VSFighting XIV (Audio Documentary)

Bonus Episode. VSFighting XIV. We went. We lost. We came home.

A documentary about attending one of the UK's biggest fighting game tournaments, in which we went 0 and out in Guilty Gear, went 0 and out in Street Fighter 2 Turbo, watched a man headbutt his controller, and Harrison successfully avoided playing Virtua Fighter for the entire weekend like it owed him money.

Essential viewing for anyone who wants to feel better about themselves.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:09

Alright, it's been a grueling journey.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Yeah, yeah, very arduous, but uh Well uh not for me.

SPEAKER_04 0:16

We're in Birmingham, ladies and gentlemen, for the VS Fine. I was fine. I bought my Retroid Pocket 5. I played dot hack G U. Yeah, but I'm like red boy, I can't be boxed in, you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean like Sean just sort of stared at the seat in front of him. They're like, why didn't you bring something to entertain yourself? I did, I was watching uh You were playing the Game Unwatch game ball.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Um yeah, I wanted to beat my score. Um plus I wanted to like um you know get my awareness up for the fighting games, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 0:46

Tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow. So you sort sort of that's what you do. You you're like you're like Bruce Lee. You sit you sit there, right? You're not doing anything, you're meditating, looking at the for the back of a chair. Yeah, I'm ro raw dogging, man.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 1:00

Yeah, but you're not really raw dogging, sort of bugging me every 30 seconds, telling me stupid shit. Is that more accurate? Um Well, yeah, I mean we are at the hotel though. Yeah, we made it. We made it. We did originally record uh an intro in London, but uh it was unusable. It was for yeah, it was very noisy, but basically we were sat in a hovel. Well, actually, wait, well we'll talk about our ex expectations for the tournament in a second. Marmite crisps. Why would you bring that as a snack to eat on a coach? The smelliest of the crisps.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

I didn't realise they were smelly if I'm honest. But like now you pointed out, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Um bit weird. Yeah, but what are your expectations for the tourney?

SPEAKER_04 1:44

Right, so we're competing tomorrow in Guilty Gear, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, and some other games I don't give a fuck about.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Well we're playing in Grand Blue and Guilty Gear tomorrow, and then it's uh on Saturday at Street Fighter.

SPEAKER_04 1:56

Street Fighter. Yeah, we're playing Grand Blue as well. Um wait, and then Street Whatever. Look, those are the games we're competing. So tomorrow is Guilty Gear. Don't forget Virgin. We did sign up for Virtual Fighter, but that was before we realised how shit the game was. What so what are we doing tomorrow? I haven't looked at the schedule. So tomorrow we're doing Guilty Gear. Guilty Gear starts at 11. Um, same with Grand Blue, but pools do run until like five o'clock. So we can't. So that's what that's what we're playing tomorrow, the day after is gonna be Street Fire, right? Yeah, yeah. Now I will admit the big the big draw for me here is Guilty Gear. I'm looking forward to it to the most. However, I I don't expect to do well. I mean I'm we're gonna be playing against people that have been playing for seven years. To be honest, I mean I'm looking for mostly I'm looking forward to the like KOF and uh City of the Wolves, uh like top eight, maybe Because we get to watch like because this the SNK Pro event, so we get to watch the best players in the world compete right in front of our fucking eyes for the for King of Fights 15 and City of the Wolves, so I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, yeah, me too. It's gonna be amazing. Um but now we need to keep this intro brief, and it's not that we don't care about what the listeners think and keeping them engaged, but we do need to go and have a pint, don't we? Because we've just been on a coach. Well, I'll put it this way I've just been on a coach with Sean for three hours, okay? So I need a drink. Alright?

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Also, like I do need like a whiz as well because I don't need why are you telling them that? Well, like, you know, you were telling you.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

Yeah, well, you gotta give the whole experience, haven't you? You've got to tell the listeners, oh, yeah, like I'm going for a Wii, what up? It's your boy Sean going for a slash. Well, you're telling people your wants and needs, but I'm like what?

SPEAKER_01 3:30

I'm gonna like get them a drink and that.

SPEAKER_04 3:32

But I'm gonna Yeah, because I'm annoyed and angry because I spent three hours with you on a coach.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

I'm gonna have to have to wrap this up soon though, because like that user drink.

SPEAKER_04 3:41

Yeah, the user who drink. This is right, so we we we said on the last episode that these documentary ones are sort of our strength, but we're sort of starting off weak with this one. Yeah, yeah, we are. Do you want to go for a bit? Right, you go for a bit. We we'll come back later, listeners. We'll tell you how the piss went. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah, no, no, not definitely. Go away.

SPEAKER_05 3:59

We'll see you tomorrow. Select and make your first piss in the dog 1098.

SPEAKER_04 4:10

Alright, the following morning. Just lurking about outside the toy shop when we are yeah, yeah, yeah. That's as this is what our life has come to. So the tournament doesn't start for an hour and a half. We woke up early to come to a toy shop to look for paper lights. Yeah, yeah, we're gonna. Sean is over 40.

SPEAKER_05 4:27

Uh we were very I mean uh we were select and make your first pick.

SPEAKER_04 4:38

Alright, so we're currently uh so Sean's been to Birmingham quite a lot, haven't you, mate? You've been here quite a lot, haven't you?

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Yeah man, I've all travelled when it comes to Birmingham, haven't you?

SPEAKER_04 4:47

Yeah, and um so we what we've done is I've followed him. What we've ended up at a dead end. Sean was like, yeah, I know where we are. Come on, it's this way. I'm I'm literally looking at a dead end. Yeah, I know it's over there, I know it's on the opposite side of this entire building site. He's not even saying anything, he's just pointing.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

It's got a bit road to those.

SPEAKER_04 5:08

Anyway, anyway, listener, there was a point where um Sean was trying to figure out why we got lost, and he said we must have gone the wrong way. No, I didn't say we go, we took a wrong turn. Uh we missed it. Oh yeah, yeah, so we so we took you so we took a wrong turn and then we ended up in the wrong place. Oh god, just thinking like that. That's why you were in the big bucks, isn't it? Um yeah, I guess so, man. That's why I'm on the luck in wild pocket. Well, yeah, exactly. Right, you want to say sorry now or uh yeah, no, I apologise to the listeners. Because I was following you. Not to the listeners. Oh to you, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Sorry about that.

SPEAKER_04 5:46

Yeah, yeah. Because I need like a slight deviation. Slight deviation. I can see where it is, it's fucking ages away.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Sorry, sorry about that. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

Right, well, we made it. Yeah, we did right. So after the after the last bit, I we decided to split up. Because Sean reckoned he could find it on GPS, and I knew that Sean was one of the only people in the world who could fail to use a GPS. So I said, right, I'm going this way, you go that way, we'll see who gets there first. I've got how just no, no, no, right, no. No, right, how to be honest, I did not fail, right? Um no, he did. He no, he did, no, he did.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Admittedly, I did a bit, but annoyingly, the roads to Millennium Point, it was just like Some of them, some of them were closed.

SPEAKER_04 6:36

Shut shut up. Right, some of them get through. It's like will you stop interrupting, right? I was talking I don't care if you were talking, right? You're gonna tell me all your stupid anecdotes. The fact is, I saw that a lot of the roads were blocked off, right? But then I just use my common sense. When we split up, I saw, oh people, people appear to be going that way, and the city centre appears to be that way. I just followed them, and within minutes I was at Millennium Point at the thing. And then I was texting Sean pictures, well, sending Sean pictures of me, like just having a great time, like getting there, standing right outside, basking in the sun, and then I see for two minutes later Sean getting an Uber. How can you say you didn't fail when you had to rely on a local cab driver to get you to the fucking thing because you were so lost?

SPEAKER_01 7:18

I wasn't lost, it was like like if I right, so why did you get the Uber? Because I had to go all the way around, like the road was like like the it was just building those tires.

