Ultra Street Fighter IV

[joffocakes]

Bracket has changed a bit. I'm up against Hadoushrooms. I think he plays Zangief? Oh no!

Bracket has changed a bit. I'm up against Hadoushrooms. I think he plays Zangief? Oh no!

EDIT: Lost two nil. Took some rounds though at least!

[Lyrical Donut]

I'm home!

Shoutouts to:

Friday night London rush hour traffic.

Rainy Sunday afternoon London traffic.

The locals with their fancy West Country accents.

Cale's wildly fluffy cat.

Cale's 'entertaining' bin.

Rancilio.

Rooftop crew.

imp's E-Sports monitor being too E-Sports for everyone.

Hard and soft reads.

Hegg knocking Jellum into the losers bracket of the singles tournament.

Beating Jellum's Sakura with Yun.

Wakey Wakeup FT5 with imp.

Bleary eyed FT10 with hegg.

P. Sagat.

Treating Nate like P. Sagat.

Grey bandana Ryu. Too sick.

And of course, Mr Cale himself for being an amazing host - thanks again!

[joeplus]

Home and dry! Well, soaking wet. I'll have to post more about of all of the awesome stuff that happened, but for now I just want to say a massive thank you to cale for hosting and organising, to Donut for getting us there and back like a champion, and to everyone for all the GGs and generally being wonderful.

[JLM]

Yes, as above. I've only just got back so will hold off on a big write up for now, but a thousand thank yous to Mr. Cale and GGs to everybody else. You are all excellent people and I hope Hegg's suggestion of a launch gathering for Ultra SF4 is made reality.

Joffles, was Hadoshrooms lovely? I played him (and won because Chun/Zangief is horrid) at Play Expo and he was a very nice man. I also purchased one of these from him (sadly minus the Evo pass):

[cale]

My house is quiet. So very very quiet.

[ah]

:-(

Jellistarr were sad to leave (first in last out!), but most grateful for your hospitality. We left you a crossword on the coffee table - I think it has a couple of clues filled in to get you started. I think everything else was as it should be when we left. And we can always come back in a couple of weeks' time and sit in your living room playing Marvel or something while you go about your day, if you like?

The shouts of amazement are still ringing in my ears from all the big tings that happened. I kind of want to write up a list over the next few days, adding to it each time I remember something, because I'm sure there are a million such tings I'm forgetting right now and all I can think of is the general excellence of street fighting in person.

[cale]

I was equally relieved and disappointed you and Jellum weren't both still sat in my living room when I got back.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

RIP Canada Cup :'(

[Camel]

God, such a nightmare getting home last night. Five hours! Thanks lightning for striking a signal box and throwing all the trains into disarray. Actually true.

So, anyway, Street Fighter weekend tings.

Firstly, just want to say it's so lovely being able to play you guys in person and even just watching you all play. So much better than online. I genuinely wish I'd played a lot more before the event as I didn't have much to bring to the table. Would have been nice to actually give some of you some decent games. Next time. Definitely next time.

I love how Hegg remains top tier when he doesn't even play any more. So solid. When I don't play for months (eg, just before Heggwest) I literally forget which buttons to press and end up trying to anti-air with the worst of all the buttons. Not Hegg though. Dat Guile. Keep me posted about the film night, would love to come along.

Talking of Guile, Ig fucked me up with his in the tournament. Always impressed by his use of normals, especially anti-airs. And that ridiculous combo into Ultra 2. Nice to meet you. I hope I wasn't rustling too much in my uncomfortable sleeping bag.

JLM's everyone of course, as usual. Loved playing his Seth who he doesn't even really use and he beat me with anyway. And that Dudley of course. Combos! Juggling! And Chun! And well, like I said, everyone. Such a pleasure to watch. Forgot to get your autograph in advance of you winning Evo.

Nate. Oh god that Blanka. Probably the only time I got slightly salty during the whole thing. Literally no idea what to do while that *thing* jumped all over me biting my face. Always love watching that Ken. I think it might just be the cowboy outfit tbh. Thanks for sorting out the rooftop crew. Also, congratulations!

Cale. The coolest host I've ever met. Hey sweaty Street Fighter mans, of course you can come into my family home with your big sticks and go on about frame advantages and wakeups and drink beer all day and smash buttons and demand mexican food. It's all good. Here, I'll make you some coffee. Would love to do a runback on those Abel mirrors at some point if you're up for it? Man, did I ever get outplayed. Thanks for everything, really very much appreciated. Also, I forgot to kidnap your cat. Next time.

Joe! Think I probably played you more than anyone. Thanks for all the excellent games. Always enjoy going up against your Rose. And that tourney match. Jesus. Always a pleasure, thanks for the crossword, I'll be having a crack at it tonight.

