This weekend Socalflip and I went to Bar Fights II in Pasadena.  The main event was hyped as the East Coast vs West Coast.

Representing East Coast

Joe "iloveu" Ciaramelli, Sanford Kelly, Martin "marn" Phan, Arturo Sanchez, and Justin Wong.

Representing West Coast -

Combofiend, Ed Ma, Alex Valle and the winner of 2 tournaments that were the day before hosted at my local arcade, Denjin Arcade.

So who were the 2 additional West Coast players?  In the first tournament, going undefeated Mike Ross.  And in the second tournament, Ken I.  Now luckily I was in the second tournament which was a ton of fun.  I faced off against Ken I, Yeb, and Gootecks.  After the match I asked Gootecks for tips and to take a picture. 

 

So now the teams were set.  So the next day rolls around and Socalflip and I head down to Pasadena.  The tournament was taking place in the billiards room at Jakes.

Socalflip and I purchased the VIP passes which gave us 2 free drinks, access to the Beat A Pro challenge, and access to the VIP room.  The VIP room had a big screen and 4 tv's in the corners of the room for others to see.  They also had TV's setup in the general area so the general admission people could see as well.  After about an hour of relaxing, the Beat A Pro challenge was announced.  The way that the challenge worked, you could play a pro and if you won 2/3 matches you won $100.  They had 6 systems setup one with each Pro and within minutes it was completely packed.  I took a few pictures of the crowd.

As you can see, getting to anybody was quite a feat.  Unfortunatly they did not have a system to show if people had won or lost.  My idea was to allow a lot of the people to play and I would jump in at the end with Mike Ross and rather than play him to try and win, Id rather him analyze my gameplay and give me suggestions.  Due to there not being a system, many people would lose to one pro and simply move to the next one, thus the crowd never died down.  Luckily Socalflip and I pushed through and saw Mike Ross and he was taking a break so Sanford could play.  I then pointed out that Socalflip also played E. Honda and could use a tip.  Mike Ross's first tip?  "Quit playing E. Honda."  Mike was an absolute blast to talk to and was hilarious.  I commented that I enjoyed that after he won a match, he didn't feel the need to jump in the opponents face and thanked him for that.  He was also nice enough to take pictures with Socalflip and I.

After the Beat A Pro Challenge, it was time for the gameplay.  Due to the VIP passes Socalflip and I were in the same room as the tournament.  Thanks to Socalflip, we found an amazing spot that nobody had taken, and sure enough we were right behind Dogface while he was commentating the event.  There were a few times I caught both of us in the background of the live feed. 

The event started with Norcal vs Socal.

Representing Norcal - Magus1234 and Fillipino Champ

Representing Socal - UTI and Bryant the Tyrant

The way that the tourney was set up, the first 2 would play, the second 2 would then play and the winner of those would face off and whoever's team won would win the round.  Best 2/3.  As much as UTI and Bryant tried to hold them off, Magus's Zangief just proved to be too powerful and took the match.

Winner - Norcal

After that Dogface was walking around and I had a chance to talk to him really quick.  He mentioned he had 5 episodes ready to go but lost them when his HDD crashed.  I asked if he had any plans to recreate them.  He said if he gets the chance he will as certain players, such as Sabre, live in Arizona and aren't readily available.  He mentioned that he had done an interview the previous day with Justin Wong.  He was then kind enough to take a picture with me and after I told him how much of a fan of his that I was, gave me a DVD and signed it.  If you guys do get a chance watch his show at dogfaceshow.com/ as it is very hilarious and shows you a side of players that you dont get to see.

So the next match in the event is Yeb's Gen facing off against Tatsu's Vega.  Let me just say that Yeb's Gen is absolutely insane.  Here's the video when we fought at the qualifying tournament.

So Tatsu and Yeb go at it.  It's a race to 5 match.  First to 5 wins takes it.  First match Yeb takes it.  The crowd starts cheering for Yeb and yell if Tatsu loses he has to take his beanie off.  Tatsu then turns around and wins the next match.  1-1.  Yeb then goes on a roll and takes rounds 2,3, and 4.  Tatsu feels the pressure and comes back winning the next set.  Yeb, not wanting to waste any more time finishes the final match winning the set 5-2.