SPEAKER_04 7:28

So you sort so you sort of came, so you came back. So you came back So you came back the way that we came. Literally, yeah. Right, exactly. So so would you say that where the way that you were going, you didn't know where you were going? I did. Right, you did, did you? That's incredible. The one bit where I knew I was going was not accessible. Right, so sadly. I don't know, there's just part of me that would call that being lost, you know what I mean? Because you had to but yeah, anyway, I was I I get there, right? And straight away there's there's a geezer that's like, oh yeah, anyone who's starting their pools at 11, you can come in. So I got so I get into this special queue that I get in let in early, right? Special shut up. Right, I get into this special queue so I can be let in early, and then I said I tell Sean, right, if your pools are at 11, you can get in a special queue. So I say, come to the queue, come to the front where I am, at the front of the fucking queue. I thought you man just getting the special queue. And I just look back and I see Sean standing there, just he's looking at his phone. I've texted him, come to the front. He's looking directly at the text, just standing there, not moving.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

I was scrambling about trying to get the tickets. You're like each year, you don't really have to, you just state your name, and that's it, really.

SPEAKER_04 8:33

Yeah, I know, yeah. Because it's like that's a good way of I it was so it's essentially a password. Hanging out with you is so stressful when you have to be somewhere on time because you're like, I don't know, man, I've just got a feeling that it's this way. Anyway, I'm gonna call an Uber bye. How much did the Uber cost?

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Uh six quid. Um you know the funny thing is as well, it said, Oh, yeah, you sure you want to beat this journey because it's very near. But you had to go.

SPEAKER_04 8:58

To be honest with you, no, I'm not I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lie, it was piss easy to get here. Yeah, it was, yeah. I just went the way people were going because I just assumed people go via Primark. Sure went, oh yeah, it's this way. It was a fucking dead end. People were going the other way, I just went that way. It's that fucking simple, mate. What's wrong with you? Anyway, look, it's fighting for it. Yeah, yeah, fighting games, yeah. But anyway, look, we uh we came here and it turns out all m all of our games are at 4 pm anyway. Yeah, yeah. Well, I've got Grand Blue at 11, but uh can't be bothered to go to that one. It's 11. Yeah, my pools are at 11 for Grand Blue, but not going to that, baby. I don't want to play that game.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Don't like that cigarette.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

I'm I'm lighting it, mate. I'm gonna have five in a row, mate. I've got I've got all the time in the world. Anyway, we're gonna just spend our time playing the arcades downstairs because they've got uh Street Fight 2 Turbo, which we're competing in tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:50

So we're just gonna practice now.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Yeah, some wind jammers as well.

SPEAKER_04 9:53

Sean's just gonna get whooped.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Um absolutely not.

SPEAKER_04 9:56

He will get whooped.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

But yeah, we're gonna get some good practice in. Hopefully, as well at some point, the guilty gear ones will be free around one or two, one between one and two, the guilty gear ones.

SPEAKER_04 10:06

I mean, it was rammed up there. We unfortunately this year, because we're playing an anime fighter, we've been uh sequestered to the um anime layout upstairs. Now it doesn't smell at the moment, but I am.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Like we got to one bit and now it's yeah, it's already a bit bad.

SPEAKER_04 10:22

I mean, I mean like for normal fighting game players, a bit smelly. Yeah, anime fighting game players.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Well like like normal fighting game players are a bit smelly because the place is hot.

SPEAKER_04 10:33

Yeah, but they're smelly because it's hot and they didn't wash and they're virgins.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

That, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:39

But we're trying to get more listeners here, so maybe we shouldn't say stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

But anyway, do you remember where the arcades are or do you want to get an Uber there?

SPEAKER_01 10:45

I'll get an Uber.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_04 10:55

Well it's been a bit of a shit day so far. Was it? Uh so yeah. Well it's been it's been a mixed bag, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we've we our uh Guilty Gear tournament starts at four, right? Well our pool does.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:09

And so we've got a long time to wait. So we said like we'd just be happy sitting down practicing Street Fighter 2 for today's tomorrow's tournament for like hours and hours. Just sit on those arcades. They've got six of them on the go, four of which four of them aren't working. Yeah, it's been hours. Yeah, we something's not working with them.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

We went to uh yeah, yeah, there seems to be a problem, but we went to McDonald's to pass the time.

SPEAKER_04 11:35

We've got two machines set up opposite each other, right? So that doesn't that means one setup of to two players can play each other because they're the ones where you sit opposite, right? So we've got one versus game with Street Fighter 2 going on. Champion's sitting there, he goes, This winner stays on, mate. He's just murking everyone, right? So we wanted to practice, everyone wants to fucking practice, but nobody gets a chance. We're just playing up against the guy over and over. And I and we asked him to move and he said, You can go around that side, mate. If somebody loses, you can jump on, right? Yeah, and it's like it's like but you've been on here for an hour. Yeah, right. It's just common courtesy just to stand up and just let someone else have a fucking turn. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like I get that I get that it's when it stays on, but after a certain point, he must know as well. Yeah, like let people have fun. Yeah, you know that there are people waiting, and you're just saying, yes, but I keep winning, so I get another turn. So I spoke to him, and and I was just like, let's alright, mate, I think it's time to hop off. Like some other people want to have a turn on this, right? He walked off in a huff, but now it's sort of everyone's having fun, everyone's being courteous. The geezer that was playing Chun Lee, he won a match, but he still said you want to go. That's it, you're just being nice to your fellow Street Fighter 2 players.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Yeah, like everyone here loves fighting games, you know. We should just look out for each other, aren't it?

SPEAKER_04 12:45

It would be fine if it was just purely Winner Stays on if all six cabs were up and running. But hang on, we've got one set up that we can use, so we gotta we've got to like let other people have a turn. Um yeah, so now how long have we got? We got another three hours. Two and a half hours, mate. Two and a half hours till uh till our four o'clock tournament. Now we could go back to the hotel, but it's about an hour walk.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Yeah, but we'll get it, we could get the tram, could go play some bay blades for a bit and then come back and should do that.

SPEAKER_04 13:12

No, let's just stay here. We'll just I don't know. Well, this is more of an off-air discussion.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, it's probably gonna be really difficult to hear us because we're in the anime room. But just have to tell you a quick story, ladies and gentlemen. We're just sitting down playing some callegiance of guilty gear. There's a guy playing Calligan's next to us with his money. He loses, and he goes, What's we doing this year?

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Um smell small smell.

SPEAKER_04 14:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's fun. It is fun, and we got to be here all day. Alright, we're outside. Um just done some of our pulls, haven't we? Yeah, yeah, we so I had my grand blue pools this morning, they went really well. Um, because you weren't there like that. Yeah, yeah, I just didn't go. So somebody got a free win. I'm just doing a service, really.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:56

Um but you played your uh Grand Blue pulls. How did it go? Was it good?

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Well, um I phased up against the first guy and it was 3-2. Um it was a really, really close game. No, no, he won 3-2, but like it was down to like the last move. But it was a really fun match, and then I got phased up against one of the best Grand Blue players in the UK, so yes, we've seen her before at tournaments. Yeah, yeah, and you you lost to her at Portsmouth.

SPEAKER_04 15:23

I did when I came fourth in a Grand Blue tournament.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:26

Um, and she knocked me out uh in real life as well. It's not funny, it's too hot to be funny, isn't it? Yeah, it is. It is it's outrageous. There's some shade. We can see some shade over there, but we can't record in it because there's too many sweaty nerds over there. Yeah, yeah, I mean, um that's the problem. But um, so you're out of Grand Blue. And you're out Guilty Gear. Well, this let's not dwell on that. Let's not let's not mean to like snap it. So Guilty Gear, I was supposed to be on the fucking stream, but they couldn't uh I mean this is a fun side effect of uh the podcast. We put our team name down, it's Lucky and Wild. They thought we were pros and put us on the stream. But unfortunately, there was technical diffic di difficulties and uh they couldn't put us on. So I ended up playing against this geezer who was a gold-ranked Faust player, beat the shit out of him. I took I just I was just fucking like absolutely toying with him. Um that was good.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

No, it was it was good, he came into his own, but like you finished it before that, so it's good.

SPEAKER_04 16:24

Yeah, just just when he started to warm up was when I ended I ended things.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:28

Because that's the kind of guy I am. Um but then uh next played against a player playing Angie Mito, a character I've faced probably about three times.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Yeah, same here.

