mikadolurker

Combo Breaker 5/27 - 5/29/2016 " " Mother. Fucking. Combo Breaker. From Day 1, this was probably THE best tournament of the year so far in the US. The venue was sick, the streams were run well, the brackets were stacked as all fuck, this seriously had to be the greatest production in recent Guilty Gear history. Speaking of the brackets, getting out of your pool was harder than swimming while with a short chain welded to the floor. Unless you’re strong enough to break the steel, you’re ass is drowning. Before we talk about that however, let’s settle the question of who’s the strongest arbitrarily divided section of the States. The 5v5 team tournament that went down on the first night was disgustingly awesome. Do yourself a favor though and get properly situated with whatever strikes your fancy prior to sitting down to watch this shit, because like I said in my Kansai v. Kantou review, this went on for a good while. Ending somewhere close to 3:30 AM, every second of play was worth watching though. A massive shout-out to bgcallisto as well for holding it down until the wee hours of the morning and even hopping on the mic when to back up Ryan Hunter when every sane person had abandoned us on stream and gone to bed. I mean who needs sleep to play, right? The non-stop action probably helped a damn good bit too because with the teams being: FF|ElvenShadow (FA), Sym (MI), BlackSNAKE (VE), ChosenNinja(MI), and Kizzercrate (KY) on Team Chicago, the Midwest was already looking strong. Then you had Team Michigan with CORN|AxisTheBeast (JO), Shinsyn (CH), SRM|Leonil Requiem (RA), the dapper as fuck YASE|Mr. U Suk (SI), and Gekioh (AX). Out of all the teams I’d really have to say the latter was by far having the most fun of the night, these boys were all smiles constantly. Fucking Team East though came to murder people’s hopes and dreams being by far the most concentrated example of talent consisting of Apollo (EL), LoCal|Sway (FA), D-Link|Lord Knight (MI), the newly sponsored PG|MarlinPie (ZA), and Lost Soul (THE EL). How the hell is something like that even fair?! You know who didn’t care? The Stardust Crusaders that's who! AKA (ZA), KBnova (BE), Mr. K (LE), Zinac (FA), and Grant (SL) were going to try to claim the glory for the Midwest themselves and stage a massive upset. That’s only if they could get through Shinobi (KY), Doren2k (JA*), Hotashi (EL), that Texas boy TXRD|Faultydefense (SI), and Ryan Hunter’s (VE). What’s that asterisk next to Doren’s name? Something he’ll never live down, but that didn’t even happen until the next day. Team Nebraska wasn’t going quietly into the night either with Cue (ZA), Dekline (SI), YooYoung (SO), JaMarvelous (LE), and TS|NerdJosh (EL) rocking the state approved ID to prove his geographical credentials. Then we had Team LCQ with Miller2B (FA), Scrublord Zega (SI), Woocash (SI), Organic Lurker (AX), and Nope (SO). Finally, rounding out the entire ordeal was Team West featuring Beautifuldude (ZA) who lost his glasses eventually yet again, Foo (JO), Shtkn (KY), the most hype god damn commentator in the US AS|Tasty Steve (LE), and the godlike BjornSonOfBear (CH) who played out of his god damn mind all weekend. Buy some beer in bulk before you watch this because as long as it took me to list everyone, it takes roughly six hours for this event to conclude. Lucky for me the Kansai v. Kantou’s yappy ass beginning took just long enough for the Finals and Grand Finals to wrap up. Damn that was a hell of a night. Whiskey really tastes its best when the moment sings you know? Then, bleary eyed and hungover it was time for my ass to watch people get brutalized in pools. As stacked as the Team Tournament was, this was somehow far more potent. Most events have one or two pools you’d be unlucky to land in but every fucking one of them at Combo Breaker was an undeniable death trap. Aside from the aforementioned murders, Kid Viper (JO), Flux (JC), DacidBro, VR-Raiden (SO), TheArm (RA), and more good players than I’ve seen in a single state-side tournament this year all showed up to take home the gold. Saturday was a bloodbath and a half because the eight pools eventually culminated into something you really don’t seen very often. Well, I mean I guess every fucking tournament has one eventually but I really can’t remember the last time I saw a Top 16 celebrated on it’s like this! With shades of EVO ever so subtly present, these sets were an amazing brawl, and all for a spot in Sunday’s Top 8. One thing that really gets me about this whole show though is that I’m honestly starting to think that this is far less of an outlier and more of a glimpse into the somewhat near future of this game. After all, at it’s peak well over eleven thousand people were watching out humble little fighter. Who knows what seeds might have been sewn. Awkward commentator stills might be one of the best things about tournaments. Another shout-out to Spooky because man, he absolutely created the single greatest floor plan for the main stage I have ever seen in any tournament. Ever.You’ll have to check it out for yourselves but basically he managed to position an island of a commentators desk at the front of the crowd which was framed on either side by the players on stage. You could everything that was happening at once while never missing a moment with whoever happened to be holding down the mic at that given moment. Patent that shit or something quick man because every event should steal this layout it’s simply that perfect! Speaking of those five golden letters, we have a damn near flawless line up to polish this whole thing off in the Top 8. Down to the last round, these matches were so on point that it made one thing very clear in my mind;There are a lot of Japanese players coming over for EVO this year, the eight here alone will send more than enough home salty as all fuck. Revelator is here though and with it a new age of Guilty Gear begins. A time where new players come up, where the established become gods, and we all somehow get that fucking soccer ball stuck in random ass places in the private lobbies. Seriously, I’ve seen in on top of the cabinets before. Links to everything: 5v5 Battle Summit Team Tournament: https://www.twitch.tv/bgcallisto/v/68972425 (Starts at 05:54:59) Pools: https://www.twitch.tv/eventhorizon/v/69119835 (Starts at 04:17:28) Top 16: https://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky/v/69211651 (Starts at 00:19:26) Top 8: https://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky/v/69323710 (Starts at 03:19:00)

