2021-09 Japan FGC Roundup

This is a roundup of random stuff that I’ve been following over the past month or so. No real deep research or anything, but I like having a permanent record around, and a little more space to express my opinions that I get in twitter.

  • Brain On Shinobism stuff. Shinobism has partnered with the Kanro candy company to make BRAON, a gaming gummy. There are two flavors, Grape and Isomaltulose and comes in a one-handed dispenser so you can get on with the more important things in life, like gaming. I guess. There is also long interview with Momochi and ChocoBlanka about the importance of Sugar for concentration. I’m kind of joking around, but it is pretty amazing that Shinobism developed a candy for eSports. I’m always impressed by what they are up to. One nice tidbit from the article from Momochi: “Don’t sacrifice sleep for practicing your game.”
  • NTT e-Sports stuff
    • NTT announced that they have a program to use eXeField for corporate events. The packages are aimed at corporate sponsors (a bit on the pricey side!) but it is a nice service: they will set up a tournament for you, run the brackets, run the streaming, and clear rights with the game publisher. People can use the facility (staffed cafe, people on hand to manage the equipment and run the stream). There is a cheaper package for people that can run their own streams, but it is interesting to see.
    • Getting old as gamers with Kageechi. There is an article that he was interviewed in and he talked about that. It’s a fun interview – you can run it through Google Translate and it works ok. There is interesting overlap with the previous bullet point – NTT is building out facilities around Japan (totally awesome) but in elder care homes those facilities aren’t available and the equipment isn’t recognized as valuable for insurance. That’s a challenge – and given how gaming can be useful to keep people mentally strong (can’t play good footsies with a working brain) that might change in the future.
  • Shiftne Birdie turned 17. He’s a Birdie player I’ve seen doing well in local online tournaments, and I didn’t realize he was that young.

  • Kindevu asked Sega if they made a character based on him in Judge Eyes and they did.
  • Itsuka is taking a break from Hamejyun Cafe. She had a Kumite with Gyogun members.
  • Japan-Saudi Arabia esports Match JAPAN ROUND
    • YouTube Archive. Breaker, a Claw player, had some good games. Japan representatives were Fuudo, Tokido, and Nemo. This is the first of two matches, the SAUDI ARABIA round will be held in 2022. There is a prize pool of approx $135k across 5 games for round 1.
      • In the interview after team Japan win (spoilers!) Fuudo said that it was very useful for the team to talk between themselves about the habits and tendencies of team Saudi Arabia as they were playing. He sees how Team Saudi Arabia was getting better, and thinks they will improve, particularly the Claw player (Breaker). Nemo said that Team Saudi Arabia played differently than JP players, and it took a while to get a handle on how they played, but is glad they were able to win. Tokido also said that he was not used to their opponents, and talking things out with the team really helped. It was lots of fun, and he has high expectations for when they next meet. Team Japan got 2,400,000 yen (about $21,500 USD). The JP team members are excited to visit Saudi Arabia for round 2 in 2022.
      • Team Sudia Arabia said that the JP team was strong, but they want to improve and get revenge next time. Team Saudi Arabia got 2nd place, and 600,000 yen (about $5300 USD).
  • Tokyo Online Party 6 3on3 SFV team tournament.
  • Yuka Kuramochi was hired to be the MC for an event introducing a new women’s gaming team, WESTROPS. Yuka founded G-Star Gaming, a women’s gaming team based out of Tokyo. The name WESTROPS is W from Women, E from e-Sports, and then take SPORTS and reverse it and jam it into the W and E. It’s good to see Yuka back in front of a camera – she looks great after having just given birth a month or two before. I bet Fuudo looks a lot more run-down, even if he can CA on reaction through Guile’s Sonic Boom I know he’s got to be tired. There are four women on the team, of varying backgrounds. One has a six year old child, which I thought was interesting. Another just turned 20. Another says she is a 24 year old high school girl and is very energetic (she isn’t in high school, but does love McDonalds.) They talked a bit about PUBG mobile, which is the game they are playing.


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