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

Yoshinoya PS2 game BWAHAHAHAHA

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.