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Capcom eSPORTS CLUB in Plaza Capcom Kichijoji

Capcom recently opened the "eSPORTS CLUB" (their capitalization, not mine) in their Plaza Capcom arcade in Kichijoji. It is an interesting place, and surprising to me in that it is completely free. They have two head to head setups, and I think eight side by side setups. It isn't the largest space, but each station uses a PS4 Pro, there are a lot of nice Street Fighter character images, and they provide sticks (Hori RAP 4s) and headphones (don't remember) for your use. All for free. There are a variety of places in the Tokyo area that you can go to and play Streetfighter, but none of them are free.

In March, I noticed that Capcom started running tournaments ("Ranking Battles") on Saturday there. By chance my family is out travelling on Saturday, so I took the chance to go out to Kichijoji - a but outside of Tokyo proper, an hour away from where I live anyway, and check it out. I thought it might be useful to write a bit about how to make use of the Capcom eSPORTS CLUB for any English speakers that might be interested.

First, you need to get there. That probably means taking the Chuo line out of Shinjuku (about 17 minutes) but Google should be able to tell you how to get there. Leaving the station walk through the nice shopping district, which has some covered streets which would make going there in the rain pretty convenient. The Plaza Capcom arcade is located in the basement of the Loft building. You can't miss the eSPORTS CLUB, it is a closed off area with a bunch of life size Street Fighter character cutouts standing around, and some big monitors showing what is happening on the main setup.

Once you are there, you need to register for a member's card. If you are looking at the entrance to the area, to the right there is a counter that should have a capcom employee there. Tell them that you want to register, or maybe just say something like "Street Fighter" and point over there. They will bring out a sign-up sheet and ask for your gamertag. No government needed. Sign up with that, and if you want to borrow a stick, let them know (they are visible from the counter). They will have you sign up on another sheet for that. They should also give you a business card sized member's card with a number on it that you can use when you come back. When you are playing in the area you have to wear the lanyard they give you (so they know you registered or checked in with the desk I guess) but that is it. Head over to the setups and look for one that is open. The setups are all First to Two, winner stays on when it is busy, but if nobody is waiting feel free to keep on playing.

If there is a tournament that day - and they will also host player-run tournaments on weekday evenings I'm told - talk to the person running the tournament to register. In my case on Saturday at about 3:30pm there was a capcom employee near the entrance with a sign-up sheet for the tournament, I signed up, and they passed me a ticket with a number on it. Later on, once sign-ups were closed, they called out the numbers and we pulled a piece of paper to determine seeding order in the tournament. They wrote the seeding information down on two dry erase brackets (pretty cool actually) and then started calling out matches.

Competition was very good - I knew of Raya (Diago's student), and Trashbox (a good Birdie), and everyone else there was better than me at any rate.

If you have the time, check out the Capcom eSports Club. Personally, I prefer one of the various weeklies - particularly Fighter's Crossover Akihabara - where there is a bar and I can get something to drink while I lose, but this was a lot of fun too.

A short post-Kemonomichi interview with Tokido

The Chigesoku blog (Japanese) took some notes from an interview with Tokido from 3 days after the Kemonomicni FT10. The video is from the Living The Game people - Living the Game is a documentary (in Japanese) that primarily follows Momochi, Chocoblanka, Daigo, Luffy, and GamerBee with brief appearances by many others in the FGC. I actually watched it in the theater last night, and really enjoyed it. The majority of the interview is about Tokido's thoughts on the movie, but there is a bit about Daigo as well. Here is an English version of the notes from the Chigesoku blog.

Check out the Living the Game trailer if, for nothing else, the Mike Ross Capcom Cup intro.

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Behind-the-scenes discussion with Daigo about Kemonomichi 2

Translator's note: This is a translation of http://chigesoku3.doorblog.jp/archives/53114976.html which transcribed the audio from a twitch stream with Daigo.

On March 11th, Sunday, Daigo held an "at home" stream in which he talked about his recent match. It was a stream with the usual members of Daigo, Fuudo, and Orikasashi, and they talked about the recent events, including "Kemonomichi 2". This article excerpts the discussion about Kemonomichi 2.

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My brief appearance on AbemaTV's Agenai! Friday

Friday, March 9th, I was invited to appear on "Agenai! Friday" (Episode 7), a show on AbemaTV. What is AbemaTV? It is a live streaming service that adopts the model of TV, and streams content on various channels at a specific time. You can also access their backlog of shows for free. I like their "Ultra Games" channel, which has various video game content. If you haven't tried AbemaTV before, check it out - there are many channels, and they have a lot of original content. They also have lots of Anime. It is all in Japanese, so that might be problematic, but some of the gaming stuff is understandable.

One of the shows that I like is called "Agenai! Friday", which is a show about games generally, but often has people playing in a contenst using Street Fighter V. They will do different events for different games, but often will have amateur challengers play against their competitors. The times I've watched, they have had Itabashi Zangief and Tachikawa as their professional players, and also Kuramochi Yuka on the show. If you don't know who Kuramochi is, I first heard about her at EVO Japan. She was a reporter for the Japanese stream, and interviewed some of the players and attendees there. I didn't realize that she is a glamour model until I followed her on twitter, and the pictures she posts pretty quickly makes it clear that she works in the glamour industry in Japan. She does play video games, and has a good R. Mika, so I assume she is on the show because of that, and to give a bit of beauty appeal to the audience.

I started watching Agenai Friday when I heard that Itabashi Zangief is on it - he's a player that I really like and have followed for a long time. How does the show work? Usually it opens with some general introduction - the MC is another Japanese Talent, Kendo Kobayashi, who chats a bit with the others on the panel. They might talk about a new game for a bit, but in the second half they introduce the challengers who will play their stable of pro players. If the challenger wins, they get a cash prize - usually about $2000 USD (200,000 Japanese yen, I'll just use USD with 100yen/dollar). If the challenger does not win, that goes into the prize pot, up to a maximum of $10,000. So that is a pretty nice prize! The Street Fighter V set is best of 5 games, so the first person to win three games.

