Incoming Changes and Final Tally for Kickstarter Campaign

So it has been about 10 days since our Kickstarter project ended and boy has it been a very exciting, yet a super stressful time for me here.  This project started out months ago as just a wild thought of what I wished Super Arcade would turn into and what I wished an arcade would be had I been a customer of one.  There are so many things in store for the people that visit our location and I honestly can't wait until July 14th when everything gets started.  For those wondering why I chose that date, it's because theres this little tourney you might have heard of named "EVO" going on in Las Vegas from July 11th-13th.  Prior to this tournament we generally have had over 100 man tournaments held leading into that weekend and it has become a tradition for players to come here to compete and train up before the big show.  It's also a great chance for our locals to see some of their favorite players from across not only the United States, but also from across the world first hand competing in person here at Super Arcade.  So yeah, after a couple weeks of madness here, and then a huge weekend in Vegas, my crew and I will begin the process of transforming this arcade into something amazing.

As promised, I will be keeping people updated with step by step updates on our renovation process and probably just start an Instagram account where I can share pictures with everyone.  Another thing I would like to address is that since day 1 of this campaign I have never hid anything or had any other agenda outside of improving the arcade.  All funds that were raised will be going into the arcade 100% and also as promised, anyone that is on our donor list can request receipts or a breakdown in cost from me personally on location.  Since this is a community project the information is public for the community to see and do not hesitate to ask any questions you feel are appropriate towards the situation.  On our Kickstarter page it is listed that we raised $57,213 but in all honesty we received a lot less of that then expected.  I already factored in the 8% that Kickstarter and Amazon Payment Processing taxes us, but there was also a problem with quite a few people rescinding their pledges and leading to us barely making our goal.  The good news is obviously that our project was funded, but the bad news is we didn't reach our stretch goal.  I will still find a way to change our sign outdoor but that will not be a priority as of this moment.  In total we received just a bit over $46,000 after all fees and that is a bit over our original goal so there will be some leeway that will allot for the purchase of a new fridge and a few more games.  Once things get rolling here I'm sure I can find it in the budget to make more improvements along the way, which includes the upgrade of our outdoor signage.

I also want to take the time to thank all the people who showed up on May 2nd, which was the Friday night the Kickstarter was ending.  It meant a lot to me that particular day because I was able to share the day with people who actually cared and shared the excitement of us achieving our goal.  People that normally don't show up made a huge effort to be here that night and trust me, I noticed who was there and who wasn't.  Unfortunately some of the people I expected to be there didn't show up for who knows what reason, but hey, the good that came out of everything should exceed anything else so I won't hold any grudges........ for too long........ maybe........... :)  If you guys followed my blog from the beginning you know I don't like to name anyone in particular because I feel really bad when I leave someone out by accident, and this has been the case since forever.  I always genuinely thank people in person and group together people when thanking them online, but I have never taken the time to thank this one person who is very, very, very important to all the success and hard work that comes out of Super Arcade.  Many of you know him as Commando from IE BattleGrounds, and some of you know him as just Mando from Super Arcade, but we should all know him as one of the hardest working people in the Fighting Game Community.  This guy streams from Super arcade a minimum of 3 days a week and sometimes up to 5 times a week to bring you guys all the content you want and desire.  He's the guy behind the wheel of Wednesday Night Fights, The Runback, and Super Smash Sundays.  He's also the host of our NSFW Friday Nights and other various IEBG tourneys held on Saturdays.  This dude doesn't know the meaning of tired and sleep is his worst enemy, and for all that you do Mando, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart, because without you, Super Arcade and the FGC wouldn't be where they are.  So if you guys ever get a chance, stop by arcade, or give Mando a shoutout on stream.  He deserves everything good that comes his way and hopefully he will continue to be my right hand man at Super Arcade forever!

As of right now I will give you guys a little bit of an update on progress so far since we are already here.  I have rented out a storage unit so I can place games and other equipment that will be coming in after our remodel.  This storage unit will also be a workplace to do any repairs or refurbishing of anything we will be bringing in too.  I have purchased already decided on a color scheme and design for the inside of the arcade and when you see it, I'm pretty sure it will be a cool eye opening scene and people will be taking pictures upon entering our establishment.  I have also decided on lighting that will be used and it includes the use of LED strip lighting that looks just like flourescent tubes except they are much brighter, much more energy efficient, and have a built in angle adjustment to aim the light how I choose.  Shout outs to my friends at http://www.antareslighting.com/ who helped me out and if you want to check out some lighting for home improvement or any other lighting needs, give this company a shot.  I also picked up some samples for "truss" which is the beams you see at concerts and other events that require lighting to be hung.  I will be deciding on which exact truss i want to use this week and I will also be continuously shopping for more games throughout the next 2 months.  I will try to update this blog weekly from now on to keep you guys in the know and thanks for taking this ride with me.  It's going to be so awesome here and the only problem I currently have is that July 14th can't get here soon enough!

