Dipstick

For the few people that don't follow shenanigans on Facebook or LINE, Rath has posted the page for the next monthly ranbat. Hopefully people can recover enough from Thanksgiving and Black Friday to make it out. I'm thinking of running the MB side tournament a bit differently, as either a round-robin or a swiss-style event to get people playing other people more. And yes I will bring Aquapazza this time, nerds. :< (Watch as nobody actually asks to play it this time.)

Just in case anyone is looking here, there is a ranbat at UAT tomorrow for BBCPEX/UNIEL/GGXrd. I will also have a setup for MBCC/GGAC+R and will probably run a quick side tournament for MB (and probably corral someone into running one for GGAC+R). I also had a couple people ask about Aquap**ow**.

That ranbat was way more fun than I was expecting, damn. Although I'm still kind of confused as to how I ended up doing commentary for Xrd the entire tournament. When are the true AZ ranbats (MBCC and +R)? (Whenever I get off my butt and do it, I guess. Maybe for the next ranbat?) Here's the stream archive, for anyone that cares. Definitely the buss-ass play of the night. :p Although Chumaralupa and myself trying to find out who can mash Eltnum's 2B harder was right up there, as well.

The site currently lists it as a side game, and it looks like they're still looking for someone to run it. Heck, at this point I want to know what's the difference for planning purposes on their end?

I can't even be mad at Project M being there, knowing how stupidly huge the PM scene in AZ is. I think it really just comes down to someone stepping up to run stuff and to work out whatever logistical issues. How many additional setups would they need? Is there even enough space to add one or two more games? Who would create the brackets? I would be willing to help make this happen (work issues aside), but I would not be comfortable running point on this as I have never interacted with any of the TOs previously at all (or if I did, it was years ago back when the AIAB tournaments were still A Thing). When's DJ Hero?

The "nice" response would be to reach out to the organizer(s) and see what's up... although someone would have to run point on it, and that may be the issue. Is there anyone in Tucson that runs stuff for GG/UNIEL/P4A/BB/etc..? That and who would show up for it? Would anyone from SoCal or Vegas even bother coming out (never mind further-flung regions)? Hell, would there be any locals beyond who already shows up for the UAT tournaments? Can't be any worse than when the Melty community here was trying to deal with JediRobb back with Devastation 2010.

Send a LINE invite to Kumubou -- just be warned, I'm too cheap to buy real anime stickers. -_- Asking someone to go in on a game that's being released in the US in 20XX seems like a bit of a stretch! ...

Please don't bully Lilith (so she can bully you instead).

I don't think running only UNIEL and Xrd would change much, since P4AU (and presumably BBCPEX) never took too long due to how small they were. And the other issue is that you would see a repeat of what happened at the last ranbat, where everything finished on time but people were playing casuals until 10 PM, so you were left with the same food situation anyway. It's not necessarily a bad thing, unless you're not a fan of Italian beef.

I'm pretty sure there are going to be a lot of sad people who try to register on-site. The cap is 128 people and it wouldn't shock me if the bracket ended up being between 150-200 people if it was uncapped. And yet, my sad sack will be able to clog up the bracket. -_-

I thought this last event was going to be wash, but it actually went fairly well. Everything actually ran on time for once! Thanks to Bearell for actually putting this all together. Apparently I shouldn't touch people's monitors, as it leads to Big Bang Beat being played. Shoutouts to Chuma for bodying my shit in DBFC and Ryuuka for actually playing Melty Blood with me. Anti-shoutouts to Rath for trying to hype me up in UNIEL (like anyone's going to believe that nonsense anyway ). B A I T E D 2,500 retweets, though. The thirst for a new Melty is very real.

It would happen the same way MBCC and GGAC+R happen: bring setups and someone willing to run the bracket. Hell, based on the last couple of ranbats I think you guys have the setups as it is. I'm half tempted to run something small for DBFC as well, because Reasons. We ran AH3:LM at my place last weekend. H-F wouldn't stop punching my waifu in the head, the jerk.

Wait... we switched from Melty at some point? I need to get off the ranch more.

Here's what I was thinking: Run MBCC with UNIEL and GGAC+R with Xrd. I was originally concerned with there being too much crossover between the games, but it turned out to not matter either way. I do also want to run either DBFC or AH3:LM, but I'm not sure when to do that. I don't want to run a side tournament during P4AU, since a lot of people aren't there at the start of P4AU. For people that want BBCPEX, all you need is someone to step up with setups and to run a bracket. But I already live on a corner....

Thanks to everyone who came out, and especially to all of the suckers who entered the Melty side tournament. How in the hell is this game not dead? Games don't die when they are killed, games die when they randomly crash due to having no sound output. Results: 1) H-F Blade 2) Tempered 3) Ryd 4) Ray 5) Dipstick 5) Orrax 7) Chumaralupa 7) Bearell 9) Ryuuka And Mario Kart 8 results, because we somehow ended up playing that: 1) Dipstick 2) Orrax 9,001) H-F Blade Finally, a game H-F doesn't win! I nominate Tempered and Orrax to run GGAC+R at the next ranbat. I can provide a setup for it. I also want to run AH3:LM (if only to make H-F feel better) and DBFC (as I think people would enter this?) at some point. Someone also needs to step up and run BBCPEX. I don't think Gundam EXVSFB or Aquapazza ( ) are happening, though.

