Evolution East 2006 - Part 2: The Games

(Don't forget to read part 1 of this Evo East write up here first.)

Okay. Drama resolved. Ballroom setup. Players ready. Can we get this thing started now? It was early Saturday morning, I had only around 5 hours of sleep in two days, but it was finally time. Everything should be routine now, correct? In terms of how the tournament was run, it was definitely a well-oiled machine, after so many years of experience. But what made this particular tournament counter to the routines I normally am familiar with was this: I really didn't know anyone anymore. At Evo West, if you recall, I said it felt like a family reunion. Evo East, for me, felt more like a business convention. Not that it was any less casual, not at all. It was just that, for me, it felt a lot like a place where I went to to be introduced to many different people. Sure, there was a lot of the old familiar faces (like Justin Wong, Henry Cen, Chris Li, Mike Creque and David Wright), but otherwise virtually everyone was a new face to me. But what I felt at Evo West seemed to be what most players felt at Evo East. Everyone there knew each other, and I'm hoping it felt as casual and enjoyable to the players as Evo West did for me. It sure seemed like it.

The other really cool thing about Evo East was that it really was a different world there. Not only were there new top-tier players that I had never met nor heard of before (one such example was Lincoln Morris. I hear he's a rising star in the East Coast, and he tore fools up in all the games I watched him play, myself included in the Guilty Gear tournament), but there was an entirely different lingo there. A lot of the nicknames they gave moves/characters/etc. were terms I hadn't heard before, and it was definitely interesting trying to parse the slang there.

As for the players themselves, I met a lot of new people there, talked to a lot of old guys I had only ever spoken to over Shoryuken.com forums before, and chatted with some old buddies. I'm glad I got to meet so many new faces of people who never have made it out to an Evo Event before, I only hope that most of the people I met can find a way to get to Evo Vegas. It would be great to see them again.

The Games

Let's talk about the games, shall we?

Mario Kart DS - Hmm. I guess no one on the East Coast is interested in Mario Kart, eh? If you showed up and played for the first time, you would have qualified for Mario Kart. There were only 7 time entries for the game on Saturday, and on Sunday, only 5 of the players showed up. So pretty much, only two players didn't win money and only one player didn't qualify. Looks like Mario Kart is wide open in Vegas. Time to practice up, eh? My final thought: it doesn't seem like there is much interest in the game right now, but with the prize money in Vegas, you can bet the competition won't be any less intense there.

Dead or Alive 4 - There was definitely a lot more interest in Dead or Alive 4 on the East Coast than on the West Coast. We had around 30 entrants, the same amount of entrants as Tekken 5. It actually seemed as if there was a DoA4 contingent here. A bunch of players I saw were here only for DoA4, and I was very happy to see that. I hope that most of the DoA4 players can find their way to Vegas. So once again, my final thought is that the competition will be fierce in Vegas, and it certainly isn't too late to pick up the game if you've played it casually before.

Tekken 5 - Lots of interesting things going on here. I'm pretty sure there's been plenty of discussion already on Tekken Zaibatsu Forums already regarding drama in the Tekken community. First of all, there certainly weren’t a lot of pleasantries exchanged between Jinmaster and Spero Gin after their final match together for third place. Second of all, Justin Wong won Tekken. Now, I'm not going the route you probably think I am. I'm not going to go the route of "Oooooohhhhh, a Street Fighter player won Tekken! Ohhhhh..." Nah, that discredits Justin Wong. He dedicated his time to learning the game and he did very well learning it. And he's Justin Wong: he's an "Anything" player (third place in Mario Kart on little practice, come on!). But it was just so very unexpected. Does that mean Justin Wong has the potential to win yet another game at Evo? So my Final Thought is this: this Justin Wong development may breed some interest for those Street Fighter players who normally don't watch Tekken. If Justin can make top 8 in Vegas, there will definitely be some craziness going on during the Finals.

Hyper Street Fighter 2 - Mike Creque got Cammy onto the big screen at Evo East as well!!! Cammy power, baby! All you players out there better start practicing up on fighting Cammy, 'cause you might run into one of us! Better learn how to beat this secret top tier character.

Lots of drama here as well in the form of the return of the "Black Bracket of Death." For those who have no clue what the Black Bracket is, a few years ago at the Evolution Tournament at UCLA, the brackets were labeled with colors. For Super Turbo, the bracket that was labeled "Black" ended up having, after some random seeding, a ton of top players. So getting out of that bracket wasn't easy, and a lot of great players didn't qualify. And this year at Evo East, there was a similar bracket that included players such as JeRon, Julian Robinson, NKI, Chris Li, Phi, Sirlin, and myself. It was pretty nuts. A few people have complained about it, even claimed there could possibly be a conspiracy, and have demanded proper seeding for tournaments. The only problem with that is that seeding can generate yet even more drama and conspiracy theories. And if anyone has a right to complain, it would be me: I'm the only person who was actually involved in both Black Brackets. So if I'm in a Super Turbo / HSF2 tournament, pray you aren't in my bracket. I won't eliminate you, but everyone else in my bracket will!!

And congrats to Phil Barnell for backing up his talk and taking this game. However, I'm going to have to change Phil's nickname from DSP to DFN from now on. After defeating Justin Wong to take the finals, Phil threw out his declarative statement: "Daigo's F***ing Next!" So he's now DFN in my book. Because you can't throw that out and take it back later. I wish Phil all the luck in beating Daigo, but I hope he takes is a bit more seriously. The only proper way to beat Daigo is to give him proper respect. Just thinking you're good enough to beat him isn't gonna be good enough. You gotta at least realize he's amazing at the game, and that he's defeated the best in America in past Evo tournaments. And he's not even considered the best in his own country. But it would be nice if America could take back the classic game series, so more power to you, Phil and all other challengers to the crown!

