The video game/ Guilty Gear days... part 3.. (retrospect continued)
PART 3...
So we go into the 5 on 5.. Its suppose to be epic, but everything that has been leading it up to this has made the only thing epic about it the travesty that was about to happen.
We get absolutely demolished. As a matter of fact that only ones that even win any matches are me and....JOSH. Go figure.
It was terrible. And so was the lag. I couldn't do any combos, and I even was going into instant kill mode during the matches trying to RC/FRC. One of those "wtf why isn't it working" so I start double tapping and shit. Do you know how many times ive gone into instant kill mode in GG through out all the years the game has been out on accident? Im sure you can count them on my hands.
And its over like that.. We obviously had a lot of excuses. But it still sucked. Whats worse when people asked me about it and I tried to complain no one believed me. Tried to say projection screens don't lag, and I was just a sore loser. Of course again as I alluded to earlier later on ID would admit they knew it was going to lag the whole time. But after EVO on the forums I would have to deal with tons of shit talk about me and everyone else.. Mostly me of course though because I was the only one that would openly complain about it. Of course though people would complain about it to me, that they agreed but they didn't dare do it in front of anyone else.. I guess in that way I was there little bitch. Just someone for them to listen to them complaining while no one had the balls to stick up for themselves.
But thats getting ahead of myself I guess... After that the event hall started to close down for the day. I played a few matches vs the some of the guys again(on a TV) and won all my matches. Which of course I can only shake my head too. That I recall, this would be the only casual I played all weekend besides the very last day.
Tragic then called me over and told me he was making the brackets for EVO, and was wondering if I wanted to check them. I told him "no.. and that I trust him."
Big mistake. As this would be the continuing saga of me getting extremely shady brackets that I would get through the whole time I played video games. Note that just the year before at EVO(if it was called that I forget)they had taken away all my APEX(which they were using to seed people at the time) points. Even though I was supposed to be seeded. They never gave me a explanation.. Just too bad. Of course thats not the only shadyness that went on, but thats the most blatant and ill just get back to the story.
As I hung my head and left, more shit talk. Included Floe saying how he should have been on the team. And kinda grumbled that he wasn't in the tournament for the 5th spot. Its like what do you want me to do? Not that I think you should have been on the team, but I didn't even know I was going to be running this fucking tournament the whole god damn day in the first place.
I went by the CPU on campus and logged in to see if anything was being said. Of course it was.. that we got raped. And FINAL SHOWDOWN sucked... This isn't the first time this happened. As at the EVO before I was beating the Japanese and other top American players in casual. And that I was going around shit talking about it... Umm what? This was specifically going on in the Canada threads(since I knew a lot of them).. Although some people like Nassim were being positive about it and saying "that I deserved it" and what not. But then all these other guys started chiming in that I was a roll scrub(including Montreal guys, who later apologized at that one Montreal tournament in the very first post about it)and that I talk shit about people. *face plam* So yea I had to play that whole EVO to with BS like this because certain people didn't like me for some reason. Now its the whole thing again this year. I had somehow become a little bitch again at EVO and the first day wasn't even over. Also of note for this apparently Texas was mad at me as they thought I was talking shit about them when Roger was beating them in casual. A misunderstanding, but I guess this was thrown at me as well.. *face palm*
I walked back to the hotel room to discover....
JOSH AND HIS BROTHER sleeping in our hotel room. They were suppose to be staying with their parents but for some reason were in a hotel room that had no room for them what so ever. I dare say Roger eventually the last day got another hotel room. But its been so long ago I can't remember. All I know is, it sucked. As yes, Josh and his brother made this trip quite unfun. Its like, I have no where to fucking sleep, I just got raped in some bogus tournament, that I didn't even get to practice for because you whimpered and pouted, and then my teammates couldn't have any backbone to tell you that you were out of the discussion for being on the team long long ago....
Che... Whatever... I went to sleep on the floor. And hoped for better things tomorrow....
So the real tournament in short a few notes...
-As for me I somehow get put vs Miu from Japan as my second match...(who ended up getting second in the tourney) So much for seeding. I play badly, and somehow keep getting stand hs, for throws. I eventually I think ended up getting 24th? Or something. I lost to Ruin in a terrible match. Where even Rob from their crew is like "WTF were you doing? You had him beat multiple times".. Well the thing is I had basically decided things were going so badly this tournament that I was just going to go for tricks and resets myself.. And well... I was a idiot and decided not to combo him a few times which would have killed him.. A definite brain fart. It doesn't help that the matches were being switched from TV to VCR to this to that.. which made me not trust timing anything what so ever the whole tournament.... I later played Ruin in casual I believe the last day and beat him every match. I remember him even being like "I didn't know those were even combos".. *face palm" of course I could have killed them with those combos in the tournament but I just didn't trust anything.... fuck me right?
-Kenji gets placed vs Daigo second match...(who ended up winning the tournament) Good thing I trusted that seeding eh? Im not sure what place Kenji ended up getting.
