Always a hype tournament to be a part of, with so many people to play against, games and the whole experience. The finals for Cross Assault was held there, and It was awesome seeing the top 4 duke it out, and actually know what is going on, and tell what mistakes players were making and where they capitalizing.

TTT2

TTT2 was there too.  That was unbelievable, having my hands on the newest Tekken I knew I had to make the best of the time it was there.  I played Bob/Lars, and learned so much more. I want to thank Filthie Rich and Namco for bringing TTT2 to ATL!

Seriously, cannot wait for this game to come out!

Tekken 6

I felt prepared for this, maybe it was the week long Cross Assault and not been having to touch Tekken in over a week, but I still felt I should’ve won Tekken 6 at FR.  It was a very disappointing loss for me, probably the most upsetting of my career.  First loss was to The Game, once in losers bracket, it’s a uphill battle to the top.  I then lost to Pokchop.  I have really never lost to The Game in a tournament setting; he really brought his A game to this tournament.  Pokchop is an incredibly different player, his play style is so unorthodox and weird that it forces you to play and do things out of normality.  This is how he consistently beats me.  I feed too much into the hype of JUST winning that I lose sight of playing smart, patient, and cautious. I lost control.

I would have loved to have a second chance at him at Final Round.  He gets my respect though as a good gamer overall.  I didn’t go the third day of Final Round at all, I took the time to explore Atlanta; but I heard ATL HOA tore it up against the Japanese beast AO, and I couldn’t be more proud of the man.

Overall, for both experiences, just a couple days apart from each other, I had an incredible week and a half, all the new and different people I met, the games I learned, and the experiences I had are priceless.

I have to thank everyone who supported me through everything as well as my family and friends who voted for my video for Cross Assault, and those who coached me through the tribulations of learning Street Fighter mechanics. I want to thank my team, Dominion Method Gaming and Jose (Hyena), for making everything happen. For his continuous support, even when I am a loser HAHA.

Also, big shout out to our sponsors: Mad Catz, EventHubs, Focus Fire, Gaming Generations, Youmacon and The Hadou (thank you SOOOOO much for the awesome shirt)!!!!!!!

We will get them next time!

~Kor

Why is it that you think there aren’t many corporate sponsors? Corporate sponsors already knew about all our dirt. I see both sides of the FGC as I conduct a lot of the business for DMG. When it comes to contacting companies seeking sponsorship or donations, only my fellow team members are made aware as to why we were “turned down” for sponsorship. When we were the first USA team to be sponsored by Mad Catz last year, I figured many corporate doors would open. I was wrong.

I will now make public a few of the reasons why corporate sponsors have turned us down, mind you this is when we were gathering a lot of momentum last year with Inthul’s success at ECT 2, WB5, PR Balrog’s all around play and our great showing at EVO.

1. Our behavior during live streams:

Yes we enjoy it and understand it but corporate America doesn’t. Remember how bad EVO was when corporate Amaerica added Adam Sessler to go along with Seth Killian on the mic? Seth Killian did his best to carry Adam Sessler but it was the worst EVO ever.

2. Players’ lack of professionalism:

While it’s not every player, all it takes for a few bad seeds in the community to bring it all down. I hate when I was asked “the player that cursed during the live stream after he beat Daigo and said F#* the rest of the event and F#*k Daigo.” Is he on your team? Are you serious? You’re going to take one person actions and label it for the entire community let alone my team?

3. Players lack of respect for your sponsors:

Again another question asked to me “will your players out of anger or frustration curse out any their sponsors? Again because of a few players airing out their issues with their sponsors while on stream or during an interview was noticed. It affects us all. If you’re sponsored and that company pays your travel and room you should show them more respect. They are investing in you to market their company to gain new customers from your fan base.

4. Lack of respect for other players:

I had an interview with Burnyourbra and the racist comments she received while attending events. I felt I had to do and say something because as a minority growing up in the “hood” I didn’t see color. My black friends in my neighborhood were my brothers and sisters. Same goes for Mexicans, Asians and any other ethnicity. So I took offense to hear that my teammate was disrespected and I wanted to address it as I wanted it to end. If I was near her and heard someone call her a “black bitch” I would lose it and start fighting. Would that help?…NO but again she is my teammate and my sister. I will go to war for her.

5. Stealing from sponsors:

If a sponsor gives you/your team money to attend an event and such, then do so! Many players and Team Leaders have burned their sponsors by spending the money on something else.

6. Extra:

Many companies also do not believe in supporting the FGC because our “appearance isn’t marketable”. I laugh at that because offensive lineman in football aren’t GQ models or tattoed up basketball players who drive drunk and are arrested for other crimes aren’t really the most credible as well. But again they market the team most of the time.

