Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition Still Had Its Standing At ReveLAtions 2012

Possibly the second biggest game of the tournament, Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition pulled in competitors from many areas. The demographics of the players were indeed interesting. One competitor was a tattooed gentleman who was missing his left hand, but held his own in the matches. Although it should come as no surprise that video games pulls in the younger crowd, it is still a trip to see a child amongst the much older competitors and able to knock them out. The child was none other than Noah The Prodigy, the little one that shocked us all when he made it pretty far at EVO 2011.

Along with the competitors were the organizers of the tournament who not only took care of SSF4:AE, but the other big name fighting games like Persona 4 Arena and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. My assistant and I had the honor of meeting Haz, the founder of Team hAZmat, and he was very helpful in providing us with information regarding the tournaments.

Below is the breakdown of the Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition match-ups that took place on Saturday.

The tournament opened with EG PR Balrog vs. a relatively newcomer to the competitive field. Balrog and his trusty Balrog was going up against E. Honda. It came as no surprise that a favorite competitor completely dominated the matches with a 2-0 victory, but practice makes perfect and experience is everything. So while that competitor was out, he could at least walk away and say that he got a chance to fight against the PR Balrog.

Next up was another favorite to win at least one tournament: Filipino Champ. He was up against John Stamos (no, not the John Stamos) and his Cammy. FChamp won that match 2-0 with Dhalsim, but with the help of a certain someone. Prior to the match, FChamp asked yours truly to borrow her arcade stick to play. With the stick, he perfected one of the rounds against Stamos. I guess my stick was very lucky for him.

There was just match after match of favored competitors, for the next one was Jozhear against Ricky Ortiz. Ricky Ortiz and his favored Rufus knocked Jozhear and his Vega with a 2-0 victory, following in the footsteps of his teammates. Speaking of teammates, Filipino Champ did not have much time to rest after his victory with my stick. He faced SCG ILL Boog and his M. Bison in the next round. But as before, he took the victory 2-0.

A break has emerged from the matches between famous competitors. IGL_DGT vs. UCLA Player, now this match had some changes all up in it. IGL_DGT leads off with Ryu against UCLA’s Zangief. After Zangief took the first round, IGL decided to switch it up a bit and go for Sagat. The tides turned to IGL who took the next round with that switch. UCLA decided to follow in pursuit of the changing by switching again to Gouken. Keeping Sagat, both players duked it out until UCLA Player was victorious and took the match at a 2-1 victory.

The break between the big names was over when it just started. Next up was Justin Wong and his own Rufus vs. Flash Metroid and Zangief. Although both characters are heavy hitters themselves, with the way that JWong controlled Rufus was almost beautiful. His patience is something to be noticed as he took the victory of the match at 2-0, joining his teammates in the pattern. But PR Balrog was a c-c-c-c-combo breaker when facing Online Tony and his Seth. The match was intense! The rounds went all the way to match point and the audience was glued to the screen. Many “oohs” and “ahhs” from the audience erupted as Balrog tried his hardest to best Seth. And best he did; Balrog got by with a 2-1 victory. Seth was a fighter and he made it known to the very end.

After this match came a player who was a minority in the fighting game community. This player went by the name AGE Snake Eyez and he was one of the few pad players in the tournament. He faced TFA RZR LPN, a player who made his face known in all of the other fighting games. Snake’s Zangief was pitted up against a character in the minority himself, Adon. This match was a close one. Snake barely scrapped by with a 2-1 victory, but not without RZR LPN putting up one hell of a fight.

We were all shocked to see a child hold his own against those much bigger, older, and more experienced than he was. TTC Noah the Prodigy and his M. Bison were up against well-known Noel Brown. And boy did he give him a run for his money. After Noah claimed the first victory against Noel’s Vega, he switched out and tried a character that he thought would take him down: Rufus. However, that did not frighten Noah and he claimed the next victory, joining the ranks of the top competitors in their 2-0 victories. At the end of the match, he waved his hands in the air like he just didn’t care in victory and happiness. It’s moments like that that make you go “awww”.

PR Balrog took the stage once again against Clim and his own Zangief. While this match ended in a 2-0 victory as well, it was the one that followed that got people turning heads. It was the favored Filipino Champ and he went up against Hugo 101 and his Yun. Hugo 101 was doing pretty well in the previous Persona 4 Arena tournament, making it all the way to the winner’s bracket. With the momentum he gained from that, he should have been able to do fairly okay against the champ. But after a 2-0 loss against him, he got the brunt force of what the champ is known for: limited sportsmanship. For when he won the second round, he stood up and told Hugo “You suck, you suck.” One cannot deny the fact that FChamp is a good player of fighting games, but his sportsmanship could use a bit more practice. Hugo took these comments like a champ and walked away, knowing that he gave his best.

The final match on the big screen was against someone we hadn’t seen yet, Combofiend, against AGE Vangief, another pad player. Lady luck was not on Combofiend’s side this time, for Vangief took the match 2-0, pitting his Zangief against Combo’s Abel.

The most popular characters that were seen during the pool plays were: Zangief, Ryu, M. Bison, and Sagat. They were some pretty heavy hitters, but that did not discourage dedicated players from keeping with their same character that they probably had been playing for years. It is that love and dedication to a character that is, what I think, the true spirit of a fighting game.

Stay tuned on Velocity Gamer for more coverage on the tournaments at ReveLAtions 2012!