And I won!
Wow, I don't quite know what to say. To be honest I've never won anything like this.
In a nutshell, I, Scytherage, have won the Virtua Fighter 5 Live Arena ACG Preliminaries. I won out at the end after a series of matches against 9 other players. So I'm going to be the representative for the Philippines at the Asian Cyber Games in Singapore some time August this year :D
Today E-Sports had the preliminaries for VF5 and while they weren't as EPIC as the Guitar Hero prelims (which were held over a series of weekends), they were still quite exciting and enjoyable for all the players involved. Players from Pinoyxbox were on-hand and showed their VF5 skills, which were really enhanced thanks to the online fighting experience we all had playing VF on Xbox Live.
There were a couple of players who I think joined in thinking VF would be like Tekken. They seemed to be a bit frustrated with the controls....VF is really different from Tekken and takes an entirely different mindset to play. I noticed they were trying to string together any attack, and it just doesn't work that way in VF5.
Then there were also other players, who played the game on the Playstation 2 (Virtua Fighter 4). Some of them played quite well and I was impressed by the skills of some of them. In particular, Ismael Salvador, the second placer, was extremely knowledgeable of the game and gave me quite a lot of surprises when he played as Akira. My final match with him was very memorable because he gave me quite a challenge.
I posted earlier on Pinoyxbox and I think my description of the match there is much better, so I'll post it here again:
*****
The Final Match: Akira Vs. Jacky on Kage's Stage (low wall)
In the end I faced off against Ismael Salvador ....when I checked the list of players, he was actually the very first player to sign up for the VF5 tourney. I was talking with him on the sideline [before the final match] and he said he was playing VF since VF1...so he was definitely familiar with the game and posed a real challenge to me. I actually lost in the initial practice match (I won 2, lost 3) because he was able to beat my 'beat knuckle' strike and grab Jacky's fist. I was surprised at this because I don't recall a single Akira match on Xbox Live where an Akira player used this specific deflect/counter-attack (I've been playing VF since December last year; I've seen Akira deflects/counters but not like this one). I figured it must have been a counter-attack from the PS2 version (VF4); and noticed most of the attacks he did use were attacks I don't see being used on Xbox Live. VF5 players on Live seem to be using Akira's newer move set, which focus more on power, and take you down very quickly.
In the actual championship match, I decided to focus less on using the beat knuckle and went for more kicks and long range strikes. In the end it took Jacky's slide-shuffle-back fist (which I never used throughout the entire day during the tournament!) to take him down. Now this picture here is really cool because it captures that exact moment when I won the championship!
Final Combo: Beat Spin Kick, Slide Shuffle, Dragon Back Knuckle
Big pictures of the last moment:
Picture 1
Picture 2
Notice how Akira was likely going in for a big elbow strike or back strike ... if he nailed me here I would have lost the round, but the back fist got him first! What an ending!
Later on, after the championship match we did a little exhibition round and I let the Ismael, the Akira pro-player/2nd place winner, show off Akira's SPOD (Stun Palm of Doom) for the crowd....it was pretty cool that he was able to execute it, and it shows that the guy I faced was no cakewalk, he definitely knew the ins-and-outs of the game. I told him, "Get an Xbox 360! Join us!" I hope he considers it because next year's WCG will surely have the 360 again, and he said he hopes to join another local VF tourney next year.
Hmm, come to think of it, this was the only Virtua Fighter tourney in the Philippines....ever! Man, SEGA....bring in VF5:R to the local arcades!!!
*****
So there you have it. I'll never forget the sensation I had during the final match. My mouth and throat literally dried up during the practice match up to the very end! I don't recall ever getting that kind of experience in my life. I guess this is the first time I've ever entered something really competitive and won. So it's a new experience for me....cool :D It's something I'll surely never forget!
So there, looks like the next stop is the Asian Cyber Games in Singapore this August. I'm taking a short break from Virtua Fighter 5 but of course I'll get back to it again shortly in preparation for the games. (Hey, I gotta play other games too!) That said, it's an honor to be able to represent the Philippines in this unique way and I hope that our Philippine players win some games this year. I'll do my best! :D
Player List for Virtua Fighter 5 Preliminaries
Note: I didn't get to know everyone by name, and some 3 players didn't show up for the games, so here's the entire list I got from WCG in the past. I'm posting it here for history's sake. Names in GREEN are the ones I know are from Pinoyxbox:
2. Adrian Gabrentina
3. Philip Erwin Ortiz - scytherage - Jacky Bryant - 1st Place Winner
4. Papu Javalera
5. Mark Anthony Huertas
6. Johnasis Kalugdan
7. Paolo Felipe Neri
8. Alden Balili
9. Ryan Casanova
10. Mark Reyno - Totoy Troso - Vanessa Lewis
11. Mickey Fojas - gxblitzkrieg - Vanessa Lewis
The other players present used the following characters; since I wasn't able to get everyone's name I can't recall which person used which character:
Pai Chan
Shun Di
Akira Yuki (another player used this, I found out later this was shopao, also from Pinoyxbox)
Sarah Bryant
Had a great time playing VF with you guys :D Will VF be the game for WCG again next year? Who knows....maybe we'll meet again ;)
Acknowledgement: Thanks to this website for the fantastic Virtua Fighter 5 Wallpapers!