SPEAKER_04 16:37

So he never faced a good one either. And he was like, Oh, but it's high tier. I'm surprised you haven't fought him that much. It's like I don't know, it's weird, I haven't. And it's I've like played maybe three three four times. We've been to tournaments and I haven't seen an Angie there at all. Never, not once. So uh the result was I didn't know what the fuck was going on most of the time. He was doing shit that I I had no idea when I could interrupt his combos, no idea what was even happening. Like getting parried. It was mental, I hated it. Um so I went into losers bracket and played against the lady playing Soul Bad Guy. I did really well. You did, and I think that I gave her a run for her money, but unfortunately, I know if I was just a little bit better, I could have beaten her, but I didn't. And uh so I'm out of guilty gear too. But tomorrow, Street Fighter, innit? Yeah, so yeah, yeah, yeah. There's hope then. There's hope. I mean, the the current champion is is here, so yeah, but maybe he might get hit by a bus on the way to the convention, so you never know. There is actual sweat in my eyes. This is horrible. Um yeah, disappointing result, but you've still got your guilty gear coming up. I have because you're in the pools at six o'clock.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Yeah, yeah, which is in like 40 minutes or so.

SPEAKER_04 17:41

I've mate, I'm too hot. Can we can we just go yeah? I can't actually see because of all the sweat in my eyes. I'm holding the phone to record in one hand and a cigarette in the other, so it's pretty fine.

unknown 17:54

Right, bye everyone.

SPEAKER_04 18:02

Right. Well that's over. That's uh the day the day the day over the. Well, it's the day over, career over.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Career? My fighting game career.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

No, I think I think we did well, guilty gear. Like you were sort of saying, you like you were sort of saying not fair that like you know we had a fraction of the experience of other people.

SPEAKER_04 18:21

Yeah, I mean look, look, we we we did not expect to win at all because we have we we've been playing for like a tenth of the time of everyone else there, right? There's six years, seven years, they they've been playing hundreds and hundreds of hours. We've only been playing since the 2.0 update, right? But there's part of you though in there that's still there. You're just hoping hope that you get some good luck, face against some other nubs that have only started recently. Because I could beat those. Yeah, yeah, I could beat those. Those are fine. Like that geyser I played today. I beat what I beat one of those. I was just hoping to get all of those.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Yeah, I was hoping that.

SPEAKER_04 18:56

I didn't want anybody that has any experience. That's that's how I win. Tomorrow we've got the Street Fighter 2 Turbo tournament, and that guy we're gonna sort of try and put him off, like heckle him and that. Yeah, yeah. Try and t like tickle him a bit when he's playing.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Yeah, like yeah, just like sort of like jeer at him a bit.

SPEAKER_04 19:14

Don't you know? Yeah, we're gonna be good. Oh yeah, we're gonna jeer, we're gonna heckle, we're gonna tickle. Those are our techniques. Yeah, I know I don't expect to do well at that either, because we've kind of played that more on and off over the years.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Yeah, yeah, we like we play it mostly for fun, but you know, part of the tournament is like, you know, crushing that guy's dreams.

SPEAKER_04 19:33

Well, we can't hope to do that because he is the champion, but we hope to uh watch other people crush his dreams. Yeah, oh yeah. I tell you what though, what would be cool um is if I could beat him. Yeah, I would. But it won't happen. No, no, what I was gonna say was I did win a couple of games against some of the guys today though, didn't I? Yeah, you can't. I did alright. In Street Fighter, and uh there's some fierce competition, but I was getting some good reads on him and stuff, so tomorrow tomorrow could go alright. Yeah, probably won't, but at the very least we get to watch some really good players play and uh we've got our game start at eleven. I mean the m the mistake we made today was that we went in at eleven.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Yeah, we went in at eleven and after the game. Wind games were in the evening.

SPEAKER_04 20:15

Yeah, they were in the evening, and the Street Fighter cabs are being repaired, so we couldn't play on those. Um, we played a lot of wind jammers though. Great game. It is a great game. It is a great game, but it doesn't but you you you can't spend a whole day playing. Overall though, good day. And I think I did uh like I was saying outside, I think the thing about the Guilty Gear was like um we have a fraction of the experience and we're doing quite well. Yeah, because we didn't quite because it didn't actually clench the wind.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Yeah, yeah, like um your matches were interesting to watch and like you're the like the last guy on the road was quite a bit, to be honest. Oh, yeah, it was a go, yeah, yeah, sorry. Um and uh same with me, like I won like a few like a couple of rounds and that. Um like you know, if I come back next year, I'm pretty confident I can do pretty pretty well.

SPEAKER_04 21:04

Yeah, definitely. I think I think we just need to go back and practice. I mean, this isn't the funniest segment, but we are absolutely knackered. Like, even though we didn't expect it win, it's still a bit sort of crushed emotionally. Still a bit sore, so so what we need to do is go to the weather spoons to get some tea and then play Blay Blade, Blay Blades.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yeah, and drink a lot as well.

SPEAKER_04 21:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You've got to drink a lot.

unknown 21:27

You've got to do that.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

We're just hearing the spoons. Sean's ordering some food for us, right? Weather Spoons is a chain of budget pubs for those that don't know. Sean's ordering the food, right? I ordered a spice bag.

SPEAKER_04 21:49

Sean says, Do you want chips or coconut rice? A fucking stupid question. So you're gonna use all of your marker chili dip. Yeah, you want some of my dip. If you want your dip, get your own dip. Like, can I have a little splash of that? Can I have a little splash? This is because I never used mine, huh? Use it then. Don't be such a bitch.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

I forgot you're irritable.

SPEAKER_04 22:13

I'm not irritable in the mornings. No, I'm not. You're irritating in the morning. Right, anyway, listeners. So we're supposed to record a segment about today and what we're gonna do, right? Now we're in the lift. Just tell me if this is me being irritable or if this is Sean being irritating. I had to but none of my hands free. I needed to tap my card so that I could go so we could go up to our hotel room, right? I was holding an apple with one hand. Sean grabs the apple that we're about to eat, like with his full hand over it. Not like with his finger and thumb, so to get the least contact possible, but this entire massive dirty hand all over the surface of the food I'm about to eat. If I handed you like a burger like that, that'd be mental, wouldn't it? Yeah, it would. But also like tied to the uh irritable.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

You should have grabbed the coffee, not the whole apple with your horrible hands. I was opening a container and you got annoyed at that.

SPEAKER_04 23:07

Yeah, alright. Well maybe that was maybe both, really, I guess, but I'm tired. Street Fighter 2 though, man. What are your hopes? But I don't think I'm no, but you do you make a lot of weird noises. That that is that's true. Like, and on the first night, see this isn't even in the morning, so this demonstrates. Sean put this massive, like crinkly IKEA bag right in the middle of the floor. So every time I went to go for a piss, I would trip over it and it made the worst noise. And I was woken up at 3am by Sean going to the loop.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

It's the only time I can like sort of use the excuse. I was very drunk, so I just like I couldn't really play.

SPEAKER_04 23:42

You drank this morning with the with the apple in that really loud box. No. Right. Okay. So yeah, we're playing Street Fighter 2 today. Um yes, starts in it starts in an hour. We're just we're but we're playing that on original arcade hardware. There's about uh 12 people competing.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

No, there's 56. 56? Yeah, yeah. Um and also like they've uh when it won't cut! They've swamped out a lot of the parts, so um it'll be actually quite beneficial using the arcade parts, whereas before it was the old parts from uh five.

SPEAKER_04 24:13

It was like stock sunworth parts, and now they've got like really nice ones. So we'll be on stream today for a bit of it. The guy's name is Sing O. Oh, it is, yeah. On Twitch, yeah, yeah. So there'll be a VOD of it up. We might post some of it to our YouTube channel or something, but yeah, that'll be alright. Well that that'll be good. Sean, you're gonna be irritating? No, I think the greasy guy. Oh wait, actually, even after that, two two times in a row when we were waiting for the lift, Sean dropped his sunglasses on the he bent down to pick something up. His sunglasses are on his head, they fell off his head. He stood up, went, oh yeah, I forgot to pick that thing up while I was down there. Did it again, and his head they fell off, making such a loud noise. I wouldn't lie looking out and being like, man, that's irritating. Well, then you're there's something wrong with you because that is fucking irritating. So well, that's it. It's done, it's over. That's all that's all from the required playing we've got for this weekend done. Oh no, well, I mean we've got No no no no, we'll talk about that in a bit. But we just played Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Yeah, yeah, it's like it was really, really fun.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Yeah, it was a s a really good tournament actually, really good vibes.

