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SFIII: 3rd Strike Videos - TheShend YouTube Channel

Since the Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition has been revealed I thought it high time I made this post I'd been meaning to make for months.

At the very end of last year an Arcade called Game Spot Versus (once Game Inn Sakura) in Tokyo started a 'Danisen League' or better put a 'Dan Ranking League'. Since then it's popularity has exploded and spread to include several more top flight arcades:

• Game Spot Verus (Tokyo)
• GAME41 (Sapporo)
• POPY (Niigata)
• Game Box Q2 (Nagoya)
• Gamespace Vegas (Osaka)
• Subculture (Fukuoka)
• Amusement Sendai (Hokkaido)
• ゲームインナハⅡ (Okinawa)

Even Denjin Arcade has begun it's own Danisen League.

Why the popularity? Well, it's a much more fun and entertaining set-up than straight tournaments or ranking battles, both for players and especially spectators. It's similar to the Virtua Fighter ranking system if anyone's familiar with it but here's how it works.

Players register a character e.g. Kuroda enters Ryu, into the league. Starting at the bottom or 1st Dan, players then compete in a winner stays on system earning points. A win earns +1 point and a loss -1 point, when a player reaches +3 points they're promoted to the next rank and visa versa -3 points a demotion. There are 10 'Dans' or 'Ranks', upon reaching 10th Dan there are more special Dans to reach such as 'Strong', 'Man of Valor', 'King' plus a couple more, to reach these you need to earn +5 points for promotion but -3 points still leads to a demotion.

The best thing about this system is that you can enter again using multiple characters, attempting to 'level them up' through the competition to reach these prestigious titles, which means lesser tiered and importantly seen characters get aired for us to delight in. In fact the recent best of 3rd Strike compilations have included footage from these Dan Leagues but there have been some exemplary demonstrations from the likes of Higa's Ibuki, Genki's Alex, TM's Q, Yakkun's Necro and KO's Elena etc. for instance.

Skip to 14:43 for an example of KO's Elena in Strong Dan!

I'm keeping playlist dedciated to the Danisen League which is kept fairly up-to-date with Game Spot Versus arcade's footage so far but if you want peruse everything that's on offer including the current up-to-date rankings of Japanese players then head over to the official Danisen site run by Game Spot Versus.

All in all this type of system would be very welcome in a online mode for 3S Online Edition as long as droppers & disconnects where dealt with properly e.g. drop/disconnect = -1 point regardless. Maybe even the option set-up your own league? An iplaywinner Danisen league? Yes please!