Hope you all are having a great day and Thank You all for believing in me and giving me this opportunity to bring my dreams to reality.  I will do my best to make you all proud and hopefully I will be seeing you guys and girls here enjoying yourself for many years to come!  See you soon!

Watson.

Still In Awe And Preparing For A New Start!

It seems as though an eternity has passed since our Kickstarter campaign launched back in the middle of March.  The good news is as of today we are still fully funded and have until midnight this Friday to receive the final tally.  I have already started working on the new lighting scheme we will be using which includes LED and black light.  There will be a ton of before and after pictures for all of you and I am sure people will notice everything involved in this "extreme makeover."  I have also designed the stream station and console gaming stations and will release some more concept art to better show the near finished product.  Each station will basically be a type of desk with its own power source, a table top to place either a console or laptop on it, and both a storage shelf and a storage cabinet below to store a CRT and a console when not in use.  I am also working on designing a type of 2-man seat dedicated to each station so there will never be an issue with finding a chair before a match.  The only thing really left to do is complete my color scheme for the wall and and restroom.  I already know what I'm going to do with the restroom so have no fear haha!  I actually think I spent too much time planning for the restroom but hey, that was the most popular part of this whole ordeal so it's time well spent.

I also wanted to thank everyone who purchased our first run of t-shirts and hopefully everyone is enjoying them.  I will be releasing a few more designs that I've been working on and they will be available for sale right before we start remodeling.  We will also be making some commemorative memorabilia for people and it will have a cool concept I promise.  That's about all the new updates I have for now but there will be a much more consistent blog activity soon as things get rolling. 

EDIT: As I type this I am noticing quite a bit of people retracting their pledges and our total has dropped over $1300 in the past 3 days.  I know things in life come up and sometimes you have no choice but to remove your pledge, but if you guys can just do me the favor of not waiting till the last minute it would be greatly appreciated.  A couple of people that had to retract their pledge contacted me and that kind gesture of at least giving me notice is more than I can ask for.  This project will not be funded unless it stays above our goal and if someone is going to sabotage us it would be nice to have more than a 5% cushion to insure we keep this project a reality.  Over the past couple weeks after we reached our goal I have tried to not spam or force feed the issue to everyone but it looks like I will need to make a final push just to make sure things go right.  Hopefully you guys won't be too annoyed with this and can help by spreading the word until the campaign is truly over.

I am still going to carry on as though this is going to happen and keep working on more planning for the next few weeks.  As promised more artwork will be shared and updates will be of the abundance.  Thank you all for reading and talk to you all again soon!

Perspectives on life and... WE DID IT....We really did it!

This entry might be a little repetitive and contain some content from previous entries but one thing you must know is that this blogpost is written from the heart and contains some things that I probably haven't talked about for a very long time.  There has been so many things surrounding Super Arcade and my personal life for the past couple months that many people will never go through or experience.  I see a lot of people joke around with the hashtag "#thestruggleisreal" but I know that most of you honestly have no clue as to what a real struggle is.  For those of you who think you have it bad or feel like life is short changing you in any way, shape, or form, think again.  Just take a look at our own community and you will see things that should make me love and respect what you have even more.  Now I'm not here to ask you to sympathize for me as I do not have any health issues or mental issues as of yet, but I do wish more people would understand how truly rough it is out there for some.  I mean hell, we have a competitive gamer out there using his tongue to do things with a controller that many of you can't achieve with 2 fully functional hands.  If that isn't inspiration enough for you then nothing will be.  As you have seen from my kickstarter video, I mention autism and for those who know me closely, I have a huge soft spot for people with this problem and disabilities in general.  If you are complaining about life and how you don't have this or have that, honestly, take a few moments and think about what you do have and how some people would only wish to be in your shoes.