SPEAKER_04 25:29

Uh shout out to Sego, the guys organised again. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

He's also sort of in the tournament as well. Um Slap and Fools left right.

SPEAKER_04 25:39

Slap and fools left right uh killing people, destroying their lives. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you played uh Vega, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

I play well, I played Vega and Honda. Like I got matched with like uh one of the best players there, my first off.

SPEAKER_04 25:53

Yeah, but you did you did it was a 3-2. Yeah, you beat him in two games, that was really impressive.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Thanks, man. Yeah, there were like pretty uh exciting matches.

SPEAKER_04 26:01

You cut Sean was doing like that Vega move where he dives about and that, and then uh there was a point where the guy was starting to read when Sean was going to do it really well, and I just told him just do fake ones and then just been a surprise one every so often, and it worked. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

But then he figured that out, and the third match was was done basically.

SPEAKER_04 26:17

Yeah, yeah, that's it, really. But then I I played against one of the best guys in there as well. Yeah, you did. My first game, it was a guy I was playing yesterday when we were doing casuals. I was playing him, he's a he's a blanker main, same as me.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

And he's incredible, like this is one of his favourite games.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

It was a really uh it was a high uh it was a highlight, really, because it was a really it was really it was a really fun set to watch. Um mirror matches can be annoying, but that blanco on blanco was really fun.

SPEAKER_04 26:40

It was pretty funny because we got to doing the blanker ball move and sort of like just firing across the screen at each other.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Yeah, like sort of standoff.

SPEAKER_04 26:47

And what was cool because we played against some of the good players.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

We both got on the stream on this F2.

SPEAKER_04 26:52

We did, and um, yeah, I mean I knew I was gonna lose against him, and to be fair, we hadn't practiced this game that much. My goal was just to play a game I really like and have fun. Yeah, yeah, that's and yesterday we played shitloads of casuals against some really, really nice people, and this this one we uh played against some like uh some cracking players and had fun. Yeah, yeah, some really nice guys. For us, it was a side tournament, and we just we were just like, let's just pick a game we like and don't give a shit about whether whether or not we do well.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Yeah, because we've played it on and off for so long, you know, we know it pretty well anyway.

SPEAKER_04 27:20

Yeah, so it's a good one just to jump in and do a side tour of it for because I don't need to like refresh my memory for it because it sort of never goes.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

I think, yeah, exactly. I mean I think that's the reason a lot of people are jumping on it.

SPEAKER_04 27:31

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, there's 56 players in the street. That's more than City of the Wolves. So tomorrow, basically, uh ladies and gentlemen, it's gonna be all the top eights. So we just want to go and watch the finals for all the games. There's Guilty Gear, King of Fighters 15, then Faculty Fury, City of the Wolves. That's what we want to watch.

SPEAKER_07 27:47

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:47

But Virtual Fighters at the same time as the Guilty Gear finals. So which one which one would you pick? Um I mean I'd probably pick like to be honest, Guilty Gear. I'm just sort of Yeah, because to be honest, I would rather rather actually literally die than play Virtual Fighter, I think.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Um I wouldn't rather literally die, but I would there's a lot more I'd do. Yeah, probably play Super Turbo.

SPEAKER_04 28:11

Watch paid dry. I don't know. But yeah. So but Super Turbo, we're gonna hang around because uh the finals are later on, we're gonna watch those.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:21

And it's gonna be it's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

I would love to win an SFT tournament.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

I'd love to win anything to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Yeah, I mean I am a third placer, but you know, I'd love to win.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Yeah, yes, you placed third at Portsmouth, yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:33

But the UK's biggest fighting game tournament are you doing? Uh not well. 50 something?

unknown 28:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

Yeah, not no, but yeah, it was good though. I mean, I'm happy with how it performed. So it's just like I I'm just excited to come back next year and for that and guild gear to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 28:47

Oh yeah, yeah, that's that that's it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

But um we're gonna be training in third strike. I'm gonna be with you.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

Makoto, obviously. She's cool, she's got big feet, you know, like that.

SPEAKER_04 28:58

No, that is a weird thing.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Fred Flintstone feet, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:01

Yeah. Um right, but anyway, we noticed that in the merch room there's a Tekken 3 arcade set up, so we're gonna go and play that for a bit.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_04 29:25

We just watched the finals of Street Fighter 2 Turbo.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

The matches were excellent. It was just uh it was just go-kar jump guy one again, so I know you've got to do what works in a fighting game, right?

SPEAKER_04 29:37

But he's got a one punch, huh? He's just it's got three, it just uses three moves. Yeah, crouching heavy, doesn't even use flashballing uses flash very rarely, because at the end, right? Um the organiser, Singh, Sing-O, he was he he was he was like, he's the man I was rooting against. It's root cold car Jack. Like, whenever somebody else was doing well, everyone was going mental. Yeah, they were, yeah. Right. When gold car Jack did something, it was like it was literally just like one pity applause from like one guy, literally one guy. I suppose we had to cheer when he lifted the trophy, you know.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

But we're gonna come back and crush him next year.

SPEAKER_04 30:14

There's no way that's gonna happen, but I'll try my best. But um no, it's just a bit gutting because the the uh losers uh final because it was double elimination, was like between a guy that was playing Ken and uh a geezer that was playing Chan Bullrog, right? Bullrog, yeah. And we we just knew the Bullrog player was like uh one of the best players I've ever seen, but we knew that the Ken guy had a better chance at beating Golkar Jack. 100%, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

As soon as the like Ken got in close or whatever, it was insane. Like some of the best combos I've seen in Street Fighter 2, if I'm honest.

SPEAKER_04 30:48

And to be fair, the the Bullrog player like it it was really, really amazing. Yeah, and did it and had him so on the ropes, despite their previous match being like very um one-sided. So he had the strategy of uh like pushing him in the corner right at the beginning, and then just destroying him, yeah. Yeah, like it was like a trade, but then because the thing is if you if you do go the by the way, the player that the um almost beat him was uh by the name of Genesis, incredible player and uh bad matchup and managed to almost beat him. Yeah, yeah, it was a bit gutting because it was Genesis came close to beating him. So I think to be fair, like that old sagout could have beaten to be fair. Yeah, there was a geezer using the old version of Saga with the Street Fighter 2 turbo, and it was a yeah, it was just annoying because losers bracket the way it worked out was that a really talented player ended up getting through losers bracket and and making it to the final, but he wasn't the one to beat Gold Car Jack and I just no, no, and it I don't know, it was just a bit gutting. You could tell there was three guys in front of us who were sat watching it, and you could tell they were like rooting for Genesis as well. Like everyone was getting hype as fuck when he was started doing cool shit, and it was like everyone like gave us knowing looks and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh gutting. It's a shame. But anyway, just before we go, let's talk about how much money. Now, these people are the best players in the world. How much were they competing for? Uh £20, wasn't it? It started out at £10.99, then somebody uh donated a tenner, so it's £20.99 divided by eight people. But but to me, it's it sounds cringe, but it was sort of like that's sort of part of the security of fighting games, huh? Yeah, the the the passion that people are playing this fucking 30-year-old game and absolutely fucking loving it, and playing for less than a price of a can of coke.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Yeah, like the trophy, like there's a lot of respect for the trophy and stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_04 32:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That that's what you're really playing for. Yeah, but the £1.55, that's a bonus. Um well that is it, that's it for our actual playing, isn't it? We're done. So we're to Is it is it though? We're talking about uh Virtual Fighter, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, so we we we're done actually playing games, but we've got a new game tomorrow. And it's called Avoiding Everyone That Plays Virtual Fighter. Oh no, it's yeah, that's the real toy. That's the real game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna get gold in that, I reckon. But uh but tomorrow, yeah, we're gonna just uh we've got a day of watching and drinking beer, which is gonna be excellent. Yeah, it's gonna be well beer. And now we're off to Pizza Hut for dinner. Uh why did you do that? Uh just end like yeah, Sean did like a cut and cut motion there. That's good good end scene. You don't direct this though, I direct it. Okay, when should we end it then? Alright, so that's the end of day two. Yeah. Day two.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Day two.

