I just got back home from Climax of Night 6, a wonderful event held in Atlanta to celebrate the French Bread lineage of Fighting games. This usually means Melty Blood AACC, and some of the latest version of Under Night and Dengeki Bunko. They don't hold main event games for titles like Queen of Hearts, Glove on Fight, Demon Hunter Mai, Ragnarok Battle Offline, or Lilian Fourhand. That's fine, I'm not a prude about it. I got to play some fun games of Glove on Fight 2, so it wasn't a complete wash, but Climax is a major set in Atlanta meant to celebrate a specific area of anime fighting games.
I had a really good time. Not sure if I'm gonna give the complete play-by-play here, but I can give some big points. I wanna say that I spent 90% of my time this weekend outside the main ballroom. After I got my id card i went past the main ballroom and the artist alley to find the BYOC room. I met a cool dude by the name of LBS
Legendary Blue Shirt. He was wearing a red shirt when I met him, but as he said "The shirt is a mindset, not the clothes"
and he showed me some of the finer points about F:UC
Fate/unlimited codes.
. I chose to play as Assassin despite his notorious execution barrier because I am a weeb that loves a classical samurai. I spent like an hour and change playing against someone else and got my footing with a basic combo for assassin. 6469X is a good way to jump cancel the basic moves. I think I'll put this on my softmod ps2 and goof around with it some more.
I forgot what I did after that. Pretty sure I went to look around for the arcade. I couldn't find it for a while until I met someone called Madtsunami that gave me a good hint. But this may have been after I met thornletter in the BYOC room and played some Glove on Fight and introduced myself. I met thorn online when they TO'd Wonderful World for Vortex Gallery last weekend. I couldn't make it cuz I was held up doign something, but it was nice to learn the game had netplay and I look forward to playing more online. They got me to sign up for the wonderful world Bracket they were holding the next day. Some other highlights of the day was i met someone named Jalen that showed me a funny Magical Girl MUGEN game that I also look to play more of, and I played some Maiden and Spell with some folks.
Saturday
I got there about 11:30. I met into someone named Luna that had a setup for Maiden and Spell going. Which is funny, cuz there was also a setup for Acceleration of Suguri going in the same room. Luna wasn't a big fighting gamer, but she likes shmups and roguelikes. She came to the major with her boyfriend and wanted to share her favorite game with the folks there. When I picked her main in Maiden in Spell, she got excited cuz it seems like no one else plays her character. It was nice to make her day, but I didn't really have a M&S main cuz i don't really play it very often. I did enjoy playing as death and I think I'll stick to her as a play the game more often.
I tried to sell her on Twinkle Star Sprites, but she had to leave before Tommy came into the BYOC with the Mister and stuff. It's a shame cuz I think she woulda enjoyed tha game, but there's always another chance to play a game. What else did I do Saturday? I spent a shit ton of time playing TSS with another guy. I didn't even catch his name, but he was somewhat knowledgeable about the game. There were parts of his gameplan that could use improvement, but it's better than most, which is nice to know. It was a fun set, but my hands were cold as hell.
I almost missed the Wan Wan
Wanderful Wanorld.
bracket I signed up for. I was like 30 mins late, but I was able to make it and play some games. I went 0-2, but it was my first time playing the game and I enjoyed it. It was also fun because in between my sets, I played some beyblade with a chick that had it set up in the same room as the Wan Wan bracket.
Uhh lemme think.... I played puzzle fighter with a cool little dude named Staz. Played some Puyo Puyo Tetris against someone in the arcade room. Played some Crazy Taxi. I wish I played some CvS2 while it was still up. near the end of the night, I ran into the Atl Jojo Crusaders team at one of the stand in the artist's alley. they were showing folks about the game and I stopped by cuz I signed up for the bracket and was interested in knowing more. Turns out they host stuff in town @ 404 esports. I've been to 404 a few times, but very infrequently, and never really went for a game I was super interested in. Ajaxx (primary TO for the bracket invited me to come out sometime.
Last big highlight for Saturday is that I beat Zach in vsav. It was one set after like 10 losses, but it felt great and it masks over the fact that I didn't do as well as I'd like in the actual bracket. It's one ofthe small things that reminds me that my progress is more than my placing in brackets. Plasmasword has made alot of hay about how we in the FGC should endeavor to do more than just brackets all the time and I really agree with her. I also finally played some Battle Craze with a cool fellow named John. another good day in the books.
Sunday
Sunday was the big day. I had two big plans for the Twinkle Star Sprites bracket today....
- I made some bookmarks to give out to the folks that signed up for bracket. We had alot of DQs, so alot were left over. I made about 24, but only like 16 were taken I think.
- I wanted to play using my Logitech Attack 3. It's basically a flight sim controller and it was goona be funny.
The flight stick worked when I used it in the beginning of the day, but wouldn't work on another mister for the rest of the day. No clue what was happening, but i was a bit crushed
My current theory is that on subsequent uses of the flightstick, the MiSTer read it as a mouse and/or keyboard, and wouldn't work as a controller in game.
, especially after talking it up all day. I disappointed the fans and I'll make it up to them somehow.
I made first place in TSS. I think I got like 9th in vsav and something worse in Jojo. Kinda did ok for how much I practied. Luckily I'll have the opprtunity to play some more. Honestly while I was salty about losing to the same Demitri I lost to three years ago, it was still nice just to play. I made some good plays against a strong player named Rikir and that made my day.
Spectating Jojo's was a good time. the Southeast community is very high energy in a good way and it very fun. I really enjoyed their company. the final sets were amazing to watch. It was good to see a game I mostly played myself in my dorm room get such a big audience.
last but not least was the vsav bracket. Unfortunately i didn't get to watch it since my phone was dying and I was relying on mom for a ride. I did get to talk to someone named Dom that helped out with the setup for the vsav bracket. They helped alot with making the wiki and the training mode everyone knows and loves. I even missed the stream, but I saw the grand finals and Miller made it all the way to Zach, but still lost at the last minute. Made me feel a bit better about him sending me to losers, and made me realize that his talent is something I should respect more and think about when I thinking about how he beats me so handily. I tried asking hagure about an anti-wolf character and their options were maybe fish or sas. and Fish wasn't a great option since I was mostly trying to play anti Miller's wolf.
All and all it was a great weekend. It sorta reaffirmed my committment to the niche games I enjoy and love. I wanna make more time for some of the games I played this weekend. I will say that I plan to do a tournament thing soonish that involves more Twinkle Star Sprites stuff. Stya tuned I guess. Maybe I'll get more involed in Wan Wan, the Magical Girl game and Battle Craze. We'll see. Next Year is gonna be the LAST LAST (LAST) Climax, so I'll try to plan something interesting for it. We'll probably have TSS again, and maybe do some other stuff too.
Something i kept thinking about throughout the weekend is how folks that like to show you their favorite games at majors are like the direct opposite of car dealers. They're trying to sell you on something they genuinely like, and often times at either no personal benefit to themselves or even sometimes a monetary loss overall. It sweet to think about and makes me feel good about being involved with these groups. I spent most of my major weekend doing sidequests, and I wouldn't have it any other way.