My Fighters Blog: OUCH, Right In My Soul!

 

It's EVO Time! and IM NOT THERE!!

    I wrote an entire entry last week about how excited I was for EVO. I had hoped my next blog post would be my stories of success and a drop of all the pictures I got with my crew; perhaps some selfies with my favorite players. But apparently it was not meant to be.

    I worked a normal shift on Thursday. Up at 6 am, bowl of Apple Jacks, and off to work. I knew that to make my flight, i had to leave home about 7 pm. So all day at work it was : 

10 hours until i leave for my flight.

9 hours until i leave for my flight.

I get an email - my flight has been delayed by half an hour.

Upsetting, but whatever. 9 and a half hours until i leave for my flight.

8 hours

7 hours

and so on.

When I finally left I practically skipped out the door. Its an hour and a half drive from my house to the airport in Belgrade. I checked my bag at the desk at 9 pm. Then i walked over to check the departures board. I did a double take, rubbed my eyes, thinking I must not know how to read, and look a third time. My flight, originally scheduled for departure at 10:09 was now leaving at 12:45.

This was when I started to worry. I booked a flight out of Belgrade airport on Allegiant. People who like to travel in confidence, who find things like arriving on time or having an airplane to ride, don't ride Allegiant. They take better, faster means of travel, like Southwest Airline, or a donkey. I had already been burned by Allegiant Air, and I got that disturbing sense of foreboding that comes with the knowledge you might be about to witness a disaster.

At that point I had to check in with the crew. Not only was I going to be late, I was going to be so late I would have to consider skipping my morning Tekken match.. The crew, having basic knowledge of American travel, had already arrived by other methods. They were comfortably set up in the room and already practicing. They told me what I already suspected: I was an idiot for putting an important trip in the hands of Allegiant air, and I get what I deserve for living in rural Montana.

A Quick google and some simple division tells us that Allegiant has 80 flights that are delayed or cancelled EVERY SINGLE DAY

After that I tried napping, thinking perhaps if I slept now I could still make my morning matches. I actually did manage to fall asleep against one wall, propped up on my stick bag like a pillow. When I awoke, I found more good news, plane was another half hour behind. I'd already been waiting at the airport for two and a half hours. Flight's new arrival time - 1:15 am.

Around this time, I was trying to make peace with the fact I wouldn't be making my morning match. Half the country away, a tech company I've never heard of started their nightly software update. Within an hour, this unknown fart of a company would cripple international infrastructure.

It was around 1:45 when the copilot made an announcement that there was some sort of trouble with software and we cant board yet. Being Allegiant though, they let us know how much we meant as customers - we dont know if were going to take off. we dont know if the flight is cancelled. we dont know if there will be a flight for you to take tomorrow. if you leave, you are not entitled to a refund.

At 3:00 (thats 0300 - 6 hours since I parked outside) the pilot made the announcement that something called Kr0wdStryK3 had forced an update and travel all over america has been grounded. we dont know if there will be a flight tomorrow, probably not.

Travel was disrupted across the globe. It takes a big BIG event to cause problems that big. In my lifetime all i can think of are Covid, and 9/11. We're talking once every few decades type of travel disruption.

I dont travel often, maybe twice a year. and that once-a-decade event happened minutes before my ultra-delayed flight came in.

If Allegiant was a competent, reliable company, I'd be at EVO. If CrowdStrike, a company I didn't know existed, had been a competent, reliable company, I'd be at EVO. The cascade of bad-luck-horseshit that had to happen to lead to me missing out on EVO has left me stunned and oh so bitter.

All my friends and family are sympathetic of course, they offer their condolences and they are sincere. But they really don't know how deep it cuts. It's not like I missed a vacation, it's more like a holiday got cancelled. Imagine a Hindu acquaintance tells you how upset he is because Navratri was cancelled. You feel bad sure, your friend is clearly upset, but you don't really know what Navratri is, and you can't understand how much it means to him. (Its a celebration of their goddess Gurga, and it involves alot of dancing)

I was going to give one of these to each of the people that eliminated me from the tournament. No idea what to do with them now.

I'll remember Friday July 19th as one of the worst days of my life. I was up waiting for the damn plane all night, but managed to get a few hours nap in  that morning. The rest of that day was spent feeling like my heart had been carved out. I was so tired and miserable that it physically hurt. If you've ever had your heart broken, you know the feeling.

Writing this has been therapeutic. I've been avoiding watching the stream, I'm afraid it will just make me more upset. But my crew played well, and good luck to everyone still in it!

My Fighter's Blog: It's EVO time again!

