Portland, OR: THURSDAY NIGHT FIGHTS @ Versis

ABOUT THURSDAY NIGHT FIGHTS @ VERSIS (AKA "FIGHT NIGHTS")

When: Every Thursday, 6pm-10pm

Where: Versis Videogame Center - 1356 NW Civic Dr. Gresham, OR 97030

Cost: $6 pays for the entire night of playing all available console or PC fighting games. Again, the $6 is a one-time fee for the day, it is not the hourly rate. If the event goes past 10pm (it often does, sometimes even to 5am), you won't be charged for any further gametime.

Fight Night sessions are played on our large HD setups with USB access provided for arcade sticks and corded controllers. Two arcade sticks on each system (360 and PS3) are provided, but bringing your own stick is always recommended and many of our members are happy to let others play on them (assuming good consideration and care).

During the sessions that go very late, we often prepare additional setups tailored to the group's needs and especially if our members provide it (import Wii's, CRT monitors, near-lagless monitors, etc...). It's a community effort.

All console fighting games are covered under the $6 fee. We have 360s, PS3s, Wii consoles, and PCs. Our fighting game library includes King of Fighters XII, BlazBlue, Street Fighter IV, Tekken 5 DR, SSF2T:HD Remix, Soul Calibur IV, Virtua Fighter 5, Dead or Alive 4 and even some older fighting games.

A PC will also be made available for the group in case you need to look up something or watch youtube videos or whatever.

There is also a 25 cent multicade arcade machine loaded up with lots of fighting games. The library includes most Capcom and SNK fighting games that were not on a Naomi or CPS3 board.

Players are welcome to bring any appropriate equipment they feel necessary such as additional CRTs, monitors, systems, games, hard drives, controllers, etc... We really do want to support all fighting games possible.

The Fight Nights are a blast and the most active games of late have included Street Fighter IV, Virtua Fighter 5, KOF XII, BlazBlue, HD Remix, and Super Turbo: Grandmaster Challenge on the multicade. When Tekken 6 comes out, we'd love to see that grow into a staple too.

We're always looking to provide a place for the community to develop, expand, and together experience games as best as we can provide.

 

I can't remember everything at last week's Fight Night (8/27/09), but here's what I can remember...

Thanks to the following players for coming out:
* SlayU2
* Rayblade X
* Bumperfront
* Derek
* R_Panda
* Pasqual
* Kwyjibo123
* Scotti
* Lord BBH
* Mackinzie
* Fat Bear
* Slash5150
* Two other dudes playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2

I also ran into two guys from Mexico in my store who (not surprisingly) love KOF 2002. They might show up next week ^_^ They played the crap out of KOF and Snow Bros. 2 on the machine.

Back to the 8/27 Fight Night...

This was a weird night.

On top of the SF4 sessions that were going pretty well, I was (not surprisingly as of late) playing a lot of KOF XII with Pasqual, Panda, BBH, Mackinzie, Kwyjibo123, and Slash. Thank you guys, I had a lot of fun!

The highlight of the night are the things that made this night so weird... It truly was a flashback to old at home sessions, especially ones with Rayblade. I say it's really weird, but I really mean it in a good (but kinda scary) way...

Here goes...

R_Panda busts out Battle Fantasia and pretty much everyone gets in on it with tons of "oohs, aahs, and WTFs."

* Slash5150 streaks early despite not having played the game. I think ever.

* Fat Bear (who won the 3S tourney at Northwest Majors) probably had the most dominant streak and ended up smiling really bright afterwards with how crazy the game is. The guy's been worn out with work and all... but I haven't seen him this bright in awhile. Though I'm guessing he was shining bright after he won 3s at NWM

* Even Lord BBH (won KOF XII at NWM, 2nd on HDR) partakes and more madness ensues. No idea what Matt thnks about the game, but everyone seemed to like it.

And another thing weird happens... Like some of the old private at home fighting sessions at the old Art House and other places... Rayblade busts out some of the most bizarre music videos I've ever seen from the 80s and 90s... and BBH, while playing KOF XII with me, starts singing along out loud from across the store... I've been scarred for life...