-On the subject of random brackets, I did not see it, but Jin said he checked out the brackets and apparently all the Cali guys were given very easy brackets. ID in particular was given a free ride to the finals from what he said. (I should mention as a person when I talked to ID he seemed cool. Just saying that in case it sounds like im talking about him a lot in a negative light)
-Tragic and Jin almost get into a fight... A very awkward moment.. There is a story behind this, that I will not type all out because of carpal tunnel. But yes.. Awkward. In a normal circumstance im sure Tragic would have been thrown out, but since he was running the tournament....
-Im not sure what place Malik got. I think he did alright. Honestly I was disappointed in that I think Malik was not into it. He sorta spaced out. And playing a lot of diff characters through out the weekend.. As I even remember being like do you know who you are going to play for the 5 on 5 and he wasn't even sure.. Again his head wasn't in the game all weekended it seemed..
-Drew ended up doing the best and got 7th I belive.. It was good to see someone at least do well..
-For some random shady.. One of the rules was that the game had to be the US version of the game.. Well May and bridget were better in the Japanese version of the game. I remember people asking(May/Bridget players) if they could play on the JAP version of the game, and being turned down.. But I was there when it happened and Crackpr0n asked if he could play on the JAP version and they said yes... Not fair, but hey as long as you are friends with people running stuff right?
-Drew missed his flight home.... .... ...
I don't have much to say about EVO other than this... There were some random moments not involving games, just with hanging out with friends and stuff. But game wise it was very disappointing. I remember the flight back, not being able to sleep. I think I looked out the window the whole time while randomly trying to sleep.. Just wondering how this could have happened.. Like.. it wasn't possible. How could this weekend have turned out so bad. I somehow was getting blamed for shit, I had deal with Josh and his brothers random antics the whole time, and I did so terribly. I remember thinking am I gonna have to wait a whole other year to prove what I do in casual again? lol Stupid shit like that.
There were of course a lot of hot girls, and just girls in general I remember. Staring and giggling at me.. That I had no courage to talk to ... Of course then again had I know I was going to get a death wish I would have maybe tried to take advantage of these situations.. Sigh its amazing how deep my hate for myself is.. Its like I was a model. I had a job as a model! WTF was wrong with me. I should have used that fact for confidence.. but I just couldn't....
And with that the summer was coming to a end. So would any chance of a real life as I would go on disability just the month after EVO in September....
For a quick break from the time line lets discuss some general things...
BUGS/GLITCHS/TECH
Through out the course of GGs life particularly towards the end of XX and beginning of Reload, I found a LOT of shit. As a matter of fact just about everything in GGXX besides impossible dusts, and Jump Installs, I ME MYSELF was the first one to post. It doesn't matter if its something from as ridiculous as freezing the game, or even something as one frame jumping that gets used of course all the time. I was the one that posted about it. But of course knowing my luck, most if I don't get credit for. In the earlier days of GG one of the main culprits was a guy named Kintaro on Gamecombos.com im not sure what this guy had against me, but when ever I posted a bug, glitch, some new strat, he deleted my post. He refused to have it. Just over and over again. Or he would edit my post. This fuck would even delete my posts until I finally gave up, then post shit as his own.
Stuff like this happened a lot, and with other people as well. Its why I eventually gave up posting bugs etc. Because everytime I found something, it would get deleted or someone else would later try to say they found it. Hell I could even then post to them me showing this thing months and months before, and they would say "i didn't explain it right".. Which to me is admitting the saw that then before hand.. yet why are you still saying in this thread its "new" or that you found it...
Bull shit... I eventually stopped posting and decided I would only tell friends, which then made people talk shit about me, as if I was acting like im to good for everyone else. Or hiding shit. As a matter of fact, the whole reason I no longer have the FINAL SHOWDOWN name is because I was banned for no longer people how to do the bugs that I would find.
This is true... Thats why I eventually had to start posting under other names. As any name related to that would be banned.
Of course when I would tell people they would eventually tell others and it would get out.. and for some reason I guess friends didn't feel like giving credit(?) or something cuz I would later find someone posting my shit that they found out about something new.. Of course no credit to me...
Of course this wasn't the first time this happened. I also posted Bugs etc in CVS2 which credit later went to Bucktooth, and others for no reason. I posted bugs, tech whatever for SC2, for this game in paticular no one even belived what I was saying was real. My posts were deleted for this game as well, until Fetz said they were real. Of course then Fetz got all the credit for them. =/
One classic example is the jumble bug(?) I think in CFJ. I posted about this, I had Obot64 make a video of it. Obot gets the credit for the video now.. No one remembers I found this. lol
One strange thing I do hear from time to time though that people do give me credit for is the Kim infinite in CVS2. However I did not actually find this. I just found a diff way to do it.
Whatever the case, there were a number of bugs etc that I never did find/figure out how to replicate after I did them. A few notable examples...
-The cloning bug in GGXX that was done at Acen. Kenji got a pic of it, but I guess pic didnt come out of it. I couldn't even begin to fathom how this error occurred to be honest with you..
