October 4, 2020
2020 September JP FGC News Round-up
A lot happened in Fighting Games in September. I tweet a bunch of stuff, but I now realize that it is really hard for me to find specific events if I ever want to refer back to them. So I'm going to go through my twitter feed and comment on stuff that happened in September and the very start of October. I'm including things that I retweeted, because lord knows I don't cover anything close to everything.
- 2020-08-29 Saturday. FAV Cup Mini. These are tournaments put on by FAV Gaming, across different games, but I note the fighting game (SFV) ones. Sako and Ryusei comment, in a style that I think is interesting. The volume on the game is down very low, pretty hard to hear, so you really feel like you are just sitting around with two friends (sako and Ryusei) talking about the game. They also don't do much commentary, but talk about the matchup more, the players a bit, have interesting side tangents, etc. Itazan Abigail beat Yanai G for the tournament win.
read more (1450 words)I finally had a chance to watch the latest FAV Cup Mini. I enjoyed watching this 6 minute sponsor ad for v6Plus (a faster form of internet available in JP) that is basically sako and Akiki talking about getting it at home.https://t.co/hn42H2XZJo
— FuguTabetai (@DocFugu) September 2, 2020
October 1, 2020
2020 Q4 Fighting game events in or around Tokyo
Previous: 2020 July to October Tokyo FGC Events | 2021 Q1 FGC events in or around Tokyo
Seems like I've gotten into the habit of tracking FGC offline events in the Tokyo area. This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything. You also should try TopTier.gg which tracks fighting game locals around the world.
Very generally:
- eXeFIELD Akiba (Map) is a venue in the UDX Building in Akihabara. Wednesday nights are generally fighting game nights, and Thursday they do Soul Calibur now. Friday evenings you get a beer ticket with entry and can get beer with that.
- On Tuesdays there is a DBFZ, Tekken7, and Soul Calibur event run by Jiyuna and MajinObama at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map. It is actually officially sponsored as well!
- On Wednesdays SFV (Fighter's Crossover Akihabara – FCA is the event name) at Akihabara ESports Square (the place, Map) starting from 7pm. There are usually around 20 setups, all with sticks. The place has a bar with food too.
- On Thursdays there is usually a SFV event at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map or sometimes BeasTV's Jikoken TV with Fuudo.
- Also on some Thursdays there is a DBFZ event orgaqnized by Kagecchi at Akihabara eSports Square.
- Studio Sky (Map) announced on 2018-09-14 that they will be an open esports space, and as part of that I'm not yet sure of their schedule, but I add information about their events when I see it.
- Shot Bar Lucy has different events on different days, and usually on Friday night is an all-night event featuring various games (Map), Calendar.
- The Plaza Capcom at Kichijoji (Map) has the Capcom eSPORTS Club which has free SFV setups, and often runs events.
- Game Bar Cross-up in Umeda, Osaka (Map) usually does SFV on Tuesday, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue on Wednesday, and KOF14 on Thursday.
- Game Bar Bridge, in Tachikawa, usually runs some fighting game stuff. Their schedule is pinned to the gbbtachikawa profile.
- Check Gaijin Gaming Brothers for information about Smash related events in Japan. I add Tokyo based events to my list, but they track events all over Japan with English information.
- Syogepi-events has a Google Calendar of his events. He often runs platinum and under begginer friendly events. They have an English based guide to participating in their events.
I don't really track free play events or tournaments at arcades - there are lots of them.
- maplejpca tells me that there is a free play UNIST every Friday night from 8pm to 10pm at Sega Nishi Shinjuku.
- Gamrah tells me that Game Spot Versus (Map) has hosted Tuesday night SSF2X tournaments from 9pm for the past 10 years. They also recommend following @gameversus and @newtonooyama for more up-to-the-minute coverage of retro games.
The arcade scene is vibrant, and you are likely to find competition at any arcade, but some are more well known than others. You might want to check out
- Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba
- Taito Station Shinjuku East Exit, Map
- Various arcades in Akihabara, Club Sega, Hey!
- Various shops in Akihabara like the retro game store Super Potato, Map
- Play Spot Big One 2nd, Map. Out in Chiba, but good place for 3rd Strike or Melty Blood. (Thanks Arlieth!)
- Game Newton, Map. Lots of ST setups.
Your Warehouse, Map Kawasaki (For the crazy design)Oh no, this iconic arcade has shut down as of Nov. 7th.
If you are comfortable with Japanese, Kakuge-checker.com has a comprehensive list of offline, online, and other events going around all over Japan. I don't know how he/they/she does it.