I've watched the show a few times, and some of the challengers have been people that I recognize or know from the weekly Street Fighter event called Fighter's Crossover Akihabara (FCA from here on). I usually go every week, if I can make it. Last week, I was approached by a Mr. U., who asked if I would like to be on the show. We talked for a bit, and I told him that I wasn't very good at the game - I'm ok, generally a Gold/Platinum level Zangief, but in Season 3 I'm trying to play other characters. He thought it would be interesting though, so I agreed. This is likely a case where I'll be playing the role of "hey look, a foreigner who can speak Japanese!" but that is fine. I really like the fighting game community, and one of the things I would like to do is make it easier for English speakers to learn about the Tokyo Fighting Game Community (FGC from here on) scene. So I'm happy to go on a show and talk about whatever, but maybe I can get a few words in about how great the FGC is, and also talk about how anyone - old, young, good at the game or not - can join in, have fun, and make friends.

So the next week on Friday I showed up to the Abema (actually Openrec) offices, and met with the other people on the show. Usually there are two challengers, but this time there were four. Hidemichi, who is also a regular at FCA, Kindevu, a well-known strong FGC player who isn't a pro (yet?), myself, and Utahiroba Jun, who is a rock star - the bassist for the group Golden Bomber. He is a big Street Fighter V fan (and very good) and apparently wanted to be on the show.

We heard about how things were set up, how the show would go, and then headed over to the studio. The place was smaller than I would have thought (never having ever seen a studio of any kind before) and got ready. We set up our controllers, played a game or two, and then stood on our marks and waited for the show to start. Us four challengers lined up, we had these white boards that we wrote our name/tag, age, and occupation on, and Kendo asked or commented on each of us. Then they transistioned the show into the competition segment.

Since Hidemichi was on the previous weeks' show, he was up first, and the rest of us drew lots for order. Utahiroba Jun was first (and he was super happy about it!) Kindevu was 3rd (and he was super sad about it!) and I was second, and didn't particularly mind either way. I really want to see Kindevu go back on the show because he could potentially win it. I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell, although I'm pretty confident that I could win a set against Kuramochi.

While Hidemichi got ready for his set - the competitors also draw lots, and he was to face off against Kuramochi first - the other three of us went back into the production room to watch. Hidemichi lost the first game, but came back to win the next three, and then face off against Tachikawa. It was lots of fun watching back in the production room, and the place went nuts when Kuramochi won the first game. After that, Tachikawa was randomly chosen as the next player. Hidemichi got one game on him, but in the end Tachikawa won.

Utahiroba Jun was up next. Usually the challengers just play individually, but Jun asked if he could bring Kindevu out as support. Kindevu is a well-known strong player, and Jun knows him. He was really happy to meet him, and the whole time we were waiting Jun and Kindevu were talking technical aspects of the game, points on different matchups, things Jun should look out for if he played Itabashi or Tachikawa. I've been playing SFV since it came out, and I follow the tech and frame advantage / disadvantage, but as an old (and old-school) player, I don't pay as much attention to that stuff as I should. I prefer to play a few matched online instead of spending time in training mode (I usually get about 2 or 3 hours a week to play games) so I'm not the right guy to talk to about those technical aspects of the game. Kindevu and Jun definitely are though. So Jun asked if he could get Kindevu to come out as support, and the production team thought that was a great idea. Mostly, I think, because Kindevu's name in Japanese means "Golden Fatty" and Jun is a member of the "Golden Bombers" rock group. That makes for a fun gag on a show like this.

For some reason, they then thought that I should go out too, so I did. First up was Kuramochi, again drawn by random lot. She was not happy to face Jun, because he's very good and in a previous event they had played each other and he totally demolished her. Jun didn't show any mercy this time either, and his Ken ran pretty roughshod over Kuramochi's Mika (who still is better than average). Normally, after the loss the MC would have the other competitors draw lots to see who Jun would play next, but since Itabashi Zangief hasn't played in a while (Tachikawa keeps getting randomly selected) Kendo sent out Itabashi. Jun was really getting hype, and I could really tell that he is used to the Japanese "Talent" style of playing along with the MC / other guests on panel shows. He was talking up his game, he called out Tachikawa for being a rude young kid earlier when he won his matches, and just generally brought a lot of energy to the studio. He played well, and got a few rounds, generally keeping things competitive against Itabashi's Abigail. In between rounds he would reach out and rub Kindevu's belly (because he looks a bit like a fat Buddha golden statue, and rubbing their bellies gives you good luck) and once or twice rubbed my bald head. For luck. He's a real showman.

The show is only an hour long, and the show ended before their set did. We played out the remainder of the set and that will probably show up somewhere eventually. Overall it was really a lot of fun, it was super exciting to cheer Jun on, and just seeing how these shows work was interesting. One of the taglines on this show is that people who are watching the show could come on the show and compete for the prize money. One of the things I enjoy most about the FGC is that it was born from the arcade culture, where all you need to play is a quarter and you can play anyone on the machine regardless of level. All sorts of people can be a part of the FGC, and while we might not all be great players, we can all have fun. In actuality, I think it is very rare for someone to actually beat the show's pros in a first to three set, but I love that they open that opportunity up to people - myself, or a fan from a rock band, or a regular at the weekly local (Hidemichi) or a well-known strong unsponsored player.

If you are interested in fighting games, I think they are a very accessible type of video game to watch. The big health bar at the top of the screen goes down, and the winner is the one who has some health left. That is pretty easy to understand, even if you don't know what is happening on screen. If you are watching shows like this, and think it looks fun, try to go to a local event near you. Most local scenes are happy to see new people and help them get better.

Daigo's Panel on Money and Games in Japan

Today, Daigo streamed a panel discussion about Money and Games. It was super interesting. I just wanted to watch for my own purposes, but I took a few notes, so I guess I'll put them out there. Some disclaimers: I'm just a guy living in Japan, and Japanese is my second language. So I might be wrong on stuff! These are really just my own notes which I took for fun, and I'm not a great writer or analyst so what you see is what you get. I skipped a bunch of stuff, but took some notes on comments I found interesting.