-Unblockable Ky dust thing... I had this recorded sadly. Actually I guess I can mention it here one of the reasons Ive even been able to find all these is because remember I generally only play by myself. So I look for weird things, and try to recreate it often. Well for this I was just recording the CPU to do some stuff with Ky to see how I would get out of it. Well I did this weird mix up with jump dust and then kys jump kick to combo. Well you couldn't block any of it. I have NO fucking idea how I did this. I remember when I did this I was like "holy shit... this is amazing.. I need to make a video of this. But before I do that lemme do some sneaky set up with it to make it look even cooler." So I set the cpu to record and I never.. EVER got it to work again. Sadness...
-Characters teleporting.. Lots of instances with characters teleporting. Ive seen it quite often during potemkins butt drop as well. I assume its something to do with sprites getting over lapped in some such way that the game just refuses to accept. Often your in the first player corner, then all of the sudden you pop up in the corner on the right side. Lots of instances like this.. never been able to recreate it but have seen it quite a bit....
-Being able to control time overs.. Ive seen it.. I have a idea on how its done, but never had the patience to test it.
GUILTY GEAR XX RELOAD...
The next version of the game came out actually right around the time of EVO. The game was once again refined here and there, and the series continued to gain more popularity and was once again at more tournaments. For the game it self Ky(the character I played) got a little bit better. In the first game no one can tell me Ky wasn't the worst guy in the game. Supposedly ranking wise he was generally from 3rd to maybe 4th worst through out the game. But he was the worst. He was the only character in the game that didn't have a get out of jail free card, as in some BS combo, to some knock down or whatever. He had no powerful combos what so ever. And the only combos that did damage with him were extremely situational. Generally Zappa and Anji were the 2 characters that were lower then Ky. But at least they had comeback potential. And in a game like GGXX where you could basically lose to one BS sorta thing.. well yea... Ky was basically the only character in the game that did not have something like that. Im sure thats why people gave me shit too, as I had no problem saying Ky was the worst guy in the game. He was terrible. And people of course would then get jelly about it. Though as the story goes once Reload came out, I did have people come to me and admit to me that they actually had thought Ky was the worst guy in the game period. =/....
Anyway so yea he was made a bit better(at least overall)in Reload, though generally in every ranking he was considered low tier. I think the highest tier ranking I ever saw him in was high low, to low mid . As for my opinon? He still sucked.. Was he the worst guy in the game again? I dunno about that, but I think he was bottom 5 again thats for sure.. Oh and if it needs to be said, yes in GGX Ky was also considered one of the 3 worst characters in the game ranking wise that I recall lol.
So yea, the game came out around the end of EVO actaully. I decided to mod my PS2 this time, so I wouldn't be so "far behind"(ha) everyone else. As the story goes I got screwed over and had to spend double for a mod chip I didn't even want. But those are the kinda breaks I get in life eh?
Although I was disappointed and pretty bummed out in general after EVO. The thought of a new game, with new things to try and find got me a bit more excited for it.
Reload sadly would mark the end for a lot of the OG players, or the beginning of the end for others as well... After EVO Drew began his gradual(if not it maybe already starting around that time or a bit before)exit of the game. He would enter a few tournaments here and there. Although generally he did not fair "well" or place as someone with his skill im sure could have if he had played more.
Malik would also quit, although Malik I got the vibe was already on the exit for quite awhile. I think Malik even more so then me was not a tournament player.. Maybe it just wasn't his thing..
Roger would also quit. Im not even sure if he entered a single tourny period after EVO. Maybe one, but im not even sure. He would come to visit me with Kevin a few times up from Ohio and we would hang out. But besides casual he wouldn't play again... And eventually ended up cutting off contact with everyone besides me. Which of course im sure stems a lot from EVO.
And of course once the coming winter came for me myself, I also began my exit. I started playing less and less, and with my health situational just coming into light... well for most part after that I only played during get together. I still traveled for the game for about a year after that, but then after that realizing it was not good for my health I cut it down. And when I would eventually quit period in 2K6 I only entered I think 3 tournaments period. For the most part I only sticked around because well, I was making money doing it, and it was fun so....
One quick note id like to note about a change for Ky in reload before I continue the story is, in Reload his duck k, or stand k, comboed to stand h. This is an extremely important change, and was a thorn in my side throughout the games life span. As not all tournaments even though Reload was out, was Reload.. Some tournaments were XX as well.. OR ONLY XX. Now again remember, no matter what anyone says if they think Ill did was play games they are delusional. A big part when I play games is going by muscle memory. So I would go to tournaments and say it was XX, and I would instinctively hit K~HS.. Which means, no combo, and me dropping damaging. In XX, you do K~S. This is a very simple change, but again remember, I go by muscle memory. I did not practice like people thought I did. So I got fucked up by this a LOT.