Winner - Yeb 5-2.  Quick sidenote, Tatsu did not take off the beanie.

Next was the glorious return of Rose Ball.  There were a lot of matches but Killer Kai retained his title as the champion of Rose Ball.

The next match was Kai vs Shadyk.  A little backstory to this match, Kai went to a tournament in San Diego and was defeated by Shadyk.  Then the night before Bar Fights at Denjin they faced off again and Kai beat him 2-0.  So this match was set to determine who the winner would be.  So Kai's El Fuerte was set to face against ShadyK's Ryu.  Unfortunatly my notes for this match were accidentally deleted but in the end Kai's El Fuerte completely dominated Shadyk in the last 2 matches.  Kai's El Fuerte just seemed to know what to hit and when to hit it to catch Shadyk off guard.

Winner - Kai

The main event.  West Coast vs East Coast.  The way that this worked was 5 vs 5.  If you lost you were eliminated.  After the initial 5 matches, the remaining players on each team would then face off.  Whichever team has the last man standing wins the match.  Best 2/3.

First match - Marn (C. Viper)vs Mike Ross (E. Honda)

As much as we believed and rooted for Mike Ross, Marn took the match.

Winner - Marn.

Second match - Ken I vs Joe "iloveu" (Sagat)

Winner - Joe

Third match - Sanford (Cammy) vs Combofiend (Abel)

Winner - Sanford

Fourth Match - Ed Ma (Akuma) vs Arturo Sanchez (Dhalsim)

Winner - Arturo Sanchez

Fifth Match - Valle (Ryu) vs Justin Wong (Rufus)

Winner - Justin Wong

That's right, East Coast sweeps the first round.  Quick side note, Ed Ma vs Arturo stole the moment of the night.  Akuma shoots a fireball and dashes in, Dhalsim counter fireball into super, Akuma counters with his ultra and grabs Dhalsim before the super goes off.

Round 2 - Losing team may now change the lineup.

Mike Ross vs Marn

Winner - Marn

Alex Valle vs Joe

Winner - Valle

Combofiend vs Sanford

Winner - Sanford

Arturo Sanchez vs Ken I

Winner - Arturo

Justin Wong vs Ed Ma

Winner - Justin Wong

Since Valle won he now starts from the top

Valle vs Marn

Winner - Marn

So that was it.  East Coast had beaten West Coast.  Everybody was shuffling out the door... BUT WAIT!  A NEW CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED!

Gootecks challenges East Coast with Team Wildcard.  Team Wildcard consists of Yeb, Kai, Shadyk, Tatsu and Gootecks!  So there the challenge is, and East Coast's answer is.... NO! Joe says that he is too tired and does not want to.  Gootecks then walks off and speaks to Justin to see if Justin would solo the Wildcard team.  Justin is in.   Gootecks comes back and says not only is Justin in but Marn and Arturo are as well.  Gootecks walks off and after 15 minutes, East Coast is in! Not only that, but East Coast has opted to ONLY play their secondary characters!

Team Wildcard vs East Coast

Yeb (Gen) vs Marn (Abel)

Winner - Yeb

Kai (El Fuerte) vs Sanford (Dan)

Winner - Sanford

Joe (C. Viper) vs Skadyk (Ryu)

Winner - Shadyk

Tatsu (Vega) vs Justin Wong (Fei Long)

Winner - Justin Wong

Gootecks (Balrog) vs Arturo (Seth)

Winner Arturo

Now the winners face off

Yeb vs Sanford

Winner - Sanford

Shadyk vs Justin Wong

Winner - Justin Wong

East Coast - 1 Team Wildcard - 0

Round 2

Marn vs Shadyk

Winner - Shadyk

Sanford vs Kai

Winner - Kai

Justin Wong vs Tatsu

Winner - Justin Wong

Joe vs Gootecks

Winner - Gootecks

Arturo vs Yeb

Winner - Arturo

Now the winners play

Justin Wong vs Shadyk

Winner - Justin Wong

Arturo vs Kai

Winner - Arturo

Final Match.  Justin Wong vs Gootecks.  Gootecks must win this for Wildcard to survive.

Winner...... Justin Wong by chip with the super!

East Coast wins it all.  After that everybody congratulated each other and shook hands.  All in all it was completely worth getting the VIP ticket and I can't wait until the next one.