Archive of Godsgarden 12, all about Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2

The long-running Japanese tournament series Godsgarden continues on with Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 being the focus in this latest iteration.

The twelfth edition of Godsgarden took place on Oct. 8, 2017, at Tokyo, Japan's Ikebukuro Storia. The stream archive, found after the jump, features part of the initial preliminary matches and all of top eight. Much like past editions of Godsgarden, this tournament is running on consoles setups instead of arcade cabinets.

Featuring the best players from Japan, including Samitto, FAB, Nage and more, the six-hour archive of Godsgarden 12 is something to watch if you play Guilty Gear!

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Godsgarden Tries Out The Micomsoft XAC-1 Arcade Cabinet-Style Gaming Desk

Godsgarden received a special desk that's reminiscent of sitdown Japanese arcade cabinets.

The XAC-1 is created by Micomsoft, known for their XRGB series of video gaming upscalers. This DIY-assemble kit results in a cabinet similar to HD arcade cabinets found in Japan such as the Taito Vewlix, Namco Noir and the Sega Lindbergh. The XAC-1 can be used as a normal computer desk to an arcade-style cabinet.

You can check out Godsgarden's installation process on 4Gamer here and a video after the jump!

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UMVC3: KVO x GODSGARDEN x A-Cho Archive Footage

Godsgarden Europe has uploaded all the footage from KGA2013: KVO x GODSGARDEN x A-Cho event.

With names like Nemo, Kusoru, Abegen and Frieda Neo Amusement Space A-Cho in Kyoto, Japan, it's impossible to miss if you're interested in what Japan has in store for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3!

You can find one of my favorite matches after the jump but here is the link to the full playlist!

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Aquapazza Announced As Choice Game For GODSGARDEN 8

The eighth edition of the special Japanese GODSGARDEN tournament series have been announced with the game of choice for this iteration!

Following the past iterations of GODSGARDEN, the tournament series are continuing to provide events for various anime-centric fighters including the Blazblue and Melty Blood series. This edition, GODSGARDEN chose Aquapazza: Aqua Plus Dream Match this time around. The tournament is dated for May 3, 2013 at Osaka, Japan's CCO-cha Nipponbashi café.

Confirmed competitors including popular Guity Gear player Ogawa and Persona 4 Arena player GO1. Players can soon vote for others to be part of the event. Along with the main double-elimination tournament, there will be a special 5v5 team battle with Ogawa, ?, OZ, Daigohei, and Super Riannon up against Kouji, Doremifadeguchi, GO1, Itorin, and Maku.

BB: Summit of Blazblue Series Concludes With GODSGARDEN 7 And Shinjuku Sports Land Team Tournament

Before the upcoming release of the upcoming Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma, Japan's tournament series Summit of Blazblue done qualfiers for spots in two major events for the current version of the game Continuum Shift Extend (latest arcade version of Continuum Shift II).

The first event, GODSGARDEN 7, is a bit different from that of previous iterations where the participatng players had to qualify. GODSGARDEN 7 will broadcast on October 27 and can be seen on Twitch TV. The Shinjuku Sports Land 3v3 Team Tournament will be a much more traditional style than GODSGARDEN including being on arcade setups and team-based character locks and no duplications. The event will happen after GODSGARDEN 7 on October 28.

You can find the full player list after the jump!

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SF X TK: Capcom X GODSGARDEN 32-Man Tournament Announced

Godsgarden is collaborating with Capcom Japan for an upcoming spring tournament for Street Fighter X Tekken.

Dated on March 30, the "Capcom X GODSGARDEN SFxTK Spring Start Dash Festival" will be held at Clark Studio in Tokyo's Akihabara district. The event has a 32-man limit but anybody interested in participating can apply for the bracket by going here. So far the only confirmed players are Nuki, Kokujin, Nekojita and Kazunoko.

The tournament will be streamed on Godsgarden's Ustream channel. All participating players will recieve SFXT related swag while the top three players can get a parka, a smartphone case or even a Sony PlayStation Vita.

GODSGARDEN ONLINE 2: DAIGO VS ACQUA - LATEST RESULTS

Day 2 qualifiers of GodsGarden Online 2 wrapped up last night and things are starting to shape up for the final six players. The top six qualifying players will go onto Round 2 and will end up playing longer sets between each other. That said, the first five have already been decided and the last spot is still up for grabs! Check out the current standings and an intense match between Daigo and Acqua after the break!

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GODSGARDEN ONLINE: DAIGO VS MOMOCHI

This is one match many of us have been looking forward to ever since the GODSGARDEN Online Tournament was announced -- Daigo Umehara vs Momochi. Daigo of course used Ryu, but Momochi opted to use Ibuki for this tournament instead of Akuma. 