So here we go, the first tournament is September, right after EVO. I get quite fucked up this tournament. And am sick through out almost the entire thing. This tournament the first time I knew for sure, that something was wrong with my help. I was getting sick way to much, and for no reason at all. Here I am having fun, and then all of the sudden im in and out of the bathroom with diarrhea, throwing up, terrible headaches, in the fetal position. Its just terrible. I remember the hall that we were in had some upstairs, and I literally was just there the whole time laying down trying to sleep away from everyone. Through out the whole tournament. I believe it was Kevin who ended up getting me up for every match.... I would say this is also probably one of the times I realized when I get sick, I often start talking to myself the more fucked I am... Just start to mumble and grumble a lot... lol
Anyway... As for the tournament, I destroy it. In ridiculous fashion, perfects left and right, instant kills. I won this tourny very easily considering the circumstances... As I recall even while it was going on and after Tekken players started watching me play, and were coming up to me like "WTF ive never seen someone hit a instant kill in a match before, and you are hitting all over the place" lol.. I should say one of those was given to me for free though, as Jin said he didn't believe I could instant kill him off a grand viper, so he did one right at the beginning of the match... So that one was a freebie...
There are some other stories to tell about this.. But that was the main thing. I should say I did meet the STL guys here as well. Lets just say when we first met... we were cool. Of course they would go on to be huge assholes not long later.
The next big tournament after this is suppose to be in Pittsburgh. Lets just say for me this ride is about a SIX HOUR DRIVE. But wait, my arch nemesis appears Josh.(You know im complaining a lot about him in this series right now. But I say it with no maliciousness in my heart. He just really was in the center of a lot of not fun stuff)Apparently Josh wants to go, but he is off doing something else(what I forget)so Kenji makes a deal with his parents that since we have to get going to make this thing in the first place, if they can drive Josh half way we will pick him up there, and then continue on to Pittsburgh...
Well I forget what happens but they end up being a hour late or something. I remember Kenji being reaaaaally upset.. Upset to the point I thought he would actually be real, and complain about it to someone else but me.. But nope he didn't. Although I sure would hear about it on the way home. Moving on! lol
So we get to the tournament and basically by this point I have become such a threat, and so dominate that the whole tournament for GG. YES the whole fucking tournament for GG gets canceled once they find out im there. I guess there thought was, whats the point so you can win? And then kenji gets second? I tried to ask them if we could do 5 dollars at least or something. But no go. The tournament was canceled.. I had now gone more then 6 hours somewhere for nothing.. =/
I also got sick here and actually started throwing up in Jans car I belive. Thankfully it was just in my hand at that point. Again more proof that my health was getting worse.
So basically we had nothing to do, for the whole weekend. I don't remember why we stayed. Probably just to hang out since we had driven there.. So a few other things to mention about this clusterfuck of a tourney.
-There was no place for us to stay one of the nights, so we had to sleep in the fucking car.....
-Someone stole Kenjis shoes. We later found them on the neighbor next door. WTF....
-Speaking of stolen stuff, multiple people had there shit stolen at this tournament, or there cars were broken into.. Super ghetto...
-More speaking of stolen I believe it was this tournament that I found out something pretty bad... Remember how I said that a lot of people didn't like Tomass? Well it just so happens that at one point people stole some shit from Tom. He asked me about it, and I had no idea anything was stolen. He asked me about some guys I knew if they had stolen it as he thought they were kinda shady.. Again I had no idea that anything was even stolen in the first place, plus I didn't think they would actually steal anything. And I remember even asking them that I recall about it and they said no they didn't. Well I was told sadly at this tournament by someone else(off the top of my head I believe it was Jin who told me)that yes they had stolen it. And that I wasn't told they stole it because they didn't want me to say anything because I was cool with Tom. It was like WTF.. I was really disappointed by this.. But I was just given a line something along the lines of "So and so are cool, but if I were you I wouldn't trust them with my stuff"... Sad to hear that kinda stuff...
-When we were finally getting ready to leave Kenji couldn't find his stuff. Well a certain duo forgot(?) they were borrowing Kenjis stuff or something so we had to drive all the way on the other side of town to go and get all of Kenjis stuff(as they had went home with it all? WTF?), and THEN drive home.... Did I forget to mention Kenji had a bad trip? And again he was not pleased ..
So yea... That sucked lol.... Next tournament off the top of my head would be in Ohio at Joshs house. He had quite a large basement , so he was having a big GGXX tournament... Things to note of this tournament was me and the AA guys were suppose to go, but Bhaskar bailed on me last minute basically. So I was forced to drive all 4 hours down by myself. This is of particular interest because this was actually the first time I had driven on the highway by myself. lol so I went from never driving on highway to 4 hour drive by myself meh...
Also note that this is in the winter, and by winter time health was really fucking me up.. I was under a 140 pounds messed up. You can pretty easily look at pics to see the state I was in...
Here just a couple months before...
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1142903254331.2021020.1279955459#!/photo.php?fbid=1144782941322&set=a.1142903254331.2021020.1279955459&type=1&theater
To at the tournament...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1012078543795&set=a.1012076623747.2001543.1279955459&type=1
Yea im pretty fucked tanned looking but you get the idea...
Anyway notes of the tournament...
-Right when I got there, all of the sudden they wanted to change the tournament to $5.. I was pissed... Its like I just drove all this way for a $5 dollar tournament. You guys said it was $10. They tried to give me some BS excuse that it was at Joshs house and thats how he wanted it and it was his birthday. But I was like.. "fuck you guys, no.." lol
-I won the tournament again blah blah....
-On the ride home, I get lost, and the 4 hour drive became like 6-7 hours.. It was terrible...
