Super Versus Battle 2009

The calm before the storm, September is coming and Byron Hall in London will see hundreds coming together (from UK and international) for Super Versus Battle 2009. Three full days of fighting extravaganza featuring tournaments in:

• Blazblue
• King of Fighters XII
• Guilty Gear XX Accent Core
• Capcom VS SNK 2
• Soul Calibur IV
• Street Fighter IV
• Street Fighter III 3rd Strike
• Street Fighter Alpha 3
• Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix

There’ll also be an exclusive hands-on preview of Tekken 6 the home version on Playstation 3. A chance for everyone to try out the game before it’s official release later this year. The game will also feature as a tournament.

So rewinding back, I’ll give you a catch up of my journey for the fight. I first discovered the UK fighting community scene at Battle of Destiny 2008 which gave me a new insight to the genre. Seeing the level of gameplay at the tournaments inspired me to further my gaming skills in fighting to competitive standards. From then on came the release of Street Fighter IV which put everyone back to the stepping stones, new ideas, tactics and tricks are still being learned today.

A lot of hours were spent online on Xbox Live playing against many fighters. All my friends grew accustomed to seeing me involved with Street Fighter in different ways, playing the gaming series (Xbox and PS2 house sessions, pound coins spent in arcades), watching youtube videos, looking through guides, discussions and constantly picking up new things.

After Stunfest in May, friends and experienced players of the UK community Zak Bennett (Former Evo Competitor and SFIV World Record Holder), Ryan Hart (Evo Champion and SFIV European Champion) along with many from Neo Empire helped me practice for tournament level fighting. Relocating myself to London where more players could be found locally, I continued playing and occasionally am found practising SFIV or Street Fighter III 3rd Strike in Casino (Goodge Street) or Trocadero (Piccadilly).

Below is a clip recorded of a match between myself (TinyShaz) and fellow UK competitor, Femy (F-Word) at Casino Arcade. We had both been wielding Ken and defining two different playstyles of the same character. My strengths lay in kara-throws and he was more capable in punishing combos.

[youtube width=”550″ height=”400″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9ZcdlmZI5k[/youtube]TinyShaz (Red Ken) vs F-Word (White Ken)

So here comes Super Versus Battle where I’ll be jumping in for competition of SFIV, SF3 3rd Strike and Soul Calibur IV. Joining me is Ready Up’s Nick and he’ll be entering SFIV, SF3 3rd Strike and SF 2 HD Remix. Catching up with my fellow gamer and writer here’s what he had to say about his preparations and what he expects to achieve:

‘Ok well I’ve been training mainly on 2dFighter and LIVE for HDRemix and Third Strike. Then we have a small Irish scene on Boards.ie where I have been playing SFIV.

I skipped Third Strike in terms of gameplay so I’ve found the best way to play this is to go onto GGPO and 2DFighter as the standard there is quite high. For parry training I’ve been using an old copy of Street Fighter Anniversary for the Xbox. If I get a respectable level on the pool stages I’ll be quite happy! HDR is a little different. Xbox has been my main training for this but as there are some casuals hosted in Dublin twice a week, I get some decent games off guys based there.

Street Fighter IV though is my main game and I’ve pretty much hit all types of areas for training, research and general information. Boards.ie has started monthly tournaments as well so I’m hoping to get more experience against characters not so common on Xbox Live as there’s no known SFIV Arcade Machines in Dublin.’

Wishing the best of luck to the both of us, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing familiar and fresh faces to play with. The best part of it all is seeing the rallying support of the gaming scene to keep events like this happening.