Imp. You made me hate Adon slightly less by being so bloody good with him. Turning off his shrieking should be in the options menu though. Sim Ryu games were amazing, even if you were taking the piss towards the end by just slapping my limbs constantly. Also, thanks for the beer chat, I will definitely visit that pub you were telling me about.

Ali*, soooo bloody good with Rufus. I am jel. Rufus comboing into Ultra was a revelation to us all, especially Hegg. Who knew? And those consistent one-frame links like it aint no thing. Lovely. Also, Volgarr skills and excellent Dive Kick action. How's that stolen copy of Mario Tennis?

Donut. Seth. Ugh. That corner stuff against Dhalsim. Ugh. You magnificent bastard. Wish I'd got to play you more than I did. Let's right that by going to the crack arcade soon.

Scott. Absolute pleasure, glad we got to meet after the Japan tips of last year and it was great shooting the breeze about our adventures in the land of the rising ultra. I think we only got a few games in together, maybe we can continue online at some point?

Bandana Ryu. Cheer up man. Things can't be that bad, surely?

God, I hope I haven't missed anyone.

EDIT: Red car convoy. Also: 'Helloo'. Also, matching Jellistarr outfits. Also, crack arcade. Donut, Imp, Joe, anyone else?

[JLM]

Nicely done Camel. I was hoping for one or two early Heggwest write-ups to help drag me through what is already proving to be a difficult Monday. "Ello!" is high up on my (extremely lengthy) list of highlights I dumped into a notepad document before passing out from tiredness last night.

[ah]

You missed P. Sagat out :-(

[Camel]

Yeah fuck P. Sagat.

[IgTerminals]

Great write up Camel. I don't remember the 'hello' thing tho.

And no. Didn't hear your sleeping bag at all. I thought the same thing so hope I didn't disturb you dude.

[Camel]

Not at all. The only thing disturbing me was the fact I thought that a towel would suffice as a pillow. Fuck me, it really doesn't.

[Camel]

Shame there was no Rock Band. But Rock Band would have meant less Street Fighter so maybe not a shame after all. No PS2 HDD fighters either, but there's always next time.

[joeplus]

I am jotting down some thoughts over my lunch, will post later tonight. I am still slightly baffled by the whole "Hello" thing, despite my part in it

[IgTerminals]

I don't remember this Hello thing at all. Please illuminate me.

Shit. Now I'm wondering if I was really at Heggwest...

[JLM]

Donut and Joe sat down to play. Joe said "Good luck mate" or something along those lines just before they started playing. Donut misheard and responded "Hello!" and Joe responded with "I didn't say hello, I said good luck". It was pretty brutal. Joe is ice cold.

The miscommunication was amusing, but I think what gave it legs was how people ran with it. Firstly the idea that Donut or Joe thought they were bumping into each other for the first time when they'd been there for hours and had in fact travelled together, and secondly the idea of sitting down next to an opponent for a big tournament match at a major and going "Ellooo!" for the ultimate disarming opening gambit.

[joeplus]

That's sort of what I thought. I must offer my apologies Donut, my "good luck" was rather tipsy and mumbled, and then I was just confused.

[imp]

I also would like to chime in and say that heggwest was a truly magnificent weekend, and also thank Cale for his incredible hospitality, Donut for his hard drivin', and well, everyone for bringing so much hype and hilarity. There was so much good stuff over those few days I'm sure I'm forgetting loads, but hey, that's why I'm excited to read everyone else's write-ups.

Loved strolling into the top secret Heggwest venue to see team Jellistarr unable to resist fighting each other.

Massively enjoyed the T Hawk vs Sagat set with Hegg. I'm not sure who was getting the thin end of the wedge there, me for eating empty jump SPDs while waiting for you to air condor, or you for eating so many raggo, err, I mean completely-on-reaction-thanks-to-the-flawless-monitor uppercuts.

The whole salty bet suite during Mexican chowtime was incredible. I'm sad P.Sagat couldn't overcome B.Ryu, but someone had to play the villain. And speaking of food, it was also pretty great that apparently no-one was able to properly open the pizza dips from Domino's. I certainly didn't want to commit to the hard rip, knowing I had pizza fingers and with Cale's beautifully clean light carpet directly below.

Grinding out Adon vs Rufus with Alistarr. This felt a lot like how Choo and I play. I adjust, you adjust, I readjust, you readjust, I worry you're going to cotton on to my shit again and change character. I never did manage to land my premium quality bullshit on you though. There's basically a corner setup where Adon can cross up Rufus when he's in the corner, using LK Jaguar Kick. It's kinda stupid, since it puts you in the corner, but who doesn't love hitbox shenanigans? I feel like without that grinding our tournament matches would have gone very differently, for once I see value in sandbagging!