There is only so much that Mad Catz and the few other companies can continue to do to keep the FGC alive. They see the all the good in the FGC as they are present at all these events. They don’t let the few mistakes stop them from supporting the FGC. I have only been involved in the FGC for a little over a year and I’ve seen all the glory in participating in such a team.

I was a jock prior to joining the FGC. I played semipro baseball and football and I was scouted by 2 MLB teams. During that time I looked down on gamers as lazy and all other kinds of hurtful things. I don’t see it that way anymore. I see the FGC as a wonderful community where you can be yourself and not have to worry about how you look and such. Playing a fighting game is as mentally challenging as any sport I’ve ever played at any level.

In the end we need to clean up our acts and mature somewhat. If we want to see the FGC grow and become what we would all hope, it can become and allow for larger payouts to players for example:

“Every tournament pays out to the top 8” instead of the “top 3,” then we need to start looking at ways to help this community grow.

Soon this drama will die down and things will be at a constant but do we really want it to go back to normal? The reason I say that is because, going back to what it always was or normal, means just a handful of sponsors and very little payouts. We all play a part in this community and we all are driving force behind its success so let’s all take responsibility for our actions and stop blaming it on again some “old guard” or “boys will be boys”.

I can honestly say and I speak for myself on this matter, we (DMG) do not share Aris’s ideas, beliefs, views, perspectives and opinions on what makes up the FGC. Call me crazy but sexual harassment is not, I repeat, IT IS NOT part of the FGC. It is not part of the FGC that I grew up in, it is not part of the FGC that I have seen grown and it is not part of the FGC that I love. I am small part of the community but I refuse to have one person’s opinion about the FGC and his outlook on life to be the representation of this community.

Sexual harassment; it does not belong nor it has room in competitive gaming. It has no room in a community, let alone, it doesn’t help the community to grow. Overall it has no room in any form of everyday life. Yeah, I admit that last sentence is a bit too optimistic and a bit naive but at the same time, it’s the truth. Someone who has the common sense or the intelligence to fully comprehend the behavior demonstrated on Cross Assault, in a professional setting, should know that it is not accepted. Sexual harassment should not be labeled as a trait, feature or something that would bring allure to people, allowing them peer into our community and expect the worst. Especially, when the same people who are trying to be part of this community and why would they. If I was someone new, looking in, I wouldn’t want to be part of it if all. All it would take is reading one person’s statement or hearing someone ignorance comments of how a community encourages sex harassment.

When BurnYourBra, a fellow player in the community, approached me about how she was treated back in Evo2009, I was highly upset. Not because of her sex, in which should never matter in any restrospect, because she was not treated like a human being or she was treated as a member of the community. She is a player in the FGC, bottom line. I treat everyone with respect until they give me a reason. That’s how I was raised, how I live my life and how I run DMG.

I expect the same mutual respect from everyone I encounter; it’s called the golden rule.Treat others the way that you would like to be treated. People seem to forget that and of all places, this rule shouldn’t be forgotten in the FGC because of how close and tight knit of a family we have grown to be.

I truly believe that some things are taken out of context and they exploit it and capitalize on it. I am referring to these websites and so-called journalism that they practice (glorify propaganda), only concentrating on the bad and never the good. These are the same website that can care less about what positive strides, efforts and impact that goes in the FGC but when something negative happens, “LOOK OUT!” they are in there.

I don’t know Aris personally, I never met nor spoke to him or had the opportunity to find out what sort of person he is. His actions on Cross Assault, his remarks and how he carries himself; gives me a measuring stick of who he is. That itself is good enough for me.

What makes up the FGC are the positive things that I had the pleasure to experience over the years.
I know I will get some heat because of this or get comments on why I am bashing on him or attacking someone who is part of the FGC. In all honesty, I am not bashing him nor attacking him, I am stating a fact that people should not (even though they do) act the way he does. Acting the way he did (or still does) and using the FGC as a reason to validate his behavior isn’t expectable.

Bottom line, even though this will set us back, we will bounce back from it but we shouldn’t forget this and grow from it. Only then we can truly continue to be the unique is to keep what we doing and keep the nonsense out of our community.

Time to Grow up FGC!