My TLDR version of the steam was:

• JeSU (the Japanese eSports Union) that licenses pro players didn't do great outreach to the community when they launched. They do seem to be moving in the right direction, listening, and are willing to work with the community to help improve things. I'm optimistic. My preference would be to change the morality laws to just get around the main issues (not collecting fees from participants for pot money) but even if that happened I can see how a body like JeSU still might be useful.
• I think that it is possible, under this new system, to have open tournaments that anyone can enter and still have a pot. It sounds like that would work by granting a pro license to the winner on the spot.
• I'm still concerned that because of this system, we will see many more invitationals in Japan instead of large open tournaments, but time will tell.

Who are the people at the round table? Players:

• Daigo
• Foo~do
• Nemo
• Daikoku
• Raya (a young player that Daigo is teaching). This is what the "info card" for him said: "A young SFV player. He didn't come up by his strength, but in an audition with one of Umehara's projects. He is the one that made Umehara stop wearing Crocs. He's here not to give his opinion as a competitor but as a member of the community." That said, I've seen him at the weeklies, and he's good.

Community members:

• Nyanshi, the director of Topanga. Very involved in large scale tournaments, he ran the SFV side of things at EVO Japan 2018.
• Kagecchi, he organizes the weekly SFV event "Fighter's Crossover Akihabara" at Akihabara Esports Square.
• Hameko, Chairman of EVO Japan, does lot of commentary, etc.
• Nishitani Akira (NIN) - designer of Street Fighter II
• Hamamura Hirokazu, former editor of weekly Famitsu, current President of Enterbrain. Represented the new JeSU esports organization that issues pro sports licenses in Japan.
• Akahoshi, a well-known Zangief player from SF4 who now works behind the scenes at Yubiken
• Gama no Abura, a well-known commentator. He was also wearing a Button Mashers shirt, so he might be involved in that. Button Mashers run the logistics for some of the larger and better-run events (IMHO). He also is involved in the orerevo series of events.
• Umezaki, wasn't listed on Daigo's tweet about the panel, but he runs Detonation Gaming, one of the top level gaming teams in Japan. He was the first to sign a foreign player on an "Athlete Visa".

Also, check out The Sentimental Typhoon's (a Japanese FGC member) translation of the What is the definition of eSports portion of the round table.

My complete notes follow.

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Fighting game events in Tokyo, 2018 February and March

2018 January Fighting Game events, 2018 April and May Tokyo Fighting Game Events

It seemed like it was useful to track the fighting game events going on around the 2018 EVO Japan tournament, so I'm going to also keep track of things that are going on in February in the Tokyo area, to the extent that I know about. This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything.

Very generally:

• SFV event (Fighter's Crossover Akihabara – FCA) on Wednesdays at Akihabara ESports Square (the place) starting from 7pm.
• On Friday there is usually a SFV event at Studio Sky.
• On Sunday there is usually a SFV event at Studio Sky.
• Shot Bar Lucy has different events on different days, and usually on Friday night is an all-night event featuring various games.
• The Plaza Capcom at Kichijoji (Map) has the Capcom eSPORTS Club which has free SFV setups, and often runs events.

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Japan Pro Gaming License quick translation

Translated from http://chigesoku3.doorblog.jp/archives/52891378.html

It was announced 2018-02-01 that the "Japan ESports Union (herein-to JeSU)" was founded. This is the birth of a new union with cooperation of a variety of existing esports organizations and game maker organizations.

JeSU is involved in running the 2018 Japan Game Party that will be held on Feb. 10th and 11th at Makuhari Messe which will be the first of its kind to host tournaments where pro licenses will be issued.

The definitions and regulations for issuing a pro gamer license have also been announced. A pro license will last for two years, and one will need to attend a class to obtain or renew the license. For existing pro gamers they developed a system of "Issuing licenses to guaranteeing authorities", and it is believed that many fighting game pro players will be able to obtain a license in this manner.

• Pro Gamer Definition
  • Has the consciousness of a Professional (tl note: Japanese way of saying "takes it seriously")
  • Follows the values of sportsmanship in their play
  • Devoted to improving their technical skills on a daily basis (tl note: Only lab monsters allowed? What about players with HEART?)
  • Contribute to the growth of e-Sports domestically
• Persons Eligible for License

People fulfilling the qualifications below can be granted a license.

• Those who pledge to uphold the conditions mentioned in the pro gamer definition above
• Those who have obtained excellent results in tournaments that this association has officially recognized for game titles that this association officially recognizes (tl note: no clear definition of what placing is considered good enough)
• Those who have taken the lecture that this association indicates
• License categories (2 types)
  1. "Japan eSports Pro License"

  This license is applicable for those over 15 years old, who have completed their mandatory educational obligation. * People under 20 years old need their guardians' permission.

  1. "Japan eSports Junior License"

  This license is applicable to those between 13 and not yet 15 years of age to whom there would be value in having a license. * They are able to receive non-monetary prizes, but can not receive monetary prizes. * With the agreement of the licensee and their guardian upon reaching age 15 a Pro License can be issued.

• About issuing licenses in non-regular conditions "Issuance of licenses to guarantors of results". To take into account past performance since license issuance begins, we will issue pro licenses or junior licenses to people who have shown exemplary performance in past tournaments for officially recognized titles. * The IP holder will need to agree to the license issuance.
• Treatment of Teams
  • Team license issuance.

  If a team has an official legal entity, and the IP holder approves, a team license will be issued pending approval of this association. * However, additional rules and regulations along with paperwork will be required.

  • If a team has at least one person that holds a license, then that team will be able to participate in officially recognized tournaments. * However, the prize can only be rewarded to the license holder.
• License expiry
  • Licenses last for two years. * License renewal will require an e-learning course.
• Management of License Issuance
  • Licenses are issued on a per-title basis.
  • Based on the three items below, this association steering committee will play the games, and decide on what the eligible titles should be. (tl note: I'm not translating this wrong AFAIK, but man I hope I am wrong.)
    • The game itself must have competitive play
    • The game must have been on sale for and/or been operating for more than three months.
    • The title must be scheduled to appear in tournaments

https://www.inside-games.jp/article/2018/02/01/112492.html

As of Feb. 1st, 2018, there are the 6 titles for which pro licenses will be issued:

• Winning Eleven 2018 (PS4/PS3 Konami Digital Entertainment)
• Call of Duty World War II (PS4 Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Street Fighter V Arcade Edition (PS4/PC Capcom)
• Tekken 7 (PS4, Xbox One, PC Bandai Namco Entertainment)
• Puzzle and Dragons (ios/Android Gung Ho Online Entertainment)
• Monster Strike (ios/Android Mixi)

Thoughts on EVO Japan 2018 from a volunteer

I've been playing Street Fighter for a long time. I first encountered it in probably 1991, in the back of Aljon's Pizza in West Windsor, New Jersey. I didn't know what was going on, but I loved it. At one point, I figured out how to do Guile's flash kick: you had to block down for a bit, then wiggle the joystick from the back corner to the front corner, then back to the back corner, the up and a kick. In those early days, if you knew how to do a move, you didn't tell anybody and you kept that tech to yourself. Ever since then, I've been playing some version of Street Fighter, or Darkstalkers, or some fighting game.

