Au voir PS3 I hardly knew yee. 

On weekend of EVO, I had planned out a weekend of being saturated of SSF4. Play SSF4 while the stream of EVO is up and perhaps pick up a trick or two. Instead I got the untimely demise of my PS3.

An intense online match up in SSF4 heated up so much that it brought on the YLOD. Oh wells, it was a 60 gig launch PS3 and lasted me nearly 4 years. Between hearing about costing 150 to send to Sony, or some cheaper but probably not as reliable pay some guy method, I’m really debating my choices. Yes for a bit more money, I could just buy a new PS3 slim or just pay for Sony to fix it, but that would guarantee all my saved data is lost. I’ll probably, just tinker around get some kind of temporary fix at least so I can back up my data before I ultimately get a new PS3 or shop around for a different system (nah, I’ll probably stick with the PS3, GT5 is coming out finally, and the PS3 tournaments on GB actually work out). With Starcraft 2 just around the corner I guess I can wait for a good reason to be back gaming on my PS3.

But that means no SSF4!!!

Yeah, that’s a bummer. But ever since SSF4 came out I haven’t had the time to play the game as much as I liked. There will be times when the only time I could play the game was after a long day, which is bad since SSF4 is a game that test your patience and coordination (something that’s used up by the end of the day). The result is, I’ll rage or just get clowned on in situations that if I could hold my cool and think clearly, it wouldn’t happen.

Believe it or not, I still haven’t picked up a main for SSF4. With ten new characters and a bunch of tweaks to old ones my summer plan was to walk the warriors path of “C to shining C”; document my process of hitting the learning curve of all characters (as well as get the feel of all of them) so I can definitively choose who to main without second guessing myself. I’ll admit it, I only initially picked Rog because Gootecks used him and Mike Ross made me believe in Honda. Being influenced by the forums on who to main is just as bad since it was peer pressure and not my own choice. As a result of “maining” characters I don’t actually flow with after a while, I get bored of them and move on when I’m forced to get creative and take those mains to the next level.

As long as fighter 4 nurburing edition doesn’t come out next year, I can always jump back in the game later down the line. Sure I’ll forget the timing of combos, but the fundamentals of spacing, footsies and mindgames will never be forgotten.

My Evo thoughts:

The Stream –

Overall the stream was good, sure I hated it when it went down or lagged, but how many stream teams out there have the experience to handle 30k people watching at once? Even DJWheat’s Devastation stream (a very good one, by a very experienced team), only had 5k-10k during its peak. Not sure how stream technology works, but EVO should really make special arrangements with UStream/Stickam or whatever to be able to handle 30k load of people watching. Live and learn it seems.

Justin Wong not in top 8 –

 For some this may be a shock, but not me. Leading up to EVO, Justin Wong was been winning just about every tourney he entered. However, Wong hadn’t been practicing SSF4 and instead was practicing to be in WCG ultimate gamer. Lets just say he went far in that but lost out with almost no prep time left for EVO. Sure even the week just before EVO, he and Marn had gone to and spanked the rest of the world (except Japan because they weren’t invited), but that just gave the rest of the world experience against them. Like a bad Rockstar story, Justin’s talent only got him so far and it showed at EVO. I mean Rufus vs Geif? Prime example of when you should start counter picking like Ricky O did. We have seen Justin Wong use other characters besides Rufus and win before, if he had been properly preparing this upset wouldn’t have happened.

Then there was GamerBee, I don’t know WTF happened, but Justin melted down and played so unlike himself. In the high stakes side tourney team spooky had later that night, I was kinda disappointed that Justin and Sanford (another great player that went out on a very weird way due to stick malfunctions) didn’t show up and GamerBee just took home even more money. Justin could have redeemed himself somehow, cause I sure as hell would have liked to seen a rematch. Even with the Daigo money matches afterwards it would have been great to see Justin or Sanford take on Daigo. Season beatings, did beat daigo before. Oh wells, at least Arturo Sanchez had the balls to run it back from last year.

