The World Warriors tournament was featured in SBO Spirits Volume 7 released around Sep 07. Here are some screenshots.
Fighting games are no longer restricted geographically. Japan has in the past years been very receptive of talented players outside Japan. Many international events were held and global players invited to participate in these events.
Super Battle Opera SBO Tougeki is one such prime example. In its 5th year now, Tougeki boasts the most number of international participants to date. Even it’s official magazine SBO Spirits 闘劇魂 published by enterbrain now allocates full page features to cover the international scene.
Australia is very fortunate to be one of the few countries that Tougeki recognize as worthy of invitation in various games such as Tekken, Virtual Fighter and Street Fighter. Here’s hoping the players continue to prove themselves at the highest level.
In addition to Australia, the article featured the USA West Coast, USA East Coast and France. I had the pleasure of meeting all the players from these regions and competing against them at the highest level when in Japan during SBO5 last August. That’s what’s gooooood!
This arrived in my mailbox today, will be giving a review later. Please support by buying the original DVDs.
Archived links:
Order from enterbrain
Order from PlayAsia
Sun morning 13th
Last chance qualifiers starting 7am and we got to the station around 730am 
We met up with Saru Osaka Yun, very friendly and nice guy. Incredible Yun player too. After taking a wrong turn, we made a fucking huge detour in which we had to physically run to beat the registration deadline. Jack was bleeding from his nose and I was breathing heavy because I was sick. We are freaking old men.
Getting to the Differ venue, we frantically registered and hoped for the best. As the qualifiers and brackets were posted on the 2nd level of the venue, all the players rushed upstairs to see whether they got in. As Martin explained, GGS got the spot instead of our team. To be honest my heart sank, I reckon Aurik and Paul felt the same. We tried to swap but I knew it was impossible, which later turn out to be ridiculous bollocks as another team got in when originally they missed out on a spot.
A pleasant surprise was seeing familiar faces from Taiwan and them making it to the 16! Couldnt watch their matches as I was watching the Aussie representatives though. I was expecting nothing from Jack and Daine, all my hopes were pinned on Martin. He has impressed me throughout the trip and I hope he brings this experience back to Sydney and dominate. Unfortunately nerves got to him, whole team was OCV by a Makoto. Daine was acting American and flexed his biceps after winning one round 
All hopes dashed now, nothing to look forward to except the main tourny and root for the Aussie team vs. Last Boss. This was what Daine and Jack thought as they went to eat 
I thought differently and stayed to watch all the top Japanese players still not qualified. Aurik is the one thats constantly working out his Yun, he knew this trip is solely 3S and I admire him for that.
Back to last-chance qualifiers, whichever foreign team thought they had a chance to qualify thought wrong. Namijin was tearing shit up, it wasnt funny at all. He was backed by YSB and TM and the level of play far exceeds what we foreigners are capable of. And guess what they still lost …… to Saru team from Osaka. It was Saru, Chinta and Haitaini which went through and they went on to the final 8 before losing to Momochi team.
Sun arvo
Nothing to report for the main event, I knew the Aussies did their best. However, didnt see much of other foreign teams matches, would love to watch those once DVD is out. Of course RX got the most cheers. Ushi <red urien> another amazing Japanese player who lost in the last chance qualifiers, was just seated behind me and we shouted ourselves hoarse for each hit RX got. Aurik was the most hyped up his Osaka mates finally got one over the Tokyo guys, at least the dissapointment was halved.
Sun nite
Daine left early for god knows what 
and the Aussie team had to hook up with other Japanese players after the event was over. The Chinese team and us decided to head back to Game Sakura for some games. They are so good and very friendly, Aurik was having the most success out of us when versus them. Then Kuroda decided to show up hahahahaha I guess you guys already read the reports from above.
BTW, Jack bought a HRAP3 stick. Then he said he will quit playing. This is Jacks randomness at its best. Will post more next time.
ozhadou archived threads:
Pre SBO reports
3S: SBO2007 reports
Post SBO reports
Martin and I left on our own to find Club Sega around the Shinjuku area. We grabbed a quick bite at a pizza place and Martin gushed at the waitress serving us. He was smitten by her cuteness and wanted to get a stealth photo of her lol.
By the way, Japanese pizza is incredibly thin. The base is virtually non-existent, and the toppings were stingy too. I would say …. 1 Aussie pizza = 2 Japanese pizza.
Back to Club Sega and it was packed to the brim. Imagine if you would … 50+ players for each of the popular games they had going on simultaneously VF, Tekken and 3S. The 3rd Strike area had 7 head-to-head Astros lined up, and it was just crazy even to move an inch around as people were basically squished together.
