Beat Tribe Cup March 20, 2004 (Call to US Players)

The next Beat Tribe Cup (6 I believe) will be taking place in Machida, Japan during the month of March 2004 (3/20). Kyasao has issued a call to US players to represent the country. The US can have multiple teams (5 man teams). So, if you want to represent and experience the best that the VF world has to offer, then step forward.

Besides the ~200 Japanese teams, there will be a Korean team headed by Shinz and his brother POS Akira. It is expected that their team will consist of all Team Replays members. There will also be a team from Taiwan and possibly a UK or AU team. The current favorite Japanese team consists of: Burun Burun Maru, Minami Akira, Ohsu Akira, Homestay Akira and Yoro Kage. /versus/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

UPDATE
After talking with some Japanese folk, I have a few details. As a compromise to Japanese players, only 1 American team will be allowed to avoid the qualifiers. That team will consist of the top US players as decided by the Japanese. The rest of the teams will be allowed to play through the qualifiers though but you must have a 5 man team ready to go when the event begins. The tournament will run from 8AM on 3/20 until midnight with no breaks. The location will be revealed shortly but any hotel in the Tokyo area will be fine.

As for the Singapore/HK team, at present, I'm not certain if you will be lumped with the American players or not. I'm checking into it.

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

I just want to express my joy for the U.S. VFers establishing a sold relationship with Japan VFers to be able to open up this kind of opportunity.

On the other hand, since the event will be on March which is 3 monthes away from present, I think it would be be nice if we have another gathering in between for final pratice up and more.

At any rate, this is a great news for sure, and I hope many of us can go represent our community.

Cheers,

-maddy-

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

I would definatly be interested in going...but its so hard to determine with school n' all if I could actually go.

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

There is a catch on the United Tickets. They have to be purchased before December 31. I have spoken with Kyasao about this sale, as has shou, and kyasao knows he has to get back to us on the date of the tournament before the 31st. That way people can take advantage of the sale price.

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

As soon as I get the dates, I am booking my ticket. Who wants to be on my team?

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

Not to rain on the parade, but since I was going for work around that time I checked the United fares. They are really limited to exact dates only.

Having been there a lot on my own dime I'm pretty good at finding fares, I'd start here for those searching:
http://www.gatewaylax.com/
And here:
http://www.amnet-usa.com/
Looks like the standard price will be about $600~$700 which is pretty good. I looked a bit and couldn't find anything at United in March for better.

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

If anyone gets more details, could they please post IMMEDIATELY. I am very interested in this and I won't be able to go unless I can get things planned FAR in advance. Thanks in advance.

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

i would be interested if it falls within my spring break . . . I think most of us really need a date before we can commit to anything.

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

Shou: Exact dates in March? And can Singapore hop on the U.S. bandwagon?

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

Hey all - I'd love to help carry Team VFDC to victory! I really need to know the exact dates though, like everyone else. I'd havec to clear it with my school first before I can give a 100% confirmation. But once I do, I'm there.

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

yo eric you know im down. shit if we get the boys over there we could even have a stl team.

ill be there all of march. give me word when youre getting in.

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

[ QUOTE ]
ice-9 said:

Shou: Exact dates in March? And can Singapore hop on the U.S. bandwagon?

[/ QUOTE ]

Exact dates are not available yet. I'm sure the players from Singapore can join a U.S. team but perhaps Kyasao would prefer that Singapore had a team with additional members from Japan. I'll talk to him about it soon.

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

Cool, keep me informed. I might even be able to convince Danny to come along.

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

this sounds awesome, although I just spent a lot of time with Yamagishi in Japan and he didn't say anything about this...?

Either way, here's some info people might find useful:

Airfare:

I wouldn't fuck with US airlines, Asian airlines tend to be more comfortable and cheaper in my experience. I've always flown Thai, www.thaiair.com or Valig, a Brazilian airline www.varig.com which is also nice and usually a touch cheaper.