Anyhow, with RaybladeX going to the World Cyber Games tournament in New York for Virtua Fighter 5, I'll definitely be setting up practice sessions on the side the next few weeks at the Fight Nights. We'll probably break down replays and iron out a lot of kinks. It'll be a good opportunity for those wanting to learn more VF5 to have things broken down for them in group collaboration.

Awesome times guys!!!

 

Looking forward to this week's Fight Night, especially after the last two.

I've been fairly busy the past couple of weeks (well, the past month really), but I have been wanting to give a more detailed thanks and account of the Fight Nights we've had.

Following are my accounts of the last two Fight Nights:

9/3/09 (aka Day Before PAX)
This was a surprising Fight Night for me for a number of reasons. I didn't have the usual heads up for it like I normally had, except that I Mackinzie told me he'd be able to make this one (always awesome).

I was also preparing for PAX the next day, which meant an early morning drive to Seattle, which meant that I would not be able to stay out too late (in theory) at this Fight Night.

That said, more and more people showed up and it was one helluva time. Before I continue witht he Pre-PAX Fight Night...

Thanks to the following players that showed up that night (and sorry if I missed your name):

* Pasqual
* R_Panda
* Slash
* Rayblade
* SlayU2
* Tsunamiken
* Mackinzie
* Tajiri
* Derek
* Bumperfront
* Alix
* Billy Chiu
* Anthony
* Ricky
* Hector
* Sam Y

So on with the details...

We intended to start the night with some VF since it had been awhile for Pasqual and R_Panda. Furthermore, I have been wanting to give Ray more VF training before his NY trip. Shortly before Ray showed up I ended up workshopping some VF basics with Pasqual and he caught on quick. If the session lasted longer than it did, I would think Pasqual would come away a lot stronger in VF--but he was adjusting quick.

Ray showed up and so for almost an hour before I had to jump back on the clock, Ray and I fought it out like crazy in VF. Right away Ray was beating me up with his Vanessa and took the lead for the rest of the night, but I was able to fight my way back for awhile. When all was said and done, we had very intense Vanessa vs. Lion fights and I think the score was something like 17-14 or 15 (Ray leading). The only critique on Ray's game from me that night was he fell back into the habit of dodging way too much, so sometimes I would sweep him over and over again to kind of stop him from doing that. Though instead, he ended up sweeping me back hehehe. But seriously, the matches were really good and we really fought it out.

I ended up working for awhile so I couldn't play for a few hours. Watched people play SF4 and what not and Pasqual brought along Dissidia and was playing that a lot that evening.

I was really happy to see Alix, Billy, and their friends show up. They hadn't been to a Fight Night since beginning and I later found out why (Billy is the high school group's driver and he was in Hong Kong). The last time they came, their first Fight Night, Alix made a good SF4 impression on the top players so I really wanted him to play SF4 with everyone. It took awhile for that to start....

I got Alix's group into KOF XII on the PS3 and they really enjoyed that. Enough to buy the game in fact (a week later, we got our sessions and it was fun).

Mackinzie setup a PS2 with Third Strike and that was awesome. The Third Strike station was a great part of this Fight Night with Portland's Fat Bear leading the group. Along with him were Mackinzie, Pasqual, R_Panda, and Slash all playing a lot of 3S that night.

Anyhow, after awhile, I decided it was time to get Alix to play SF4 with more of the group. So I setup the PS3 station for SF4 (he can only play on PS3 pad at the moment) and we set it up.

Alix and Ray had some epic matches as well as Alix and Sam Y. At the end of the night though, it was only Ray's Blanka that took down Alix's Abel. Alix had streaked everyone during the fight night with his Ryu and Sagat. Even with other characters.

As Ray described Alix's playstyle that night: "He's like a mini-Jackson (Chen). No-nonsense player. It might not be my favorite style of playing, but I respect it."