Due to concerns around COVID-19, most large recurring events have been cancelled until further notice. Be careful out there.
Kakuge-checker.com has a list of online events, if you are interested in those.
read more (4574 words)September 16, 2020
Weekend trip to Nasu
We usually go to America in the summer for a month or three, but this year due to Corona Virus we didn't go. So we spent a bit of time thinking about safe vacations, and settled on renting a cabin in Nasu, a vacation spot about a three hours drive from Tokyo. A friend of mine is originally from Nasu, and ever since I've met him he's been talking about how nice Nasu is. There are really a lot of "vacation homes" (or maybe timeshares - hard for me to tell) out here, and there are a surprising (for me!) number of large and nice looking restaurants off of the main road. Many places are dog friendly, and have large parking lots, both rarities for people from Tokyo. I could definitely see coming back here on a regular basis, though the drive is a bit far from the part of Tokyo that we are in. We (my family and Lisa's parents, along with their two year old miniature Schnauzer Sakura) piled into our mini-van and drove out there on Saturday. Before checking in to the cabin, we went to a Soba place, "Seiryu no Sato", which has a stocked fishing pond, allows for dogs, has lots of outdoor seating, and is generally quite nice. I had an excellent Curry Soba. It was raining a bit, so we skipped on the fishing - that was the main thing that Alan wanted to do on the trip - and instead went shopping for some vegetables and bread for the morning breakfast.
read more (1430 words)August 10, 2020
eXeField Akiba opening event
eXeField Akiba is a new e-sports facility in Akihabara, located in the Akihabara UDX building. It is part of NTT eSports, and they had an opening ceremony 2020-08-10. The video is above. I'll add some simple running commentary with just a basic overview of what is going on.
read more (893 words)August 9, 2020
Street Fighter League: Pro-JP 2020 Pre-Season
Table of Contents
Capcom is running a Street Fighter League Pre-Season in Japan. They have the details on their main JP SFL site. I wrote a bit about this in a news update blog post, and thought I would write a post that I can update focusing on the JP Pre-Season. Basically, there is a 3,000,000 yen prize pool (about USD $28,000) up for grabs. It isn't clear to me yet what the final tournament will look like, but it will have 12 people in it.
read more (1446 words)August 2, 2020
2020 August JP FGC News Round-up
Table of Contents
- 1. 2020 August JP FGC News Round-up
- 1.1. A restaurant explodes, and Torimeshi's place is messed up
- 1.2. Daigo wins CPT online East Asia 1 Qualifier and whiff punishes with sweep
- 1.3. Chocoblanka did a karaoke V-tuber stream
- 1.4. The Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable
- 1.5. NTT e-Sports division makes some moves
- 1.6. JP Street Fighter League Pre-Season
1 2020 August JP FGC News Round-up
I haven't really been doing much translation lately - I've been super busy with work and family - but I have followed a few interesting threads on twitter. I thought I would gather things up in this blog post to preserve them, since Twitter is generally a blink-and-you-miss-it experience, unless you are talking about digging up old tweets about someone saying the wrong or right word of the day.
read more (2162 words)July 2, 2020
2020 July and on Fighting Game Events in Tokyo
Previous: 2020 March through June Tokyo FGC Events | 2020 Q4 Tokyo FGC Events
Seems like I've gotten into the habit of tracking FGC offline events in the Tokyo area. This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything. You also should try TopTier.gg which tracks fighting game locals around the world.
Very generally:
- eXeFIELD Akiba (Map) is a venue in the UDX Building in Akihabara. Wednesday nights are generally fighting game nights. Friday evenings you get a beer ticket with entry and can get beer with that.
- On Tuesdays there is a DBFZ, Tekken7, and Soul Calibur event run by Jiyuna and MajinObama at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map. It is actually officially sponsored as well!
- On Wednesdays SFV (Fighter's Crossover Akihabara – FCA is the event name) at Akihabara ESports Square (the place, Map) starting from 7pm. There are usually around 20 setups, all with sticks. The place has a bar with food too.
- On Thursdays there is usually a SFV event at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map or sometimes BeasTV's Jikoken TV with Fuudo.
- Also on some Thursdays there is a DBFZ event orgaqnized by Kagecchi at Akihabara eSports Square.
- Studio Sky (Map) announced on 2018-09-14 that they will be an open esports space, and as part of that I'm not yet sure of their schedule, but I add information about their events when I see it.
- Shot Bar Lucy has different events on different days, and usually on Friday night is an all-night event featuring various games (Map), Calendar.