I arrived at the venue Friday night with a few friends, I didn’t play much that night because I wanted to have a little bit of fun. On day 1 one of the tournament, I teamed up with Hyena and Jason24cf, it was single elimination till top 8 for some reasons. We didn’t make it to top 8 and my performance was sort of weak. I lost against someone i would normally beat.
In the SSF4 2012 single brackets, I had Dieminion, Lucky D, Flashmetroid, DMG Atrocity and a few other potential players. I started well in my brackets, stayed in winners for about 4 matches. I ran into flashmetroid in winners, right when we started, I just expected him to go to Zangief, He picked Cammy and straight up beat me up the first set. I had to take a little bit of time and rethink about that match, I press rematch played the match so Cammy wouldn’t corner me, I ended up winning that set. He switched to Viper and i was thinking, another bad match up for me.. I won that set too and sent him to the losers brackets. My next match was against Lucky D, He is a Dahlsim player, very cool guy too.

We always end up in the same brackets at Big E’s tournaments, and we usually go back and forth. At the last NEC he sent me to the losers brackets, but then i came back and took him out in loser finals of our pool. This time around he got the best of me and sent me to losers.I won a couple more matches after that before meeting up with flashmetroid and this time he went zangief on me and won. I’ve been having a hard time lately against zangief, I have to relearn that match up. I wasn’t too happy about my performance in sf4 since I was hoping to gain some EVO points, but i’ll get them at the next tournament I’m attending.

I Entered UMVC3 singles and did alright at it, I believe I got to the losers semi-final in my brackets. I lost to RayRay in winners and Flocker in losers. I’m working on a simpler and better team now.

After losing in both Sf4 and Marvel, I went in the Tekken room and entered the Tekken Tag 2 tournament they threw. I had played Tekken in awhile but I wanted to try it anyway, I believe 16 people entered and I got 5th, I only knew how to use one character really, ended up losing to DMG Fab in winners and the Game in losers. I really liked the game though, and I’ll be playing it when it comes out. Here are some videos of my play.

DMG Lud vs DMG Fab
DMG Lud vs The Game

I got the meet the new DMG members and few new people there, It was great. I want to thanks all our sponsors for supporting us, it really means a lot to us, and thanks to Hyena and Jason for being awesome leaders.

We all competed as one team and topped in almost every game whether singles or teams. I want to give a huge thanks to BIG E, DMG Hyena, DMG Jason24cf, and i want to give a shoutout to my team for AE DMG InsaynNe, and FNEX KBRAD, we really blew it up this weekend, it was great seeing you guy’s, this needs to happen more often.

Congrats to my teammate DMG Juicebox Abel for taking 2nd place for street fighter, lets keep this up at every major.

I was highly disappointed in my performance this weekend for this particular game. I set my expectations high because I know the skill I possess. I wasn’t able to meet those expectations of top 8. I did not even make it out of my pool. I was very much off my game and will definitely do better next time with something new.

Moving on to Soul Calibur 5; I spent a lot of time practicing for this game because I have fun and want to learn the ins and outs of it. My lack of experience definitely showed in my performance, but in the end I was sent packing by my very own teammate NYC Fab. I have a long way to go in learning Soul Calibur 5 but I am ready to take this game to the next level!

Finally, Super Street Fighter 4 AE version 2012

Starting with teams, I had a very strong performance alongside fellow teammate DMG Lion Heart and FNEX K Brad. We played our hardest to place 3rd, getting OCV’d by Chris G. It was a tough loss for me, but overall we all played very well. K Brad defeating EG Justin Wong and EG Floe and eliminating them from the team tournament. And myself taking out RyRy and TFA Banana Ken’s team single-handedly. The team tournament was fun and I would love to team with Lionheart and K Brad again in the future.

My singles performance was better than expected. Every match I ran into happened to be a match where Blanka was at a disadvantage. In order I played against E. Honda, Balrog, Abel, another Balrog, and Sagat. I lost to my teammate DMG Juice Box Abel (who by the way went on to place 2nd under Justin Wong!) in winner’s semi-finals of my pool. It was a really close match and it was hard for me to take in the fact that I lost and was that close to defeating the character that I fear the most. Little mistakes ended up costing me the game,  and I lost 2-1. Coming from the loss to Juice Box I had to fight against a Balrog player named Dark Child next. That match is one of Blanka’s more difficult matches, however it is a match that I am extremely familiar with and I was able to defeat the odds 2-1 and move on to my loser’s final match against the king himself, EMP|Sanford Kelly. I went into this match very confident in my abilities to win. I had my teammates rooting for me and my good friend and fellow blanka player AG|MCZ Demon Hyo was sitting by my side for support. I played the game solid, applying pressure with jabs when Sagat is in the corner, reacting to fireballs with slides and just using all of my tools to try and defeat Sanford. Despite all of my efforts, I fell short to the much more experienced player and I am not ashamed about how I played. It was a great match and a great experience.