Registration was pretty chaotic as many of us did not form teams prior to the event. Thanks to Ryan Hart who did most of the co-ordination, I was able to get on a team. It was pretty cool teaming up with UK players Prince, Raju, CIV and the retired Jack. 1st round we got OCV peaced out rather convincing by an Oro player though 
I was informed later that it was Dirty, I wasn’t totally convinced as you can’t see your opponent on the opposite side … it was that crowded. If it was him then I feel better already.
Onto the main event, Dudley5 was getting the most cheers. Kokujin came out of retirement for this event to team up with 4 other Dudleys Ichigo, Dan, Hong and Aiku. Unfortunately, Derun (YU) stepped up and put on an impressive Yun-Dudley display to eliminate 4 of the 5 Dudleys to go through to the finals.
The finals were something out of this world. I can understand why the Club Sega staff prohibited filming now. These are the best 3rd Strike players in the entire world, and they were putting on a show which should only be experienced by those dedicated enough to make the trip to Japan.
Huge thanks to TSC, BOC, Matsuda-san and Game-Newton arcade that this event was made possible. The amount of planning that goes in the background is crazy to describe it mildly.
I was riding my luck all through to the final8, getting past the StunMaster™ TSC (MA) as well as Sextaro (MA). In the final8, getting past BillyKane (YU) was extremely tough, as well as the following matches with BOC (UR) and PyroLee (YU). All in all, 4th place wasn’t that bad considering the intense amount of incredible players that competed that day.
Archived threads:
Ozhadou: GameNewton Foreigner’s Tourney - TheWorldWarrior
Shoryuken: GameNewton Foreigners’ Tourney - TheWorldWarrior
Monday arvo
Wata fate .. met Kev in Kaikan when I was just planning to play 2 games after grabbing a bite in the Shibuya area. I think he’s stalking me or something, just too much of a coincidence.
Monday nite
We went to Mikado next and the French players were there along with many top Japanese players …. Pierre, Rikimaru, Nitto, MOV, Nuki, Yakkun, Dirty♪, Uni. Rikimaru is untouchable, had a 20+ win streak finally broke by BK.
Uni is incredible too, the way he locks you down in a cornertrap and reacts to whatever you do next. In GameVision he had a 26 win streak going with all the monsters and foreigners playing him. Here at Mikado he had a 13 streak going before I got lucky and ended it.
Monday overnite
Decided to do another overniter, just cant pass up the chance. 3S is crack. BK mentioned they will be heading to Game Sakura next, Kev and I left first and arrived to play Takayuki. This guy’s Chun is even better than Rikimaru 
I could hang with his Yun and Ken (Kev was keeping score that dickhead) but once he switched to Chun, my Dud was raped.
Soon the rest of the players came over from Mikado and I witnessed the best Ken I have ever seen. Ever. Kashi hitconfirms 2mk, I am not fucking joking. Out of say 200 over attempts, I saw just 1 connected 2mk into nothing, usually it’s either uppercut or sa3. When having breakfast with Issei the following morning we asked him who’s the best Ken …. “Kashi-san”. Then with a shake of the head and expression he added “Shoryu … very painful”. Kashi has so much confidence in double shoryu that he does an EX version for the 2nd portion on the easy characters. Normally its just the light version so that a miss cant be punished as you dun fly up so high. He does not fucking care.
Then the top players held a 3on3, you had to be there Nuki, Tokido, Yakkun, Pierre, Issei, Kashi. Best highlight was Tokido versus Pierre. Chun did a doubledash to quickrolled Urien, groundcrossed him into lightning legs into sa2 
These players are really really gods.
Before closing around 8am, we got to chance on the Arcadia magazine which had a feature article on all the international scene coming over to SBO. Pretty cool to see the Aus crew pic on there with Duckie flexing his sleeveless biceps.
Tues morning
Had brekky with the US and French crew. KOFiend has the best Yang I have ever played and he’s a really funny guy. Issei fell in love with the waitress lol she had perfect english and very cute. All in all, I am just loving it here at the moment despite being a a bit sick. The 3S communities all around the world is fantastic, it’s usually just idiots that ruin it.
So after waking up around 6pm I reckon I cant make it to the ‘All you can play” session at Sportsland for 300yen. I reckon Kev and Hong went today … I gonna pass and rest up so that I can prepare for the Sydney gays arriving tmr. Post more next time.
Sat arvo
I got to Gamevision in the early arvo on Saturday, just only 1 guy there … instantly recognisable, Pyrolee. He came early, had a few games with his random characters before getting serious with Yun …. 11-1 or something in his favour. Introduced myself and we got talking, he’s really cool and friendly irl.
Sat evening pre-ranbat
All the monsters start arriving, BK as well. BK is brokenly nice .. Euro and UK players as well、whole place was packed. …
Ranbat
I was paired with Kevin and Shekeib (US Ken player), it was random seeding. No spoilers, but super matches and funny moments aplenty. We got to 2nd round before getting OCV by Sextaro. Ate a random SA2 Sextaro was famous for when ahead in final rd.