- The Plaza Capcom at Kichijoji (Map) has the Capcom eSPORTS Club which has free SFV setups, and often runs events.
- Game Bar Cross-up in Umeda, Osaka (Map) usually does SFV on Tuesday, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue on Wednesday, and KOF14 on Thursday.
- Game Bar Bridge, in Tachikawa, usually runs some fighting game stuff. Their schedule is pinned to the gbbtachikawa profile.
- Check Gaijin Gaming Brothers for information about Smash related events in Japan. I add Tokyo based events to my list, but they track events all over Japan with English information.
- Syogepi-events has a Google Calendar of his events. He often runs platinum and under begginer friendly events. They have an English based guide to participating in their events.
I don't really track free play events or tournaments at arcades - there are lots of them.
- maplejpca tells me that there is a free play UNIST every Friday night from 8pm to 10pm at Sega Nishi Shinjuku.
- Gamrah tells me that Game Spot Versus (Map) has hosted Tuesday night SSF2X tournaments from 9pm for the past 10 years. They also recommend following @gameversus and @newtonooyama for more up-to-the-minute coverage of retro games.
The arcade scene is vibrant, and you are likely to find competition at any arcade, but some are more well known than others. You might want to check out
- Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba
- Taito Station Shinjuku East Exit, Map
- Various arcades in Akihabara, Club Sega, Hey!
- Various shops in Akihabara like the retro game store Super Potato, Map
- Play Spot Big One 2nd, Map. Out in Chiba, but good place for 3rd Strike or Melty Blood. (Thanks Arlieth!)
- Game Newton, Map. Lots of ST setups.
Your Warehouse, Map Kawasaki (For the crazy design)Oh no, this iconic arcade has shut down as of Nov. 7th.
If you are comfortable with Japanese, Kakuge-checker.com has a comprehensive list of offline, online, and other events going around all over Japan. I don't know how he/they/she does it.
Due to concerns around COVID-19, most large recurring events have been cancelled until further notice. Be careful out there.
Kakuge-checker.com has a list of online events, if you are interested in those.
read more (4309 words)March 9, 2020
2020 March and April fighting game events in Tokyo
Previous: 2020 January and February Tokyo FGC Events | 2020 July and on Tokyo FGC Events
Seems like I've gotten into the habit of tracking FGC offline events in the Tokyo area. This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything. You also should try TopTier.gg which tracks fighting game locals around the world.
Very generally:
- On Tuesdays there is a DBFZ, Tekken7, and Soul Calibur event run by Jiyuna and MajinObama at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map. It is actually officially sponsored as well!
- On Wednesdays SFV (Fighter's Crossover Akihabara – FCA is the event name) at Akihabara ESports Square (the place, Map) starting from 7pm. There are usually around 20 setups, all with sticks. The place has a bar with food too.
- On Thursdays there is usually a SFV event at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map or sometimes BeasTV's Jikoken TV with Fuudo.
- Also on some Thursdays there is a DBFZ event orgaqnized by Kagecchi at Akihabara eSports Square.
- Studio Sky (Map) announced on 2018-09-14 that they will be an open esports space, and as part of that I'm not yet sure of their schedule, but I add information about their events when I see it.
- Shot Bar Lucy has different events on different days, and usually on Friday night is an all-night event featuring various games (Map), Calendar.
- The Plaza Capcom at Kichijoji (Map) has the Capcom eSPORTS Club which has free SFV setups, and often runs events.
- Game Bar Cross-up in Umeda, Osaka (Map) usually does SFV on Tuesday, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue on Wednesday, and KOF14 on Thursday.
- Game Bar Bridge, in Tachikawa, usually runs some fighting game stuff. Their schedule is pinned to the gbbtachikawa profile.
- Check Gaijin Gaming Brothers for information about Smash related events in Japan. I add Tokyo based events to my list, but they track events all over Japan with English information.
- Syogepi-events has a Google Calendar of his events. He often runs platinum and under begginer friendly events. They have an English based guide to participating in their events.
I don't really track free play events or tournaments at arcades - there are lots of them.
- maplejpca tells me that there is a free play UNIST every Friday night from 8pm to 10pm at Sega Nishi Shinjuku.
- Gamrah tells me that Game Spot Versus (Map) has hosted Tuesday night SSF2X tournaments from 9pm for the past 10 years. They also recommend following @gameversus and @newtonooyama for more up-to-the-minute coverage of retro games.