Fishing for corner Ultras. Adon's got that super rod. People love neutral jump or jump back in the corner. Adon loves to EX jaguar and juggle with Ultra 2. Ryu's pretty much only got an old rod; mixed success going for EX fireball juggles. You people like blocking too much.

Winning any games against Jellum. It's been a long time since I've played anyone on the forum except Choo, I was really worried I would just get straight up bodied in this matchup, but no, we had several close sets, many of which I remember being really funny, but I have no idea why. Maybe it's our love of footsies generally leading to a bunch of weird buttons being pressed at inappropriate times. Thank god for inappropriate buttons.

Sleeping in the games room safe in the knowledge no-one was going to wake up and play any Street Fighter before Jellum or myself. Wakeup first to five was ace. We need to play that matchup more often once you're on PC, Donut. I would one day like to get over my chronic charge character weakness.

Also, I felt bad sneaking past Donut in the tournament thanks to a dropped Seth combo. But eating karmic retribution in the teams by dropping a round ending combo against Nate and dying for it made everything alright, I think.

Speaking of which, going 0 for 4 in the 6v6 showcase wasn't such a bad experience either. Thanks, Goose Island. Amazing fun to be part of though, was totally digging the team strategies. "If we beat X with Y character, then A will have to use B!" (A=jellum, who can solve the rest of the equation?) But yes, really great fun to watch people try to topple each of the hot streak heroes. Props to Ig, Alistarr, Donut, and... Jellum, I think was the last one? Maybe next time we'll have to try and do an arcade style quarter-match, always fun to try and bring out the lobby tyrants IRL. Yep. "always fun".

The main tournament was great hype. High pressure situations! I remember having to calm myself down on the couch after fighting Donut. And if that's all it took to fluster me, you can see why I couldn't really cope playing Jellum immediately after Hegg. That's too much stress for one man to handle. Imagine it. It's literally like losing against Hegg and then having to fight Jellum. I'm fairly pleased with my performance but felt like I sort of mentally checked out halfway through against Chun. Not to take anything away from Jellum, clearly that win was solidly earned by keeping my options limited and my jaguarish feet thoroughly out of Chun's personal space. Maybe a more considered approach with Ryu would have been better against those two, but like they say, you gotta dance with the once who took you. Adon it had to be. (Stupid overlapping command inputs).

Breaking Bad philosophisin' with Cale in the Kitchen, also hearing the origin story of team Nate 'n Cale. Great chats, great coffee!

B.Ryu being officially Ryu of Ryus. P.Sagat being our scout and reliable friend. Nice on you Nuskool for not giving in to our intimidation tactics. Speaking of whom, you are a lovely generous man, and I will one day repay your kindness.

Board game chat with Joe. I will definitely check out that Brixton monthly at the Ritzy. Shame we didn't get round to any Cards Against Humanity!

"imp, imp, there's Persona going on in the kitchen!"

"That's okay, I have Pokemon to train."

I'm really happy I got to play everyone at a Heggfest (for the first time!) in decently long sets. Was great fun doing Ryu vs Dhalsim with Camel and discovering at the right ranges Ryu's cr.LK stuffs Dhalsim's limbs. Also great was the fear The Knife all weekend. Don't jump, blad! There should definitely be two knives for Cody mirrors though. Will have to tweet error1 or something.

Error1 divekick being the game we all wanted divekick to be. Will have to get that set up for online! Yatagarasu was pretty fun too, will have to get back to that once they've finished the next version.

"Get bopped!" being the official phrase of Heggwest.

Getting 0 streetpasses despite everyone packing a 3DS.

Hegg going back into Sainsbury's to check up on what was taking Alistarr so long and then remembering in the car he forgot to buy a toothbrush.

Sunday morning Volgarr. Ugh, what a horribly addictive one-more-turn-em-up. Thanks for costing me £7.50, Alistarr. Speaking of whom, I couldn't possibly finish without mentioning the time I (reverse?) timer scammed Alistarr out of the tournament. Who knew Rufus had such a short Ultra animation start up?

Nice to meet Ig for the first time, and nice to see the rest of you all again. I'm sure heggfest would be great even if we were playing Mortal Kombat.

See you all for the Ultra launch!