Battle Mania 5v5 Team Exhibition 5/28/2016 "Where the Jams at?" - Doren2k This is what dreams are made of, the Top 5 Kantou gods versus the best of Kansai. FAB (PO), Hase (SL), Machaboo (SI), Karinchu (JO), and Ogawa (ZA) going blow for blow with Ruu (MA), Tomo (LE), Susumu (CH), Omito (JO), and Dogura (SI). Stacked isn’t even a strong enough adjective to describe this shit. It’s kind of fucked up too, Kantou is Eastern Japan while Kanasi is a western region, which is very relevant to tonight but that’s a whole 'nother thing for Sunday. What matters however is the surprise announcement that one of the competitors had for us this evening. Or morning. Fuck I’ve been up for a long ass time. Oh, and how can I EVEN forget this, not only was Majin doing his usual and providing the English commentary but he was back up by none other than Jam. I’m fucking serious. Her voice actress was there and I’m not going to lie, watching Rei Matsuzaki talk as Jam while playing her was kind of awesome. FT5 is the name of the game with the matches tonight and the first, Ruu (MA) v. FAB (PO), is godlike. When people talk about damage in Xrd I’ve always heard Johnny, Elphelt, and Sin brought up but Ruu makes a damn good case for why May should never be left out. Not that FAB wasn’t going to pull some ridiculous shit either, I mean this is THE Potemkin we’re talking about. Fun fact by the way, FAB stands for Final Atomic Buster. Have I said that before? Fucked if I know, it’s been a long ass night with Combo Breaker’s own team tournament literally finishing just before this match started-ish. Whoever your cheering for though, it’s going to be a roller coaster of a set, trust me because this was an extremely close set. Not as close as Hase (SL) v. Tomo (LE) though. Whoever thought to put these two against each other is a genius because this match was so good it’s absolutely insane. I mean yeah, Leo is unga incarnate but Tomo brings the second king of Illyria into the bronze age at least! A technical interpretation of the character is always great to see and damn did it give Hase trouble. Pilebunker solves most of these problems presented though, just swing back with Dandy Step and fire one of these into Tomo’s face repeatedly. Seriously though, Hase’s movement probably did more for him than anything this match. Deftly avoiding that those sticky fucking normals of Leo to get in and deal serious damage without getting put into a blender is the entire name of the game from his end and he achieves it wonderfully. I’ll let you guess who won the Machaboo (SI) v. Susumu (CH). It’s really fucking easy, just like the set was. One of the main events tonight as far as myself and a lot of other people were concerned though was seeing these two face off. Karinchu, the number one arcade Johnny playing Omito the second place finisher at KSB and the God Pirate of Kansai. When people talk about who the best Johnny is, it’s always between these two every single time. Karinchu plays this character like a bully of a final boss in my opinion. Oppressive, damaging as all hell, and it’s going to take every single last bit of experience you’ve ever earned to defeat him. Omito however is a far more technical and neutral based Johnny as I see it, using a very refined sense of the character to really outplay his opponents and earn that “W”. When the curtain falls though only one can be left standing so the question is, who is the best Johnny in the world at the moment? Closing out the night is just one of the most disgusting pairing in the exhibition, Dogura (SI) versus Ogawa (ZA). Very much like Lost Soul, Ogawa is the reason his character is placed so high up on many Japanese players tier lists. Sporting the zombie green Zato, Ogawa ‘s command of his fighter is always just so impressive that others often look under developed and weak by comparison. Not that Dogura isn’t like that either. His Sin is, and always will be, one of the most terrifying examples of the character to date. Much like Machaboo, a single hit is translated into such ridiculous damage that it’s no surprise that he has gone on to inspire the always loved and constantly growing Sin army across the globe.The man is a fucking beast who I’ve seen run through the best players at Mikado time and time again. I’d honestly take him over 99.9% of the entire player base in a FT5. Does Ogawa fall into that slim margin of victory though? You’ll just have to see for yourself. So there you have it. The East Coast of Japan versus West, with the absolute best representing each side. Please, please, please do yourself a favor and watch this because there won’t be such a stupidly powerful event happening like this until EVO. However I do want to say one thing, Nico streams suck a bag of severed dicks. Not only did MajinObama have to pay to see this event but the majority of it was in the typical 360p resolution that Japan seems to deem acceptable for some fucked up reason. The stream froze at one point, I personally hate the scrolling chat system, and no one would be able to witness this shit without dropping money themselves just to see it again. So! If you watch it and the quality of the footage isn’t to your liking, which it probably won’t be, hit Arcsys up on Twitter and let them know (very kindly, don’t fuck this up now) about how you would rather of seen this broadcast live on Twitch. It’s not often in life that our voices can make a change but this is one instance where a large show of support could possibly alter the history of Guilty Gear forever. Link to Battle Mania: https://www.twitch.tv/majinobama/v/69073245

Toryuken 5 5/20 - 5/22/2016 "Canada is the best country in the world." - Justin Beiber (I'm so sorry Canada, I had to.) The great white north certainly has some serious fucking talent. I mean those boys have been hardened to become some serious threats from their constant battle with moose and the cold. Now that the obligatory Canadian jokes are out of the way, let’s move from bad comedy to the action filled tournament play of Toryuken 5. Canada Cup was kind of okay, I’m jaded and spoiled in terms of watching top notch play so what I saw was impressive but not note worthy enough to really talk about. This was a different story however. Biscuits said it once, and thanks to the whiskey I don’t remember the exact words he used, so excuse me for paraphrasing; “If you make it to Top 8 and the people who you beat weren’t really shit, then who the fuck are you exactly?” Brutal but honest. I’ll even break that down so no one gets me wrong, I’m not talking down about any tournament or anyone in particular, just that a victory in my eyes is only worth as much as the players you conquered to earn it. That being said, the winner of this tournament can feel very pleased with himself because GOD DAMN, people were going at it hard from the moment pools started. Mother fuckers didn’t drown in pools, their eviscerated bodies sunk down only after leaving their opponents so bloody that they had to worry about facing whatever shark that may have smelled the fresh meat in the next match. Marlin Pie, Lord Knight, Flux, all coming up to attempt to rob Canada of their W but people like Joep, Psykotik, and RyanKen weren’t going to just let that shit stand. Over forty entrants into the tournament and damn did they all put on a show. Now when you boil all of these players down to a Top 8, all you’ve got left are some disgustingly powerful people. It really makes me put a lot of other international scenes in perspective because the Canadians may have this game down a lot better than quite a few other geographical areas I could name. I don’t think you can doubt it either after seeing them perform in a manner like this. Canada, unlike it’s health-care system, isn’t free. Watch the videos and you’ll see, it’s actually stunning that some of their players are honestly on a level where while the US players will be watching their backs for the JP fighters at EVO, they might find themselves put out on the Vegas strip from a few of their northerly neighbors before they know what happened. It really wouldn’t even surprise me to find a Canadian in Top 16 or even Top 8 on the big day. I know, I know, it’s a long shot for anyone to even make it there with the ever growing list of almost forty undertakers coming to visit us this summer, but fuck. I see the same level of talent in some of these people that I’ve found at Mikado night after night. These boys can scrap. Speaking of the list of JP players though, let me draw a quick tangent ass parallel to wrap things up because aside from “Watch that shit!” there isn’t much else I can say about Toryuken 5. Once upon a time, there was a game that was shunned and outcast in the US arcades. No one played it because there were more popular games at the time and the cast was filled with strange fucking characters that no one really knew. Then one year at EVO, a JP player who was deep into said game came over and something magical happened. A single moment exposed the world to the game and it’s potential thus all of gaming was forever changed from that day forward. That game was Third Strike. That player was Daigo. However his opponent was Justin Wong, an American. So who feels like making history is my question? Links to everything: Pools: https://www.twitch.tv/torontotoptiers2/v/67758301 (Starts around 01:58:30) Top 8: https://www.twitch.tv/torontotoptiers/v/67962873 (Starts at around 02:28:07) Great White North:

En (SL) v. Mocchi (SO) and Rion (KY) v. Endou (CH) 5/21/2016 "In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins." - Ulysses S. Grant On the eve of the JP Revalator release, the night before the next chapter, we have one hell of a send off. En (SL) versus Mocchi (SO) and Rion (KY) going at it with Endou (CH). Back to back brawls that each really showcase very different aspects of the game. People were hyped, Majin was once again our voice for the evening, and the sets were running a little bit late due to the Japanese work-life but before we started Obama gave us a little history lesson about the first set. In 2008 at in the Tokugeki Guilty Gear Team Tournament, En, Mocchi, and another old school god named Muki partnered up to demolish the bout. Making it all the way to Grand Finals but falling in the end to a pod of never ending +R dolphins, we all watched the old recording play out as we waited. That was yesteryear though, tonight the band was broken up because these two hard hitting mother fuckers had a FT7 to slug through. Surprisingly though, what you’d expect to be a nonstop momentum based match turned into a massive game of careful and patient rock, paper, scissors in the neutral. Old friends make the hardest rivals in my opinion because of the level of familiarity between the fighters. These two certainly show that because En having years of experience against Mocchi is always attempting to guess if he’s going to jump, back dash, or go on the offensive to halt any momentum Slayer might try to take. Slayer’s 6 HS beats a lot of Sol’s jumps but Mocchi’s sweep, 5HS, and 6P all cleanly answer that normal. MajinObama really goes in on the mind games and interactions between the buttons in this match and its interesting to watch them carefully advance against one another. In the end though, with the damage potential of both of the characters being so high, one touch just makes people life bars are just decimated. Fuck respect and consideration though, Endou came to entertain. Out of all the players I’ve seen pass through Mikado, very few have more fun with the game then Endou (CH). Fragile as a fine china but mobile as hell, he uses Chipp’s tools to really keep you off balance. Six feinted teleports in your face, taunting you with his speed and overall erratic behavior, but behind all the clowning around is a very lethal amount of skill. If there’s one person who’s great at punishing someone like Endou’s behavior though it’s Rion’s Ky. One misstep or whiffed normal and he’s in there punishing you not to mention that for a character who lacks life like Chipp does, almost any good combo leads to Sin levels of damage. The way he uses the king too is down right amazing, Ky being an all-rounder, the number and variety of tools he has at his is often under utilized by a lot of players but not Rion. Every part of his kit gets uses in this match to halt Endou’s bottomless back of fucked up tricks. Adaptation, countering, readjusting the script yet again, the cycle spins around and around so fast in this FT7 that is really remarkable. A new game, new characters, new broken bullshit, a distant vague promise of a balance patch, Revelator is finally here. Now all we need to do is brace ourselves for a broken ass Dizzy because I’m calling it no, she will be the most hated character in the game. Even more so than Elph. Links to The FT7s: En (SL) v. Mocchi (SO): Rion (KY) v. Endou (CH):