The arcade scene is vibrant, and you are likely to find competition at any arcade, but some are more well known than others. You might want to check out
- Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba
- Taito Station Shinjuku East Exit, Map
- Various arcades in Akihabara, Club Sega, Hey!
- Various shops in Akihabara like the retro game store Super Potato, Map
- Play Spot Big One 2nd, Map. Out in Chiba, but good place for 3rd Strike or Melty Blood. (Thanks Arlieth!)
- Game Newton, Map. Lots of ST setups.
Your Warehouse, Map Kawasaki (For the crazy design)Oh no, this iconic arcade has shut down as of Nov. 7th.
If you are comfortable with Japanese, Kakuge-checker.com has a comprehensive list of offline, online, and other events going around all over Japan. I don't know how he/they/she does it.
Due to concerns around COVID-19, most large recurring events have been cancelled until further notice. Be careful out there.
Kakuge-checker.com has a list of online events, if you are interested in those.
read more (3433 words)March 7, 2020
"Camping" at the deepest underground station in Japan: Doai







2020-02-29
We took the Tanigawa Max Shinkansen from Tokyo to Jyomokougen (上毛高原). The trip was about an hour from Tokyo station. Our seats were on the second floor of the Tanigawa Max Shinkansen. I don’t think they are making more of the two story trains, so getting to ride one is pretty nice. The station we stopped at is only for the Shinkansen, the area itself is called Minakami-Machi (みなかみ町) and there is a separate station (Minakami station) for the local trains.
Then we took a bus about 20 to the nearby Norn Ski Resort where we played at the Kid’s sledding slope for about two hours.
A bit before 1pm we headed inside for lunch.
Took the 3pm shuttle bus to Minakami Station.
Then a 15 minute walk to the Octone Brewery. The town was small and the Main Street bear the station was full of abandoned shops. It reminded me of small country towns in rural Washington state. Walking for a while we started to come across some run down hotels, and what was obviously 30 years ago a very nice hot springs resort but now only just holding on as the star of a dying town. The brewery was really live and we filled up our growler after trying 2 tasting flights. We filled it up (1.9 liters of beer) and went back to the station. There was a 3:40pm train or a 4:40pm train. That was it.
We made it to the station with about 5 minutes to spare. We were headed to Doai station, two stops away.
read more (1917 words)January 3, 2020
2020 January and February Fighting Game Events in Tokyo
Previous: 2019 September, November, and December Fighting Game Events in Tokyo | Next
Seems like I've gotten into the habit of tracking FGC offline events in the Tokyo area. This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything. You also should try TopTier.gg which tracks fighting game locals around the world.
Very generally:
- On Tuesdays there is a DBFZ, Tekken7, and Soul Calibur event run by Jiyuna and MajinObama at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map. It is actually officially sponsored as well!
- On Wednesdays SFV (Fighter's Crossover Akihabara – FCA is the event name) at Akihabara ESports Square (the place, Map) starting from 7pm. There are usually around 20 setups, all with sticks. The place has a bar with food too.
- On Thursdays there is usually a SFV event at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map or sometimes BeasTV's Jikoken TV with Fuudo.
- Also on some Thursdays there is a DBFZ event orgaqnized by Kagecchi at Akihabara eSports Square.
- Studio Sky (Map) announced on 2018-09-14 that they will be an open esports space, and as part of that I'm not yet sure of their schedule, but I add information about their events when I see it.
- Shot Bar Lucy has different events on different days, and usually on Friday night is an all-night event featuring various games (Map), Calendar.
- The Plaza Capcom at Kichijoji (Map) has the Capcom eSPORTS Club which has free SFV setups, and often runs events.
- Game Bar Cross-up in Umeda, Osaka (Map) usually does SFV on Tuesday, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue on Wednesday, and KOF14 on Thursday.
- Game Bar Bridge, in Tachikawa, usually runs some fighting game stuff. Their schedule is pinned to the gbbtachikawa profile.
- Check Gaijin Gaming Brothers for information about Smash related events in Japan. I add Tokyo based events to my list, but they track events all over Japan with English information.
- Syogepi-events has a Google Calendar of his events. He often runs platinum and under begginer friendly events. They have an English based guide to participating in their events.
I don't really track free play events or tournaments at arcades - there are lots of them.
- maplejpca tells me that there is a free play UNIST every Friday night from 8pm to 10pm at Sega Nishi Shinjuku.
- Gamrah tells me that Game Spot Versus (Map) has hosted Tuesday night SSF2X tournaments from 9pm for the past 10 years. They also recommend following @gameversus and @newtonooyama for more up-to-the-minute coverage of retro games.
