Myke and Danny's Attouteki Tour

It's funny that my and Danny's trip to Tokyo happened to coincide with the official Attouteki tour event in Tokyo. Attouteki means overwhelming, and I think no better word describes both my and Danny's VF experience this time round. We met some absolute monsters while we were there, picked up some new tricks along the way, and learnt some invaluable lessons about ourselves and this game we love. In this post I'll try my best to remember and share these experiences with you, and I invite Danny to do the same.

Warning: long post ahead!

Mon 24th Mar 08 - Arrival in Shinjuku
Danny and I were in Tokyo for 10 days where we took in some sights, ate some fantastic food, did a fair amount of shopping and (more importantly in this context) played a LOT of VF5.

We arrived on Monday 24th March and were to meet in West Shinjuku, at Club Sega (aka Nishispo). Danny arrived in the afternoon while I arrived in the evening. While the plan was to meet at the arcade, by the time I got there (approx 10:30pm) he was nowhere to be seen! Not being contactable made things difficult, so I could only assume that he had called it a night along with Dave and Shou.

Thankfully, Itazan was still there and after getting some games in against some random players, and then watch him challenge Joseph (strong Akira) a number of times, I decided that I'd go get some food as I hadn't eaten yet. Itazan was nice enough to try calling Dave and Shou and eventually found out that they had decided to leave early since they were expecting me to arrive in the afternoon, and so had figured I must be lost!

Exhausted and starved, with bloodshot eyes from almost a half day's worth of travel, I try playing some games. To my shock, I couldn't believe how bad my timing was. I literally could not knee after a TFT, combos were stopping midway for no apparent reason. My evade timings were completely off resulting in more counter hits than I'd care to remember.

Now while I wasn't expecting my A-game due to my fatigue, etc, I wasn't expecting to play this bad! Then, the realisation that too many laggy Xbox Live matches had impacted me in a huge and negative way came crashing down on me. That feeling that my play had regressed really sucked, but I was determined to tough it out and get back on track ASAP, no matter the co$t!

As the arcade is closing, Itazan kindly offers to treat me to dinner. We wander around Shinjuku and found this place whose name escapes me for the moment, but the food was delicious! It was also a great chance to catch up with Itazan whom I hadn't seen since Evo last year. We talked about many things from VF, gaming, work, women and life in general. He is just one awesome guy, and I regret not having more time to spend with him during the rest of the trip.


Tue 25th Mar 08 - Harajuku and Shibuya
After emailing Danny my hotel's phone number, he calls me the next morning and we arrange to meet up at Harajuku. Not having mobile phones on us was indeed very painful, as it made for some very interesting waiting games.

I ended up waiting for an hour for Danny and co. to arrive. All the while I kept thinking if I was waiting at the right spot or not, and Harajuku station being as small as it is I'd be really worried if I did get it wrong! Eventually they arrive and their delay was due to some heavy train delays which apparently are a daily occurrence in Tokyo, but I digress.

Danny and I got some lunch at some random restaurant while the others (Danny's fiance Christine, Alvin and Alson) continued to shop around Harajuku as they had already eaten. This was my first time catching up and seeing Danny since seeing him last in Singapore so many years ago that I forget exactly when! We both chat and discuss the events from the previous night, as well as tentatively plan out the rest of the trip. Essentially, our days were centered around the two necessities -- food and VF -- with either sightseeing and/or shopping as time fillers.

We played at Shibuya for a bit and I was slowly getting back into my groove. Happened to see SHU playing there as well, but didn't manage to get any games in with him. Managed to get involved in some ranking matches, where the following replay was saved:


VF5 Ver.D The Dying Breed (JE) vs Myke (KA)

In hindsight, it wasn't that great of a match. What doesn't come through in the replay is the tension of the ranking points at stake with us both being at 6th dan, and I had already lost 2 matches to him. I guess it was the final 3rd round that triggered me to save the replay -- I was all but dead and the Juumonji RO surprised me (and no doubt him too!)


Wed 26th March 08 - Akihabara
Today we meet up at Akihabara and do the usual -- lunch, walk around, shop then play some VF.

