IPLAYWINNER MAILBAG: CULTURAL INTEGRATION BETWEEN MMA AND FIGHTING GAMES?

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

During the last weekend, I attended the Tekken 6 Nationals in San Francisco. The overall event was interesting: private venue, RSVP only, lots of giveaways, and so forth. However, the one thing that really stood out during this event was the appearance of a certain MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter named Josh Barnett.

For those of you who don't know, Josh Barnett is one of the top 10 heavyweights in the world. Apparently there was an interview with him during the event, but as a guest there, I was unable to hear anything at all. Regardless, it was interesting to see a high profile athlete attend this event, which is something that should happen more often for two key reasons:

Move way from cultural segregation & creating social awareness of the fighting game culture. With that said, let's move on to this week's mailbag.

Tekken 6 competitors

Now that Tekken 6 Nationals has come to an end, what are your thoughts on the competitors? [/triforce voice]

Jonsf, Bay Area

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NEWEGG WINTER WANFEST

For those of you who love internet tournaments, especially ones with free prizes, here's one for the winter if you're staying home for Christmas and New Years. Be wary though, December 19th is the deadline for Street Fighter 4 registration, which is this Saturday. The registration for Tekken 6, however, is open until January 2nd. Gogogo!

IPLAYWINNER MAILBAG: THE BEGINNING

All things big start small, and with the iPW Mailbag, that is precisely what I'd like to be able to do. Some of you may have seen the first post I made regarding this. To reiterate my goal of creating a weekly mailbag, I'd like to be able to create more exposure for the fighting game scene. However, I don't want to be limited to exclusively local or national exposure. This community is very diverse on an international scale, and I'd like to encourage some of our regular readers who are also from Europe, Japan, and other foreign countries to participate in this mailbag by e-mailing me: crackfiend@iplaywinner.com. With that said, here is the first iPW Mailbag! 

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IPLAYWINNER'S FRIDAY MAILBAG

I've been flirting with the idea of doing a mailbag for a while, and I finally have some time to do it. Now, some of you are probably wondering what a mailbag is, so let me explain how the whole thing works.

First, think of a question to regarding anything about the community, the iPW staff, future events, culture, and so forth.

Second of all, you will submit the questions via e-mail to:
crackfiend@iplaywinner.com

During the course of the week, I will take a gander at all questions submitted, and follow up by answering some of those questions on the iPlayWinner front page.

Please consider that I won't be able to answer every question submitted. Also, I will not accept any e-mails if you don't provide your name (or gamer handle) and city in the e-mail.

Need an example? Take a look here at Kevin Iole's mailbag on MMA current events which he does weekly.

I will be posting the mailbag's every Friday, so start thinking of questions and sending them our way!

Update on Monday, December 7, 2009 at 8:54AM by Crackfiend

For those of you who may possibly wonder why I would like a name and a city, it's because I like to associate myself with people to some kind of identity. Also, this would show the diversity of the players nationally, if not, internationally. I think it would be great to see how broad the interest in our community is.

NORCAL REGIONALS SOUL TRAIN

So you think gamers ain't sick wit it? Check out my boys Cole, Haunts, Tim, and homey John aka KayOss from one of bay areas most reputable dance crews, DS Players (that would be homeboy in the yellow hoodie) get down in a cipher at NCR. On a side note, John, holla at me for some SF4 sessions in the bay!

 

This is why I love the community, there are so many layers and subcultures within it. However, the spectrum of it is hardly ever covered. This is only just a small part of who and what we are as a community. I hope we'll get to see more things such as this or similar in context sometime in the future.

Update on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 10:43AM by Crackfiend

I found this video on John's YouTube. Haunts is messing around on the turntable while people are just kicking it and chilling. Illiterate (BA) and Vance Wu (ZA) are doing some casuals, and you even get to see Zangief doing a little bit of footwork/footsies on top of that beat too. Enjoy!

 

Update on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 2:56PM by haunts

Being a DJ for about 8-10 years now I understand that music is an essential tool for setting the atmosphere for any event. I played tracks all day through out NCR and I decided to upload a couple that seemed to have the most impact over the weekend.

Influx UK - Show Em What You Got

More or less the NCR anthem -- I played it a bunch during the weekend and was also used in the "John Choi! JOHN CHOI!" Trailer as well.

DJ Defkline - I Feel For You

Track that is played in the background of the SF4 Cypher video posted above.