After Alix and his group were done with SF4 for the night, they asked to play some KOF XII so we got into that for around 40 minutes and had a lot of fun before their group left. Glad they enjoyed the game enough to pickup their own copy because 9 days later we had a lot of fun at a private session of KOF XII at Versis.

The rest of the evening was a lot of SF4 and 3S. I really enjoyed watching people play Combo H-O-R-S-E on SF4 before I left for the evening. Ended up leaving really late, but I greatly appreciate Mackinzie sticking behind to close up the place later and I heard everyone had a great time at Denny's.

As for me... well it did make my drive to PAX the next day more difficult, but I had a blast.

9/10/09 (the unofficial tournament)
Quite a crazy Fight Night. There was a good showing of different people and there was a tournament that was pretty crazy--awesome outcome, pretty exhausting, lots to talk about.

First off, thanks to the following players who made it out on this special Fight Night:

* Yangsing
* Tsunamiken
* Bumperfront
* SlayU2
* Rayblade
* Angel (very cool newcomer)
* R_Panda
* Pasqual
* Kwyjibo (Kevin)
* Slash
* Alix
* Billy
* OMNE
* Lord BBH
* Mackinzie

The night began with SF4 and a little bit KOF XII as I convinced Yangsing and Angel to try it out. Unfortunately I had to get back and work as more and more people came in, so I couldn't show them some of the ropes in the game. Eventually things went back to all SF4 but good times.

Angel's new to the scene, but not new to SRK. He's interested in SF4, Blazblue, and KOF XII. I really liked meeting Angel and I look forward to seeing him at more gatherings. After awhile, I could tell that his primary experience with SF4 was online play. Pretty darn good considering that too, but he'll be learning a lot more at Fight Nights, Ranbats, and with more games with everyone. Welcome to the Fight Nights, Angel!

OMNE, Slash, and Pasqual helped out to get a Double Elimination Tournament going. OMNE was both the driving force behind the tournament as well as a superb coach to the players--so I have to give him a lot of credit for that. He would let players know what things they were doing flat out wrong or what would help them after he saw their tournament matches and I think it was pretty much appreciated by everyone.

Lots of good came out of the tournament such as Matt explaining to some other players the nuances in the Boxer vs. Sagat matchup, Jetay's pointers, observing how much more competitive R_Panda has become with Viper, and best of all... A thrilling "as close as you can get" Grand Final between Lord BBH and Alix.

Lord BBH won in the final round of the final match of the final set of the Grand Finals. And up to that last moment, nobody really knew who would win.

For BBH, it was awesome to see someone take down Alix (twice in the same tournament even). For Alix, it was an amazing performance for his first ever tournament.

Alix and Billy had to leave immediately after the tournament because they have to wake up early for High School, but it was awesome that they stuck around until the tournament's end which was close to 1:30am.

After the tournament, open play resumed with mainly SF4 on the two main stations and KOF XII on the side. Quite a bit of workshopping happened naturally on SF4 which was great to see.

On KOF XII, there was workshopping during the tournament with Yangsing learning various things from myself and BBH. Kwyjibo would combo practice to get a feel for the game. Mackinzie practiced combos, learned combos on his own, and got in quite a few matches. Wish I was able to play more matches with him.

I had a wonderful KOF XII session with BBH though I got destroyed the whole night, but I always enjoy the beatings and I do think my XII game is getting better.

Super, super late was the VF5 session between Ray, Yangsing, and OMNE. I was preoccupied cooking meals for people (part of the job and we're glad to be generating revenue so late in the night) and preparing some closing activities so I didn't get into the VF5 until way later when it ended up being just Ray and I.

Ray and I had a great VF5 session and I think at the next fight night, I'll play a more machi/chicken style against him so he gets used to it. I think he's going to be facing much more of that style in New York. He adjusted to it after 3 or 4 matches though and made less mistakes or gambles from long range eventually.

That Vanessa of his is scary, but I spoil Ray a bit going toe-to-toe almost always against him because it would be more to his benefit now to improve his discipline and mastery of long-range fighting.

