TBZone International Tournament Result/Impressions

Well, hope it's okay to start just one more thread considering that the previous thread is somewhat cluttered with the pre-tourney chatter. The Florida Duo and Ice-9 will post their own stories in a few days, I am sure.

As CreeD posted, the "second" Japanese team won the tournament. (Hakkusion, Homestay, Ohsu.) They should be considered as strong as a Japanese--or a VF team--can be, considering even Chibita lately has trouble beating them. Prior to the tourney the Korean players themselves admitted that Ohsu's team had a good chance of winning the tourney. The Kyasao team didn't do as well but Kyasao himself has a plenty of an excuse. (His teammate CYC Aoi isn't exactly a top ranked Japanese player. And his other teammate was a Korean player named Savita. While strong, the ShinZ and Co wouldn't have had a much problem beating him.)

Some hightlights:

Team Replays (ShinZ, PoS Akira, Woongsun) beats the Kyasao team (Kyasao, CYC Aoi, Savita) at the first round of the 16-team elimination. To win, you had to beat the other team 6 times, meaning all the players had two chances of playing. Team Kyasao managed to beat ShinZ and PoS Akira but couldn't beat Woongsun's Kage.

Japan Team B (Hakkusion, Homestay, Ohsu) beats Deathknight 6-5 at the first round of the 16-Team elimination. I consider this to be a highlight because this was a down-to-the-wire match between the Japanese team and one of the better Korean teams. Deathknight (Formerly known as Vampire) I was told, is the strongest team from Busan, the second largest city in Korea. (BTW, the city was formerly Romanized as Pusan, before they changed the spelling.) Because they are not from Seoul they are not as well known I suppose. A couple of teams from Busan made it to the top 16, I believe. Deathknight, better of the two, had a misfortune of fighting against the Japanese team at the first round, but didn't go down without a fight. Unfortunately these first round matches may or may not be posted online.

Japan Team B beats Team Replays A at the quarter final. (6-5) This match was where Ohsu Akira truly shined. The Koreans did well against Hakkusion and Homestay, but Ohsu proved tougher. When things looked bleak for the Korean team, Woongsun's Kage managed to bring the score back to 5-5, beating Hakkusion and Homestay all by himself. Ohsu won the final match by 3-1 and it was over for them.

I didn't get to watch the final, but from what I hear Ohsu rolled over the Crazyboys after they managed to beat Hakkusion and Homestay. It was an anti-climatic final I suppose, considering they had a couple of close matches earlier in the bracket.

Extra Note about Zzangmu: The ace player of the Crazyboys. Apparently Ice-9 didn't hear about him before and wondered out loud who he was after seeing his quite impressive Jacky play. I filled him in saying that he is considered the best Jacky player in Korea. Some Korean spectator watching him play used the word (Tekken) "10-hit combo" to describe his playing But well, the Korean players admit that the Japanese players are very experienced against Jackys and it's not easy to beat them using Jacky.

Well, that's it for the result. I will make another post for impressions and stories about the adventure of the VFDC Team and the tournament atmosphere in general.

 

Good job hyun!!!
very interesting and organizing post!!!

wes

btw r u korean? if so, sugo ha shot ne yo^^.

 

A little correction

The match between the Replays and the Ohsu/Hakkusion/Homestay team was a semifinal, not quarterfinal.

 

Hehehe /versus/images/icons/smirk.gif , after hearing that report makes me wanted to started pimpimg everyone here in the U.S. like that pimpdaddy fella, AdamYuki but UUHhhnnn... just not there yet.

P.S. Need another 8 years of training from what I can evaulate, sorry to dissappoint all whores out there. /versus/images/icons/grin.gif

 

What??

 

Mr.Zu-Akira (of Deathknight) is Alien.
he didn't play vfevo before this tournament.

 

Well guys here let me talk a little about the "Team VFDC." and the general atmosphere about the tourney.

It might be inappropriate for me to speak for the Florida Duo and Ice-9. Well, it might be a little easier to do so if the result was good. But admittedly the result was not so stellar.