At the arcade I bumped into Yosuke, which was a pure coincidence since he lives about an hour or so outside of Tokyo. He seemed to be engaged with some ranking matches with his Lau playing friend. I introduce Yosuke to Danny and they play a few games. I think Danny won his first match against Yosuke (which he promptly saved) but then lost the second. They were both very exciting games to watch.

Yosuke kindly offered me to visit and stay at his place on Friday night, but he didn't know that Danny and co. were with me so it made that plan rather difficult. Especially since we planned to attending the Attouteki Tour event at Shibuya on Saturday. Seeing as the schedule was so tight, I had to reluctantly decline Yosuke's offer. It would have been cool to visit his local town and play at his local arcade where he tells me there are many strong players. Maybe next time?

It was at this arcade that I started to rank up a few notches, as I found the skill level not to be as high as it is in Shinjuku -- but maybe it was just that night. Anyway, this one particular Akira player and I kept challenging at same/similar ranks and eventually later that night I got my Kage up to 8th dan on him. (Upon arriving in Japan I was at 6th dan.) I was "lucky" enough to find an opponent that was (a) around similar skill level, and (b) willing to keep challenging me even after losing many games. When you're lucky like this, ranking up can be pretty easy. But sometimes you face up against players who cease to challenge you after a loss, or are just seemingly unbeatable, and this makes ranking up and extremely difficult task.

Anyway, one interesting thing I found with this particular Akira player was that he'd tried to use stage selection to psyche me out. One occasion the random stage select gave us Shun's raft stage, and he rung me out three times with Akira's 46P+G. It really sucked because I knew I had escaped the 6 input, but since I was still trying to shake XBL early input syndrone, my 6 escape input was never registering. So, after that whenever he challenged me again, he kept choosing that stage. This is also particularly funny because I was playing Kage who can RO arguably better than Akira in an open stage!

Earlier in the afternoon I had saved a match against a 9th Dan Kage while I was at 7th dan and very close to promotion:


VF5 Ver.D Aka (KA) vs Myke (KA)

Again, in hindsight, not a particularly nice match. Lots of input errors on my part that I'm not really proud of. But again, it was the tension of the ranking match coupled with the final finish that prompted me to save the match, and he was a tough nut to crack.


Thu 27th March 08 - Disney Sea Plan Gone Bad
Today we had planned on visiting Disney Sea. However, in the morning my hotel had to undergo some unscheduled water repairs which meant no hot water for an hour or so. It just happened that this window overlapped with my get-ready time to go out to meet Danny and co. As such, not wanting to spend the entire day un-showered I decided not to go and sent an email to Danny praying that he'd check it in the morning.

As it turns out, they ended up waiting 2hrs for me at the meeting point and eventually did not go to Disney Sea! I felt so bad about that

Having not met up with Danny during the day, I just wandered around Shinjuku on my own and did a bit of shopping, while spending the evening in the arcade, struggling to maintain my rank while also building up my new Brad card from scratch.

I had actually saved what I remembered to be a really exciting match of my Brad versus a Pai player. But later that evening I had accidently overwritten that match with a replay vs the CPU. I really hate it when that happens!

Danny eventually popped into Shinjuku Nishispo to find me playing, and after much apologising and explaining to him my absence, we agreed to try again for Disney Sea the following day.

Fri 28th Mar 08 - Disney Sea Take Two. Meeting Ogi and Seta
Disney Sea, take two. This time, I'm there at the agreed meeting point. Tokyo station, Yaesu Exit, at the ticket gates. I arrive a good 20 minutes early, remembering Danny's words from the night before, "We'll only wait 15 minutes max this time!"

So there I was. Waiting. And waiting. 10 minutes past the agreed meeting time soon turns into 20 then 30 minutes past. The 30 minutes soon turn into an hour. Now I think to myself, if they're only going to wait 15 minutes max, why am I still here? But, reading all the train delay notices on one of the monitors, and not knowing which line Danny and co. would be coming in on, I decide to wait even more. I recall their 1 hour late arrival the first day we met at Harajuku due to a train delay, so maybe they're late for the same reason again.

Eventually, the one hour turns into two, and I'm literally at my wits end! I'm starving, my legs and back are sore from all the standing and so decide to just give up. They waited 2 hours for me the previous day, so I at least owed them 2 hours in return. I had paid my dues and it was time to throw in the towel.