The arcade scene is vibrant, and you are likely to find competition at any arcade, but some are more well known than others. You might want to check out
- Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba
- Taito Station Shinjuku East Exit, Map
- Various arcades in Akihabara, Club Sega, Hey!
- Various shops in Akihabara like the retro game store Super Potato, Map
- Play Spot Big One 2nd, Map. Out in Chiba, but good place for 3rd Strike or Melty Blood. (Thanks Arlieth!)
- Game Newton, Map. Lots of ST setups.
Your Warehouse, Map Kawasaki (For the crazy design)Oh no, this iconic arcade has shut down as of Nov. 7th.
If you are comfortable with Japanese, Kakuge-checker.com has a comprehensive list of offline, online, and other events going around all over Japan. I don't know how he/they/she does it.
read more (4591 words)October 22, 2019
Street Fighter League: Pro-JP powered by RAGE Summaries
Table of Contents
This is essentially the third run of a Japan based team 3-3 league. The first was in May 2018, the RAGE Street Fighter V All Star League powered by Capcom. Then, in January 2019 was the Japan Capcom Street Fighter League powered by RAGE, and now we have the Street Fighter League: Pro-JP Operated by RAGE. All three of these had different rule sets and different processes for qualifying the teams.
read more (8783 words)September 16, 2019
JeSU Presentation at TGS 2019 Summary
Table of Contents
I'm summarizing this Game Watch article because it was the first that I came across that explained things clearly, but JeSU has their own press release with links to the No Action Letter they sent to Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the response they got.
read more (1515 words)September 15, 2019
2019 September, November, and December Fighting Game Events in Tokyo
Previous: 2019 July and August Fighting Game Events in Tokyo | 2020 January and February Fighting Game Events in Tokyo
Seems like I've gotten into the habit of tracking FGC offline events in the Tokyo area. This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything. You also should try TopTier.gg which tracks fighting game locals around the world.
Very generally:
- On Tuesdays there is a DBFZ, Tekken7, and Soul Calibur event run by Jiyuna and MajinObama at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map. It is actually officially sponsored as well!
- On Wednesdays SFV (Fighter's Crossover Akihabara – FCA is the event name) at Akihabara ESports Square (the place, Map) starting from 7pm. There are usually around 20 setups, all with sticks. The place has a bar with food too.
- On Thursdays there is usually a SFV event at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map or sometimes BeasTV's Jikoken TV with Fuudo.
- Also on some Thursdays there is a DBFZ event orgaqnized by Kagecchi at Akihabara eSports Square.
- Studio Sky (Map) announced on 2018-09-14 that they will be an open esports space, and as part of that I'm not yet sure of their schedule, but I add information about their events when I see it.
- Shot Bar Lucy has different events on different days, and usually on Friday night is an all-night event featuring various games (Map), Calendar.
- The Plaza Capcom at Kichijoji (Map) has the Capcom eSPORTS Club which has free SFV setups, and often runs events.
- Game Bar Cross-up in Umeda, Osaka (Map) usually does SFV on Tuesday, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue on Wednesday, and KOF14 on Thursday.
- Game Bar Bridge, in Tachikawa, usually runs some fighting game stuff. Their schedule is pinned to the gbbtachikawa profile.
- Check Gaijin Gaming Brothers for information about Smash related events in Japan. I add Tokyo based events to my list, but they track events all over Japan with English information.
- Syogepi-events has a Google Calendar of his events. He often runs platinum and under begginer friendly events. They have an English based guide to participating in their events.
I don't really track free play events or tournaments at arcades - there are lots of them.
- maplejpca tells me that there is a free play UNIST every Friday night from 8pm to 10pm at Sega Nishi Shinjuku.
- Gamrah tells me that Game Spot Versus (Map) has hosted Tuesday night SSF2X tournaments from 9pm for the past 10 years. They also recommend following @gameversus and @newtonooyama for more up-to-the-minute coverage of retro games.
The arcade scene is vibrant, and you are likely to find competition at any arcade, but some are more well known than others. You might want to check out
- Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba
- Taito Station Shinjuku East Exit, Map
- Various arcades in Akihabara, Club Sega, Hey!
- Various shops in Akihabara like the retro game store Super Potato, Map
- Play Spot Big One 2nd, Map. Out in Chiba, but good place for 3rd Strike or Melty Blood. (Thanks Arlieth!)
- Game Newton, Map. Lots of ST setups.
