2024 EVO Japan SF6 Oil King Ceremony

FuguTabetai Blog

2020 October JP FGC News Round-up

Table of Contents

This is a work-in-progress article about Japanese FGC news from October. I published it early because I want to get a landing page out for some of this information while I’m still compiling some stuff.

1 JP Street Fighter V Women’s League


Nyanpi Orange
BLUE kitties
Kuramochi Green
Crimson Scorpions
Kagekidan

This is a community organized league started by Pecchan, a professional gamer sponsored by team A.M.G. The first league match was October 3rd, followed by October 10th, and October 17th. Each team has four members, each of approximately the same LP. The teams members play the opposing member of similar LP standing, and the team wins are scored by the member wins. In case of a tie they look at games won, and in one case there was a tie still with that so they had two members play each other to decide the win.

The teams are:

  1. BLUE kitties: Leader Mikuramune Menat, September Karin, Sakurako Cody, Misa Menat
  2. Nyanpi Orange: Nyanpi Karin, Wasabi Chun, Fujiko Cammy, Takana Ibuki
  3. Kuramochi Green: Yuka Kuramochi Mika, Mako Ibuki, TABA Mika, Akuden Asumosu Lucia
  4. Crimson Scorpion Army: Pecchan Ibuki, Myako Cammy, Orinu Akuma, YuYu Yurien
  5. The Kageki-dan (reference to an organization that appears in the Sakura Taisen games): Kuse F.A.N.G., Rocco Claw, Gabako Karin, Kisaragi Ryu

The score after the first day of play was even, each of the three teams that played had one win.


1.1 10/03 Day 1 archive

Kuze and Yuka Kuramochi are primarily on commentary. I know Kuze because she is involved organizes events at Shot Bar Lucy, like the Women’s only SFV events. She also joins local tournaments, comes to come of the weeklies, and has a strong F.A.N.G.. Yuka Kuramochi is a famous gravure idol, and plays a Gold level Mika. Yuka Kuramochi’s less famous husband, Fuudo, was also on commentary. She had to remind him a bunch of times to do proper commentary, instead of cheering for Mika or just having a fun time. The commentary was lots of fun – everyone just having a blast and laughing.

1.2 10/10 Day 2 archive

Apparently players have been hosting lounges to practice for the matchups, even though Pecchan expected this league to be mostly for fun, people started to take it seriously.

BLUE kitties vs. Nyanpi Orange. First up is Misakey Menat (Silver) and Takana Ibuki (Gold). Really close match, Takana takes the first game, and she follows it up with a convincing second game to take the set. Fujiko (nitamago679 / Cody / Gold) is next vs. sharknade77 (Sakurako / Cammy / Super Plat). Everyone takes care to choose costumes that match their team colors, and everyone though the Cody and Cammy were both very fashionable. It is a close first match, but Cody takes it 2-1 in rounds, then took the next game 2-0. eptemberS (Karin / Diamond) vs. Wasabi Ohmori (Super Diamond / Chun-Li / BNAIL). Wasabi takes the first game 2-1. I’m a Wasabi fan myself; she often goes to the Akihabara weekly, and I’ve played her a bunch. She’s definitely better than me. She took the second game 2-0. Last up are the team captains, Mikuramune (Menat / Diamond) vs. Nyanpi (Seth / Grand Master). Nyanpi took the first game 2-0 convincingly, then lost the second game 1-2 in a close one. Nyanpi had a really impressive come-back victory in the first round with two shimmys, lost the second round, then would have lost the third but for a dropped CA on Mikuramune’s part. Nyanpi wins 2-1. Overall, that puts Nyanpi Orange as the winners with 3 wins to 1 loss.

