Yesterday was a long day being at Arcade Infinity for the Ranbat 2.1 tournament. There were so many people in one place that the tourney was capped at 64 entrants and lasted 12 freaking hours ending at 1:20 am on Monday (Craziness indeed). As a special intro to the Ranbat, the hosts Sanchez and Shoo did some special introductions with the first time entrants like me (See video) asking us random questions and I think I answered wrong (could of picked a better cartoon). The picture above is from Gootecks's Twitpic (see if u can spot me there) as I had a great pleasure to meet that man, aka the SoCal SF4 ambassador and chatted with him for a bit. Anyway, I at least won my first match, which was my goal for the tournament (better than going 2 and out on Tekken 6 BR). My first match was against some average Viper player and the first round was the first double K.O. of the day. I never felt the tournament atmosphere had some kind of rush, but it was intense. Then I lost to Bebop, aka the best Vega player in SoCal as I rarely fight awesome Vegas, so I didn't know how to play the matchup. After Bebop sent me to Losers, I lost to Moval's Blanka in a fun yet close match. Unfortunately, Blanka's Ultra was too much for me in the end. I finished tied for 33rd out of 64, but I was there for the rest of the tournament and the hype was everywhere.
There were so many awesome close matches and funny "hype" moments from Sanchez "Hulk Smashing" the 1P machine breaking the strong punch button for a bit after doing Bison's Nightmare Booster Ultra during Rufus's EX Messiah Kick (played by Bobino) to a little kid by the name of Private Link winning a Losers Bracket match beating an average Zangief player by his Ken, but in one match he did I think EX Hadouken to Ultra and the place went crazy. I hope these moments were on tape as there was an awesome setup for direct feed footage on YouTube as well as commentary by Sanchez and Shoo during Top 8. Gootecks was also handing out posters throughout the day for Street Fighter Bar Fights on April 5 at Pasadena showcasing key fights among SoCal's best players.
The MVPs of the tournament to me are Slinkun, a Guile player from out of town, and Kyrojenix's Viper, an A.I. regular and has improved (The best Viper player in SoCal I personally have seen). In the end, at 1:20 in the morning, Mike Ross, the best Honda player in the country, won the tournament beating Ronstoppable's Balrog (The OG SF4 Balrog of SoCal). Keno's Balrog finished 3rd and Bobino's Rufus finished 4th. Funny note about Mike Ross, I played him at his old game, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and he perfected me, but I didn't mind it. Despite all the claims he stopped MvC2 seriously for SF4, he's still got it. The character selection was basically charge character heavy with lots of Blankas, Bisons, Balrogs, and some Guiles and Vegas. El Fuerte was only played once, since Kai, the best Fuerte player in SoCal, wasn't there. Basically, the whole roster was playable at least. The Tekken community also showed up in numbers from Rickstah's Dhalsim, who was tearing it up for a bit, MYK's Sagat who finished 9th, and others like Rip, True!, and Chojin. Despite the tournament lasting as long as it did due to the big turnout, it was arguably the best time I had regarding Street Fighter IV. It just feels good to be the premier arcade at SoCal playing and hanging with the best SoCal SF4 players like Mike Ross and Keno (cool dudes). I hope I can make it for the next Ranbat, but that day was pretty hype!!!
Even though videos of Top 8 will be posted soon with commentary by Sanchez and Shoo, the hosts of the tournament, here's one match earlier in Winners Bracket with Kyrojenix's Viper and Jack's Sagat. Too bad the cheering was left out, oh well.
