Street Fighter Ex 2

1. GRAEME HOWARD
2. Jericho
T3. David, Steffan
T5. Jo, Duong, Jules, James

Street Fighter 3:3rd strike

1. Shane
2. Steffan
3. Jo
4. James
T5. Jericho, Graeme
T7. Jules, Matty
T9. Nat, Tyler, Eric H

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Singles

1. Eumir
2. Rafael
3. Vincent
4. Curtis
T5. Dimitri, Jason
T7. Tyler S, Karel
T9. Andy, James, Nat

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Pair play

1. Eumir/Alex
2. James/Curtis
T3. Rafael/Nat, Dmitri/Andy
T5. Vincent/David, Jason/Steffan

Injustice: Gods among us

1. Tyler S
2. Keifer
3. David
4. Sandeep
T5. Andy, Jules
T7. Stu, Steffan
T9. Matty, Eric S, Justen, James
T13. Johnny, Eric H, Curtis

Guilty Gear Accent Core

1. Brian
2. Jo
3. Curtis
4. Chris P
T5. Nat, Stu
T7. Tyler S, Steffan

Mortal Kombat 9

1. Tyler S
2. David
3. Shane
4. James
T5. Steffan, Curtis
T7. Tyler, Andy

Vampire Savior

1. Jules
2. Keifer
T3. Curtis, James
T5. Nat, Steffan, Stu, Matty

King of Fighters 13

1. Jericho
2. Graeme
3. James
4. Steffan
T5. Tyler S, Jules
T7. David, Nat
T9. Tyler

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 Teams

1. TTT
2. Aw fuck it
3. Money INC.
4. AT&T
T5. When’s DC, Mad Robbots
T7. Lets have faith, Team BRZ
T9. Lets all fight together

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom3 Singles

1. Akida
2. Sandeep
3. Keifer
4. Lovell
T5. Erick S, Matty
T7. Russel, BMike
T9. James, Evan, Jericho, Jules
T13. Joseph, Tyler S, Adrian, Jeff
T17. Tito, Rain, Jo, Eric H, Rommel, Matty J, Paul C, Vinny
T23. Justen

Virtua Fighter 5

1. James
2. Curtis
3. Jules
4. Jason
T5. Tyler S, Steffan
T7. Matty, David
T9. Stu

Soul Calibur

1. Jason
2. Anthony
3. James H
4. Jules
T5. Curtis, Steffan
T7. Tyler S, Alex
T9. Tyler L, Graeme C, David

Persona 4 Arena

1. Justen
2. Stu
3. Jo
4. Alex
T5. Keiffer, Chris
T7. Brian, Steffan
T9. Jason

Street Figher x Tekken

1. Graeme H
2. Tyler S
3. Jericho
4. David
T5. Sandeep, Jo
T7. Steffan, Robin
T9. Matty, Paul, Jared, Curtis
T13. Russel, Graeme C, Dylan, Tyler L

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo

1. Shane
2. Graeme
3. Adrian
4. Jericho
T5. Duong, Steffan
T7. Tyler, David
T9. Paul, Rommel

Blazblue

1. Jason
2. Alex
3. Keiffer
4. Stu
T5. Chris, Curtis
T7. Paul, Andy

Super Street Figher 4 2012 Arcade Edition

1. Graeme H
2. Shane
3. Evan
4. Robin
T5. Kiet, Jericho
T7. Mack, James
T9. Rain, BMike, Vinny, Matty J
T13. Bobby, Russel, David, Tito
T17. Eric H, Akida, Sean, Chad, Jules, Jo, Tyler
T23. AJ

Tetris

1. Kareem
2. Graeme
3. Duong
4. Michael
T5. Jason, Ryan, Van, Kevin
T9. Brockavich, Jules, Kendal Shirtlif, James H, Sebula, Paul, Tbonesar, Radiguard
T17. Graeme C, Jared, Commander Santa, Kiwi, Curtis, Brandon Hamilton, Union 1, William Curry

Bet you guys never thought this would be updated again eh?  It’d be Kiefer time all the time every time, but think not!  Here are the results of our latest tournament with video playlist at the bottom!