Bill Preston - On a Trip

Another track we played during the NCR Soul Trian that most people really enjoyed.

STREET FIGHTER 4: CHUN LI'S JAB TO ULTRA

If you thought that Balrog's standing jab to ultra was cheap, Chun Li also has jab to ultra.

It has to do with active frames, but since I'm not very educated about frame data, I actually don't know how to explain this. If someone can explain, please do so and I will credit the information. Until then, enjoy the vid:

LIVE STREAM: NORCAL'S PLAYOFF FOR EVOLUTION 5V5 TEAM

During the last few weeks, there has been a lot of commotion about the 5th and final spot on the NorCal team for EVO. In response to the commotion, John Choi (team captain) decided to have a playoff for the current candidates (Filipino Champ and LPN) to square off against the current representatives of team NorCal:

1. John Choi (Ryu)
2. Ricky Ortiz (Rufus)
3. Crackfiend (Boxer)
4. Magus1234 (C. Viper)

Just to give you guys a little background on these two guys, LPN (Bison) is one of the next-gen Street Fighter players in the community. Street Figher 4 is the first competitive game he's ever gotten into, and he's been competing for less than a year while being a consistent placer and performer in NorCal.

Filipino Champ (Dhalsim) has been in the scene for 6+ years and is a high level MvC2 player. His switch to Street Fighter 4 was a rough transition, but has translated itself well by quickly rising the ranks of NorCal with his unique style.

We are trying to setup a live stream (again), and most likely won't run into the same problems we had last time, since the playoff will be at my apartment. This is the playoff format, as stated by John Choi:

"A playoff between LPN and F. Champ has been set up to determine the 5th remaining spot.

The playoff will consist of those 2 players running a gauntlet against the other 4 team members, and finally playing vs each other. Whoever has the best record overall is on the team.

LPN and FC will stick with their primary characters of Bison and Dhalsim the entire time. The 4 team members will use their primary and secondary characters (when applicable) during the gauntlet. The proposed character lineup:

Choi - Ryu/Sagat
Ortiz - Rufus/Chun
Andry - Viper/Blanka
Crackfiend - Boxer/TBD

This should give the broadest character exposure and determine who is more rounded for the team.

The playoff will take place on Monday night at Crackfiend's pad. I'll put up results ASAP.

Good luck to both!"

Stay tuned with iPlayWinner for more updates!

When: Monday, July 13th between 7:00 - 8:00 P.M. PST

Update on Monday, July 13, 2009 at 6:24PM by Crackfiend

I'm doing updates on SRK about everything right now (like who's going to be here, who's here already, when they're going to be here, etc.) so if you're interesting in keeping up with everything, click here.

Update on Monday, July 13, 2009 at 11:26PM by Crackfiend

LPN is the official 5th member of the team, with Filipino Champ as the alternate! Congratulations LPN, and the both of you guys played hard!

NORCAL'S FUDDRUCKERS PRE-EVO STREET FIGHTER TOURNAMENT!

PRE-REGISTER HERE

It's that time again. Norcal's largest monthly tournament is back, and as the flyer says, it just got hella bigger! First of all, the tournament IS NOT capped at 128 people, so everyone who makes it to the event will be able to participate. Anyone who has the availability to attend should go to this event for the following reasons:

• Ricky Ortiz, LPN, Haunts, John Choi, Magus1234, Tharimrattler, A-Rival, old school legend Graham Wolfe, 1up's Richard Li (the only game journalist who is good at fighters), Coopa, Young Legend, Crizzle, Chunksta, myself and many other top players will be in attendance.
• $10 entry fee. Hence, if 150 people joined, the total pot would be $1,500!
• John Choi will be looking for candidates for the EVO Regional Exhibition 5v5 for HD Remix/SF4
• Many travelers from all over and outside of California will be attending this event, and rumor has it that Jason Cole is possibly attending this event! You never know what big names may show up, so take a chance and come by!
• The Red Bull Girls will be back in action passing out Red Bulls!
• EVO is the next major event after Fuddruckers, so this is your final chance to prove your worth before competing on the big stage!

There's nothing to lose and so much to gain. Can you prove your worth and shut down the recent placers of NorCal's finest tournament? With that being said, I recommend everyone attending to pre-register for the tournament by clicking on the link. Till then, here's the trailer created by iPlayWinner crew member, Farid Rouya (Eph). LET'S GET HYPE!