Don't forget, I'll be running a side tournament for Melty Blood: Current Code during the ranbat next week. Sign-ups roughly with Xrd and will run alongside Xrd. I'm bringing one setup, but another would be appreciated (if unexpected). If there are 8 or more players it'll be double elimination, otherwise it'll be round robin. And if we end up with 16+ players and 1 setup... I'll figure something out. D: I'm also tempted to bait someone into running GGAC+R :x Also, who is hype for Poverty Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Obscurity coming out to the US? .... No one? Welp.

To answer the question regarding a venue fee, it comes down to a value proposition, really. As things are, there's a few people over at my place playing games roughly every week (what games are being played can be a mystery at times). So for the people that do come through, what value would they get from going to TGZ and paying to play there instead? I do understand that sort of arrangement does not scale well (I remember having 15 people here in this tiny ass house when UNIEL came out, yikes), but the way things are with the relative size and intensity of the community I don't think there any real win there. That and especially with tournaments, even having a nominal cost introduces additional resistance. Look at the difference in size between the UAT and TGZ Xrd tournaments. And how many people would play in UNIEL if there was an entry fee? 3? Check again!!! ArcSys is currently rocking the trifecta in terms of excuses to stop playing their games.

Here's a modest proposal (and not A Modest Proposal; this isn't Thanksgiving at the Death Lolita Ranch): I'm going to bring a Melty setup to the next ranbat and run something. If we get less than 8 people for it, it'll be round robin. 8 or more people and it'll be a standard bracket. I would like to start at the start of Xrd (let's be real, no one's going to want to stick around after Xrd is over), and any bracket overlap issues (hi H-F), Xrd would have priority. I would like to have someone bring another setup if possible, but I'll trudge along regardless. If someone does bring a setup, please make sure cccaster is installed with it, as it makes controller management way easier (and I also suspect that it makes the game's timing closer to arcade timing, as odd as that sounds). And if you're using a laptop, bring an external monitor so we all don't get lagged to hell and back. I know running stuff on PC can be a mess but it worked out well enough at Evo last year. I also think that someone should run GGXXAC+R, probably starting with UNIEL (and hopefully ending before Xrd starts). But someone else would need to run that. :x Honestly, my issues would come down to space, venue fees and a general lack of control. It's kind of wack that people enter the tournaments at TGZ and then immediately have to dip to UAT for casuals afterwards as there's no place for them.

I would have no problem helping (I was pretty much running the UNIEL bracket the last couple of times as it was) -- I'm good at yelling at people for hours. :x As for why we would stream, you don't want to build your social media personal brand?!? Don't forget to like this post on Facebook. And I'm going to be That Jerk and ask if we're going to run games for Evo, maybe we should run some of the Animevo games. However, it feels like if I'm going to suggest something like that, I should also step up and offer to run them as it would be more work when there aren't enough hands as it is. So I'll volunteer to run... Aquapazza. :P .

Can't wait for all of the people to mash on Grim Reaper at round start and get a full combo right after it. I think EX Sync Cutter losing invincibly hurts Eltnum a fair bit, but they seem to be taking away those sorts of high damage EX reversals in general, which is probably a net plus as that was basically DP FADC Ultra except you could hitcheck the DP before it comes out with CS. Fair and balanced! There's also a EX DP nerf, which really depends on how much they nerfed it but I can understand an adjustment there, when you could get 5500 damage with her by accident with it. Also, are people pushing buttons this weekend or what?

It'll be a great experience. ...wait, why are you all looking at me weird? As for streams, I would imagine it would be similar to how last year was (with Jyousa, TheBrett and Numakie streaming), plus I expect MadCatz to have some of the action on their stream as well. I think all of that is in the air still, since there's a lot that can change and I expect space to be super tight this year. Or, you could, you know, go to the event. :p

Am I the only one who thinks Phonon (the new UNIEST character) looks like a MUGEN sprite edit of Eltnum? Seems like hella waifu material though, going from people's reactions online. And yes, people should play UNIEL, always. I think I'm actually having some withdrawl... I've been playing online from time to time. D: Anyone dumb enough to play this weekend? PSA: For anyone planning on going to Evo, Sunday passes are about to completely sell out. You can still register for tournaments, but you'll have to find something else to do on Sunday (not like that's hard). If you are going, you should also follow @anime_evo, as I'm pretty sure they're going to be relevant to everyone's interest.

I think you may have taken one too many divekicks to the head the last time we played Arcana Heart. You of all people should know that I would run the tournament myself (only to watch no one sign up). As for the $7 that I owe you... I can send it to you by PayPal right now if you really want. Or I can pay you the next time we meet (which might be never moohahahahahaha but it'll probably be Saturday). Fake edit: When did the UNIEL character balls get added?

Sounds like a good excuse to run a tournament for something like Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax or Aquapazza, then. I'm pretty sure section 4.b of article 3 of the National E-Sports Act explicitly forbids this. We're lucky to even be allowed to play fighting games at all, honestly. I would be up for that, but I would need to remember how to play fighting games first.

I still can't believe I had several people over my house and they all had the nerve to call my waifu shit. :< And then the next week people were over here playing Kirino in DBFC like it's nothing! Bah! Are people doing anything this weekend or should I just go off to grind more in DFO and Bloodborne?