[joeplus]

So! It was great to catch up with people I haven't seen since last year, and to meet the very friendly Ig, with his excellent Transformed stick (I love those buttons). I spent a lot more time playing than I did last time and managed to fight everyone at least once, so mission accomplished there. Some of my favourite casual sets to play/watch:

Getting beat soundly by Hegg's Bison, but showing him what the deal is with EX Soul Throw along the way

Imp's Ken and his relentless kara throws, frustrating but impressive. Also use of the phrase "The Ken Blender"

Nate (Seth) vs Nuskool (Sagat) epic FT10

Lots of fighting against Camel, over various characters

All the awesome mirror matches. And the Guile mirrors too. HONK

Tempting Ig away from Guile for a great Evil Ryu vs Gouken set (my post-Heggwest resolution is to play more Evil Ryu, he's fun)

I also liked the complete dominance of AE. Apart from me and Nuskool getting in a few games of Persona, it was pretty much the only thing played over all three setups until Saturday night, and even then it was the Error1 hack first up. Good effort to everyone who brought things down that never got played, but it's just great that people love playing this game so much. It's the best.

The anticipation before the singles bracket was palpable, my goal was to avoid going 0-2 but with a tricky draw of Camel in the first round I wasn't that confident. I got the first game against Honda but was then comprehensively mixed up to death by Sim. So tricky. Then it was Ig, and the start of what would turn out to be a day-long, back-and-forth rivalry. I was very pleased to get a win, and next up was Nate. After taking the first game I couldn't hold my nerve, as I said at the time it was a real exercise in not cracking. Tremendous pressure with the jump-ins - Rose has at least four good anti-air options but if you have to take that split second to think about what to use, it's already too late and you're out of the tournament. I was a bit salty, but the enjoyment and excitement outweighed it. More salted caramel than Marmite, if you will.

Before we'd even set off from London, Hegg had been enthusing about doing some kind of team battle, and they turned out to be so bloody hype. I think I saw JLM doing a battle log, which definitely needs to be posted. The first one with Ig and Nate's blonde Americans terrorising everyone was a highlight. After we switched teams I was happy to finally get win, which turned into a modest run, with some top-class coaching from behind the sofa. Alistarr, many thanks for your compliments about my Rose. I do think I've improved some with her, but being reminded when to cool off and try to preserve a life lead was invaluable.

Also it can't be said enough: big thanks to Cale for so many, many things, especially for not leaving me in the cold when I forgot to pack all my sleeping equipment, like a dickhead.

Assorted wonderful nonsense:

Counting down the miles to Bristol like kids on holiday

Team J*'s purple kit

"Have you tried..."

Donut's Makoto, who I think is my favourite to watch of all your mans

Waking up to the sounds of punchings

Concocting ever-more elaborate plots to hobble JLM

The arms race of counter-picks during Grand Finals

Imp's spooky penthouse and haunted monitor

"If I saw Honda teleport, I'd definitely anti-air."

Cale's all-purpose Street Fighter giggle. Hit or miss, win or lose, "hee hee hee"

Coffee technology

Rooftop crew chats

Nuskool and Nate's stories of FGC stalking

"Timer scam!"

All the "new tech" the AI showed us

Betting on Imp during a divekick match, before Alistarr pointed out the "10 WINS" on his side of the screen

Buttcar

[Camel]

Oh god yes. Donut's Makoto. So many buttons. Amazing to watch.

[ah]

Here's the team battle match logs, Joe. Spoilered in case someone wants to do a proper write up so that Joffo et al can enjoy the drama. If nobody else does then maybe I will as it was definitely a highlight of the weekend.

[JLM]

I have emailed myself all my notes so that I can do some Heggwest ramblings during my downtime at work tomorrow.

For now though, Ayano has said that there will be an Ultra announcement this week and there are also some wild rumours flying about today:

1) Red focus attack to be added. Focus attack that costs two bars and can absorb two hits and is an unblockable crumple at level 2. Also rumoured that the post-crumple combos off it will be unscaled. Hmmmmmmmm.

2) Delayed wake up mechanic. This seems like something that might be tested out as an anti-vortex or anti-unblockable solution.

3) The ever-persistent "both ultras available simultaneously" rumour. I really really really hope that this one is confirmed to be bullshit because I hate that idea so very much.

[imp]

Oh god, they're going to ruin it aren't they. At least we'll always have blissful Rolento-free AE 2012.

[ah]

:-S

[Camel]

Rolento. Not looking forward to that tosser at all.

[JLM]

He presumably won't have +45 jabs, though I echo the general sentiment of disliking the prick. I think Elena and Poison will be good fits though and I'm looking forward to dabbling with both of them. Definitely more worried about them adding some stupid new mechanics/system changes than the new characters.

[Camel]

Maybe there will be lots of lovely options for lobbies.

[JLM]

Yeah, I'd take a rematch button over any other possible improvement. Online training like Strekken would be next on the list.

Oh, and guys, I think I left my SSFIV disc at Heggwest. I am without SSFIV. I don't quite know what to do.