The Redbull Girls are back with Dentron, myself, and Dann.
Round 2 of the Gamestop national Street Fighter IV tournament happened today, and I’m happy to report, that John Rog once again takes 1st place!!! Today’s draw was incredibly difficult for me as I had SRK’s Dentron in the first round and Ken I, aka Sextaro in the semi-finals before beating out Dann once again for the top spot.
I now have a bid to go to San Jose in two weeks for a Mad Catz Tournament Stick which is fine, but the real prize: A free entry into the quarter finals at EVO. I would skip the pools to be random’d out and an automatic spot in top 64. Today was the midterm with two very hard questions in Dentron and Ken I; however, San Jose is the final exam, and with names like Keno, Mike Ross, Bobino, and the legendary Alex Valle, my chances are fairly slim. That doesn’t mean I won’t go in there fighting. It’s go time!!
Got an AI tournament tomorrow so hopefully, I can get into top 8 and finally make my way into the Winner’s Club!
Private screening plus 49 other Street Fighter players equals the best night ever!
Oh yes. OH YES! This movie!!! Let’s just get something straight: Yes, this movie is terrible; however, if you get a private screening of this movie with 49 other Street Fighter tournament players, it is absolutely the best film ever made. Let’s go!
Mike Ross, Keno, VictheSlik, and I started off our night at Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles. If you’ve never been to a Roscoes, make it your top priority. This place is like 75 miles from me and I’ll make trips out there every few months. It’s that good. Surprise: Keno says this was his first time at Roscoes ever. I find it hard to believe, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
When time came, we made our way to Fox Studios to the William Fox Theatre, where we were welcomed by our fellow Street Fighter brethren. It was a really kick ass theater room (Pictures below).
I don’t want to give anything away so I won’t say much about the film, but this movie was amazing. There were golden moments in every scene. If you like Street Fighter in any capacity, go and watch this movie.
So after the movie, we went back to Roscoe’s for round 2, except there were 25 of us. It was a really good time as we ate chicken and waffles while discussing the most impacting movie I’ve seen in a long time. And for some gawd awful reason, Luscious Luka, Bebop, Sanchez, and KillerKai decided to take syrup shots. Pictures Below.
John Rog wins in the first round of the open tournament. On to round 2!
Casuals and tournaments: It’s a gamer lifestyle. Had casuals at my place on Friday night to prepare for the Gamestop tournament on Saturday. Good number of people came out to play: Keno, Kai, Bobino, Ironfist, Moval, ShglBMX, Bryant the Tyrant, and my boy Lewis. We played a lot of games and some were even practicing on pads. I got a decent look at all the console characters since Bobino had been practicing them religiously. I’ve got a lot to learn with those matchups. I’ve been working on my Ryu a lot and I feel like he’s getting better. At the very least, I have some bread and butter combos I can turn to when I land some pokes. Eventually, we got tired of playing regular games and moved on to Rose Tennis. Check this: Both players pick Rose. Stand on opposite ends of the screen and one player shoots a fireball. The fireball is reflected back and forth while walking closer until someone loses health and the situation is reset. Amazing. Try it with your friends!
This morning I went to the Gamestop tournament which had a healthy turnout of 20 people, including Dann (prophetical) who apparently didn’t get the message that tournament regulars for SF4 were splitting up amongst various Gamestops so that we could all get 1st. Oh well, he got 2nd for it. Haha. I met some very nice people and gave out help where I could. The Redbull Mini came by and gave out free Redbulls to the tournament players which was very nice of them. Chris over at Attic Junky got a nice picture of me and Dann for his site and can be viewed here: http://www.atticjunky.com/blog/?p=470. After I won the tournament, I came back home where my roommates were throwing a house party. I had a few drinks and played SF4 with Dann for a while before I knocked out. I was going to go to the Yellow Headband dinner at Banana Bay in Rowland (where only those who won Yellow Headbands at the Gamestop tournaments were allowed) but I hadn’t slept very much at all the previous night since everyone was over for casuals the night before.
I just woke up a little bit ago to do some cleaning and web surfing. Definitely time for some much needed sleep.
Myself, Chun Li, Ed Ma, and Keno at the SF4 Launch Party
It was a night I had been looking forward to for a long time: The Street Fighter IV launch party! So much excitement. So much Street Fighter. So much hype! It was an amazing experience. I work in the video gaming industry so I have been to a few launch parties, but not one I was more excited for than for Street Fighter IV!
My night started after driving out to West Covina to pick up my boy Keno after a long, seemingly never-ending day of work. We traveled along the 60 freeway to arrive at the Moca Museum in Los Angeles. The line was absolute insanity. I arrived around 7:30pm and I heard that by 9:00pm, there were over 5000 people waiting outside trying to get in. Lucky for me, a few good men were holding a place in line for the So Cal tournament scene. At the I.D. check in, we received raffle tickets and swag as we counted down the seconds to 8:00pm. Gootecks was already hard at work conducting interviews and chatting with the crowd.
When the clock struck 8:00, we rushed inside open doors to a Street Fighter fan’s dream: Viewlix cabinets, Xbox360s and PS3s everywhere with an array of pads, and the Madcatz arcade sticks. I made a bee line to the Viewlix cabinets and immediately began to play, and not to brag, but proceeded to win around 35 games. I’m not going to lie, an incredibly gorgeous young woman played against me and I may have felt a little rosy in the cheeks. Akuma playing hottie, get back at me! =D
Capcom had really outdone themselves with a VIP lounge, full bar, stage shows, demos, a tribute to past Street Fighters, and of course, a rediculous quantity of Street Fighter IV. The focus of our tournament group was the Fight Club where players lined up to play on camera for a Chun Li statue. Get 15 wins straight, and you get the statue. Most of our group was able to get one.