First let me recap the format of the tourney. There were 51 teams total (3 players per team) including the foreign teams. They were divided into six groups and each groups went through round robin "qualification" stage. Top two teams from each group got guarranteed spots in the final 16 team-single elimination. The third place teams from each group fought one other for the four additional spots in the finals.

During the "qualification" stage, our representatives of the English speaking VF world failed to win any team matches. (I should be careful here so that I don't step over my boundary while I make my observation.) It was undoubtfully disappointing. Quite often, they would win two rounds then lose three rounds in a row. When this happened a few times it put more psychological pressure. During the first match, the first player from the opposing team beat Jeff (Ice-9) and Chris (Blonde one) then Eric (IMF) will win two games in a row. Then the final match went down to fifth round with an inch of energy bar for both players. Then Eric lost. Unfortunately, things like this happened several times and it was very discouraging. Of course, there were many other factors. It was a foreign country after all. Chris and Eric played on Korean sticks for several days and one can say they were not fully used to either Korean or Japanese sticks. (They arranged the Japanese sticks for them to use.)

YamaInu commented to me that they deserved to do better (than losing all 8 games or so). Still, they were not without weakness, he said. Chris and Jeff could attack very well, but couldn't defend as well. Acording to him, that was why they would often win two rounds in a row then lose three rounds. The Korean players would often quickly adapt and exploit the weakness in their patterns. (That made me think that maybe we should have had some discussions after each matches on what went wrong, instead of "Well, let's just jump into the next game!" mentality.) Eric had the best defense of the three (I would agree myself.) But he didn't exploit the opening very well. He commented that Eric should have played Akira instead of Kage and I had to agree. Akira has more damage and pressure potential after successful defense.

Well, as an observer that's all I can say. I honestly hoped they would do better since there are some weak Korean players you can find in arcade. But then probably the standard in the tourney was higher. Before the tourney they had a mini-kumite for the foreign players. Jeff had 6 wins and 6 losses and Eric had 5 wins and 8 losses. Not sure about Chris. That gave us hope that they can at least maintain around 50 win rate. It was disappointing to not measure up to that expectation.

Anyway, a little note about the tourney atmosphere: They rented a moderate sized, empty commercial space in heart of the city. Notice that they have no corporate sponsorship or such. This was a tourney organized by VF lovers for VF lovers. No one else and no luxury or embellishment. A word that comes to mind is: Spartan, Hardcore, and you know. . . . one of those Jean Claude Van Damme movies.

During the final elimination, they had a curtain separating the players from the spectators. They fed the video into a projector so that it can be projected to an entire wall and dozens of standing spectators under very little light could watch the matches. Each blow and KOs created by the lifesized VF characters drew roars and cheers from the standing crowd.

Now can you picture where this JCVD movie comparison came from? This had such a gritty, hardcore yet pleasant atmosphere of underground fights you saw in those grade B martial art movies. We had this Spartan space with torn ceiling, with very little light and dozens of people standing around looking at the projection. Hopefully the Florida Duo will post some movies that capures this feel.

Finally, kudos to the organizers of the tourney. Again, they had no sponsorship and the only source of money was ridiculously modest entrance fee. They spent their own money, time, and passion to organize an international event that even Sega doesn't organize anymore. A regret may be spoken about the English speaking contingent not doing better, but I believe everyone would agree it was an unforgettable event.

 

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Finally, kudos to the organizers of the tourney. Again, they had no sponsorship and the only source of money was ridiculously modest entrance fee. They spent their own money, time, and passion to organize an international event that even Sega doesn't organize anymore.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this event should be taken as an inspiration to put some life into the US scene. I feel like that there is not enough activity in the US VF scene to motivate people to play or organize events like the TBzone tournament. Granted, there is simply not enough players and those that do play are too far away from each other making this type of big event very hard to organize. I don't know how to put this, on the one hand I wish people can make some sacrifices to be more active for VF, but at the same time I am not even sure myself if I am willing to spend the time and money. I think this is a perfect time for someone to take charge and make something happen that will hopefully breath some life to the NA VF scene. It doesn't have to be anything big initially, it just needs to be something with proven results that shows gathering/events can work. I have to mention the NY crew for the NYG events, but we need something that will excite people. Something fresh and different. I probably sound either whiny or too hopeful, but I think I speak for most of us that I wish there is a bigger scene for VF in NA. I have some ideas that I think might help, and I'm very willing to offer my help/resources if anyone is willing to commit to this task. But enough rambling..