Machaboo (SI) v. Nage (FA) 05/14/2016 "Eat ham, go HAM!" This is a runback. A bloody, knock down, drag out fucking runback. Nage, God Faust Incarnate, versus Machaboo, the current king of Guilty Gear. With a fairly honest neutral between the two, it call comes down to fundamentals, baiting, and sheer balls to make a move. Everyone who knows Nage, knows that he must be the living representation of a Japanese God of Luck because this man’s RNG is stupid. It always seems like when he needs an item, he gets it but in truth I think it’s far closer to the fact that regardless of what he draws, it’s going to work out for him. In terms of pokes, which are a huge asset to Faust in this match-up against the similarly ranged Sin, what your looking for is 2P, 2H that slightly out ranges a lot of Sin’s options like 5S, and scalpel. All Machaboo needs is a clean hit to confirm into stupid damage. Sin’s previously stated 5S, his Beak Driver, and surprisingly his DP Hawk Breaker are all things that Machaboo uses beautifully in this set. The man’s play is so clean too that it’s stupid to even attempt damn near anything without losing over half your life bar from it. Also, fun fact, Sin actually does gain a small amount of calories for his gauge when he eats Faust’s food that he can randomly toss out. He cannot comfortably eat a hammer, mini-Faust, or meteors however, these are the things that Machaboo was clearly the most cautious about. One thing I always compliment the Sin god on is his defense. Fucking impeccable every time I see him play. However I really don’t talk quite enough about his ability to download a person’s habits. Lucky for Nage though, Faust is random by nature. Well I mean most might be but Nage will draw four bombs and two meteors in a round, unfortunately though it seems like relying on his luck alone won’t win him the set. To beat a beast like Machaboo, he’ll have to seriously push it. One touch from both characters does not equal the same amount of damage so Faust really has to work hard, quickly, and carefully. Machaboo though? Man, the amount of shit that boy can convert off of is simply ludicrous. Mastery doesn’t even go far enough to describe his level of play. He’ll pop Nage up at some odd angle, I sit back in my chair thinking he’s dropped whatever he was going for, only to wind up on the edge of my seat because he just pulled some crap off that I’ve never even seen before. In the end though, it’s not even about characters, we’re talking about two transcendent players who regardless of who they might use, will always come out on top. Fighting the player more so than the character, this set is an absolute barnburner. So who’s left after the dust settles in this KSB Winner’s Finals runback? Why the hell would I say shit all?! You read the damn title, watch the set! Link to the video: https://www.twitch.tv/joniosan/v/66339381 (Starts around 01:26:38)

Done! Sorry about that, you can delete this post now.

So I’ve been trying to figure out what to do to give back to the community a little bit more and with the help of the mods at r/GuiltyGear, we’re putting on an art contest. The prize is $70 worth of PSN Card codes to buy whatever game you want. No lie though, this entire thing has takes a shit ton more time than I figured it would at first. Learning the legal crap alone was... “fun”. However, we’re all in the green so let’s kick this fucker off! Jack-O' by @click_burgundy The name of the game s simple, the contest will be themed around drawing your favorite player’s character. How you do that is totally up to you, but the piece that best captures the essence of both the person and their main will take home the prize. So you’re probably thinking about why the fuck I’m doing this in the first place and I’ll give you an honest, no bullshit answer. With the upcoming release of Revelator, I have seen a daily stream of artwork from the Japanese Twitter accounts and holy shit is it amazing. Those drawings I’ve also found, tend to connect with people from far outside of the FGC and that is what I want to see happen in a major way. So, I figured with a prize on the line I might be able to kick up a bit of a riot and get some attention for our little corner of the game-verse. Bedman by @rskome The contest begin immediately and conclude on May 27th. All you have to do to enter is email a link from either Imgur or DeviantArt of the piece you want to submit to rguiltygearartcontest@gmail.com, do not attach your work to the email itself, it will not be opened and you will be disqualified. Only one entry per person please, and obviously please do not submit someone else’s work or your entry will be voided. Please make sure to read the official rules that I drafted up to if you have any questions. The winner by the way will be chosen by a panel of judges made of the r/guiltygear mods to keep it as legitimate as possible. If you’re worried at all about the “Non-exclusive Permissions” clause it just means that myself and the mods can post your artwork on the forums and the subreddit. We can’t make shit all off of it in any way as the rules state. Slayer and Sharon statue by @UN_CO_TiNTiN (and no, I don't know if you can buy one) Now with that out of the way, please share this around as much as possible because I want as many people to submit as possible! Let’s raise a bit of hell for our game! Link to the subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/guiltygear Link to the Official Rules: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s637/sh/aa270a1f-7f4b-4999-b9bb-8181e40ed697/fedd2a98fa4096915047be944d16b007 All submissions should be sent here as a link to Imgur or DeviantArt: rguiltygearartcontest@gmail.com For further questions, you can also contact the subreddit moderators bountyxhunted, Howard_Roark76, or noct76 on reddit.

So I’ve been trying to figure out what to do to give back to the community a little bit more and with the help of the mods at r/GuiltyGear, we’re putting on an art contest. The prize is $70 worth of PSN Card codes to buy whatever game you want. No lie though, this entire thing has takes a shit ton more time than I figured it would at first. Learning the legal crap alone was... “fun”. However, we’re all in the green so let’s kick this fucker off! Jack-O' by @click_burgundy The name of the game s simple, the contest will be themed around drawing your favorite player’s character. How you do that is totally up to you, but the piece that best captures the essence of both the person and their main will take home the prize. So you’re probably thinking about why the fuck I’m doing this in the first place and I’ll give you an honest, no bullshit answer. With the upcoming release of Revelator, I have seen a daily stream of artwork from the Japanese Twitter accounts and holy shit is it amazing. Those drawings I’ve also found, tend to connect with people from far outside of the FGC and that is what I want to see happen in a major way. So, I figured with a prize on the line I might be able to kick up a bit of a riot and get some attention for our little corner of the game-verse. Bedman by @rskome The contest begin immediately and conclude on May 27th. All you have to do to enter is email a link from either Imgur or DeviantArt of the piece you want to submit to rguiltygearartcontest@gmail.com, do not attach your work to the email itself, it will not be opened and you will be disqualified. Only one entry per person please, and obviously please do not submit someone else’s work or your entry will be voided. Please make sure to read the official rules that I drafted up to if you have any questions. The winner by the way will be chosen by a panel of judges made of the r/guiltygear mods to keep it as legitimate as possible. If you’re worried at all about the “Non-exclusive Permissions” clause it just means that myself and the mods can post your artwork on the forums and the subreddit. We can’t make shit all off of it in any way as the rules state. Slayer and Sharon statue by @UN_CO_TiNTiN (and no, I don't know if you can buy one) Now with that out of the way, please share this around as much as possible because I want as many people to submit as possible! Let’s raise a bit of hell for our game! Link to the subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/guiltygear Link to the Official Rules: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s637/sh/aa270a1f-7f4b-4999-b9bb-8181e40ed697/fedd2a98fa4096915047be944d16b007 All submissions should be sent here as a link to Imgur or DeviantArt: rguiltygearartcontest@gmail.com For further questions, you can also contact the subreddit moderators bountyxhunted, Howard_Roark76, or noct76 on reddit.