Ten years ago when I moved to Japan, I was pretty busy with post-doc research, and then I joined a company, and threw a lot of my energy into that, then I got married, we had a kid, and while I was playing online matches (THawk in all the SF4 versions, Zangief in SFV) at some point I wanted to get back into the Street Fighter community. So I started to look around, and found out that Twitter is where all the information is now. So I set up an account and started looking around. I actually first found out about the Tokyo FGC from the Jump In Podcast when Kim 1234 mentioned that there is a weekly gathering at Akihabara Esports Square. I've been going ever since.

When I saw on Twitter that EVO Japan would be a thing, I knew that I couldn't miss it. So I signed up when that opened, and then I also volunteered to help out as volunteer staff. I was pretty sure I wouldn't get out of pools, and since I know Japanese well enough I thought I could contribute to making the event better in some way if I joined as staff. I was pretty excited when they accepted my application, and I was in.

I took two days off of work – there was an organizational meeting on Thursday the day before EVO that I had to attend, and of course I needed to be free all Friday. I had to work out childcare arrangements for my son, and did that. So what are my thoughts overall?

Fighting game events in Tokyo around the EVO Japan timeframe (that I know of)

2018 February and March Fighting Game Events in Tokyo

I'm super excited for EVO Japan. It will be my first EVO, but I'm not sure that counts. I've been living in Japan for the past ten years, and regularly go to the Fighter's Crossover (that's the name) Street Fighter V weekly event at E-sports Square (that's the place).

I want to gather information about events that will happen around the EVO JP timeframe. I'll ask people I know - I personally only know much about Street Fighter - and keep this post up to date.

I'm not going to list EVO Japan or side tournaments here, but if you are interested see the EVO Japan side tournament section. There is Anime Evo Japan, which includes MVCI, and I was surprised to see a SF3 Cooperation Cup special.

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)
• Game Bar A Button, Map
• This JP travel guide with a list of arcades and the scenes they are known for, compiled by 310.venom
• Maybe a maid cafe or something? They're everyhere in Akihabara.
• This Sagat themed store about Saga-ken in Ginza 3F commn ginza, inside Ramo Frutas Cafe. Operating from 2018-01-22 to 2018-01-28, 10am - 9pm.

Justin Wong wrote a guide to Japan so check that out too. Lots of good practical information about what you should do to prepare. Get a suica card, how to get a pocket wifi, etc.