Overall, Momochi struggled through out the majority of the matches versus Daigo, unable to mount much of a significant offense -- Momochi's Ibuki simply didn't appear to be ready for this type of tournament. From my end, it looked like Momochi was hoping Ibuki's vortex set ups would be enough to put the hurt on Daigo, but at the end of the day he only managed to get in position to set up the vortex here and there.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW IPLAYWINNER'S EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH DAIGO UMEHARA

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IPLAYWINNER EXCLUSIVE: GODSGARDEN INTERVIEW WITH DAIGO UMEHARA - THE AIM OF "THE BEAST"

In this exclusive interview with Daigo "The Beast" Umehara, he talks with the GODSGARDEN crew as to why he put this tournament together. He gives his thoughts on how this tournament will help determine player tiers, and not character tiers. 

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GODSGARDEN Online Tournament Round 1 - Sako vs Tokido - Team Sp00ky Commentary

The first round of the GODSGARDEN Online Tournament concluded earlier today and Team Sp00ky uploaded the set with english commentary by Chris Hu!

This first-to-ten set really shows the break down of player strategies and how much you have to adapt in a first-to-ten situation. Beautiful play by both Tokido and Sako. 

There are three more sets lined up, and Shadowloo posted the current schedule:

Mochi [Dhalsim] vs Mago [Fei] – 6/26 22:00
Momochi [Ibuki] vs Daigo [Ryu] – 6/28 22:00
Makoto [Claw] vs Uryo [C.Viper] – 7/1 22:00
*All times are Japanese times.

This is roughly around 5AM PST / 8AM EST  for North American viewers.

GRINDIN' JAPAN: SHIOZAWA CUP & SUPER BATTLE OPERA

[ Image courtesy of Tougeki ]

Yo! Finally back in San Francisco now after a three week grind in Japan. I wish I could have updated iPlayWinner more while I was out there but to be honest it's very difficult to sit in front of a computer when all of Japan is right in front of you!

Regardless, I have a lot of updates and news from the trip which I'll cover in this post, and keep an eye out for some new podcasts with some special guests talking about their experiences in Tokyo as well.

POST-GODS GARDEN

After GodsGarden, there weren't any big events to my knowledge until the following Thursday, which was a 5 on 5 Team Tourney for Street Fighter 4 held at BIG BOX Arcade. I'll cover that in a bit, but after Gods Garden and before the team tourney we spent a fair amount of time in arcades playing.

To be honest, I didn't even play as much as I thought I would. There are so many things to see and do in Japan, I felt a bit guilty some days just sitting in front of an arcade cab playing video games. On the other hand, when I was out and about causing trouble in Tokyo, I also felt a bit guilty for not playing more and trying to level up.

Anyway, this week of playing was a bit different for me and somewhat odd to say the least. The reason it was odd is I was actually playing much better when I first showed up in Japan. Initially I couldn't put my finger on why I wasn't playing as well during week two, but after talking to Magus and Lang a bit, I found I wasn't the only one having this issue. Most of us felt like we were capable of playing much better and really didn't understand where the barrrier was coming from.

After giving it some thought, I think it comes down to being over-exposed to the game and seeing so many new tactics from high level players that you want to implement. I think many are under the assumption that you will just show up to Japan and get automatically better. There is some truth to that, but at the end of the day it takes a while to soak in what you are learning and takes even longer to apply it.

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GRINDIN' JAPAN: BIG BOX ARCADE & GODS GARDEN

So I somehow survived the first week here in Japan and still have another week and a half to go. So far the trip has been insanely fun, playing at a number of different arcades trying to boost my BP on my battle card (12k BP with ~55% win percentage). With that being said, it's a bit difficult to update the blog on a daily basis since there is so much going on!

Anywho, as I mentioned in the last post, BIG BOX arcade is the spot for Street Fighter 4 competition so we have been hitting it up on a daily basis, playing some of the best players in the country such as Daigo, Ojisanboy, Bonchan, AC Revenger, Shiro, Nemo, Nuki, Kanbara and Booya. These are just the big names too -- there are just as many solid unnamed players all trying to get their SF4 fix each day as well.

The arcade located on the 6th or so floor of this shopping complex called BIG BOX that has a mix of different shops and attractions on each floor. This is hands down the nicest and largest arcade I've ever seen with virtually every fighting game known to man available to play. It's not just fighting games either -- they have the Gundam games, some crazy Square-Enix RPG game, music games.. the list goes on and on.

The set up for Street Fighter 4 is really nice: a row of 6 head to head cabs, divided up into the "big boys section" and the, well, "scrubs section". The scrub section still has really solid players but I was able to rack up 5-8 win streaks fairly easily. The "big boys section" is a different story though-- I could get a handful of wins here and there but no serious streaks. This is no surprise considering many of the players are ranked top 50 in the country.

My most memorable match at BIG BOX so far was against Daigo, considering I got him to the last round in a 3/5 match. It seemed close to me but truth be told I think he was in control of the match the whole time and could just go into beast mode when he needed a win. This is how it feels against many of the top players here, where even if you are doing well, they can seemingly clutch out a win anytime they need to.

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GODS GARDEN GRAND FINALS

Wow! What an amazing night at Gods Garden! Even though the trains stop running at midnight, it was well worth sticking it out the entire night to see all the high level play.

I will have a full write up on the event soon, but in the meantime check out the the Grand Finals between Mago and Uryo!