D. Mandel/Sherdog.com              

As some of you may know, I'm a big follower of contact sports such as MMA and Boxing. Today on Sherdog, I was reading about the preview of UFC 109 between middleweight fighters: Chael Sonnen vs Nate Marquardt. On the summary/breakdown of the matchup, it read:

Marquardt has too much skill for Sonnen to overcome the difference with pure top control. The road getting there may be rough, but Marquardt will eventually get Sonnen in a bad spot on the feet and bust out a “Street Fighter”-style super combo for the finish.

This is a really small find, but I find it fascinating that even in mainstream sports, Street Fighter still has it's influence upon the different cultures surrounding us. It's usually the little things like this which typically indicates the level of influence the fighting game community potentially has.

Source: Sherdog - UFC 109 Preview

Update on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 7:47PM by thxyoutoo

While we are on this topic a friend of mine linked me a highlight video of Marius "The Raging Demon" Zaromskis a few days ago.  An MMA fighter who's nicknamed after Akuma/Gouki.  He also dressed up as Akuma during one of walk outs.

 

 

If you like MMA and this highlight video the guy has mad film making talent.  Please check out vids at his youtube channel.  He has a ton of highlights from many top mma competitors.  

p.s. - Demon Flips at 1:30, Hurricane Kick at 2:15, and Tiger Knees at 3:25

Jessica Gaona, a talented artist who has been to ActiveGamers and NorCal Regionals, will be in attendance again for the UC Davis 3v3 and the Fuddruckers tournament during the weekend! If you're around for the event, stop by to get some commissions made!

Pictures courtesy of Kineda and Jessica Gaona.

2010 began with an incredible lineup of tournaments from all over the globe. We've got weekly streams from Cicada and Keystone II on the west coast; Exceed 2 Tournament which took place in the UK recently and plenty of footage over at Frame-Advantage from the east coast.

However, one event will be a standout amongst the rest.

Brought to you by the players for the players: Vittorio, Ramin, Nima, iPlayWinner, and Keystone II Production presents the Fuddruckers Tournament Series.

Some of you may remember last year, when the Fuddruckers ran 3 singles tournament, each capping at 128 entrants, with the exception for the final tournament of 2009 which peaked close to 200 entrants! This year we've decided to spice things up a bit with the team tournament 3v3 format

The attendees of the tournament are primarily from Northern California, but has now generated interest from players from across the nation. If you don't think the competition is tough, check out some of the teams in contention for the top:

Team KapitaL
Ryan "Perfect Sin" Bartlett
Peter "Flash Metroid" Susini
Martin "Marn" Phan

Team You Bastard
Vance "Vangief" Wu (Zangief)
Long "LPN" Nguyen (Bison)
Anthony "Crackfiend" Nguyen (Balrog)

Team Free Money
Ricky Ortiz (Rufus)
Ryan "Freelipino Chump" Ramirez (Dhalsim)
John Choi (Ryu)

Team SoCal (Rumored team)
Keno (Balrog)
Mike Ross (Honda)
Combofiend (Abel or C. Viper)

Stay updated with iPlayWinner for the streams coming up during the weekend!

Have questions about the fighting game culture, the iPlayWinner crew, or anything in general? Send an e-mail to crackfiend@iplaywinner.com

It’s been 3 weeks since my last “weekly” mailbag, and the holiday season has treated me a little too well, but I’ve not forgotten about some of you fellow readers! For this mailbag, we've gone a little bit international with a read from the Cayman Islands, and another one from London! Thank you guys from all over the world who are reading and participating in the mailbag!

 

Games overshadowed or out-of-date?

Hey Crackfiend,

In light of SF4's success, as well as the pure, dripping hype that is SSF4's impending arrival, are there any games, new or old, that you think may be/are being overlooked in everyone's rush to get into the latest and greatest?

Click to read more ...

Have questions about the fighting game culture, the iPlayWinner crew, or anything in general? Send an e-mail to crackfiend@iplaywinner.com

During the last weekend, I attended the Tekken 6 Nationals in San Francisco. The overall event was interesting: private venue, RSVP only, lots of giveaways, and so forth. However, the one thing that really stood out during this event was the appearance of a certain MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter named Josh Barnett.

For those of you who don't know, Josh Barnett is one of the top 10 heavyweights in the world. Apparently there was an interview with him during the event, but as a guest there, I was unable to hear anything at all. Regardless, it was interesting to see a high profile athlete attend this event, which is something that should happen more often for two key reasons:

Move way from cultural segregation & creating social awareness of the fighting game culture. With that said, let's move on to this week's mailbag.

Tekken 6 competitors

Now that Tekken 6 Nationals has come to an end, what are your thoughts on the competitors? [/triforce voice]

Jonsf, Bay Area

Click to read more ...

For those of you who love internet tournaments, especially ones with free prizes, here's one for the winter if you're staying home for Christmas and New Years. Be wary though, December 19th is the deadline for Street Fighter 4 registration, which is this Saturday. The registration for Tekken 6, however, is open until January 2nd. Gogogo!

All things big start small, and with the iPW Mailbag, that is precisely what I'd like to be able to do. Some of you may have seen the first post I made regarding this. To reiterate my goal of creating a weekly mailbag, I'd like to be able to create more exposure for the fighting game scene. However, I don't want to be limited to exclusively local or national exposure. This community is very diverse on an international scale, and I'd like to encourage some of our regular readers who are also from Europe, Japan, and other foreign countries to participate in this mailbag by e-mailing me: crackfiend@iplaywinner.com. With that said, here is the first iPW Mailbag! 