Overnite session
Look out for Yun players to shine again this yr, amazing technicality and execution mindgames. Tacklemaeda was doing the kara GJ combo consistently mid-screen corner anywhere. I’ll touch on Boss later on, had a marathon with him at Kaikan on following Sunday. Ruu’s Ryu was impossible for me, but I had a marathon with his Ken 14-4 in his favour. Ruu is unbeatable
Best non-japanese player Hong, RyanHart, Pyrolee, BK in that order imo. Hope to see how Akira and Aurik will fare agaisnt the rest. No comments on Kev 
fucks up too much execution.
Sunday morning
Left Gvision around 7am, went back to the city around 10am and decided not to go back to rest … no sleep and went straight to Kaikan from 11am-11pm. Boss showed up and it went something Yang 11-2, Mak 3-3, Yun 14-0. His Yun is unbelivable, right time/spacing/execution everything. I was always locked down. With KO and MOV backing him up that team is crazy broken.
Post more later … I wokeup after 10 hrs of sleep, should be headed to Kev’s area in Sugamo later, to Game Sakura .. heard that it’s breeding ground for monsters as well.
1st stop: Kaikan
Didn’t recognise anyone … play a Ken alot to brush off rust.
2nd stop: Sportsland
Played Magenta(?)who started with Yun but eventually settled with Urien … Nitto watching behind. After making quite an impression Nitto asked whether I’m here for Tougeki. Once mentioned we are from osutoriaria … good good good
3rd stop: More Amusement
Didnt recognise anyone went on double-digit streak. I really want to hookup with Kev and Hong … going to call u gays tmr.
Explore the latest news about the Street Fighter community in Sydney here. My blog’s dead at the moment so check out some of the other Australian blogs.
http://sydneyranbat.blogspot.com/
http://jackiluo.spaces.live.com/
Play the number game:
This was a snippet from a Singapore newspaper dated 08 Oct 2006. I applaud the arcade owners to head in a new direction, but it’s not all rosy as it seems.
Unpopular games are given less attention, and gamers request for updated versions of games are ignored. My personal experience has been less than ideal, making multiple requests/emails/PMs for the technicians to fix the ailing 3rd Strike machine in Bugis. It all boils down to business and making money, and I have yet to see a true arcade run by gamers for gamers in Singapore.
The Ozhadou Nationals 5, held during 1st-2nd July 2006, has a DVD available for sale now. Details about the DVD:
3 disc edition
Thumbnail images (click for full-res):
Low-res trailer for the DVD:
Low-res preview of DVD menu:
Simple instructions on using the DVD (click for full-res):
International orders are more than welcome. For purchasing details, please refer to the following website at Ozhadou http://www.ozhadou.net/ohn5/dvd.php
Archived ozhadou threads:
OHN5 DVD available for sale now
DVDs are nice to watch but ridiculous to make. Following OHN5’s huge success, a DVD was to be produced so that this event is captured in all its glory. TSC shouldered the responsibilty of this mammoth task as he was in charge of video editing in Sydney. No one batted an eyelid and just assumed that it will delivered at the then promised ETA of end August.
August came and passed. No DVD in sight. I met up with Daine and offered my help. Sure enough, he was struggling as this is an unbelivable task for 1 person alone. Most of the time, a team will work on different aspects of a DVD and then combine their efforts to produce the final product. I gladly volunteered to do the menus and cover/disc art for the DVD.
For the DVD to make it to your doorstep, there are 18 steps to go through. Record video, capture on tape, transfer from tape to computer, edit footage, add subtitles, encode edited footage, create menus, compile DVD, shrink to size, burn to disc, verify content, create cover art, print cover art, cut to size, design disc art, print disc art onto discs and package it all.
Daine had tons of troubles with the encoded videos as they turned out jerky, blocky and lagging when characters were moving around. All the time and efforts spent the past 3 months going down the drain. We couldn’t pinpoint at which stage of the encoding the error occured as I’m not familiar with Macintoshs and Daine was clueless as usual After throwing in the towel, Daine gave the job to me to see whether doing it on PCs will yield better results.
It was quite a bitch going the DIY route as you had to source for the empty media, empty cases and equipment yourself. 1 month passed and I’m all done but waiting for the missing parts that were promised, the documentary and OHN5 official photos, before actively going into the production stage.
So here I am at 5am, being kept awake by the whirring of the DVD burner and writing this blog post. I hope everyone enjoys the DVD. It’s good to go. The jinx is broken.
Archived ozhadou thread:
OHN5 DVD
The making of OHN5 DVD
Akira loves Sydney so much he flew here again to play 3rd Strike. Paul, his Urien student travelled together just to experience the warmth of the Sydney 3rd Strike community. We had many enjoyable games in GGS as well as TSC’s mansion.
Archived ozhadou threads:
Player hookup
Tournament annoucement
Tournament results
Tournament video
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