sibladeko

OZ unironically running Serika that's how much he doesn't care. That and he can switch assists later in the tournament. Sasara beats Oboro to make it past round 1 Sasara so good!

Man who is this Manabe guy all I see him do is play bad Eroge does he even play this game anymore?

Gamera was on a team but I'm pretty sure they scrubbed out first round lol, I didn't see them in the archives

There was a 3v3 pre-Examu cup tournament yesterday/today this morning our time. OZ didn't enter and just did casuals with Chizuru/Serika jokes, got a small streak before losing to Saginomiya. Batta's team won it, Batta (Touka! not Multi lol), key (Morgan), daigo (Karulau). Second place was daigiri (2nd highest VP Karulau), Asuku (7th highest VP Touka), and Shari (mains Konomi, used Manaka for this tourney), In the fight for supreme leader Batta beat both key and daigo, and daigo beat key. The archives are here: http://www.twitch.tv/adastream/b/512921551

To be fair both Manaka players were in SBO! Also maku has nao chizuru as a partner lol. I'm just glad no character got purely shafted, even if the single Oboro and the single Sasara fight each other first round. At least one of them advances to round two!

Shana basically has the only invulnerable Roman Cancel in the game as her trump. It means she can cancel her AB/2AB DPs on block, meterless combo extend, dash forward pause the game punish like UniB, wake up reversal with it, combo super into another super, etc. Kirito has more or less the same thing with dual weild except he can't do it on block or after EX/Supers I believe, so no RCed DPs. He can combo into it though and he does a ton of damage and improves his normals while giving him free cancel assists, also it has startup invul just like Shana's so he can do dash up invulnerable Trump Card counter poke nonsense as well.

Examu Cup 2014 Aquapazza brackets are up. You can read my analysis here if you care to. tl;dr 13 Tamakis lol OZ's team is going to win anyway.

The variety of character systems is definitely one thing I felt lacking with this game during my time with it. (Disclaimer: x hours on first loctest's weekend) On one hand, it means that even the "bad" characters don't have too severe a crippling illness (hi Aquapazza) against the good characters. On the other hand, it's basically because everyone is pretty generic. Like I can already have a good guess of how Kirito plays because they showed his AB (your most important move in this game) and his character special (dual wield)

I imagined Gief with Tamaki's Godpress and my mind threw up. For minutiae, I don't consider Chizuru vs Riannon better than Chizuru vs Manaka, but that's really not worth talking too much about. I'm going to have to strenuously object here, not about not banning her in the USA (another subject, another time), but that Chizuru has somehow "fallen off" in Japanese tournaments. Examu Cup Grand Finals? Examu Cup 2013 was ALL Arcana Heart 3 Love Max!!!!!, it was held to announce patch 1.04 for the game and was held in September of 2013. Examu Cup 2014 hasn't even happened yet it's in March, everything has been qualifiers so far and they're adding AP and Daemon Bride (lol) This really doesn't need to be said but the finals of a qualifier is not the same as the Grand Finals of a full tournament, the SBO qualifiers were full of heroic moments, like a hero player entering SOLO with Morgan and qualifying over a field of Chizurus. But in the end it was just OZ and batta, two super old KOF players, cleaning up everyone else as expected. The last major tournament for this game was Godsgarden #8, in which the top 8 was purely Konomi Tamaki Chizuru and a single hero Hakuowlo (the best in the game) called Mizuchama. If you're going mainly by Kohatsu vids sure, maybe Chizuru doesn't dominate. Not to hate on Kohatsu, they have interesting tech (their Serika use comes to mind) and some good players (I root for Mizuchama unconditionally whenever I see him), but I don't see the people who have been dominating this game since version 1.00 in those tournaments very often. No OZ. No Batta. No KOG. No Kouya. No Go1. No Kaiser. No Takakun. No kasu. etc etc. etc. When people like that actually show up, it's no contest. The last time Kouya entered a 2v2 by himself (they let him play two characters! at Kohatsu he didn't drop a game until he reached Mizuchama's team in GF, and when he lost with his Chiz! he destroyed him with his Sasara. In fact, when I think seriously about Kohatsu tourney character representation, they don't have a single SBO qualifier repping any character except for Mizuchama, who plays a decidedly not amazing character. The worst part is a lot of the Gods don't even play this game regularly, I log onto Nesica with my AP account to check rankings and such and last activity and I see shit like "last played, Godsgarden #8." You want to bet about the actual Examu Cup Grand Finals? OZ's team will win. He's hands down the best in Japan in the game. And I predict top 8 to be full of Chizuru Tamaki Konomi, maybe 60%, and I'm only skewing it downwards because duplicate characters are not allowed per team, so you've got room to put in some of the "can win" characters.