 EVO Time Again!

Each Summer, the best fight-gamers from all over the world gather in Las Vegas, Nevada to battle it out for the title of world champion. The Evolution Championship Series (known commonly as EVO for short) was founded to be the world finals for fighting games. But since its inception, it has grown into a full- blown fighting-game-centric Comic-Con. (good-golly that's a lot of hyphens)

Ever since my good friend Hola Bird introduced me to the world of competitive streetfighter 15 years ago, I've made an effort to watch as much of the event as possible. But this weekend, I will be attending the event in person for the first time. (I'm so excited I'm positively giddy.)

While I love to watch these matches online, I am downright mediocre when it comes to the caliber of play you need to participate in these tournaments.(I've stressed this multiple times in previous entries) I have attended exactly one other major tournament in my life, Canada Cup 2010. I am going to share that dismal experience here. (I've hinted at it in the past, but here comes the full story.)

You may have some major fiasco in your past, the type of event that you avoid recalling whenever possible, and when it does come up, you speak in hushed tones, changing the subject as quickly as possible. These are the moments you refer to as 'the insert-word-here incident'.  Among those of us involved, it is referred to as The Canada Cup Incident.

Your personal incidents may have left deep psychological scars that will never heal. But, most likely your shame was private, perhaps shared among a few old friends or petty enemies. The Canada Cup Incident was broadcast over the internet, and can still be found if you search deeply enough through the annals of YouTube. (I will post a link at the end of this post, something I promised myself I would never do, but perhaps the time has come)

The whole thing was Hola Bird's idea. "Come with me to Calgary", he said. "It will be fun!", he said.     

I wouldn't say it was no fun, but it certainly wasn't pleasant.

After weeks of preparations, planning and training, we set out for homeland of our northern neighbors, ridiculous dreams of championship trophies and internet fame in our heads. I got my passport solely for this event, it remains the only time so far that I've ever left the country.

This is the logo from Canada Cup 2010. I still have a T-shirt from the event with autographs of Mago and Daigo written on the sleeves

One of the events at Canada Cup 2010 was a team Street Fighter event. It was designed for 3 man teams, when one team member lost a match, the next would rotate in, and so forth until one team was eliminated. The winning team would move one, and the losing team just lost their entry fee. (No consolation bracket in team tourneys, losers!)

Hola Bird and myself formed a team with another Street-Fighter-loving Montanan, a fun guy that goes by the handle Bonzai Boomerang. Before our match even started, we all knew there would be trouble. We were called up to the main stage, and informed our match would be taking place on stage, streamed online, against a team named 'team third place'.

Why did they pick the name team third place? Because they already knew they would be taking third place. Third place behind a team that had Daigo and Mago, and another team that had Justin Wong and Mike Ross.

So, I just threw some names out that probably meant nothing to most readers. But allow me to equate them to some names you probably do recognize. If this had been baseball, the names might have been Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. In Basketball, it would be Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. In cricket, Sachin Tendulkar and Sir Viv Richards. Icons of the sport, in other words. And we were pitted, round one, against the team that was expected could only possibly lose to these giants.

We...lost. and when i say we lost, I mean we LOST. In the three man team format, we did not make it beyond their point man. In between Bonzai Boomerang's vicious slaughter and my own, (Bonzai played first position, I was second, and Hola Bird was our anchor) there was a forced reset of the console, (there was some sort of sound issue with the stream) and that technical issue took much longer than it took their point man to wipe out our entire team.

As it turned out, the entire time we were getting our asses handed to us, the commentators for the stream were roasting our poor play for all of the internet to hear and laugh (and laugh and laugh). While it can't be argued that we sucked HARD, I would like to take this moment to point out this wasn't exactly a fair matchup. In Street Fighter 6 terms,  it was the equivalent of 2 silver-ranks and a gold-rank being matched up against 3 legend-ranks players. The layman might equate it to watching someone who jogs a couple times a week enter the Olympic trials.

These people play at a level I can barely comprehend, let alone achieve. So, while my play has undoubtedly improved since The Canada Cup incident, my expectations have vastly diminished. EVO doesn't have a team tournament, but I did register for the Street Fighter main event. It is double-loss elimination, so if I do better than 0-2, I will consider it a small victory. 

If you have any desire to track the progress of me and my crew this weekend, you can do so at start.gg.

My handle is Atmaweapwn. The rest of the crew is Hola Bird, Bonzai Boomerang, and Sammich. 

If you enjoy watching people get ridiculed as they are destroyed by vastly superior players, you can find the videos of Team Carne Crew vs Team Third Place here and here.

