Boy have I played a lot of Marvel in the last few days!

We had Chris’ Club House on Friday, (which became Fitzroy Club House temporarily). And we had Marvel Massacre just this Sunday.

Luckily I did my laundry on Saturday 😛

Friday

Shadowloo CCH Recap

I’m helping Chris take over the “collecting keys from the Collingwood library before six” duties because he’s actually retiring from the fighting game scene, which is a great loss to the community.

Thanks for everything you’ve done Chris, I’m sure a lot of people are really grateful for all the work you’ve put in, I know I am.

To clarify; I’m just “the guy who picks up the keys”. The actual people who run the tournaments and stuff will be the more experienced heads like Ali and Loki etc.

I had my first taste of how much trouble organising events like CCH could be, when I got there at 530 pm and discovered that due to an error in the system, we were double booked in the same time slot with a theatre group called Bird on Fence.

And since we had been mistakenly shunted to another room, they had been able to book every Friday in the month of March, which would obviously throw a big wrench into running CCH in the coming weeks.

I was feeling at a bit of a loss on what to do; the guy at the counter told me to wait for fifteen minutes; if Bird on Fence did not show up, I could have the keys.

Well of course they showed up!

Luckily Chris came down again to save the day, and talked to the guy at the counter. We compromised and changed our location to Fitzroy library. Why you say?

Because the girls were kind of cute we did it so that we could get our March bookings back. I have to confirm with the Collingwood library later on this week, but I was quite relieved then to hear that we got our bookings back.

Of course then it was a mad scramble.

Luckily Bugsimus was there with his car; we two had to hightail it over to Fitzroy library to grab the keys before six. It was 5: 50 at that time.

In the car we had to frantically call people; Ali to put the change of location on the forums and the threads, everyone we had in our phone contacts list we had to call in case they had left the house already.

Chris stayed behind and put a notice on the door, and we got there just in time.

However, the librarians there were in the midst of closing down, and they did not seem to have gotten the call to inform them about the change of location from the Collingwood library!

They seemed pretty apprehensive about us showing up, and then they told us that they would need an 80 dollar security deposit on the room.

Now we had already paid over at Collingwood, and none of us had enough cash for the security deposit. We were really sweating it then, but I guess we (I) must have looked pathetic enough for the head librarian to feel sorry for us, and she waived the fee for us and gave us the keys. Yes!

Once inside, we discovered that the room didn’t have CRTs like Collingwood did, and that the door could only be opened and closed by a single keycard. Meaning me and Bugs had to stand outside for quite a while waiting at the front door because you could only enter through by going around the back and buzzing the intercom to the room.

Obviously this place wasn’t as convenient as Collingwood was; every time anyone went in or out the building someone had to buzz the door for them with the keycard; but personally I was just glad that the meetup didn’t have to be cancelled! More and more people started showing up, and we eventually ran both SSFIV and MVC3 tournaments with a good number of people. I think (hope) everyone had a good time. We played late into the night, and there a lot of new faces too.

I got blown up by Carnage in SSFIV again, and Toxy managed to win both tournaments. Ali recorded the GFs, so I’ll link to the videos once they’re up.

Big thanks to Bugsimus and Chris for helping me in the time of crisis, and Ali for managing the tournament, doing the bracket, and recording every detail for the battle card system. I really appreciate the hard work these guys put into supporting the community.

Sunday

So it was time for Sunday; Marvel Massacre over at the John Curtin Hotel on Lygon Street.

Bugs was kind enough to pick me up early. I was gonna help him with setting up his video capture equipment, so that I could learn how to do it for work. Thanks a lot Bugs, I learned a lot from you today.

We got there at 1130, and only managed to get in after 12. But it was okay; we managed to organise the room and get some setups going for casuals.

I’ve never been in the John Curtin Hotel before; I think it was pretty cool. Couches everywhere, nice dark ambience with the option to turn on the disco ball, and of course, Lygon Street food is fantastic.

Now at this tournament, I finally discovered something.

Getting seeded is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now on Friday at CCH I managed to get destroyed by both Ali and DD in Marvel 3. But somehow, I managed to win 3 matches in a row in winner’s bracket, so I managed to squeeze into my first ever top 8. It actually felt kind of hollow, because I’ve been trying so long to get my first top 8 in Street Fighter 4. I’ve pretty much failed miserably every time, with my hopes of ever getting there diminishing every passing month. So get my first top 8 with Marvel, a new game… But let me tell my story first.

One of my matches (well most of my matches) was very disgusting; in that Nick clearly outplayed me with my first two characters- my Wolverine and Amaterasu against his Wolverine and I think Dante.

But somehow I managed to win by cheesing it out with Sentinel. I just went “Oh I’m losing.” I brought out my last character Sentinel, X-factored, mashed Supers and the launcher button, and somehow 30 seconds later Nick’s team would be dead every time.