Click to read more ...

I've been flirting with the idea of doing a mailbag for a while, and I finally have some time to do it. Now, some of you are probably wondering what a mailbag is, so let me explain how the whole thing works.

First, think of a question to regarding anything about the community, the iPW staff, future events, culture, and so forth.

Second of all, you will submit the questions via e-mail to:
crackfiend@iplaywinner.com

During the course of the week, I will take a gander at all questions submitted, and follow up by answering some of those questions on the iPlayWinner front page.

Please consider that I won't be able to answer every question submitted. Also, I will not accept any e-mails if you don't provide your name (or gamer handle) and city in the e-mail.

Need an example? Take a look here at Kevin Iole's mailbag on MMA current events which he does weekly.

I will be posting the mailbag's every Friday, so start thinking of questions and sending them our way!

Update on Monday, December 7, 2009 at 8:54AM by Crackfiend

For those of you who may possibly wonder why I would like a name and a city, it's because I like to associate myself with people to some kind of identity. Also, this would show the diversity of the players nationally, if not, internationally. I think it would be great to see how broad the interest in our community is.

So you think gamers ain't sick wit it? Check out my boys Cole, Haunts, Tim, and homey John aka KayOss from one of bay areas most reputable dance crews, DS Players (that would be homeboy in the yellow hoodie) get down in a cipher at NCR. On a side note, John, holla at me for some SF4 sessions in the bay!

 

This is why I love the community, there are so many layers and subcultures within it. However, the spectrum of it is hardly ever covered. This is only just a small part of who and what we are as a community. I hope we'll get to see more things such as this or similar in context sometime in the future.

Update on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 10:43AM by Crackfiend

I found this video on John's YouTube. Haunts is messing around on the turntable while people are just kicking it and chilling. Illiterate (BA) and Vance Wu (ZA) are doing some casuals, and you even get to see Zangief doing a little bit of footwork/footsies on top of that beat too. Enjoy!

 

Update on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 2:56PM by haunts

Being a DJ for about 8-10 years now I understand that music is an essential tool for setting the atmosphere for any event. I played tracks all day through out NCR and I decided to upload a couple that seemed to have the most impact over the weekend.

Influx UK - Show Em What You Got

More or less the NCR anthem -- I played it a bunch during the weekend and was also used in the "John Choi! JOHN CHOI!" Trailer as well.

DJ Defkline - I Feel For You

Track that is played in the background of the SF4 Cypher video posted above.

Bill Preston - On a Trip

Another track we played during the NCR Soul Trian that most people really enjoyed.

 

If you thought that Balrog's standing jab to ultra was cheap, Chun Li also has jab to ultra.

It has to do with active frames, but since I'm not very educated about frame data, I actually don't know how to explain this. If someone can explain, please do so and I will credit the information. Until then, enjoy the vid:

During the last few weeks, there has been a lot of commotion about the 5th and final spot on the NorCal team for EVO. In response to the commotion, John Choi (team captain) decided to have a playoff for the current candidates (Filipino Champ and LPN) to square off against the current representatives of team NorCal:

1. John Choi (Ryu)
2. Ricky Ortiz (Rufus)
3. Crackfiend (Boxer)
4. Magus1234 (C. Viper)

Just to give you guys a little background on these two guys, LPN (Bison) is one of the next-gen Street Fighter players in the community. Street Figher 4 is the first competitive game he's ever gotten into, and he's been competing for less than a year while being a consistent placer and performer in NorCal.

Filipino Champ (Dhalsim) has been in the scene for 6+ years and is a high level MvC2 player. His switch to Street Fighter 4 was a rough transition, but has translated itself well by quickly rising the ranks of NorCal with his unique style.

We are trying to setup a live stream (again), and most likely won't run into the same problems we had last time, since the playoff will be at my apartment. This is the playoff format, as stated by John Choi:

"A playoff between LPN and F. Champ has been set up to determine the 5th remaining spot.

The playoff will consist of those 2 players running a gauntlet against the other 4 team members, and finally playing vs each other. Whoever has the best record overall is on the team.

LPN and FC will stick with their primary characters of Bison and Dhalsim the entire time. The 4 team members will use their primary and secondary characters (when applicable) during the gauntlet. The proposed character lineup:

Choi - Ryu/Sagat
Ortiz - Rufus/Chun
Andry - Viper/Blanka
Crackfiend - Boxer/TBD

This should give the broadest character exposure and determine who is more rounded for the team.

The playoff will take place on Monday night at Crackfiend's pad. I'll put up results ASAP.

Good luck to both!"

Stay tuned with iPlayWinner for more updates!

When: Monday, July 13th between 7:00 - 8:00 P.M. PST

Update on Monday, July 13, 2009 at 6:24PM by Crackfiend

I'm doing updates on SRK about everything right now (like who's going to be here, who's here already, when they're going to be here, etc.) so if you're interesting in keeping up with everything, click here.

Update on Monday, July 13, 2009 at 11:26PM by Crackfiend

LPN is the official 5th member of the team, with Filipino Champ as the alternate! Congratulations LPN, and the both of you guys played hard!