Wish me luck. 

My fighter's blog - "You don't understand"

     "You don't understand."

    If you follow my blog, firstly I want to say thank you. Secondly, you've probably noticed that I've been writing less and less (and less). That is partly because I have returned to working full time, but just as big a reason was the release of Street Fighter 6 on June 2, 2023. I have spent nearly as much time playing Street Fighter as I have working, and I get the withdrawal shakes if I go too long without getting my fix. (I'm only slightly joking.)   

    I've addressed fighting games several times in previous posts, but its time to divulge my all consuming obsession with them. I played lots of fighting games in my childhood (Tekkens 2 and 3 were particular favorites of mine, I even once claimed to have the world record for longest combo in a fighting game [I once hit 10k hits on a combo loop in practice with Jun, but I doubt thats a record, just something I liked to brag about as a preteen]) but it wasn't until college that like turned to love. In 2009, while working at a local video store, Hastings (RIP), I met a fellow gamer named Hola Bird. (as always in my blogs, i refrain from naming names to protect those who claim to be innocent) Hola Bird told me of his obsession with Street Fighter 4, and suggested that we play some time. 

  I have mentioned this dear friend before, referring to him both as Ken Masters, and Hello Pajaro. His screen name is Hola Bird, and that is how I will refer to him going forward. 

    I told Hola Bird of my success at fighting games in my youth, and assured him that I was no scrub when it comes to fight games. He replied simply, "No, you don't understand." 

    When he came to play fight games that very night, the exhibition of just how much I did not understand began.

    That night, Hola Bird showed me my very first fight stick. For those of you not in the know, a fight stick is like the control portion of an old arcade cabinet cut off and boxed up to fit in your lap. (since this introduction to these fabulous oversized controllers i have bought 5 or 6) He trounced me time after time as I fumbled on my dual shock controller to perform a simple Hadoken. 

    By the end of the night I admitted, "You're right, I didn't understand."

    That one night of gaming turned into a 5-nights-a-week routine. As time went on we slowly added members to our little fight crew, until there were nearly a dozen players at our weekly game night. Each time a new player showed up, they'd receive the same warning, "You don't understand."

    There really is a difference between playing Street Fighter and playing Street Fighter. If you don't have a friend to show you the way, you just won't understand.

    I had my Hola Bird, and I'm perfectly happy to do the same for anyone. Just remember, you don't understand what you are getting yourself into.

It's EVO Baby!

 This last weekend,in fabulous Las Vegas, a myriad of combatants will clash in a test of fists and wills. Fists and feet will fly, tears will be shed, and many an enthusiastic fan will scream himself hoarse.

A fabulous shot of the champion getting embraced by the man he beat in Grand Finals.

I’m not talking about the next UFC cage match (though there probably is one of those happening too), I’m talking about Evo. The only esports event that I follow closely. There are some other events I'll tune into, GDQ (games done quick) is always a fun watch, and the LCS (league championship series) draws a massive crowd. But for me, it has to be Evo.

The Evolution Championship series (Evo) is the biggest fighting game tournament in the world (there are over 7000 competitors this year, and a grand prize of ten thousand dollars.  People travel from all over the world to compete at games that basically breaks down to PUNCH THE GUY IN THE FACE!

I don’t know what it is about these games that appeals to me so much (particularly because I play them so terribly), but I’m happy as a pig in shit to just sit and play for hours, then go online to watch videos of other people playing that same game.

It really is like watching a sport. There are sponsoring labels, and players who Don that merchandise as proudly as any NASCAR driver.

Ravenous, I dig through the back pages of back pages, constantly on the hunt for some new combo or piece of tech to get the slightest edge over the competition.  I’m slightly ashamed to admit I know more about the frontrunner of the is years Evo than the current state of the Seattle Mariners.(Long time reader(s?) will know that I’m a big Mariners fan too.)

What brought me to this lowly state?  Well, 20 years ago next month, I met a man who would eventually set me down this path. A man named Hello Pájaro (As always, names have been altered protect those who claim to be innocent).

He was one of the very first people I met when I spent my disastrous freshmen year of college at MSU (for more on that flavorful experience click here.) And we became fast friends. We of course lost touch when I set fire to my college career, but to our mutual surprise, we ended up working together at the same store.

By the end of his first week, he was my favorite person to see at work. The one buddy that makes working retail not only bearable, but even occasionally enjoyable. By the end of his first month, we were hanging out outside of work. Twenty years later, he is like an uncle to my children. (The weird, distant uncle, but still)

At evo this year, there was a blind entrant. And he won several matches.

