Jason D.

Crap, I thought sign-ups started Saturday, not Thursday morning. Yeah, this is going to suck, especially with the free entry fee. No one at a con can resist something free.

Wow, those are some nice prizes for BB. Alright, screw it, I'm going to go too. And my odds are probably good, if a bunch of random anime fans are going to sign up (Curse you, render and Zong!). A one-day pass isn't going to kill me, and at the very least I can check out cosplayers. So hey, Zong, it sounds like you're doing the same thing I am. Want to carpool? I'll split parking fees with you, and such.

Oh, I guess I'll go today also. Why not. My plan to get a full night of sleep last night didn't work out too well after all, but that's okay, since apparently there won't be a lot of temptation tomorrow through Sunday.

And don't forget the two Sonitis. Really, I'm just using this as an excuse to again mention that there were two Sonitis. Because it was funny. But mostly scary. Very, very scary.

Aww! Actually, I thought about you too during the PNW thing. Huey, playing Bang, aircomboed me. I tech at the end, did a winded j.2c, and he ran face-first into it. And I said "Yeah, Dacidbro does that a lot also." Yay for shout-outs! ...And you're right, that match was pretty painful to watch.

Zong is now five or six dollars richer. Ladies?

"Alright Xie, it's time for your partner's turn. ...Say, where did he go?" "Oh. He's... in the bathroom! I'll go and get him."

Never fear! Just buy me a ticket, and I got your back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REkUWDtjxKs Hitting the big time.

If you look in any thread, you'll find a little Zong in there. Nothing is untouched. Australian tournament results? Yaoi fanart thread? Zong is on it! And I just noticed that apparently we signed up for dustloop around the same time, so there's your scale of how active he is. Also, I've consistently scored in the Top 16 every time. Just sayin'. (You know you can't do a tournament without a Rachel.)

Haha. The timestamp thing gets me too. I think it's like +0 GMT by default (so +8 or so hours for you). If you log in, however, it'll correct itself to whatever region you set it for. And all the cool people should come to AI today at around 8:00. Just sayin'.

And I totally won't be there tonight. So tired. Definitely can't stay up that late tonight. But there is tomorrow! Kyle and Kyle should also come by tomorrow evening.

Alright, time to report in. The opponent can definitely mash out during the BBL startup. In fact, it's pretty easy since the level 3 j.2c creates a massive hitstop. Still though, this idea is insanely fun, and rewarding too, so why not try it every now and then? This totally doesn't make a difference, and I feel silly for even trying it. And now for some good news. I got that link to work on Tsubaki. It doesn't seem to work on Arakune, though. And the other computer guys weren't being too cooperative. But in theory, as long as they are small enough in their crouching hit animation, it should work on them.

I like to think of my avatar as inspiration. Whenever my opponent is blatantly going to jump in or airdash in, and I see it coming from a mile away and want to anti-air them, I just think of that picture. It reminds me that their jump-in is completely free, and that I can do nothing but block. Also, I was thinking about that stupid combo I mentioned last night, when I was trying to see how much damage she could possibly do. It actually doesn't seem so useless. Wait wait, bear with me, I'm not insane. Picture this: The opponent is in the corner, and you have a few rods on top of them. Try to get George out in whatever way works best. Then, while George is holding them still, fly up and slam down. Time it so that Rachel comes down just after George's blockstun, so that if they flinch, they get hit, and can kiss their life goodbye. However, if they block the j.2c, just go into the BBL anyway. Congratulations, you have just RAPED their guard primers. And bonus points if you got them in Danger AND guard crushed them at the same time. That is some excellent Risk vs. Reward. The only problem I can think of is the time between the j.2c and the BBL. Does anyone know if the opponent has enough time there to mash something out?

Personally, I like the picture of the CS logo, and then the Wikipedia link to CT. "Education of the Gamer", indeed.

Anyway, both arcades are actually an equal distance away, if you're coming from the LAX area. Not counting traffic, of course. However, due to the lack of BB:CS at FFA, pretty much everyone is going to AI these days. Which I'd also recommend, as long as you don't mind bumping elbows on the GG machine.

Hey guys, I think Rachel is broken. I just did about 9,000 damage with her, and really easily. Just put down three poles, do a level 3 j.2c, BBL, j.2c, BBL, j.2c. I'm not sure what you mean by this. It isn't an issue with hitting him while he's still standing, like what happens to Tager. It's just that when Jin falls over, he falls further than other characters, making the ensuing combo harder to connect. For contrast, take Lambda/Nu and Tsubaki. They actually fall over much closer to Rachel. Jin is the opposite.

Well, I'd say the corner throw combos are practical enough. In fact, I -almost- showed you it on Sunday morning, but I messed up the BBL motion. It's just that when your back is to the corner, it usually means that you've been rushed down, and thus you've had plenty of time to sit back and regain wind. I was also thinking of doing that mid-screen 5CC frog combo on Jin as a standard, too. The combo itself isn't specific to just him, but for some reason Jin is a BITCH to hit with the usual 236 B -> run forward 6A stuff. For whatever reason he bounces further backward than most people, so the lightning from the pole can miss, and if you do a BBL the lightning from Rachel will almost always miss him.

This is kind of funny for me to say because I usually do go for max damage in CS, but going for okizeme is still a valid tactic too. Sure, George does worse damage, but that wasn't really the point of him in the first place. George is just supposed to hold the opponent still while you mix them up, and he's still wonderful at that. In fact, now that George slides with wind he's actually better in a way, since if the opponent tries to tech roll you can have George chase him down. And while Rachel's mix ups may not be quite what they used to be, in the end being able to start a fresh new combo is still way better than adding 300 damage and losing momentum.

I can't say for sure how character-specific that was, but I do know that Hazama is the only character who can crouch under an A lobelia if you do 5CDC -> A lob. to him as a blockstring when he's in the corner. So yeah, it could just be his hitbox at work.

Yeah! It was a great time. And also great seeing a lot of you again, and also seeing some people for the first time. (Except for Dacid, who doesn't remember me.) So thanks to all of you for... uh... existing? And of course, good games to everyone I played. It was awesome having that many good players around so conveniently. Oh, and if anyone's confused, I was either Rachel or Axl, depending on where you saw me.

He did make a surprise appearance at Warzone. I mostly missed having an arcade on the way home from work. But I'd also miss BB:CS more. If only there was a way that these two can come together...

So... GG money match, you're saying?

A Rachel? Hells yeah! You and me! Rachel fight! (and unless you're a master of deception, I'm feeling good about this one...)

I'm going to be dead all this week. E3. I might be by Friday, but chances are equally likely that I'm going to lie down for five days straight and never want to walk again. But that being said, just in general the crowd of random people at AI are non-existent on Monday, and then gets better as the week goes on. If you want to go Thursday or Friday, you should have no trouble finding people.