Nishi Sega and afterwards

Forgot to post yesterday. I went to Nishi Sega about an hour before signups to get in some practice time. Not practicing before the Mikado tournament had me perform like shit in my first few matches, so I wanted to make sure I was warmed up before the tourney. I got to play Tsugunosuke and Vega Curry a few times, beating them both and getting it close when I lost. I also played some random people. I felt like I was in good shape. This was going to be my first singles tournament in Tokyo in a long while. In Shizuoka, I beat everyone except Bas - losing to him in semis and eventually taking 3rd. In Nagoya, I beat everyone except Bas - losing to him like a dumbass in the finals to take 2nd...

I got Bas first round.

The streak continues. In the past 3 singles tournaments I have entered, I have lost to Bas and ONLY to Bas every single time. This sucks. I felt good about myself too! In teams, I ended up teaming with Yoshio and we took 3rd. We got a bye first round, I swept BEA and Konto-san, then we both got rocked by Mizoteru. That put us in the 3rd place match, which would have been against a solo Bas, but he had to leave so we got 3rd by default.

Afterwards, pretty much every name in the tourney went over to Mikado for some casuals (Nishi Sega is twice the price to play). I could hang with just about everybody there but Mizoteru. I beat Gao, Bari, Kousaka, Vega Curry, etc. Not decisively every single time, and of course I lost, but I think I'm getting better and closer to the upper level of players.

Today I talked to Bas, and some players are going down to Nagano next weekend for 3 days of CvS2. It's a 3-day weekend, but I'm scheduled to work that Monday. I requested it off, and my boss said it should be ok. I'll be heading down with Mulder in his 2-seater. Mulder's really cool. I've been talking to him more since the Shizuoka trip. Today I got to play against his Gief for the first time in a while. I used to marvel at how good his C-Gief was, but I think my A-Gief is getting close to that level. We go back and forth when we go against each other, and we can both take out mid-tier players pretty easily. Top-tier players, we at least make it difficult - which is the goal, since Gief really sucks. Today I went to Shibukan to talk to him about the trip and got in some good games. Playing against him makes me more patient. It's good practice. I played Bas and beat him twice - once for each of his grooves. If only I did that yesterday!