Welp im gonna end it there as we are basically at the end beginning of 2K4.
So we go into the 5 on 5.. Its suppose to be epic, but everything that has been leading it up to this has made the only thing epic about it the travesty that was about to happen.
We get absolutely demolished. As a matter of fact that only ones that even win any matches are me and....JOSH. Go figure.
It was terrible. And so was the lag. I couldn't do any combos, and I even was going into instant kill mode during the matches trying to RC/FRC. One of those "wtf why isn't it working" so I start double tapping and shit. Do you know how many times ive gone into instant kill mode in GG through out all the years the game has been out on accident? Im sure you can count them on my hands.
And its over like that.. We obviously had a lot of excuses. But it still sucked. Whats worse when people asked me about it and I tried to complain no one believed me. Tried to say projection screens don't lag, and I was just a sore loser. Of course again as I alluded to earlier later on ID would admit they knew it was going to lag the whole time. But after EVO on the forums I would have to deal with tons of shit talk about me and everyone else.. Mostly me of course though because I was the only one that would openly complain about it. Of course though people would complain about it to me, that they agreed but they didn't dare do it in front of anyone else.. I guess in that way I was there little bitch. Just someone for them to listen to them complaining while no one had the balls to stick up for themselves.
But thats getting ahead of myself I guess... After that the event hall started to close down for the day. I played a few matches vs the some of the guys again(on a TV) and won all my matches. Which of course I can only shake my head too. That I recall, this would be the only casual I played all weekend besides the very last day.
Tragic then called me over and told me he was making the brackets for EVO, and was wondering if I wanted to check them. I told him "no.. and that I trust him."
Big mistake. As this would be the continuing saga of me getting extremely shady brackets that I would get through the whole time I played video games. Note that just the year before at EVO(if it was called that I forget)they had taken away all my APEX(which they were using to seed people at the time) points. Even though I was supposed to be seeded. They never gave me a explanation.. Just too bad. Of course thats not the only shadyness that went on, but thats the most blatant and ill just get back to the story.
As I hung my head and left, more shit talk. Included Floe saying how he should have been on the team. And kinda grumbled that he wasn't in the tournament for the 5th spot. Its like what do you want me to do? Not that I think you should have been on the team, but I didn't even know I was going to be running this fucking tournament the whole god damn day in the first place.
I went by the CPU on campus and logged in to see if anything was being said. Of course it was.. that we got raped. And FINAL SHOWDOWN sucked... This isn't the first time this happened. As at the EVO before I was beating the Japanese and other top American players in casual. And that I was going around shit talking about it... Umm what? This was specifically going on in the Canada threads(since I knew a lot of them).. Although some people like Nassim were being positive about it and saying "that I deserved it" and what not. But then all these other guys started chiming in that I was a roll scrub(including Montreal guys, who later apologized at that one Montreal tournament in the very first post about it)and that I talk shit about people. *face plam* So yea I had to play that whole EVO to with BS like this because certain people didn't like me for some reason. Now its the whole thing again this year. I had somehow become a little bitch again at EVO and the first day wasn't even over. Also of note for this apparently Texas was mad at me as they thought I was talking shit about them when Roger was beating them in casual. A misunderstanding, but I guess this was thrown at me as well.. *face palm*
I walked back to the hotel room to discover....
JOSH AND HIS BROTHER sleeping in our hotel room. They were suppose to be staying with their parents but for some reason were in a hotel room that had no room for them what so ever. I dare say Roger eventually the last day got another hotel room. But its been so long ago I can't remember. All I know is, it sucked. As yes, Josh and his brother made this trip quite unfun. Its like, I have no where to fucking sleep, I just got raped in some bogus tournament, that I didn't even get to practice for because you whimpered and pouted, and then my teammates couldn't have any backbone to tell you that you were out of the discussion for being on the team long long ago....
Che... Whatever... I went to sleep on the floor. And hoped for better things tomorrow....
So the real tournament in short a few notes...
-As for me I somehow get put vs Miu from Japan as my second match...(who ended up getting second in the tourney) So much for seeding. I play badly, and somehow keep getting stand hs, for throws. I eventually I think ended up getting 24th? Or something. I lost to Ruin in a terrible match. Where even Rob from their crew is like "WTF were you doing? You had him beat multiple times".. Well the thing is I had basically decided things were going so badly this tournament that I was just going to go for tricks and resets myself.. And well... I was a idiot and decided not to combo him a few times which would have killed him.. A definite brain fart. It doesn't help that the matches were being switched from TV to VCR to this to that.. which made me not trust timing anything what so ever the whole tournament.... I later played Ruin in casual I believe the last day and beat him every match. I remember him even being like "I didn't know those were even combos".. *face palm" of course I could have killed them with those combos in the tournament but I just didn't trust anything.... fuck me right?
-Kenji gets placed vs Daigo second match...(who ended up winning the tournament) Good thing I trusted that seeding eh? Im not sure what place Kenji ended up getting.
