Playing competitively

Anime Boston last month was pretty cool. We got to see all kinds of fun events and make fun of people's costumes. Typically, when I go(well, used to go) to anime conventions I would buy all kinds of art and little toys. Along with Chelsea, the 2 of us have more fun just being in the environment and joining a few panels. You don't always have to "fully" participate to have fun. Something I COULD have participated in was the gaming area at Anime Boston!

Thanks to AllIsBrawl for the Pic, and no I'm not in it

The place was pretty packed, and there were tournaments all day. The most popular games were, in no particular order:
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Halo Reach
Marvel vs Capcom 3
Mortal Kombat 2011
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift

Out of all of those, I can only play 2 of them, and I actually only sat to play one. Of course, that is Marvel vs Capcom. I was a little bummed that none of the consoles had DLC. That means there were no Shuma Garoths and no Jill(my character). When I got the chance to sit down and play, I was up against a guy with a game pad. The best "Arcade Stick and button" game pads will run any player over $100, so it is meant for the serios, competitive gamer. That is also EXACTLY what I played against. The guy was using Wesker, and 2 other characters that I don't even know. Why don't I know the rest of his team you ask? Because he didn't need either of the others! I thought that my team of Viper/Morrigan/Cap was good enough to at least kill 1 competitive player's team members, but I was sadly mistaken. I knew what was happening, but his reaction time was so much more than mine. In my opinion, Cap should have an advantage over Wesker because of America's multiple invulnerability states. This guy knew too much to fall for anything I threw at him. You can tell when people know what they're doing when they can start a combo chain from any point in the level. Even better when they know if they are at the level's limit, because cornering you opponent lets you juggle them even more easily. If you don't know how competitive MVC looks, check out youtube for "Wednesday Night Fight" videos. After that, check out a video of ME playing Marvel vs Capcom online and see if you can tell the difference in skill:

My Viper seems to be getting worse and worse every day

Marvel vs Capcom isn't the only competitive game out there. At Cumberland Farms(a gas station) I have overheard kids talking about how good they are at Call of Duty and Halo. "Dude, you should see my Head Shot count on Halo compared to Black Ops. My headshots are probably, like, 65% of my kills. On Black Ops its more like 40%. But get this. My buddy that has been playing since the game came out only has 500 more kills than me, and I've only been playing since May!" These kids were probably 19 year-olds just hanging out at the gas station. Now, the REAL kids who play Black Ops (and all the other Call of Duty games) are amazing at it. I was lucky enough to watch a few tournaments for Black Ops and I was amazed at what I was seeing. I call them kids because the 2 best players I watched were no more than 15 years old. I'm not a big fan of Call of Duty's multiplayer, as most of it is just team deathmatch. After a while, that just isn't fun to me. But these guys who play in tournaments are NASTY at this game. The kills they land are ridiculous at times to those of us who don't play. In multiplayer, Black Ops had a much smaller Health Pool than MAG, so when I enter a room and die, I figured that someone got a lucky hit on me with my 1 HP. After watching the videos, I can see that each kill they get is well deserved. In fact, I was pretty jealous at how good these guys are at this game.

I like to believe that I am pretty good at video games, but definently not enough to join anyone's tournament (except maybe Smash Bros. Brawl, that's a pretty easy game). My level of gaming aptitude is somewhere between the guy that lives down the street that actually practices at this game, while we button mash and the guy that I allowed to beat a level for me because it was too dificult. In order to take a game to the competitive scene, you have to be able to beat people who play seriously. That involves a lot of pratice for me. I'm not like the best players who know their way around a control better than they're own house. In the MVC video above, I missed a lot of the QCF attacks with Captain America, his shield slash. Every time you see me jump and attack for no reason, that is supposed to be a shield slash. Mirror's Edge is the same way. The top 100 players on the leaderboards of Mirror's Edge can manipulate the controller very naturally. I, on the other hand, play very "digitally" with small corrections here an there on the right stick for my point of view. I sweep the camera in the direction I need to for larger course corrections, another "noob tactic." Fortunately I'm getting closer and closer to that platinum trophy, so I must be doing something right.

Still, it makes you wonder, just how do people get THAT good at a game. After memorization, all of these players must have outstanding hand coordination. Playing something like Sonic, and Mirror's Edge to an extent, aren't too difficult to me because it mostly comes down to timing. Maybe there are some kind of exercises out there to learn how to manipulate the analog sticks better. Perhaps I should just carry my Dual Shock with me at all times. While I'm walking, you can imagine me just fiddling with the control, practicing my Jill Feral Mode change-ups or my Mirror's Edge trigger button combinations. Pretty dumb looking if you ask me. If someone told me that is how they "top 8'd" a Marvel Vs Capcom competition though, I would believe it.