Now onto how this whole ordeal has completely humbled me and how the past couple years have really turned my life and perspective on life around.  I will be first to say that I have lived a very fortunate and full life up to this point.  I am an only child and at a young age I was given a lot of things many kids wished they had.  I was raised by parents who made me earn those things I wanted but still taught me how to value a dollar and work for what I want.  And I think that having these values instilled in me at a young age led me to be the person I am today.  I work hard, harder than many of you see or could even believe.  I put in around 60 hours a week on average at the arcade and there is a funny joke that will come out of this.  For the past half a year or so we have had a volunteer working for us here at Super Arcade that goes by the name Gerikuso.  He knows we don't make much money so he offered his services to us and in exchange I offer him rides home and food as compensation.  Well one night we worked out the numbers and he basically figured out with food costs and all, he was working for something like .60c an hour.  The funny thing was that month I made roughly .06c an hour and told him he should feel special.  He makes 10 times more than the CEO of Super Arcade lol.........  Anyways, if you see Geri at the arcade be nice to him!  He works hard and does it for the love of arcades and the FGC.

So yeah, we took a leap of faith and did a kickstarter, and guess what?  It worked!  People still ask me why I set go for 45 days instead of the standard 30 so I will explain once again.  This was a last hurrah in a sense and something I have been a part of for over 3 years.  If the kickstarter failed then ultimately Super Arcade was going to close 30 days after.  I was basically just dragging it out as much as possible and also giving the kickstarter more time to stand a chance had it not received so much support.  So there you have it, I was scared and I dragged it out.  Regardless, after this long journey WE MADE IT.  With the help and support of everyone this dream is really going to come true, but there are some things I would like to straighten out before I go any further.  Some people are saying congrats for making over $40,000 and congrats on the big score.  Let me tell you this guys, just about every penny of the kickstarter is going towards the arcade and renovations.  Some of it will cover the lease while we are not operational while most is going towards parts and labor.  I did not run a kickstarter to line my pockets.  This project is funded and carefully so with lots and lots of preparation in regards to gathering accurate estimates and drawing up a plan with a timeline.  So no, I did not hit the lottery, but I did accomplish step 1 in rebuilding and moving Super Arcade into the future.  Even if we hit our stretch goal(s), the rest of the money will be used to get more and more games into the place.  The only time I will ever be compensated is when this arcade flourishes from all the changes and new business, and even at that point I will still be pumping that money back in to make it that much better.  So I hope those of you out there don't keep this wrong idea of what is really going on.  I would also like to let people know that if you are a contributor and wish to see receipts or have any questions, I am always available to answer them.  If you are just a troll don't bother asking me to see anything or open my books because you have no right to them.

We still have a stretch goal of $52,000 to hit and 24 days left.  If we make it.... cool, but at this point I'm chalking this project up as a success and getting ready to start moving forward with more designing and planning. Only cause of such tremendous support and help, you guys made it happen, thank you very very much, and make sure you come check out the arcade sometime after July 2014.  Now it's finally time I can get some well needed rest and sleep comfortably without worrying if the arcade will continue to exist.  Talk to you all again soon!

So today marks 2 weeks into the kickstarter and I can't really put into words how the last 14 days of my life have been.  Ever since I started this blog I have felt a sense of relief not only because the future of Super Arcade seems brighter, but because I have been able to share some moments in life that I normally wouldn't.  It might surprise some of you that a person with such a loud mouth and a strong opinion is actually really quiet and keeps his personal life....... well, personal.  But the years and years of build up finally caught up with me and I felt that if I can change maybe things would be for the better.  In the past few months the arcade has actually been doing better.  On one hand I am very happy to see people care enough to make an effort and actually enjoy our establishment, but on the other hand it does kind of suck that it took me having to expose my personal life and in a sense shame myself into getting customers.  But then again, there was self gain in sharing my stories and experiences so it isn't all that bad.  I know change is a very slow process, but also I think explaining all that has gone on around me has allowed me realize and rethink what was right and what was wrong.  Also exposing myself to judgement has given me the opportunity to force myself to break bad habits in terms of everyday language and attitude in general.  If any of you out there have something that might be haunting you or something you regret doing or not doing, find someone to share it with.  The weight of these things can honestly tear you down and before you know it, life is over and you may have missed out on all that could have been.  Anyways, I want to thank all my critics and people who spent time to offer both kind words and criticism.  You guys make me stronger and give me reason to fight the good fight for what i care about.

