Street Fighter IV Mini Tourney at Cineleisure!

The 2nd of August 2009 saw another Street Fighter 4 mini-tournament courtesy of Outpost Cafe and the friendly members of the (ex?)Shadaloo gang. These guys organized Malaysia's first and largest SFIV competition in February/March this year and kudos goes to these guys for organizing more of these events without sponsors and on a pro-bono basis. To find out more, check out the Lowyat Forum's "Are You Still a Street Fighter?".

The tournament had a very casual atmosphere and a supportive crowd, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at all the right moments. It was a particularly good experience, especially if you're new to the tournament scene in KL. Plus you get to practice against some of the finest that KL has to offer. If that puts you off, if shouldn't as there was an equal amount of new-to-decent players, many of them new to Street Fighter, like myself.

Registration opened at 13:30 hrs with the participants paying for the "entry fee" by eating lunch at Outpost Cafe. After quickly organizing players into groups, the rules and format were quickly explained:

Rules:
1. Only one character allowed throughout the tournament
2. Players can choose to use a stick or a pad
3. Button config allowed before each game
4. A bye is awarded to players whose opponents are N/A or missing

Format
1. League stage with 2 brackets: top 4 from each bracket goes to the 2nd stage
2. A top-8 knockout stage

I entered the tournament as Abel while my sparring partner & friend joined up as Sagat. We both did quite well considering how long we've laid off SFIV; both of us made it to the top 4 (me just barely). Although both of us lost in the semifinals, it was really really close and I certainly had a lot of fun! All the matches were extremely close and exciting, especially the matches against Zangief; we managed to Double KO each other to the excitement of the spectators behind us!

I certainly hope the SFIV tournament scene picks up the pace, I know there are tons of good and interested players in KL. Make the effort to go; you won't be disappointed!