-On the subject of random brackets, I did not see it, but Jin said he checked out the brackets and apparently all the Cali guys were given very easy brackets. ID in particular was given a free ride to the finals from what he said. (I should mention as a person when I talked to ID he seemed cool. Just saying that in case it sounds like im talking about him a lot in a negative light)
-Tragic and Jin almost get into a fight... A very awkward moment.. There is a story behind this, that I will not type all out because of carpal tunnel. But yes.. Awkward. In a normal circumstance im sure Tragic would have been thrown out, but since he was running the tournament....
-Im not sure what place Malik got. I think he did alright. Honestly I was disappointed in that I think Malik was not into it. He sorta spaced out. And playing a lot of diff characters through out the weekend.. As I even remember being like do you know who you are going to play for the 5 on 5 and he wasn't even sure.. Again his head wasn't in the game all weekended it seemed..
-Drew ended up doing the best and got 7th I belive.. It was good to see someone at least do well..
-For some random shady.. One of the rules was that the game had to be the US version of the game.. Well May and bridget were better in the Japanese version of the game. I remember people asking(May/Bridget players) if they could play on the JAP version of the game, and being turned down.. But I was there when it happened and Crackpr0n asked if he could play on the JAP version and they said yes... Not fair, but hey as long as you are friends with people running stuff right?
-Drew missed his flight home.... .... ...
I don't have much to say about EVO other than this... There were some random moments not involving games, just with hanging out with friends and stuff. But game wise it was very disappointing. I remember the flight back, not being able to sleep. I think I looked out the window the whole time while randomly trying to sleep.. Just wondering how this could have happened.. Like.. it wasn't possible. How could this weekend have turned out so bad. I somehow was getting blamed for shit, I had deal with Josh and his brothers random antics the whole time, and I did so terribly. I remember thinking am I gonna have to wait a whole other year to prove what I do in casual again? lol Stupid shit like that.
There were of course a lot of hot girls, and just girls in general I remember. Staring and giggling at me.. That I had no courage to talk to ... Of course then again had I know I was going to get a death wish I would have maybe tried to take advantage of these situations.. Sigh its amazing how deep my hate for myself is.. Its like I was a model. I had a job as a model! WTF was wrong with me. I should have used that fact for confidence.. but I just couldn't....
And with that the summer was coming to a end. So would any chance of a real life as I would go on disability just the month after EVO in September....
For a quick break from the time line lets discuss some general things...
BUGS/GLITCHS/TECH
Through out the course of GGs life particularly towards the end of XX and beginning of Reload, I found a LOT of shit. As a matter of fact just about everything in GGXX besides impossible dusts, and Jump Installs, I ME MYSELF was the first one to post. It doesn't matter if its something from as ridiculous as freezing the game, or even something as one frame jumping that gets used of course all the time. I was the one that posted about it. But of course knowing my luck, most if I don't get credit for. In the earlier days of GG one of the main culprits was a guy named Kintaro on Gamecombos.com im not sure what this guy had against me, but when ever I posted a bug, glitch, some new strat, he deleted my post. He refused to have it. Just over and over again. Or he would edit my post. This fuck would even delete my posts until I finally gave up, then post shit as his own.
Stuff like this happened a lot, and with other people as well. Its why I eventually gave up posting bugs etc. Because everytime I found something, it would get deleted or someone else would later try to say they found it. Hell I could even then post to them me showing this thing months and months before, and they would say "i didn't explain it right".. Which to me is admitting the saw that then before hand.. yet why are you still saying in this thread its "new" or that you found it...
Bull shit... I eventually stopped posting and decided I would only tell friends, which then made people talk shit about me, as if I was acting like im to good for everyone else. Or hiding shit. As a matter of fact, the whole reason I no longer have the FINAL SHOWDOWN name is because I was banned for no longer people how to do the bugs that I would find.
This is true... Thats why I eventually had to start posting under other names. As any name related to that would be banned.
Of course when I would tell people they would eventually tell others and it would get out.. and for some reason I guess friends didn't feel like giving credit(?) or something cuz I would later find someone posting my shit that they found out about something new.. Of course no credit to me...
Of course this wasn't the first time this happened. I also posted Bugs etc in CVS2 which credit later went to Bucktooth, and others for no reason. I posted bugs, tech whatever for SC2, for this game in paticular no one even belived what I was saying was real. My posts were deleted for this game as well, until Fetz said they were real. Of course then Fetz got all the credit for them. =/
One classic example is the jumble bug(?) I think in CFJ. I posted about this, I had Obot64 make a video of it. Obot gets the credit for the video now.. No one remembers I found this. lol
One strange thing I do hear from time to time though that people do give me credit for is the Kim infinite in CVS2. However I did not actually find this. I just found a diff way to do it.
Whatever the case, there were a number of bugs etc that I never did find/figure out how to replicate after I did them. A few notable examples...
-The cloning bug in GGXX that was done at Acen. Kenji got a pic of it, but I guess pic didnt come out of it. I couldn't even begin to fathom how this error occurred to be honest with you..