So now let's get back to talking about the kickstarter.  We are currently at 90% funded and I am finally realizing that this thing is becoming a reality.  I have spent so many hours just imagining how the arcade would look if I just had the funds to remodel and turn everything around.  Sometimes in life you kind of get to a point where you are just dragging your feet and just doing what it takes to live.  You have that same repetitive routine of forcing yourself to get out of bed, go to school or work, come home watch some tv or mess with your computer, go back to sleep, then rinse and repeat.  Well for me it was almost the same on many days, except for the fact I didn't get much sleep and I was lucky that my job was doing something I genuinely like.  So anyways, before I keep dragging on, I guess my point is that I took a leap of faith and I worked really hard to get where I'm at.  2 weeks ago I was headed towards ultimate failure and facing the cold hard fact that Super Arcade might be shutting down for good.  I haven't faced too much failure in life, aside from trying to block these stupid vortex traps and avoid this unblockable nonsense from this damn engine the ever so lovely game of Street Fighter 4 brings!  But in all seriousness, anything that I have put so much effort into has always come out alright, up until the arcade.  This time things were not in my control and it was no longer something I could do on my own.  Most kickstarters campaigns run for 30 days, but in fear of not being funded I set it for 45 days because at that point I was truly worried we would not succeed and just dragging things out.  So now where things sit, yes it looks like our project is going to be funded, but until it reaches 100% there is still a ton of work to be done.

I was questioned by many right at the start of our kickstarter project as to why I didn't have stretch goals.  Well, for starters I think it's a very bold and cocky statement to add anything without even reaching your goals yet.  Just because we started off so strong does not mean we are guaranteed of anything.  Hell, even at 90% I am not totally convinced we will hit our goal and might even have to run some special tournaments to get over the hump.  But regardless, with the request from our backers and input from some kickstarter professionals, I am releasing our first and probably only stretch goal.  Since the inside of the arcade is going to be completely remodeled, the next logical step would be to change the exterior sign.  Little did I know how much something like this would cost.  But to include all the design, installation, licensing, and so on and so forth, we are looking at close to $8,000.

The current sign needs to be replaced soon due to rain damage and electrical issues so this is sort of a necessity.  Only other real needs after the remodel will be a new fridge and some labor on the entry way doors.  Aside from that, if there is any leftover money it will all go directly into getting more games and all go towards the arcade.  Thanks again for all of your support as its completely obvious that without all your funding and effort, this place would not be given a chance and I really would be packing it in to become a family man.  All I ask now is that you guys please keep spreading the word and help us reach our goal.  Talk to you all again soon and hope to see you at the arcade or stream monstering it up! 

Uhhhh...... HOLY SH*T!!!!!

So it is currently 5pm on this lovely Wednesday afternoon and I am sitting here on my laptop at almost a loss for words.  Lets just say when I launched the Kickstarter Project I thought I was going to call it a night and finally get some rest and get back to promoting in the morning.  After waiting many long days and weeks, then making sure everything was perfect, last night was the moment I had been waiting for for months.  I was finally able to click the "Launch" button and as funny as it sounds, it was the first time in a long time i felt really excited to do something.  I can't really explain the feeling completely but I can compare it to being a child again and asking your parents for a really awesome toy for Christmas, then coming downstairs on Christmas Day and seeing a gift all nicely wrapped up under the tree with your name on it.  Now the only question is whether or not that gift is what you asked for, or was it just a regular gift that your parents found suitable.  Are we getting that Omega Supreme Transformer?  or are we going to be opening up that counterfeit Voltron that your grandma picked up from a swap meet........

So once again, its 10:30pm and I literally just finished altering some text on the kickstarter page and watched the video for the 50th time.  I took a deep breath and proceeded to click that damn launch button with authority.  I then logged into Twitter and posted that the project was now live and to please spread the word.  So I then head to the kitchen to grab a glass of water and was preparing to wind down and get to bed.  Daughter was asleep, wife was in bed ready to sleep, and I was heading back upstairs when I started to hear my phone blow up with text messages and Twitter updates......... What was going on?  Did I make a mistake and people were trying to get my attention to correct something?  I was getting nervous actually and then to my surprise I had raised $3500 in less than 15 minutes.  I couldn't control my excitement and told my wife to go check it out ASAP.  So we looked at the computer together and within minutes it was at $5000.  I just chuckled like a little baby eating ice cream for the first time and started to get a real warm feeling of success and accomplishment.  So I try to lay down for a few minutes and my phone is literally buzzing non-stop.  Now I go back to my computer room and can't stop hitting F5 to refresh the page over and over.  I find myself sitting there until midnight and all of a sudden the campaign is sitting at over $12000.  Anyways, so 3am comes around and it slows down a bit but I think I see the number $13500 before I can no longer keep my eyes open.  I can now get to bed with a great sense of accomplishment and some relief.  Thank you everyone.

