The location for Round 2 of the Gamestop Tournament was at the Mall here in Fredericksburg. It’s a location I was not familiar with until today. Thankfully, no one was in a rush to show up 30 minutes early, so I found myself waiting as the 4 other opponents I would play slowly trickled in. The only one to really catch my attention was the guy talking about how he’d been playing Street Fighter for 20 years. The competitive sort that I’ve met aren’t exactly ones to go announcing how long they’ve been in the scene and who they’re going to play as, nor do I know any who really mince details about Capcom having made a game “That was only released in Japan where they fought some other company.”

I don’t think they ever decided on whether it was Marvel vs Capcom, Capcom vs SNK, or Tatsunoko vs Capcom. At that point I really didn’t care about the details of what it was, I was just irritated. I wanted to play and see what I was up against or at least hear something as to what the guy was capable of other than “He’s really good!” Something the store manager told me with staunch enthusiasm. 20 Year Street Fighter Vet was apparently a local video game hero or some shit, at least that’s the vibe I was getting from everyone who pointed him out to me after I showed my certificate to participate and was identified as a round 1 qualifier.

I ended up playing the day’s second match after “20 year vet” beasted on some hapless Vega player who, I was told by Jake, had a lot of notoriety at the store he qualified at. 20 Year Vet picked Guile, so it had me somewhat worried as to how my Bison would fare. The fact that the Vega player didn’t know what the fuck he was doing didn’t really give me a clear assessment of what the player was capable of, so I ended up as curious as I was prior to seeing him play. He had quite a reputation in the mall as a big time Street Fighter player, even managing to have won the area’s first Street Fighter 4 tourney. I wasn’t gonna change my main after dedicating a good amount of time playing as Bison, so I committed and decided to just bite the bullet.

My first match of Round 2 was against a “Flowchart Ken”, and he would be the first of two I’d play. When I picked Bison, I once again garnered a few murmurs from the crowd. I don’t know what it is with the phenomenon of picking ol’ Limitless Psycho Powah and getting shock and awe, but it works for me. I ended up implementing the same strategy of “Headstomp a fool” that I used for Round 1, which made for a short and easy trip to the semi-finals. Highlight of the match was during the third and final round of the match. I was standing directly in front of the Ken player as he was waking up and then engaged my teleport just as soon as he began his Ultra. The camera zoomed in and showed Bison just as began turning purple to dematerialize and the crowd response was pretty satisfying. I appeared behind the Ken player and threw him into the corner for the win.

I told him “Good Game”, and he then told me “I never seen anyone play Bison like that, man.” I was thinking Round 2 would be legit, but the area I’m in is considered the boonies of Virginia, so I lucked out again on being the “Alpha Scrub” in “Scrubville, VA.”

The next two matches took place in the opposing bracket and were both Ryu vs Ken. I didn’t watch these two match as I had no interest in the players involved after seeing that it was jumping roundhouse into sweep day in Street Fighter IV land. Jake played one of these matches, but he was basically just playing a store employee as a formality, since we only had 5 people show up total. Jake from Round 1 would end up making it to the semi-finals, so I decided to watch that match in the hopes that he’d inch out a victory. Unfortunately, Jake ended up losing to the third advent of Flowchart Ken that day. I never got a chance to meet up with him before Round 2, and that aggrevated me, as I felt that having someone advance to Round 3 with some kind of enthusiasm for Street Fighter, a willingness to learn and improve, would be better than “Man, I hope I get that controller!”

Jake spent the Semi-Final in a 5 round back and forth with Flowchart Ken: Third Strike, trading Shoryukens and Hadoukens. I think his highlight was landing his Super as a Super Cancel, and then using his Ultra to chip the Ken player to death in Round 4… Round 5 was when Jake ran out of tricks and ended up losing soundly. Bum deal, man.

As for my Semi-Final match, I nearly ended up picking “Rematch” on the match menu. Luckily, 20 Year Vet didn’t want to play as anyone but Guile, so my cool and suave demeanor at selecting menu options wasn’t going to penalize me. Before we even began, he had pat me on the shoulder and wished me good luck in a condescending manner. At that point, I wanted to be as mean and vicious as possible… not the best mental game to go in with. Nope, not at all. Still, he picked Guile and I picked Bison. I wasn’t sure how to open the match, so I ended up teleporting behind his Guile as the first round began. The successful throw I pulled off was the clarion call of this Guile player’s doom. He didn’t know the match up, but he was even worse than the Guile I played in Round 1. That Guile was legit, he gave me hell and made me earn the last round, but 20 Year Vet was a cakewalk. I headstomped, teleported, and just rushed the man down amidst wake up flash kicks and panicked sonic booms. Nothing interesting to note other than 20 Year Vet’s shocked expression after our match ended.

“Dude, you’re good.”

I had already qualified for Round 3 at that point, but the next match I wanted to play just because seeing Jake lose was a bit of a downer for me. Apparently both players get controllers anyway, so there was really no reason to play him. Flowchart Ken: Third Strike met defeat as quickly as I could dish it out for him. I nearly perfected him in Round 3 but he landed a lucky fierce shoryuken when I guessed wrong on a headstomp. Either way, I had stunned the crowd again like I did in Round 1 with scrubby Bison. Works for me.

Things of note:

  1. I was the only one who used throws again. I threw and threw a lot. It was the key to victory and a lot of my mix ups.
  2. Combos were only reactionary on the part of my competition. Lots of jumping hard kicks into sweeps. My cross ups after throw were easy combos, I never needed to land entire links into scissor kick with Bison.
  3. Wake up supers, ultras, and specials all resulting in punishment but never resulting in the players changing their tactics.
  4. No proper knowledge of move properties. I did a lot of unsafe moves and went unpunished. My opponents weren’t going to punish me, so I wasn’t going to stop.

I got my certificate and my green headband for winning Round 2. It was, overall, much shorter than Round 1 and there was somehow less competent players present. I figured the pool gets stronger as things go along in this tournament, but this area once again proves that this part of Virginia is a blackhole for talent. After I got my goodies and dropped them off, I stopped by the game center that 20 Year Vet won the first non-Gamestop Street Fighter IV tournament. I played an hour with Jake and he adapted to my Bison rather quickly. I was still winning, but he wasn’t playing stupid. I tried to get him to stop doing his best Flowchart Ryu impression while we played, though I don’t know where he’s gonna take his game. I doubt it’ll be anywhere serious, but the community is only as strong as its weakest link, so I have no problem trying to help someone improve in this thing they consider a hobby. Nothing wrong with that.

I’m also looking forward to winning the next local Street Fighter IV tournament and cleaning up, given my current competition. It’ll hopefully remain easy money. I can’t get careless or sloppy, though. Furthermore, is there a free Tournament Stick and trip to Evolution in my future? I can only do my best and find out.