One fateful night, early into the bromance, he asked me if I ever played fight games.

“Oh yeah”, I scoffed. “I don’t like to brag, but I’m pretty good.”

This, dear reader, was a lie in two parts. Firstly, I love to brag (just ask my wife about any time I’ve been proven right), and secondly, as I quickly discovered, I’m not as good as I thought.

I invited him to play one evening after work. Food and fight games we declared. I invited this man into my home, I fed him. And how was my hospitality repaid? He kicked my ass. Beat me like a red-headed stepchild. Completely wiped the floor with me. He’s never really stopped wiping the floor with me. No matter what I try, no matter how much time and effort I put into training, I can never get more that the occasional win over Hello Pájaro.

I think that is what my entire obsession boils down to at this point. I don’t want to be a world champion. I don’t expect to win against every opponent I face. But just once, I want to wipe the floor with Hello Pájaro.

Esports - the dream profession of many a nerd

     I have written before about how much video games have changed from their inception. But there is another whole new kind of beast that is really just starting to make a splash in mainstream America, and that is Esports. 

    Video games have evolved with our culture. They've gone from vector graphic quarter-eaters that could only be found at arcades and pizza joints to something easily accessible in nearly every American household. Located in the pocket of every smart-phone owning citizen.   

    With this evolution came something that used to bore the pants off of me. Watching other people play video games.

One of Several Major Fighting Game Tournaments - Capcom Cup - draws a huge crowd, and only the top 32 players worldwide win a chance to play.

    Used to be a sort of personal hell, standing in line at the arcade, or waiting for my older brother to finish his turn so I could get my chance to get Luigi through those side-scrolling obstacle courses. (I was the younger brother, by default I was always P2) Video games were always boring to watch. But now, it's like watching a sport on TV that you used to play in your prime. And just like watching sports on TV, the more you understand about the game, the more you can appreciate the skills of the really talented players.

    I've played a lot (a lot a lot) of video games. But there were only two games that I have ever played that I would consider myself competitive in. The first was a game called Quake (released by Id software in 1996) but as I was maybe 14 when I peaked at that game, I don't have much to tell. I was a painfully awkward,  light-shunning gamer that stayed in my basement racking up frags and cursing LPBs that haunted my favorite servers. Less revealed about this time in history, the better.

    The other game I played competitively (though truthfully not very well) was Street Fighter 4. The street fighter series has a long popular history dating all the way back to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. I remember playing a lot of Street Fighter with neighborhood kids back in Kindergarten. That's over 30 years ago.

    I had stopped playing Street Fighter in grade school. But I was reintroduced to the game by a friend I met in college. This friend, Ken Masters (as always names have been changed to protect those who claim to be innocent), played street fighter at a level I truly didn't know existed, the Esports level.

    

Ken looking good after college

    It's a game where you try to punch the other guy more than he punches you. How competitive could it be right? As it turns out, very very competitive. There is a mountain of information to sift through once you decide to look very close at these games. To really play Street Fighter the way it's intended, you cant even use a standard controller, you need a fight stick. (kind of like the setup you see on arcade cabinets sized down to fit on your lap) And then you need to study frame info, spacing, throw tech strategies, negative inputs, counter hits, and a bunch of other stuff I cant even remember anymore. 

    The professional players in this game have memorized mountains of data and probably do more math than half of NASA.

    I learned what I could and reached a level that I was able to keep up with most of the other players in my play group. And one fateful winter, Ken and I decided it was time to go play in a tournament. We decided to take a road trip to Calgary to participate in Canada's largest fighting game tournament, the Canada Cup.

    The good news is that we got to explore another country and had a blast doing it. The bad news is we played Street Fighter. We were destroyed. I mean still-to-this-day-embarrassingly blown out of the water. There is even a YouTube clip on the internet (which I will not link or give any hints as to how to find) of our team getting pwnt by a semi-pro Canadian player while the commentators talked about how god-awful we are at this game.

    Going back to the High School sports analogy, it was like going from playing on the junior varsity team straight the Olympic Trials. We got owned that hard.

    I stopped playing Street Fighter shortly after my daughter was born. That was a pretty good reason to spend less than 7 hours a day practicing face punch, but mostly it was an excuse to get out. I was never all that good, and I was waaaaaay overly competitive. I rage quit a ton and I had a tendency to throw things and scream at people when I lost. Sad to say, I burned a lot of bridges and ruined a lot of friendships over this game.

    To everyone I've ever played with, know that I mean this sincerely:

    Sorry for what I said while playing Street Fighter.