GamerBee (The X factor) –

There is a reason why some pros was weary of the release date of SSF4, since it meant only two months to learn ten new match ups or even pick one of them up. It really sucks to travel to a tournament and get peaced out due to not knowing the match up, making yourself look like a scrub. Just like Inthul (padlong), or Yeb (Gen player) GamerBee had a very good showing busting out adon catching everyone off guard and for the most part GamerBee had an easier time adapting to their opponents than the opponents did against adon. However, the surprise element will be gone down the line since Inthul and Yeb didn’t make it out of their pools since people actually had time to analyze and adapt to their characters now. Not to take anything away from these players, they of course worked hard on their characters and deserves those wins, its just they have to work harder to keep getting wins when your opponent starts to wise up over time. GamerBee was certainly an X factor that you’d think someone like Justin Wong would secretly do the research required to know the match up (see above).

No 5on5 

–

I guess this made sense since last year’s theme seemed to be who’s the best in by having a 5on5 regional exhibition. This year they expanded the theme to the world as there were a lot more foreign players into the mix. Just sad they excluded this year, the after hours high stakes team spooky tournament made up for it a bit.  

Fuck ups to learn from –

I understand EVO is like the superbowl equivalent of fighting game tournaments. Just like the superbowl, you are going to get a lot more viewers that doesn’t normally watch this stuff. Having sponsors and stuff is helpful and in theory can only help. You really must learn however, that whoever you partner up with understands EVO or at least fighting game tournaments. Last year the fuck up was getting IGN to extort money out of us to watch the EVO matches 6 months after it happened (and it wasn’t even every major match that happened). This year we had a much better stream, that ran a lot smoother, but the final act of Adam Sessler made me rethink if SRK had learned anything. I understand the need to dumb down the tech talk for the masses. I understand getting an outside “celebrity” to be commentator because it gives exposure to the mainstream audience. However, when adam didn’t even know how to keep count of the score by games and not rounds, that is just wrong and a big middle finger to the community that made it as big as it is now (I can only forgive so much). Seriously, give him a crib sheet or notes to study and read from, so he doesn’t make an embarrassment out of everyone. Adam was there for the entire top 8 and he still couldn’t get the difference in his head by the grand finals (thats the last match for those of you that doesn't understand how retarded Adam's learning skill is). If you think I'm hating just cause the commentator didn't mention Frame advantages and other technical talk keep in this mind: Chris Hu talks in broken english and its a very simple "Player A show he no scared so Player B is mindfucked BAYBEE", and yet the community  embraces that just cause Chris Hu knows what he talking about. Also this isn’t just some WWE PPV where its common to go off air right after the main event. Give us some closure by showing the award ceremony and some player interviews, thoughts etc.

Closing thoughts

Goodbye my fair PS3, at least you died right before Starcraft 2 was going to come out. With the amount of Steam games I bought on sale and never actually play, I think I’ll be a PC gamer once again until I really get the shakes for some SSF4. 

Au voir PS3 I hardly knew yee. 

On weekend of EVO, I had planned out a weekend of being saturated of SSF4. Play SSF4 while the stream of EVO is up and perhaps pick up a trick or two. Instead I got the untimely demise of my PS3.

An intense online match up in SSF4 heated up so much that it brought on the YLOD. Oh wells, it was a 60 gig launch PS3 and lasted me nearly 4 years. Between hearing about costing 150 to send to Sony, or some cheaper but probably not as reliable pay some guy method, I’m really debating my choices. Yes for a bit more money, I could just buy a new PS3 slim or just pay for Sony to fix it, but that would guarantee all my saved data is lost. I’ll probably, just tinker around get some kind of temporary fix at least so I can back up my data before I ultimately get a new PS3 or shop around for a different system (nah, I’ll probably stick with the PS3, GT5 is coming out finally, and the PS3 tournaments on GB actually work out). With Starcraft 2 just around the corner I guess I can wait for a good reason to be back gaming on my PS3.

But that means no SSF4!!!

Yeah, that’s a bummer. But ever since SSF4 came out I haven’t had the time to play the game as much as I liked. There will be times when the only time I could play the game was after a long day, which is bad since SSF4 is a game that test your patience and coordination (something that’s used up by the end of the day). The result is, I’ll rage or just get clowned on in situations that if I could hold my cool and think clearly, it wouldn’t happen.