To further clarify what I mean: Yes, Tamaki does not have a normal for every situation either. But the way that character works is if you are in the range of any of them it's just one huge box of scary shit. She's got anti-mash, she's got anti-jump, she's got grab, she's got dp-safe, she's got mixups, she's got ticks, she's got air-to-air. And the range of those normals are way longer than any grappler has a right to have. That's not even including fucking Godpress, which isn't a normal and which I could write a fucking book on how stupid it is. So yes, if your normals are relatively safe (THIS IS IMPORTANT AND THIS IS WHY SASARA SUCKS) and exceed the box of doom, yes you can give her trouble in neutral like Arawn and Karulau by staying in that range just outside. That doesn't mean her normals are remotely bad. If you exchanged her current normals for Arawn's or Karulau's longer but slower normals it wouldn't work with how the character plays at all, you think that would put her at SSS+? Shit wouldn't work at all because that's not how that character was designed.

Christ you two I regret being linked this. Your ideas aren't mutually exclusive but you descended into a war of semantics and absolute statements and no one wants to back down. Yes Tamaki has good normals. Yes, she has problems in neutral against people with better normals. The ideas are NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE. Saying Tamaki has problems in neutral against people who have better normals != Tamaki has bad normals. Ernest your examples all make a lot of sense, but skewing your examples for Tamaki toward fighting Arawn, Karulau, Chizuru, and Multi at neutral is just a selective as all hell sample size. Especially when the average strength of the cast in this game is so low in general. I'm not going to go into some shit like she has the fifth best normals or w/e since different normals for different characters obviously interact differently in different matchups (lol why is Hakuowlo vs Sasara worse than Hakuowlo vs Chizuru, it's not cause Sasara's normals are overall better than Chizuru's that's for sure, they just interact differently), but calling Tamaki's normals "bad" or even "average" is an exaggeration.

I would but ugh, why the SecuROM man?

His list is wrong. ACT definitely qualified with Maori. People with stars are players I have a personal interest in. Here's current updates from Japanese BBS, original names kept for nico/youtube/whatever purposes: A-1：いわぶちあぜち 　　 ：おーえん(Kira) ぶち(Yoriko) / OWEN and buchi A-2：牛タン！ 　　 ：亀(Kamui) きよし(Elza) / kame* and kyoshi A-3：Ｔｅａｍ大人の事情 　　 ：ＡＣＴ(Maori) 雪村(Liselotte) / ACT* and yukimura B-1：たぬきち追悼　その３ 　　 ：かすみLOVE(Akane) 殿(Konoha) / Kasumi LOVE* and tono ('09 winners) B-2：大山勢 　　 ：まっち(Akane) ぱしー(Fiona) / macchi and poshii B-3：Ｔ・Ｍ・Ｔ 　　 ：しお(Weiss) カズ兄ちゃん(Dorothy) / shio and kaz onichan B-4：主人公チーム 　　 ：もみじ(Heart) りょ(Weiss) / momiji and ryo B-5：ＭＡＧＩコーポレーション 　　 ：あしべ(Scharlachrot) ダック(Konoha) / ashibe* and dakku B-6：たぬの恩返し 　　 ：たぬきち(Saki) ウォーズ(Lilica) / tanukichi and wars B-7：がけっぷち 　　 ：しのやま(Clarice) だいふき(Meifang) / shinoyama and daifuki B-8：人間の尊厳のために 　　 ：ぺそ(Scharlachrot) 古明地さとり(Elza) / peso and komeiji satori* B-9：邪魔なんだよ！ 　　 ：太郎(Elza) サイモン・ブレジネフ(Nazuna) / tarou and Simon Brezhnev* B-10：ヒカゴ 　　 ：狂犬(Zenia) しろごま(Angelia) / kyouken and shirogoma* (MY HERO) B-11：ヤリこみ否定 　　 ：ふり～だ(Liselotte) グリコのおまけ(Elza) / frieda and guriko no omake C-1：たぬきち追悼　その２ 　　 ：けん(Petra) とも(Catherine) / ken and tomo C-2：GO！GO！ガタAC 　　 ：絶奈(Zenia) モリカタ(Weiss) / zetsuna and morikata C-3：クラスSSS 　　 ：ABo(Petra) 風音LOVE(Liselotte) / ABo and kazane LOVE* C-4：馬鹿物語 　　 ：ペガサスときびと(Konoha) いわおフェニックス(Heart) / pegasus tokibito and iwao phoenix C-5：お風呂最後でしょ 　　 ：白帯(Weiss) マスター(Meifang) / shiroobi and master D-1：アンアアン 　　 ：あんどぅ～(Catherine) バンババン(Heart) / andou~* and banbaban D-2：極大消滅呪文 　　 ：白き力の裁き“こうや”(Akane) 黒き愛の反抗“山中”(Heart) / shiroki chikara no sabaki "Kouya" and kuroki ai no hanou "yamanaka" D-3：害確 　　 ：克巳ＬＯＶＥ(Akane) がいきち(Saki) / katsumi LOVE* and gaimachi E-1：２人だけの遊園地 　　 ：ＡＫＲ48(Petra) ペド野郎(Eko) / AKR49 and pedoyarou E-2：ソーマドレッシング 　　 ：超乳（ザーム）(Meifang) 聖乳（ソーマ）(Petra) / chouchichi and seichichi E-3：ラブぷらむ＋ 　　 ：加藤　凛子(Clarice) 安田　愛花(Scharlachrot) / katou rinko and yasuka manaka* F-1：ゴッドエンペラー 　　 ：ひがし(Kamui) 会長＠HK(Weiss) / higashi and kaichou@HK F-2：モンキーハウス 　　 ：エムジマ(Catherine) マーク(Petra) / emujima and mach F-3：モンゴルハウス 　　 ：ＲＥＵ(Angelia) たかあき(Konoha) / REU and takaaki F-4：らよさんらよさん 　　 ：ゼロ(Petra) クロエ(Scharlachrot) / zero and chloe Aliases because Arcana players are clowns: komeiji satori is henvoke (winner of Tougeki Arcana '08) へんぼく Simon Brezhnev is himajin (qualified for BBCS also as Litchi, plays near jiyuna) ひまじん kyouken is pangya パンヤ guriko no omake is yume ユメ yamanaka is nao (I think this guy is also at jiyuna's local arcade, plays Ranga in BBCS) なお katsumi LOVE (lol poor kasumi) is kamei aka girl guy, plays near heartnana キャメイ gaikichi is white aran 白アラン chouchichi (super boobs) is mabushin まぶしん seichichi (sacred boobs) is karate kenji 空手健児 kazane LOVE is jackal ジャッカル master is JEO shiroobi is konomi 二宮 zetsuna is kamiyama 神山 morikata is LNT katou rinko is zenji ゼンジ yasuka manaka is plum プラム Character breakdown: 6 Petra 5 Weiss 4 Heart Konoa Elza Akane Scharlachrot 3 Liselotte Catherine Meifang 2 Saki Kamui Clarice Zenia Angelia 1 Maori Yoriko Kira Fiona Dorothy Nazuna Eko Lilica Overseas: 1 Weiss 1 Lilica Other team unknown