I couldn’t believe it. I did not deserve to win that match, not in the slightest. Nick looked really dejected, and to be honest, I felt a little disgusted in the scrub-ass way I won.

I can’t remember who else I beat, but I’m pretty sure I got quite a few one character comebacks with my disgusting Sentinel as well.

The thing is; I don’t even want to use Sentinel. His assist is pretty much the only reason why I use him, but I’ve been actively searching for a replacement all this time.

I don’t even practice him at all; I spend most of my time practicing Ammie and Wolverine.

But despite practicing those two characters, I got blown up by everybody who was using Wolverine OR Ammie, and then somehow my noobish Sentinel would come in, kick in a few heads, rocket punch into super and then it was done.

Judging from the spectators’ faces, it must’ve been painful (and hilarious) to watch.

And… it pretty much happened today as well. But I digress. Back to my original point.

Getting seeded is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally realise how much of an advantage it is now.

Normally, being a scrub, obviously I never get a chance to be seeded in SF4. So most of the time I get a big hitter in the first of second round, (depending on my luck with the brackets) go into loser’s bracket, and then lose my next match or shortly thereafter with no hope of ever sniffing top 8.

But this time, having made a top 8 previously, I actually got seeded. So that means I don’t ever have to face Toxy or Carnage first or second round (the two guys who are clearly on another level in Marvel in Melbourne and body me without lifting a finger), and if I win just 3 matches in winner’s, I get top 8 again!

Obviously that’s making things sound a lot easier than it actually is, but it’s a hell of a lot easier than meeting Toxy in first round in SF4, going to loser’s and then going, “Wait. I’m playing Somniac next???”

So… yeah.

I Sentinel Scrubbed it out again.

I got hella lucky, not one, not two matches in a row. But FOUR matches in a row.

I played a Taskmaster player who was clearly better than me, and then I Sentinel Scrubbed it out again.

Then, I played Ali, and we had a massive fimble fest.

I would try to do Berserker Slash, and fimble out a Fatal Claw. Ali would somehow look at me and miss the punish entirely as I would wring my hands at the accidental Fatal Claw and then fail to punish his failed punish! We fimbled back and forth in this sequence as least twice until Ali did of all things a Dragon punch with Akuma, and I finally punished him for the KO. I am horrified just thinking of our terrible fimble fest ever making it to YouTube!

After that match, I got totally raped by Toxy. I think I got in like two jabs, and then he combo video-ed me for two straight matches. I was completely mindfucked with his Wesker teleport-Sentinel assist shenanigans. I just kept getting hit, sat there and watched DHC after DHC whittle my life away.

I had to play Burnout then, who also clearly has a better Amaterasu than me, and was also beating me up with Spencer.

Not only did  I land an accidental level 3 super that somehow autocorrected and hit him anyway…

Again, I don’t know how the fuck it happened, but again I was down to Sentinel as my last character. I X-factored with Sentinel, hit a random launcher, snagged him jumping in on me, boom boom bada bing, KO. Again.

And then lastly I had to play Cactus. He had his Dark Phoenix out in the crucial game, and I had X-factor Sentinel. He missed doing his Super in a crucial instance, suddenly just ate a random Drone Super from my Sentinel, and died instantly! He was wiping out my whole team with Dark Phoenix and then I just hit him once!

I was laughing throughout the whole tournament, not really believing my good fortune and Sentinel Scrubation.

Then I found out I was in loser’s finals with Carnage!

My match with him was closer than mine with Toxy; I could actually hit him. (Sometimes.) Mostly with my dog; Carnage would mutter “fucking dog” every time I got in a lucky hit.

But in the end, he still beat me two games straight. GG man.

So that was the end of my run. I got third…

By being a Sentinel Scrub.

Everyone was making fun of me because of the way I won, which trust me, I completely agree with! Hey, at least I got a T-shirt out of the whole thing.

I beat a lot of players that were clearly better than me, through sheer luck or Sentinality.

But at least I get to be seeded again for the next tournament! That way I get to avoid Toxy and Carnage again for the first few rounds.

Though I predict I will get bodied and go 0-2 next tournament. Such good luck doesn’t last forever. And I’m just not that good at this game. (Ali beat me down in casuals later.)

But now that I realise the importance of getting seeded, I will at least to try to aim for that top 8 every time for now on, (keyword being try). It just makes your life in the next tournament that much easier.

Oh well. I guess I got to learn a lot of new things; got to see Spoony’s impressive She-Hulk, and a bunch of characters actually being player properly. I also got to try out a lot of new technology like Wolverine’s instant overhead jump A on small characters and drill claw hit confirms of assist juggles, and new punishes with Ammie super. But what I mostly found out is that everyone is better at doing all that kind of stuff than me!

Thank you to the organisers of the event, Nick, Bugs, Ali, and everyone who helped set up. Let’s  all practice up for Couchwarriors this Saturday!

Sentinel vs. Sentinel 3: Fate of Two Worlds

Being a Sentinel Scrub Part II updated with videos!