So morning comes and instead of getting texts, now my phone is ringing off the hook.  During a few calls from friends in the scene and even a few family members I am checking Twitter notifications and see over 200 retweets and countless mentions from everyone.  I can't thank you all enough and this is the largest sign of support I feel I have ever received in my life.  I work hard week in and week out for the community and this might just be that time where I succeed and can continue to work hard for you all and make Super Arcade something incredible and more amazing than you can imagine.  Not going to jump the gun at all as I realize that the goal is only about half way there, but to get there in this fashion is just shocking.  We came out the gate guns blazing and can't waste this momentum.  So here I am now with all this support, and now it's time for me to continue pushing forward towards this goal.  Huge thanks to everyone that has motivated me and there are a few people I want to give special thanks to.  Some of you may know Talis from attending our WNF tourneys as he is the taller gentleman with long hair constantly walking by my hair with fantasies of being Fabio.  But all joking aside, he helped me put this project together on paper and is also helping me with all the web based duties.  Another person is Eliver Ling who helped me put together the video you see on our kickstarter page.  I would like to thank him as well as apologize for having to do the video over multiple times as I not camera friendly and a little difficult to work with.  Thank you for your time and effort sir.  And last but not least I would like to thank Tom Cannon for helping me adjust many things in my project as he himself recently ran a huge kickstarter campaign for the game "Stonehearth." Stonehearth Kickstarter Project  Big thanks to Tom as he pretty much just point and fired all his knowledge in my direction and it is definitely paying off.

So that's about all I have to update for now and I will keep everyone up to date as far as how things are going during this whole ordeal.  I try my best to keep up with all the feedback, and I even hit up reddit to keep those guys at peace with me cause we all can agree by now, Stream Monsters are part of the FGC!  I need to get ready for tonight's tourney so I am going to cut it off here and see you again in about a week.  Thanks for reading as always and talk to you all again soon.

oh yeah, heres the link to our kickstarter if you havent check it out already:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1079692033/super-arcade-project-2014

The time has finally come..... (and a couple touching stories)

So it's about 40 days past due and the amount of stress up to this point has been immense.  There are so many feelings involved at this point that it made this whole "Kickstarter" thing that much more difficult to finalize.  On one hand, we can just finally put to rest an arcade that has been struggling just to stay open, but on the other hand, we might have a chance to build something so great and awesome that the opportunity cannot be passed up.  I have lost so much sleep over the past 2 months from all the thoughts of both success and failure.  There has been a slight increase in revenue and I have definitely seen an improvement in effort of those who choose to visit us on a weekly basis.  Whether they are coming for our tournaments or just our console casuals, the numbers have been very solid over the past 2 months since this blog was started.  I am just glad people care and also make the effort to be here and support the scene at this point.  There has also been a couple more touching moments of people who frequent my shop.  

One gentlemen who plays in our Wednesday event and also comes to practice on Fridays had recently told me he had a brain tumor.  This same person was also dealing with kidney stones but never made any excuses and just showed up week in and week out.  I knew he was in pain at times but he roughed it out and then after a few weeks he showed up to WNF and told me that he just had his tumor removed the day prior.  WTF?  I can understand someone having a love for their hobby, and also have such dedicated loyalty to go out of their way to be here, but this dude literally just had his head opened and operated no more than a day ago.  That in itself was already crazy to me and then this guy breaks through and places like top 3 that tourney.  After his loss I noticed he was feeling a bit down so I went over to talk to him and offer a bit of advice and stuff.  I told him that I knew he practiced really hard and studies the game like no other.  I also told him aside from his work ethic he's a nice guy and shouldn't take it so hard.  There will be other tourneys and he will have another shot soon.  But he still seemed bummed out so I started telling him how it has been difficult for me still participate and not win like i used to.  To go from being a top player and winning tourneys with ease, I was now struggling to place top 8 in my own shop.  He then replies, "Watson, I know everything about you, I respect you, and you're like a brother to me."  Man these guys always got some tear jerking lines to lay on me during tough time haha.  But regardless, we shared a good moment here and by his recent placings I can tell he has put this loss behind him and continued to better himself and his game.  Good work man, you know who you are, and thank you for your kind words and support.