Date	Game	Event	Location	Comments
2018-01-05 Fri.	Multiple	Shot Bar Lucy All Night Games	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Shot Bar Lucy 11:30pm - 5:00am SFV / Tekken / others
2018-01-05 Fri.	SFV	Friday Sky	Studio Sky, Map	2pm - 8pm via @fridayskyjp
2018-01-06 Sat.	SF3	Cooperation Cup	Hulic Hall Tokyo, Asakusa-bashi
2018-01-07 Sun.	SF3	Cooperation Cup	Hulic Hall Tokyo, Asakusa-bashi
2018-01-07 Sun.	SFV	Sunday Sky	Studio Sky, Map
2018-01-09 Tue.	KOF	KOF Tuesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	From 19:00 to close
2018-01-10 Wed.	SFV	Fighter's Crossover (FCA)	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	Regular weekly
2018-01-10 Wed.	MVCI	Marvel Wednesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Also board games
2018-01-12 Fri.	Multiple	Shot Bar Lucy All Night Games	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Shot Bar Lucy 11:30pm - 5:00am SFV / Tekken / others
2018-01-12 Fri.	SFV	Friday Sky	Studio Sky, Map	7pm - 11pm
2018-01-14 Sun.	SFV	Sunday Sky	Studio Sky, Map
2018-01-14 Sun.	VSAV	Mikado Savior via @mikadosavior	Mikado Arcade, Map	Sign up 14:-15:00, single elim tourney
2018-01-14 Sun.	SFV	Shot Bar Lucy SFV Event	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	From 12:00pm to 8:00pm. 3000yen, 2000 after 3pm.
2018-01-16 Tue.	KOF	KOF Tuesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	From 19:00 to close
2018-01-17 Wed.	SFV	FCA Casuals day	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	Update to S3 on PC
2018-01-17 Wed.	MVCI	Marvel Wednesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Also board games
2018-01-18 Thur.	SFV	FCA Casuals day	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	Update to S3 on PS4
2018-01-19 Fri.	Multiple	Shot Bar Lucy All Night Games	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Shot Bar Lucy 11:30pm - 5:00am SFV / Tekken / others
2018-01-19 Fri.	SFV	Friday Sky	Studio Sky, Map	7pm - 11pm
2018-01-19 Fri.	Tekken7	Bakushi's Tournament	Namco at Sugamo Stn., Map	Casuals run by staff named Bakushi, from 19:00
2018-01-20 Sat.	SFV	FCA Casuals / Open tournament	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	Casuals from 12:00 to 21:00
2018-01-20 Sat.	Multiple	Shot Bar Lucy Practice Session	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Shot Bar Lucy probably from 17:00
2018-01-20 Sat.	Tekken7	Female character tournament	Namco at Sugamo Stn., Map	Casuals run by @take6919, from 14:00
2018-01-20 Sat.	GGXrd	Mikado Tenkaichi Budokai3	Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba	Redeption bracket from 2pm, stream, @joniomikado27
2018-01-21 Sun.	Tekken7	Chloe only tournament	Namco at Sugamo Stn., Map	Casuals run by @hibiki961, from 14:00
2018-01-21 Sun.	SFV	FCA Casuals / Open tournament	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	Casuals from 12:00 to 21:00, random 3-3 tourney
2018-01-21 Sun.	SFV	Sunday Sky	Studio Sky, Map	From 2pm to 8pm
2018-01-21 Sun.	Multiple	Shot Bar Lucy Practice Session	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Shot Bar Lucy probably from 17:00
2018-01-23 Tue.	KOF	KOF Tuesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	From 19:00 to close
2018-01-24 Wed.	SFV	FCA Casuals	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	From 19:00 to 23:00
2018-01-24 Wed.	MVCI	Marvel Wednesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Also board games
2018-01-24 Wed.	Tekken7	Wednesday Tekken7 @ Namco Sugamo	Namco at Sugamo Stn., Map	From 20:00
2018-01-25 Thur.	SFV	FCA Casuals	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	From 19:00 to 23:00
2018-01-25 Thur.	Multiple	Fighting Games Festival	Studio Sky, Map	13:00 to 23:00, 2000yen for 2 hours, 3000yen all day
2018-01-25 Thur.	Tekken7	Tekken7 Ladies @ Namco Sugamo	Namco at Sugamo Stn., Map	From 17:00, run by @meee5otk ladies only?
2018-01-26 Fri.	SFV	Shot Bar SFV Event	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	1pm - midnight, 3000yen, 8pm - 2000yen, 2 drinks via LucyFightClub
2018-01-27 Sat.	Multiple	Fighting Games Festival	Studio Sky, Map	13:00 to 23:00, 2000yen for 2 hours, 3000yen all day
2018-01-27 Sat.	VSAV	Vampire Savior Monthly	Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba	Via @Kengallon
2018-01-28 Sun.	Multiple	Fighting Games Festival	Studio Sky, Map	13:00 to 23:00, 2000yen for 2 hours, 3000yen all day
2018-01-28 Sun.	SFV	Special FCA	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	From 13:00 until later. Kotatsu + Takoyaki + casuals.
2018-01-28 Sun.	Multiple	Mikado Arcade viewing	Mikado Arcade, Map	Normal arcade. DO NOT use stools / cabs for viewing.
2018-01-28 Sun.	Multiple	Special event	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	From 13:00 to midnight, 3000yen, 2000yen from 18:00.
2018-01-28 Sun.	VSAV	Vampire Savior Free Play	Play Spot BIG-ONE 2nd, Map Saitama	500yen from 14:00 to 17:00, 200yen from 16:00.
2018-01-29 Mon.	Multiple	Fighting Games Festival	Studio Sky, Map	13:00 to 23:00, 2000yen for 2 hours, 3000yen all day
2018-01-30 Tue.	KOF	KOF Tuesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	From 19:00 to close
2018-01-31 Wed.	SFV	Normal FCA	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	From 19:00 to 23:00
2018-01-31 Wed.	MVCI	Marvel Wednesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Also board games. From 17:00.
2018-01-31 Wed.	Tekken7	Wednesday Tekken7 @ Namco Sugamo	Namco at Sugamo Stn., Map	From 20:00

Tokyo's Fighter's Crossover -Akihabara- 100th Anniversary Team Ratio Tournament

-Fighter's Crossover- Akihabara is a weekly gathering, usually on Wednesday, at Akihabara's E-sports Square for Street Fighter V players. It is organized by Kagechhi, and this weekend he ran two tournaments celebrating having held 100 of these locals. The second event on October 29th was a "Ratio" Tournament. You build a team of 2-3 people, and can spent a total of 11 points on your team. Each character costs a certain number of points:

• 6: Ibuki, Akuma, Rashid
• 5: Guile, Karin, Cammy, Zangief, Necali, Boxer
• 4: Birdie, Dictator, Urien, Lara, R. Mika
• 3: Abigail, Ken, Dhalsim, Chun-Li, Nash, Claw, F.A.N.G., Menat, Ryu
• 2: Alex, Ed, Kolin, Juri

You need to have at least 2 people on your team, and no more than 3. You can see the results and teams here.

The winning team was Noguchi's Guile, Yossan's Juri, and Crusher's Birdie. I have no idea what their team name means. ("Demanding receding hair" - it looks like there is a twitter account with that name.)

There were two teams with two people, the other 30 had three people. The top 8 teams were:

• 1: "Demanding Receding Hair": Noguchi (Guile) Yossan (Juri), Crusher (Birdie)
• 2: "displeasure120%": Kichi pa-mu (Zangief), Hagejin (Abigail), GAMEtoHITO (Dhalsim)
• 4: "We have all 5!": Azuma (Urien), MON (F.A.N.G.), Yukimayu (Laura)
• 4: "Bison Line": Vanao (Boxer), Reiketsu (Menat), yuba (Nash)
• 8: "Your opposition is all snacks": Kinoko Boxer (Boxer), Takenoko no Sato (Chun-Li), Gafuro (Nash).
• 8: Ratio 9: DNG Tachikawa (Dhalsim), Rolling (Ed), AW Nemo (Urien)
• 8: Team Tachikawa Parasite: Ikahara (Cammy), Takeuchi John (Rashid)
• 8: Torikizoku F Pro Group: Willy (Dictator), EmuEmu (Zangief), Gerand (Kolin). Torikizoku is a chain of bars.

Other interesting teams: "It's Ryu! Ryu!" with three Ryus. "Low Cost" with a 7 point team of Ryu, Kolin, and Alex.

You can watch the entire five hour tournament here.

I really enjoy how Kagecchi tries different things - different formats, sets up different tournaments (beginner tournaments < 7500 LP, platinum and up tournaments, completely open tournaments) and works to foster a sense of community. If you are ever in Tokyo and looking for some Street Fighter, stop by sometime. Check the schedule and drop by. If you see an old American with a beard, say hi!

Tokyo's Fighter's Crossover -Akihabara- 100th Anniversary 2-2 Team Tournament

-Fighter's Crossover- Akihabara is a weekly gathering, usually on Wednesday, at Akihabara's E-sports Square for Street Fighter V players. It is organized by Kagechhi, and this weekend he ran two tournaments celebrating having held 100 of these locals.

