I had been away from Omaha too long. When one of the organizers of this monthly tournament series and friend of mine, Yulai, put up the date on Facebook in mid-July, I immediately made plans to attend. The last time I had been to Omaha was way back in February for Nerdtron which featured a series of disappointingly lackluster tournaments. Even with the poor recent history, I always loved coming to Omaha to see some of my favorite people in the gaming community. Besides, I still felt the need to prove myself outside of Iowa and cement my gameplay as among the strongest in the Midwest. Omaha would provide an excellent gauge for me to do just that. I thought I could win. I knew I could win, but didn't think I would. The past failures of out of state performance still haunted me despite recent upswings in that category. Talking with a good gaming friend, Christian, "Joker" the day before the tournament, he encouraged me to think more positively. Still, I didn't get much sleep.
My first trip for Street Fighter was beyond a year prior at a tournament at the local Family Fun Arcade. I placed fourth-- it was one of my first tournament experiences outside of Iowa. The Nerdtron tournament for Super Street Fighter 4 only saw 10 entries, but a strong field. Being vastly improved, I made it to Grand Finals against Omaha's best player, Jamarr aka "Jamarvelous." I was soundly beaten 3-1, and of course the second place finish in the 6 man Blazblue tournament didn't do much to console me.
With all that on my mind, especially the thought of running it back with Jamarr, I was both excited and anxious for the tournament. I had ridden along with 4 of my Iowa gaming companions with the expectation to do well-- that was without question. I knew I would have to face Jamarr at some point and honestly I didn't totally believe I could beat him. The number or lack of potential entries also weighed heavily on my mind. I felt that if the tournament didn't have a satisfactory number of entrants (say 15 or more) I wouldn't be making the statement to myself that I wanted-- I had truly improved, even if I did beat Jamarr in the process.
Upon entering the venue, it became immediately apparent this event would far surpass my expectations. There were tons of setups featuring both Super Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs Capcom 3 and each was filled with people I didn't know. I looked down at the signup sheet and there was already more than 20 people signed up for Street Fighter-- I couldn't be happier. How was it that Omaha had so many players? Who knew? Even though I didn't recognize most of the people there, I was surely recognized. I walked into the area where Street Fighter was mostly being played, and a guy looked up at me. "Hey, aren't you that Sakura player?" I replied with a bewildered "Yeah." The guy looks up at the ceiling for a moment and the next thing that came out of his mouth was "Fuck!" Needless to say, I was amused.
I progressed through the bracket with relative ease and it quickly became the winners semi-final round where Jamarr was waiting for me. I kept thinking to myself that I could and should win. I did not feel particularly nervous, but my gameplay would definitely reflect it. Jamarr selected Seth- I had never seen him play motion characters (non-charge) before. Presumably, this new pick was because his normal main, Blanka was nerfed in Arcade Edition. Although I missed some punishes due to nerves, I took the first game convincingly. Jamarr switched to Blanka without hesitation. Remembering our last tournament match, I knew I could defeat his Blanka, I just had to be patient and not get hit by random stuff and especially not get thrown. Even though I had deep respect for Jamarr, I seemed to have underestimated him. He took the second game without even trying. Every jump in punished, the right move to counter mine at all times. It was difficult to get in because of Jamarr's excellent use of Blanka's slide. I made my adjustments and was leading the first round of the third game by a significant margin. I was proceeded to be thrown three straight times and Ultra chipped for the loss. I buckled down and didn't break at this-- I took the second round. I proceeded to forge a new game plan.
I noticed in the round I won Jamarr had trouble teching throws. I set out to throw him to obtain a lead then turtle him to force a mistake I could punish for big damage. As expected, I landed my throw. Overhead (F+MK)-- more damage and a comfortable lead. Now the tables were turned. Throughout our set, Jamarr waited for me to do something, then countered. It was now my Sakura that was poised to do that for the first time in the set. This change did not seem to affect Jamarr however! He steadfastly poked at safe ranges but never put himself at risk. He even yet still waiting for me to approach him, but it wasn't happening. The clock was ticking down-- 15 seconds left. Our characters continued to stare each other down. I backed into the corner. If Jamarr was able to put out a well spaced Ultra, I could be chipped enough to the point of losing. I was too scared to try to escape the corner with a Tatsu. Jamarr waited too long, he activated his Ultra with 5 seconds left, I activated mine and the counter reached 0. I had won.
Knowing that was my biggest hurdle, I was the most loose guy in the house after that. Still, Jamarr would surely come out of losers to face me again. However, top 2 was all but assured, or so I thought. In winners finals I faced Chris H. A shoto player that I had faced and beaten before more than a year ago when I first came to Omaha. I was supremely confident. Not only does it take an extremely skilled shoto player to beat me, I knew I could beat Chris easily. I was floored however when our set reached 2-1 in favor of him. I still was confident. I was too experienced in this matchup to lose-- and I didn't. I brought it back without too much of a fuss.
I eagerly watched the losers bracket matches, anticipating a match with Jamarr once again. He faced Chris in the losers finals. Having played in many previous tournaments, Jamarr was understandably confident, playfully asking Chris "Want to just forfeit?" Chris was entering a zone it seemed. He played extremely well throughout the set, still it seemed Jamarr was besting mentally. The set was 2-2 in favor of Jamarr. He seemed to be playing a lot looser than he did against me. Making some uncharacteristic mistakes, Jamarr fell to Chris in the final game.
It was all down to this. This is the biggest tournament I ever had the opportunity to win. I wasn't nervous, just amped up to play. As I sat down, Jamarr asked Chris with a half smile "Are you going to let some outsider come here and win our tournament?" I love hearing stuff like this, and it made me even more motivated. There was no reason at all for me to lose. I took the first two games handily. Nothing could stop me. I didn't really realize at the time, but was reminded later that I indeed dominated these first two games. I even managed to combo into Sakura's Super to finish a round after I had procured a stun. Perhaps what happened next was inevitable. Again, I was winning. Chris was making small adjustments to my style. What kind of player at this level wouldn't after playing 7 tournament games with the same person? Didn't throw many fireballs. Like Jamarr he seemed to prefer to wait for me to do something and counter accordingly. He had good reactions to my own fireballs, jumping over them and punishing me for big damage. He took the third game getting most of his damage this way. I quickly resolved to not throw as many fireballs in the same situations. It seemed to pay off, although in the third round of the fourth game, I was at a small disadvantage. I landed a EX tatsu over a rare fireball from Chris, I dashed and input the Ultra-- I failed to execute properly and saw another EX tatsu come out. Chris punished me for the mistake and took the game, tying the set 2-2.
Many things were going through my head. I had lost many rounds to comebacks and Ryu's FADC Ultra. Perhaps I should switch to Rose. It's a favorable matchup and would throw a wretch into a lesser player's thought processes. After all, I had a whole other set to switch back if I lost. I resolved to thinking this would merely be gimmick at best in this particular situation. Sakura had served me well, and I didn't feel like this was the right time to abandon her. Joker was to my left encouraging me. Rematch.
Everyone watched as I executed textbook anti Ryu spacing-- keeping myself outside of his low forward range. Now I went in for grabs-- having not done so very often in our previous games. I took the game easily. I pumped my fist. Not only did I win, but most importantly, I proved to myself that I could win. I set a goal for myself and accomplished it. That to me meant more than anything. Of course, the $82 in prize money was nice too. Hopefully, I'll make it back. GGs Omaha.
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