Crimson Scorpions vs. BLUE kitties. UYU YuYu Urien (Platinum) vs. Misakey (Menat / Silver). Kuze was talking beforehand about how she expects a cute costume from YuYu, and she got the cute red/pink Urien. Misakey took the first round, but YuYu fought back in the second, and then lost a close one in the final round. Misako showed off some really impressive combos, I’m surprised she’s in silver. She’s also using v-skill to deal with projectiles really well. One of the comments said that her husband also uses Menat, so maybe they practice together. (Note: I don’t think a woman needs a man to show her how to do it – but having someone to practice with who also knows the character would help anyone.) YuYu took the second game in a close one in the final round with some mirror shenanigans. YuYu took the final game convincingly. I don’t think she used a single projectile, and just went super offensive. Good set! Orinnu Akuma (Super Platinum) she has a super cute profile pic of Akuma feeding a baby) against nitamago679 (Fujiko / Cody / Gold) Orinnu took the first game, the lost the second. If you have a chance, check out her twitter profile – it is a super cute Akuma with a bottle feeding a baby (Orinnu’s profile says she has a 1 year old baby.) There’s lots of people in the comments (just generally) saying things like “I want you both to win!” It’s really friendly. It was close, but Orinnu wins it. Next up is Pecchan Ibuki (Diamond) vs. September (Karin / Diamond). Pecchan takes the first game in a close 2-1, and follow that with a close 2-1 in the second game to take the set. The final match for these teams is Myuko (Cammy / Grand Master) vs. Mikuramune (Menat / Diamond). Mikuramnue took the first game 2-0, but Myuko came roaring back to tie it up with 2-0 win. Myuko finished up 2-0 to deliver the point to the Crimson Scorpions, giving them a 4-0 sweep.

Nyanpi Orange vs. Crimson Scorpions. UYU YuYu Yurien (Platinum) vs. Takana Ibuki (Gold). YuYu takes the first game, and the second game was super close, but YuYu won. Fujiko (sharknade77 / Cammy / Super Platinum) vs. Orinnu Akuma (Super Platinum). Fujiko took the first game, and the second. Orinnu looked a bit nervous, missing on an easy punish to hold off the loss, but everyone is laughing and having fun, so it’s all ok. Pecchan Ibuki (Diamond) vs. Wasabi (Chun-Li / Diamond). Wasabi takes the first game, and the second as well, both 2-0. The last match is myuko (Cammy / Grand Master) vs. Nyanpi (Seth / Grand Master). Nyanpi took the first game 2-0, but myuko came back to win the second game 2-0. Oh no, myuko says that it is laggy, and Kuze says they just gotta play it out. They reset and tried again. myuko wins, and if I read things correctly, Nyanpi Orange takes it on the set count since the wins were tied.

Results after the end of the first day. Note that the Crimson Scorpions have completed all of their matches.

1.3 10/17 Day 3 archive

I reached out to Pecchan and Kuze prior to the final day for any message or comments they have for English speaking viewers, but they didn’t have anything in particular to pass on. I see this as confirmation that this community organized league came about because they want to have fun, and aren’t pushing any specific agenda. I’ll see if I can get some sort of post-season interview / final comments after it is all done because I’ve really enjoyed hanging out in the stream and watching these matches.

First up is Kuramochi Green vs. Nyanpi Orange, with Fuudo on commentary. Yuka Kuramochi (Mika, Gold) vs. Takana (Ibuki, Super Gold) is the first match, Fuudo was less biased on commentary than I expected, but Takana was prepared for the match (stopped the flying peach, neutral jumped throws) and took it in a quick 2-0 for Nyanpi Orange. The next two up were madasms (Platinum, Lucia) vs. Sharknade77 (Super Platinum, Cammy). I enjoy watching Lucia, and the first game was close going down to the final round, with sharknade77 taking it. madasms came back to take the second game, forcing a third, which went to Sharknade77 in a close one, putting Nyanpi Orange up two sets to none. The third set is RTabasco (Diamond, Mika) vs. Wasabi Ohmori (Diamond, Chun-Li). I’m biased since I play Wasabi at the weeklies, but of course it would be nice to see Kuramochi Green get a win too. RTabasco took the first game, and followed that up for the second, getting Kuramochi Green’s first win. The final match was makonoko (Diamond, Ibuki) vs. Nyanpi (Grand Master, Karin). Nyanpi won the first game handily, but the second game went down to the final round and could have gone either way. Nyanpi clutched it out with a CA win so Nyanpi Orange took it 3-1 overall.