While most people are watching Canada Cup, I thought it would be fun to write up a little about this more local street fighter action.

First, an overall summary of what happened. On Saturday, Kagecchi ran a 2-2 team tournament. There were 48 teams for a total of 96 people. It was a single elimination tournament, Waseda-style, 6 pools. Winner of each pool goes to the top 8, with two more teams coming from a playoff between the remaining 42 teams. The overall winner was the "Million God" team of Kin-devu's Zeku and Suiha's Chun-Li.

If you want to check out all the teams check Kagecchi's blog post.
This highlight from team Power Harrassment and the 3rd Generation E-sports brothers is pretty cool (<1 minute.) You can watch the entire 6 hour team tournament here.

I'll call our a few teams I thought were interesting.

UltimateJohn: Vanau (Boxer) and Takeuchi John (Rashid) lost in round 2 of pool 2.
The "Anti-Nauman team" had Fumity (Akuma) and Anman (Urien) come out of Pool 1.
Pool 5 had "Team Guilty" with Yossan (Juri) and Machbo (Necali) lose out in round 2 to pool winner "Power Harrassment" Noguchi (Guile) and Nanai (Dictator).
Pool 6 had team "All 1 Ed" with DNG Tachikawa (Ed) and tool (Ed).
It also had team "New Skills" with Kichi pa-mu (Zangief) and EmuEmu (Zangief).

2017 November 23 Red Bull Tower of Pride SFV Tournament in Tokyo, Japan

This November, Red Bull is running a very interesting Street Fighter V tournament in Tokyo. The format is unique, and looks like a lot of fun. You can find the website here: https://www.redbull.com/jp-ja/events/red-bull-tower-of-pride but all the information is in Japanese. I've translated the details page, and rules and regulations in case anyone is interested.

read more (1198 words)

RAGE Volume 4 grand finals

This weekend (July 10th, 2017) was the RAGE e-sports Street Fighter V grand finals. I didn't have a chance to go, but am watching it afterwards on openrec.tv. I thought I would keep some notes as I watch the archived video. You can sign up for a free openrec.tv account easily enough, and a free account is able to watch archived videos once (seems strange that they only let you watch once, but that is enough for me.)

When I checked out the live stream, they had an English and a Japanese version, but I'm watching the Japanese version just for fun. Check the videos portion of the rage-esports account if you want to watch too.

They said this tournament (which has spanned a few weekends already) has the highest payout of all domestic Japanese tournaments. If you assume 100yen to the dollar (close enough, but it is actually a bit more) then they are paying out over the top 8 finishers, $20,000 for 1st (plus a Tag Heuer watch), $5000 for 2nd, $1500 for 3rd and 4th, and $500 for 5th through 8th.

By the way, in Japan none of the local weeklies have any sort of payout, since it would be viewed as gambling here and runs afoul of some laws.

I really like the production values here - very nice produced interviews before the matchups where they talk about their character, what they are doing, and a bit about their opponent. I didn't know much about Ponzaman or Mishie so that was cool to see.

In Momochi's introduction I love how he explained that he wants to be the strongest in Japan, and since Daigo uses Ryu and he wants to beat him, he thought using Ryu's rival Ken would be a good idea. And he thinks Ken looks cool.

Overall results, for those who are curious:

1. GRPT|Fuudo (R. Mika)
2. AW|Nemo (Urien)
3. GRPT|Haitani (Necalli)
4. DNG|Itabashi Zangief (Zangief)
5. Kichipa-mu (Zangief)
5. Mishie (Laura)
7. FOX|Momochi (Ken)
7. Ponzaman (Rashid)

Tokyo Offline Party 5

A few months back I went to Tokyo Offline Party 4. Tokyo Offline Party 5 was this weekend, and I wanted to go, but was unable to due to family obligations.

What is Tokyo Offline Party? It is an event run by Buttonmashers and Shinobism, Momochi and Chocoblanka's company. Tokyo Offline Party 5 had a 3 on3 Street Fighter V tournament, and might have had some other stuff going on as well - there was a Hearthstone tournament at Tokyo Offline Party 4.

Chocoblanka posted up a few pics on twitter, this one talking about how they partnered with Red Bull and were able to use Red Bull hall in Shibuya for the event. She seems to be pretty happy about how there was room for casual setups, and nice sofas to relax in. She also talks about a casual setup for ladies only which is a cool idea, and I think they ran a ladies only side tournament that she was in. I didn't see results for it though.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to look through the results and talk a bit about who as there. The main stream was on momochoco's channel, and the sub stream was on the shinobism channel.

The overall winner was "Wonder Project J" from block P with duke (Urien), Majorboy (Kolin), and ty_ty (Dictator). I'll run down the winner of each block, and any other notable players I know.

Block A was won by the group "タイステ星" which I guess is short for Taito Station Stars, referencing an arcade. The group consists of Alienware's Nemo (Urien), inco (Birdie), and Nishikin (Necali.)

Block B was won by "Power of Darkside" with Initial Kyousou (Laura), Mizuha (Chun-Li), and MOV (Chun-Li).

Block C was won by "Trashbonbi Style" with trashbox (Birdie), bonbi (Kolin), and Shiki (Ibuki).

Block D was won by "Mimorin's Bodyguards" with Gafro (Boxer), Mishie (Laura), and Oremo (Ibuki).

Block E was won by "The Young'uns" with Nauman (Ken), John Takeuchi (Rasheed), and Haitani (Necali). Nauman was joking on Twitter that Haitani said he would totally join the young kids teams, and he did.

Block F was won by "GunMaruGuchi -Revenge-" with Gunfight (Alex), Marko (Karin), UGPs Mizuguchi (Urien).

Block G was won by "Ponpoime" with Ponzaman (Rasheed), oppoi (Ibuki), and Harumy (Ibuki).

Block H was won by "Melty Blood Army" with Menma (Akuma), Garu (Boxer), Surume (Necali).

Block I was won by "Detective N suppressors" (?) with DNG Tachikawa (Ibuki), Fumiya (Boxer), Kobatake (Claw).