I walked around Tokyo for a bit, had a late lunch, then headed back to Shinjuku in the afternoon. I was hoping Danny would show up at Nishispo in the evening so that we could discuss the plans for tomorrow's event at Shibuya. But he never showed up and I actually started to worry about what had happened to them that day!

But, while waiting around Nishispo and watching some VF5 I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn around to see Ogi! That was a surprise! Ogi introduced me to his friend Seta and we played a few games together. I told Ogi that I was kind of expecting Danny to show up, but we set a time by which if he didn't then we'd go off and get some dinner together.

Meanwhile, being a Friday night at Nishispo, many famous and not-so-famous but strong players were there. I managed to pit my Brad against Jin which some of you may have seen on Youtube, and got lucky:


VF5 Ver.D Myke (BR) vs Jin (KA)

He challenged me right after that and swiftly demonstrated that the previous match was just a fluke. Towards the end of the night, I played 10 straight games of Kage vs Kage with Jin. Some were close, and some were just embarrassing, but I could not win a single match. He was just too fast, too strong and too tricky for me to deal with (on top of my XBL syndrome issues). After the 10 matches, I went around and thanked him for the games and briefly introduced myself in my beginner level Japanese. He was very cool and welcoming.

Also that night I tried my luck against Gorgeous Eileen. Now he is an absolute monster with Eileen and makes you want to hate the character! The funny thing was, we saw Gorgeous handle with seemingly little effort the likes of Jaga (GO), Itazan (SH), Jin (KA) and Joseph (AK) that night. He seemed to be clearly on a level above everyone else, and aside from character choice I struggled to pin-point exactly why. Scary shit nontheless and, in hindsight, it was a precursor to what we would witness at the Attouteki singles tournament on Sunday.

The time eventually came where Danny never showed, so Ogi, Seta and I decided to go for dinner. We ate at a resturant which is just above the arcade actually, and I remember having a steak (advertised as coming from australia!) and it tasted pretty good. This was the first chance that I got to meet Ogi and Seta, and those guys were really cool. We instantly got on and had a million topics to talk about. As the cliche goes, it's like we've known eachother since forever and I think it's no coincidence that a great game like VF makes for meeting great friends also possible.

We eventually call it a night after dinner and agree to meet at Shibuya the next day at the Attouteki Tour event. Worried about Danny's absence I sent him an email letting him know to meet us there as well.

Sat 29th Mar 08 - Attouteki Tour at Shibuya
You can see the official am.sega report of Attouteki Tour Kantou Area 2008 held in Shibuya HiTech Land SEGA.

I arrived at Shibuya later than I had hoped. The Open Battle was just finishing up, and I was too late to enter the Randon Tag Tournament which was a real bummer!

Ogi, Seta and Danny hadn't arrived yet, so I tried to get a few games in. Itazan saw me playing and came over for a brief chat before the official event got started. Eventually, Ogi and Seta arrive, with Danny to later follow, and we met up with Dave and Shou there as well.

The Random Tag Tournament was fun to watch. Follow this official link on the am.sega site where you can see the tournament chart and stream some videos. I think this was the first time I saw Hitsuchi's Brad in action and I was really impressed! What was more of a highlight though was his Akira playing team mate. Fantasy player in the extreme! He was pulling reversals and bodychecks literally out of his arse, and coming up with wins and comebacks out of nowhere! The crowd watching were always entertained when he played.

After the Random Tag, they had a Star Player Kumite battle with Chibita (LI) and Fuumin (LE). It was sort of a lucky dip to get to play with them while at the same time they played Bingo. Seta actually won at Bingo and won a really cool VF shirt!



After all official events were over, they just had an open Kumite with Chibita and Fuumin. Myself, Ogi, and Danny all lined up to play Chibita. I was first up in our little group, and Chibita noticed my PR message saying I was from Australia and he pointed it out to the announcer who then announced it everyone. In all the excitement I forgot to save my match with Chibita (btw, I lost) but it was a really cool moment. This attention was then given to Ogi and Danny, and the Kumite had suddenly received an injection of international attention.

We later all thanked Chibita and took a photo with him:


Danny, Seta, Shou, Chibita, Ogi, Myke at Shibuya HiTech Land SEGA.

