I'm not going to suger coat it. This should have been done on Wednesday and it should have had pictures and all kinds of shit. I just screwed the pooch on a lot of stuff and I apologize. However, it's not going to kill me I guess. I'm not going to cry about it and I can only hope people are not going to complain. SO, here's the report, 1 week late, that should've been done on Wednesday.
By: Drew “Simsar” Misemer
Make no mistake, arcades are dying in America. There’s little to no space were the bulky single game cabinets of yester year live with people playing on them in constant streams, dropping quarters and dollar bills to try their shot at making it to a new level or finding out how good they are in comparison to the person next to them. No, the arcades might have disappeared but the community at large migrated into something much more formidable. The community rallied to make the arcade as mobile as them and to unite under new times in a better format than the simple ‘Winner stays’ that used to rule the sticky carpet floors of some mall.
In Kansas City, the place to be is the Max Out tournament held in a small but homely Coffee House/Bar called Toad’s Pub and Perk. Sounds ridiculous? Good, cause that’s not all, you will not meet a better group of guys. Special props to the first couple guys I ran into, John “JSpot” Spottswood and his friend Luigi 182 for making me feel accepted. As well as “Radian” Le who made sure I was having a good time despite my spectating. I have little to no true fighting experience so to be welcomed at a fighting game tourney like I was one of the boys is a rarity. The true kick off was at high noon with the teams matches in Street Fighter 4 beginning. A strong player emerged, one of JSpots friends going only by Kevin showed a strong Balrog. Dominating the ever loving hell out of the bracket, Kevin and John managed to win the whole thing as Balrog and El Fuerte.
You could see that it wasn’t the overpowered characters that won but whoever. I've seen teir lists, read hundreds of comments on this character or that combo, but I never saw a bunch of Sagats running the table. There wasn’t any complaining about being cheap or over powered, no tier list in sight it seemed. Just people gathering together to really see who among them really carried a set big enough to call themselves the top dog. During all this the BlazBlue rally which was only four challengers all together still managed to put on a show with an incredible Arakune by B1argh coming in at number one and Hakumen by one going as CactusGuy coming into second. You might think to win a game like BB is all button mashing but the way they play it, you realize this is weeks and weeks of memorization and practice for them and that its an insult to call them a masher.
I do have to admit I needed help with the lingo, like R. Kellyed and Pringles but after I got it, I couldn't stop. One thing for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom I won’t forget, Duck Sauce for Polimar. That’s right, DUCK SAUCE, I got it in the article. You want to know what that means? Go to Max Out, ask the dude who says Duck Sauce and if he’s not busy showing someone up, you can get an answer.
The real fireworks started when Street Fighter 4 singles matches officially got underway. People from Saint Louis drove the whole way here just to battle and hopefully improve the turn out for the battle itself. Kevin was a clear stand out for winner, working the ranks crushing people with Balrog left and right. Another one however was a Dahlsim player named Scamp with the way he could control space and time in his matches. Of course these two met and the Balrog lost out to the paced and patient Dahlsim. Not to be defeated so easily, Kevin managed to storm through the rest of the losers bracket to meet up with Scamp one final time in a finals match to remember. The Saint Louis guy on camera I noticed was too drunk to keep it steady, thus I actually recorded the entire thing, holding the camera as steady as I could for any and everyone to watch. Special thanks to scampjohnson for giving me the links to those videos.
Teams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77C9T5JwU_I
winners semis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfmq__jqPxE&NR=1
winners finals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NH-hYj7bx8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_geN8J3kk4
grand finals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zibibY0E0CE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZoxpUwetvU
Scamp’s Dahlsim was just too patient and too good at controlling the battle that no amount of fireballs, spin kicks or jump ins was going to change it. It was still a spectacular final regardless because it was a study in pacing and how well some players manage the game. Dahlsim might be considered low-tier but unless there’s a way to actually get past the ‘gauntlet’ as one Saint Louis player going by Ed said, it’ll be a hard thing to justify when it works this well.
Hype matches were abound of course after the tournament with people taking bets and having a good time. Special thanks to Ed for being cool enough to talk with me and actually give a bit of his philosophy on the subject. I look forward to meeting up with the so called ‘S Team’ of Saint Louis again in the near future as well as attending the KC ‘Hook Ups’ at both JSpots house and Le’s house on Tuesdays and Friday’s respectively. Anyone mildly interested should probably jump on shoryuken.com and go looking for the KC thread for dates, times and people to chat with. I will hopefully be making these ‘hook ups’ and tournaments a regular thing for improving my game and I’ll be glad to see anyone else there sometime.