It was a really good, but tiring fight night. Ended around 5:30am. Good times!

 

HOLY COW!
moving to portland was apparently a very good choice in regards to my virtua fighter contact list, hehe.
I'm definitely going to be there next thursday night, although I don't know if I'll have the six dollars (I just moved out here from michigan - on impulse - and i'm totally effing broke.) But if I can somehow muster up the 8 dollars for the max and the entry fee, then I will totally be there - I play VF like noone's business, and consider myself to be pretty good. That's probably wrong out here though.

But back in my podunk town in brighton, I was the second best of a crew of like, 6!
So There!

-jannon

 

Hey Yurial!

Looking forward to meeting you! Make sure to come on over on Thursday. If there's trouble, we'll try to work something out for your first time, but I can't promise that right now.

Ray's gonna be in New York next week for WCG so you'll miss him then, but you'll have myself and a few others. At the very least, you should be able to get some fun matches with myself and Yangsing who has been getting stronger and stronger this year in VF5 and OMNE as well. More of our Fight Night crew have been playing VF as well and there are some old timers that are quite good, but busy with personal life stuff.

Anyhow, I'm really looking forward to meeting you!

-Chanchai

P.S. This goes way back, but... do you know Kruza?

 

No, Unfortunately, I do not know Kruza.

But it's good to hear that the community is down to help out a fellow gamer! I'm still going to search my (messy) room high and low and come up with as many pieces of coin as I can so that i can hopefully lessen the financial burden, or if I'm lucky, even eliminate it outright.

See you later today!

 

It was great meeting you on Thursday night, Yurial!

Thanks for making it out to the fight night despite the obstacles. I am really looking forward to more sessions ^_^

I enjoyed fighting your Lion very much and I will definitely be stealing some things to be used as options in my repertoire.

You have pretty good reflexes and you adapted really, REALLY WELL in the Aoi matches. I felt you had seen through a lot of her by the end of our series--really good stuff and it led to a lot of tension in the fight.

You're much better at Lion vs. Lion than you give yourself credit for Those were fun as hell matches for me.

It also seemed like you were good at watching the opponent as they got up and would punish them if their wakeup patterns were limited.

With a bit more mixing up at the proper times in your offense game and increasing the damage you can do in some situations--that sounds like it would be quite terrifying to deal with ^_^

Again, thanks for the games ^________^

-Chanchai

 

The Fight Nights have been going very well and I look forward to posting the reports of the last two weeks soon.

Well... today I have to break some news that might be tough on some of the Fight Night members...

Starting this week, Versis is raising the price of Fight Night to $10.

I still think this is a ridiculously good deal as you have 4 hours guaranteed ($2.50 an hour) and you guys know that even when I'm tired like a dog, I try to let it keep on going for a bit longer (the last one went to 3am, the prior 2 went until 5:30am). Furthermore, we are not ignoring those that will have the most trouble with this change. More on that later in this post.

I hope Versis has been an awesome place for everyone, and I hope the community can understand the necessity for this change.

Now... about that bit about "not ignoring those that will have the most trouble with this change." We are offering a severely low number of coupons that will, for the moment, give $4 off.

I do not want to give these just to anybody, ONLY THOSE THAT ABSOLUTELY NEED THEM. I will need notice ahead of time and we will discuss it. E-mail me at vf_chanchai@hotmail.com (my SRK mailbox is full) or send me a private message on Playfire, 1Up, or VirtuaFightClub--I go by Chanchai on all of those.

Normally we would distribute coupons differently--but in this case, I'm giving them on a per case basis and again, I have a severely low number of coupons I can give. Just remember that by receiving one of these coupons, another person who will likely really need it, probably won't be able to get it.

In any case, I hope you guys all understand--and I hope you guys all see that this is still a really good value. And I really appreciate what a good group we have at the Fight Nights--they're always one of the big highlights of my week, personally. And I want to keep it that way.

-Chanchai

 

The last couple of weeks have been a blur for me... combination of 20 hour workdays, some stress here and there, and all kinds of stuff...