Karinchu (JO) v. Nakamura (MI) FT7 5/7/2016 "You went to the Mikado Open, you hit that Toshin right? I'm gonna give you a boss fight! How you like Karinchu?" MajinObama (@2djazz) is back at it! On the mic, on the move, this man cannot be stopped! With KSB over and things calming down tournament wise in Japan for now, this man is keeping the fire stoked with lining up some exhibition matches whose quality most professional sports would be lucky to glimpse. Having just reached the rank of Toshin himself, a Fighting God, a certain Millia deity came looking to Obama for a good match to prove himself as someone worth of his newly earned stature. What he got was a shot at Kantou’s king. This weekend was the first of the new FT7‘s after the little break, Karinchu (JO) v. Nakamura (MI). I'm not going to lie either, while the match was good, I can’t say it was the most impressive display of the play I’ve seen out of Mikado. Not that it isn’t a must watch for Johnny or Millia mains. This one I’d count as “Grade A” study material, both sides were relentless with their pressure and mix-ups in so many ways that I would absolutely recommend picking through this match over with a fine toothed comb. Everyone should check it our anyways because it’s still awesome and Majin had a two secrets to share with us after all was said and done. Lucky for you I’ll let you in on one here. The other you’ll have to watch the brawl to catch. So what’s the game plan? Well Nakamura is looking to get his set play going to obliterate Karinchu’s health like Millia does so well. Secret Garden and Chroming Rose are the two biggest elements of his game to lookout for in my opinion in this set, the level of abuse he can put someone through with just these two tools alone is impressive. However, The Final Boss of Kantou, Karinchu (JO), isn’t going to let anyone walk over him if he can help it. Watching Omito’s Johnny you can appreciate the movement, the technique, everything is on this graceful sort of level. Karinchu is a fucking bully though. A savage of a man, if you get touched anywhere on the screen you’ll find yourself knocked down, in a corner, staring an unblockable level three Mist Finer in the face. Watching him work is like watching Machaboo’s Sin, clean and vicious at the same time. Sometimes I honestly had no clue what even hit Nakamura to begin with, Millia’s health was there until it suddenly wasn’t and her back was up against the wall like she’d always been there. It’s a cat and mouse game between a panther and a cheetah, they’re both fast and deadly but it’s really about who get’s their claws into the other first because life bars do not mean a thing in this match up. So the dust settles, to the winner goes the glory, and everyone goes home right? Not fucking close! Remember those secrets I was talking about earlier? One is too great to ruin, however the other one concerns the next match which I’m fine with sharing. Who’s going to clash next? Well lets say it’s going to be more of a run back than anything else. Before KSB losers finals, before the pools brackets were even filled in, MajinObama already had Nage (FA) v. Machaboo (SI) FT7 set up. May 14th, at 6PM JST. God. Damn. The Karinchu (JO) v. Nakamura (MI) FT7: https://www.twitch.tv/joniosan/v/65037503 (Starts at around 03:21:35)

"Northwest Majors 8" 4/29 - 5/1/2016 "Lee Harvey Oswald had help, it was Elphelt." - Digital Watches Northwest Majors 8 just concluded a little while ago with a little over thirteen thousand viewers watching the Grand Finals. It’s always nice to see a scene’s hard work pay off because while KSB was happening in Japan, the state-side scene was showcasing it’s talents in Northwest Majors 8. Starting off with their own 3v3 Team Tournament, some of the best players in the country joined together to faced off against each other. The following day the competitors cut their way through their pools with almost ninety people all looking to claw their way to the top. Representatives from every corner of the country turned up too like Faultydefense (SI), Hotashi (EL), Zidane (LE), ElvenShadow (FA), and TheArm (RA) just to name a few. However the home team wasn’t going down without a fight. Coming out swinging during the 3v3, the West Coast was ready to make a stand! I said this before, but GC|Yoshi has a sick fucking Bedman. A former Marvel player, the eight way movement of the slumbering antagonist allows him full control like none other of his character in the US. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the level of hopelessness that Sabamiso instills in his victims but in a far more mobile sense. He is also doing an AMA on the Guilty Gear subreddit at the moment so if you want to learn more about him or Bedman in general I’d check it out. A lot of these matches though are a great display of how high the level of play in the US at the moment. Fucking Txrd|Faultydefense, this guy is an absolute beast every time I get to watch him play. From what I have seen, if this man keeps making the rounds at tournaments across the country, we’ll be looking at another world class level of talent. Hell, I think he’s already kind of there to a degree but only time will tell. Pools were a little bit of a bloodbath, some really amazing moments managed to happen that left the entire audience and chat cheering like mad! While overall the sets weren’t as strong as some of the events we’ve had this year, a few players went ham as fuck. Hotashi’s sniping skills with Miss Confire were on point. Clip after clip unloaded into people as if they were trying to storm the beaches of Normandy. He wasn’t the only East Coast representative though, Zidane the King of the Concrete Jungle himself came out to rip through people too. It’s fucked up watching him touch someone and then just throw them in the blender until they drop. Mr. K wasn’t going to let him get all the attention however, bringing his own Leo to the table this St. Loius based monster was right in the thick of it too. Just leveling and breaking people with some of the most impressive pressure I’ve seen state-side. The entire experience was overall very well produced too! The stream layout was sick, good camera work, the floor plan was well executed, the audio was well balanced and crisp, a very solid production over all. LogicHole was our host for most of the Guilty Gear event until Top 8 and they did a damn nice job! However the brackets were only updated at the end of every pool so it made it very hard to figure out where people were while the matches were still going on. The moderators were also a little bit too aggressive in disciplining the chat, making a very honest but at times slightly overbearing decisions to keep order. I am one hundred percent down with creating a space “...Where players of all skill levels and from all walks of life are welcome and appreciated.” That is something more people should inspire to in my opinion but forced compliance by threatening a zero tolerance attitude can at times lead to a more toxic attitude being birthed. All in all though good shit to LogicHole for bringing us a very well produced event, I really can’t say enough good things about how well the broadcast was run. Digitial Watches and Thebeautifuldude hold down the Top 8 commentary doing a fucking amazing job. Despite all of the great stills I have of them, this one is the most awkward and funny therefore it's the best. Sunday though, the day of the finals, was a shit ton of fun to watch. Fuck people who mock US players, the talent we have is world class and god damn did people prove it! Don’t get me wrong either, I still think there is a large gap between the majority of the Japanese and the American player bases. I don’t think that's even up for debate. However wherever you find an offline scene in the states, you’ll find some very competent people. That’s one of the only things that the Japanese really has over anyone to be honest is that they can go and hone their skills in arcades allowing them to train and grow as players into the monsters we know today. New York, Texas, Washington, California, Chicago, it’s not a coincidence that these places have very strong fighters and the players that made it from to this stage of the tournament from those scenes prove it every time they stepped up! You know whats really fucking true though sadly? I think that the International scene as a whole enjoys themselves a lot more than the Japanese do when they play because the amount of laughs that were had and general displays of players being fucking awesome people during these sets was something I really enjoyed watching. One down, tons more to go though in the Xrd tournament scene. The month of May is now upon us and with it comes Stunfest in France, Toryuken in Canda, and Combo Breaker in the US. What a time to be alive. Links to everything: 3v3 Team Tournament: https://www.twitch.tv/logichole/v/63638897 Pools: https://www.twitch.tv/logichole/v/63771565 https://www.twitch.tv/logichole/v/63789939 Top 16 to Top 8: https://www.twitch.tv/logichole/v/63953638 Top 8: https://www.twitch.tv/teamkhaos/v/63950086 (Starts around 07:59:30-ish) GC|Yoshi AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guiltygear/comments/4hiroj/hi_im_mcgcyoshi13_bedman_player_ama/