Your Warehouse, Map Kawasaki (For the crazy design)Oh no, this iconic arcade has shut down as of Nov. 7th.
If you are comfortable with Japanese, Kakuge-checker.com has a comprehensive list of offline, online, and other events going around all over Japan. I don't know how he/they/she does it.
read more (9697 words)July 3, 2019
2019 July and August Fighting Game Events in Tokyo
Previous: 2019 July and August Fighting Game Events in Tokyo | Next
Seems like I've gotten into the habit of tracking FGC offline events in the Tokyo area. This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything. You also should try TopTier.gg which tracks fighting game locals around the world.
Very generally:
- On Tuesdays there is a DBFZ, Tekken7, and Soul Calibur event run by Jiyuna and MajinObama at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map. It is actually officially sponsored as well!
- On Wednesdays SFV (Fighter's Crossover Akihabara – FCA is the event name) at Akihabara ESports Square (the place, Map) starting from 7pm. There are usually around 20 setups, all with sticks. The place has a bar with food too.
- On Thursdays there is usually a SFV event at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map or sometimes BeasTV's Jikoken TV with Fuudo.
- Also on some Thursdays there is a DBFZ event orgaqnized by Kagecchi at Akihabara eSports Square.
- Studio Sky (Map) announced on 2018-09-14 that they will be an open esports space, and as part of that I'm not yet sure of their schedule, but I add information about their events when I see it.
- Shot Bar Lucy has different events on different days, and usually on Friday night is an all-night event featuring various games (Map), Calendar.
- The Plaza Capcom at Kichijoji (Map) has the Capcom eSPORTS Club which has free SFV setups, and often runs events.
- Game Bar Cross-up in Umeda, Osaka (Map) usually does SFV on Tuesday, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue on Wednesday, and KOF14 on Thursday.
- Game Bar Bridge, in Tachikawa, usually runs some fighting game stuff. Their schedule is pinned to the gbbtachikawa profile.
- Check Gaijin Gaming Brothers for information about Smash related events in Japan. I add Tokyo based events to my list, but they track events all over Japan with English information.
- Syogepi-events has a Google Calendar of his events. He often runs platinum and under begginer friendly events. They have an English based guide to participating in their events.
I don't really track free play events or tournaments at arcades - there are lots of them. maplejpca tells me that there is a free play UNIST every Friday night from 8pm to 10pm at Sega Nishi Shinjuku. The arcade scene is vibrant, and you are likely to find competition at any arcade, but some are more well known than others. You might want to check out
- Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba
- Taito Station Shinjuku East Exit, Map
- Various arcades in Akihabara, Club Sega, Hey!
- Various shops in Akihabara like the retro game store Super Potato, Map
- Play Spot Big One 2nd, Map. Out in Chiba, but good place for 3rd Strike or Melty Blood. (Thanks Arlieth!)
- Game Newton, Map. Lots of ST setups.
- Your Warehouse, Map Kawasaki (For the crazy design)
If you are comfortable with Japanese, Kakuge-checker.com has a comprehensive list of offline, online, and other events going around all over Japan. I don't know how he/they/she does it.
read more (4187 words)June 28, 2019
The 200th Fighter's Crossover -Akiba- SFV local
The weekly SFV local at Akihabara eSports Square, called Fighter's Crossover Akihabara, had its 200th anniversary last week. There was a special event for it, with pizza, games, and giveaways. I wrote a bit about it.
read more (1301 words)June 24, 2019
A variety of interesting FGC events in June in Japan 2019
Table of Contents
Over the weekend there were many interesting FGC things going on. As a Street Fighter fan, that is what I'm primarily interested in.
I'm not even talking about Thaiger Uppercut, or The Fight.
Two tournaments took place that will send the winner to EVO in Las Vegas, Grapht's GGGCup and the Fukushima Gaming Day SFV tournament. One of those was held at a traditional Japanese Hot Springs resort. The College representative team for the JP Street Fighter League was decided, and a few more Arcade qualifiers happened. WE-R1 held a tournament at Round1 on Arcade Hardware, and we got to see some high level Alex play, and SNK had another one of their Samurai Shodown streams, this time with a tournament featuring some well-know pro players.
read more (1780 words)May 10, 2019
JP 2019 Fall Street Fighter League: Pro-JP
Table of Contents

On Thursday, 2019-05-09 (as far as I can tell) Capcom released details about the upcoming Fall 2019 JP Street Fighter League.
This is all a bit confusing, but I believe the proper name for this is now "Street Fighter League: Pro-JP", as it says on the main streetfighterleague.capcom-s.com site.