Ogi and Seta eventually left, leaving Danny and myself with Shou at the arcade. We decided to get some dinner and Itazan joined us since he was still around. Shou took us to a Hawaiian Hamburger joint. Unfortunately, my burger was woefully undercooked and had to be returned to be later replaced with another. The place was alright, but rather pricey!

Part Two

Before I go onto the next day, I must share with you the experience Danny, Shou and I had with one particular Lei Fei player who went by the ring name of Dead Man. To describe him in one word (or four, depending) -- OMFG!

The three of us took turns trying to beat him just the once. We failed pretty miserably, and I think he got to 20 straight wins against us before we finally called it quits and headed off to dinner (to the abovementioned Hawaiian Burger joint).

But man, this guy was godly. He was also at max rank (Kenshin) and we were quite convinced that his rank was legit in light of the fact that many people fake their ranks for various reasons.

Like Gorgeous Eileen, this guy made you feel just how powerful an apparently top tier character (Lei Fei in this case) can be in the right hands. And again, I fail to pin-point why he was able to dominate us seemingly with little effort, but really it's just a testament to his individual skill, overwhelming strength in reading our play, and true mastery of his character. As fun and frustrating it would be, especially if we managed to get two rounds on him, only to inevitably lose the match, it truly was both humbling and inspiring to experience. Two feelings that I had not been in touch with for a very long time in this game.

Really, words don't do this guy any justice, and I'd dare say watching movies of him probably wouldn't either. I had lost count of the number of times the three of us just looked at eachother, grinning, shaking our heads gob-smacked and stunned and what had just happened.

Anyway, you're probably getting the idea that this guy was good!

Sun 30th Mar 08 - Attouteki Singles and Hotel VF
Attouteki Battle Tournament - this was a singles tournament with pretty strict entry criteria -- you had to be ranked above Kaiden (Master) in order to enter. That ruled me out, but Danny being at Meishou could have entered had he arrived on time! It would have been awesome to watch Danny have a go at this tournament, but alas it wasn't to be.

Visit the link for the tourney bracket and links to streaming media of the final, semis, and quarter finals, as well as the Jaga vs Joseph match. If you want to see the likes of Gorgeous, Joseph, Jaga, Homestay, Jin, etc, in action then don't miss it. It's your latest look into how these guys are playing!

So the four of us -- Danny, Ogi, Seta and myself -- took our seats in the crowd, sat back (forwards, and sideways), and watched the tournament unfold. It really was amazing to watch it unravel, the fast play, the tactics, the patience, the nerves and mistakes. Basically, every ingredient necessary to make for a high tension tournament was there in bucket loads.

They had two setups going in parallel, but only one match would be relayed on the big screen at any time. Usually if a famous player was playing, their match would be relayed, but when it got down to the final eight, the following two matches were about to be played:

Gorgeous Eileen (EI) vs Joseph (AK)
Itabashi Zangief (SH) vs Homestay Akira (AK)

and the commentators asked Chibita which match should they relay. I can't remember what he said, but Itazan spoke out and recommended they air his match in a somewhat cheeky manner! The crowd laughed out loud, and they indeed aired his match. Too bad for him that he lost 0-3 to Homestay though!

As most of you may know, the eventual winner was Gorgeous Eileen, who defeated Jishaku (Kage player, formerly known as Edo) pretty convincingly, 3-0. Again, refer to the link for media.

Other notable moments were SHU (SH) vs Yukino (AO) in the first round. For those that don't know, Yukino is a strong female player in Tokyo. Their match was really close and down to the wire. Of course the infamous Jaga (GO) vs Joseph (AK) was really exciting to watch too, and is available for viewing/downloading on the official site, but don't forget that you probably saw it first courtesy of Ogi's youtube channel!

All up, the tournament ran pretty smoothly and lasted around 2 hours and change. But by the end of it, we were all pretty exhausted and (legs) numb from being seated on the ground for all that time, so we decided to call it a night at the arcade. The remaining people partook in another bingo game and star player kumite again.