Winter Brawl 6 has renewed a fire in me that has died quite some time ago. The real InsaynNe is back and is hungrier to win than ever before. Everybody be alarmed. I didn’t earn the title as the best Blanka in the United States for no reason :)

             In the days leading up to WB6, I spent most of my leisure time practicing King of Fighters 13. I love playing it, and I hope that I can make as big of a splash in the KOF community as I’ve made in the Street Fighter 4 community. Regardless, KOF13 was my sole focus. I hadn’t practiced SF4 outside of  sporadic online matches and I didn’t pay much attention to who was entering SF4 at WB6.

Somehow I attained 2^nd place in SF4 losing only to Justin Wong in Grand Finals, while in KOF13 I had two wins followed by successive losses to RyRy and RogueYoshi. The results of the weekend were off-putting, but also inspirational.

I initially felt bad about my KOF performance. After talking with a few other KOF players, I’d learned that though my fundamentals are above average, I still lack matchup knowledge as well as general experience in tournament situations. This will be addressed in the coming months. I hope for a steady path of improvement all the way to EVO.

The Street Fighter 4 results were quite surprising. I was able to beat Sanford, Gridman, and Dieminion on the path to Grand Finals, just before my epic zero to six collapse against Justin Wong. It should be noted that I almost lost a match earlier in the bracket to a fellow Dominion Method Gaming teammate, Steven Delgado-Mendoza and his wild Blanka play. I won’t go into the details of my wins, as the stream is readily available in the Team Spooky archive. The loss to Justin is what I need to talk about.

It was pathetic. I couldn’t get zoning started with Juri, couldn’t get offense going with Abel, and couldn’t guess right in general. I felt ashamed for a few hours afterward. Things started to look a little brighter as Justin himself came to talk to me about the matchup and asked about some of the decisions I’d made. At the end of that conversation we agreed that I don’t play a character he’s scared of. This was a major revelation, one I was flabbergasted that I hadn’t already figured out.

Ever since I started playing games competitively, I set out with the goal to become the very best, like no one ever was. Anyone can tell that I’m not there yet. However, Winter Brawl showed me something important. If I’m going to break this plateau that I’ve reached (to go “super saiyan”, if you will), then the time is now. This is the highest I’ve placed at a major since getting 3^rd place at West Coast Warzone 3, where my final loss came from Ricky Ortiz, the other great Rufus. This is an obvious sign. My problem is Rufus. If I can gain the knowledge necessary to defeat either or both of these fighting game dreadnoughts, then I will be one step closer to the ultimate goal of winning EVO. Equipped with a sponsorship from DMG, there isn’t anything holding me back from accomplishing this goal.

Ryu said it best. “The more I learn, the more I realize how far I am from the end of my journey.” Indeed.

Home to one of the largest tournament series in the East Coast and possibly across the country. How was I to know? This would be my first time travelling outside Ohio to compete in a major event; Especially an Evolution Championship tournament series qualifier in the East Coast (I had attended PowerUp 2011 in Cincinnati OH, which was also an EVO Qualifier, but in the Midwest).

I made it there around 1AM Saturday morning, about 10 hours before everyone’s supposed to wake up, register for their respective tournaments, and then play. We lugged our bags to our hotel room, unpacked, and then quickly set off room-hopping in hopes of meeting up with old friends, mingling with new people, and getting some last-minute casuals in for tournaments.

The cast that I rolled in with was pretty diverse and we had different goals for this weekend. My friend GenesisDC is a more-than-decent King of Fighters XIII player, Playing To W1n is the top SFIV player in Cleveland and mains Dhalsim, and the now-former member of Dominion Method Gaming OMG iTz Andre, who is my training partner in both Soul Calibur V and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. Meeting up with the DMG team made that night that much better. I received my team shirt, and got to meet the cast of the crew for the first time. Everyone’s really down to earth and humble, which is what we’re all about here at DMG.

Fast forward through a lot of casuals, some unmentionable partaking in social activities,jokes cracked and banter being slung around, and the event has finally taken off! More than 700 people entered event, and you noticed how quickly rooms began to fill up with time. Bustling crowds anxious to play Marvel, Street Fighter, Soul Calibur, you name it! East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, people from ALL regions showed up to represent their hometowns in this event.

As for me? This would be my first tournament wearing the DMG|MCZ brand. Of course I was nervous. Of course I knew that this would be a great responsibility. But I shook off the uneasiness and went in swinging. Now, I couldn’t enter the Soul Calibur V tournament because registrations were closed and, silly me, I forgot to pre-register for the respective tournament. However, I used what little money I had left (note that I came into Philly with only $40) to enter the Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 tournament.