But the Fight Nights have been excellent and were definitely some of the highlights of each week.

BTW, we will have plenty of Pizzas, Fries, Burgers, and Corn Dogs for ordering this week! I'm sorry we didn't have enough pizzas and burgers to meet demand last week...

I probably can't write too much about it as I can't remember everything, but we had some very busy fight nights with tons of SF4, a good amount of Soul Calibur IV and Virtua Fighter 5, some 3rd Strike and KOF XII as well. And I'm sure some other games too!

Gotta thank the players who came out to the fight nights, listed by Fight Night:

9/17/09 Fight Night
* Monkeysarefun (WELCOME TO THE PARTY!!!)
* Bumperfront
* Rayblade
* SlayU2
* G_Effect (Welcome to our friends from Woodland!)
* Val
* Slash
* R_Panda
* Pasqual
* Xeris (always good to have you man! Giving people tough times with Gief and Voldo!)
* Chad (Welcome to Fight Night man! Thanks for the Soul Calibur fights!)
* Mackinzie
* Tsunamiken
* MetalhealthX (WELCOME BACK!!!!)
* Taziri
* Kwyjibo
* Jonathon (thanks for staying up and hanging out with us, nice Ryu!)
* Alix
* Holyrobot
* Yangsing
* OMNE
* Lord BBH
* Fat Bear
* Sam B

9/24/09
* SlayU2
* Pasqual
* R_Panda
* HolyRobot
* Tsunamiken
* Yangsing
* G_Effect
* Slash
* MonkeysRFun
* Kwyjibo
* Lord BBH
* Mackinzie
* Taziri
* Paul (Welcome to the club! I hope to see more of you man!)
* Solente (Good to have you at Fight Night!)
* OMNE
* Jannon (It was great meeting you and playing VF with you, I am really looking forward to more matches!)
* Fat Bear

Quite a group... and lots of great times! I'm glad Mackinzie's been bringing in the 3rd Strike. A lot of people new to the Fight Nights, which is always a wonderful thing. I want to make sure everyone feels included at these events, so if anyone is getting a bad vibe or concern, please let me know and I'm sure we'll get all that stuff sorted.

That said, it's been lots of SF4 fights with a single elimination tournament that went over 2 hours on the 17th for SF4 and a 2-man team double elimination tournament for fun ont he 24th. Great stuff and good matches, though I don't know if Fight Night can sustain too many tournaments like these, but they certainly are awesome fun with moderation.

On the 17th, we had quite a bit of Soul Calibur IV action with Xeris and Chad bringing their game, and OMNE showing his old school Taki can hang in there with everyone. I of course brought out my Mitsu and had a lot of fun fighting with my modified Soul Calibur I game.

We also worked on Ray for VF5 in preparation for his trip to New York and a lot of great matches were had. I think between Ray and myself, it was close to even, I honestly can't remember but I definitely felt a ton of pressure and got beaten down quite a bit.

In the Single Elimination Tournament it ended up with a rematch of Lord BBH vs. Alix and that was another awesome series of battles fought tooth and nail. You know how intense it is when you see BBH loaded up on adrenaline after his tournament win. It's a great thing to see imo. And Alix's exhibition matches with a ton of people as well with excellent fights with Fat Bear and Sam B. Excellent SF4 action. And of course we can't forget Xeris' Gief almost taking Alix out of the tournament, very close match and the danger of a strong Gief is indeed scary. No idea how it would end until it did.

On the 24th, more VF action happened along with the SF4. Jannon barely made it to Versis and we all had good matches with myself, Jannon, OMNE, Yangsing, R_Panda, Taziri, and some others. Heck, Lord BBH even messed around with the game, but he doesn't know anything about VF so it was just fun messing around. In my matches with Yangsing, I know I was being horribly brutal but it's because Simon really pushes you to play as strong as you can in the moment--I know if I give him one inch, he'll start putting me through hell. Maybe I should let him, but I get serious competitive fighting with Yangsing and that dude is scary when he figures you out or you give him a rhythm ^_^

BBH, thank you so much for the KOF XII fighting. I really missed playing XII, though both of us were rusty as hell last week. Heck, I felt like I forgot how to play XII period and it's an easy game to play lol! But thanks, I had great fun with that!