I also usually buy my ticket through HIS travel agency, which is a Japanese travel agency which has many offices in the US (www.his-usa.com). Unfortunately, HIS's website in Japanese, but it has contact #'s for all the offices in NY, LA, San Fran etc. All the employees of HIS speak english, and they have offices all over Japan, which is nice if you have any problems/want to make changes to your tickets while in Japan.

I've been to Japan 4 times in the last 2-3 years, and on average I pay right at about $500 for a round trip ticket to Tokyo from LA. That's non-stop, coach class on Thai/Varig. Once in a tight spot, I had to change my return date, and was forced to pay $900 for a one-way back to LA on Delta, which was VERY expensive and not nearly as comfortable. Usually, Thai is empty enough that you can have your own row in the end, and lay down across the seats to sleep /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif.

Lodging:

There are several ways you can go. From what I can tell, the actual BT Cup is held more in central Tokyo than Machida, which is in Tokyo, but a little less central than places like Shinjuku, Shibuya, Akihabara etc, which have good VF spots and are close to other things people'd probably like to see. Machida is about 30-40 mins on a non-stop express train to Shinjuku Station.

I went to the Beat-Tribe arcade this trip to hang out with Yamagishi, and since it was Friday and there was a tourney the next day, a lot of good players were there, doing the all-night warm-up; but according to Maru-Y, during the week BT is usually dead for VF action (and they have only 4 vs city set-ups, as compared to the 10+ at the more famous spots around Tokyo). So, while people could stay in Machida for cheap rates, you'll probably be happier being closer to the hot spots and the tourney venue (where ever it is, but BT is WAY too small to house it, they usually rent some huge event hall, see the 10th ann. DVD for footage of the 4th and 5th BT Cups).

Normal hotels tend to be a little expensive, and small, with small beds and strict rules (no in/out after 1/2 am, check out at 10am prompt, if you're not out by 10:30 they're gonna start charging you $10 for every hour, they're much more hardcore than US hotels in this respect). On average, they run about $50-90 for a single, small bed room, about $100 for a twin, for one night. Now, these are LITTLE, HARD beds that 2 people could NOT sleep in comfortably. Also, some hotels have very little floor space, so pals on the floor may not be an option.

There's the capsule hotel: tiny, bee-hive like pods for sleeping that usually have a small TV, and offer a public bath situation for bathing. No games on the TV, no hanging out, gotta be in by a certain time etc... but, they're cheap, about $33 a night, so it may be an option for broke people (but rember, you'll have to carry your stuff every day, or pay for a locker).

Lastly, there's the Weekly Mansion situation, which is my favorite. Weekly Mansions are like renting a little studio apartment for the week. You can get one or two beds, in a number of different sizes/configurations (if you wanna splurge, some are pretty pimped out, with living rooms etc).

The weekly mansion I stayed in this last trip was in Gotanda, which is 3 stops from Shibuya, 7 stops from Shinjuku on the Yamanote train line (about 12 mins, $1.60 to Shinjuku). Gotanda is kind of a bussiness neighborhood, but did have an arcade, lots of great places to eat, and lots of adult entertainment, if you like that kind of thing (I don't, for the most part). It's just an example of staying kind of on the fringe a little, there's no real reason to stay in a place like Gotanda, other than it's gonna be cheaper than the busier neighborhoods. My room was kinda small, but it was big enough for 3 people to hang out comfortably, and I had the usual Weekly Mansion comforts: small kitchen area with a hot plate (good for making things like Ramen/Tea), laundry in the building, TV, phone, AC, come and go as I please, anytime etc).

This room ran me about $400/week, which breaks down to about $57/night. Now, while this is a touch more expensive than a cheaper hotel, the ability to do as you please is more than worth it. People who've been to Japan know that Japanese love to party, and you don't want to have to end your evening early to meet some bullshit curfew. When I went to BT for drinking with Maru-Y, I staggered back to my room trying not to puke at 10:30 am, that's what I mean by "party". Also, the kind of crazy hotel room gaming orgies seen at things like Evo2003 won't fly in a Japanese Hotel, at all. In a weekly mansion, you can get away with more of this kind of thing, I tattooed a lot of people in my little room. You won't be able to go crazy, but you'll have more fun than you would in a hotel.