SPEAKER_04 34:08

Um probably the best one, I think. It was the best one. It's just the it's just that Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo is a better game than most games.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

To be fair, like uh like Singh's tournaments, they always bring the energy as well. Like uh the Super Turbo tournament is run run by Sing O, as we said before, but you know, uh like there was a lot of people there who are just like, you know, just love the competition, really friendly.

SPEAKER_04 34:33

But we did notice that he had him and his mates, they had a tag, like a clan name or an esports organisation, I don't know what you would call it, called DWO. He's obviously like Third Strike's his main game, because I looked up his clan, and it means Dudley World Order, Dudley being a character from Third Strike, right? So I think Super Turbo was like obviously he put loads of effort in, but the real thing is Third Strike.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

Yeah, you wanted Third Strike to pop off, basically.

SPEAKER_04 34:59

So we need to come back and play Third Strike next year. But um a couple of observations. Well, one thing was that I did get banned from his chat while the game was going on. And I didn't do anything wrong, it was an auto mod thing. It was that German player, I can't remember his name, but he just played an absolute blinder, and I just put in the chat, I was because I had the stream on my phone, I put in the chat um Big Dick Energy from whatever the player's name was. It wasn't like me being nasty, I just said big dick energy.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Yeah, like you played well or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 35:31

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then I was like, I I was thinking to myself, shit, I've been banned, like that's not a big deal, but I'm like, I want to continue watching the guy's stream. So I was like, I went over to the guy that was running the stream and was like, alright, I've just been banned from chat. What I did not say anything about it, I just said big dick energy. I didn't realise it was that you weren't allowed to swear in the chat.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

Um and yeah, he thankfully unbanned me, which is pretty nice of him. That's kind of graceful. Quite the roller coaster.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

Yeah, yeah, you go flightly, really.

SPEAKER_04 35:58

Could have gone either way. Um but uh no, the other thing is obviously we've we had a few observations today, right? Uh we were walking back from from having our tea, right? And I was it was just I was just walking through and I was like, I saw so many so many crackheads, right? I walked past uh a pair of crackheads, one of them was bent over like a sort of fentanyl style, and the other one was going, Come back, mate, where you gone? Where you gone? Like, but all like about 50 different crackheads on the way here. Oh, that was that one last night. Yeah, and it was dancing at you. Yeah, he was he he was he had a magnum in his hand. For those that don't know, that's a Jamaican tonic wine. He was at he had one of those and he was dancing at me, and I was bringing a crate of beers back up to the room, and this guy was like, Come on, give me a drink in it. And I was like, What were you on about? I was like, No, mate, these are all for me. And he was just like, Come on, give me a drink in it. And I was just like, Alright, I'm I just walked off.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

I mean, luckily he wasn't one of those stabby crackheads, but he did but you you did politely sort of say you're rationing like this for the for the whole time you're here.

SPEAKER_04 37:01

Exactly. I was like, this is for my whole weekend. But like but like just the and and the stench, the amount of rubbish on the floor as well. Like there's rubbish everywhere. We accidentally went to a bad part of town earlier. I mean, literally every person you saw was a crackhead. It was like crazy, man. It's mental. Everyone's shambling about. But then when we go down to breakfast each morning, right? Okay, there's but but for those that don't know, for those in America or out outside of the UK, right? Birmingham has a very high Indian and Pakistani and Sri Lankan population, right? So if we go down to breakfast in the morning, we see people from those countries, fair enough. That means they're on holiday here spaying in this hotel because they're visiting family. That's a good reason to come to Birmingham. It is, yeah. Right. But we saw people from Liverpool, people from London, like what are you doing? What are you what are you doing coming here on purpose? It's the worst place.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Well you'd hope people would be here for work and stuff like that. But they look but they look like they're on holiday. Yeah, a lot of people are on holiday with their families and that. It's a bit mental.

SPEAKER_04 38:04

Why would you come to Birmingham? Uh in the UK we have like some nice seaside towns that anyone could like access at any time. Go to Brighton, go to Eastbourne, but don't come to Birmingham. It's the worst place. Like, I know, uh and look, to be fair, we're from near London, and London is bad. Right? That's a shithole as well. And in fact, UK is mostly shitholes, but like Birmingham just really the fact that it is notable, it really takes the cake. And there was a point where on day one, where we were sort of hanging around, we were so bored we trip took a trip to CEX, that's computer exchange, for those that don't know, just to look at the games. We don't even buy physical games at this point, but we were that fucking bored waiting around. I was hoping there'd be an arcade stick that like might excite me. Yeah, you might just look at it and go, Yeah, that's nice. Yeah, yeah. But but like, like, and we were sort of hunting around for Beyblade shops as well. Like we found one. We found one, the Entertainer, had a very light stock in there. But like, it was just having a look around this this uh this city. There's been building works by Millennium Point where the tournament's taking place. Those have been going on years. Nothing's happened.

SPEAKER_01 39:10

Since I've been uh going to VS Fighting, uh these building works have not moved a single edit.

SPEAKER_04 39:15

Like you'd expect maybe to see the building that they're building to be at least a metre high at this point, but it's not, there's nothing there. Or a s or a frame at least. Just a frame, a bit of scaffolding.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

But it's a nice central place for the uh for the con though.

SPEAKER_04 39:34

Yeah, yeah, like the play the uh Millennium Point is actually a nice place to hold it as well. It's in a university, univers CC University at Birmingham. But bear in mind, right? That's it, that's a nice portion. It is a nice university, and I'm not gonna say which university I go to, but it has a branch here. How shit must must that be? I mean, I don't know. We some people at my uni debate whether or not it even exists, but um yeah, I don't know, it's just funny because we've got a reason to be here. I'm like, okay, I look every every everywhere I look, there's like murderous crackheads and like vampires and ghouls and things, but like but like it but but it's like it's cool because we're doing something. Yeah, yeah, we but you walk down the road like we're on on Broad Street, which is the nicer part of town, and it's mental out there. It's absolutely mental. There's crackheads dancing at you, and then like Broad Street's got some weird energy though, threatening energy. It's mental, and the music they're listening to is very odd. It's like they're stuck ten years ago. Yeah, yeah. I was I was going down the road and there was uh what's that what's that song? Um Slide to the Left, Slide to the Right, Pop Two Times, that one, right? That was playing out of a bar. And I was like, they usually put that on at the end of the night to stop drunk people from fighting each other.

SPEAKER_01 40:46

And also, when was the last time you've seen a walkabout bar as well?

SPEAKER_04 40:49

There's a walkabout bar. Yeah, there's so many like odd things that you haven't seen in years, like brands you thought were dead are still going here. Songs that you thought people had moved on from 25 years ago are still being played at every fucking pub.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

Do you think um like part of why people go on holiday here is because they set Broad Street up like a sort of holiday-ish bar at bartender?

SPEAKER_04 41:08

Actually, it sort of has got that atmosphere, isn't it? It's like bars where it's like, come and buy a beer and get free shot away. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

Yeah, they've even got that going, like the free sh watery shots when you go in or whatever, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 41:19

I have to say though, the the the I won't say which hotel we're staying in, but the hotel we're staying in is really um really really nice. Top notch. It's just that it's just the the second you step outside, it's like a blight actually that was funny. Early earlier on I was trying to mock Sean because we he was he was taking us to um uh co-op to go and get more beer, right? And um we came out on a side like on one side of the uh of the um tournament and there was nothing there. And I said to Sean, like trying to mock him for taking us to a place where nothing was. I said, What is this desolate wasteland? And Sean said Birmingham. So uh yeah. I don't know, it's just uh just an observation. It's a it's an odd place. Yeah but the good thing about being stuck in the 90s is beers are very cheap.