E3 NEWS: 'TATSUNOKO VS CAPCOM: ULTIMATE ALL-STARS' IS COMING TO NORTH AMERICA THIS WINTER!

Capcom announced today that Tatsunoko vs Capcom is coming to North America for the Nintendo Wii. This is official news which I received from Haunts today while he is in LA preparing for the SBO Qualifiers. For those of you who don't know, SBO (Super Battle Opera) is one of the largest annual tournaments which takes place in Tokyo. On a side note, let's hope Haunts does well and makes it to the top!

Capcom's popular and critically acclaimed 'VS' fighting series is getting an all new next generation introduction. TvC pits Capcom's characters against Tatsunoko Productions anime superheroes. This clash of heroes face off in two-on-two battles for the ultimate 2D tag-team battle.

There are plenty of new surprises for the North America release, but that information won't be released until we get the next update! In the meantime, check out this Chun Li combo video!

Update on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 2:56PM by Crackfiend

Here are some updates on the North America release of Tastunoko vs Capcom:

• An online mode is currently being explored for the title.
• There will be 5 new characters in the North America release. 
• The game will be released this winter.

Are you guys excited yet?

FUDDRUCKERS 'HYPE!' STREET FIGHTER 4 TOURNAMENT!

It's that time of the month again folks! The NorCal team ends the month with another major, as we expect to cap the tournament at 128 people again. Spots will be taken on a first-come first-serve basis, so if you're not there early to buy your spot, be prepared to bid for your spot! As I've said before, if you're from the area, make it out. If you're not from the area, figure a way to make it out. This tournament typically brings out the best of NorCal, and it's anyone's money for the taking! If you're new to the scene and worried about not placing very high in this tournament, just come out to hang out with the iPW crew! We'll show you guys the ropes, run you down on how things work, and show you guys what the scene is all about. There will be no articles on Saturday/Sunday because everyone is attending tournaments and events, so I will see you guys on Sunday, GET HYPE!

Update on Monday, June 1, 2009 at 12:53AM by Crackfiend

Here are the top 3 results!

1st. Ricky Ortiz
2nd. Crackfiend
3rd. Kaizer 

UC DAVIS MUGA STREET FIGHTER 4 TOURNAMENT RECAP!

Last weekend, there were 3 tournaments (it's like that every weekend in NorCal now!), but the recap will be specifically about the UC Davis MUGA tournament that happened on Saturday. The tournament had a total of 48 entrants, and was full of surprises and upsets. That seems to be the running theme for Street Fighter 4 tournaments these days!

The first name worth mentioning is the up and coming Sagat player, Mark (Tharimrattler). Although he made a name for himself by beasting in Marvel with Colossus, from what I've been told, this cat practices Street Fighter 4 HARDCORE and it's his game of choice now. He also attends weekly tournaments in Suisun, CA and consistently places in the top 3.

All that practice and hardwork paid off in that he placed 1st at the MUGA tournament, sweeping me (Crackfiend) in the finals. This was another reminder that people are very hungry to take the #1 spot in SF4 these days, and playing his Sagat was a humbling experience to say the least.

Check out the match below! (More videos of the tournament at thnxyoutoo's YouTube channel)

Another name worth mentioning is Ryu player KOREA who eliminated me from the winners bracket with straight up GIMMICKS! He definitely got the best of me in the match with his unorthodox style of play and here is is an example: he does an uppercut to knock me down, whiffs a throw twice, and does it a third time to throw me! WHAT!? I was a sitting duck for gimmicks and could not figure out what was going on inside his mind! Oh well, good job KOREA!

The highlight of the day had to be Coopa vs Mark, in one of the closest finals I've seen so far in Street Fighter 4. It's one of those matches I just can't describe in words, you've got to see it for yourself!

Street Fighter 4
1. Tharimrattler (Sagat)
2. Crackfiend (Barlog)
3. Coopa (Zangief)

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STREET FIGHTER 4 TOURNAMENTS AND EVENTS FOR NORCAL IN MAY!

Picture by Matelandia at Deviant Art 

The month of May is going to a busy month. Here's the current schedule of events that I know of so far in my calendar:

May 15th - Keystone III Ranbat (Ranking Battle)

Formerly known as the Cannery Dojo, Joshua (Owner of Cannery Dojo) and Albert (Owner of Keystone II) have teamed up to create Keystone III, and are now holding weekly Ranbats for the community.