As soon as pools started, I began hyping myself up. Although I haven’t touched this game in 3 weeks (I traded it to a good friend of mine), I knew I had the skill to make it far. Well, at least that’s what I kept telling myself. My name got called for Pool 3, and I sat down and started playing.

The first match, I pretty much won clean. But the second one was a fluke on my part. Tournament nerves were starting to get to me, especially since I was sent to the stream station. It was a close match with the person (I think his name was James Evans?) winning 2-1, with really fast Spider-Man mixups.

Sent to the loser’s bracket, I stepped outside the room for a quick breath. I wanted to reflect on what I should have done and if I could do any better. I was at a loss for optimism, really. DMG|Atrocity come up to me, patted me on my shoulder and said “Come on, man. Cheer up.” Took a quick deep breath, then headed back in for loser’s bracket matches.

I was on a roll.

Winning my matches left and right, making my way up to the top. Quickly making work of some Zero player, taking care of Mr.Quotes’ rather unorthodox team, and Happy Birthday’ing Megaman Steve. Twice. (Shoutouts to James Evans and DRS|Shakugan for letting me borrow their sticks, by the way. ) Before I knew it, I was at Top32. I had to face MastaCJ, who just was knocked into the loser’s bracket by Unknown, in order to qualify into Top 16 and receive my 1 lousy EVO point. Was I ready? Nah. But that’s when Chris came up to me. He really didn’t want to play his match with me until tomorrow. He said he was tired, and to be honest, I was exhausted. I agreed to play him first thing in the morning.

Although the match wasn’t streamed, PsychoChronic recorded our match. It was just as hype as any other Top 16 match or match that was on stream. Just like that, I made my way from the loser’s bracket into Top 16.

I mean, that was pretty much the highlight of my journey there. I got beat clean by IC|Ruin, who eliminated me off-stream, and I accept it. There are so many things that I could have done better, but I’m brushing it off now and trying to make my playing style even more solid than it was.

I mean, I feel like I’ve made a small name for myself with the community because I don’t really think anyone’s made it as far as I did using Captain America before. Plus, I did so by defeating the winner of APEX 2012 and making my way to the top contenders despite me being placed in the loser’s bracket so early. So I feel accomplished. And when I got back home, I was overwhelmed at the amount of support from Cleveland and even the east and west coasts. I used to think that no one cared who I was, you know?

But enough about me. Damn, does Big E throw a really awesome event. Tournaments were on tim for the most part, a variety of games to play, so many cool people to interact with, and Tekken Tag Tounament 2 is too f—-ing godlike. This was a premier example of how the fighting game community carries out their goals. Whenever the community comes together for things like this, we’re the best group of people in the entire world, I swear.

You just had to be there.

In a world of 2D fighters, I figured I had no chance haha But I made it!

First things first, thanks to everyone out there who voted, commented, shared and liked my video. Thanks to Capcom for this amazing opportunity! This is seriously once in a lifetime.

Most importantly, there were people who never stopped to see my video succeed, almost daily, and I want to take the time to thank them formally…

First off, to my team, DMG!

Dominion Method Gaming, you heard it in the video, my name is attached to these guys! They are really important to me, and they proved it by constantly with everything they do for me, from encouragement, to sharing it all over twitter, getting my likes and views in.  Jose, Jason, Alejandro, Burn, Dre, all of you, you know who you are, my gaming family. <3  Thanks for being by my side guys..

I would love to give a BIG shout out to my Houston Crew- All of you know who you are, the ones I party with, the ones I game with and train with, the ones who just chill- All of you have been my support for this- thanks guys! <3

Big thanks to my sponsors: Mad Catz and EventHubs! You guys rock and thank you the support you have shown not only to me but to my team and the entire FGC!

Airbrush King, for his work to get the video out there, and all he does for our fighting game community. Guys check out Airbrushking.net- His custom editing work is amazing.

To all my friends, fans and competitors all over this country and globe, I will do my best to bring the hype, bring the KORsome Factor to life, and best of all, be there to learn this new game, and bring home the stories, excitement, and whatever I learn. Be sure to watch us next week, all the tears, glory, and hype to your computers next week :D

Another big shoutout to my family- my biological ones lol- I love you guys with all my heart and although gaming is just one part of my life, you guys are in there to help me with it and I appreciate it, no matter the distance between us, my family has always been there to help me succeed. <3

Last but not least, my Korsome princess, Xiao, who helped with the production, sharing and directing of my video. The best girl any guy can ask for.

Thanks for everything guys and I will do my best to represent Tekken and body Team Street Fighter!

~Kor