Yuka Kuramochi is very expressive on commentary. Kuze, Yuka, and Fuudo were commenting the first set, for the second set I expect it to be Yuka and Fuudo (or perhaps Pecchan) since Kuze’s team is up.

The next set is the BLUE kitties vs. Kuze’s Kagekidan. They have great backgrounds showing which teams are up (cute illustrations!) so it is easy to follow even if you are taking notes. 如月 Kisaragi (Ryu, Gold) vs. misakey (Silver, Menat) was fun to watch – lots of Vskill usage and I liked Kisaragi’s fireball uppercut game. She took the first game, and took the second in a fun match as well. Fuudo was giving good advice – he often does beginner lessons and tournaments on his channel, and was happily explaining about the importance of gaining meter (Vskill usage) and taking it slow. Next up is nitamago769 (Gold, Cody) vs. Gabako (Karin, Platinum). It was close (1-2 in rounds) but Gabako took the first game, and repeated with the same 2-1 round count for the second. Next up is September (Diamond, Karin) vs. Tadzio_ aka Rokko (Diamond, Claw). Rokko claw took the first game, then September came back to get the second. Rokko took the final game in convincing fashion with two nice command throws. The last match is the team captains, Miku-ramune (Diamond, Menat) vs. Kuze (Warlord, F.A.N.G.). I have no idea how this match goes, but Kuze has a tricky FANG with the mixups and is always fun to watch. She took the first game, Kuze kept putting on the poison and the schmixes in the second game, but in a close one Miku-ramune pulled it out to tie things up. It was super close and came down to the final round, but Kuze takes it so her team sweeps 4-0. Fuudo’s commentary is really funny; at one point Kuze had a small life lead, Miku-ramune was just waiting (she had to make a move) and Fuudo kept telling her, hey, Kuze’s ok you gotta go in!

Next up was BLUE kitties vs. Kuramochi Green. First up is Misakey (Silver, Menat) vs. Yuka Kuramochi (Gold, Mika). Since it is the final set, Fuudo continues to commentate and support his wife. Man, that was a fun match, but Yuka went down 0-2, so BLUE kitties picks up the first star. Second match is nitamago679 (Gold, Cody) vs. madasms (Silver, Lucia). madasms takes the first game 2-0, puts the hurt on early to get a quick first round in the second game, but loses the second round. and just barely wins a close final round to take the set 2-0. Both teams have a star now. The 3rd match is September (Diamond, Karin) vs. RTabasco (Diamond, Poison). Everyone was surprised, even Fuudo, at the Poison pick, since she usually uses Mika. You can hear Yuka in the background cheering people on and making cute noises (gasps, cheers, etc.) Unsurprisingly, Fuudo seemed comfortable talking about strategy for Poison as well as Mika. RTabasco took the first game, and followed up with a quick win for the second. Some comments in the chat wonder if Fuudo isn’t pinch-hitting on the side to much laughter. The final match Miku-ramune (Diamond, Menat) vs. Makonoko (Diamond, Ibuki). Close game, Makonoko takes the first one. and quickly takes the second to give Kuramochi Green the 3-1 win.

Yuka sounds super happy to get the win (there was some confusion on whether there was a tie or not, but it wasn’t.)

The last set of the night, and of the league was Kuze’s Kageki group vs. Nyanpi Orange. Kisaragi (Gold, Ryu) vs. Takana (Gold, Ibuki) Kisaragi took it with some nice Ryu play. Next up is Gabako (Super Platinum, Karin) vs. sharknade77 (Super Platinum, Cammy). They each got a game, and in the deciding game it came down to the final round, which Gabako squeaked out to Kuze’s joy. Kuze is almost crying, so takes a bit of time to compose herself. The third match is September (Diamond, Karin) vs. Wasabi (Diamond, Chun-Li). Wasabi takes it 2-0. Last up is Kuze (Warlord, F.A.N.G.) vs. Nyanpi (Grand Master, Seth). Kuze took the first game, but Nyanpi came back to win the second, and then the final match. Because Nyanpi won, the teams were tied, so they needed to run a FT1 to determine the winner. In a close one, Kuze takes it.

Kuze’s Kagekidan takes the league! There were surprise prizes for first and second place: Gyoza and Apple Juice respectively. The winning team also gets some Hello Kitty x Street Fighter figures.