It has some changes from the Japan Capcom Street Fighter League Powered by RAGE that ran from January 26th to March 21st in 2019 (or from December 4th, 2018, if you include the Beginner Class Auditions). If you hadn't heard of these events, I wrote extensively about them on my personal blog, which as a personal blog for a random dude just writing about hobby stuff, rightly should not be read by many people. It was a really interesting and fun series that followed on in the footsteps of the 2018 RAGE All Star League Powered by Capcom (note the intentionally different naming) and was a pre-cursor to the currently running Capcom Street Fighter League currently running in America. I couldn't find an official link for that, which shocks me, but read this cool article about Toi by Ginni Lou.
read more (7470 words)May 3, 2019
2019 May and June Fighting Game Events in Tokyo
Previous: 2019 March and May Fighting Game Events in Tokyo | 2019 July and August Fighting Game Events in Tokyo
Seems like I've gotten into the habit of tracking FGC offline events in the Tokyo area. This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything. You also should try TopTier.gg which tracks fighting game locals around the world.
Very generally:
- On Tuesdays there is a DBFZ, Tekken7, and Soul Caliber event run by Jiyuna and MajinObama at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map. It is actually officially sponsored as well!
- On Wednesdays SFV (Fighter's Crossover Akihabara – FCA is the event name) at Akihabara ESports Square (the place, Map) starting from 7pm. There are usually around 20 setups, all with sticks. The place has a bar with food too.
- On Thursdays there is usually a SFV event at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map or sometimes BeasTV's Jikoken TV with Fuudo.
- Also on some Thursdays there is a DBFZ event orgaqnized by Kagecchi at Akihabara eSports Square.
- Studio Sky (Map) announced on 2018-09-14 that they will be an open esports space, and as part of that I'm not yet sure of their schedule, but I add information about their events when I see it.
- Shot Bar Lucy has different events on different days, and usually on Friday night is an all-night event featuring various games (Map), Calendar.
- The Plaza Capcom at Kichijoji (Map) has the Capcom eSPORTS Club which has free SFV setups, and often runs events.
- Game Bar Cross-up in Umeda, Osaka (Map) usually does SFV on Tuesday, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue on Wednesday, and KOF14 on Thursday.
- Game Bar Bridge, in Tachikawa, usually runs some fighting game stuff. Their schedule is pinned to the gbbtachikawa profile.
- Check Gaijin Gaming Brothers for information about Smash related events in Japan. I add Tokyo based events to my list, but they track events all over Japan with English information.
- Syogepi-events has a Google Calendar of his events. He often runs platinum and under begginer friendly events. They have an English based guide to participating in their events.
I don't really track free play events or tournaments at arcades - there are lots of them. maplejpca tells me that there is a free play UNIST every Friday night from 8pm to 10pm at Sega Nishi Shinjuku. The arcade scene is vibrant, and you are likely to find competition at any arcade, but some are more well known than others. You might want to check out
- Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba
- Taito Station Shinjuku East Exit, Map
- Various arcades in Akihabara, Club Sega, Hey!
- Various shops in Akihabara like the retro game store Super Potato, Map
- Play Spot Big One 2nd, Map. Out in Chiba, but good place for 3rd Strike or Melty Blood. (Thanks Arlieth!)
- Game Newton, Map. Lots of ST setups.
- Your Warehouse, Map Kawasaki (For the crazy design)
If you are comfortable with Japanese, Kakuge-checker.com has a comprehensive list of offline, online, and other events going around all over Japan. I don't know how he/they/she does it.
read more (4377 words)February 25, 2019
2019 March and April Fighting Game Events in Tokyo
Previous: 2019 Januray and February Fighting Game Events in Tokyo | 2019 May and June Fighting Game Events in Tokyo
Seems like I've gotten into the habit of tracking FGC offline events in the Tokyo area. This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything.
Very generally:
- On Tuesdays there is a DBFZ, Tekken7, and Soul Caliber event run by Jiyuna and MajinObama at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map. It is actually officially sponsored as well!
- On Wednesdays SFV (Fighter's Crossover Akihabara – FCA is the event name) at Akihabara ESports Square (the place, Map) starting from 7pm. There are usually around 20 setups, all with sticks. The place has a bar with food too.
- On Thursdays there is usually a SFV event at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map or sometimes BeasTV's Jikoken TV with Fuudo.
- Also on some Thursdays there is a DBFZ event orgaqnized by Kagecchi at Akihabara eSports Square.