There is also another guy who comes here and has helped me out in keeping this arcade open.  He's a cancer survivor and always asks me about how things are going here all the time.  I tell him the truth and it seemed to bum him out a bit.  He told me that he was very happy that I kept the place open so long and that arcades had helped him overcome all the pain and torment he went through while battling his disease.  Stuff like this is really touching because you can genuinely see how something as simple as a building with video games in it can become a paradise for people and an escape from reality for those who really need it.  This person said without his friends and a place to get away to, he might not have lived through everything.  I also thanked him for helping us out here and told him I would do my best to keep Super Arcade alive.  These past few months have really been eye opening in that we lost a few good people in the FGC and then I hear these stories of people who look to us as a haven to get away from their problems.  My issues are only financial and can be worked on while these people are literally fighting for their lives and struggling with just being healthy.  This is another reason why I rarely complain because no matter how rough you think you have it, there are plenty of people out there who have it much worse.

So aside from these couple stories I have been working extremely hard in getting more estimates and making sure everything comes out perfect.  I was going to release the kickstarter weeks ago but with the help and knowledge of a few professionals I decided to delay this and make it better before launch.  I was also unhappy with the total amount that was required for all the remodeling and revamping so I launched a website selling t-shirts in which i will use the proceeds to lower the final goal we need for our project.  I thought it would be a good idea because at least now people would be able to receive something material for helping and the overall goal needed to fund the kickstarter could be lowered making it that much easier to succeed.  There is very detailed information on the kickstarter page for all of you to read and you can all decide for yourself if my project and the arcade is worthy of saving.  So this will honestly be the final blog I write until everything is launched and you can expect to see that sometime before March 15th.  After that feel free to ask me anything you would like as I have always made myself available for questioning and drop by our #NSFW streams on Friday night to stream monster it up and talk to us.  We will probably be taking calls and stuff throughout the entire 30 days the kickstart campaign is running so don't be a stranger.  Until then, wish us luck and talk to you all again soon.

oh yeah, heres the website you can go to if you would like to check out our shirts : http://superarcade2014.com/ 

thanks again,

watson

What exactly is YJDK and a little bit of history on a SF4

Wow, I just dug up and old thread that was started after a small incident was blown way out of proportion by a few of my friends and myself unfortunately.....  This event in time is known as the "You Just Don't Know" moment involving a gentleman by the name of Ryan, aka gootecks, and myself.  I almost feel a little bad for telling this story over again and I do it with no intentions of rehashing any drama so please accept my apology ahead of time.  I do find this story somewhat entertaining though and also think maybe some people can get something out of it, so I shall tell it once again.

So basically Street Fighter 4 was released in the arcades and I have been out of touch with competitive fighting games for around half a year.  For some reason I was bored and decided to call up Combofiend and go check out SF4 over at Arcade Infinity.  He told me he was going to hang out with Gootecks and we can just all carpool since Gooey literally lived in walking distance from me at the time.  So the journey begins and we head to the arcade.  I instantly notice that the game had lag and thought it was just how the new system worked.......  then not too long after I played the home version and figured out that the huge monitors at the arcade caused those few frames of delay.  Regardless, my first game I decided to get back to my roots and picked Ryu.  For some reason Ryan picked him as well and we proceeded to jump into my newly found experience of this game.  Low and behold I'm playing this game somewhat like 3rd Strike and just using fundamentals and ex fireballs and won.  Then I hear Peter take a jab at Ryan and say "how you gonna lose after playing this game for over half a year and this is Mike's first game?"  The salt was sprinkled and as some of you may know, the groundwork for a showdown has already been planted.  After that game Ryan instantly went to Balrog and beat me up for the rest of the day.  I think I won maybe 5 rounds in 10 games and just couldn't adapt quickly enough to the new game to get another victory.  So all is well and everyone is in a good mood on the way home.  I am asking questions in regards to the focus system and also asking about the lag i felt.  They both felt the lag was non existent but I knew something was wrong because I was having trouble countering throws and reacting to quick moves such as dash punches.  Anyways, so we drop Ryan off and right when he gets out of the car my ego and competitive spirits start to come out.  I tell Peter, hey man, gimme 2 weeks and I'm gonna beat this dudes ass free.  Mind you Ryan is fresh off a victory at a major where he just beat all mighty Jwong so he was definitely in top game form.  We share a little chuckle and then discuss how we are going to try and meet up a little more frequently and get some games in.