The final scores:

  1. 55 points: Kageki-dan, leader Kuze
  2. 53 points: Nyanpi Orange, leader Nyanpi. The won on rounds against:
  3. 53 points: Crimson Scorpions, leader Pecchan (the league organizer).
  4. 45 points: Kuramochi Green, leader Yuka Kuramochi.
  5. 32 points: BLUE kitties, leader Miku-ramune.

I really enjoyed the league games. We heard from people that aren’t your usual suspects in the Japanese SFV scene, everyone had a lot of fun, and I think it was a welcoming event for the participants. Leagues like this – welcoming players from all levels – gives the lower level players a chance to practice with people on their team, then have fun and competitive matches with someone else at their level. I hope to see more events like this elsewhere – and of course there are others like this – like the Queens of Quarantine or others.

2 FAV Cup Mini October 17th

FAV had another FAV Cup Mini SFV tournament. The archive is up on YouTube. Itazan has won the last three FAV Cup Minis, which are run about monthly lately. I always find these interesting because the commentary style is different from most things out there. sako and Ryusei talk over the game, with the game volume down very low, but don’t do a standard commentary style that explains what is happening and why some moves are good or bad. They sound like two professional SFV games talking to each other about what is going on – lots of stuff goes uncommented on, they’ll often call out nice moves without any further explanation of why things were nice, and make digressions into general match up or player discussions. It’s like listening to two players watching footage for things to look out for when prepping for tournament. Sometimes of course they do more standard commentary, but it is certainly different, and refreshing. So, did Itazan win for the fourth time running? Watch and find out yourself! Or check the challonge brackets.

3 Orugan Zaka Game sako and Itabashi Zangief vs. Dogura and Nauman


What is this Orugan Zaka Game thing? It is a show broadcast (streamed) most nights from DHC Shibuya Studio, a streaming studio in the B2 floor of Tokyo Hands in Shibuya. I haven’t heard of it, but looks like a nice place to stream from. They have a bunch of shows around make-up, fashion, gaming, and other things. I heard about it because their Games section had an exhibition with Itazan and sako against Dogura and Nauman. That’s an interesting pairing; Itazan and Nauman are both on DetonatioN Gaming, but that is how they split up the players. I thought the matches were lots of fun – take a look!

4 JeSU Mie esports union Covid-19 Charity Tournament “Kounyuudou-kun Cup”

Konyudo Cup Charity Tournament

Official Theme Song by Fumakoko.

Online SFV 3on3 Streamed Charity Tournament October 31st, 11:00am JST, streamed on YouTube.

I first saw this back on September 30th, and tweeted it out. Mie University Hospital is out in Mie, about four hours from Tokyo by Shinkansen. JeSU (the Japan eSports Union) has been partnering with local organizations to help accelerate esports development around Japan. This is an official JeSU charity tournament, with proceeds going to Covid-19 support at Mie University Hospital. When I first saw it I was surprised; charity tournaments aren’t super common in Japan, and when you do see them they are usually very large (e.g., some of the charity stuff Topanga does) and run by established members of the community. Japan doesn’t really have tooling like Matcherino so it is difficult to set these up.

I’ve never heard of the Junior Chamber International branch of Yokkaichi City – though I looked into it and it seems legit. Seems to me like someone who likes fighting games decided to run a tournament for Charity. Awesome. This is organized by @rukupuru, and they have put considerable work into organizing something interesting. Here are some of the things going on with the tournament:

  • JeSU approved. This is official, this also means that Capcom is onboard to some extent (as a member of JeSU) and also they have the Official Capcom eSports logo.
  • They clearly have Capcom blessing to use official imagery. Check the website.
  • Special Guests: sako and Dogura. Commentary by nanai and sasa, both top flight JP SFV commentators.
  • It is named after the Mascot for Mie Prefecture, Konyudo-kun, and there are two more Mascots that will show up, Shinjo-kun (the winner of Intel Presents. SFV LOCAL CHARACTER GP JAPAN 2020) and Inunakin, the Osaka-fu Mascot. Getting official appearances by these mascots isn’t a simple thing.
  • They have an official theme song. An official theme song! With a video! The lyrics are about changing the world – a fitting theme for a youth based organization.
  • They will have a Yoga instructor (kayo, active in the Mie, Nagoya, and Tokai area) stream Yogo videos to help gamers, focusing on lower back, hips, etc.
  • They have a nice website.
  • The donation you make is tax deductible. I can’t stress how amazing this is – I’ve put a lot of money into charity tournaments / fundraisers for streamers this year, and none of it is tax deductible. There’s a bunch of paperwork you have to do (especially in Japan!) and I’ve never seen anyone actually do it. You can request a receipt that allows you to make a deduction on your Japanese taxes (Kakutei Shinkoku, so you do need to go the route of additional paperwork over the simple e-tax form, but still!) I really wish more charity tournaments would go this extra step, but due to the massive amount of work that it is, I understand why they don’t.

I’d like to enter, but I have family obligations on that day, so I’ll pass. I have donated though. I’d love to see this open to donations around the world, but they only support donations via bank transfer in Japan. It is a well supported, easy option for people with Japanese bank accounts, and absolutely impossible for people outside of Japan to do.

The format of the tournament is a 3 on 3 single elimination tournament with player order and character use locked in advance. The organizer planned for 128 teams max, but as of the 17th, with 10 days to go until registration closes, there are only 2 teams registered. The organizer has been tweeting lately, and sounds very … depressed. I imagine that the organizer is, as a member of the Junior Chamber International, on the younger side. Imagine putting this much work into something, planning for a big show, and nobody shows up. It is reminiscent of a common nightmare scenario I’ve had, and I’m sure is common with others. I hope I can help get the word out – of course, since this is a Japanese online tournament, the majority of people that follow me aren’t able to join or donate, but I won’t let that stop me from doing what I can. I really hope that we get a rush of donations and registration – originally the rules stated that you needed to donate at least 6000yen (~$60) to join the tournament, but that has since been changed to free entry. I feel like these charity tournaments work best wheI’m rn you make it easy for the viewers to donate, and I don’t think there is good infrastructure to support that in Japan. I think Matcherino and Twitch have really done a lot to make it easy to set up charity tournament, which Reddit/StreetFighter / Super Joe Monday and crew have demonstrated to amazing success, and I hope we can see improvement in that area for Japan.

The registration period ended with 77 teams, 231 people, very respectable.

You can check the results at the YouTube Archive. The grand finals match of this single elimination team tournament was crazy. The Kichijyoji Vinca Carters are people that often do well at the offline CAPCOM eSPORTS CLUB weekly – a physical space Capcom set up in their arcade in Kichijyoji with PS4s and free to use sticks that runs events. It has recently moved online. They run ranking battle series, and this team has a Dictator, Ryu, and Zangief that do well there. For a brief moment it looked like Fuji’s Ryu was going to make a come-from-behind victory, the casters were calling him “the hero of the story” (he’s playing Ryu) but on a dropped combo it went the other way. You probably saw HiFight’s clip of the moment.

Top 8:

  1. The Shady and Sunny Side of Mountains Akira Cammy, Uemura Blanka, YHC-Mochi Dhalsim
  2. Kichijuoji Vince Carters Mohamed Dictator, Fuji Ryu, Pipin Zangief
  3. C rank Kick Ibuki, Daiki Ken, Kojirou Kolin
  4. ShuuNauJohnny AXIZ|Shuto Urien, DNG|Nauman Sakura, Liquid|Takeuchi John Rashid
  5. UDZ Daizou Zangief, Gedou Tomokoi Zangief, ASASE Zangief
  6. Saitama’s Duck Mascot and Hokkaidou’s Melon Bear Mascot Abeshi Poison, Shirou G, Kudou Chun-Li
  7. We are all invited just to fill out the guest list Zakki Karin, Aoito Ken, Tsudayu Alex
  8. We’re wearing Sumo loincloths Ahose- Menat, Katakana Aoki E.Honda, AMTRS/Uryo Sakura

I’m really glad that the tournament went off successfully. I thought this was well-organized; they relied on the Button Mashers team to run the online portion of events, and the Button Mashers are involved in many large scale events. They have the know-how and community trust to pull something like this off. Akiki was relentless in promoting the event since sako was involved, and there was fun commentary with sako and Dogura and the great commentary staff (Nanai and Sasa.) I also enjoyed the break at the half-way point with a Gamer-focused quick Yoga session led by Yoga instructor kayo.

