What is it that makes for enjoyable commentary?

When I began casting the earliest of iPlayWinner streams back in early 2009, we were among the very first to implement full play-by-play commentary on a fighting game stream. It was revolutionary for its time and along with casting, it quickly became a mandatory facet of all legitimate fighting game tournaments moving forward.

Despite this leap in awareness, the earliest of commentary for the most part wasn't necessarily for an audience, but for our own amusement. We were taking the playful banter from the event and piping it into a hot mic. We were using it as a new avenue to give our friends a hard time for making their way to the chat room but not the venue itself. We were a bunch of grown-ass kids who found a new toy to play with and it just so happened we were okay with sharing it.

It's nearly 2012 now and can we honestly say that much of anything has changed? The faces and the games they comment upon, sure, but are we as a community (iPlayWinner included, mind you) producing anything significantly greater than our earliest of experiments? 

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Frame Trap Pilot #1: Cool Pilot, Bro

As the clock struck 7PM PDT on August 30, the pilot episode of Frame Trap hit the airwaves and with it, IPLAYWINNER is officially off to the races with its first weekly program. On behalf of Haunts, Chris Ceglia and the staff of Southtown Arcade, we want to thank each and every one of you who tuned in. You will all be absolutely vital to the development of the show and we appreciate any and all feedback, both positive and negative.

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Fight for Relief: A Post-Mortem

How much time and commitment do you think goes into planning a major fighting game tournament? A few weeks? Months, even? What if you only had 13 days from point in which you dreamt up your tournament idea to the day it needed to be executed? What if it wasn't just one tournament, but two, spread across California complete with an online broadcast for both? Oh, and you expect the players to play for charity as opposed to a pot full of entry fees.

Fight for Relief did all these things and managed to generate over $32,000 (and counting) to benefit recovery efforts in Japan due to recent earthquakes and tsunami. As the head organizer and online admin for the official site, I organized the event with AJ Papa of Level | Up Series and Mark "MarkMan" Julio of Mad Catz over the course of 13 days, a lot of Skype calls and sleepless nights.

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FIGHT FOR RELIEF - A Charity Tournament for Japan

This Sunday, April 3, iPLAYWINNER is teaming up for the first time ever with Level | Up Series to bring you an online broadcast to benefit relief efforts in Japan due to their recent natural disasters. It's the Fight for Relief and you can find out all the details on how to compete and get involved by checking out the official website.

If you live in Northern California, Union City is your destination as The Etrium hosts iPLAYWINNER, and in Southern California it's UC Irvine with the crew from Level | Up Series. Both tournaments will feature Super Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs Capcom 3 with all the proceeds going to a joint GlobalGiving fundraiser for their Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. While no cash prizes will be awarded, we had a fantastic group of sponsors including HORI, Mad Catz, Astro Gaming and Broken Tier to provide prizes for our top three entrants.

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3rd Strike Online Feedback Series: Mr Jared

At ComicCon 2010, Capcom announced Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition with no specific details. What was mentioned, however, is that should the fans have any suggestions on what should be included in this rerelease, they should inform Capcom. To aid this process, iPlayWinner will be publishing articles from notable members of the community on what they would like to see from this new edition of 3rd Strike. Please share your thoughts in the comments section, both in direct response to our ideas and to include your own as well. And be sure to return to iPlayWinner each week and let us know how your opinions have shifted, if at all, during the course of this series!

I liked 3rd Strike before it was cool.

No, really. There was a point where no one actually played this game. And not in the, "Only 12 people showed up to a 64 man tourney thus no one plays it" way that we joke about now. When Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike originally debuted, people took one look at Chun-li, called it broken and moved on. As someone who loved the mid-tier game within 3rd Strike, however, it was a revelation.

Suddenly, Necro and Elena weren't completely awful and new faces like Q and Hugo got me excited about the SF3 series all over again. Of course, this same love is why I never actually came close to winning any tournaments (Yes, that's the excuse we're going with), but for years it was a regular part of my arcade rotation at Sunnyvale and Milpitas' Golfland and beyond.

Unfortunately, the unbelievable success of Street Fighter IV has come at a cost and our dear friend 3rd Strike is one of its many victims. While I love SFIV, I also miss seeing good ol' fashioned 2D sprites at my local sessions. With the announcement of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition, not only does Capcom get to continue its public adoration for superfluous naming conventions, but we, the fans, may get a chance to rewrite history. Yes, I am in favor of blasphemy: I want to alter Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.

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Super NorCal Regionals Intro Videos

When I talked to people online about the previous NorCal Regionals, more often then not they mention the NBA-style intro video to the stream. It was cheesy for sure, but it brought the hype like none other. So for Super NorCal Regionals I decided to step it up a bit and aimed for video intros to every game represented at the tournament. My friend (and NorCal boxer) ILLiterate helped out a lot with the the brainstorming and script writing process, but to tell you the truth the collaboration went a lot like this-

ILLiterate: I have a dumb a idea!