So we are having practice sessions at my other house where a few of my buddies live.  Little do people know, Jaha was actually a pretty good player and he was my main training partner early on in this game.  He played Rufus and had all the bread and butter stuff down so I had to learn the zoning game real quick and avoid all the new stuff he was implementing.  Jaha was pretty social and made use of the SRK forums quite a bit at the time so we had open invitations to people who wanted to come over and play.  Hungbee, Combofiend, and a few other people were regularly there to level up and occasionally Mike Ross would come down too.  Not to name any names but we also invited over the guys who were winning tourneys at the time and I don't know what it was, but I just played light outs when that happened.  There was a sagat player that was pretty good and I beat him 10-0 in a mirror.  Then there was also a Balrog player who came over to play my Sagat, but I had picked Ryu already and jokingly said I wouldn't changed characters until he won...... 30 games later he had to go and I was feeling myself now haha.  So anyways there was a session when Ryan came over and for some reason I think everyone was just a little annoyed that day.  Our regular house rules were to play a 2/3 set and winner stays on the cab.  We started and it was Hung's Chun-li vs his Balrog.  I think the game was pretty close but can't recall exactly and I do faintly remember Hung trying to do a counter super after blocking something and it failed.  Hung said "Bullshit" and Ryan started laughing with a reply of "Of course that doesn't work. You Just Dont Know.  I've been playing this long (uses his two hands to show a space in between of about 2 feet) and you have only been playing this long (once again uses hands but only shows a space of about 6 inches)."  For some reason all of us kind of took a little offense to this as it was pretty cocky on his part.  But for those of you who actually know Gootecks, you will know he is very competitive in the game and can be a complete douche, yet outside the game everyone finds him to be pretty cool and overall a decent guy to hang out with.  Anyways, back to the story.  So I am up next and I pick Chun-li also.  I beat him the first game and I could tell he was a little steamed.  Then second game he wins the first round and proceeds to say "Did you see a difference there?"  Immediately I start thinking, is this dude really talking smack and dissing me and my boy in my own house?  I am literally just learning this game and trying to do different things to see if they counter certain moves and what not, while this guy is taking pride in winning games off of us while giving it his all.  So this is the part where a person's adrenaline kicks in and I just take my game to the next level.  I just start beating him and making sure he is completely frustrated.  After the win he angrily pulls his stick and starts to walk out the house.  A buddy of mine name DevilX wasn't so nice and made a pretty rude comment during Ryan's walk of shame out the house.  He said, "I can't wait till you leave so I can hear everyone talk shit about you...."  Ooh man, brutal stuff there, but can't say it wasn't completely warranted.

So then March of 2009 rolls around and there is an event Gootecks created known as "Bar Fights."  Even though he wasn't exactly my best friend at the time I felt I should show up just to support.  I was actually worried there wouldn't be that many people there so I brought about 4 friends just so to have more people there to fill the room if needed.  So I arrive at the event and some girl who was apparantely an "assistant" of Ryan's hit me up while I was just hanging around outside.  She said something to me that really struck a nerve and that was just the spark I needed to make my comeback and get back into this game.  This girl asked me "Are you here to play in the Beat-a-pro Challenge?" AM I HERE TO DO WHAT BITCH?  I can honestly say I was fuming and wanted to sock her in the mouth, but I also promised myself I would be on my best behavior so I swallowed my pride for a second and said, no I am not, thank you.  Holy cow man, my resume is longer than all these kids put together and I got some girl who is supposedly running things here and she has no clue who she is talking to or anything about Street Fighter.  I am not the type to care if you know who I am, but I did feel she disrespected the game by not knowing the history of it so immediately she was on my shit list.  Regardless, this event was pretty cool and turned out to be a success.  Good to see the community was growing and gaining more attention outside of the hardcore crowd.