SPEAKER_01 42:02

Um things are cheap rounding.

SPEAKER_04 42:05

Things are cheap, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

And also it is a nice central location, so like everyone.

SPEAKER_04 42:10

Central, we had to try it for three hours to get it. Who's it who's it central for? People that live in Birmingham. Uh well, like you know I suppose it's easy to get to via transport links.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

Yeah, that's what I mean. Um, like people from all the scenes from all over the country can cut like come to Birmingham.

SPEAKER_04 42:25

Yes, and Europe, to be fair, because there's a large bunch of German people that are here and Americans and stuff like that, which I hate as a racist. That was a joke, and I'm not racist. I love all of them. Except the Portuguese.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

And it's nice to like see the tournament grow. You know, it's it's like even bigger than last year.

SPEAKER_04 42:43

It's crazy. I mean, there's so many people here. We saw the we weren't participating, but the Tekken 8 tournament, there's so many people there. When shit was popping off in game and people were cheering, how loud was that? It was like a football crowd. And yet you look over at the virtual fighter bit, not growing, not growing like the rest. It's weird because last year there had 24 people on Street Fighter 2 Turbo, this year 56. What's happening with the Virtual Fighter numbers? Can you get uh can you um this year is probably slower? Hang on a minute, I'm looking at the tournament standings here. We got Mr. Morden, Dr. Colon, who's Mr. Mor Oh, he's entered himself twice. What?

SPEAKER_01 43:19

Uh um That's probably an error. Probably score as well.

SPEAKER_04 43:22

Score has come from Japan. The score has come from Japan, but he wouldn't play that shit. He did play. I mean that game. He did play it last year, though. Did he? Yeah, yeah. What is wrong with him? Um probably wanted to get lying to the Sega World Championship. Yeah, just for something to do, innit? It's because it's easy, you can just mop it up. There's only about three people that play that game. You enter, you're getting in the Sega World Championship.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

Imagine like coming from Japan to go to Birmingham as well.

SPEAKER_04 43:47

Well we uh yeah. Oh my god. Excellent combo, but yeah, I mean that yeah, that as long as you don't leave the hotel, you go straight from your hotel, straight to the event, you'll have a good time. Yeah, exactly. Anything in between pizza. That was pizza was really nice.

SPEAKER_03 44:11

Final day. I'm watching Sean very loudly drink the water. Well, how do you do how do you manage that?

SPEAKER_04 44:20

How do you manage to be so cool? Yeah. Thanks for asking. I am great. So today we've got a lot to look forward to. In the morning we've got the Guilty Gear Strive finals.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

Yeah, we have.

SPEAKER_04 44:33

That's gonna be great. Moving on to the next thing, KOF 15 finals. What do you mean what? No, the next thing is the Virtue Fighter Tournament. Oh yeah, yeah. So the the Guilty Gear starts at 10. The Virtue Fighter Tournament starts at 11. Sean wants to leave the Guilty Gear Finals to go and play that.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

Oh man.

SPEAKER_04 44:51

It's a shit game. You know, our friends in that, in it, so you know. So the but I don't know. Jesus Christ himself could be playing it, couldn't convince me to go and play Virtufighter. So um I think I'll be watching the Guilty Gear Finals. Sean's gonna be playing a shit game. Um why are you doing that? No, aren't you aren't you doing it? Did you not bring your emotions? No, baby, I did not bring a controller because I know I will not need it. Yeah? I literally have not bought it. Sean just checked my bag. Are you gonna borrow my cat? I would not borrow it. Right, anyway, um let's go and watch some uh watch the finals of various games. It's gonna be amazing. And uh and then also Virtuafighter. Do you have to faff around with your bag while we're recording?

SPEAKER_01 45:42

Well you said virtue fighters.

SPEAKER_04 45:43

Oh right, so that's you thought it was the end. Oh yeah, I forgot. No, that's good, though. No, that's yeah, yeah, no, no, no, that's good because uh as I was midway through speaking, the listeners can hear your bag rustling around and you putting all of your various weed things in there. I forgot you were the biggest. I mean not that, I mean tobacco product. I forgot you were the director. It's not about me being the director, it's about if you hear somebody if it's being recorded, why would you do that? Well, you're very you're unprofessional. I was just having my antibiotics. You're not an intellectual. Come back here. Alright, we we're sorry about the noise here. We're watching the Guilty Gear Strive finals. Now, as we all know, Guilty Gears Drive is a bit like Tekken in a lot of ways. Uh it's a Tekken like.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

I'm sort of trying to say this so that the to troll the people around me.

SPEAKER_04 46:39

Um basically same inputs, uh similar game. It's a 3D fighter, and any 3D fighters basically like Tekken, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 46:47

I don't think anyone's reacting to it.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

No, no, no, no, nobody cares. Yeah, but inside they're getting very upset.

SPEAKER_01 46:52

Yeah, yeah, no good. But um, yeah, the Guild Gear Strive finals have been hype, but you know, it's unfortunate because your game's coming up in Virtue Fighter, but we've had an amazing Potemkin via triple file driver into the perfect moment.

SPEAKER_04 47:05

It was so that was that was hype as shit to be fair. Um sorry for saying this Tekken, like if that annoyed you, you're the problem.

SPEAKER_01 47:13

Just to just send them some feedback, let us know if it annoyed you, and we'll send that feedback straight to the fucking bin.

SPEAKER_04 47:20

Um yeah, but no, it's been really good, it's really really good so far, isn't it? Absolutely brilliant, really, really exciting. Um has convinced me that I've picked the wrong character yet again. This is what always happens. I bring it to a tournament and I'm like, shit, there's a reason they're fucking D tier. Oh well, never mind. Uh at least you know, I know. Yeah, great, yeah. Yeah, spent a year figuring that out. A year, so it's only been long.

SPEAKER_02 47:43

Oh, a couple of months, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, anyway, uh, we've got to carry on watching. Two athletes on the stage.

SPEAKER_04 48:00

Right, we're recording outside again. Um now my game of virtual fighter is supposed to be happening now, right? We we're watching the Guilty Go finals, but we went out to get some snacks and we'll watch the last couple of matches. Trouble is we went down to the virtual fighter bit. I said I might just go and play my games. It's a very depressing affair down there. No, it's how many players?

SPEAKER_01 48:23

We were joking around, but it is actually sort of a sullen atmosphere.

SPEAKER_04 48:29

Yeah, it's like no, nobody's talking, everyone's sitting there looking like fairly miserable.

SPEAKER_01 48:34

Yeah, yeah. Um still hard. I'm still like undecided on whether to hop in on my game.

SPEAKER_04 48:40

Just go and play your game. Just go and play your little game and then we'll go back to watching some real games.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

I'll scoop up a couple of wins with Shun, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 48:49

But these are guys that that's what the they they're gonna beat you, man.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

Oh yeah, yeah, they've got that attacking shit going on, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 48:55

Yeah.

unknown 48:57

Alright.

SPEAKER_04 48:57

Yeah. Well we'll look, we if we go up and we can sneak up the other set of stairs that goes to the auditorium, they might not know that's us. Heads down, get in there. Like a navy operation, like a spec option.

SPEAKER_01 49:11

Marching.

SPEAKER_04 49:12

No, we're not marching, we're sneaking.

SPEAKER_02 49:14

Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, nobody knows.

SPEAKER_04 49:24

Right, we're at the entrance to the building. It's about a 10-metre stretch of pure virtual fighter area that we're gonna need to sneak through to get to the auditorium and hopefully not get noticed by any of the organisers and or people we know from playing previously. Right, Sean, you ready?

SPEAKER_01 49:42

Alright, let's go. Espionage mission.

SPEAKER_04 49:44

Espionage. Right, I'm sneaking through. I'm hiding behind a wall. It's obscuring. Right. There's what's the layer of the land? There's a there's a match going on at the moment. People are looking at it.

SPEAKER_01 49:58

If we go, if we go round, if we go round.

