I was considering making a seperate blog for this kind of thing, I even came up with a really clever name for it... but oh well, this'll just be easier for everyone (read: me).
On Friday the 20th of August I traveled up to Auckland to compete in this
I had entered Super Street Fighter IV, and Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike. I wasn't very confident at all in IV as I don't play it even though it's the big shiny new game on the block. However I play 3rd Strike alllllllllll the time, and have done for years. I wouldn't say I was "confident", because I'd heard some amazing things about a couple of guys in Auckland, but I would've been very disapointed if I didn't at least do OK. The last tournament I entered, I traveled down to Christchurch for on the 12th of June. I placed 1st in that, fairly easily, however there were no "dedicated" 3rd Strike players (shoutouts to ChCh though for a great time and some good, fun games). So as the South Island 3rd Strike Champion, I was riding that high a little bit!
Anyhow. I left Wellington Friday afternoon with almost next to no money ($20), and 2 Taxi-Chits. After a fairly non-eventful flight (I did play the Air NZ quiz though!), I got to Auckland at about 5pm and hopped in a cab. It was pissing down, and the road was fairly busy being a Friday night and all. I got dropped off in town, to the wrong Hotel, first of all. This was my fault, but at this stage I should've realised things would get worse. I made my way down to my Hotel, only to find out I needed to put down a $50 security deposit, or $100 in cash. And couldn't. Oh my fucking god... After 30 minutes of trying to call my parents, and tweeting for help in desperation, I gave up and made my way to Giga Internet Cafe where a bunch of the guys were meeting up for some pre-tournament games, and Ben (muice/moose) from Wellington who had also traveled up, were. I couldn't bring myself to play because I was hella stressed, and he didn't have a credit card to help me out with. Finally Phoebe (@phoeberuby) offered to help me out and I went and met her and Dylan (the 2nd most famous Dylan Moran, @dylanmoran) back at my Hotel. After we sorted that out, THANK FUCK, a huge load of stress was off my shoulders.
I wandered back up to Giga, settled down and got a few games in. I played pretty shit, and was honestly a little worried about how badly I was playing, and how shit my stick was, but I was determined to have a good time. After most everyone left Giga, a few of us went out and got Wendys at about 12am. Oh my godddddd... Wendys is top fucking tier, seriously. We had a pretty big discussion about the state of the NZ FGC (Fighting Game Community) and how to make it bigger, then all headed off our seperate ways. After all the stress, a hot shower and a good sleep was something I was really looking forward too.
Outside GIGA looking back towards the city, on the Friday night. (Skytower omg)
Saturday morning I got up really early, was relieved to see money in back account so I went down Queen St and got Wendys for breakfast... haha. Couldn't help myself. (2 meals in a row there, so far) Eventually I headed back to Giga to check in and register for the days tournaments. I was feeling a little nervous, and finding out 3rd Strike wasn't until later on definitely didn't help my nerves but meeting a bunch of people and talking was really calming. Not too much later I played my first game for Super SF4, and I got smashed. Hah. Oh well, off to the Losers bracket I go. My second game came quickly afterwards, and it was pretty much the same story. I wasn't that surprised, I did get put up against good players, but it was also refreshing to know I couldn't scrape past good players when I don't even play the game and am relying on fundamentals from another game.
3rd Strike finally started to get going, but I didn't play for a LONG time. I hadn't even played casuals all morning so I was really nervous, especially after how I'd done on Friday night. My first game finally got called, and for the first time in months I tried to use my custom built stick. Terrible terrible terrible idea. The guy I was playing is a decent SF4 player, and I'm sure good at other games, but he really isn't anything special at 3rd Strike. However I played like an idiot, ate a lot of dumb shit and struggled with my execution. I really didn't expect to lose my first game, and I did. Off the bat into the Losers Bracket, I couldn't have been any more gutted. There'll be plenty of angry tweets that back up how I felt haha. Eventually Ben played his first game, and the same thing happened to him. I felt a little better about this, not because I wanted Ben to do badly, but because I knew that we were both feeling it and if that was the case we could both get over it.
After a very nervous wait for my next game, that finally got called. I don't really remember who I played this round, I think possibly IronSOL, an Alex player. I won 2-0 and despite feeling like I played pretty shit, it was an amazing feeling to have won and definitely a momentum shifter for me. My 3rd game, pretty much the same story. I don't think this guy played 3rd Strike at all, another 2-0 win, and I was feeling a lot better about my chances. My 4th game was against Mason(his handle is some terrible play on Messiah with numbers instead of letters etc), who is definitely not a 3rd Strike player but has pretty good execution. I beat his Akuma, and then he changed to Chun-Li who is one of the 2 best characters in the game. She's always dangerous, and hard for almost every character to fight against. I won that game as well, despite playing like an idiot, so another 2-0 win.
After that game, the tournament had definitely started to thin out, and the players remaining were genuine 3rd Strike players so the competition definitely got harder. Ben was having much the same results as me, and that was great to see. Patrick, another Wellington player who had come up, was also doing quite well, narrowly losing to Kevin (Devilstar), one of the reputed best players in Auckland. He was still in the Losers bracket though, so Wellington was still in it!
