Thanks Giving Present!

Happy Thanks Giving to all! I had a great holiday with the family! We had great foods and stories to share with each other. I hope you guys enjoyed your holidays so far.

On this note, I have a special treat for you guys!

Canada Cup: eLive.Pro|Kazunoko

I was watching Kazunoko play from the side while studying him. He played so calculated. On top of that, he did not give respect to his opponent. He knew when to mash on his three frame jab and up-kick his way out of pressure. With that in mind, I tried to use that to my advantage when I played him during casuals.

Canada Cup: MCZ.Tokido

As I saw my pools early in the morning I recognized two names. They were Tokido and Starnab. I was confident in seeing their names since I felt comfortable in those match-ups.

Let me set the scenario. I met up with Air before AE singles started. He asked me who was in my pool. I told him that Tokido and Starnab were in my pool. However, Air had told me that Starnab did not attend and that they replaced Starnab with another European Sagat player (who I beat to face off against Tokido in my pool finals).

Canada Cup Results and Personal Experiences

Canada Cup was just this weekend and I was able to perform in 3rd Strike, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition. I played 5th in MvC3 and tied for 16th overall in AE. It'll be up to you guys to decide who you'd like me to post about. Here are your options:

Canada Cup Nov. 3rd - 7th

This will be a very big event. Many strong players, but we will do our best! Javier and I will be there on Thursday til Monday evening. Wish us luck and follow us!

http://www.twitch.tv/canadacup

がんばります！

-Miky

Pre-Canada Cup Training with John Choi

Dromstruction was over and John Choi was no where to be seen at the event. I really wanted to play him to prepare for Canada Cup. Luckily Terry contacted him telling John that we (Javier and I) wanted to practice and train against him.

Last Saturday, Javier and I were off to John's place. Upon arrival, we met with Rom (Yang) who was there also to train with us. I trained against John while Javier trained against Rom.

Usually, in casuals and training sessions, I don't challenge a person's weakness. There is a time and place for that I believe, and that is a tournament setting. As for casuals and training, a person should seek their opponents strengths and challenge it. If this person has very good blocking try to break through his exceptionally good blocking. If your opponent has the ability to tech very well challenge his teching abilities (and so forth). The idea is that you will, in time, absorb your opponent's strength(s). At the very least, you will be able to observe your opponent's strength(s) and apply it to your game-play in whatever possible way you can. I know it doesn't make complete sense but if you notice something that another player does exceptionally well (be it block strings, ect.) try to apply it to your character/game-play. That person could be using C.Viper while you use Ken, but the idea is to be open-minded and use what you see from other characters and attempt to apply it to yours. If it doesn't work out then that is okay as well. At least you attempted to explore different options and different mind-sets with your character.

For example, I did not go into the session against John doing crazy gimmicks or setups. I challenged, what I believe is the best in the game, John Choi's low forward. Air has told me the exact same thing when he played against John Choi. Air explained that John Choi's usage of low forward is one of the best if not the best in the game. I believed him since I had played him many times in the past.

Several months ago, I would challenge John's low forward and struggled very much. I forced myself to throw fireballs to keep up with John. At the time, my fireballs were terrible and I got destroyed. However, recently I challenged his low forward and I was able to make a stand for myself. I challenged every pixel of both health and spacing with low forward. If I failed to make a stand against his I would get back up and try again until I got the spacing correct. Within time I felt my footsies improve physically and mentally. It has also given me much confidence in my character to walk up and stick out low forward appropriately.

I ended up splitting 50:50 with John (who used Sagat, Guile, Ken, Guy, Ryu, and Juri on me). He also mentioned that the last time he played was this year's Evo. For him to challenge me, who had been practicing just about everyday, in fundamentals and footsies tells you that it is so natural for him to have that mental spacing and intuition of shoto characters. Giving the benefit of the doubt, he had several execution errors and hiccups in his game-play. That, however, did not stop me from challenging his strengths. :)

-Miky

Dromstruction Results: AE, MvC3 (Singles/Teams), and 3rd Strike!

AE Singles: Top 8 (tied for 5th)
AE Teams: 2nd (Cynistar, XsK_Samurai, Ghostmaker)
MvC3 Singles: Top 12
MvC3 Teams: 4th (Ty, Elraldo Coil, XsK_Samurai)
3rd Strike Singles: 2nd

Overall, I enjoyed the event. It was a great testing ground. It was great seeing everyone again (especially Team MINE).

However, the achievements in the aforementioned are not even worth mentioning. Not to take away from the players and the tournament itself (as well as this event being a testing ground for Canada Cup), I assumed I would take it upon myself to do my best and didn't. I felt I lacked a lot of elements in my game-play. Be it patience, execution errors, bad decisions, and just overall poor judgement and decision making there wasn't a time I felt complete control over these abilities in my game-play. And that is something I need to refocus on when it comes to Canada Cup. Wish us luck! :)

-Miky

P.S. As for the posts I have been holding back for quite some time. I have felt the need to keep these posts confidential for myself and for my close friend with whom I had the discussion with. It is a post about preference and the goals that differentiates everyone from one another. I feel that it is not some sort of conversation between two friends and their ideas or perspectives, but of a life lesson (mainly about ambition). Maybe someday I will decide to release it. :)