May 16th - UC Davis Muga Street Fighter 4 Tournament

Way out in UC Davis holds a monthly tournament featuring upcoming players such as Matt (Pieguy) and Sean H. (Coopa) who are hungry to take the throne and mark themselves as one of the top competitors in NorCal.

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STREET FIGHTER 4 STRATEGY CONCEPTS: THE BATTLE FOR DISTANCE

I've decided to create a series of articles called "Street Fighter 4 Strategy Concepts" which is a comparison/correlation of concepts between Street Fighter video games and sports. Before I go on, I would like to share a story about myself and the competitive scene.

I had previously hated video games, period. I thought it was a waste of time and you could do nothing productive with it other than kill time. I was also a very big sports guy, and I played basketball throughout most of high school until I suffered some knee injuries which caused me to stop playing. While in my first year of college in fall of 2002, I stumbled upon Marvel vs Capcom 2 and I met some people from SRK (www.shoryuken.com). The competitive nature and diversity of the crowd really drew me in which eliminated most, if not, all stereotypes of video gamers. 7 years later, here I am telling a short story about how a non-video gamer became a video gamer, but not without cause.

The reason I mentioned this is because I use a lot of my basketball fundamentals to my gameplay and style. I also watch and learn other sports in order to use their strategies and concepts in my matches as well. Today's topic will be the battle for distance. Below this paragraph is a video of me and Ricky Ortiz playing at the SFSU arcade. I'm going to break down 3 sections in which spacing is highly involved in top play.



2:05 - I begin getting Ricky to the corner by making him block dash punches and my sweeps. By having the right spacing for my moves, I'm able to cause Ricky to misjudge some of my attacks which allows me to dash punch in and then weave out by dashing back (This is a stategical technique that I like to call in-n-out), then moving forward a little bit to continue to steadily work him in.

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FUDDRUCKERS TOURNAMENT: STREET FIGHTER 4 VIDEO TEASER

Here's a quickie on yesterday's tournament: LPN vs Ricky Ortiz



Some of you guys may have skipped the video and just went on to continue reading this article. If you did, watch it right after you read the article. Let me tell you two things that happened yesterday:

First off, we had to cap off the tournament entries at 128, and people still wanted to join the tournament. Here's how bad it got - people were selling off their spots for $20, and we had probably 5 - 10 spots sold (Entry fee was $5).

Second of all, Ricky Ortiz was one of the guys who bought a spot in order to get into the tournament, and in the match between him and LPN, there was a lot of side betting going on. To make things simple and short, there was at least $300 involved for the total pot. How much more hype can it get? Stay tuned for the full article when we post it this week!

STREET FIGHTER 4 TOURNAMENT WEEKEND WRAP UP!

This last weekend has been filled with plenty of events and festivities, and finally I've got some time to do a quick breakdown of everything that's been going on. To start this off, let's begin with the overview of the UC Davis Muga Tournament.

The "Muga" is the name of the arcade at the University, and we had a total of 35 entries for the tournament. I gotta tell you, the Top 8 matches started getting pretty intense. Coopa, the UC Davis Zangrief player, is just hands down a beast. The man specializes in gimmicks (he has openly admitted to it), but will showcase some very impressive footsies/ground games to complement his game, allowing him to create more opportunities because you have to respect his game. See the vid of him taking me out from Winners Finals

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WHAT ARE STREET FIGHTER FUNDAMENTALS?

I've been talking to some of the new SF4 crowd in Norcal and giving them my personal insight on their gameplay. Many of them needed to work on their fundamentals. But many of them didn't know what I meant by "fundamentals". Let me define "fundamentals" real quick:

•  Serving as a basis supporting existence; determining essential structure or function.

Now take a quick moment and think. Basics for your structure or function. I underlined those specifically because fundamentals refers to your basics for your essential style of play. I'm going to use basketball as an example: Dribbling.

Dribbling a basketball is a basic move which requires you to bounce the basketball while you are walking or running. A more refined version of that basic move is the "Crossover Dribble", in which you change the pace of your dribble to confuse or freeze the defender. Beyond that, are different versions of the crossover dribble that requires a different type of execution to perform it correctly (Between the leg, behind the back, etc.).

Going back to Street Fighter, your choice of character and play style is the determining factor that constitutes what type of basics you would want to build on. For instance, let's assume that you want to learn how to play Dhalsim utilizing his orthodox style: You would want to build your basics on zoning/spacing, understand how to pressure from a distance, how to distant yourself from your opponent if they're able to get near and apply pressure, etc. 