SPEAKER_04 50:01

Alright, let's go right. Okay, three, two, one, go. Go, go, go. I'm walking through the I'm walking through the floor, I'm not looking at anyone. Luckily, they're concentrating on a game. The staircase, there's a table in the way. I can see Mr. Morden. He looks like he's gonna turn around. And I'm on the stairs. I'm going. Two stairs at a time. Fast as I can.

SPEAKER_02 50:21

I made it, ladies and gentlemen. I made it to the auditorium without being seen.

SPEAKER_04 50:36

I'm about to go into the King of Fighters finals, and I just want to capture Sean's genuine reaction because you are not gonna believe the crowd that is in there. Right, let's just I mean, I just went in here, it's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 50:53

Just describe what you see.

SPEAKER_01 50:55

Uh there's uh like five chairs set out, and uh there's about ten people. Oh AT is there.

SPEAKER_04 51:01

Eight is there, yeah. Yeah. Alright, so uh probably do something else for a bit. Um right, let's go over here. You so you So I played in Virtual Funtop, my heart was not in it.

SPEAKER_01 51:15

Um and uh, you know, I feel worse off for having played it.

SPEAKER_04 51:20

Well, because what happened is Sean left the guilty game finals. I got to watch it all right. Ended up with um Andros and Seichi in the final, one of which was playing Potemkin, the other one was playing um Zato, and the losers bracket finals were fucking incredible, tense. The the final match with Potemkin hit the hit the um three power drivers in a row again, getting a perfect for the final game of the fucking thing. It was incredible. Everyone stood up, they were going mental, it was a packed auditorium. Yeah, yeah. It was fucking incredible. Meanwhile, what was happening in Virtufire?

SPEAKER_01 51:56

Not much.

SPEAKER_04 51:56

I mean uh the mood was very somber in there, and it was uh but the pools, uh the pools most people turned up for their games today. Pool one nearly everyone didn't turn up. How many people were down there? Three nine that one? Um we can see it from here there's well pool two's kicking about seven, seven people then? Yeah, Mr. Modern's gonna win the trophy, man. He saw me and he looked at me. Have you interacted with him?

SPEAKER_01 52:19

Yeah, yeah. I mean he just And it was he alright? He just waved his army, mate.

SPEAKER_04 52:23

Okay, good, good. But um he looked at me, he looked a bit annoyed to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 52:27

Yeah, because you ducked out the tone of it.

SPEAKER_04 52:30

Yeah. I have better things to do. Um I was actually I was actually downstairs watching a paint drying competition.

SPEAKER_01 52:36

It's a shame because I changed my name this year. I I mean I could have gone without him knowing. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:42

You just wasted time. You missed an incredible guilty gear. I don't know where Sean's just walking off. You missed an incredible guilty gear final.

SPEAKER_01 52:48

I'm just thinking about how annoyed about Virtue Fighter.

SPEAKER_04 52:51

Yeah, I mean what Sean just said there was I was just thinking about how annoyed I am about Virtue Fighter. I'll translate because it's a loud auditorium and you're speaking like a mouse.

SPEAKER_01 52:59

Sorry about that.

SPEAKER_04 53:01

Uh are we gonna go watch King of Fighters first? Definitely not! You're joking, aren't you? If we if we go in there with the five fucking chairs set out, five chairs? To watch a fucking thing. We go in there. How awkward is it gonna be if we want to move halfway through, if we want to leave? Do you think that's just where like they're just practicing King of Fighters at the moment? No, that's where the fucking finals are, mate. It's in a tiny you should see this place, ladies and gentlemen. It's like a really, really massive place. Beautiful uh setting for a tournament, and then like off to a side and then in essentially be a medium-sized cupboard. There is the King of Fighters and Fatal Fury. Fatal Fury are that favourite game of all time. It's it's there's nobody in there, there's nobody there to watch it. It's just the people competing, and there's only about four people.

SPEAKER_01 53:46

Uh King of Fighters before all the pros came as well, and the SNK World Championship started, but uh it will always was a low-count game. They didn't have it last year because of that reason.

SPEAKER_04 53:56

Unless you're in Mexico, you really aren't getting a game for that game. And that's not me knocking it, because it's a fucking spectacular game. But the but the bear in mind, we were this close, and I'm doing a gesture to indicate small for those that are listening at home, we were this close to to actually practicing King of Fighters and coming to compete in it. Thank God we fucking didn't. Yeah, I'm so glad. I'm so glad. I'm so glad we went with Guilty again, because that was hype as fuck. We got our games were quick, there were loads of people there, cracking players. Meanwhile, King of Fighters is like the three best players in the world, and that's it. Yeah, like E.T.'s in a hovel on his own. E.T., E.T., one of the greatest fighting game players of all time. In a cupboard by himself. Playing King of Fighters, what's happened now? Can we do listen? Listen, fighting game community, can we play good games, please? Yeah, I mean How's Street Fighter 6 in the auditorium? It's one of the dullest dishwater games ever. And meanwhile, King of Fighters, you're putting ET in a cupboard. Nobody puts him in a cupboard.

SPEAKER_01 54:51

Uh like one of the best moments of last year with uh, you know, uh the final with the K of F SWC, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 54:59

It was incredible. That was one of the greatest fighter game tournaments ever. And most of the pros said exactly that, right? But like nobody likes watching Street Fighter 6 tournaments. It's it it's it is fucking boring. Um Well look, I think we'll skip King of Fighters. We might go and watch City of the Wolves, we'll see how it goes, because there might be more people up there for that one. Yeah. Because it is more I don't know if it's more popular. It's current, more current. It's more current.

SPEAKER_01 55:22

Um I mean saying current is quite uh I don't know a heavy word for City of the Wolves because I don't think it is, but it's never has been new inch.

SPEAKER_04 55:30

But should we go and uh play some arcade games or something?

SPEAKER_01 55:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:42

Right, so we we we headed back to our hotel for a little while because we got fucking ages until we were gonna watch the City of the Wolves, but we decided we're gonna watch Third Strike instead because City of the Wolves is a depressing affair.

SPEAKER_01 55:53

Yeah, I mean it just came out last year, and uh there wasn't a big turnout last year uh for people watching the final, but you know, this year it's been rejected to the connect area, which is now look, it's the tiniest room. That's the area where fighting games go to die, to be honest.

SPEAKER_04 56:10

No, we'll get back to we'll get to this on the next main episode, but uh there was some cunt on Reddit that was doubting me that the game was dead, um, and we'll get to his comment next time on the feedback. But um yeah, I think if you're if it's your main fighting game, right, and you turn up to the biggest event in Europe um and it's completely f and there's only four people in the room, yeah. I think it's a bit dead, mate. You stupid twice. But um no, anyway, we were coming up in the lift, and I said to Sean, we we we're thinking of getting a bit more into Street Fighter Third Strike. We don't know if we should use a stick or levelless because it's an old game, levelless inputs might have to be really, really unbelievably clean. Um but I just said right, well why don't we play over the third strike when we get up to the hotel on my laptop? And Sean's like you can you can do that. Like I just talked about some sorcery or black you could just you can play it on your laptop. I mean it's gonna be fun. Yeah, yeah, but why are we so baffled by that? Um you can you can do that.

SPEAKER_01 57:09

No, you can just play a game. I don't know, I guess I was surprised.

SPEAKER_04 57:17

It's amazing how silly I was gonna say something worse, but it's amazing how how little you know sometimes. Um my laptop is on it's just got a third strike on it. Oh nice guy.

SPEAKER_02 57:30

Yeah, very odd.

SPEAKER_04 57:40

Man's at the Street Fighter 3 Third Strike Finals. Sean, what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 57:45

Uh there's more people here than there were at the virtual fighter tournament in total. So it's gonna be an exciting one.

SPEAKER_04 57:52

To be fair, uh there were more people at a model railway convention that I went to recently than there were a virtual fighter. Actually, that was a lot more fun. Why were you there? I mean. What have you got against model railways?

SPEAKER_02 58:06

I haven't, I just they're cool as shit, that's why I was they're cool as shit, that's why I was there.