So now April is here and there is a tournament being held at some trendy shop in Alhambra, CA.  There is a small art exhibit with some really cool Street Fighter stuff and just basically a bunch of artists and some top players hanging out.  This tournament had an entry fee of $40 from what i can recall, and I'm sure it was to weed out the people who weren't too serious at the time.  I remember being told about this by Seth Killian and Mr Wizard so I decided it was time to send a wake up call to these now so-called top players.  It was single elimination and I had to fight my way through a Dhalsim player named Warren, then Mike Ross' Honda, and also EdMa's Akuma.  I was now sitting in grand finals waiting for the victor of Combofiend vs HappyTang.  This was a really sick match of Combo's Balrog vs Kai's El Fuerte.  It came down to the last round and Combo attempted an ex-rush punch with Kai countering and throwing it for the win.  I was a little discouraged that Peter didn't win since it would be cool to face a good friend in the finals, and also I had never played an El Fuerte before so I was a little worried.  I eventually ended up losing to Kai in the last round of this match but we split 1st and 2nd place prize money and wound up taking home something like $350 bucks each.  I really wanted to win this one but I just wasn't prepared enough at the time so it didn't happen.  I also felt that at least I made my mark and people knew I was coming back to make some noise.

Now for the real juicy stuff.  So it is now June and there is a tournament being held in Arizona called "Devestation."  I was a big supporter of the Arizona scene early on and attended a few of their tourneys to show support before the big Street Fighter 4 Boom.  My goal at this tourney was to actually chase down Gootecks and beat him at a major just to in a sense expose him.  So here comes the dirt that has never been exposed publicly.  I obviously requested to the tournament organizer to specifically play Ryan at some point.  This was actually something not so easily accomplished and would require some luck as well as skill.  Part 1 required both of us to make it out of our pools and then we had to be placed strategically in the bracket in order for this to happen.  Well, part 1 went well so now it was time for phase 2 to take place.  We both started out on the winner's side of the bracket and if we both won our first matches then it would be showtime!  Brackets are made and I'm just sitting back thinking strategy and just trying to enjoy the moment that was about to unfold.  Before this would happen though, there was a big argument going on at the organizers desk and of course, Gooteck was complaining about the bracket.  His argument was that it wasn't spread apart fairly and that too many top players were playing each other too soon etc.  I now stepped in and make a fuss and the point that he was playing a random first round, then me second round, and I wasn't a top 8 player so essentially his first top 8 match up wouldn't come till 3rd round in winners.  What could possibly be the problem........ Well, I think we all know he didn't want this match to take place but after a bit of shuffling the bracket was now in place and our portion of it was left unchanged.  So the match went down and it's up on youtube if any of you care to view it.  This was my first "streamed" match and I was feeling the heat cause this is something I made happen.  Fortunately I won and avenged the people I felt Ryan offended.  I popped off and yelled out "You've been playing how long?  I've been playing forever!"  Childish, I know, but hey, he started it so boo hoo hoo.

Now that I look at this situation I do feel I took things too far, hell, I even created an official EVO T-shirt with a YJDK logo and sold over 1000 of them.  Some people didn't know what it was representing, but it was cool to see so many of these being worn during the tourney.  But yeah, this is or was hopefully the last time I let me ego get the best of me.  Ryan's competitive career never seemed to be the same after and I do feel bad about it.  But he also did progress as a promoter and social media guy when it came to bringing SF to the mainstream crowds.  We all know for a fact that without Ryan all this new age streaming and special event stuff would definitely not be where it's at and for this we all owe him huge thanks.  And I also owe him a huge apology.  Ryan, I'm sorry man, I let my ego and competitive spirit go out of control and hopefully you forgive me for this.

To this day we still talk and it seems as though all of this has blown over, but I am not sure how he feels deep down and since he also has a highly competitive attitude, hopefully he understands how and why all this went down the way it did.  On a couple side notes there was a HD remix tourney at this same venue where myself and John Choi played 1st round in a game where we were both considered the top 2 attendees yet the bracket wasn't altered and we wound up playing each other in the grand finals.  There was also a 3rd Strike 3 vs 3 tourney where I was supposed to team up with Justin and we planned it for months, yet TFGM decided he would flex his EMP powers and not allow Justin to compete on the same team as me.  I also played Gootecks in this tourney and beat him, then there was a big silence as people weren't sure if I was gonna pop off again, but I kindly shook his hand and felt as though the war was over.

Hope I didn't waste too much of your time from this story and hope you enjoyed the read.  And for those wondering, I am currently still working on finalizing our Kickstarter video as I have received help from various professionals and trying to make it best as can be.  Thanks for reading everyone and talk to you again soon!