- Studio Sky (Map) announced on 2018-09-14 that they will be an open esports space, and as part of that I'm not yet sure of their schedule, but I add information about their events when I see it.
- Shot Bar Lucy has different events on different days, and usually on Friday night is an all-night event featuring various games (Map), Calendar.
- The Plaza Capcom at Kichijoji (Map) has the Capcom eSPORTS Club which has free SFV setups, and often runs events.
- Game Bar Cross-up in Umeda, Osaka (Map) usually does SFV on Tuesday, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue on Wednesday, and KOF14 on Thursday.
- Check Gaijin Gaming Brothers for information about Smash related events in Japan. I add Tokyo based events to my list, but they track events all over Japan with English information.
- Syogepi-events has a Google Calendar of his events. He often runs platinum and under begginer friendly events. They have an English based guide to participating in their events.
I don't really track free play events or tournaments at arcades - there are lots of them. maplejpca tells me that there is a free play UNIST every Friday night from 8pm to 10pm at Sega Nishi Shinjuku. The arcade scene is vibrant, and you are likely to find competition at any arcade, but some are more well known than others. You might want to check out
- Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba
- Taito Station Shinjuku East Exit, Map
- Various arcades in Akihabara, Club Sega, Hey!
- Various shops in Akihabara like the retro game store Super Potato, Map
- Play Spot Big One 2nd, Map. Out in Chiba, but good place for 3rd Strike or Melty Blood. (Thanks Arlieth!)
- Game Newton, Map. Lots of ST setups.
- Your Warehouse, Map Kawasaki (For the crazy design)
If you are comfortable with Japanese, Kakuge-checker.com has a comprehensive list of offline, online, and other events going around all over Japan. I don't know how he/they/she does it.
read more (6217 words)January 30, 2019
The Japan Capcom Street Fighter League powered by RAGE
Table of Contents
- 1. What is the Japan Street Fighter League powered by RAGE?
- 2. 2019 Street Fighter League powered by RAGE Schedule
- 3. 2019-01-26 Street Fighter League Team Draft
- 4. 2019-02-02 Section 1
- 5. 2019-02-03 Section 2
- 6. 2019-02-09 Section 3
- 7. 2019-02-10 Section 4
- 8. 2019-02-23 Section 5
- 9. 2019-02-24 Section 6
- 10. 2019-03-02 Special
- 11. 2019-03-02 Section 7
- 12. 2019-03-03 Section 8
- 13. 2019-03-09 Section 9
- 14. 2019-03-10 Section 10
- 15. Break: The Many Colors of Ayako Hatta
- 16. 2019-03-21 Grand Finals
1 What is the Japan Street Fighter League powered by RAGE?
Back at Tokyo Game Show 2018, one of the announcements was a Street Fighter V team three on three league. The Japanese version has three classes of members, one on each team. I wrote about the team composition in a post about the Beginner Class selection, and also mentioned the High Class member selection process in another blog post. Here is the basic information though.
Each team will have one of:
- An Extreme Class member, basically the team leader. The teams are led by Itabashi Zanfief, Tokido, Fuudo, Mago, Daigo, and Nemo.
- A High Class member, who is under 22 years old as of 2019 March 31st, and selected on a series of TV shows in the High Class member selection process. The people who were candidates for that series of TV shows went through a try-out process that you can watch in two episodes on Abema.tv if you like.
- A Beginner Class member, described in this blog post.
The team play will take place in January and February of 2019. The team captains drafted team members in the Team Draft show streamed on OpenRec.tv on January 26th. I haven't seen too much about this - except for some HiFightTH clips that were likely hard to understand without more context. I don't mean to throw shade on HiFightTH - the guy is amazing and you should support him on Patreon if you have the ability.
How does the tournament work? The teams accumulate points during round robin League play. The three teams with the highest point total advance on to the Grand Finals. Players in each respective class play each other, and point values differ based on that. Each set is a first to two.
- Beginner Class FT2 winner scores their team 1 point
- High Class FT2 winner scores their team 2 points
- Extreme Class FT2 winner scores their team 3 points
Note that because of this, there really is a balance between teaching the team members, and just trying to coast by on the individual performance of the team captain. It is likely that the win rate (well, I guess I should talk to The Game Twok or finish reading Fighting With Numbers 2019 first) for the team captains will be around 50%, so if they can focus and teach their team members to consistently win, that is a probably an easier path to points than trying to train to beat the other pros more consistently. There is relative strength in the different captains, but I'm convinced this structure makes the Beginner and High class members important as well.
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