-Unblockable Ky dust thing... I had this recorded sadly. Actually I guess I can mention it here one of the reasons Ive even been able to find all these is because remember I generally only play by myself. So I look for weird things, and try to recreate it often. Well for this I was just recording the CPU to do some stuff with Ky to see how I would get out of it. Well I did this weird mix up with jump dust and then kys jump kick to combo. Well you couldn't block any of it. I have NO fucking idea how I did this. I remember when I did this I was like "holy shit... this is amazing.. I need to make a video of this. But before I do that lemme do some sneaky set up with it to make it look even cooler." So I set the cpu to record and I never.. EVER got it to work again. Sadness...
-Characters teleporting.. Lots of instances with characters teleporting. Ive seen it quite often during potemkins butt drop as well. I assume its something to do with sprites getting over lapped in some such way that the game just refuses to accept. Often your in the first player corner, then all of the sudden you pop up in the corner on the right side. Lots of instances like this.. never been able to recreate it but have seen it quite a bit....
-Being able to control time overs.. Ive seen it.. I have a idea on how its done, but never had the patience to test it.
GUILTY GEAR XX RELOAD...
The next version of the game came out actually right around the time of EVO. The game was once again refined here and there, and the series continued to gain more popularity and was once again at more tournaments. For the game it self Ky(the character I played) got a little bit better. In the first game no one can tell me Ky wasn't the worst guy in the game. Supposedly ranking wise he was generally from 3rd to maybe 4th worst through out the game. But he was the worst. He was the only character in the game that didn't have a get out of jail free card, as in some BS combo, to some knock down or whatever. He had no powerful combos what so ever. And the only combos that did damage with him were extremely situational. Generally Zappa and Anji were the 2 characters that were lower then Ky. But at least they had comeback potential. And in a game like GGXX where you could basically lose to one BS sorta thing.. well yea... Ky was basically the only character in the game that did not have something like that. Im sure thats why people gave me shit too, as I had no problem saying Ky was the worst guy in the game. He was terrible. And people of course would then get jelly about it. Though as the story goes once Reload came out, I did have people come to me and admit to me that they actually had thought Ky was the worst guy in the game period. =/....
Anyway so yea he was made a bit better(at least overall)in Reload, though generally in every ranking he was considered low tier. I think the highest tier ranking I ever saw him in was high low, to low mid . As for my opinon? He still sucked.. Was he the worst guy in the game again? I dunno about that, but I think he was bottom 5 again thats for sure.. Oh and if it needs to be said, yes in GGX Ky was also considered one of the 3 worst characters in the game ranking wise that I recall lol.
So yea, the game came out around the end of EVO actaully. I decided to mod my PS2 this time, so I wouldn't be so "far behind"(ha) everyone else. As the story goes I got screwed over and had to spend double for a mod chip I didn't even want. But those are the kinda breaks I get in life eh?
Although I was disappointed and pretty bummed out in general after EVO. The thought of a new game, with new things to try and find got me a bit more excited for it.
Reload sadly would mark the end for a lot of the OG players, or the beginning of the end for others as well... After EVO Drew began his gradual(if not it maybe already starting around that time or a bit before)exit of the game. He would enter a few tournaments here and there. Although generally he did not fair "well" or place as someone with his skill im sure could have if he had played more.
Malik would also quit, although Malik I got the vibe was already on the exit for quite awhile. I think Malik even more so then me was not a tournament player.. Maybe it just wasn't his thing..
Roger would also quit. Im not even sure if he entered a single tourny period after EVO. Maybe one, but im not even sure. He would come to visit me with Kevin a few times up from Ohio and we would hang out. But besides casual he wouldn't play again... And eventually ended up cutting off contact with everyone besides me. Which of course im sure stems a lot from EVO.
And of course once the coming winter came for me myself, I also began my exit. I started playing less and less, and with my health situational just coming into light... well for most part after that I only played during get together. I still traveled for the game for about a year after that, but then after that realizing it was not good for my health I cut it down. And when I would eventually quit period in 2K6 I only entered I think 3 tournaments period. For the most part I only sticked around because well, I was making money doing it, and it was fun so....
One quick note id like to note about a change for Ky in reload before I continue the story is, in Reload his duck k, or stand k, comboed to stand h. This is an extremely important change, and was a thorn in my side throughout the games life span. As not all tournaments even though Reload was out, was Reload.. Some tournaments were XX as well.. OR ONLY XX. Now again remember, no matter what anyone says if they think Ill did was play games they are delusional. A big part when I play games is going by muscle memory. So I would go to tournaments and say it was XX, and I would instinctively hit K~HS.. Which means, no combo, and me dropping damaging. In XX, you do K~S. This is a very simple change, but again remember, I go by muscle memory. I did not practice like people thought I did. So I got fucked up by this a LOT.
So here we go, the first tournament is September, right after EVO. I get quite fucked up this tournament. And am sick through out almost the entire thing. This tournament the first time I knew for sure, that something was wrong with my help. I was getting sick way to much, and for no reason at all. Here I am having fun, and then all of the sudden im in and out of the bathroom with diarrhea, throwing up, terrible headaches, in the fetal position. Its just terrible. I remember the hall that we were in had some upstairs, and I literally was just there the whole time laying down trying to sleep away from everyone. Through out the whole tournament. I believe it was Kevin who ended up getting me up for every match.... I would say this is also probably one of the times I realized when I get sick, I often start talking to myself the more fucked I am... Just start to mumble and grumble a lot... lol
Anyway... As for the tournament, I destroy it. In ridiculous fashion, perfects left and right, instant kills. I won this tourny very easily considering the circumstances... As I recall even while it was going on and after Tekken players started watching me play, and were coming up to me like "WTF ive never seen someone hit a instant kill in a match before, and you are hitting all over the place" lol.. I should say one of those was given to me for free though, as Jin said he didn't believe I could instant kill him off a grand viper, so he did one right at the beginning of the match... So that one was a freebie...