Believe it or not, I still haven’t picked up a main for SSF4. With ten new characters and a bunch of tweaks to old ones my summer plan was to walk the warriors path of “C to shining C”; document my process of hitting the learning curve of all characters (as well as get the feel of all of them) so I can definitively choose who to main without second guessing myself. I’ll admit it, I only initially picked Rog because Gootecks used him and Mike Ross made me believe in Honda. Being influenced by the forums on who to main is just as bad since it was peer pressure and not my own choice. As a result of “maining” characters I don’t actually flow with after a while, I get bored of them and move on when I’m forced to get creative and take those mains to the next level.

As long as fighter 4 nurburing edition doesn’t come out next year, I can always jump back in the game later down the line. Sure I’ll forget the timing of combos, but the fundamentals of spacing, footsies and mindgames will never be forgotten.

My Evo thoughts:

The Stream –

Overall the stream was good, sure I hated it when it went down or lagged, but how many stream teams out there have the experience to handle 30k people watching at once? Even DJWheat’s Devastation stream (a very good one, by a very experienced team), only had 5k-10k during its peak. Not sure how stream technology works, but EVO should really make special arrangements with UStream/Stickam or whatever to be able to handle 30k load of people watching. Live and learn it seems.

Justin Wong not in top 8 –

 For some this may be a shock, but not me. Leading up to EVO, Justin Wong was been winning just about every tourney he entered. However, Wong hadn’t been practicing SSF4 and instead was practicing to be in WCG ultimate gamer. Lets just say he went far in that but lost out with almost no prep time left for EVO. Sure even the week just before EVO, he and Marn had gone to and spanked the rest of the world (except Japan because they weren’t invited), but that just gave the rest of the world experience against them. Like a bad Rockstar story, Justin’s talent only got him so far and it showed at EVO. I mean Rufus vs Geif? Prime example of when you should start counter picking like Ricky O did. We have seen Justin Wong use other characters besides Rufus and win before, if he had been properly preparing this upset wouldn’t have happened.

Then there was GamerBee, I don’t know WTF happened, but Justin melted down and played so unlike himself. In the high stakes side tourney team spooky had later that night, I was kinda disappointed that Justin and Sanford (another great player that went out on a very weird way due to stick malfunctions) didn’t show up and GamerBee just took home even more money. Justin could have redeemed himself somehow, cause I sure as hell would have liked to seen a rematch. Even with the Daigo money matches afterwards it would have been great to see Justin or Sanford take on Daigo. Season beatings, did beat daigo before. Oh wells, at least Arturo Sanchez had the balls to run it back from last year.

GamerBee (The X factor) –

There is a reason why some pros was weary of the release date of SSF4, since it meant only two months to learn ten new match ups or even pick one of them up. It really sucks to travel to a tournament and get peaced out due to not knowing the match up, making yourself look like a scrub. Just like Inthul (padlong), or Yeb (Gen player) GamerBee had a very good showing busting out adon catching everyone off guard and for the most part GamerBee had an easier time adapting to their opponents than the opponents did against adon. However, the surprise element will be gone down the line since Inthul and Yeb didn’t make it out of their pools since people actually had time to analyze and adapt to their characters now. Not to take anything away from these players, they of course worked hard on their characters and deserves those wins, its just they have to work harder to keep getting wins when your opponent starts to wise up over time. GamerBee was certainly an X factor that you’d think someone like Justin Wong would secretly do the research required to know the match up (see above).

No 5on5 

–

I guess this made sense since last year’s theme seemed to be who’s the best in by having a 5on5 regional exhibition. This year they expanded the theme to the world as there were a lot more foreign players into the mix. Just sad they excluded this year, the after hours high stakes team spooky tournament made up for it a bit.  