KVO x TSB 2016 4/29 - 5/1/2016 "Praise be!" KVO x TSB’s top three just concluded. The biggest call out of Xrd history just happened. The a-cho 5v5 where people got fucking down and dirty. What just happened over the course of the past three days has literally just changed absolutely everything. No fucking hyperbole needed. Shit just got so real that ladies and gentlemen, we are about to be the select few to witness one of the greatest stories the FGC has ever seen. Everything that happened this weekend in Osaka, Japan in a conquered nightclub has set in motion several things which, well, lets just start from the beginning. So why the fuck start with Day 1? Watch that shit and you’ll see for yourself! There are a ton of lesser known games that get no real attention ranging from being bat-shit insane but fun to watch like Nitro+ Blasterz or something slower and more tactical like Koihime Enbu. The latter by the way caught me really off guard. Koihime Enbu is apparently based off of a preexisting anime and is the sequel to Koihime Musou, a game released a few years ago. However I’m not going to lie, once I heard it was featuring an all gender bent Romance of the Three Kingdoms cast it just became the most brilliant Dynasty Warriors game I’ve never heard of. It sounds cheesy as fuck I know, but the thing is that the game is brutal as all hell. Despite it’s low damage and more traditional mechanics coupled with a very frame negative Street Fighter like sense of footsies it’s easy to think the game might be slow and boring. It’s fucking nerve wracking. If you get Pink Countered, basically a Fatal Counter from BlazBlue, it becomes Marvel all of a sudden and because you, not your character, YOU fucked up, you just lost half of your health. It’s not for everyone I know but if you check out Day 1 you might find something that’ll catch you by surprise like this one! Day 2 though, is a must watch because this is where it all begins. Not the KVO x TSB stream but the a-cho 5v5 team tournament. I was going to say that it was the highlight of the weekend and that nothing could really top it because that is honestly how amazing it was. Watch that shit! Watch it! It is very rare to witness the exact moment a player earns a shot to carve out his own legend. I won’t say who but a quiet little stream that I’ve been watching for months is about to get a little more crowded. Getting back to the spectacle though, these teams were so fucking ridiculous that I doubt anyone could have predicted the outcome, aside from the one glaringly powerful thing we all saw, Omito’s team. Omito by the way is the number two Johnny in Japanese arcades and is an entirely different than Karinchu. It’s not that he’s any less clean, his quirks are just far more brutal. Karinchu has an air of style about him but Omito just gets one confirm and obliterates you. However if someone ever managed to take him out, they’d only have to face a list of people that are so broken it’s laughable. Susumu (CH) the third of his character in the arcades, Dei (EL) an Elphelt who I wasn’t really familiar with, Rozu (Ky) who plays him so well that you’d think he was the man who rounds off the pantheon of these gods, Machaboo (SI). How fucked up is that?! Who even stands a chance? If the Disney channel taught me one thing, it’s that you should never sleep on the ragtag team of misfits. The “Universal Brotherhood”, five pillars of the global community representing the USA, Sweden, Finland, Korea, and Japan. Mr. Biscuits (ZA), Svampen (JC), Kyuukei (SI), Daru (IN), and Ruu (MA) were in there and ready to scrap. Teams “Hamburg House” consisting of players like 2rio, 310, Kakkou, saryu, and the man himself Hamburg were aiming for the top as well and with a team like that fucking anything is possible. This entire god damn night was so hype it hurt! When the dust settled at the end of it all, what was left behind was the important bit though. The first steps to July 15th. Apparently a step wan’t enough for Day 3, we had to make a fucking mad dash toward setting the stage for something legendary to happen. From pools to top three, the madness had clearly one just begun. When it was all over, well, that is something you’ll have to see for yourself but it’s honestly something you’ve probably already caught wind of my now. Word travels fast these days after all and with a call out like that echoing around the world, who knows what could happen in the near future. For now however, we have some of the best players in all of Japan to watch and not just the usual Kantou power players that make most of the noise in our corner of the gaming world. Sabamiso (BE), Ruu (MA), Samitto (CH), eight different pools filled with the most savage players on earth! By the way, all of this is brought to us in glorious HD thanks to the boys from TSB. It’s good too because after seeing some of the most odd match ups played with flawless execution, the sets really do deserve this level of production quality. Unfortunately the pool matches on stream were cut short due to running up against another game but honestly this type of footage is so rare and the matches were so jaw dropping that I just kind of held that. Top eight was also cut to three but it doesn’t even matter. It’s what happened after it that does. Watch that shit! What the outcome will be of everything that started this weekend, who knows. Shit is going to just have to come down to blows in Las Vegas in a couple of months at this point. I personally doubt the narrative is going to wait that long to start it’s next chapter though. Links to Everything: Koihime Dustloop Thread: 5v5 Team Tournament: https://www.twitch.tv/neoam_acho/v/63631730 Xrd Pools: https://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky/v/63828291 Top 3: https://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky/v/63892632 (Starts at 05:30~)

When I think about characters in fighters, often connect them to a player that I feel exemplifies their concept. Sabamiso is fucking terrifying. An incarnation of the boogeyman, this Bedman player is going to give some people night terrors when he’s finished. What do I mean by that? Well, take a look at the video I linked. It’s always been a mark of a good antagonist that it feels absolutely hopeless for the heros when they confront them and I think that’s a pretty good desertion of his style. No. Fucking. Hope. From the first second of the match, the pressure this man has is unreal. Every moment you’re nothing more than just dancing to his beat. Dodge, duck, dip, dive, or dodge there’s nothing you can do. Bedman’s general kit fits him well too, playing Bridget in +R, he makes the absolute most of the character’s mobility. Honestly, you’d think the fucking guy was Jigsaw too with his traps. It’s like when he gets started or even mildly setup, you just need to hold on tight and really hope to find a gap. Not like there’s going to be one though. Setups like 310, defense like FAB, offense like Karinchu, this man is an honest dark horse to take EVO. Dark only in the sense that his opponents will have some trouble finding footage to research since the video I linked was honestly one of the most recent ones I could fine and it was from last December. Which only means he’s probably, somehow, gotten even more broken as shit since then. Time will tell though if about how he does, EVO is looking too crowded with gods to even predict where a devil like him is going to fall when the dust settles. However, I already see a mile long list of players who are going to be cursing his name as he bottles their tears. And if you don’t think you’ll run into him in the pools or wherever, just remember. A wolf like him only needs enough luck to find you once. Sabamiso (BE) v. Hase (SL):

