The Crackhouse (Live) - Metrics and Cultural Integration feat. AndyOCR @ 8PM PST

The Crackhouse is live tonight! This time we have special guest AndyOCR to discuss the idea of implementing fighting game metrics along with the cultural integration between FGC and MOBA players.

For those who don't know, MOBA is the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre. In short -- games like League of Legends, DOTA, and Heroes of Newerth.

The Crackhouse is an open table discussion that encourages discussion and engagement between the speakers and viewers. If you're tuning in to hear what we've got to say, feel free to let your opinion be heard! You can check us out tonight here: www.twitch.tv/crackfiend

Peacefuljay Saltstream Weekly Review: Online Harassment

Each week our very own Crackfiend will give us an update on the current happenings within the PeacefulJay stream which is one of the most popular streams to date! PeacefulJay's 24/7 Endless Lobby Stream can be found by clicking here. Miss last week's update? Check it out here.

Trash talking. It’s part of competitive culture and should exist to create rivalries, drama, and emotional intensity. But when does trash talking cross the line? When does it become heckling, verbal assault, or harassment?

This topic at hand today is being discussed because of incidents that have not only happened on the Peacefuljay Stream, but on most streaming events that the FGC has provided to the general public. The FGC streams bring positivity and opportunity, but fails to regulate stream chat etiquette in regards to sexual reference, sexual identity, racial slurs, and so forth. G4 briefly talks about this on the EVO2K10 feedback which Haunts posted and you can begin watching it at approximatley the 7-minute mark.

But the streams are not the issue. The issue lies within the readers of this article, the viewers of the streams, and the people who have provided the streams but were unintentionally negligent to the recurring problem.

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Peacefuljay’s Saltstream - Weekly Review

Each week our very own Crackfiend will give us an update on the current happenings within the PeacefulJay stream which is one of the most popular streams to date! PeacefulJay's 24/7 Endless Lobby Stream can be found by clicking here. Miss last week's update? Check it out here.

Growth, Stability, Decline, and Rejuvenation.

It’s a standard 4-stage process that occurs throughout history in every country, every culture, and for the sake of this particular article, every community.

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Peacefuljay’s Saltstream - Weekly Review

Each week our very own Crackfiend will give us an update on the current happenings within the PeacefulJay stream which is one of the most popular streams to date! PeacefulJay's 24/7 Endless Lobby Stream can be found by clicking here. Miss last week's update? Check it out here.

After another week of non-stop Super Street Fighter 4, there were a two very interesting ideas thrown towards me, Lamerboi, IFC Ricky, and Peacefuljay. Check what we have planned after the break!

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PeacefulJay’s Saltstream - Weekly Review

Each week our very own Crackfiend will give us an update on the current happenings within the PeacefulJay stream which is one of the most popular streams to date! PeacefulJay's 24/7 Endless Lobby Stream can be found by clicking here. Miss last week's update? Check it out here.

Peacefuljay’s stream has made tremendous progress in less than 3 weeks. 1250 followers, more players have entered the stream chat, more people are being vocal, and more top players are participating in what is probably the most popular and most talked about SSF4 stream out there currently. With that said, thank you Peacefuljay and IFC_Ricky for helping spread the word about Battle of the Bay and for telling the other guys to watch our stream on Sunday!

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Peacefuljay’s Saltstream - Wait Your Turn

Our very own Crackfiend talks about a new trend in online play for Super Street Fighter 4 -- 24 hour endless lobbies with a live stream! The most popular right now being PeacefulJay's where top players such as Lamerboi, Alex Valle, Juicebox, Vangief and many more battle it out online for any and all spectators to enjoy.

Check out the stream by clicking here.

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JOSEPH GORDON LEVITT ON STREET FIGHTER

Keits posted an article on the front page of SRK in regards to Joseph Gordon Levitt commenting on Street Fighter. For those of you who don't know, JGV was in the recent big hit movie, Inception. JGV appears on the Jimmy Fallon show and takes a quick minute towards the end of this video to talk about Street Fighter. After watching this video, I had a few words to say: I respect this guy.

LIVE ON THREE SHOW FEATURING JUSTIN WONG AND MARN

Slasher sent me this video which breaks down Devastation and the emergence of fighting games as a legitimate competitive e-sport. DJWheat and Slasher also interview Justin Wong and Marn on their thoughts of Devastation, Marn's victory over Alex Valle, and moving to the Golden State. Also included in the video is the official statements from Marn and Justin on leaving Empire. SSF4 talk begins roughly at 25:00, and the interviews begin at the 37:00 mark.

