Editor’s note: Isaiah reports back from what sounded like a very exciting Seasons Beatings 4 fighting game tournament. I had no idea people were still actively competing in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3! -Shoe
This was a wake-up call — a huge wake-up call to the fighting-game community as a whole.
Street Fighter 4 has indeed arrived.
When talking to veteran players about SF4, I still see some resistance — I’m a bit of a naysayer myself. But after Seasons Beatings 4 and this year’s Evo, the game has earned its spot as one of the premier high-level tournament fighters, proving it has comparable depth to its predecessors.
Seasons Beatings 4 itself was something no thread or Internet streaming video could truly capture. I couldn’t cover the entire run of every tournament, but I took in as much as possible. Here were fighting games that, up until now, I had not seen high-level play from, and when I did catch the now-classic Sanford Kelly versus Justin Wong matches, they went beyond my expectations.
While I was there I took some photos. Not my best day, but I tried to capture the essence.
Below is video of the Street Fighter 4 Grand Finals: Justin Wong vs. Umehara Daigo…the final set (Daigo won the first):
I was surprised at a couple of things at Seasons Beatings — namely seeing the huge turnout for BlazBlue, which I have in my collection but have yet to play. True, these games (similar the Guilty Gear series) are seen as the “pretty and superficial girlfriends” of most fighting game tournaments, but I was generally impressed with the expert play and attendance (I believe 85 people entered the BlazBlue tourney).
What was oddly impressive was the community aspect of Seasons Beatings this year. Who would have thought four years ago, when Ghaleon and Fugee started this event, that we would be streaming matches online for the unfortunate people who could not make it? Sure the stream had some consistency problems, but it was free! The hosts (Chris Hu, Seth Killiam, Skisonic, Seb, Keits, and occasionally Yipes and Dnyce) were great. Some complained about the unprofessional vibe, which I get, but given that Seasons Beatings has kind of always been a little edgy, I am willing to let it pass.
Missing the grudge match between Daigo vs. Justin on Saturday (because I thought it was going to be Sunday) was frustrating (Daigo won, beating Justin 10-2 — Daigo’s Ryu should now be world famous at this point). Justin sent Daigo to the loser’s bracket after Justin switched to Fei Long, a character only available on consoles, who Daigo may not be familiar with seeing as he plays the arcade version of Street Fighter 4. Seeing Justin versus Sanford Kelly and Daigo versus Joe Ciaramelli is really something everyone should experience, even if you are not into the game.
It was really cool to see Street Fighter 4 as the main event at Seasons Beatings. It was not too big of a stretch from Marvel vs. Capcom 2 but nice in the sense that MVC2 doesn’t always have to be the main attraction at fighting game tournaments.
Before we get to the results, I would like to bring up an idea that I am sure has already passed through many gamers’ minds this weekend: USA versus Japan? It seems that US gamers have caught up and shown potential in being on the same level as their Japanese counterparts; it would be pretty cool if the next major tournament pushed this to the forefront.
THE RESULTS (special thanks to Ghaleon for helping):
Street Fighter 4 (250 players)
1. Daigo Umehara (Ryu)
2. Justin Wong (Rufus, Fei Long)
3. Joe “ILOVEU” Ciaramelli (Sagat)
4. Ari “Floe” Weintraub (Sagat)
5. Eduardo “vVv Scrub” Perez (Balrog) — played tiebreaker against Dr. Chaos for 5th
6. Dr. Chaos (Ken)
7. Andre “TwistedJago” Foney (M. Bison)
7. Issei Suzuki (Akuma)
9. Sanford “Santhrax” Kelly (Cammy, Akuma, Ryu)
9. Eric “Ramza” Kim (Sagat)
9. Chris “Fascinating” Hu (Ryu)
9. Lud (Chun-Li)
13. Checkmate (Ryu)
13. Brandon “DemonHyo” Deshields (Blanka)
13. Wolfkrone (C. Viper, Rose) — he’s an analog stick PS3 pad player
13. Vegita-X (Zangief)
Super Street Fighter 2: Turbo HD Remix (57 players)
1. Daigo Umehara (Ryu)
2. DGV (Ryu)
3. Damdai (Dhalsim, Ken, Zangief)
4. Brent “Immortal” Werling (Vega, Chun-Li)
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (48 players)
1. Sanford “Santhrax” Kelly (Storm, Sentinel, Cable, Captain Commando)
2. Justin Wong (Storm, Sentinel, Cyclops)
3. Alex “Chunksta” de Souza (Magneto, Storm, Sentinel, Captain Commando, Psylocke)
4. Loren “Fanatiq” Riley (Magneto, Storm, Psylocke)
5. Chris “Magneto-X” Creecy (Magneto, Iron Man, Sentinel)
5. Neo (Sentinel, Storm, Captain Commando)
7. Josh 360 (Magneto, Iron Man, Sentinel)
7. Chris “Matrix” Ellis (Cyclops, Sentinel, Cable, Storm)
Street Fighter 3: Third Strike (32 players)
1. Issei (Yun)
2. Justin Wong (Chun-Li, Ken)
3. Jose “Frodo” Llera (Ryu)
4. Daigo Umehara (Ken)
Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core Plus (30 players)
1. Stunedge
2. Kyle
3. Alzarath
BlazBlue (85 players)
1. H C
2. LordKnight
3. AaronS
4. Juicy Chicken
5. 10stars
5. Fubarduck
7. JackG
7. Yk_kof
9. Mow
9. Kajoq
9. Radian
9. Alzarath
13. KJ
13. Cardboardbox52
13. Frankie Gomez
13. Zachary
17. Brent-Quest
17. Masamune_Shadow
17. Blazeu25
17. vVv Scrub
17. St1ckBuG
17. Laoshu505000
17. Kyle
17. Alucard
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (? players)
1. Lex
2. iloveu joe
3. Jakki
Street Fighter 4 teams (unofficial)
1. Team Justin/ilovujoe/Noel
2. Team Sanford/Vegita X/floE
3. Team Daigo/Larry/Moses
Melty Blood (unofficial)
1. JuicyChicken (Yusuke from MI, uses F-miyako)
2. PBJ
3. Tiggy
Grudge Match: Daigo vs. Justin
Daigo wins 10-2
$13,000 Toan vs. Fanatiq*
Toan won 10-7
A Seasons Beatings anthology DVD will be available soon. I will have to contact Fugee and Ghaleon to get the details on that, but the DVD will cover the past four events’ greatest matches.
* I’m really upset I missed one of the largest money matches ever. Seriously, how did it get as high as $13,000?!