Hello friends! I am breaking tradition of not blogging on the weekend for a special reason. Last night Capcom held a Street Fight Club at a secret location in Downtown LA from 8PM to Midnight. I managed to get on the list and made sure to represent 1UP to the best of my abilities.

Those that found out about this event by scouring NeoGAF or getting clued in by a friend (thanks Eric!) had to pre-register with the Capcom people early, it was a first-come first served basis. Only after getting approved did you find out where the event was. In this case it was in an industrial district, inside an old brick warehouse.

Once past security you go through a steel door into a dark concrete room. From there you find the stairs and head up. The walls are covered in graffiti, lending an air of ghetto urbane to the club idea.

Past another door there were some Capcom staffers in Ryu headbands checking people in and making sure they had RSVP'd. Once you filled out a name tag they gave you a playing card. Turn the card in at the end of the night for a special gift bag.

Capcom supplied pizza and drinks to the few hundred gamers that showed up. They even had a DJ spinning. Unfortunately they were not happy with the latest build of SF II HD Remix so it was not available at this event. Which is a bummer because I wanted to see how the SF II experience translated after 17 years and countless builds.

Even without SF II HD Remix the event went off like a bomb because there were no less than a dozen SF IV arcade cabinets set up all over the club. People queued up again and again to get a chance to try it out for the first time.

So how does it play? It plays fast and relatively tight. It's not ZOMG TOO fast like the 1UP editors would have you believe. The players, including myself were busy figuring out the hit boxes on the characters and where this fell in regards to SF II and SF III. There was a lot of eye candy on some levels and layers of details on the Chun-Li stage (as it was the longest stage in production) where you can almost lose yourself staring at the details.

There were some nuances to figure out yet and the whole EX, Saving thing is very strange. Mr. Ono went in trying to balance the game for everybody with his unblockable attacks but what I think happened is he found out a way to make top players dominate the scrubs even more. Only time will tell how players adapt to these new moves.

Unfortunately everyone was eager to try out their favorite characters and none bothered to stop and realize that we have a chance to play each character through from beginning to end and not only see the final boss, but also to record some endings. Like kids at Christmas time logic was overridden by the desire to play with their new toy.

I cannot understate how out-of-their-way Capcom went to give the fans something to talk about and share with their friends. Capcom staffers and BBS honchos Kramez and S-Kill have been pushing for serious community involvement for a while now. Taking the events out of the online forums and making them material at both Captivate08 and now with the Street Fight Club shows their dedication. Bringing SF IV to the people, to the die-hards, in a great atmosphere has to be commended. They knew that the scene was out there and if they built it, people would come. If it were in my power I'd give them medals for their efforts and for all the staffers that put this event together.

Capcom decorated the inside of the club with gears, camo netting and bomb reproductions. Possibly the theme displays they had from the E3, specifically the Commando 3, 1942 and Bionic Commando military themes. For the hardest of the hardcore players, the serious tournament guys, they even had a cage in the middle of the club with a head-to head cabinet.

While I was there I met some cool people and made some new friends, including Ted, whose Vega win streaks make up the majority of match footage that I got. Check GameVideos and do a search for Street Fighter IV footage, 13 new videos are from yours truly! Other cools guys that I met were Luke Anderson, a staff writer for Gamespot UK and Ryan Gutierrez aka Gootecks. Ryan is a fantastic Street Fighter III player and has a podcast to raise money to send Team USA to compete against Japan. Check it out, and more importantly kick in a few dollars to help cover the cost of traveling.

Of course what would a Street Fighter event be without some cosplay? The best costume of the night goes to Chun-Li!

I bet you are wondering what went into the gift bag at the end of the night? Well, once I woke up this morning, no thanks to a telephone call from my little brother! I got out the camera and took pics for you to see. The poster of the secret event was in the bag.

As were some other equally awesome things. Stickers and a postcard for the upcoming I Am 8-Bit show in August. The poster and tee shirt design appear in the show this year. A gold foil limited edition Street Fighter comic book. A red Ryu headband that says Street Fighter IV on the front and a bar of soap with Street Fighter embossed on it. Tyler Durden must be rolling in his grave!

I managed to get on camera at least four times that night. Be on the lookout for me on G4, Spike's GameTrailers, GameSpot and Capcom's own mini documentary. How will you be able to spot me? Well, this was part of the surprise that I was working on. Since I did not go to the E3 and cover it for my friends and family I wanted to make sure that they would be able to spot me on TV. I made a mask of the new Street Fighter IV character, El Fuerte. It coincides with the lucha libre game series I'm working on. I kept it on all throughout the night and attracted the attention of media types and new faces.

The surprise for you is that in a couple of weeks I'll teach you how to make your own lucha libre mask out of an old tee shirt. The El Fuerte mask above  is nothing more than a tee shirt and a couple of felt squares! It's not too hard, if I can do it, anybody can! You just need patience and some craft supplies. I hope you have a great rest of the weekend!