There are some other stories to tell about this.. But that was the main thing. I should say I did meet the STL guys here as well. Lets just say when we first met... we were cool. Of course they would go on to be huge assholes not long later.
The next big tournament after this is suppose to be in Pittsburgh. Lets just say for me this ride is about a SIX HOUR DRIVE. But wait, my arch nemesis appears Josh.(You know im complaining a lot about him in this series right now. But I say it with no maliciousness in my heart. He just really was in the center of a lot of not fun stuff)Apparently Josh wants to go, but he is off doing something else(what I forget)so Kenji makes a deal with his parents that since we have to get going to make this thing in the first place, if they can drive Josh half way we will pick him up there, and then continue on to Pittsburgh...
Well I forget what happens but they end up being a hour late or something. I remember Kenji being reaaaaally upset.. Upset to the point I thought he would actually be real, and complain about it to someone else but me.. But nope he didn't. Although I sure would hear about it on the way home. Moving on! lol
So we get to the tournament and basically by this point I have become such a threat, and so dominate that the whole tournament for GG. YES the whole fucking tournament for GG gets canceled once they find out im there. I guess there thought was, whats the point so you can win? And then kenji gets second? I tried to ask them if we could do 5 dollars at least or something. But no go. The tournament was canceled.. I had now gone more then 6 hours somewhere for nothing.. =/
I also got sick here and actually started throwing up in Jans car I belive. Thankfully it was just in my hand at that point. Again more proof that my health was getting worse.
So basically we had nothing to do, for the whole weekend. I don't remember why we stayed. Probably just to hang out since we had driven there.. So a few other things to mention about this clusterfuck of a tourney.
-There was no place for us to stay one of the nights, so we had to sleep in the fucking car.....
-Someone stole Kenjis shoes. We later found them on the neighbor next door. WTF....
-Speaking of stolen stuff, multiple people had there shit stolen at this tournament, or there cars were broken into.. Super ghetto...
-More speaking of stolen I believe it was this tournament that I found out something pretty bad... Remember how I said that a lot of people didn't like Tomass? Well it just so happens that at one point people stole some shit from Tom. He asked me about it, and I had no idea anything was stolen. He asked me about some guys I knew if they had stolen it as he thought they were kinda shady.. Again I had no idea that anything was even stolen in the first place, plus I didn't think they would actually steal anything. And I remember even asking them that I recall about it and they said no they didn't. Well I was told sadly at this tournament by someone else(off the top of my head I believe it was Jin who told me)that yes they had stolen it. And that I wasn't told they stole it because they didn't want me to say anything because I was cool with Tom. It was like WTF.. I was really disappointed by this.. But I was just given a line something along the lines of "So and so are cool, but if I were you I wouldn't trust them with my stuff"... Sad to hear that kinda stuff...
-When we were finally getting ready to leave Kenji couldn't find his stuff. Well a certain duo forgot(?) they were borrowing Kenjis stuff or something so we had to drive all the way on the other side of town to go and get all of Kenjis stuff(as they had went home with it all? WTF?), and THEN drive home.... Did I forget to mention Kenji had a bad trip? And again he was not pleased ..
So yea... That sucked lol.... Next tournament off the top of my head would be in Ohio at Joshs house. He had quite a large basement , so he was having a big GGXX tournament... Things to note of this tournament was me and the AA guys were suppose to go, but Bhaskar bailed on me last minute basically. So I was forced to drive all 4 hours down by myself. This is of particular interest because this was actually the first time I had driven on the highway by myself. lol so I went from never driving on highway to 4 hour drive by myself meh...
Also note that this is in the winter, and by winter time health was really fucking me up.. I was under a 140 pounds messed up. You can pretty easily look at pics to see the state I was in...
Here just a couple months before...
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1142903254331.2021020.1279955459#!/photo.php?fbid=1144782941322&set=a.1142903254331.2021020.1279955459&type=1&theater
To at the tournament...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1012078543795&set=a.1012076623747.2001543.1279955459&type=1
Yea im pretty fucked tanned looking but you get the idea...
Anyway notes of the tournament...
-Right when I got there, all of the sudden they wanted to change the tournament to $5.. I was pissed... Its like I just drove all this way for a $5 dollar tournament. You guys said it was $10. They tried to give me some BS excuse that it was at Joshs house and thats how he wanted it and it was his birthday. But I was like.. "fuck you guys, no.." lol
-I won the tournament again blah blah....
-On the ride home, I get lost, and the 4 hour drive became like 6-7 hours.. It was terrible...
Welp im gonna end it there as we are basically at the end beginning of 2K4.