I had the pleasure of spending late Saturday and Sunday over at the venerable NorCal Regionals, which attracted not only the best in California, but from the entire nation, with strong showings from the East Coast and even Hawaii (Capcom's own Wes, Rey, and Gerald also stopped by to check out the action).

NorCal's own Ricky Ortiz took revenge on SoCal's legendary Alex Valle for some earlier defeats by rallying to win the main event in explosive fashion, taking his always dangerous Rufus to another level (he's pictured above holding the "I AM POWER" limited ed. Akuma from SOTA from the Capcom Store, courtesy of Darin)

You can find the full results here, some great pictures at Kineda (which reflect the recent influx of ladies at SFIV events), an interview with Ricky over here, and the impromptu dance party that broke out during a brief pause in the tournament action. 

Stay tuned to iplaywinner--they'll be posting some direct feed view of the finals matches soon!

In a surprise to nobody, I'll be playing me some SFIV this weekend. Wes and I are headed south to sunny Sunnyvale CA this weekend for the long-running NorCal Regionals.  I'm going to see some old friends, some hot SFIV action, and of course to have my skull cracked.  I'll be tagging in on the event's live stream as well, so be sure to mute your speakers to avoid being lulled gently to sleep. 

I posted about this before, but I'm posting again mostly because I find their poster extremely cool, and it wasn't done in time for the last post.  If you're in the area, be sure to stop by, or better yet, sign up and play. 

If you're not in the SF Bay Area, there are also other great events around the US and the world all the time--you can find a good listing here. 

 Our Japanese SFIV website and blog have been update-ified. The website has some more new portraits of El Fuerte, Rufus, and Dan in the new SSFIV pencil-style.  Check out the high-res files here.

The blog has a few notes about the Japanese National tournament (translation courtesy of Shoryuken.com's Azrael), but the real fun is the cropped screenshot of Chun-Li catching some ink-splatter from... who?

As I mentioned, we'll know more very soon :)

I find it inconceivable that I haven't seen this before, but I haven't, so maybe its new to some of you as well. 

Before Kreuk was Chun Li, before Van Damme was Guile, there was... "Future Cops."

Only one person can stop Bison (yes, "Bison") from achieving world domination, so he sends his minions Ken, Sagat, and E. Honda *back in time* to take care of him... in high school.  The forces of good of course have their own time-travelers, and send back the "future cops" (Ryu, Guile, Dhalsim and Vega) to try and foil Bison's plans. 

This has just enough of a budget to really get itself into trouble, and is chock full of insanity, but if you only have 5 seconds, you cannot miss this important lowlight in unlicensed Street Fighter history.

Thanks Raging Demon!

So Street Fighter IV has been kind of a big deal.  Aside from scoring stellar reviews, and offering unmatched replay value, Street Fighter IV has also given us some incredible moments.  

It's about a game you can pour yourself into, and in exchange you can find some button-mashy fun with friends, or go further into true emotional highs, devastating lows, and membership in a decades-long tradition of international warriors--part of something bigger than us all.  In short, SFIV is about passion. 

In a surprise to very few, SFIV has been nominated for "Fighting Game of the Year."  That's great, but we need your help to win.  Head over to the Spike's Video Game Awards page and vote for the game that reignited a genre. 

Vote early, vote often, and most importantly--vote SFIV!

PS- hugs to everyone shouting out for SFIV as overall game of the year.