There are so many different things that I can go into and talk about all day, but the situation is different for each individual. The goal for this article is to help players become consciously aware of their own strengths and weaknesses in order to know what it takes to build their individual game. Of course, the iPlayWinner team can assist you utilizing our training program via XBOX live. If any of you fellow readers are interested in that: Click Here

Keep your eyes open fellow readers, I have a few other articles I'm working on right now in regards to player development as well as cultural relations! Hope you guys enjoyed this piece I wrote today! 

FUDDRUCKERS REVENGE TOURNAMENT IN CONCORD, CA!

In what is currently known as Northern California's largest monthly tournament draw (the last event had 130 people in attendance), the Fuddruckers Revenge Tournament will feature several well known players from the area such as Magus1234, Haunts, Richard Li (Mr. 1UP), and A-Rival. Of course, I will also be attending the event with LPN, the man who placed 1st out of 73 people! 

This event has received sponsorship from Redbull, so come out to the event and watch some intense competition, have a good time, great food and drinks (w/ free Red Bull), and get hype! 

Tournament Date: April 26th, 2009
Tournament Location: 1975 Diamond Blvd, E-260, Concord, CA 94520

• $5 Dollar entry fee per game
• Street Fighter 4 - PS3/Xbox360
• Tatsunoko Vs Capcom - Wii
• Street Fighter 3: Third Strike - PS2
• Marvel Vs Capcom 2 - DC
• Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix- PS3/XBOX360

Tournament Rules:

• Prizes 70/20/10% of entry fees of the respective tournament
• Each tournament will be double elimination (you must lose 2 *matches* to be eliminated)
• Standard matches will be 2 out of 3 games
• Winners/Losers/Grand Finals 3 out 5 games
• Button mapping is ok, programmable pads are banned
• During a match, winner of a game, keeps character/team, loser may switch characters
• You are responsible for your own controller when your match comes up
• Game freezing glitches are banned
• Game pausing will be dealt with on a per-instance basis. generally, person who pauses loses, but it's up to the proctor/judge

To view original info/thread on the event: Click here

STREET FIGHTER IV NATIONAL TOURNEY: DAIGO MAKES AN APPEARANCE!

If you all already didn't know, Daigo is making an appearance at the the National Tournament in San Francisco next week!

For those of you who don't know, Daigo "The Beast" Umehara is a legendary 2D fighting gamer who's history in the scene dates all the way back to 1994, starting with Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, and has also consistently placed high in some of the largest tournaments in the world such as EVO and SBO.

If you're from around NorCal, you need to make an appearance because the event will be full of festivities. If you're not from NorCal, FIND A WAY to make it to San Francisco because of all the festivities! Supreme Soul (finalist from MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew") will also be performing live on-stage throughout the night! Trust me, any of you guys who make it out here will not regret the trip.

For more details regarding the entire event: Click here

Daigo's appearance is confirmed through Seth Killian's blog

STREET FIGHTER VACATIONS AND SACRAMENTO TOURNAMENT RESULTS!

The term "Street Fighter Vacation" originated from Fuson (SoCal player) which I learned of from Dann (Prophetical). Some of you may have heard this term, some of you haven't. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it means learning how to take mental breaks. 

Now some of you might be pondering... mental breaks from playing video games? But that's just crazy, it's only a video game! In the realm of high level competition, you want to treat your mind as you would your body - very similar to physical fitness. Have any of you ever come across a mental roadblock, suddenly got bored of Street Fighter 4, or you're unable to execute your combo/strategy? You may have had an overindulgence of Street Fighter 4 information, strategy, and/or technical data without allowing your mind to digest it progressively.

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STREET FIGHTER 4: FINAL ROUND XII TOURNAMENT LESSONS - NEVER GIVE UP AND BRING IT BACK TO BASICS!

One mistake can ruin a great opportunity. Watching this match redefined it, and also made me realize two things:

1. Never take your eyes away from your match.

2. If it takes a throw to win, throw em. In other words, bring it back to basics.

In a high caliber tournament where your emotions are running high, the matches get personal, or maybe you're there to differentiate yourself from the rest of the competition... it is always important to maintain composure of yourself in order to make the best decision avaiable under the circumstances. Watch this match from the Southeast Major Tournament in Atlanta featuring:

Kensou (TX) vs Liston (NY) in the battle to reach the Top 16!