The tournament did a lot of things well, especially for a first-time organizer. There was some talk on JP twitter about how you should start small when doing events for the first time (I agree) but if you are trying to do something big on your first go, you could do a lot worse than this event. There are some points I wish were done differently, particularly the donations. In America there is acceptance of crowdfunding and platforms to support that. Crowdfunding hasn’t caught on as much in Japan, though there are sites like Camp Fire, similar to Kickstarter. There is Fantia, similar to onlyfans, but I haven’t seen any sort of equivalent to Matcherino, which makes it easy for users to donate. Without platform support, donations for this event were (and will continue to be, through I think Nov. 7th) done by bank transfer, which is a large barrier to entry and I think limited their fundraising capacity. I’ll have to ask around about Japan based crowdfunding for tournaments. Any solution of that kind likely wouldn’t be tax deductible – and this was! – but it would make it easier for viewers (there were about 1,000 near the end when it was live) to donate and increase what they could raise.


5 Aim the CHUBAR -Kizuna- 2on2

THE WAVE Gaming is a gaming team based out of Okinawa. They’ve been running a 2-2 SFV team tournament over October, with four teams qualifing over three qualifiers, and a final bracket on the 31st. There is a total prize pool of 100,000 JPY (about $960). Three qualifiers, each with 32 teams, four teams advance to the finals.

  • 10/03 1st Qualifier Mildom Archive, Bracket.
    1. Shizuoka Youth: UPLY/Hershal, Megane-man
    2. The Two Strongest: Abeshi, Take-chan
    3. THE WAVE02: THE WAVE/K-tah, THE WAVE/rado
    4. New York Flash: A.M.G. Nari-kun, A.M.G. Yu-sama
  • 10/10 2nd Qualifier Mildom Archive, Bracket.
    1. Counter-attack Club: WP|Vanao, AZ|Kichipa
    2. Country Ninjas: SNB|Higuchi, SNB|Ohtani
    3. THE WAVE: Jyouichi, Wekkars
    4. Icchan Kouchan: Jyobin, Itsukick
  • 10/17 3rd Qualifier YouTube Archive, Bracket.
    1. Failing vision, incontigent, back-achey elders: Petajichou, Ushinosuke
    2. Vtuber Achika-chan: Yukipon, Obi
    3. Innocence: Sousuke, Yanai
    4. Two people on a hot streak lately: Koyabu, Seiki Matsuyuka
  • 10/31 Finals. 19:00 Mildom Archive. Bracket. A Tweet on results.
    1. The Country Ninjas: SNB|Higuchi, SNB|Ohtani
    2. Icchan Kouchan: Jyobin, Itsukick
    3. THE WAVE: Jyouichi, Wekkars

Congrats to the Shinobism team!

6 Pecchan’s Sudden Death

Pecchan's team vs. YuYu's team

Two teams of 5, one from Pecchan, one from YuYu, face off.

Pecchan’s team is:

  • Kenpi (Warlord). Kenpi’s a well-known Ken.
  • Pecchan (Ultra Diamond), the team leader, plays Ibuki.
  • Kiss Shot (Super Diamond), a female Ken.
  • Gumomo (Platinum)
  • Bebebon (Gold)

YuYu’s team is:

  • Mishie (Warlord), a well-known Laura.
  • Nyanpi (Grand Master), playing Seth lately, also in the JP SFV Women’s League
  • Honezou (Super Diamond),
  • YuYu (Platinum), plays Urien and could probably beat everyone in Tekken.
  • Ryoiki (Ultra Gold).

Streamed on two channels on twitch (YuYu, Pecchan). I didn’t get a chance to watch this one, but YuYu tweeted out the results: Pecchan’s team won 3 games to YuYu’s team’s 2 wins. I like seeing community organized events like these, and it’s nice to see women putting together events.

Posted

in

, ,

by

DocFugu

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *