Under_The_Mayo
Master of Quanculations
I just got home from the tech district downtown. It was a hell of a good time, and the place is huge with tvs and systems everywhere. I took first with Kenshi after some real challenges. My friend Belicoff took 3rd with Raiden/Mileena. And his brother took 4th with Kano.
I don't have video because there was live music and the whole place was kinda crazy, and even a mosh pit broke out right next to us.
for anyone interested, here's how it went!
I tore through some people pretty easily at first. And then I came up against the guy who won second place at the last tournament in September. And he was using Nightwolf, a character I used to have huge issues against. I stuck with Kenshi, but I was so thrown off by how he didn't play Nightwolf like my friend Belicoff. I mean not as efficiently. He never intercepted jumpins with the axe. He never did ex lightening setups. He had all these crazy random shoulders and throws. He stole the first from me barely. Then I took the second match convincingly. Then he beat me again, sending me into Losers.
I went up to Belicoff and said "Please, tell me what I'm doing wrong."
He said, "You're fighting him like me. He's not me. And you're not zoning him."
So I thought about how I need to stop respecting him, get real aggressive instead of trying to play defensively so much. It was time to throw patience out the window. I won the first losers match. Then I beat Belicoff's brother who was using Kano.
In the Winners finals it was Belicoff and the guy who knocked me into Losers, Jorge. It was a Nightwolf mirror match, though Belicoff had been using Raiden all before that. Belicoff lost pretty bad the first match, then he switched to Mileena whom he recently picked up. He won the first one VERY convincingly. And everyone was cheering for him. But then the last match was taken by Jorge and Belicoff came to losers to fight me in the Loser's Finals.
Belicoff went Raiden and I stuck with Kenshi. Really good fights, but I controlled it very well and hit constant anti-airs. I took him out, and went to Grand Finals to reset in my rematch against Jorge in Grand Finals.
He knew I had trouble with NW so he picked him. I went to hidden character... And he never guessed that he'd end up fighting SHEEVA! The look on his face was priceless when she stepped on screen. It was total humiliation the first match. Just a real ugly fight. Teleport stomps. Air grabs. EX grabs through his offense. AA fireballs. And 2 1 2 F1 Grab was giving him all kinds of problems. My intention was to suddenly shake his confidence in Nightwolf, and I definitely did. I turned to him and said "...You wanna change character?" He just looked at me with this face that I can't even explain.. And just said "...Yeah." He switched to Smoke. He started to figure out my Sheeva, but I still beat him solidly. I reset the series.
Then we both picked hidden character for the start of the final set. I got cocky and picked Kung Lao, because I do pretty good with him casually so I thought the jump from Sheeva to Kung Lao would throw him off. Well he picked Johnny Cage, whom I think is his best character. I paid the price for my decision. He wiped the floor with me...
So on the verge of losing the tournament, I stared at the character select screen, thinking "This is my last chance to pick a character. No bullshit. Gotta do what I do best. Kenshi." I did the trick to pick his blue costume, because I was serious.
I ripped open his Cage with relative ease, and for the match point he went back to Nightwolf because he knew I couldn't change from Kenshi, not that I even would have. A tough fight ensued where I took the first round convincingly, and then he did the same for the second round, leading to tournament point.
I was a little shaken, but I looked at Belicoff and he just gave me a nod. Like he was saying "You know what to do." So I thought "Fuck this. I'm going in." Dashing into multiple rounds of Spirit Charge pressure. When he jumped, I was in the air with an anti-air punch. When he crossed over me I nailed the reverse EX Rising Karma and hit him with 22% as a punish. I rushed into the corner and smoothly pulled off my full 46% corner combo. Then I came in for a block string of 1 1 4. But I just poked with 1 1, and started 1 1 4 again after and it tricked him into letting his guard down, and I got him again. I went nuts when it killed him. And Belicoff knows exactly how it feels to get hit by that fake I do, and he was just going wild for it!
I took it with a very close to flawless victory. So in the end it was the best kind of win that you can get in a tournament. Get knocked into losers. Fight your way through. Come back to fight the guy who beat you in the grand finals. Reset the series. Then take it all the way to the final match and final round, using your main character, in a near flawless, performing your highest damage attack for the first time. I feel better about winning that way than any other way I might have won otherwise.
