Some quick recap of AI Ranbat 3.2

My first tournament of 2010 for me was at my favorite spot for Street Fighter IV action, which is Arcade Infinity at Rowland Heights for AI Ranbat 3.2. Obviously, I did little to prepare other than just getting some games off at home to get into the groove and have my execution on lock. So how I did yesterday? Well, it was another 2 & out for me which is of course disappointing, but I lost to good friendly players. My first match was against Art who usually uses Honda, but decided to go with Dhalsim first, which surprised me a bit. In case you don't know, Dhalsim can be a frustrating matchup for anyone, but once you get in range (or on our SF4 slang terms... get in that ass), you're pretty much good unless Dhalsim telports out. It didn't take me until the second game to adjust to playing against Art's Dhalsim and it took a random lucky ultra after a blocked slide by me to take that same game. The final game was a close one as I lost the first round by a nailbiter and then got perfected. Then I lost to Nima's Akuma in losers pretty decisively as I'm 50/50 against Akuma players, but when those players are just on their A game, you feel like you can't do anything. Just like that, I was out of the tournament as I lost gracefully, but they were fun matches regardless against those two players. Other than me, the top 8 for this ranbat was pretty unexpected even though the result was similar with ComboJack taking the win and extending his lead in the overall standings. Mr. KOF, an AI regular and godlike at KOF games, takes 2nd place, and Joe Dubbs, one of the best Zangief players in SoCal takes 3rd. The day as a whole felt great hanging out with the Street Fighter community as always even though I didn't go to the Banana Bay after party because I was getting tired and I ate at Life Plaza earlier hanging out with Teresa, Naomi, and Cami. There was even a 3rd Strike ranbat tournament going on at the same time with Gootecks taking it with his Urien as if he still got it in 3S and lots of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 action at the back with KillerKai (also placed top 8 in SF4) on a long streak. So what's next for me with Street Fighter IV? Who knows, I will still play it here and there till Super SF4 comes out as I'm pretty much ready for that game to just come even though I wished I played it at CES last weekend. I discussed some of the details regarding Super with some fellow SF4 players, more specifically 2nd ultras and other things. More SF4 events will be poppin this weekend though such as LA Riots II hosted by Gootecks and the House of Cicada 3v3 tourney (both on Saturday!) as well as others in the future. In the meantime, enjoy some of the videos that came out from this AI tourney with commentary by Sanchez and Shoo.