My 5th game was against Auckland Ben (toomeke) who I'd played online once, and a few times on Friday night. He's recently gotten into 3s and we'd talked about it a lot on the NZism chat room. He destroyed me both when he played online, and most of the games on Friday night, so I was a little worried to be up against him, but the way I look at tournament brackets is regardless of where you meet the good players, you have to beat them to place. I didn't play fantastic, but played well enough to scrape him 2 games to nothing. After playing him a bit, generally being quite use to playing against a Dudley (the character he uses), and certain aspects of the matchup between Dudley and Urien being in Uriens favour, I think I'd got a read on him. Shoutouts to Auckland Ben though, he's a bonafide beast and I hope I get to play him more soon.
After that win, I was told that if I won my next game I'd be in the Top 4 and playing on Sunday. I wish I hadn't been told that, it made me fucking nervous. Ben played Patrick, a little Welly showdown, and managed to beat him in the strangest most scrubby, fucked up end to a match I've ever seen, but props to Ben. Patrick has been to the guy to beat forever in 3rd Strike in Wellington and Ben finally did it in a tournament. After that though, to make the other Top 4 spot in the Losers bracket, Ben had to play Simon (Simonfish), the other reputed great Auckland Player. He lost, hah, but it was nothing to be ashamed of. I was a bit gutted to see Ben get knocked out of the tournament, but happy he did so well, and to lose to the guy that eventually won it is nothing to scoff at.
My next match, and last for the day, finally came up. I was playing Simon (CrazyMobius), who I didn't really know about but had watched him play earlier in the day and was pretty impressed. He played Hugo, who just mindfucks me. Seriously fuck that character haha. Anyhow, I played very conservative and respectful, and beat his Hugo. He changed to Alex, which I have to admit in hindsight wasn't smart, because I'm not afraid of Alex, but of course he didn't know that then, and wanted to try his luck and see what happened (I made this same mistake later, as you will ALLLLLL see:|) I beat his Alex as well, winning my 4th straight match 2-0 and qualifying for Top 4 on Sunday! (albeit in the losers bracket)
Images from the tournament on Sunday featuring Ben (Rangers cap), Patrick (goatee), Simon (glasses), and me a little bit!
After that, Saturday was mostly a wind day, with more Wendys (3 straight meals), a trip to Yifans arcade to check it out, and wow. It's like a REAL arcade.
This entire row, ALL fighting games. AMAZE.
Then I had an early night watching the League in bed, I wanted some rest because even though the other people in Top 4 were beasts, and I would have no chance against, I didn't want to believe that would be the case.
Sunday morning, I woke up late, hah. Had a cold shower, and checked out of my Hotel. Even though I woke up late, I still got to the tournament well before it started, and 3rd Strike wasn't even the first game. I was really nervous all morning because the top 4 was going to be on a projector for everyone to see. One of the other guys in top 4, Frankie, who had played with Kevin and Simon for years, offered to shout me lunch, so we headed out for a feed before the tournament started back up. It was awesome getting to know him a little bit, and he's definitely a major beast at 3rd Strike. After countless cigarettes and trying to get advice from everyone I could, my game finally came up.
And as you can see, I got beasted:| It was a little bit embarassing, but nobody expected me to touch Simon, and to be honest, I didn't really. Looking back at that, I see a lot of things I could've done better, so next time I hope to improve. He's an all around better player than me, and Kevin also plays Urien, so he has no inexperience in that matchup what-so-ever, which really doesn't help.
And as you can see, I got beasted:| It was a little bit embarassing, but nobody expected me to touch Simon, and to be honest, I didn't really. Looking back at that, I see a lot of things I could've done better, so next time I hope to improve. He's an all around better player than me, and Kevin also plays Urien, so he has no inexperience in that matchup what-so-ever, which really doesn't help.
After the rest of the 3rd Strike Finals played through, which were pretty exciting, the results looked like this:
- Simon (Simonfish)
- Frankie
- Kevin (Devilstar
- Me (chuckk)
- Ben (muice/moose) and Simon (Crazymobius)
- -
- Ben (toomeke) and Patrick (paddy23456)
Overall, I'm pretty fucking happy with that. I would love to have stayed in Winners bracket the whole time, but after losing my first game and being on the verge of elimination the rest of the way, I couldn't have done much better. Even though 3rd Strike is dying here (and most everywhere else outside of Japan), I definitely intend to go up next year, and hopefully a couple times in between to get some games in with the guys from Auckland.
After staying for a few more hours once everything had wrapped up at Giga, I caught a cab out to the Airport, only to realise I didn't have enough cash for the bus ride home from the Airport in Wellington. Fuck I suck at travelling. Anyhow, by some miracle, the ATM gave me money I didn't have (shot National Bank and Credit Cards, stay free), I got the cash together, and hopped on the plane. Another uneventful bar the in-flight quiz flight, I arrived in Wellington. I walked out of the Airport... only to find out, the last bus left 30 minutes ago. Oh. Fuck.
I contemplated walking home hah, and instead opted to ask a Shuttle driver how much a shuttle was. $18. I had $10. Fuckkkk. I asked if they would take me as far as $10 would get me, and instead they dropped me off right in town! I survived Auckland, on the worst budget and planning ever (however I'm NEVER late to the Airport or to get on a plane, I'm 100% pro at doing that much), but I got through it all, and the retarded fuck ups made the trip more enjoyable... in the end, not so much during.
I'm sorry if this bored the shit out of you, but this is the biggest thing I've done all year, actually probably in a few years.
I'll leave you with a couple more 3rd Strike videos, one of me doing a hugeeee combo on Ben, the other between Ben and Tyler (another really good Wellington player) which just shows how much fun this game is, especially the social aspect.
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