Texas Showdown 4/24/2016 “Y’all come down now ya’ hear?” Texas knows how to throw the fuck down. Holy. Shit. For anyone who missed it, Texas Showdown was this weekend and from pools to top eight, this was something that no one should have slept on. Kid Viper (JO), Faulty Defense (SI), JustKensou (CH), Oso (EL), mother fucking TastySteve (LE), Sylint (BE), Donavan (IN), SecreT (LE), and so many more people went in hard this weekend! Without a doubt one the top three scenes in the US at the moment, I honestly expected nothing less of this tournament but what I got was far more than anything I’d seen so far this year on home soil. That’s right, Texas Showdown just claimed the title of best American Xrd Tournament so far this year in my opinion. Let’s start with the pools which were great for so many reasons that I can’t even begin to list them. From fashion to sheer brilliant plays, these bastards went at it so hard that the sheer tension of some of the sets was almost unbearable. With TastySteve, Zappa fan and commentator extraordinaire, partnered with RaphTx holding down the local knowledge, the scene was set to be an epic clash in the Lone Star State. With sixty four players in total, the pools were an absolute bloodbath. Honestly, there were so many talented people who came out to compete that I have no doubt in my mind that given a year or two, Texas will be gunning for the title of “Best American Scene”. Possibly even elevating themselves to the level where they stand on shoulder to shoulder with the Japanese. Unfortunately, the pools were cut short and I haven’t been able to find the recording anywhere which really sucks because so many great players and moments will be lost like TastySteve discovering the Texan player Strawberry’s overwhelming anime hair powers or our faithful commentators facing off in loser finals [RaphTx (AX) v. TastySteve(LE)] of their group. Don’t worry though, Alex Valle and Texas Showdown had us! In exchange for that, we get an amazing full three out of five top eight! RaphTx (AX) v. AS|TastySteve (LE) (Photo by @ScottieYosh) What a top eight it was too! I’m still fucking hyped about it hours after the entire affair ended in an explosive finish! JustKensou’s Chipp was remarkable as usual showing that he is clearly the best in the US at wielding his ninja’s power. Oso, one of the premier Elphelts in the states, really brought it too! Without a doubt in my mind, this kid has the potential to inherit LostSoul’s will if he should ever give up his bride for another. FaultyDefense, again the best of his character in my opinion within our hemisphere, showed exactly why people fear Sin with immaculate execution and even a few new tricks! AND MOTHER FUCKING TASTYSTEVE! How is it that with all of his traveling, this man clearly proved that his Leo is just as sharp as his wit on the mic! If Zappa actually ever drops, people are going to be in some seriously fucking trouble. Sylint’s Bedman was looking sick enough to steamroll hundreds of people, this is one of those players who could easily become the models of his character. Speaking of which, Kid Viper seems to really be after that title with his Johnny! Could he have brought out his Elph and tried to shotgun his way to the top spot? Yep, but this man was aiming to build a new legacy and usher in a whole new era of godlike gambling sky pirates. SecreT was standing up for Illyria and their kings too! His entire performance could be analyzed by all of you Leo mains because this man knows his shit! Last but not least though, Donavan’s I-no was about as wicked as that witch comes! Straight up bullying people in a style that really shows off his ability to use her in quite an impressive way! TXrd|FaultyDefense (SI) v. TDG|Oso (EL)'s match from the beginning of Top 8. It was an affair that not only showed off the game, the US talent, but also what happens when we’re given a fair chance to shine! With a little less than eight thousand people in attendance today, I think that no one watching walked away the same. Too bad for me it was a bit too early to justify drinking but I have a feeling that the entire scene down there is making up for any liver damage I passed up on tonight. Top 8 Twitch Link: https://www.twitch.tv/leveluplive/v/62558896 Starts at 5:39:24

Mother. Fucker. It is seriously late. I’m way beyond beer and I’m pretty sure that the coffee I’m having at the moment is right along with the early risers of the world. They’re the ones who dicked up and missed The Mikado Open Tournament though. -Hold on a post-tourney Maruhan v. NOB mirror happening.- So after more than eighty people turned up for the tournament, -FAB steps up to the plate to take on Maruhan-, and almost six and a half hours we’ve finally wrapped up things here. The biggest crime of the night was that like always, we only got to see about five percent of all the matches that took place. For those who didn’t know, Mikado has about twenty or so setups that we don’t get to see and are never recorded. Not that it matters, shit was so sick I’ll be totally spoiled for a very long time. And by a very long time I mean until KSB later this week. Not that I’m going to sleep on whats going down in Texas today, those boys go too hard to not catch! How the fuck do I cover this though?! I mean the short list of players I was going to mention, -Jonio starts the 3v3 tournament-, would have to be it’s own paragraph. FAB, 2rio, Samitto, Umecha, Suke, Moga, it just goes on and on tonight! As did the viewer count! Almost eight hundred tuned into the stream until an hour or two ago and that's just Twitch, Niconico has over two and a half thousand viewers too way before the viewership peeked! -2rio and JUN start getting into it during the 3v3- Aside from the JP twitch servers being a little under the weather tonight, everything went swimmingly. I figured I’d keep a list of hype moments and match ups to talk about but after this long and the general quality of matches tonight it’d be just too damn long! I mean fucking seriously, The Mikado Open might have been one of the most competitive and enjoyable Xrd tournaments to ever happen. Nage had some astronomically great RNG, Umecha played Jam, FAB was godlike as usual, FG ran a clinic with Jack-O, Ain and Rion both defended Ky’s honor, fuck it’s almost easier to list the players that weren’t there. Mainly because that list is just Karinchu and a handful of others like Hase. Even if you were there on the arcade floor with three clones of yourself you’d be running your ass off just to watch everything. Fucking hell that shit was amazing! The best thing though was watching everyone in the chat have a ball. LostSoul, doren2k, Hotashi, the killers were out in force and just kicking it with the stream. Somehow the flood of players got cut down to one of the most vicious top eight’s ever and it only got crazier from there. Grab a few cases of beer and a horde of snacks because watching everything that went down will take a very, very, very long time. Which is a good thou- HOW ARE THEY STILL PLAYING?! FUCKING GO TO BED NOB! STOP! YOU’VE BEEN GOING AT IT FOR ALMOST EIGHT HOURS NOW! Honestly, it hasn’t stopped tonight! I salute anyone who sits down to watch this because chances are you’ll still be awake a week from now and so will they apparently. Not me though, once again I’m out of beer and coffee, not to mention the sun is giving me a dirty look, so that means its time for be- JUN. Seriously. I need to... Okay ten more minutes. Link to Jonio's Archives and the thirteen separate videos: https://www.twitch.tv/joniosan/profile Top 8 video from Mdesilva's channel:

So. It’s been a few days since it happened, but I think it’s time to talk about what happened at West Coast Warzone 5. I was going to cover the matches, talk about the sick Bedman play from MC|GcYoshi13, unfortunately there is a slightly more important thing that occurred. For one reason or another, all the sets in top eight were cut to 2/3, even grand finals. NTS|NerdJosh actually got somewhat robbed by the sudden breaking news after his set was ended prematurely so Mortal Kombat XL could start on time. Ladies and Gentlemen, we officially have momentum in the Guilty Gear scene and I’m here to discuss is what to except going forward. To my knowledge, there has been no apology from the WCW people on this matter and I wouldn’t expect one. We got fucked and we have to hold that. So who do we blame is the next question on a lot of peoples minds after something like that happened. The answer is no one. Between the variables of the venue, it’s owners, sponsors, other companies, money, shit running late, it’s too hard to pinpoint where exactly the shit storm started. Don’t even think I’m not pissed either, fuck that bullshit. Seriously. Fuck that. Fuck it with Faust’s scalpel. I mean its taken me days to get it out of my system so I could think about this is a clear, objective fashion. You know what comes to mind though, the phrase “Pick you’re battles.” When this happens again, and it will, we need to all take a collective breath. When SRK blew off MajinObama’s requests to mention the exhibition matches on their site, a ton of people blew up the owner/president/CEO/whatever the fuck he is’ twitter with hate. That was wrong. What that did was only burn bridges for the future, which is what we need to think about before anything. The future. What should we have done? In my opinion, we could have probably made some massive progress toward expanding the scene if we had just expressed our anger without going over the line. Shit happens though and not everyone makes the right decision in the heat of the moment, I fail at that crap all the time. I’m not going to just lay there and get reamed in the ass by some fucktard trying to foil what I love you know, but always exploding about everything (which is not the case for us honestly, more of a general thought on life) renders the noise we make invalid. We absolutely can’t afford to have that happen. One day, we’re going to gain some serious momentum and on that day Capcom, NetherRealm, Bandai Namco, every company is going to look at us not like we’re a collection of people but as a massive chunk of missed profits. We’ll be cash that they don’t have. When that time comes, they may seriously attempt to screw us. Fuck over our EVO matches, entirely cut us from majors, who knows but I put nothing past money walking over people’s values to force us into a bad position. I really hope it doesn’t happen but when it does, THAT is when we need to make noise. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ After looking at what you guys had to say, I sat and thought about so I could take it all into consideration. No one is certainly wrong here, you've all made very valid points. Yes, Xrd will never reach the status of SF or MK in a mainstream cultural sense, it's like hoping that we'd reach LoL status. What is possible though is achieving a level like Dota 2. Even redwoods grow from seeds, we just need to be the fuckers who water that shit. Like this person: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s733/sh/36946ad5-7fbc-4389-9af3-62066adf4c8e/3c085c915d6e04db495b290d2d42628b . @BloodWolf_May was kind enough to translate Ruu's notes on May from his Japanese blog, please give it a read too it's incredibly insightful, but this is what I'm talking about. You don't have to be a pro-player, a streamer, a tournament organizer, or whatever to help the scene grow. Just do what you can. Hell, even just being kind to other players who don't practice our game in stream chats is enough. Post cool artwork that you stumble across onto reddit, cut together a montage of your local scene's best moments for youtube, lend an ear to people who want to learn more about Guilty Gear. It's all simple. And this is not a fucking call to arms by the way, not everyone has the luxury of time in their lives between work, school, and general bullshit to do things like this. If you want to just be a fly on the wall go for it and never feel bad about it! If you do want to help though, just have fun with whatever you do because that enjoyment is what other people will see and be drawn to. Poultrygeist brings up a good point too! We are some of the lucky ones in the community where our games are actually covered in tournaments. We're also all in this shit together though. MajinObama has said it time and time again and I can only agree with him on this subject. However, and I'm going to catch flack for this, I never fault the Smash community for anything they've accomplished. Almost from day one they've had to pour their blood, sweat, money, and tears into that shit to get where they are today. They didn't have Nintendo behind them. Hell, Sakurai the creator has even defamed the game in a Famitsu article from last year saying "Fundamentally, my goal with Smash has been to create an “enjoyable party game”. If you want to enjoy thrilling tactical gameplay, you might be better suited for other 2D fighting games." I don't care who you are, that shit would hurt to hear coming from any developer, in any game, in any genre that you cared about. It's only been in recent years that Nintendo has even really given two shits about that game anyways aside from making more money off of it. They've built their kingdom by hosting locals, self sponsoring tournaments, building a network of streamers, it's all them. I mean, I personally don't really enjoy the game all that much, but damned if they've done what we're trying to do! I personally asked Alex Valle, one of the lead figures in the SF community once about what he thought of the other fighting game scenes and all he said was "They've got to step it up! Be the change you want to see or some shit like that." If you want to see your game played more, find others in your area and organize a monthly meet up! Not enough people to even get a top eight together? Partner up with another smaller scene and try to work together to make a multi game exhibition thingy. Even if it's just four people in Bumfuck Nowhere sitting on a shit stained couch in a basement. Everything has to start from somewhere but no one else is going to do it for you. Fuck, I mean Majin was just a guy with a passion, same with Valle and look at all they've done. The acceptance bit though is something we can all make an effort about though. I can never say this enough, we'll never survive if we segregate ourselves. As for MLSTRM's comment about how companies are lending their financial support to the game to help them succeed, it's absolutely right. Luckily, we're on that list too as Guilty Gear players. Arcsys is working on establishing a competitive official league in Japan for Xrd to my understanding at the moment and by supporting them through watching the matches wherever they're released, that might just show them that there is enough interest in the rest of the world to commit some serious capital to this idea and expand it overseas. Will that happen? Who knows but it's certainly possible. Banoffee sheds light on some very key issues as well, there is a massive stigma in the general populace against things labeled as "Anime". It's just too bad that the issue can't ever really be solved here. GG, BB, P4U, all of that shit IS anime as fuck regardless of it's label. Like, there's no getting around the visual style of May, Bang, or Hyde. For some fucking reason SF isn't considered anime when its absolutely fucking styled that way, although I personally think that issue has more to do with the game being seeded into the international mainstream consciousness since 1987, long before there were enough fighting games to make those distinctions. Telling people to "... step out of your dumb twitter circles for five minutes [and] you'll see it." is helping no one however. Least of all you. You made some damn good points man, but when you take an attitude like that you only polarize people which hurts the credibility of your very insightful points. Like how you said "And do you remember Mr Wizard being handed a literal anime pillow on EVO's main stage in front of tens of thousands of viewers? Whoever that was, thanks a lot, fucking idiot." Yes! That is so fucking right it hurts man! Fuck that shit! It's degrading as hell to anyone's efforts as a player to be "rewarded" like that! I really do hope though that one day we could even take what you were talking one step further and remove our games from what we call ourselves completely. That one day we can just say "I'm part of the FGC." Idealistic hippie bullshit I know, but hey, dreams are nice right? You know what though, in future write ups I'll really take into account what you've said about using the descriptor "anime", after all even though I'm a fan of it myself I do still need to take people who may hate it into account too. Thank you for pointing that out to me, I promise to keep that in mind! Oh, and to This Man and EXWildWolf, I didn't ignore what you said, it's just your statements were just already in line with my own thinking already so I don't have much else to say about them. No disrespect intended and thank you both for your input on this issue. Seriously, thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Twice as Nice: A Spoiler Free Review of Dora vs Fumi / Ryo vs Shima FT5‘s 4/16/2016 “Whatever happened to Raven Samone?” Fuck. Guilty Gear I’m good with, but BlazBlue? Fucked if I know where to start aside from on a casual level. That’s why I upgraded to whiskey for this. Hello from one of the other sides of the forum though! My god you people have great players! Seriously, how the hell do more people not play this game with fighters who can pull off these types of sets. God damn! This shit was so amazing that it basically deserves the only Bang theme that matters to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmyUG_0fk0k&ab_channel=ExilonStelar. Yes, that is a Spanish subtitled video for a Japanese song. You’re welcome. The first of the two part exhibition was Dora (BA) v. Fumi (NI), and I can’t even tell you how hype this was. Let me just say this, I love Mikado, I love Guilty Gear and every player who has carved out a name for themselves over there, but these two sets were the best that MajinObama has put on yet! I honestly don’t even know if you could get closer, more fun, or skillful matches! Mainly because I don’t know shit about this game. That doesn’t mean however that I can’t see the absolute, hold on I have an empty glass, level of mastery that these players have over their characters. Besides, the legendary Guymam is on commentary this time and I promise that he does know what he's talking about. Dora’s Bang is on point though, and Fumi may eventually be one of the players that really invents the playstyle for his character Nine as far as I can see. If you have even a fleeting interest in playing or surviving against Nine, one of the new characters in Central Fiction , you absolutely have to watch this. Hell, if you play Bang and just want to see play that even to a baddy bad fuck like me can tell is clearly from one of the very famous legacy players, then you owe it to yourself to see the latest chapter in Dora’s long running Bang legacy. Ryo (LI) v. Shima (IZ) was a different matter all together, not that it didn’t end just a closely. Talk about a different type of show! I mean, it may not seem like it to people outside of Japan but the arcade culture there is very quiet. Silence in respect for the players and their efforts. Sounds fine to me but on a personal level, I’ll take a match like this anyday. If you don’t know Ryo, which I don’t but I’ll act like I do since Guymam told me this, Ryo has always talked a massive amount of shit while playing. Constantly, and Shima wasn’t backing down either. If you listen in the background, you can hear them yelling shit at each other the entire time that left me dying. The first to five was a different story though. Now, this FT5 might have a smaller portion in this article-thingy analytically speaking but that is because there is probably so much more to talk about in this one and almost everything could be dissected would be a spoiler. Shima, a “rare unicorn” of a player who never leaves his local scene, showed how he has and probably will go on to help make the new character Izunami as much of a recognized monster that I saw tonight. Ryo was different though, there is something about old players, call it an aura or whatever bullshit you want but you can feel their strength wherever you might be watching. Honed over years and multiple additions of the game, it just sticks out and man. Shima isn’t looking to green either, but damned if I can find more than a handful of information on him to support my gut feeling. Anyways, it’s late and my whiskey is all gone. Only real problem is now I have to figure out how to fit CF into my training schedule now. I’m going to give it an honest shot and I only urge you that if you play BB and not GG, give my side of the forum a try too! Both of our games are equally amazing in my eyes but we need to stick together like Majin said if we’re serious about getting anyone outside our little bubbles to notice how brilliant the diamonds we’ve found are. Dora (BA) v. Fumi (NI) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw0h8mwSJkE&ab_channel=Jazz-ism Ryo (LI) v. Shima (IZ) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hJaN3zv7ks&ab_channel=Jazz-ism Twitch link to both - https://www.twitch.tv/majinobama/v/61104754