DEVASTATION RESULTS & FOOTAGE

Online video chat by Ustream

Devastation just wrapped up with a great set of matches for all the games. You can view the VODs at http://www.djWHEAT.blip.tv. 

Here are the results for Super Street Fighter 4 and Tekken 6:

SUPER STREET FIGHTER 4

1. Marn (VI/RU/DU)

2. Alex Valle (RY)

3. Juicebox Abel (AB)

TEKKEN 6

1. Nin (Steve)

2. Holeman (DevilJin/Lars)

3. Suiken (Lei)

GUILE THEME GOES WITH EVERYTHING PART II

This is more of a face palm moment for me than anything else, but nonetheless, entertaining. Kineda actually sent me this link, and for that, I'd like to say that he is by far more lame than Lamerboi. But seriously... Guile Theme goes with everything, and apparently at e3 as well. Someone please confirm that this is actually the song from the game itself. Kineda told me it was, but I frankly don't believe him yet. Enjoy the video!

Update on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 8:16AM by Crackfiend

Fresh Prince of Bel Air version.

Fresh Prince Guile Theme @ Yahoo! Video

MORTAL KOMBAT MOVIE TRAILER

Alright guys, believe me when I say that I usually dislike/hate movies based off video games. And I'm talking about Mortal Kombat on a site that primarily talks about Street fighter?! However, this was a pleasant surprise for me and I'm pretty excited to see if this is for real or not. The trailer is pretty violent, so watch at your own discretion. 

GUILE THEME GOES WITH EVERYTHING

I was given a link last night by my idiot brother, Lamerboi, and being the lame Guile player that he is, he finds a YouTube channel of some dude who replaces game/movie/show themes with Guile's theme song. Much to my surprise and amusement, I got some pretty good laughs. Although, they were cheap ones. Love me or hate me for this, I thought this was worth sharing with you guys, and here are the two videos that provided me with cheap and quick entertainment. Enjoy! Edit: This is definitely a guilty pleasure for me.

GRADUATION PROJECT

The fighting game culture has evolved immensely since the release of Street Fighter 4: there are more sponsors involved with events, more coverage, more money involved, and most importantly, more people in the fighting game community. I've met a lot of these people through attending events, gatherings, and sessions. I've also been privileged to have been acquainted with many of you who I've never met, but have talked to online through chat or e-mail. 

One of them is an individual named Sean Thurman.

Sean is a high school senior in Pennsylvania who e-mailed me about 3 months and said, "As a requirement for us to graduate, we have to complete a graduation project that we create on our own. My graduation project is on the Fighting Game Community and I'm learning what it takes and how to prepare for higher level play."

Since then, we've kept in touch and he's come up with a tutorial video for his senior project. This isn't the best tutorial video available, however, you get to see the effort he put forth into it.

On a note, if you're going to comment his YouTube video, please be constructive with what you say. This young gentleman has put in a ton of effort to create his project/tutorial video. He chose to do the project about who and what we are, followed through with a tutorial video, and then e-mailed it to me. Someone who's done all of that should earn some respect. The community will continue to have young blood, like Sean, who are interested in what we do. How we treat and cultivate them will help determine how much further our community can go. In other words: be nice to the new guys.

Reno Revolution Tournament Confirmed and Rumored Players

Just as a reminder, tomorrow is the large scale Reno tournament. From what I've heard, there will be a live stream of this event. For those of you nearby, come by for some top-tier caliber competition! Especially with a list of these confirmed players attending:

Vangief
CrackFiend
LPN
Filipino Champ
Ricky Ortiz
Hiro 
Jason Nelson

Rumored players to be attending:

Jwong
Valle 
Erik Choi
John Choi

For original information regarding the tournament, click here.

Reno Revolution Tournament: March 20-21

Reno has decided to host their own event in the casino of Atlantis, with a guarantee prize of $350 on top of the entry fees for each game. With a relatively quiet community in Reno, they're making the effort to bring it's city into the spotlight! If you are from around the area, try to make it to Reno for this large event! Here are the details:

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SHERDOG'S MMA TECHNIQUE OF THE WEEK SPONSORED BY: TATSUNOKO VS CAPCOM?

