LA Riots II Megapost!!!

Yesterday, I was at the heart of Los Angeles for Gootecks's LA Riots II tournament, which took place in thestream.tv studios. At first, I was like where is this place even with directions. Turns out, it is in fact a small studio in a small building, but enough for everything to go down. I happen to part of a small audience getting hype along with thestream.tv staff and the players, which was pretty cool realizing how they make their shows such as Coin-Op TV and GTFO.tv happen. If you saw the stream at around 2 pm yesterday, Gootecks and John Rog (the host master of West Coast Warzone and now its sequel on April 2-4) provided commentary to the matches as well as "the people's champ" Mike Ross with other insights and Cami making sure the stream works smoothly. As for Street Fighter IV, this tournament was an invitational of eight of the best players in SoCal with Combofiend (winner of the 1st LA Riots), Keno, Kai, and the pad warrior Shizza making return appearances along with Alex Valle, Ken I, Yeb, and the 15 year old phenom Jayce the Ace locking their appearance from the Hooters Bar Fights tournament.

The brackets were set up nicely with great matches all around as Combofiend and Jayce the Ace faced off first. In case you forgot who Jayce the Ace is (pictured above), he made a big splash at the Hooters Bar Fights tournament making top 8 playing as C. Viper. If he didn't impress you then, he would of impressed you now taking more of SoCal's finest to the limit, but he went 2 & out losing to Combofiend and Ken I. It was a great showing by him regardless and he has what it takes to be an elite player at such a young age. Also highlighted in this tournament was the Chun-Li pad warrior Shizza stepping up finishing 2nd by taking out Combofiend to losers and beating Ken I twice (picture below of Shizza rocking an orange shirt along with Ken I's trademark orange sweatshirt as if it was on purpose). It goes to show pad warriors can be successful in Street Fighter IV and there are plenty of others out there that are pretty good. Ken I made a better showing as well than the first time by actually sticking to his main Rufus the whole way (exception being that he used Honda for one game against Shizza as if he is trying to prove Mike Ross that Honda is legit since Mike's main is Honda and he always gives him a bad rap even though he still wins with him).

The other player that went 2 & out in this tournament was Yeb, the Gen master from San Diego, as he lost to Keno and then Kai, who had another strong performance as well. Kai's El Fuerte was on point against Yeb and Combofiend, who he got revenge after losing to him last time in the match of the tournament (clip of that above). As the guy who is known for "hating Street Fighter IV," Kai's Fuerte is definitely a beast as the internet probably exploded with when he wake-up ultra-ed to peace out Combofiend. At the end of the day, it was Alex Valle taking another win defeating Shizza. Of course it was no easy ride for Alex, the SoCal Street Fighter legend, for victory beating Kai, Keno, and Shizza twice.

Seeing LA Riots II in person rather than online was a way better experience being a part of the small audience. Now I realized the hard work it takes to put together such events like these especially in a legit studio (congrats again to Gootecks, Cami, and thestream.tv staff for a great job!). It seemed very professional how things turned out in the end compared to other streams I have seen. Upcoming events were hyped up as well from the mysterious "Project Blocks" that will change your life next month, MarkMan showing off the new Super Street Fighter IV TE sticks (which I finally touched one in person and it looks better), and West Coast Warzone 2 hosted by John Rog in the Long Beach Mariott on April 2-4 (just after my birthday!). As always, it is great to hang out with the community as it just good times and laughs throughout. Most of the players were on double duty that day competing in LA Riots II and the House of Cicada 3v3 tournament last night (or this morning lol) at Moreno Valley with Mike Ross, Keno, and Combofiend winning that one with the team name "Always Bet on Black." (GS to them) Anyway, it was a fun afternoon at Los Angeles, which I'm rarely around that area these days, and I can't wait for more Street Fighter IV events in the upcoming months. It has been a great start for the year for that game and with Super in a matter of months, the hype can go only up from here.

Photos by Get Your Tournament's Kelly Bracha (Shout outs to the GYT staff that was there too providing additional coverage: Glenn, Kelly, and AJ "PotatoHead")

Get Your Tournament's recap here.

Link to the rest of the pics is here.

Coin-Op TV's recap here.

Download the whole event here.