Me: And I know how to make that idea even dumber!

When you're editing video all your lonesome until 4AM every night with little to no oversight, you tend to surrender yourself to your creative processes regardless of where they seem to take you. That's about as best as I can explain the utter insanity we at iPlayWinner subjected the audience to with these intros. Overall they went over pretty well and John Choi didn't punch me in the face for all the Sandstorm, so I'll put this one down as a win.

So here they are, all the intro videos as seen at Super NorCal Regionals, minus one: Capcom vs SNK 2, of which I'd like Switcher to upload that one himself. 

Super NorCal Regionals

LordofUltima, creator of the awesome 3-minute fundamental videos did all the heavy lifting on this beauty as he provided us with an HD take on the original NBA-style intro. He deserves all the credit for this one.

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Special Video Tribute to Street Fighter IV

On April 27 we say goodbye to a dear friend. Yes, the release of Super Street Fighter IV is most definitely something to celebrate, but we can't ever forget just how much the original Street Fighter IV boosted the fighting game community. From its debut in the arcades to the incredibly successful console release, Street Fighter IV blew the doors off what was once a considerably tough community to crack and I for one am glad for that.

For as much as I'm praising SF4, it's by no means a perfect game. In fact, at times its a downright silly display of dumb luck and head-scratching nonsense. Super Street Fighter IV fixes a lot of these instances but no doubt, in time we'll discover new quirks in which to ragequit over. But for now, let's take a look back and pay respect to the game that brought us all together. Also, don't forget to stay tuned after the credits!

Good night, sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

IPW Speaks: Our Marvel vs Capcom 3 Picks

Capcom's previous entry in their Marvel series, Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, was released ten years ago in early 2000 and the comic giant was in a much different place than it is today. The first X-Men film hadn't hit theaters and Spider-Man was years away from smashing box office records, kick starting the superhero craze. There was no Civil War to pit hero against hero, Brand New Day was still eight years off from upsetting nerds everywhere and Scarlet Witch had yet to utter those famous words, "No more mutants." Business wise, the idea of Disney buying Marvel was an insane proposition, but here we are.

Everyone at iPlayWinner is very excited to see what's in store for us in the recently announced Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and of course we have our own selections for which heroes should make the cut. Check out what we have to say and feel free to chime in with your own in the comments.

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THIS MUNNY HAS NO LACK OF DIGNITY

The fighting game community is filled with outstanding artists, so it takes something very special to stand out in this already competitive pool of talent. Miss Shelby definitely has that creative spark and not just because her ability to mold a gentleman's moustache out of Sculpey is without equal. Taking a Kid Robot Munny, the Bay Area artist crafted an adorable take on everyone's new favorite pugilist from Super Street Fighter IV, Dudley.

This isn't the first time she's put the clay to vinyl in the name of Street Fighter as she's also created an amazing, furry take on the Red Cyclone himself, Zangief. I should know because it's currently sitting above my arcade machine!

Miss Shelby has plans to auction off her Dudley Munny at a later date, possibly even at the Super NorCal Regionals next month. 

Mad Catz Tournament Edition Fight Stick Round 2 Review

 

Before Mad Catz unleashed their line of Tournament Edition Fight Sticks in February 2009, no one ever thought that a consumer arcade stick could cause mass retail hysteria. Discussions on how to properly modify the equipment and artwork of your stick were regulated to only the most hardcore of fighting enthusiast message boards and most US gamers probably thought “Sanwa” was a specialty brand of Top Ramen. The Tournament Edition Fight Stick changed the face of the game completely and whether its the local tournament crowd of anywhere, USA, or beasts from another land such as Daigo Umehara, chances are good that if you’re playing a fighting game on a modern system, you’re doing so on a Mad Catz.

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NorCal Regionals 2009 Live Stream Postmortem

Photo courtesy of Kineda.com"One of the best streams I've ever seen."
- PeterTheBohemian

"[…] The new benchmark in professional tournament streams."
- LuLu SmacKs

“Absolutely godlike.”
- Hoonyo

“Stream is a fucking joke.”
- Splash

After months of planning and a few grey hairs or two later, the iPlayWinner broadcast of the 2009 NorCal Regionals had come and gone in a 72 hour blur of sleepless nights, crazy hype and too much fast food. By the end of the weekend, a little over 20,000 unique visitors watched the likes of John Choi, Ricky Ortiz and Alex Valle do battle with some of the best in the business at the biggest games in our scene, totaling up to 843 days worth of viewing hours. Not too shabby for a couple of kids with some USB cameras.

What was accomplished by the stream team at NCR was two-parts careful planning, one-part creative thinking and just a smidge of dumb luck. The setbacks we encountered were considered trivial compared to the end result and while some can easily be rectified the next time around, some were – much like the internet itself – due to the inherent chaos of doing a live broadcast.

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