Last week, I wrote about Street Fighter references within MMA culture. This week, I found a video on Sherdog that is sponsored by Tatsunoko vs Capcom, which you can view on the video below within the first few seconds. (The rest of the video displays an MMA technique, nothing else SF related)

Yet another sign of the fighting game culture infiltrating or making an attempt to integrate with mainstream media. However, with all the events, streams, and promotions occuring with the fighting game crave, an impending question is raised: Will the fighting game culture ever make a breakthrough into mainstream audiences across the US or the world? What do you guys think?

Source: www.Sherdog.com

STREET FIGHTER INFLUENCE ON MMA CULTURE

D. Mandel/Sherdog.com              

As some of you may know, I'm a big follower of contact sports such as MMA and Boxing. Today on Sherdog, I was reading about the preview of UFC 109 between middleweight fighters: Chael Sonnen vs Nate Marquardt. On the summary/breakdown of the matchup, it read:

Marquardt has too much skill for Sonnen to overcome the difference with pure top control. The road getting there may be rough, but Marquardt will eventually get Sonnen in a bad spot on the feet and bust out a “Street Fighter”-style super combo for the finish.

This is a really small find, but I find it fascinating that even in mainstream sports, Street Fighter still has it's influence upon the different cultures surrounding us. It's usually the little things like this which typically indicates the level of influence the fighting game community potentially has.

Source: Sherdog - UFC 109 Preview

Update on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 7:47PM by thxyoutoo

While we are on this topic a friend of mine linked me a highlight video of Marius "The Raging Demon" Zaromskis a few days ago.  An MMA fighter who's nicknamed after Akuma/Gouki.  He also dressed up as Akuma during one of walk outs.

If you like MMA and this highlight video the guy has mad film making talent.  Please check out vids at his youtube channel.  He has a ton of highlights from many top mma competitors.  

p.s. - Demon Flips at 1:30, Hurricane Kick at 2:15, and Tiger Knees at 3:25

JESSICA GAONA AT THE TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEKEND!

Jessica Gaona, a talented artist who has been to ActiveGamers and NorCal Regionals, will be in attendance again for the UC Davis 3v3 and the Fuddruckers tournament during the weekend! If you're around for the event, stop by to get some commissions made!

Pictures courtesy of Kineda and Jessica Gaona.

IPLAYWINNER AND KEYSTONE 2 PRODUCTION PRESENTS: FUDDRUCKERS TOURNAMENT SERIES

2010 began with an incredible lineup of tournaments from all over the globe. We've got weekly streams from Cicada and Keystone II on the west coast; Exceed 2 Tournament which took place in the UK recently and plenty of footage over at Frame-Advantage from the east coast.

However, one event will be a standout amongst the rest.

Brought to you by the players for the players: Vittorio, Ramin, Nima, iPlayWinner, and Keystone II Production presents the Fuddruckers Tournament Series.

Some of you may remember last year, when the Fuddruckers ran 3 singles tournament, each capping at 128 entrants, with the exception for the final tournament of 2009 which peaked close to 200 entrants! This year we've decided to spice things up a bit with the team tournament 3v3 format

The attendees of the tournament are primarily from Northern California, but has now generated interest from players from across the nation. If you don't think the competition is tough, check out some of the teams in contention for the top:

Team KapitaL
Ryan "Perfect Sin" Bartlett
Peter "Flash Metroid" Susini
Martin "Marn" Phan

Team You Bastard
Vance "Vangief" Wu (Zangief)
Long "LPN" Nguyen (Bison)
Anthony "Crackfiend" Nguyen (Balrog)

Team Free Money
Ricky Ortiz (Rufus)
Ryan "Freelipino Chump" Ramirez (Dhalsim)
John Choi (Ryu)

Team SoCal (Rumored team)
Keno (Balrog)
Mike Ross (Honda)
Combofiend (Abel or C. Viper)

Stay updated with iPlayWinner for the streams coming up during the weekend!

IPLAYWINNER WEEKLY MAILBAG

Have questions about the fighting game culture, the iPlayWinner crew, or anything in general? Send an e-mail to crackfiend@iplaywinner.com

It’s been 3 weeks since my last “weekly” mailbag, and the holiday season has treated me a little too well, but I’ve not forgotten about some of you fellow readers! For this mailbag, we've gone a little bit international with a read from the Cayman Islands, and another one from London! Thank you guys from all over the world who are reading and participating in the mailbag!

 

Games overshadowed or out-of-date?

Hey Crackfiend,

In light of SF4's success, as well as the pure, dripping hype that is SSF4's impending arrival, are there any games, new or old, that you think may be/are being overlooked in everyone's rush to get into the latest and greatest?

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