Monday, January 23, 2012

The Red Cyclone of Ko-Hatsu

In this post I've got a short interview with Gunze from the Tougeki program plus some of his tourney placings from the last couple years. State of the blog: please check back next week! Art by Keroman.

Looking back at the qualifier, how did it go?

Even though we got through with three OCVs, I could keenly feel the difference in team strength between 2on2s and 3on3s.

Any rival teams you're looking out for?

I'm personally watching Team Byakkotai [Taira, Sashishi, yaya] since they've got three cool masters. I see Gotoh as my rival. In studliness.*

Tell us a bit about your teammates.

Of course, my faith in the SBO '08 champs is absolute. With Otochun who can break through any situation and the mature tachimawari** of ARG you couldn't hope for better synergy. A guy like me was lucky to wind up with them. Whether or not I can show the appropriate strength to back up those two is the biggest question.

Any specific things to look out for?

In a single elimination tourney the mental game is relatively important. But with teams, particularly 3on or more, tactics based on counter picks become extremely important. Watching the matches with an eye for characters' strengths and weaknesses is fascinating.

Anything you'd like to say to the spectators?

In the past the early round games happen simultaneously, so there may be a lot of matches that can't be viewed from the stands. Still, those early rounds have many exciting games. Remember the excitement of the event and when the DVD comes out (it will, right?) see our way of life for yourself!

* "Gotoh is a stud," is an old 2ch ST player thread refrain.
** cf.

I made a list like this a couple years ago for Seki.

UPDATE 2/16/12: added some 2009 results


Gunze Zangief 2009-2011
6/6/09Ko-HatsuThird (w/ Teppei)
7/12Ko-HatsuFirst
7/30Ko-HatsuFirst (w/ Seki)
8/16Ko-HatsuFirst
8/23X-Mania 10First (w/ Seki, Otochun)
9/13Ko-HatsuFirst (w/ Kusumondo)
11/1Ko-HatsuSecond (w/ Seki)
2/21Thunder Beast CupFirst (w/ Otochun, Seki)
1/31/10Ko-HatsuFirst (w/ Kuro)
2/21Ko-HatsuSecond
3/22Sega AvionSecond
10/31Ko-HatsuFirst
11/14A-choSecond (w/ Kusumondo)
12/26Ko-HatsuSecond
4/24/11A-choSecond (w/ Yomiaido)
7/31Ko-HatsuSecond (w/ Teppei)
9/17SBOSecond (w/ Otochun, ARG)
9/18X-Mania 12 DashSecond (w/ Komoda, Kusumondo)
12/18Ko-HatsuSecond

6 comments:

  1. Welcome back man!

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  2. "Remember the excitement of the event and when the DVD comes out (it will, right?) see our way of life for yourself!"

    There used to be a huge market in Japan for tournament DVDs of all sorts of games. Now it seems like most companies charge too much for a license or most arcades have moved on to lower quality streaming instead of high quality DVD archives.

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  3. There's a bit of a catch 22 where DVDs might sell more if the package was more appealing (all matches, nice booklet, maybe multi-audio: game, Gian and s-kill) but gotta sell more to justify those extra costs.

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  4. You don't need anything more than the matches really. The reason why SBO DVDs don't sell is because the prices are a ripoff. $35-$60 for one DVD and sometimes not even all of the matches? Region locked DVD as well? No one wants to spend that much.

    I got a Kuroda DVD where he plays Hugo non-stop for almost three hours. Region free and decent quality and it was only $3. I ended up buying the entire set of DVDs for like $50. 16 DVDs each between an hour to three hours long of high level play.

    If they sold the ST DVD for SBO for like $10-$20 with all of the matches it would be fine. $30 if they throw the last chance qualifier and maybe some interviews on it. But Arcadia is lazy as hell.

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  5. It just hit me.... Something looked a bit of on the Zangief jpeg... Then I realized, he has no chest hair! That's blasphemous. Just saying! :P

    -fatty

    PS: Nice to see you back!

    PPS. in the process of looking for Gief Jpegs to prive my point, I found this...

    http://fightingstreet.com/folders/variousinfofolder/ripofffolder/ripoffpage1.html

    I think you will get a kick out of it. It's worth 5-10 minutes of time to look through.

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  6. That gief was just a rough study. You can see the start of some chest hair on the other one
    http://charabo.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-post_09.html

    Not 100% sure but I think the same person did the spectacular Bishamon for the DCC page
    http://www.vampire-dcc.com/

    Spielberg trying his hand at a kung fu flick?!? heh

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