Behold the utter magnificence that is me eating repeated foot to face!

Well actually I’ve been meaning to put up the two Shadowloo Showdown videos for a while, but just haven’t gotten around to doing it. I’ll try to write down what I can remember about the matches.

Guess who put me into loser’s bracket at Shadowloo Showdown?

I remember something interesting about the match; when I heard I had to play Momochi next on the big screen I thought I would be petrified. Because the only other time I played on stream was against Genxa at BAM 2010, (I got bodied) and I was really nervous beforehand.

And this was Momofuckingchi. I thought I would be shaking with nervousness; quivering in my booties.

But it was totally different to what I was expecting. When I sat down I simply felt so excited! I was actually super hyped/looking forward to playing him. I kind of surprised myself that way.

However one thing that I did not like was a big bunch of my non-SF friends happened to pop into Shadowloo Showdown…just in time for my match with Momochi. When I saw them show up I was like; aww. Couldn’t you guys have come half an hour later?

At that time I was thinking that I didn’t need any additional pressure to screw me up. But again I surprised myself, and I didn’t even think of them at all during the match. Hm.

So I got called to the main stage, and the Melbourne players give me some vocal support. I tried not to flash… but I really appreciated it guys. On my way to the stage I caught Mike Ross’ eyes and gave him the “Oh shit. Time to get bodied.” eyebrow raise. He gave me a big smile, and gave me a reassuring handshake to send me off to my doom.

So I sat down, and started thinking about Yun.

Yun, Yun, Yun, Yun…wait what is Momochi doing?

He took a awful long time to choose his character and all this time I was rubbing my hands to keep them juicy (but I probably just ended up looking like a big pervert on the stream).

Then he chose Cody.

At first I was like…what? Is he sandbagging against me?

Then I thought about it some more; I’ve heard that Ryu does pretty well against Yun. Well I certainly haven’t had that experience before, but it was definitely interesting that Momochi might’ve been playing the character matchup he was more comfortable with.

I sat back and thought…Cody? Huh. Maybe he knows something I don’t.

So we start playing and I resolve to be solid and walk forward and be a bully Ryu.

First round it seemed to go pretty well, I was fireballing with confidence and wow! I even fucking anti-aired for once.

Then he started adapting so fast, countering my every low forward fireball for big damage, and frame trapping like mad.

Trust me when I was sitting there I was thinking “Don’t press no buttons.” And even though I thought I had done a pretty decent job of doing that, when I watch the match again I see that I still ate a whole bunch of frame traps.

I remember feeling pretty confident at the start with low forward fireball. When he started bingoing and ruffian kicking and blowing me up everytime I did low forward, my confidence evaporated pretty quickly.

I felt like if I couldn’t even do low forward to him, what the hell else am I supposed to do? It felt pretty hopeless.

But that’s the mark of a top player. He identified my plan A, and shut it down. I didn’t really have a plan B, I just tried to be solid on defense and wait for an opening.

Which I guess is what Cody wants, to set the tempo. And he dominated me after that.

I got in one low forward buffer super in one round though, which drew a cheer from the crowd. I had been thinking about it from basically the moment I got Super and was about to die, so I threw it out at whiff range hoping he would move into it and he did.

I don’t know what I was doing with the fireball after the crossup, but I botched my frame trap opportunity and my only chance to come back.

Finally, Momochi killed me in the last round with some nasty-ass ambiguous crossup in the corner. I blocked it like a crossup and I got hit.

I later saw him sitting with Choco and I asked him whether it was a crossup or not and he said it was a fake crossup. Nasty shit!

I really didn’t want to lose this match. For three reasons:

1- I really, really, really hate Adon. I guess Adon is a character that really attacks my weak points; my reaction time and anti-air. I hate it everytime I lose to a Adon.

2- I remember Ace sitting down and going like “I don’t play this game anymore.” I know he plays a lot of Marvel these days, I’m not sure but I think that’s his main game now. So I really didn’t wanna lose to someone who is not really playing SF4 anymore.

3- Okay, I’ll be completely honest. I really didn’t want to lose to a Sydney dude.

But Ace beat me 2-1, knocking me out of the tournament and I only have myself to blame. I’m still really bad at reading people, and I ate all his uppercuts and things like that.

GGs Ace. I still had a good time playing against you, and it was pretty funny to see your reaction to the people around you!

It’s funny. I had a very strong feeling that I played better- or more solid at least against Momochi than against Ace. But after watching the vids…hm. Maybe it’s all in my head.

I covered this match in my CW recap: My first top 8.

Now I can relive all the trolling Kyle and Ali gave me on the mic. Thanks guys!

GGs James.

Okay, that should be it. Also, damn all you Oni players that keep beating me. I hate you all 😛