With the excitement of the tournament behind us, we went back to my hotel for some Hotel VF5 courtesy of Ogi's Xbox 360. This was our first chance to really sit down and get some quality (and quantity) games in against each other. Ogi likes to play a tricky Kage but isn't too shabby with Goh or Jacky. Danny is extremely proficient with more characters than I care to mention (it makes me sick) but is definitely the most formidable with Akira. And Seta, while he says his main is Sarah, his Jacky and Jeffry were powerhouses in their own right too! It was awesome playing with Seta actually, as it always felt that our matches were really intense and his character specific combo knowledge is very impressive too!

BTW, we saved a bunch of replays which Ogi might get around to capping some day!


Ogi "pull my finger", Danny and Myke with Hori EX2 sticks

We play for a few hours before taking a break for dinner. Seta took us to this secret underground hideout in Kabukicho called Ikkyu. This place was just awesome in the food and how unbelievably cheap it was, especially if you joined as a member (Yep, I joined up!) In the first few days of April, they were running some kind of promotion where beers would only cost 100 or 150yen! OMG!!!!! It's such a shame that we were leaving so soon, as I really wanted to go back there! /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif


Danny, Ogi, Seta and Myke at Ikkyu

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for some more games before the guys eventually had to call it a night and catch their last trains out of Shinjuku. Danny and I make plans to see Ogi and Seta one last time on Tuesday where Seta kindly offered to show us around a few places.

Great guys. Good times.

Mon 31st Mar 08 - Demotions and HighKick Jeffry!
So the weekend has come and gone, and I realise that aside from the spectating, some random games at Shibuya and the Hotel VF, we didn't really play much serious VF in the arcades. I also realise that I'm not maximising my premium VF.Net membership since I've let two days go by without saving any replays! So, today (Monday) was the day to make amends... well, that was the plan!

I was meeting Danny in Shibuya in the late afternoon, which gave me a couple of hours to kill in Shinjuku. And what better place to kill time than the arcade? So off I went to Club Sega in West Shinjuku (aka Nishisupo).

You know, I was feeling pretty pumped about playing today. I've come out of a weekend where I watched a lot of high quality play, and it gave me a fresh outlook to the game and some new strategies to employ. Here was a match I saved early on while still at 9th dan, against a 5th dan El Blaze:


VF5 Ver.D Myke (KA) vs Hayashiya Bernhart (BL)

Not a particularly thrilling match -- rife with command errors like a missed knee after TFT, a 3K+G that should have been 2K+G, etc. But it was a come back from being down 1-2 and the finish was, well, I thought save worthy at the time.

Eventually, the time tells me that I should head on over to Shibuya to meet up with Danny. I do that, and actually arrive there a little early to find Danny already there playing! I think this counted as the first (and only!) time Danny was actually early in meeting up!

Anyway, we contine to play there, and I later save this match against a 9th Dan Jeffry:


VF5 Ver.D Myke (KA) vs Jaku Suma (JE)

This one has a comeback from being 0-2 down, involving a pretty damaging wall bounce combo from a wall stagger, and it was quite close in the final round, with one correct guess from Jeffry very easily giving him the win.

Anyway, I think eventually that night, that I ranked down to 8th dan which is the rank I left Japan with.

There were quite a few highly ranked and highly skilled Jeffry's there that night, and among them was Highkick Jeffry! I only played a single game with him, but I remember it vividly. Wait, no. What I remember vividly was the feeling of suffocation! /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif He read me like an open book and I was thoroughly schooled, and I'm sure Danny will re-tell a similar account. Sadly, since I had already saved a match earlier, I didn't save any with Highkick -- and truth be told it's probably not that interesting to see such a one sided match. It really was one of those "you had to be there" occasions to really experience his awesomeness. Still, I'm grateful for the experience even if it was wrapped in an ass whoopin

Tue 1st Apr 08 - Ikebukuro, Roppongi and Yakiniku in Kabukicho
This was the last day we'd get to see Ogi and Seta. The guys had kindly offered to show us around today, and we started off with meeting at Ikebukuro:


Seta, Myke, Danny (with Akira t-shirt), driftsilencer and his bro

We walk around, check out Gigo (the sega arcade in Ikebukuro) for a short time while the others do a bit of shopping, then head off for some lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Since we were a large group (7 people) I sat separately with Ogi and Seta, and the gang from Singapore sat at their own table. The three of us all ordered the same chili noodle soup dish and it was exquisite! I'll try to get a pic off Ogi and post it up later.