SPEAKER_04 58:12

Why would you why would you go to a model railway event? This is random seven, you're um model railway. Well, what you got against trains? Are you transphobic? No, I'm not nice, nice. That was a good joke. No, we'll end it there because I no no I did a good joke. We don't even need to talk about that. Yeah. It's the last it's the last thing of this event, so we're gonna get hammered and watched the striking mental. It's good.

SPEAKER_01 58:41

And also hosted by the great Virtua Chip Shop, you know.

SPEAKER_04 58:45

Virtua Chip Shop is the yeah, the event host hosted by Singo Legend. Looks hard as fuck, wouldn't want to mess with him.

SPEAKER_01 58:52

Yeah, me neither, me neither.

SPEAKER_04 58:54

But not in like a threatening way like Mount Gla uh like other tournament organisers we know.

SPEAKER_06 58:59

Like bad one, shake it out. Third strike yeah, shout shake it out.

SPEAKER_00 59:06

Winners rehab last year's champion, jewel box!

SPEAKER_01 59:14

Alright, well third strike tournament was like incredible to be honest.

SPEAKER_04 59:20

Really, really good, and we won't get into too much detail, but it was um a fellow by the name of Tamraz and uh Jewelbox, the previous champion, uh, and he was playing Elena and just unbelievable, ridiculously high execution game knowledge from this kind. And no, don't want to call him that, because he was a he was a cracker player. What I mean is kind of in the sense that he was a he was a strong man. Um he was playing Elena, and the thing about third strike is it's just such a high in infinite skill ceiling because of the parry system, right? You press forward when an attack hits and you parry it. So you're literally doing the opposite of blocking to parry it. It's the ultimate risk award system. But this guy was doing it constantly, just knew every move. And he was he was doing throws off of it and stuff like that. Oh, insane. Yeah. So we were rooting for Tamraz, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:22

We I mean uh and how did you how how did you root for him? Um I did not. No, in the final. No, no, no, because when you're in the crowds you've got to get a bit of buzz going, haven't you? It helps out. I'll try it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What happened? You gotta throw some sort of. Go on, tell me what happened.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:35

I was trying to get a chant going.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:37

Sean, just how I know it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

No, one guy weakly said it once. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:44

Sure, sure, sure. Let's get a chant going. Let's go, Tamras! Do do do do. I mean, it works for all the other games, to be honest. Everyone like Yeah, but do you know do you know typically they do it when the round's over, not while you're watching the fight? The round was over. No. It just a new game had just begun. Um well. Uh do I apologise now? Uh sorry, Tamras. Um, but yeah, um But he apparently, according to Singo, he's been competing here for five years and uh always comes second, and this is his first first place win. And I overheard in the crowd, it's his anniversary tomorrow. Oh, that's good. So I'm sure his wife will love it. The uh ultimate anniversary gift, he'll go home and go, shit, what did you give me for my anniversary? Well I've got this I've got this this trophy and this medal. Well you got some like you got like a fistful of cash as well, yeah. That's true. The fit so you can treat it to a nice dinner, that'll make up for the lack of present because he's been too busy on third strike. And the lack of presents as well. That's what I just said. But uh presents yeah, you said it plural. I only said yeah, exactly. I said uh exactly, I said single, so yeah, but like oh presents that's good, yeah. It's a word joke, but um that does mean that the tournament, the event is now over, we're now walking through Birmingham City. It smells like death, crime on a technical level is guilty get dead? Are we switching to third strike? When you play when you play online fighting games, right? The quality of online does not equate to the quality of players playing on um offline. No, no, because I I stump most people on Guilty Gear Online, but offline exactly and I you know I'm I got to a masters in Street Fighter, all of this, right? I'm a very good guilty gear player, and online I just have no problem, right? No, you don't. I'll just keep ranking up. When you go to offlines, they're the real players. Yeah, they are and they have their own little groups and they're all playing with each other. It's their own little sequel group, huh? Exactly. Now just listen to me. Is there an easy way to get be a part of those own little groups? Are the players on fight cade offline quality?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:05

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:07

They are, yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:08

Yeah, they are.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:09

So I'm thinking that Fight Cade is a better training experience. Fight Cade being an online tool for playing classic fighting games. A lot of the best British fighters are uh are there on Fight Cade. And all the best in the world.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:21

So you're gonna be playing against the same people that you are online, offline, and all the best third strike players are gonna be there. Do we switch?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:30

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:31

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, it's been good since the two Okay, so Harrison here. At this point, the footage that we had was way too uh noisy and windy. But the thing we speak about is essentially that there was a side tournament held at VS Fighting for a Jeopardy tournament, like the fucking game show. Um, and we went up to go for a piss at one point, and the trophy table is right near the loo, um, and we saw the Jeopardy trophy there unclaimed. Everything was fucking closing down, but Sean saw the Jeopardy trophy, and uh yeah, I mean look, I'll just say, he wanted to nick it, right? He was like, nobody wants this, I'm having it. So he scooped it up in his arms and uh then started to walk out of the venue, and uh then he put it in his bag, and I was like, Sean, this is something that you may regret later. Just take it out of your bag and put it on this table, right? He puts it on the table, we leave, we go and have the discussion you just heard, right? Anyway, um we're standing at the tram stop waiting for the tram to go back to our hotel, and Sean's like, but but nobody even wanted it, man. Like, nobody would notice if it's a crime. Um maybe I should go back and get it. And I'm just like, look, you do what you want to do, I'm not a part of this. And uh here we have uh the the aftermath. Just want to point out, I'm currently at the uh tram stop by myself waiting for waiting for the uh tram to uh to go back to the hotel. I can see Sean, I can see Sean running back to Millennium Point where the tournament is, and uh he's running basically that trophy is currently sitting on a table and it says, Please take me, right? And there's a bunch of lanyards, a bunch of wristbands, all this shit on there, right? Currently the Jeopardy trophy is sitting on that table. Sean is gonna go back and say, Is anything on this table fair game? Can I have it? Then he's gonna take the Jeopardy trophy. The reason I'm recording this is because I'm not complicit in this crime one bit and have nothing to do with it. He is deciding to do this of his own free will, and I don't have anything to do with it. Notably, I'm not even in the same area as him, and he is trying he is doing this. Um, nothing to do with me. Um I mean we kind of had a good ending for the podcast with the last bit, but just needed to clear that up. Uh overall, good tournament. Sean's going back to get the trophy. The only way he knows how. Alright, Sean is currently walking back. He's got no trophy in hand. So, Sean, you attempted to commit a crime. No, I mean someone else didn't. A light crop. Someone else did. I mean, you should have taken it. I was not complicit in any way.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:31

Yeah, I mean it was up for grabs essentially. It wasn't like tech full thievery.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:36

See, it was a light theft, but unfortunately an unsuccessful one.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:40

But conspiracy to commit theft is crime.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:43

But you go to jail. But I will like legitimately win a trophy, no Jeopardy won't be.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:52

It's a sad day.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:54

We'll be back next year. Hopefully playing third strike, playing with real players and winning. Yeah, definitely. I mean, look, there was one point during the um Guilt Gear Strive finals when one of the players was not a professional player and he'd made it, uh made it to the final.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:11

Yeah, I mean. And he was shaking.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:13

It was, um but he was shaking, and to calm down, he was stroking a jack-o plush. And I thought, I like these people. But the third strike people, all people our age.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:25

Not striking plushes and uh you know, there are people. But guilt gear, like, people come from all walks of life, innit?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:32

I mean it's an excellent game. And I'm not quitting it because of uh because it's flawed. It's an excellent game. Yeah, but you are quitting it. Facts. Time to go to Third Strike. That game has stood the test of time. Yeah, it has, but you can never not find a match, and it's been 30 years or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:51

I mean, uh there is a Third Striker tournament in London every like few months or so.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:55

Yeah, well, but that wouldn't mean going to London. But it would probably be it would probably be better run than Battle by the Way. Definitely. I'm just saying it, no, I don't give a fuck. Yeah, anything is better than that. Yeah, watching your family die in a fire is better than that.

unknown 1:08:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:11

Alright. Should we go home? Yeah, man. Good games. Good games, no trophy.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:59

I'll be the rats village. So just dogs and gangbangers, just like the show that last body like when I was.