Portland: Chanchai's back

Well, I'm finally on winter break and I've been going to Tilt as often as possible.

Anyways, if anyone's inerested in meeting up for some games, post here or email or whatever and we can figure something.

I know there's quite a few Portland lurkers here. Looking forward to meeting a lot of you within the next four weeks.

And in case anybody's wondering, I'm the husky asian (Thai, but some people think I look Hawaiian or like a dark-skinned Korean) who usually plays Lion whenever I'm around.

-Chanchai

 

chanchai,
my nizzidge, /versus/images/icons/cool.gif

i am available friday afternoon->night as well as saturday!~

 

Hey chingdude!

Sorry for the late response. Anyways, here's what I have planned for myself:

Friday:
I should be at Tilt from about 5 (or 6) until around 9 or 10. I would usually stay until 11, but we're most likely taking a friend out for his Birthday at around 9 or 10. I know for sure that myself and Rayblade will be there.
Don't know about Instant Karma (as he hasn't been feeling too well lately), but I hope he can make it.
I'll try to get Burnside and Edge to come along as well (finally played Edge in VF4, his Wolf is shaping up nicely and I can't wait to see how his Akira eventually matures).

Saturday:
I'm gonna have to pray I wake up early so that I can hit the arcade around Noon. If that happens, I plan to be there during the afternoon, but I'll be leaving around 4 since I'll have a party to go to.

Sunday-Monday:
Currently plan on being in Seattle on those days. Gonna miss VF4, but I'll be happy to play VOOT (if a mini-gathering can be arranged).

In any case, I hope to see you at Tilt on Friday (today) and Saturday! Will be fun fighting your Jacky again! Rayblade's been using Lei Fei lately and my guess is that it's getting much more deadly.

As for me, my Lion research continues. But on the side this week, I've been having fun with Kage, Pai, Shun, Akira, and Lau.

Oh yeah, finally fought against transparent Dural (got First place in time, under 9 minutes). Also, Akira AI is pretty fun to fight against, especially when you resist the urge to counter with throws.

-Chanchai

 

Chanchai's Winter Break '01 - Week 1

It's been a few days since I last played VF4 last week on Saturday evening, and well... It was a nice week for me considering how much I played VF4! I met a few new players and got a lot of VF4 practice in and had fun. In this post, I'll mainly talk about Friday and Saturday and the players I played on those days.

Thursday the 13th
Edge
First time I got to play against Edge in VF4 and it was a lot of fun. He's still adjusting quite a bit to the game, but he plays more solid than a huge majority of the VF4 players in Portland (well, the ones I've played against anyways). He's been using Wolf lately so our matches were pretty much involving his Wolf. We didn't play many matches, but the only serious match I can remember is my Shun vs. Edge's Wolf and it was a pretty good match. After that, I showed him some of Akira's stuff (though I'm really awful with Akira) and we would just trade off playing against the CPU messing around with Akira. In any case, I hope he has the time and money to train in VF4, I always enjoy our matches (though in VF3tb, he likes to talk to me while I fight someone else, hoping I'll lose so he doesn't have to fight me/versus/images/icons/tongue.gif).

Desdon (the "kid Lau player")
I'm bad with names... My apologies to you if I got your name totally wrong... But "kid Lau player." Played him a bit, decided to show him a thing or two with Lau and tradeoff rounds against CPU, had fun. Anyways, I'll write more about him under Saturday.

Friday
Chingdude
The local Jacky player. The main nizzidge informed me that he hadn't played VF4 since the last time we had met (Thanksgiving weekend), but his Jacky felt improved... Maybe he worked more on his basics on VF2 the last few weeks? Well, whatever it was, his playing is still probably among the best I've seen in Portland so far and I enjoy fighting it every time. Keep up the good work and try practicing some stuff against CPU once in awhile to come up with new ideas for your Jacky. Eventually, you'll be able to use all the resources you pull in for your Jacky, it just takes time and practice and some tinkering with application/versus/images/icons/smile.gif
I can certainly tell you that I have to constantly be watchful of incoming beatknuckles and f+P+K among other things. And also, when I'm playing harsh on you every once in awhile, it's because I think you're good enough to "deserve it." So in a sense, it's my compliment to you/versus/images/icons/wink.gif

James (Eternal Dragon)
Another Jacky player. He's not that great... yet. But I see lots of potential and with his enthusiasm, I am VERY CONFIDENT that he's gonna be good. Not to mention it's beautiful to hear something like, "I'm not gonna be waiting for the PS2 version to train in this game! I'm gonna be training this game in the arcade all the time!" All I can say is, "Hell yeah!"
Anyways, you were playing with intent and control and I strongly admire that in people trying out a new game. It's a little weird when most of the "competition" slams on the buttons and bashes the sticks, saw none of that with the Eternal Dragon/versus/images/icons/smile.gif I look forward to meeting up with you again soon!