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3(32 entries)

1. Matty
2. Keifer
3. Lovell
4. BMike
T5. Akida, Jericho
T7. Graeme, Steven
T9. Branden, Precision, Enrico, Olazfrit
T13. Tyler, Kevin, Sandeep, Blazing
T17. Jon, Eric, Justen, Paul, Jordan, Russel, James, Phil
T25. Tyson, Jeff, Joseph, Matt, Mike, Steffan, Andrew, Cree

Super Street Fighter 4 (20 entries)

1. Graeme
2. Jericho
3. Rain
4. Kiet
T5. Dalton, James
T7. Lovell, Paul
T9. Ehsan, Karel, Matt, David
T13. Andrew, Eric, Sean, Andy
T17. Robin, Mack, Cree

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (11 entries)

1. Eumir
2. Curtis
3. Dimitri
4. Steffan
T5. Jason, Tyler
T7. James, Andy
T9. Precision, David, Karel

Soul Calibur V(10 entries)

1. Jason
2. Anthony
3. Jules
4. Alex
T5. Branden, Andy
T7. Keifer, Curtis
T9. Steffan, Tyler

Guilty Gear Accent Core(9 entries)

1. Brian
2. Curtis
3. Cree
4. James
T5.  Andy, Alex
T7. Joquin, Tyler
T9. Chris

King of Fighters XIII(9 entries)

1. Jericho
2. Matty
3. Steffan
4. James
T5. David, Graeme
T7. Branden, Tyler
T9. Keifer

Thanks everyone for coming out.  This was a great event and hope everyone had a lot of fun.

A playlist of the videos recorded (minus GG which will soon be uploaded) can be found below.

I’d like to introduce you to Keifer. He is a relative new comer to the scene.  He may be new but he’s a strong player and seemingly part of the growing “anime” gamers niche.

Name or handles you go by?

I go with the handle K-MAC for most of the streamed events, just a combination of my first initial and last name because I’m super uncreative >_<

What are your favorite games to play?

I typically have the most fun playing anime fighters, I enjoy the uniqueness of the characters and the faster pace of the matches. My two most played games at the moment would probably be Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Persona 4 Arena, Persona 4 because it’s similar to Blazblue but without the obtuse mechanics and Marvel because that game is hilarious.

Who are your favorite characters?

I’ve always liked weird or unconventional character designs for my mains, for some reason guys with muscles the size of their head just doesn’t appeal to me. Probably my favorite fighting game character would be Arakune from the Blazblue series, he’s very difficult to learn, as with most members of the game’s cast, and his curse mechanic is interesting.

Whats your style of play?

I rarely play outright rush-down or outright runaway in a fighter, the two exceptions being Marvel and Skillgirls (lol). Usually I enjoy playing the middle-ground with setup characters that can deal large amounts of damage in certain circumstances, such as Arakune in BB or Teddie/Elizabeth in P4. Since there isn’t a ton of that style outside of Arksys games, I opt for a more rush-down approach in Marvel.

How did you find the scene?

I believe I saw an old poster for one of the events quite a while ago on Google or something, probably during my last year of high school. After I registered to go to the U of M, I remembered that the scene typically met somewhere on campus, so I registered for the forums. I was a little hesitant about coming out but at recruitment week last year I played a couple of sets with the locals and decided to make the trek out, glad I did.

What got you into fighters?

My first experience with “fighting” games, as I’m sure most people my age would agree with, was the Super Smash Bros. games. Those games were hugely popular during my elementary/middle school days (don’t you guys feel old now XD) and, even if not considered a traditional fighting game, got me interested in that genre. Around grade 10-11, my friend introduced me to vanilla SF4, which was probably my first real fighter. After that I purchased a number of fighting games like Blazblue and vanilla Marvel and became an online warrior until coming out to Chip Damage.

How do you go about training?