Thanks for reading!
I don't have video because there was live music and the whole place was kinda crazy, and even a mosh pit broke out right next to us.
for anyone interested, here's how it went!
I tore through some people pretty easily at first. And then I came up against the guy who won second place at the last tournament in September. And he was using Nightwolf, a character I used to have huge issues against. I stuck with Kenshi, but I was so thrown off by how he didn't play Nightwolf like my friend Belicoff. I mean not as efficiently. He never intercepted jumpins with the axe. He never did ex lightening setups. He had all these crazy random shoulders and throws. He stole the first from me barely. Then I took the second match convincingly. Then he beat me again, sending me into Losers.
I went up to Belicoff and said "Please, tell me what I'm doing wrong."
He said, "You're fighting him like me. He's not me. And you're not zoning him."
So I thought about how I need to stop respecting him, get real aggressive instead of trying to play defensively so much. It was time to throw patience out the window. I won the first losers match. Then I beat Belicoff's brother who was using Kano.
In the Winners finals it was Belicoff and the guy who knocked me into Losers, Jorge. It was a Nightwolf mirror match, though Belicoff had been using Raiden all before that. Belicoff lost pretty bad the first match, then he switched to Mileena whom he recently picked up. He won the first one VERY convincingly. And everyone was cheering for him. But then the last match was taken by Jorge and Belicoff came to losers to fight me in the Loser's Finals.
Belicoff went Raiden and I stuck with Kenshi. Really good fights, but I controlled it very well and hit constant anti-airs. I took him out, and went to Grand Finals to reset in my rematch against Jorge in Grand Finals.
He knew I had trouble with NW so he picked him. I went to hidden character... And he never guessed that he'd end up fighting SHEEVA! The look on his face was priceless when she stepped on screen. It was total humiliation the first match. Just a real ugly fight. Teleport stomps. Air grabs. EX grabs through his offense. AA fireballs. And 2 1 2 F1 Grab was giving him all kinds of problems. My intention was to suddenly shake his confidence in Nightwolf, and I definitely did. I turned to him and said "...You wanna change character?" He just looked at me with this face that I can't even explain.. And just said "...Yeah." He switched to Smoke. He started to figure out my Sheeva, but I still beat him solidly. I reset the series.
Then we both picked hidden character for the start of the final set. I got cocky and picked Kung Lao, because I do pretty good with him casually so I thought the jump from Sheeva to Kung Lao would throw him off. Well he picked Johnny Cage, whom I think is his best character. I paid the price for my decision. He wiped the floor with me...
So on the verge of losing the tournament, I stared at the character select screen, thinking "This is my last chance to pick a character. No bullshit. Gotta do what I do best. Kenshi." I did the trick to pick his blue costume, because I was serious.
I ripped open his Cage with relative ease, and for the match point he went back to Nightwolf because he knew I couldn't change from Kenshi, not that I even would have. A tough fight ensued where I took the first round convincingly, and then he did the same for the second round, leading to tournament point.
I was a little shaken, but I looked at Belicoff and he just gave me a nod. Like he was saying "You know what to do." So I thought "Fuck this. I'm going in." Dashing into multiple rounds of Spirit Charge pressure. When he jumped, I was in the air with an anti-air punch. When he crossed over me I nailed the reverse EX Rising Karma and hit him with 22% as a punish. I rushed into the corner and smoothly pulled off my full 46% corner combo. Then I came in for a block string of 1 1 4. But I just poked with 1 1, and started 1 1 4 again after and it tricked him into letting his guard down, and I got him again. I went nuts when it killed him. And Belicoff knows exactly how it feels to get hit by that fake I do, and he was just going wild for it!
I took it with a very close to flawless victory. So in the end it was the best kind of win that you can get in a tournament. Get knocked into losers. Fight your way through. Come back to fight the guy who beat you in the grand finals. Reset the series. Then take it all the way to the final match and final round, using your main character, in a near flawless, performing your highest damage attack for the first time. I feel better about winning that way than any other way I might have won otherwise.
Thanks for reading!