With all of the tending and cooking I was doing, it was hard for me to follow all the SF4 action, but I saw a very diverse cast during that session and some yells here and there, and a lot of people training against Gief by roping Xeris into their sessions. Good stuff!

The 2-man tournament was fun, but I lost track of what was going on--but it felt great being in a team. Thanks Holy Robot, good being your teammate though OMNE took us down! I think my second partner was Solente, I'm sorry if I got that wrong but that was a lot of fun too! Kwyjibo killed us!!!

So much happened... I've only barely scratched the surface... but as others from the 24th will tell you, I was one tired d00d... But it was a very very fun night regardless!

-Chanchai

 

Hey hey!

I really enjoyed our matches as well. I have not played the game in quite a while, so the actual like, marathon style vf match playing is not something I have the tolerance for yet. But soon I'll be unable to blink because my eyes have been open for so long, and I will be unable to change channels or type because of the horrible callouses and blisters on my fingers...

ahh, VF.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to relearning some of the fundamentals that I feel that I am lacking in (i.e. being more moral, using lions gambling game effectively, understanding how to punish evades and when it's better to backdash evade as opposed to just evade. (I think I know that one, though) among others.) - You are by far one of the best players I have ever encountered and I will definitely enjoy broadening my understanding of the game through your instruction (provided you're willing =). )

But yes, Excellent matches - thanks for not utterly demoralizing me (I have a fragile ego LOL), and I really appreciate all the feedback you've given me on my playstyle. I would be reciprocating, but I haven't made as many of the advanced concepts second-nature as you have, so any advice I could give would be a bit presumptuous on my part, I feel. But aside from that - I can't wait to beat you down on a consistent basis~!

(and isn't that what VF is all about =P)

awesome matches,
and again - thanks

-Jannon

 

What is the schedule for this for the coming months? I think I might try to organize a group of people to come up from Eugene to play.

 

Hi Hath,

Sorry for getting back to you late.

The Fight Nights are every Thursday. Tonight is expected to have a decent turnout and should be quite fun as usual.

What games does your group like to play?

I'm really looking forward to meeting you!

-Chanchai

 

The Fight Nights have been going strong with good attendance and even more new faces! Despite that, we are now offering something special to all Fight Night participants:

SPECIAL OFFER: Bring a guest who has never been to a Fight Night before in at full price and get your admission to Fight Night free.

The past few weeks have seen a lot of diversity in game selection at Fight Night. While SF4 is still the most played game at the nights, we have been getting more and more Tekken 6 buzz with people playing both Tekken 5DR and Tekken Tag--and having an absolute blast. Veterans and Tekken Newcomers have been playing and enjoying those games.

On top of that, Soul Calibur IV has also become more common. Virtua Fighter 5, HDR, BlazBlue, and KOF XII are also getting in some great sessions.

I am hoping to find time to write a more detailed report on the recent sessions as they have been pretty good and diverse.

 

Jannon, I hope you can make it out there tonight! Also hope you had a good trip!

I never got to fully respond to your post and have always wanted to because I really enjoy fighting against you in VF and you took a lot of rust off the last time we played and it seems like you also made a lot of progress.

For sure, I had to bring pretty much my full game the last time we played--you were adjusting really well and I think you were able to diagnose yourself properly. Furthermore, you made very important adjustments. It's easy to take those things for granted, but a lot of players (including myself) have trouble making necessary adjustments and play the match more than their own routine.

We all have our deep seeded routines, but you look like you're steadily fixing that issue for yourself--more than I can say for myself.

You're already a strong player--at this rate, you're going to be a very strong opponent in my book (well I already consider you that, but you know what i mean).

I hope we can duke it out soon!

-Chanchai