After lunch we jump on the subway and continue on for more sightseeing. I can't exactly remember what our immediate plans were (I think visiting a castle) but we fast tracked it to visiting Tokyo Tower instead. However, we apparently got off at the wrong subway station making the walk to Tokyo Tower much longer than it probably should have been:


Driftsilencer, Myke, Drift's bro, Danny's fiance, Danny, Ogi on their way to Tokyo Tower.
p.s. Imagine this pic animating in slow motion to the Battle Without Honor track from the Kill Bill OST. Cool, no?


While the walk was long, the conversation made the time pass by quite easily, and walking by the sakura (seen in the above pic) was also delightful. We eventually get to Tokyo Tower, pay the 820yen to travel up to the main observatory which is about 150m above the ground. Some some extra yen we could of gone up to the special observatory (250m above) but decided not to. A couple of pics:



We leave Roppongi and head back to Shibuya and Harajuku for some last minute shopping. While driftsilencer goes to pickup some earlier paid for clothing, Danny, Seta, Ogi and myself check out the UT store. UT is a branch of UNIQLO which specialises in t-shirts (UT = uniqlo tshirts). UT periodically have campaigns and promotions with famous artists (manga, traditional) and the like providing cool designs for t-shirts. We were lucky enough that they were holding a SEGA TRIBUTE campaign where you could buy some cool shirts such as:

Akira, Kage, Wolf, Jacky, Pai
(UT Series Explorer Link)

I ended up getting a couple of shirts for my self and as gifts for friends/family back home. Danny got the Akira shirt, Seta got Jacky and Ogi got Kage. At only 1900 yen each, they were a steal!


Myke, a satisfied customer, exits the UT store with Danny

Evening has rolled around, and we're collectively tired and super hungry. We head back into Shinjuku/Kabukicho, which was just a brief hop, skip and jump away on the yamanote JR line for our farewell dinner, Yakiniku style!


The gang! You can see most of us wearing our VF tshirts like the geeks we are!

The food was absolutely awesome and full of win when it's all you can eat! You can trust that we stuffed ourselves silly and left the establishment extremely satisfied and considerably heavier than when we had entered.

We headed off to Club Sega West Shinjuku for some final games, before we bid Ogi and Seta a final farewell.

Ogi and Seta: Thank you both so much for welcoming us and your generous hospitality! Here's hoping to meeting you guys again soon, and we hope that someday we can return the favour of your kindness!

Wed 2nd Apr 08 - Return Home
Well, this was our last day in Tokyo. Since Danny and the gang were staying near Ueno and were reluctant to venture in one last time, I agreed to trek out to Ueno to meet them one last time instead.

It was rather a low key afternoon with not much doing. Of course, Danny and I couldn't resist a final deathmatch but it wasn't until we accidentally walked into an arcade with some X-rated games! Whew, they sure were eye openers!

We finally settled at Gaia game center, and I think it's safe to say that Danny pretty much owned me. He made me pay so dearly for any hesitation, and at a time when I was ready to take a break from VF5 (being the end of the trip and all), Danny refused to let go and pretty much forced me to go out with a fight - kicking and screaming if necessary! And, I swear, if it had not been for the fact that we both had planes to catch in a matter of hours, we could have stayed there all afternoon and into the night playing so intensely.

So here's the last replay saved during this wonderful and memorable trip.


VF5 Ver.D Myke (KA) vs Danny (AK)

Danny: it was awesome to catch up with you again after so many years. I like that we're so like-minded when it comes to VF and I relished all the coversations we had -- from complex VF gameplay, lamenting at our helplessness against the Tokyo "monsters", to stupid jokes about squeezing too hard the piss will come out! Hope to see you again soon, bro!

And so ends my report. Hope you enjoyed reading as much as I did sharing and reminiscing it. As usual, I'm sure I've forgotten a heap of stuff, but oh well!

 

OK, I just posted up part two.

If you read the first part, then you can continue on from the <span style='font-size: 17pt'>Part Two[/size]</span> marker. Just make sure you're sitting down and comfortable first, it's that long! /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif