GRAPSF Tournament Number 1, September 12, 2009: It’s a White Castle Story

On September 12, 2009, GRAPSF held it’s first official Street Fighter 4 tournament at the home of GRAPSF Lord and Fell Mastermind Slappy. Thanks are in order here, because not only did Slappy invite the community into his home for an evening of excellent digital pugilism, but he grilled enough food to feed an army and opened up an excellent cross section of his impressive fighting game collection for play. The Dreamcast had Marvel vs. Capcom and Third Strike running, while the Saturn boasted Cyber Bots. Even the original Street Fighter was available , with a prize of two hundred dollars going to the player who could successfully perform three shoryukens in a row. The prize went unclaimed, and it’s likely to stay that way.

There was an hour or so of casual play before the tournament officially started, which gave everyone a chance to engage in a few casual matches and warm up. The Professor, as mysterious as always, was generous enough to provide two 15th Anniversary Street Fighter pads as prizes for the winners, while Slappy offered up a third. With everyone registered and happily fed, the tournament was free to proceed.

Highlights include Mabin’s girlfriend, the devilishly cunning Danielle, connecting Sakura’s combo into Ultra in her matches against MrBaggs and SmurfTac0s respectively. While her reign of terror was halted in both cases, it was a lot of fun to watch. The Professor fought a Blanka mirror match with yours truly, which he won with his superior knowledge of zoning, footsies, and the power of the Wild. Still, it came down to the wire and was one of the most entertaining matches I’ve fought in a long time. Slappy’s Geif was unstoppable as always, and SmurfTac0s rolled over his opponents with relentless abuse of the Focus system and incredibly tight execution. The grand finals came down to Slappy and his Godless Red Demon in winners versus Chauncy “TRU” Talon’s formidable Sagat. It was a tense and entertaining match, which resulted in a win for Slappy and communist professional wrestlers the world over.

The top eight places are as follows, from first to last: Slappy, Chauncy, SmurfTac0s, The Professor, MrBaggs, myself, Mabin, and MegaTPlusStrength. Congratulations to the winners, and to everyone who played: it was great fun, and I look forward to the next installment one month from now.

Casual matches were played afterward. MrBaggs demonstrated a powerfully amusing Sean in Third Strike, while SmurfTac0s and myself played a barrage of matches in Street Fighter 4. The only win I managed to scrape out of him was with Claw versus his Dictator. We were as confused as you probably are right now, and we both vowed to never speak of it again. After this post, anyway. Chauncy failed repeatedly in his bid to conquer Dragon’s Lair, and the Professor demonstrated his mastery of the Versus games yet again, this time playing the CPU for the amusement of myself and Slappy. Haypultone, who was noticeably absent from the day’s events, was outed as playing online during the tournament. This earned a number of cheerful jeers and outright mockery. When all the games were done and people began to drift home, a general feeling of community and well being was in the air. It was a very successful day for everyone.

Tournaments will be held monthly from now on, and everyone is invited to participate. Casuals and coaching sessions will still be held biweekly: check the calendar for more information. Our next meet up is at GrandLan on September 26th at one PM. It’s bound to be a good time, and I hope to see everyone there. Bring your stick, bring your friends, and bring your hype.

Mr. Baggs, Professor	Smurf, Mabin, Danielle
Mr. Baggs, Professor	Mabin, Danielle, Smurf