Ryujin
My good pal whom I wish I had more matches with. It's always fun playing Pai vs. Pai against this guy in VF4 and VF3tb. All he really needs is more VF practice against strong opponents. Otherwise, his Tekken and DoA2 game really convinces me that his potential for VF is extremely great.

Rayblade X (or as I like to call him, "Arby X")
Ahhh... The fighting game guru (and Bemani enthusiast) of Portland and Chanchai's true local rival. What can I say? Ray rarely disappoints, if ever. Not to mention that recent "revelations" are most likely going to transcend his regional fighting game status. But I'm not here to promote or hype the guy.
Ray's Vanessa is getting better and better. Still a lot of untouched territory with her, but I'm sure that's a general thing in North America with Vanessa. Finally, I'm afraid to techroll too much! Wish I could give proper descriptions, but I don't know Vanessa well enough to know exactly what I was hit with. I am always looking forward to fighting an improved Vanessa everytime I meet up with Ray and he hasn't disappointed me yet.
Perhaps the rising star of the night was Ray's Lei Fei. More and more people in the area are starting to talk about it and it's deserved. Though a recent pickup character, I am having more problems against Ray's Lei Fei than his Vanessa at this point (but I figure I'll have a lot of trouble in the future with both). Successful close and mid-range for this Lei Fei makes a lot of nice combos. Many of them standard at this point as Ray's still picking up on a lot of things. The Lei Fei long-range is a testament to Ray's growing patience game (something I used to heavily criticize in my mind in our VF3tb matches) which I think is an excellent step forward to him. It's also working quite nicely and forcing me to understand the various stances and transitions more (though it's constantly doing the retreating stance switch sequence).
Chanchai Lion vs. Rayblade Lei Fei are by far the most fun matches I've had in my early VF4 career. Chanchai Kage vs. Rayblade Lei Fei (one match) was probably the silliest by far, but lots of fun.

Saturday

(cont.) Desdon
It was a pleasant surprise to see "that Lau playing kid" on Saturday afternoon. His Lau seemed even better and more controlled and it was shining in the face of other local competition as I saw a crowd around VF4 as I came back to the arcade from an early dinner. Sure enough, he was handling people with his Wolf (and I assume Lau earlier).
I joined in the middle of his streak and brought out Aoi, a character I plan to use a lot, but hadn't used since Thanksgiving weekend. He seemed surprised to see me use Aoi and probably moreso to see me get a good streak with her. And I was glad that the one to break the Aoi streak was him/versus/images/icons/smile.gif (And it was funny to see him have the "Oh no!" expression when I brought out Lion/versus/images/icons/tongue.gif)
Anyways, his Lau is great on the Portland competition level, but just needs a bit more structure. His sense of range is there and he makes good use of it, but I can see it advancing a lot more in the future as he gets more and more familiar with stronger or more effective concepts and tactics. Most popular tactic is the relatively simple delayed sweep after PPP. However, he's finally extending far beyond such early tactics and implementing strong rushes and good use of the ol' upknife.
Keep working at it "Kid,"I'm looking forward to our future matches. You're one of the better players in Portland, so don't take my criticisms (publicly or privately) too personal, just keep improving/versus/images/icons/wink.gif

Kamata & Company
Woohoo, finally met Kamata. I had a hunch when I started seeing an Akira player that was doing pretty good along with a friend that was also doing well with a decent Akira.
At the moment, I forgot who was who... But out of the two, I think I had more trouble against Kamata's friend. Both player surprised me with their Akira however.
Yep, I was just really surprised all last week/versus/images/icons/smile.gif
Seems like they're still adjusting to VF4 (from VF2) as well as adjusting to the way I play (as opposed to most local competition), but the pieces all seem to be there. Just need to be put together and I see a strong "Team Akira" in Portland/versus/images/icons/smile.gif
Was great to finally meet you and hope we get some more matches in the near future. You guys made a good impression on me like everyone else I'm writing about here. Private message me sometime so we can schedule some get-togethers!

Anyways, I hope to meet even more enthusiastic VF players in Portland and also hope to have more matches against everyone again. I was happy to see that some serious players were forming in this new period of VF. Anyways, it was fun and I'll be going to Tilt before Thursday.

-Chanchai