I probably should have a more organized routine, but the truth is that I’m usually just practicing combos and messing around with my characters to find out new setups and other things in training mode. The randomness of how I train is sometimes a benefit, sometimes, like in the case of Marvel, I’ll stumble upon something completely new that I can add to my strategies. If I’m attempting to replicate something I have seen being used by another person, typically I just drill out the setup until I can hit it reliably. Of course after you’ve learned the theory of how a certain strategy will work, you actually have to test it against other people, which is critically important.

Where in the world is Carmen San Diego

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/1550/185026-street_fighter_ann_06.jpg

Right there!

What has been your favorite moment so far that you’ve been a part of in the scene?

I doubt I can narrow it down to just one, but one of my favorites was getting third at TST7 for UMvC3, even though I still have tons to improve on, I think I performed quite well. Of course non-FG activities are also a blast as well, such as the Christmas party and the random games tournament. Being undefeated in Skullgirls tournaments is also hilarious

How well did you do during your online warrior days?

Honestly, even though I sunk an sizable amount of time into Blazblue and vanilla MvC3, and won my fair share of matches, I was pretty scrubby. I don’t think that you can improve quickly by being an online monster, because it teaches bad habits. Using the same strategies may work when your opponent has not faced you before and cannot react to your offense, but those go out the window once you start playing against the same people regularly in person. I’d like to think I’ve improved quite a bit since coming out to Chip Damage, and since then I haven’t been able to play much on XBL, it’s like a completely different (and worse) game. Even though you may be a skilled player as an online warrior, if you really want to improve, the first thing I’d recommend is to start having sessions with people in person.

What do you think is your strength in your game?

I’m definitely still learning, but I believe I play a decent spacing game with all my characters. I typically like characters that can employ safe tools to use at mid-to-long range, like Viper’s seismo’s, Dante’s stinger>reverb shock, Teddie’s 5B, and so on. I’d like to think I’m not too bad at execution either

What are your future goals?

I’m currently studying to become a history teacher, although I’m still young and indecisive so who knows what will happen in a few years

What other hobbies do you have other than video games?

I don’t really have any actual hobbies besides video games anymore, since I gave up on playing Yu-Gi-Oh! (such a broken game, lol). Basically my life consists of school, work, hanging with friends and video games, I just don’t have the time for much else. When I hang out with friends usually we’re eating at restaurants or watching movies/TV shows. I’m just having too much fun competing with other people and training to put time elsewhere. Also, as Jericho said, fighting games have ruined my desire to play anything else really, single player games just don’t appeal to me anymore, although I do occasionally play competitive RTS’s like LoL and SC2. What has chipdamage meant to you?

Since I’ve shown up to Chip Damage, I think I’ve improved tons as a player and (hopefully) made some friends along the way. Even if I hardly get any games in on a Friday night, I’m still having a blast because I really like the community aspect of the gatherings, not just playing the games. It’s a group of friends getting together to talk about/play the games they enjoy, I think that’s pretty cool. As Graemme so eloquently put it
“It’s more than a group of friends hanging out and playing games”

I expect you to win a tournament in the relatively near future in UMVC3.  When should I expect that?

I think my team has the potential to do extremely well in tournaments, but my problem is that I’m still not using all the tools that I have at my disposal, especially with Crimson Viper on point. As Bmike said, she’s a swiss-army character that can do a ton of things well, but execution (like tk seismos for days) and just forgetting during the heat of a match is some things I have to improve on. Theoretically, Viper shouldn’t really die as long as I have 1 meter stocked, as an ex seismo will get me out of almost anything. I just need to practice more with using tools to their fullest such as her decent zoning game and invincibility-spewing moves, and I’ll hopefully be able to pose a real threat to the better players. I’m comin’ for ya Bmike and Precision

Is there anything you’d like to say to the community?

Keep coming out and supporting the games you love, there’s always something that you can improve on and thanks to Korea, Kang, nYo, Karo,  Schneider-X, James Howard and everyone else for the work they put in for keeping Chip Damage alive and expanding through the years! Let’s get even bigger in 2013!

When it comes to fighting games one of the best tips I’ve ever gotten was to keep a record of what I have learned. Write about how you played, how you should play and anything else you can think of relating to your game. Even now, I will admit that the whole reason I’m writing about this is that I sort of forgot about this good habit and stopped writing. Earlier this week, I started getting back into writing about my game with some new tools. So to benefit you and me from the lessons I have learned, I’m reinforcing my knowledge by writing it down here for everyone to read.

Why You Should Keep Notes About Fighting Games 
Keeping notes on your game helps you remember things that are giving you trouble or cool news things you have seen or done in a match – especially between sessions. Writing your mistakes or successes helps re-enforce them in your mind. The chances of you repeating the stuff that doesn’t work becomes less of a factor when you commit them to writing.

If you’re not sold on using writing as a tool to remember or learn things better, read this LifeHacker article that covers the subject pretty well. The article is basically saying that when you write things down, it helps create a link in your mind between the thought of an action (writing “block more” for instance) and actually doing that action (blocking more). Training your brain to react to things or behave in a certain way is of course a good way to get better at that thing, so why not give yourself a leg up!

What You Should Be Writing 
To start out, when you are trying to get better, what kind of things should you be thinking about? Outside of learning a game system, the most important things you want to learn about are the things you have the most trouble with. That means you need to think before you play – setup a game plan. Think while you’re playing – adapting to situations and mind games.  Think after you have played – analysis and future adjustments. A good resource I found helpful on the subject of thinking about playing was an article originally by Buktooth as part of the Shoryuken Pro Strategy Series from a couple years ago.

At first, this kind of thinking might not come naturally to a player. I know I have trouble thinking about a few of these things. Then if you are having trouble conceptualizing purely mentally, try to move your focus out of your mind and into writing.

Here’s a list of things that I like to write about (in order of importance):

• Bad habits
• Why I lost
• Stuff that works
• Tips from other players
• Patterns or tendencies of other players
• Something cool or situational that I’ve discovered
• Match-up data
• Combos

The most helpful thing I have ever started writing was my bad habits I have noticed while playing. Make sure to be mindful of your own patterns as well. Do you always throw two fast fireballs and then one slow one? Write it down and stop doing it. If you are noticing it, chances are it’s already being used against you. How often do you think about something that you do that makes you lose just to start doing it again the very next time you played? I am pretty horrible at this myself and I really find that when I put it to writing, the lesson stays with me a lot longer than otherwise.

Other things to write down that I found are most helpful are on things that worked in a match and things that beat me in a match. This is something that can’t always be written down right away – if you’re at a tournament for instance – but it’s pretty easy to do when you’re grinding at home against online opponents. Writing down things that worked are not always as helpful as the things that made you lose but it might give you some insight into thinking about reading other players’ patterns or even just giving yourself a pat on the back for finding a way to stay solid. It can be a nice break from constantly thinking about how you’ve been messing up.

Your notes can serve many purposes and be as detailed or as sparse as you’d like. For instance, in my notes for Jinpachi, instead of writing out all the combos available to him, I keep a could combo starters, a couple enders and a couple of his better launchers along with a link to a Tekken Zaibatsu thread on Jinpachi combos. That way I keep a quick reference to just about any resource I need. An example of a much less detailed but arguably more important file I keep is my list of bad habits. I keep my notes on this short and to the point: “Block more” “Move out of pressure – don’t fight out of pressure”

When You Should Write 
In simplest terms, you should always be writing. Think about what new notes to add, or which existing notes you can review. After all, you are using your notes to help you think about your play and if you’re not thinking, why are you playing in the first place!

Sometimes you’re in a place where you can’t write or you don’t want to be a weirdo bringing a notebook around to your friends place for “serious business”. Writing about your play is an exercise and as long as you’re at least thinking “I should write that down” is at least better than not thinking about writing it at all. If you’re really desperate, write yourself a note on your phone or find something to write on in your wallet.

Where To Write It All 
Note taking tier-list:

• Text files (C)
• Paper notebook (B)
• Note-taking software (S+)

This has been a trial-and-error process for me. I have gone through a few ways of keeping notes and I found the one that works for me. Experiment and do not be afraid to switch things up. You can even write about your notes in your notebook if you really want to get meta about your game.

I used to write in a notebook. I found this to be fast and convenient. But I didn’t like having to drag it everywhere and I could never remember to take it with me in the first place. It also bothered me that I could not easily reorganize or index information.

Another thing I tried was using a text file. You can do multiple things in this case and almost any way of writing things on a computer will have its strengths and weaknesses. You can use a plain-text file like I have, a Word document or even a spreadsheet if you’d like. The formatting is up to you and any information can be found almost immediately. Using a file also lets you be loose with what kinds of notes you keep since it allows for recording URLs to forum posts or images of hit-boxes for quick reference. One major flaw in keeping a file is that it’s not always accessible like other methods, especially if you store your files on a desktop. You can easily fix this by using cloud-based storage like Dropbox.

This week I’ve started using note-taking software like Evernote to help organize my work and home stuff. Then, a couple days ago I realized that it could also be perfect for tracking my progress in fighting games. Now I have notebooks for each game I play, I can use tags for notes to find info quickly or organize related notes together. The best part is that because Evernote has cloud storage, I can access my files anytime thanks to the app for my smartphone or any computer I use regularly. Of course, if you don’t have a smartphone or want to pay for a dataplan, this might not be totally the best option. Another, non-mobile phone related solution is to use your own email account to send yourself notes or messages about things you want to improve on or what you’ve learned.

The Most Important Lesson
Read what you wrote! You’re spending all this time putting to paper all the ways you’re getting bodied, why not at least put it to use. Read about your habits before starting an online sessions, read before you go to a tournament or even before a tournament match if you want. Be mindful of the things you thought were important enough to write. Like I said earlier, I haven’t been keeping notes about my game for close to a year now, but jumping back into it is making me motivated to improve. Sometimes it helps to write things down to help you remember where you can improve.

Its been a while since I’ve posted a local player interview. I’m going to try getting these going again.  Here’s the first of hopefully many to come.  The following is an interview with one of the scenes best players Jericho Ugot.

Name or handles you go by:
For online games I am usually known as JUgot, but for chipdamage videos I go by Jko.

What are your favorite games to play?
My favourite games right now are SF4, KOF XIII, and SFEX2A

Who do you play?
In SF4 my main is Gen. For KOF I don’t have a set team right now but my last tournament team was Kensou/Kim/Chin. And for SFEX2A I play V.Rosso/Sagat.

How’d you get into the scene?
I did a Google search for “Winnipeg Street Fighter”. Found out you guys were holding BaseLAN and made my way there. Was only a spectator and didn’t introduce myself until the Friday gathering after a recruitment week.

 Whats your style of play?
I would say that my main style of play would be footsies converted to damage. So I play somewhat lame until I get a hit and then I try to rush down and open people up as much as possible. Although I have zero mind games so that second part is pretty hard.

I believe the last time you SFEX2 against me you were pretty free.  When was the last time you actually played it?
I don’t know about that. I am pretty sure I made you free with Skullomania’s disco ball super mix-ups. But seriously the last time I played was a week or two before TST7. I remember we were supposed to have a money match, but you said you were too scared or something and couldn’t attend.

Why are SF4 and Kof your favorite fighting games?
SF4 and KOF just suit my style of game play. Also, they are both just really fun to play. I enjoy playing other games but not as much as these two games and SFEX2A.

How did you start playing fighters?
I enjoyed playing the alpha series a lot when I was a kid. At any chance I got to rent a game I would always pick one of the alpha games. Then I guess when SF4 came out I just gravitated towards it and just had fun playing it.

Red or Green?
Green all the way. Green dominates punk ass red any day. Green has the better colour, and flavours that are associated with green always better than red. Green Apple > Cherry.

How do you train?
When learning a new game I go to training mode and just practice movement before anything else. When I feel comfortable with my movement I move on to simple combos. After I have those two things down I just try to get in as many games as possible with  online or offline play. As I get more comfortable getting random hits and confirming them to my simple BnB I learn more difficult and damaging combos.

Who are your favorite people to play against?
I love playing everyone in this scene as they all offer something when playing them. whether it’s just simple banter or useful information on the game. If I were to single people out as my favourite though. I would have to say my favourite people to play are the west end training team, Tuesday KOF people, BMike, and Sandeep.

What has been your proudest acheivment so far?
My proudest moments are whenever I body Duong in SFEX2A, and when I somehow get an Alpha 2 win with Gen.

You’ve provided some of the hypest moments for us at baselan.  How did you feel while you were going through and which one did you enjoy more?
During the SSF4 baselan moment, I felt like I was making a lot of good reads along with good decisions. I was pretty anxious throughout the last set. Despite the anxiety I was just having a lot of fun playing in the tournament.

Now for the Marvel moment, it honestly was like the complete opposite. I did feel I was making the right decisions, but I didn’t feel like I was making the right reads. I was just doing stuff and the random nature of that game allowed me to get wins. I was not worried at all that tournament, because I couldn’t care less if I lost. It wasn’t fun. However, I felt solace knowing that people were going to be salty if I won.

Talk a bit about your Evo experience last year.
Evo and Vegas was really fun. I went to evo and went 6-2, unfortunately losing to Marn in losers finals for pools. Despite the loss I had a lot of fun and met a lot of top players. One of my favourite moments during Evo were when Graeme and I were trolling the american fans during top 32 on Friday and top 8 on Sunday. Haha we got mad death stares from one of Latif’s buddies.

What attracted you to Gen in Street Fighter 4?
He’s in a fighting game and he is old. When I was a kid looking to pick a character in any fighting game I would always choose the oldest person. My mentality at the time was that the oldest person would be the most knowledgeable and experienced fighter. That thought process just carried over to who I play now.

Tell us about the Regina tournament and what you thought of there players skill wise.  Also rate their GDLK pizza.
The Regina tournament was great. The venue was nice, and everyone was pretty friendly. I honestly don’t think I played anyone from Regina in SF4. I only played Graeme and 4 Calgary guys. Those Calgary guys were good though. I think I played a few Sask people in mvc3, but it’s hard to judge a players skill in that game.

Their GDLK pizza is a bit exaggerated. The first pizza place being Houston’s which is supposedly “Canada’s best pizza” was super expensive for something not that impressive. It was good but not worth what we paid. The second pizza place we went to was Tumbler’s. This pizza was better than Houston’s and more reasonably priced. Tumbler’s was good, but again I was a bit underwhelmed by it.

What are your other hobbies?
There are a lot of things I like to do in my free time, but I don’t think I can call any of them hobbies. I don’t do things on a regular basis so I don’t think they’re considered my hobbies.

A goat and a cat are standing in your way.  Which one do you kick first?
hmm, That’s a tough one. I guess I would have to kick the cat first. Let’s assume that if I kick one the other one would attack me with the first animal I kicked. My best chance would be that I could take out a cat in one go, and fight the goat 1 on 1. I guarantee I would not be able to take out a goat with one kick, and fighting 2 on 1 just sounds like a bad idea.

What other games do you play?
I honestly think fighting games has ruined me for any other type of game. I pop in another game that isn’t a fighter and I just don’t feel like playing it for long. Since 2009 I think I only bought 2 games that weren’t fighters. One game only has 2 hours on it (blue dragon) and I beat the other game (dark souls pc). Other than those 2 games and tetris attack I don’t really play other games.

Ever consider not being free in sfex2?
Sometimes, I feel that I should stop being free in sfex2. The thoughts of me being free just keep me up at night. Then I beat Duong for around 20 games and then I don’t feel like that any more.

Anything you’d like to say to the comunity?
Yes.  Matty is free in Tetris Attack.  That is all.