It sort of hurts me they couldn't be bothered to find a newer game to troll us with. At least make it shiny and new and terrible, not old and busted and terrible. And they're complaining about DVD sales...

Zar/Xenozip/Waffles's Wei tutorial has been completed, and honestly it is fucking top tier. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dItR1Wb6zxA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtUm3oj45ws http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfHQLFNtnEs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZk-odTYlrQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHevpyaSwyY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwLn9ZK06oM More random casuals.

There is some silly shit in those vids. Like I want to say the regular USA players are better than a lot of Kohatsu. (Maybe not me though, my win loss ratio is like 1:2, I'm pretty noob at this game.) Fritz lands ABC at 75% full screen? (DAY ONE GIMMICKS) Then gets HIT BY RESURRECTION???? Marilyn does like three correct combos then intentionally does wrong ones? The Sai is very solid though. And even if she completely failed to parry a 75% full screen Fritz gimmick, the Anonym's pretty decent too. Anyway, the USA netplay scene is starting to record their own vids, or rather it seems to be mainly me :V Whatever. Don't have much now, but more on the way from other people sending them to me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBt9mfA4D0s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOu-s465XT8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esq39IqhArw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-osgSv9bm94

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPmuiS5g1pY Guess Lilica can loop more than 5 times. Holy shit Lilica on ice is crazy fast. Ice is looking pretty damn good (absorbs hits, makes crack Lilicas)

yukinose(DI)　VS　kaqn(SL) yukinose(MI)　VS　kaqn(AX) yukinose(MI)　VS　kaqn(RO) vol.1 yukinose(MI)　VS　kaqn(RO) vol.2 yukinose(TE)　VS　kaqn(JA) yukinose(TE)　VS　kaqn(OR) vol.1 yukinose(TE)　VS　kaqn(OR) vol.2 yukinose(TE)　VS　kaqn(OR) vol.3 yukinose(TE)　VS　kaqn(OR) vol.4 yukinose(TE)　VS　kaqn(SO) I haven't watched any AC for a while... But they gave Millia back her unrecoverable throw! And jHS can be air dashed after! Yays. Man yukinose's willing to play Dizzy but not Bridget?

0:34? Maybe in the game's timer, but in normal time it was more like a minute long (0:07 body slam start) I say Lilica should have Arcana'ed the instant she realized what was going on, sometimes I wonder why they don't.

This annoying loop?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQfHr_8Fjf4 Holy freaking crap, this one was pretty exciting actually. The 2:30 OTG nonsense from Kira was hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Uobj396KVA Speaking of time out wins :V This made me sad.

Hopefully people will keep trying Princess Galadriel errr Fiona out and make her not suck. Also what's the limit on that Maori relauncher loop? At this point I don't think even with that 80% super she'd be remotely overpowering. Her normals just seem...too slow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsKtgKJUBz8 We all know the Lise loop now, but this person milks it to 50 hits, which has me wondering... Cause like we can all see the pushback right? Does the arcana reset it or what?