Fuck ups to learn from –

I understand EVO is like the superbowl equivalent of fighting game tournaments. Just like the superbowl, you are going to get a lot more viewers that doesn’t normally watch this stuff. Having sponsors and stuff is helpful and in theory can only help. You really must learn however, that whoever you partner up with understands EVO or at least fighting game tournaments. Last year the fuck up was getting IGN to extort money out of us to watch the EVO matches 6 months after it happened (and it wasn’t even every major match that happened). This year we had a much better stream, that ran a lot smoother, but the final act of Adam Sessler made me rethink if SRK had learned anything. I understand the need to dumb down the tech talk for the masses. I understand getting an outside “celebrity” to be commentator because it gives exposure to the mainstream audience. However, when adam didn’t even know how to keep count of the score by games and not rounds, that is just wrong and a big middle finger to the community that made it as big as it is now (I can only forgive so much). Seriously, give him a crib sheet or notes to study and read from, so he doesn’t make an embarrassment out of everyone. Adam was there for the entire top 8 and he still couldn’t get the difference in his head by the grand finals (thats the last match for those of you that doesn't understand how retarded Adam's learning skill is). If you think I'm hating just cause the commentator didn't mention Frame advantages and other technical talk keep in this mind: Chris Hu talks in broken english and its a very simple "Player A show he no scared so Player B is mindfucked BAYBEE", and yet the community  embraces that just cause Chris Hu knows what he talking about. Also this isn’t just some WWE PPV where its common to go off air right after the main event. Give us some closure by showing the award ceremony and some player interviews, thoughts etc.

Closing thoughts

Goodbye my fair PS3, at least you died right before Starcraft 2 was going to come out. With the amount of Steam games I bought on sale and never actually play, I think I’ll be a PC gamer once again until I really get the shakes for some SSF4. 

STARCRAFT FUCK YEA!

Sucks about your PS3 but at least you have something else to play games on.
 
I have the same problem in Super, just plain not enough time to play. The time I do have is meant to be relaxation and it's hard to relax when your getting bodied by Blanka.
 
As for finding a main I think I've yet to even play properly with all the new characters. Dudley is the only one I've won a few Ranked games with but in the end I just go back to who I'm comfortable with.
 
EVO was good for me this year as I didn't watch most of it live so no streaming problems. Commentary was really annoying at the end I agree but  what I really don't get is why no one corrected him. Or why he didn't figure it out himself. I mean it's clearly first to two in a game. Seth was saying 1-0, 1-1 etc and he insists on blathering on with stuff like "and Ricky ties it up at 2 rounds each"
NO ADAM. Daigo won the first game 2-1 and now its 1-0 to Ricky in the second game. GOD.

You mean Au Revoir? And possibly my favorite moments from this year's EVO were watching Vangief take out J Wong and watching Infiltrator play. I like his style. Daigo was of course masterful as usual.

" You mean Au Revoir?  "

unlucky man... as someone who got struck down by the yellow light of death a few weeks ago i feel your pain.... if you do go the route of purchasing a new ps3 you can revive your old one using the hair dryer trick and transfering the data to your new system... managed to revive my ps3 twice using it so you never know

I usually like Sessler, but damn, I literally had to mute that shit for the entire finals. And it's a real shame too, because the real commentators usually impart some useful insights and tips for scrubs like me.  
 
Like you said, I'm sure they chose him as a "celebrity" figure to speak to the masses, but it was clear he didn't even know the most basic of the basics. You'd think they would at least get someone familiar with the venue, but whatever. Better luck next time.

Now maybe this is just me being a complete noob to SSFIV but some of the things that had to be explained to Adam actually helped me enjoy watching the matches more. Granted there is no excuse for him to not be able to tell who was winning but when there were some terms being used that I was not familiar with that had to be explained to Adam it helped me understand what exactly was going as far as the intricacies of the game. It sucks that the people who actually knew what was going on had to suffer through some moments of pure stupidity, but all in all it was still very enjoyable to watch for me. I am also sorry to hear about your PS3 dying, hopefully you'll be able to get all your save data.

It seems as though Adam would have been a better color commentator between matches instead of the main guy. I think the only way they'd get on G4 is through Adam for at least this year. Maybe next year G4 will get more relaxed and allow them to do it their own way.