After winning my statue, I made rounds just chatting with people I knew and meeting new friends. I felt so humbled that people came up to me asking if I was John Rog, telling me that they were supporting my Street Fighter success. If any of you guys are reading, thanks for the support! If I can do it, so can you!
The night went on and a lot of Street Fighter occurred. I have come to accept that I will never be good at SF4 on a gamepad and that arcade sticks are where it’s at. The Knux and DJ Q Bert put on AMAZING shows and just seeing all the guys again was a blast. Like any game related night, Keno and I called it quits and went to Dennys. I didn’t get home in Irvine till far too late and yeah, it was pretty tough to concentrate at work today. I am SO DAMN EXCITED for this coming Tuesday when Street Fighter IV is unleashed in America. Let’s GO!
So I just got back from the Video 94 2v2 tournament where, unfortunately, the 2nd player machine malfunctioned about 2/3 of the way into the games. We had to cancel the tournament but at the very least, Shglbmx and I were not knocked out by then so we got refunds. I OCV’d two teams and Ironfist gave my team our first loss. Before our game with Ironfist, we went to have pizza and beer at the nearby Pizza Supreme store. I only realized it later that Ironfist/Moval were getting me drunk before our game!!! Oh well. I have a hard time playing JR (Ironfist) anyhow and it would have been a loss regardless. Tournament season is looking pretty bleak since console release is only a few days away. We may have to end the Scrubs to Winner’s Clubs program early. At the very least, I can say I’ve gotten a lot better.
Capcom is having a release party for SF4 in Los Angeles on Thursday so I’ll take plenty of pictures there. I know Gootecks, Ed Ma, and a lot of other top players are going to be in attendance. Should be a good time. Oh! And Gootecks won both his exhibition match with Marn and the SF4 tournament at Sinsation Fight Club. My mentor is better!
Anyhow, we all went over to Beerstation after the Video94 tournament was cancelled and I had some beef fried rice that is currently making me shit water. Sucks. We played some casual games at Arcade Infinity afterwards where Ed Ma gave me some really good advice and things to keep on my mind. I want to make a big impact at my first EVO so I’ll be practicing really hard when it comes out on console. If you want to get some games in, hit me up on XBox Live on my gamertag Teppelin.
From left to right: Luke, Phil, myself, Jeremy, and Brian.
So we just got back via train from a little weekend San Diego trip. Every couple of months my friends and I will take a ticket, head down to the Gaslamp District, and just relax; let go of a lot of stress from the office. Hopped on a train after a half day at work and drank a good 1.5 liters of Captain Morgans on the way. Yeah, we were a little tipsy before even checking into our hotel. Took a quick shower in my room at the Gaslamp Hilton and we all head down to the hotel bar where we had a few more drinks.
We made our way to the streets and settled into a nice Spanish bar where Allie was the most amazing server from my recent memory. Jeremy decides to order a BARREL of sangria. We had tasty as fuck tapas of shrimp, chicken, beef, and spanish inspired bruschetta platters, all the while getting fucked up on the sangria. This spanish bar happened to have a flamenco performance downstairs and we went to check it out. It was moving. The rhythem, the Arabic inspired singing, the guitar. It was magic.
We moved across the street after the performance to an Irish pub where all the waitresses were dressed like Tifa from FFVII. I would have taken pictures of them, but I was feeling a lack of oxygen and blood in my brain. I wonder where it went? Our waitress’ name was Britney and I’m not going to lie, she was fucken hot. She was clearly playing games with us fishing for a bigger tip but whatever, she had a drink with us after her shift and I left her a measley tip. LoL.
We would have hit up a few more bars or a club but it started raining heavily and we weren’t in the mood to be soaked. We went to our hotel and basically knocked the fuck out.
This morning, we went to the same spot we go to when we head down to SD: Sloppy Joey’s, an Italian restaurant with happy hour till 2pm with 1/2 appetizers and $2 beers. We all had nasty ass hang overs, but I guess we kind of adhere to the adage, “The hair of the dog that bit you…” and had a beer…or two with an ass load of food. Yeah, the whole weekend ended up not being a super healthy weekend.
We took the train back and that was our mini-vacation. Good times were had by all. I hope I’m not too hung over to play at the 2v2 Video94 tournament tomorrow. Cheers.
Went out to Pechanga casino today with a buddy of mine and won five bills. Not a bad night. Heading out to San Diego with friends tomorrow to just unwind. Work has been killer. Pictures of drunken debauchery to come.
Had a few co-workers over yesterday for UFC94: George St. Pierre vs BJ Penn 2. I haven’t been too super into mixed martial arts, but after yesterday’s pay-per-view, I may start to get into it. We ordered BBQ and had a general good time. Machida vs Silva, which I thought would end up being a boring turtle match, ended in the first round by knockout; and from the guy I thought would turtle. Not bad. Match of the evening was GSP vs BJ Penn and it was complete domination by GSP. These guys were at the top of their careers but Penn having to climb up 15 lbs to fight GSP was a big disadvantage.
Today is the Superbowl, which I’m sure everyone already knows. I can’t say I care for either Pittsburg or Arizona, but the commercials and good company should still prove for a fun afternoon. We have about 3 lbs of butter waiting to be melted and shrimp to be BBQ’d after soaking in said butter. Can’t wait.