310 (VE) v. Jonio (JO) 4/16/2016 “An old match up with a new twist.” Takadanobaba Mikado Arcade. More or less full name of the arcade that just wrecked my sleep schedule. At least I have beer and 310 set ups to watch. If you don’t know already, 310 is an amazing Venom player from Japan. The man has hundreds of set ups against every character in damn near any situation. After he’s beaten peoples asses, I’ve seen him preform some of the most elaborate, awesome looking, totally unusable combos like only Venom can. His opponent was cloaked in mystery tonight too until Jonio himself stepped up as the surprise boss for evening. The man himself defending his turf with his own hands against the Assassin of a Thousand Set Ups. What a morning to still be awake for! Overall this first to seven was pretty solid. I’m not going to call this the most jaw dropping set I’ve seen, but man do I love watching both of these players. 310 plays such a mean game of constantly shifting approaches and really earning his hits while dodging Johnny’s blade because that swordsman definitely benefits more from one touch than Venom does. If you can even find a gap in the pressure to get started that is. Mad Struggle, QV, teleports, a million different pool balls to block, at a high enough level it’s almost at the level where Zato would be a little jealous of that onslaught. Jonio though has this inherently cool style, Karinchu is like a surgeon of death but out fearless host is someone who far too many people underestimate. While his execution may not be airtight, his ability to hit confirm through that special blend of JP hell is always impressive. The pace of the match never leaves Majin far behind though as he very cleanly breaks down a lot of aspects about both characters kits and game plans in this match up. However MajinObama hit on some real shit tonight that for the most part I’ll let you hear in his own words, but one thing he touched on is bringing back the acceptance of people who play other fighters aside from our own. I’m not going to say, if you have a problem with a certain game for whatever reason then you’re wrong. You’re not, that's just how opinions work and Majin isn’t suggesting anything otherwise either. Being a dick to people who don’t deserve it helps no one though. Twitch Vod: https://www.twitch.tv/joniosan/v/60906813 (Starts at ~54:28, you can watch everyone talking in chat this way.)

Mynus(IN) v. Blazeu25 (SO) 3/12/2016 “He plays the Sol-est Badguy!” The first time I saw this this motherfucker’s Sol, I lost it. With the East Coast Xrd scene being as stacked as it is with players like Lost Soul and MarlinPie, NY’s Blazeu25 is the hypest player in America that gets overlooked way too often. I ran into his fight against Jaruo (SO) on Next Level Battle Circuit one Wednesday night and to this day, I call it the most entertaining Sol mirror of Xrd. Shit was the epitome of nuts. That however, was forever ago and until this match gets a run back, I’m just going to have to fucking dream about the double Dragon Install throwdowns. What we are here to talk about today though is this man’s match against Mynus’ sick as fuck I-no on TSB. No respect, only HAM. This was Mynus one option to beat the US’ Sol-est player, to act twice as crazy and go three times harder. Blazeu25, was just going to channel Daisuke himself and let shit rip! Lasting only a single game, these rounds should be engraved somewhere because this is the type of shit we live for. Comrades behind both players, the middle of a massive team tournament to send off TSB, and this fucking riot of a duel breaks out in an attempt to hold the dwindling lines on both sides of this civil war. Don’t even think either that anything in this is brainless button mashing. Blazeu25 and Mynus’ skill shines through in their effortless command of their characters mixed with reactions honed by countless matches to produce one of my favorite one off matches ever. Mynus’ movement is something that all I-no players should look at, it’s accurate and rarely faltering in it’s spacing. Do not try to play like Blaze though, you’ll just get your ass handed to you because it’s a signature level of abare on his part that can’t be replicated. As per usual no spoilers (kinda) so I’m not going to say shit about how this whole thing went down in the end because fuck ruining that. This match is hype though. Pure, uncut, NYC hype. tsbLimit Jaruo v. Blazeu25: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4lYVei0uE8 Mynus v. Blazeu25: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlpRV8W5ewg&feature=youtu.be&t=01h32m57s

Samitto (CH) v. FG (JC) 4/9/2016 "Find Me!" Chiba, Japan. As MajinObama (@2dJazz) broke it down for us, is just east of Tokyo. Let me break this down for you though. Dont. Sleep. On. Chiba. Kantou Power in the JP Guilty Gear scene comes from the fact that all of it’s areas despite their size are full of killers. Chiba however is full of fucking beasts. Hase and Mike were serious but Samitto, the Don of Chiba-ken, and FG, a Jack-O’ with enough talent to steamroll a several hundred man tournament were out for blood right from the get go! Set on the newly revamped Coloney Stage with autumn leaves covering the crimson bridge in the background, these two painted the place red all over again. Samitto’s mission was “simple”. Fuck up the houses Jack-O’ plops down while not eating her 3HS or getting devoured by the unending army. The entire affair was a Chipp clinic on using footies to outwit and flit through her cannon fodder to hopefully land a solid blow. FG however showed that Jack-O’ doesn’t even need her goons to drop you, her normals will do it just fine. The only catch being that even with extra help, it’s a feat of it’s own to pin down a nearly invisible teleporting ninja. 5/5-ish is said to be the match up’s numbers according to top men and after damn near every round coming down to pixels, it makes sense. If you play Chipp at all or feel like you want to study that unicorn match up as Jack-O’ than this will provide weeks worth of material to look over. Either way, this duel in Chiba is not something you’ll see everyday!

Mike v. Hase 4/9/16 “This isn’t even news! ‘Cause this happens every god damn night in Tokyo!” It’s true. Every fucking night. For months now I’ve seen shit that you wouldn’t belive on the Mikado Arcade stream. Killers, champions, gods, hell the new players that roll through this place are insane sometimes. However at 2 A.M. PDT, while most people were sleeping, Hase (SL) and Mike (JC) squared off in in the heart of Tokyo. A First to Seven Exhibition Match in one of the most amazing displays of sheer talent that I’ve seen all year. After starting nearly forty-five minutes late (due to Hase handling life like a man and working his ass off), propped up by coffee and beer, I noticed that the chat in Jonio’s channel instead of rioting, was busy talking and waving at each other like they had been for almost hour and a half straight. Damn near every American Guilty Gear god that I know of was there from the Master Ninja ShinKensou, to the Savior of Jam’s Doren, even Lost Savage turned up to cheer alongside everyone. No fighting, no bullshit, just people getting way too hype far too late at night. From his opening words, the first ever English speaking announcer on the Mikado stream Majin_Obama(@2dJazz) made it very clear. People didn’t understand what was about to happen. Hase’s Slayer fighting Mike’s Jack-O’ is two things he pointed out over the course of some amazing play. That S tier players clashing at Mikado is hype as hell and nothing out of the ordinary at the exact same time. I wont give you the blow by blow because it would be a crime to rob you of listening to Majin_Obama’s fantastic commentary and something like this shouldn’t be casually spoiled in my opinion. I will say this though, everyone was holding their breath to the very end. After the exhibition people clapped, gloated, sighed, drank more, and a good portion of people then went to bed. Those people missed out. See, this is what Majin_Obama was getting at and PLEASE go back and watch the fights after the Hase v. Mike match because thats when the aforementioned vampire decided to just fuck people up for hours. After he got knocked off the set up, literally every single person from 2rio, Karinchu, FAB, Samitto, Mike, Hase, a procession of legendary warriors just brawled and you know what? It’s still going on. It’s 5:33 A.M. and Samitto just took a round off of Hase making it 1-1. Actually, I just looked at chat for a second and Hase is defending his seat against Karinchu now. Mikado is too hype. I’m going to bed.