Beat Tribe Bay Area September Tournament

Last Saturday at 2 am I got a call from Kurita asking me to come play with him and SHU in the Bay Area (3-on-3 monthly tournament) at Beat Tribe.

My girlfriend was staying the night and not too excited about waking up 7 hours later to take a one hour train ride...to a VF tournament. Still, she is quite the sport and decided to go and see just what a VF tournament looked like.

As usual, Yamagishi showed up over an hour and a half late, so the 1pm start ended up being delayed until about 3 or so.

Ultimately there were 36 teams, meaning that over 100 people were playing for points toward the next Beat Tribe cup.

For the unfamiliar, Bay Area starts with a playoff league to determine who goes to the "final" round. The playoff round took the 36 teams and reduced the number down to 16. You need to win 2 matches in the playoff round to go to the finals, and if there is a tie then the two 大将 (last to play on each team) from the tied teams fight each other to determine who advances.

Our first playoff round opponent was actually just two dudes, a 巧者 Aoi (same rank as me right now), and Shark, a Vanessa player I teamed up with for Togeki.

Sure we had two Shuns, but Aoi and Vanessa are Shun's worst matches...

The first fight I lost pretty badly, then Kurita stepped in and took out the Aoi. Shark proceeded to totally crush Kurita, then beat SHU in a match that went down to the last hit. SHU tried to kill him with Shun's 3PPK, but Shark used Vanessa's 1P (DEF) to sabaki the last kick (a High, mind you). Goddamn that stupid 1P.

Our next match was 運がいい, the team featuring such legends as Anii, Chin-Kenichi Shun, and Saraman. That day, we had to play ISHII (a 巧者 Wolf), a Pai player I had never seen though pretty highly ranked at 拳王, and Saraman, whose videos you should check on YouTube.

SHU looked and me and Kurita and said "Don't worry, I got this," and proceeded to trounce all three of those very tough opponents. That was good, because if we had lost we would have been out. SHU once again stepped up in the playoff tie-breaker, and we were through.

In the finals, and our first opponent was the same 2-man team we had played earlier...

This time I made quick work of the Aoi, and Kurita crushed Shark. We were now qualified for the best 8.

Our next opponent was Magnum (JE 闘王), Zen (BR 闘神) and Gorgeous, aka Reorao (EI 闘神).

Yours truly stepped up big and destroyed Magnum (2 wall throws, over 20 drinks, and not thrown once). The next match it looked like I would be wiped out after giving up the first 2 rounds, but I did my best Itazan impression and made a nice comeback, confusing their Brad with Soukoku (backturned) P, K setups and liberal use of the good old mule kick. I lost to Gorgeous in a tough 5-round match, but once again SHU came to our rescue by embarrassing Gorgeous with 2 ringouts and an inashi (4P+K) finish.

Next up was Punch the Senpu (LA 大帝), Ohsu （EL 名人) and Jin (KA 闘神).

I went down to the last hit again with Senpu but lost, and this time it was Kurita who stepped up, embarrassing both Senpu and Ohsu. He landed Vanessa's takedown evade attack almost completely at will, and finished Ohsu off with Vanessa's OFF wall throw. Yamagishi was going nuts.

Ultimately the match went down to SHU vs Jin, and SHU pulled out another nail-biter of a victory.

We were now in the finals, playing for the W.

Our opponent was Dabira (JA 名人), some Jeff I had never seen, and Koryu (LA 拳王).

Yamagishi was getting people riled up, talking about how no non-Japanese had ever won anything in his house.

I stepped up and took out the first two guys, leaving only Koryu to beat Kurita and SHU. Kurita took care of Koryu for us, and with that we had won.

Yes, I was on a team that won a Beat Tribe tournament...

After the obligatory cheering we were taken to the back of the arcade to have our picture taken. I will post it here once I have a copy.

I don't take too much credit for the victory, but it was nice to be able to represent and at least take out a few guys.

So far this year I've only gone to Beat Tribe twice, but I've gotten 2nd and now 1st. Next question: do I bother going back? I can only go down from here /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

 

Good shit man!

Did you guys have a team name? Let's hear it.

 

Good shit. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

REPRESENT!

 

I'm proud to use your ring name to play as Akira in FT. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

Awesome Dave! Representing the old man, w00t! I want to see some videos! /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

That was an exciting write up, we need more of these spirited recaps.

Congratulations on the win, very impressive!

 

Whoa, that's sweet.

Care to expand? Ahem.

 

thanks all for your kind words.

our team was 屈伸ジェネレーション (Kusshin Generation), which is Kurita's team. it translates to "Fuzzy Guard Generation"

some video evidence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0ZMiHGBW1Q (old clip of me vs kurita)

watch as 1P owns everything i do:
Chouwan, Mule Kick, K+G, high punch, low punch, 1K,K, and high kick.

So, what you end up with is a situation where even if Vanessa is -7 she can push out 1P and beat almost ALL my offensive weapons.

If you watch in Round 3, when I have him against the wall, I do my half-circular 2K out of the new stance (facing forward). It is a low K, the hit frames are late, and it downs on counter. I thought I could finish him there with it, but once again 1P to the rescue, he gets counter hit on me.

With such a simple solution to almost all my offensive weapons, Vanessa is a beast in DM vs. Shun.

All I can do is A) wait (in which case he can throw out another 1P to beat my next attack), or B) backdash and attack. Notice when I get low punch to hit I backdash most of the time.

 

/feels Sebo's seismic waves of elation

 

You can't feel it as it is motionless. You can only hear and smell it.