So, my journey has ended and it's time to talk about the tournament!

First of all, thanks a lot to the NGI events for hosting the stream.
The tournament was managed very well by the organizers. I've entered the Soul Calibur VI and VF5FS tournaments that unfortunately were held in the same moment. This translates in me moving across the area switching between the two games. One of the guys said "Sorry mister, we make you run but you keep winning", a nice way to motivate me :°D

Since this is VFDC i'll just leave out the SCVI matches (also because I can barely remember anything ._.'') and just focus on what WE really care about, the good old vf.

It was really nice to see some old faces like Marlon and DWR (who was also the friend who gave me a place to crash in) and play vf with.
Also new faces appeared in this tournament like Synth, ThePoopTickler (you're hilarious man), Blue Link and others too. I would have love to play Seidon too but he couldn't make it, I guess life catches up with us when we don't want.

Besides some minor issue with the stream and some controllers koff*koff*poop*koff*koff, everything went super smoothly.

Now, I'm writting this wrap up, but i'm also the guy who won the tournament so... I'm in the weird position to auto celebrate me ._.''.
2nd place to Marlyjay and 3d to Tickler.

I did play with almost everybody except synth (you left too soon buddy, I would have loved to have some free play with you too.

Anyway I'll try to highlight everybody with some specific advices:

Dreambot: Keep practicing. I see that you're very enthusiastic about the game. You'll see that with practice and knowledge you can achieve so much more.

Blue Link: your play style is very solid. You've a lot of potential, you were probably the most talented player i've fought from the new players wave.

ThePoopTickler: Dude, you're a showman. Thanks for the drink... please next time bring a smaller one I seriously had trouble finishing that can.

Synth: don't leave soo soon next time

Now, there are few names that i didn't really attached to any faces so I'll just adress to this guy as "dreambot's friend" : It was nice playing so many new people. I see a lot of potential and I would like to personally train every one of the new arrived to make the transition to unknown stuff to funny knowledge.

And now to the veterans

Marly: I still don't understand the blind pick thing... how does it works? It felt like you weren't done taking off the rust from your Vanessa/Eileen/Lion. If there's going to be another SFF next year with VF in it, We'll have the third match we deserve (Becase at the first SFF you won vs me).

DWR: I gave you many many advices to get better. You know what to do. I just hope you get the free time and will to do so. Don't be afraid to ask me or anybody else in here for tips to implement in your gameplan.


Thanks a lot for all the fun during the event. I hope that the stream was fun to watch for everybody like it was for me. Seeing my gf and some friends talking randomly in the chat was hilarious... but they were talking italian so just few people will get what they were saying.

I also invite @MarlyJay and the other participants to add few words.

Dude what a rush! What a way to end the first actual tournament that I've entered for anything really. The guys at NGI Events were absolutely great hosts, providing everything we needed and then some. This was a huge difference from last year at Revolution 2018 where we were slinging all the equipment we needed to play VF across London for three days.

Almost everyone at the venue was a new face; I've seen Synth outside of this tournament before and Blue Link last year at Revolution 2018, but most of the faces there were new and everyone was an amazing sport, which was a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately our boy Seidon couldn't make it, but that's how it is sometimes; real life intrudes on what we want to do. I hope to see you next time.

Now there's one issue I gotta address... The controller... My ageing Namco Arcade Stick, after over 15 years of service started giving up the ghost. Accidental pauses galore, a crapshoot guard button (pretty much every Pak Sao was unintentional) and the turbo function was the bane of me but I played on, slightly changing my style to accommodate for the broken stick. The last thing I wanted to do was bow out of the tournament, so I played on, eager to see where I and my stick could go.

Colour me surprised when it took me all the way up to third place. I'll be honest, I never expected to get as far as I did, what with me running on the walls, throwing out raw backflips and dropping the big money combo but I did what I did and I was only beaten by the two players who would go on to the grand final, @Mister and @MarlyJay. That's not to say it was an easy ride to third however; Blue Link almost gave me a heart attack taking the first game in our set and Synth put up a valiant fight in his bouts, almost taking me down in our last match. It was an absolute joy to participate in the tournament and I'm not just saying that because I took third place or anything like that. Honest!

Doing commentary was something else. As opposed to being the action, it was all about enhancing the action. I can only hope that my commentary was entertaining and engaging, especially since this is the first time VF has featured as a mainline game in a tournament in Europe in a very long time.

I think I managed to play with almost everyone who played in the tournament and I gotta say thanks a bunch for the games before, during and after the tournament. It was a truly amazing experience to meet all of you guys and to play with you guys too. Congratulations to our winner @Mister, Mr 2nd Place @MarlyJay (I hoped the both of you enjoyed your victory beverages!) and to all else who participated in the tournament! Thanks to the hosts for having us there, providing the equipment for us and making sure everything went smooth.

I'll most likely be down at Revolution 2019 slinging down VF to the masses once again so that's probably where most people will see me next, but until then, I hope to see you all next time!

I didn't know Shaq played VF. Dude looks smaller in the pic somehow.

Sorry I missed it, guys. My brother's stag night was moved to the same weekend so I had to cancel.

Looks like it was a lot of fun though.

Congratulations on the win @Mister it was well deserved, you've put so much work into the game.