NCR - NorCal Regionals

NCR was another hard event. Lots of strong players to fight against.

In teams we did okay. We ended up losing to John Choi's team consisting of himself, Hsien Chang, and Buktooth(Campbell). Then we lost to Air's team. My buddy Javier beat Marn then played Air. It was down-hill from there. Air played well and OCV'ed us. Yang is very strong and we didn't prepare much against him.

Singles started and I had to fight Laugh around my 5th match. I attempted to throw fireballs to help myself get better with them. It wasn't a good idea to test a different style during a tournament match. I ended up jumping too many times and trying to tech a grab when he had 2 meters. I lost 0-2 without putting up a good fight. I saw a sense of relief from Laugh when he beat me. I felt we both knew it should have been a much better fight. He told me that he knew when I was looking for a fireball and when I was going to throw a fireball. With that being said, my fireballs were very weak.

Right after that match, I had to play Crackfiend. I knew he was a strong player, but I did not care. I was really upset how I lost to Laugh. I didn't attempt to footsies or play fundamentally well, and because of that I played that way against Crackfiend. I beat his Dudley convincingly the first set. He then chose Balrog. It was as if he was getting better and better each round. I ended up beating him 2-1 but it came down to the last set. I was able to footsies his sweep and take whatever mistakes I had made against Keno/Laugh and take him down.

After that, I had to play Filipino Champ. Before I had worked on hitting his limbs, but forgot to fireball when he stopped throwing limbs. I hit his limbs, he would stop, then I would fireball. I got him to the corner, but I forgot to DP his limbs to make him stop pressing buttons in the corner. I had forgotten something so crucial and lost 0-2. I was out of the tournament. It was frustrating for me to forget something so important. I had felt I played worse than I had played against him at ReveLAtions. It was as if I was taking two steps back and that didn't feel good at all.

Later, Anthony(Crackfiend) came up to me and said, "Man those matches were amazing. I had a blast. No one has ever pushed me to play as I did. The only players that have done that to me are John Choi, Filipino Champ, Ricky, ect. Those players are fundamentally sound and I feel you are trying to do that as well." I thanked him and told him that I appreciated his compliment. I began to tell him that I'm not trying to be an egoist and that these events aren't all about me. Since my buddies and I travel as a group it is always nice for us to all do well. But watching them do well while I struggle is something I don't want happening. I wanted us to all do well. I also began telling him that fundamentals are what I've been working on this whole time playing the Street Fighter 4 series competitively. Now that AE has come out I feel as if that has no meaning anymore. However, from what Anthony said to me, I feel I am following the right path to becoming better.

Working on fireballs, footsies, and fundamentals with Ryu is very hard. Especially against players who are already fundamentally sound from the many years of playing older fighting games. I just hope I am going on the right path to fight the best. With my progress so far I can only hope to see from here on out. Next up, Evolution 2011! :)

-Miky

P.S. My buddy Javier tied for 9th place at NCR. Good job to him! My other buddy Mike Chow did okay, but I'm not sure what he placed. I did the worse out of all of us. Javier did very well in fighting his matches. He lost to Vangief(Vance) before making top 8.

P.S.S. Shoutouts to Johnson(Ryu), Paul(P.Viper), and Disable(E.Honda). They did well in the team tournaments almost beating team Korean Wolf(Laugh, Infiltration, Wolfkrone). Watching them play was amazing. They are still very strong players. Johnson and Paul are from Fresno as well. It was nice seeing them! :)

P.S.S.S. I didn't get to money match Daigo's Yun, but I got to money match him in Marvel. He used Wolverine, Dante, and Akuma while I used Storm, Sentinel, and Magneto. I thought about putting Magneto up on point but I figured if I lose him I would have much more trouble. I ended up beating him 3-2. Magneto as my anchor in level 3 ex factor carried me against his team. Since he used level 1 ex-factor to instant kill my first character and do a mix up on the second, I knew that if I can block the mix-up with Magneto and block safely I can win.