My Final Thought: this is building up to be the most hyped up game of them all. Between DSP (DFN) backing up his talk, Graham and Alex Wolfe backing up theirs, and all three of them gunning at the return of Daigo, we've got a real potential doozy here in Vegas. I can't wait! And I'm still holding on to the dream, now, of getting two Cammys onto the big screen. So Mike and I are gonna rock the house! Beware!

Capcom Vs. SNK 2 - Beware the SmoothCat. He had a heartbreaking loss to Justin Wong in the Finals of the tournament, but I recall what happened in MvC2 at Evo West. If you recall my Evo West post, I told the tail of how Chunksta also had a crushing loss to Justin Wong, and then at Evo West of this year came back to win the tournament for MvC2. It's like they always say: it takes that heart-wrenching loss before you can achieve the next level. So even though SmoothCat has received a very tough loss, I think it'll only make him stronger and make his resolve more solid. I say look out for this guy at Evo Finals this year.

My Final Thought: there is a definite distinction between Evo West and Evo East styles of play. While the West tournament had a lot more offensive-based players, the East Coast still has a tighter more defensive style of play. It'll be interesting to see how the clash between styles at Evo Finals will play out. Which style will take the top? Can't wait to see.

Guilty Gear XX Slash - Once again, I entered this game and once again, I think I performed rather sub-par. And after watching the top 4 teams play, I came to the same conclusion I did at Evo West: I have a long way to go in this game. This game is just so much fun to watch. The audience went crazy watching this game, especially at the beatdown provided by the Anji of Josh A.K.A. Zidanel33t. There is always so much action in the game and crazy momentum shifts and insane combos. And every time I watch it, I just want to end up playing it more.

And I love the team tournament format. At Evo West, we had Slayer and A.B.A. dominating. And at Evo East, we had Anji going nuts and Chetan's Johnny dropping mad combos on people. At Evo Finals, hopefully we'll have one incredible character variety. I wouldn't even be surprised if the top 4 teams had around 10 completely different characters being used between the 12 players.

My Final Thought: Hopefully, we'll be able to see a huge character variety in the finals. If we do, maybe the finals will be able to show people why this game is so much fun, and more people will end up picking it up. It's a great game, and a shame not more people play it. Hopefully, its popularity grows in the coming years.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 – I have another nickname: instead of Yipes, I want to call him "The Programmable Joystick." Because every time I watch him play, it looks like he’s the Magneto from a Combo Video made by Magnetro2k. And it’s just like Chris A.K.A. "The Matrix" said as his advice for those fighting Yipes in his guest commentary: "Don't get hit. "

East Coast MvC2 is on a different level. I mentioned that the West Coast MvC2 players are very passionate about their game, and it's even more so in the East Coast. I think I had as much fun watching the players as I did the actual matches. The players are so loud and raucous, and they are having so much fun watching the game. I think once we get some East Vs. West action going on in the Finals, the whole room will explode. There will definitely be some great rivalries and a lot of players rooting for their guy. It's gonna be crazy stuff.

My Final Thought: As with every year, I think the thing that will make MvC2 so much fun in Vegas will be the fact that the tournament will be pretty much 100% U.S. players. So the Finals will almost definitely be some heated and very passionate matches. Bring some earplugs, folks, 'cause it is gonna get loud in the building during finals.

Street Fighter III: Third Strike - Of all the games for Justin Wong to not qualify in, it is this game. I think he will bounce back by Evo Finals, however, and hopefully can make it far into the bracket. Last year, Wong himself almost gave U.S. the win over the Japanese in the game. I would love to see the Japanese properly challenged this year, and all Evo East did was prove the Japanese still rule, thanks to the win by the guest from Japan, Issei.

My Final Thought: Hopefully, this year players such as Wong and Exodus and Fubarduck (and Evo West players like Pyrolee and Amir) can give Japan a run for their money. If we keep getting closer and closer every year, the only way we can go up this year is to win it all. Let's see what happens at Evo Finals!

The Conclusion

Disasters were averted, and hype and excitement has been built up. I think this year, Evo Finals in Vegas has the potential to be seriously the greatest video game tournament of all time. Don't miss out, and please visit!

Check out the photos I took from Evo East as well. And note that for every picture, if you click on the "All Sizes" button above the picture, you can view the picture at its full size, and do a right-click/save-as. That way, if you want to save any of the pictures for yourself, you can get it at full size:

Evo East 2006 Photos

I did my best to list people's names and such, but will intentionally leave out a lot of names. If you see I've gotten any names wrong or know the names of anyone else on the pictures, feel free to leave a comment and let me know who everyone is. And if you see yourself in any picture and want yourself pointed out, leave a comment on the picture's page so I know exactly which photo you are referring to. (Note: Once again, I will monitor the comments religiously, so I only wanna see people play nice, now, okay? Got it? Thanks.)

Some final shout-outs: Really, Gilbert deserves the biggest shout-out of everyone. What he did to help us get the TVs from Wal-Mart was incredible. Also a shout-out to everyone who helped out, like Bacardi, Phi, Chris Li, Mike Creque, and so many others. And thanks to my Guilty Gear team for journeying out form California to check out Evo East and for offering to help us with the TV situation. And once again, the dedicated staff: Tom Cannon, Tony Cannon, Seth Killian, Joey Cuellar, and David Sirlin. Let's make Evo Vegas run just as smoothly.

See everyone at Vegas! And thanks for reading.

- James