Hey guys, I'm back from CEO and done putting so much of my time towards Capcom games (for awhile hopefully!). With KoF XIII console version announced, and with it more than likely being at regional tournaments in 2012, I see no reason to focus on anything thats NOT SNK! But for now, I'm gonna share a few things about CEO down here in FL and my thoughts on the whole thing and got some pics too!
First off, the venue was very nice. The Wyndham Hotel and Resort was a great place to stay and I was comfortable the entire time. Orlando is very very hot in the summer, but thats to be expected. However, the hotel and the convention center remained at comfortable temperatures so inside there wasn't a huge amount of sweating or anything. Alex Jebailey did a great job as TO and any issues that popped up were quickly resolved. Unlike most tournament streams I've seen, there was a quite a lot of entertainment. Cosplayers, cosplay contest, free NOS all weekend, a DJ, and a capoeira exhibition. Tons of casuals, custom arcade machines setup...it was a blast! As for SNK stuff I saw well...there wasn't much, but I did meet a friend of Desmond's!
http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff395/steamninja/IMAG0001.jpgI forget his name...DJ something? I feel bad for this! But he was a fantastic Garou player and I snapped a shot of his Neogeo and played a few rounds with him. I lost naturally (not used to this Neogeo layout at all...) but he said he knew Desmond when I got to talking about Dreamcancel and he told me he was from the Minnesota area and Desmond played on that same Neogeo before. I had to share this on here just for that reason! He even hooked up the Taito arcade machine with Garou which was very cool! He was untouchable in that game no matter who sat down to play him.
http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff395/steamninja/IMAG0002.jpgFor any tech junkies, you may appreciate this. This is a Morrigan-styled Joystick with an alluminum battop and alternating LED lights when idling. It was beautiful and I loved it. The lights of course will each light up to the corresponding button you press, but they just keep alternating if you leave it alone. I was very impressed and nabbed one of his business cards. I have an SNK project lined up for this guy in the future!
http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff395/steamninja/IMAG0005.jpgLast but not least, the cosplayer who got the most attention: A Poison! Yeah she may be a dude but come on I couldn't resist! (Yes thats me in the pic). When the DJ saw her, he put on Biv Bev Devoe's "Poison" and several people began to dance to it, with Poison strutting up and dancing with them. Even some of the capoeira guys got in on it!
Onto more serious fighting game discussion at CEO...(Sorry, SNK news ended with the Neogeo!) SSFIV: AE was very interesting. There was a large amount of Yun players but many of them flat out sucked. The people who did the best were the ones who stuck to their original characters (with the grand exception of maybe Marn, who is doing decent with Yun). Tokido ended up winning everything he participated in (except Mortal Kombat he was destroyed in that). Tokido even won in MARVEL which was bumming Mike Ross pretty bad. I agree, America should be winning hand over fist in Marvel no matter what but looking at the current results for Norcal Regionals (subject to change!) we may end up redeeming ourselves against them there. Tokido however is not there. Its very possible that Tokido could become America's biggest threat in Marvel. Wether you like Capcom or not, deffinantly something to keep an eye on!
During the AE tournament, a very good El Fuerte player came outta nowhere (he actually eliminated me but I did better than his buddies thought I would) and gave Marn a serious run for his money. The crowd got behind him and began to chant "FUERTE FUERTE FUERTE!" and would usually yell "OHHHHHH!" very loud. I swear it was like hearing an army crying out! The Fuerte ultimately lost, and Marn was thoroughly pissed, but it was deffinantly a moment worth seeing.
Tokido ended up dominating Blazblue as well. I didn't watch most of that (or play) but one thing that greatly bothered me was it was just a Noel fest. If you used Noel, you won. If not, you probably lost. To me that is a huge balance issue that makes the game unfavorable to me and so I have no drive to touch it now. My friends stuck to their mains and got some compliments on how good they were with them but ultimately, they lost to Noel! Very disappointed with how BBCSII turned out.
Tekken and SCIV were about the same as BB on a lesser scale. Bob and Steve were the win buttons. SCIV had Sophitia as the win button (though there was no Sophitia who ranked top four). The top eight/four for each of those had some more variety than Blazblue did but I was still a little disappointed.
Mortal Kombat had a very interesting turnout. People used a wide variety of different characters and I got to see James Chen get utterly destroyed by a Reptile player. The Reptile was pissed at beating a famous guy like James Chen so easily. He won the entire tournament just using Reptile, which is funny because most people are all over Ermac and Smoke! Very interesting turnout there and it was fun to watch. More people signed up for MK9 than originally planned and thus they had to split it into four pools at the last minute. Not their fault, but who would have expected 100+ people for MK? Tekken sure didn't get that much (46).
Lastly, I ended up meeting with Harada-san of Namco Bandai! He signed my joystick and drew a little Heihachi picture on it. Apparently he was also dominating quite heavily with Heihachi in Tekken. I heard he beat F. Yagami pretty badly. I don't have any pictures to share of this, but I'll see about getting a pic of his signature sometime. ONE thing to look forward to is he showed a huge interest in the capoeira exhibition. He actually moved in to the front row and recorded the whole thing. Perhaps what he saw will be used for Tekken x Street Fighter? That would be quite the interesting turn of events. Perhaps SNK needs to come hang out with us more often and see things like that eh?
All and all, I had a lot of fun and Alex Jebaily and the rest of the CEO cast did a fantastic job. I hope KoF XIII happens next year and I would love to go and play it there! Next year, that will absolutely be my main game for tournaments.
