Recap of Yesterday

I like my haircut.
I have to go back on daily medicine for my kidneys.
I played horribly in the team tournament.

Although my appointment was for 4:00, the doctor couldn't see me until 4:45. The tournament started at 5 at the other end of Shinjuku. I paid, ran to Mikado, and had just enough time to set up my tripod before playing in my first match.

It was probably the worst match I've played since last summer. The guy I played, I always beat in casuals, but I had 2 things going against me - 1) I didn't get any practice time in, and 2) Mizoteru was coaching me through the match. Mizoteru's a great player, but he doesn't really understand the philosophy of my team and the character matchups. I had my A-Gief going up against a C-Sagat that didn't know the matchup. 10 times out of 10, I smother the guy. Gief doesn't need meter. All he needs is RC Lariat until Sagat can punish it. I was doing this, but Mizoteru kept telling me to build meter. That's good advice, but not necessarily for that matchup. I lost that round, eventually brought it to the final round with my Bison vs. the other guy's Chun. He landed a super combo, but I had just enough life to pull out a win.

My next opponent was another guy that I always beat. Playing my normal way, I would smother him with RCs and pokes, but I was building meter. I lost that game, but Mizoteru beat him and Gao for our team.

Our next opponents were a couple of scrubs and Aniki. Well, I don't know about the A-Groove guy,as I never played him before, but Aniki was the only threat on their team. I swept them.

That put us in the 3-team playoffs. Our first opponent was the team of Seitai (P), CAB (K), and Pinokio (K). I went up against Seitai first. I never knew this guy to be Seitai. Everyone thinks his P-Groove is the best in Tokyo (I think Sakamoto's is better), so I never associated this guy with the name Seitai. I see him every so often at Shibuya Kaikan and normally beat him. I didn't have any problems here. Then I went up against CAB. I beat his Chang with Gief, and finally it came down to my Bison vs. his Gief. I activated after a 2 hit scissors, but I was a bit farther from the corner than I thought I was. I still got some chip, and proceeded to build meter. At one point he was jumping in on me, and I tried to RC Psycho Crusher, but got a roll. He landed with an FAB. I got it kind of close, but the damage did its toll. Ichi came in and beat him, lost to Pinokio, and Mizoteru beat Pinokio.

That team then lost to the all-C-Groove team of Bari, Nakanishi, and Iyo (well, really only Bari), so that meant it was us vs. 3 C-Groovers for the title. My Gief and Blanka got DESTROYED by Nakanishi's Guile, but I came back with Bison to win it American-style. Against Bari, I switched up my order, but his Rolento pulled out a win (I guessed wrong on a dropthru CC). Mizoteru took out Bari and came within fractions of a second of beating Iyo - if his last RAGED fierce hit, it would have been a win. Time ran out before the damage registered though, so Ichi had to come in. Ichi and Iyo play a lot and they trade off with wins. It came to the last characters, but Iyo landed a super and made it difficult for Ichi to come back, so we had to settle for 2nd place.

After the tourney I got a lot of good casual matches with Mulder (we went back and forth), Konto-san, Pinokio, and some others. Ichi thinks I'm getting better, but I think my performance yesterday was shitty. There's another tourney Saturday (2 on 2), so I hope I do better then. Still no teammate tho...