Block J was won by "Super Big Brothers" with PSK (Cammy), Kichipa-mu (Zangief), and Macchi (Cammy). Kichipa-mu is a really fun Zangief - he was at the recent KVO x TSB SFV team battle and got second place, largely based on his Zangief play.

Block K was won by "This players had been deleted." with Syogepi- (Ibuki), Tyler (Zangief), Deletemonster (Karin). This pool also had Crusher (Birdie)'s team with Nanai (Dicator) who are both quite good, and apparently a team with Echo Fox CoolGrayAJ.

Block L was won by "LP Fraud" with rintaro (Chun-Li), Takaroom (Karin), and sasajima (Rasheed). This block also had Shinobism's team of Momochi's pupils, Yamaguchi (Ken), Haku (Guile), and Johnny (Karin) who lost out early on.

Block M was won by "Blue League PR Dept." (?) with Deo (Laura), Agomi (Birdie), Azmx (Urien).

Block N was won by "These characters were balanced by kindergartners" with Kindevu (Urien), Vanauo (Boxer), Ando (Urien). There was a team with Reiketsu playing Cammy, so maybe not the well-known Claw Reiketsu.

Block O was won by "Pon chichi's" with Ponchi's (Claw), Bower (Kolin), and rinta (Akuma).

Block P was won by "Wonder Project J" with duke (Urien), Majorboy (Kolin), and ty_ty (Dictator). This pool also had a team with GameWith's Eita (Ken) but they didn't make it.

Tokyo Offline Party 4, and a bit Itabashi Zangief commentary

Last weekend I went to the Tokyo Offline Party 4 event at Haruimi Passenger Terminal. I didn't have a team, so joined two others who needed someone to fill out the 3 vs 3 Street Fighter V team event. I was matched with Eleichi and Ryo, two nice young gentlemen. I had played with Ryo once or twice at the Akihabara e-square events, so that was nice.

I had a lot of fun at the event. Our team (満足) lost in our first match, but we had a good time, so no problem.

I really enjoyed watching some of the Zangief play. Kichi pa-mu in particular was lots of fun to watch. I've been going through the stream a bit, and thought it would be neat to see what Itabashi Zangief had to say while he was on commentary.

https://www.twitch.tv/momochoco/v/113487600?t=05h38m01s Itabashi Zangief hops on the mike to talk about Zangief. Tokido shares commentary with him. I'd like to give a loose translation of what they are saying. Someone asked Itazan to hop on the mike because "Kichi pa-mu", a Zangief player, is currently on. Kichi pa-mu was super fun to watch - his Zangief play was a bit crazy, and was super exciting. Where this clip starts, he just beat Oosu's Karin and Fuudo's Mika from Fuudo's team (World of Tanks.)

I didn't get permission from anyone, and this is just a loose translation. I'm no fubarduck and don't translate in any professional capacity, so any mistakes are my own.

Tokido: I'm commenting now, but our other commentator, Kazunoko, has changed.
Itazan: I was summoned.
Tokido: Yeah, there's a Zangief match now. Just how strong do you think Zangief is now?
Itazan: (Laughing.) You think so?
Tokido: Just how strong do you think he is now?
Itazan: I've been using Zangief for a long time now. So. I think we might have an argument about this.
Tokido: I think he's super strong now.
Itazan: I've heard a lot of people think that. But yeah. A big thing is that Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li got weaker. It's important that he can beat them now.
Tokido: It wasn't all that bad before but, on the other hand, now I think Guile is a real problem.
Itazan: Yeah, there are some new problems.
[The match with Chun-Li starts here.]
Tokido: I think he can do ok against Chun-Li.
Itazan: If he gets close. Ah, he got close. Yeah, that's it.
[Zangief won the round. There isn't any substantive commentary. Kichi pa-mu wins, and Tokido is called out to his match. Another person comes to do commentary.]
Person: Zangief's really strong.
Itazan: [Itazan smiles] Well, you know, he's ok. Kichi pa-mu was strong so he won. You should praise him.

Itazan had a few other things to say, but mostly just joking around. It's really fun listening to all these players (Tokido, Itabashi Zangief, Kazunoko, just seems like whoever is around that Momochi and Choco can press into service for a bit) comment. I've got to watch the final four with commentary - it was lots of fun in person but I want to hear what Momochi and Choco have to say.

Anyway, lots of fun. If you are a street fighter fan in Tokyo, definitely check out the Tokyo Offline Party when they run the next one.

Street Fighter V at E-sports Square in Akihabara, Tokyo

On Wednesday I went to e-sports Square Akihabara for the first time. I've been meaning to go for over a year. It is an e-sports Cafe, and every once in a while (once a week?) they run the "Fighter's Crossover" event. That currently seems to be focused on Street Fighter V, which I enjoy. It is out in Akihabara, a place where I almost never go any more - even though I would like to. Akihabara has changed since my seminal memories of the place when I went at the young age of 13 - there were electronics everywhere, and not a maid or anime thing in sight.

The e-sports Square is a quick walk from the Akihabara JR Station. I didn't know anyone there, but the staff were welcoming. You just have to sign in with a little bit of information (in my case, name and age.) They didn't need proof of my age, but I guess that would change if you were younger-looking.

They give you a little card on a lanyard that tracks when you enter, and you can charge drinks and food to it as well. You pay on the way out. They have two hour, three hour, and all day plans.

When I got there it was pretty empty, but after an hour or two the place filled up. I think there were close to 40 people. They had about 30 SFV setups - most of them were head to head, so you had your own screen and played someone sitting across from you with their own screen. There were LP limitations on some of the setups, so there were some systems for beginners, some for intermediates, and the rest were unlimited. The signs said that you should play best 2 of three, and the beginner and intermediate machines only let you have a 5 game win streak. The other machines were winner stays on.

I had a lot of fun, and I'm going to try to go back in the future. Late night Akihabara on a weekday is pretty crazy. There were lots of lights and some maids were still out. That place is weird.

I really hate Zangief

Actually, Zangief is totally my favorite character. I love him. This guy apparently doesn't though. A rap from Balrog / M. Bison's point of view. Really funny. Man, I want to go play some SF4.