Also, I remember that for a twin at that location was about $640/week, which brings it down to $45/night for 2 people, and if you wanna go ghetto, and have someone sleeping bag it on the floor, it comes down to $30/person. Of course, this is against the "rules", but it's up to you. Once in Sendai, I got a weekly mansion room that was HUGE and pimped out, with a couch, washer/dryer in the room, big TV etc, for about $350/week, so you might get lucky!

check out Weekly Mansion Tokyo's website at: www.wmt.co.jp/index_t.html

You'll see a subway map of Tokyo, you can click on all the locations around the city. There are no prices, but they've got #'s for each spot. I wouldn't be suprised if they had people who spoke english at the phones. Stay away from places like Roppongi, Shinjuku which are crazy expensive as there are tons of foreigners. A japanese pal can help you here, or if worse comes to worse, I can check for people (everyone'll probably want to stay at the same place).

I'll write more later as I'll be talking to Maru-Y a lot, and I'll put up more travel/gaming in Japan tips.

hope this helps, California/West coast people, let's go!

Spotlite

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

Thanks for the hot info bro. Especially the flight info. But one question. Do you think the price is affected by you being on the west coast?

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

As Spot said LA people have the cheapest flights. $500 isn't uncommon. But keep in mind March is expensive... or is it Febuary? Well Febuary is cheap, March is expensive.

For hotel, when I've been on a budget and on my own dime, I go here: http://www.newkoyo.jp/
2500Yen per night is great. The room is only big enough for one, but it's not that bad and roach free.

Unfortunately, in terms of proximity to Machida, well... this hotel sucks. But realistically, Machida is pretty far from anything so expect a ride. This hotel is close to Ueno and from there you can get to Akihabara or Shinjuku quickly. In terms of Machida, Subway Hibiya Line ->Akihabara, JR Sobu Line ->Shinjuku, Odakyu Lines to Machida: about 45 minutes. There are a few faster ways, but that's the simplest.

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

After talking with Kaminari_Oyaji the other night I could be listening to a team STL in that batch.

conk out,
not Doomed to lose, just...

LOSE TO DUM!!!!

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

for those too lazy to check out the hotel WCMaxi linked to, it does look pretty cool.

Cheap, rooms look smallish, and you can choose western style bed or tatami style with futon, both ways have TV. This actually looks more like what we'd call a bed & breakfast, as there's a public kitchen, sento (japanese style bath), and showers (open until 10 pm). Couldn't find if toilets are in the rooms or not. NO CURFEW, yes! Seems like double rooms are very limited here, so book well in advance if you want to room together.

Another thing to keep in mind when staying in Tokyo: the public transit system doesn't function like the one in say, NYC, where you pay a flat fee to get on the train, and can ride all day if you like from the Bronx to Brooklyn for $1.25, even transferring to a bus if you want. In Tokyo, the further you go, the more you pay. While it may just be 150 yen to go from Shinjuku to Shibuya, when you start going to places further away, the price starts going up, some subway fares can exceed $12. Also, the trains stop running around midnight, and start again about 5am, so if you find yourself out at 2am ready to go home, and your hotel is about 5 stops away on the train, a taxi can easily run you $50-75. You're better off just walking around the streets until 5 and getting the train for a $1.50. Something to think about, if you stay a little far away from places you want to go frequently, train fare can easily get up to $5-15 a day.

of course, you'll need $ for VF, too /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Spotlite

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

Spot:
To answer your questions. The pulic furo type bath is public. The "public" showers are closed (private). Toilets are communal. It's very much like a dorm. The toilets are private of course and there are more than enough.

As for the rooms. In terms of space and convience, I'd recommend the Japanese rooms. The western beds cramp the room. Also, the so-called double is basically only slightly larger with two stuffed beds for only a tiny bit less. I'd just shell out the money and get 1 room per person. This place does fill up quickly but it's the best of it's class and caters to fucking gaijin.

 

Re: Beat Tribe Cup March 2004 (Call to US Players)

The date has been decided and is reflected in the initial subject.