I think hyun's observation is a clear indication that with just a little more activity in the US scene, our level can increase to stand some chance against the asian players. Although many will think I'm underestimating the differences between us, but looking at other games the US competes in, games that are played alot gains them the edge. ie MVC2. This is by no means saying that 'if we play more we will definitely get better.' It is only something that we won't know until we have tried it. It's not going to be an easy task to get the NA players into VF, and it's not going to be something that'll happen overnight, and I don't even believe it's our responsibility to do something like this. I remember people saying in some of the older posts, that many players simply don't have that enthusiasm about this game anymore. They still play it, but they have come to terms with the lack of support associated with play VF. While it's a saddening thought, and I believe many have gone down this path. I think it's universally true that playing this game either by yourself or with the same group of people over and over is getting old and boring. For what it is worth, I still believe in that slim twinkle of hope. I wish enough people on this board sees the samething as I do. I sounded like a nerdy fanboy but so what. VF is a great game as it is now, but I just think having a community as active as our eastern counterparts would make VF something greater. Just some random mindless thoughts right before I head to sleep. /versus/images/icons/laugh.gif

 

Thanks for the impressions there Hyun_. It sucks U.S. couldn't of done better, but I'd be lying if I said I was shocked with the outcome. The guys over there have a lot more experience, and they have seen a lot better Jacky's, Akira's, and Kage's (don't know who Ice-9 plays) so I think U.S. really didn't bring anything new to the table over there. Add the fact that U.S. isn't used to such "top level" competition as the Koreans and Japanese players are, and that they're playing in a foreign land with sticks they're not used to, and it's pretty easy to see why things went the way they did.

But I'm sure they did a lot better than most of us here could do and I can appreciate that fact. Anyway, I can't wait to hear from the guys themselves so we can get the whole story from their first hand experience.

 

Re: TBZone International Tournament Result/Impressions *DELETED*

Post deleted by Winston Smith

 

Bullshit hoe...

 

Team VFDC, not Team Hydra.

 

Oh great we got flordia people representing the USA, !!!

lol, you know im only kidding
::sarcasm::
::sarcasm::

 

What about the UK players? I reckon Ryan would have done quite well in this tournament. Is there another tournament planned soon?

 

Some more after thoughts

Let me talk a little bit about what the Japanese players wrote in (Sasaki's) Famitsu column. In one part, they say how the crowd was a lot more "responsive." than in Japan. They would go wild at many different things happening during matches. Fancy comboes, tricky throw escapes at crucial points, good yomi and what not. The spectators were just more responsive and energetic than the Japanese crowd these days.

Impression I got is: Sure the Korean tourney may have been smaller than the national tourneys in Japan, but the Japanese participants liked the atmosphere. That's probably why they are coming back for the next tourney. They are also talking about cinvincing other Japanese players to go with them.

Why am I bringing this? Because I could identify with what they say. I guess that ATMOSPHERE is what I also wanted to see when I decided to visit the tournament. (To be fair, there were some down sides to the tourney too. Because the tourney was running late, after the tourney was over many people were tired and/or needed to catch public transportation before they stopped, so few people stuck around for award ceremony and such.)

As Hiro said in other thread, VF is different thing to different people. For me, I can't deny the fact that I miss such tournament atmosphere when things are done right. The sad thing is that I am at the age where it's difficult to justify a long distance travel just to play VF, but for others such trips still maybe worth it.

Well, just for info (since there were some questions) Of course they don't know for certain when the next TBzone tourney will be. However, most likely the next big tourney will be in summer. vfevo.com (The other big Korean VF site) will probably hold a console based tourney before that after the PS2 version of Evo is out.