MAME Frontends in Ubuntu

I have been interested in getting MAME running on my desktop again. I never got SDLMAME working on Fedora 8 because performance was terrible. For some reason, under Ubuntu with my Intel GMA3100 onboard video things work well enough to play pacman at least (and probably others, SFA2 seemed to work well, but as always SSF2T was too fast) so I wanted to see what the state of MAME Front Ends for linux was. (Oh, also I have to run in the software render mode to get the tab menus to show up, otherwise they are garbage. Once things are set up though I don't need the menus, so back to hardware mode which is fast.)

kxmame doesn't believe me that my sdlmame executable is a MAME executable, it complains that it can't find any MAME instance and errors out. So that is enough time spent on that one.

kamefu refuses to find any of my roms. So that one is out.

wah!cade seems to work, but it uses bitmaps for the default UI and on my 24" monitor I can't read anything. So I stopped play with that for the time being.

Two more I am looking at are Lemon Launcher (probably won't install it unless I can't get AdvancedMenu to work) and AdvanceMENU which is my current best hope. There is a description of the install process here. So far installing AdvanceMENU has been a real pain. this thread has helped me fix a few SDL errors and of course I had to install a lot of stuff to get this to compile.

Once compiled I couldn't get it to run well: I added sdlmame as an xmame emulator, and had to make some init files for that. But it would freeze when trying to launch a program. I am now checking on the configuration used by Piapara, a bootable ISO that runs advancemenu and sdlmame to see what they use. To do that I had to create a boot cd, mount the iso in a loopback filesystem, then mount the app.img in a loopback filesystem. Finally, the relevant setup info they use is:

emulator "MAME" mame "/usr/bin/mame" "-inipath /mnt/pendrive/sdlmame/ini"
emulator_roms "MAME" "/mnt/cdrom/sdlmame/roms"
emulator_flyers "MAME" "/mnt/cdrom/sdlmame/flyers"
emulator_altss "MAME" "/mnt/cdrom/sdlmame/snap"

So they set up the emulator as a mame emulator. Ok. I'll try that.

Also, a new discovery: using the sdlmame option -gl_forcepow2texture fixes the menu corruption bug that I was seeing. So yay for that! Actually on further investigation I also needed to set the filter to 0 and (remove bilinear filtering from output, which makes things look more pixelated and better anyway) and enable gl_glsl in the sdlmame config. It seems to be working well now.

I haven't got advancemenu to work though. I have all these great artwork cabinet and screenshot files, but I can't get advancemenu to launch sdlmame. Ah well. That is enough time spent on that today.

Annoyingly Super Street Fighter II Turbo still runs too fast. Tapper runs well though, so that is good enough.

Street Fighter IV on Test in Akihabara 2/29 - 3/2

I keep up with a few blogs via Google Reader, and recently came across this entry about Street Fighter IV going on public test (Japanese).

I'm a big Street Fighter fan, but pretty much only Super Street Fighter II Turbo or the new mix-and-max Hyper Fighting Anniversary Edition. Great games. (A brief side-note: last night for the first time in about a month a stopped by the Shibuya Game Kaikan on the way home from work. It is my favorite arcade in Japan: 50 yen games, 3 of the Anniversary edition games, an old Hyper Fighting machine, and there is always great competition there. Sadly, much better than I am. I hadn't been there in a month or two, and they moved the SSF2HF:Anniversary (how is this supposed to be abbreviated??) to the back. Not a problem. But I think they changed the cabinets they were in, because the sticks on all the machines were horribly loose! They were awful! I can usually do a dragon punch 90% of the time (I'm no expert) but I was only hitting them like 10% of the time on one machine! It was awful!)

So the relevant bit from the SF4 article:

そして！ 今週末、2/29～3/2には早くも第二回ロケテストが開催！

今度は秋葉原の駅前にある「Hey」というゲームセンターで開催しますので、 皆さん、引き続き奮ってご参加くださいね！！

お待ちしています！

---

「ストリートファイターIV」第二回ロケテスト　開催概要
・店舗：秋葉原ＨＥＹ
・住所：東京都千代田区外神田1-10-5 広瀬本社ビル 2-4F 【店舗HPは、コチラ】
・期間：2008年2月29日(金)～3月2日(日)

They did a first public test of SF4. Great. But now, this week, they will test SF4 in Akihabara. That's like a twenty minute walk from where I work. They start testing on Friday, and will continue through until Sunday. I think I am going to have to check that out. They will test at the arcade HEY (I don't know that one offhand) and give the address and link to the HEY website. There is a little "Access Map" button that will pop up a map, and I think I know where it is now.

I'm really looking forward to SF4 because it is supposed to continue on in the SF2 tradition (no parries or air blocking I hope!) and from what I've been reading about it, it sounds like it will be good. Since this is a SF2 post, I also want to say that I really, really hope that the new HD version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo gets released in arcades over here in Japan. I think that is probably unlikely to happen, but it would be great. The information on re-balancing from David Sirlin's blog has been really interesting reading.

No force on Earth can stop one hundred Santas!!

Today, Saturday Dec. 23rd, there was a Santarchy gathering in Shibuya. Since it is close by, I decided to stop by and check it out. I've got plans already - I'm heading to my friend Watanabe's place this afternoon for a Christmas party, so I couldn't join in on the Shibuya Santa fun, but I did think it would be worth it to snap a few pictures.

Maybe next year I'll try to join in.

Since I went all the way to Shibuya, I stopped by the Shibuya Game Kaikan for a few games of SF2. There was someone playing Hyper SF2 Anniversary Edition, so I joined in with my Zangief. I took the first game against his Ken, then two more matches against his Ryu. He beat me, and then I tried again with Zangief, but he put the machine on speed 1. Speed 1. I haven't played this game so slowly for ages. It was impossible. Well, I had two more 50 yen pieces, so I switched into Ryu mode. We played soooo slowly. It was close. It could go either way, but I lost. One more game with Ryu, one more close loss. It was soooo slooooow. We were pretty evenly matched, although he probably plays many more characters than I do. I only play Zangief well, along with some reasonable Ryu and THawk impersonations. Still, it was pretty fun. Overall I think I won about as many as I lost, so not too bad.

Also, I saw all the Santas.