the most! Irritating! Xiaoyu! I like! Yagami!

3rd Place Winner – Anthony

2nd Place Winner – Shin

1st Place Winner (Aiyoh why look so fierce!) – Jianhua. Julia FTW!!! ^_^**

And here’s one for the Shin Fanboys:

THE END

Personally, I did this not because I believed he would win the 3 way or that a Singaporean will definitely take K.O. (Although I do believe these could happen), but because I did truly believe that gamers in Singapore have reasons to utter those words.

We, Singapore, such a small nation, have hosted an INTER-NATION 6 week long tournament major for Street Fighter 4… Considering the size of the country, the number of tournament regulars and the time we had for preparations, pulling off 5 qualifiers, one of which nearly hitting 64-men, was an incredible achievement.

We, Singapore, are hosting a Japan vs Korea vs Singapore exhibition match. A 3 way showdown pulled off with minimal funding, just the power of the community and the “common language” of people who share a similar passion. (Back in March, Yagami did a nice write up on how Street Fighter is a “Common language” that bridges language barriers between him and foreign players. It explains what I mean in this paragraph really well and can be found here.)

We, Singapore, have been holding tournaments and keeping the passion burning for as long as competitive fighting games have existed and we have been doing this over and over again for various games, not just Street Fighter 4.  Where competition is bred by the games and the people, not just by hype. And if you don’t believe we keep doing it over and over again?

We, Singapore, have put aside our worries about money, time, energy and in some cases our social lives, to make this all happen. And we did it all fueled… on Passion.

So if you sit down and think about it, in these 6 short weeks we have achieved a lot that most gamers, screw that, most people with a PASSION for something they love, can only dream about. So to everyone reading this now I say to you this… On Friday and Saturday, you’ll get one shot to take everything that’s been done to make this happen, and make it all worth it.

“A stage and its actors are nothing without an audience.”

You’ve shown us the passion before, now show it to us again, on a stage that we will all remember for the rest of our lives. Shout, laugh, scream, maybe even cry. Make your passion heard at TGX’09.

This is our passion, these are our games. And even if we’re not the best in the world (yet),  in our hearts and our memories:

“We..

are better than them.”

Photos were taken off  the following sites

www.tkaworld.com

http://sf4singapore.blogspot.com

www.soulsingapore.com

Disclaimer: The term “We are better than them” is not intentionally being used as a taunt or to wag epen. Nor is it being used to refer to the standard of competition or gameplay in Singapore.