[Video] KSK & Nekojita spend 4 hours trying to beat P.T.

KSK and Nekojita have spent a little bit more than 4 hours trying to beat P.T. on Saturday night. It was 6 AM already and they didn't give up even they had to compete in USF4 3 on 3 tournament on Sunday (and they won the tournament!).

Evolution 2014 Day 1 summary

Information
- Niconico to stream Evo 2014
- Evolution 2014 Day 0 summary
- Umehara's Road to Evo 2014 champ
- JFGC's new low: Going to Evo just to do PPV show
- GODSGARDEN to do PPV stream
- Kana Ueda confirmed, learns English for Evo 2014
- Nagisa to cosplay at Evo 2014
- Beast Note's Evo 2014 wishlist

Pools
8:50 - Infiltration (Aku) 2-0 775 Yao (Cam) *28,000v
9:06 - KB (Abe) 0-2 Xian (Gen) *30,100v
9:18 - Arturo "Sabin" Sanchez (Ros) 0-2 (P2G) Cabbage (Vip) *34,400v
9:39 - Todakai507 (Gen) 0-2 Yossan (Juri) *32,000v 61,200u
9:48 - Dieminion (Gui) 2-1 Xiaohai (Cam) *37300v *DM went to hell and back
10:04 - Illija (Aku) 2-0 Gootecks (Ros) *39100v
10:20 - Haitani (Ruf) 2-0 Tuck (Ruf) *42300v
10:26 - Christian Santos (Sak) 0-2 Nuki (Chun) *42900v
10:33 - S42 Blanka (Bla) 0-2 Latif (Vip) *41200v
11:13 - Kaneka (Dec) 0-2 (P1G) Momochi (Ken) *42400v 85700u
11:19 - Ryan Hart (Sag) (P1G) 2-0 Floe (ERy/Yan) *42400
12:47 - Samson (Chun) 0-2 Koji KOG (Haw) *39,600v
12:54 - Isauro Mishima (ERy) 0-2 Laugh (ERy) *41300v
12:58 - KSK (Abe) (P3G) 2-1 Dragoomba (Ruf) *43,200v *somewhat great comeback
13:10 - Cryoh (Gui) 0-2 (P2G) GamerBee (Ado) *43,700v
13:28 - PR Rog (Box) 2-0 PieGuy (Cod) *43,300v
13:49 - G Flow (Dan) 0-2 GamerBee (Ado) *45,900v
14:14 - Semitry (Hak) 0-2 Nyanshi (Sag) *47600v
14:24 - KSK (Abe) 2-0 Fraser Ching (Cam) *48300v
14:30 - Dawgen Hower (Zan) 0-2 Air (Ryu) *48700v
15:32 - Mago (Fei) 2-0 Li (Haw)
15:53 - K Brad (Cam) 2-1 Somniac (Dic) *50400v
16:15 - Smug (Dud) 2-0 Stebs (Ryu) *53000v
16:31 - MOV (Yun) 2-0 Yomi Knishes (Vip) *52200
16:38 - Layec (Hak) 0-2 Misse (Mak) *51600v
16:46 - Bon-chan (Sag) 2-0 BrolyLegs (Chu) *53000v
16:52 - AKG Grandmaster B (Hon) 0-2 Umehara (ERy) *53800v
0-2 *P1R, almost P2R
1-2 *missed Ultra timing in 1R
17:16 - Umehara (ERy) 2-0 Emersion (Claw) *52500
2-0
2-0
17:25 - Dakou (Cam) 2-0 C-Los (Ken) *52800
17:31 - Mike Ross (Hon) 2-0 Daytrip (Fue)
17:52 - Flash Metroid (Cod/Zan) 0-2 Alex Valle (Ryu) *53800

Quarter Final
18:47 - XSK Samurai (ERy) 0-2 Koji KOG (Haw) *46100
18:51 - Eita (Aku) 2-1 Shinba (Abe) *50400
19:03 - Brentt (Ruf) 1-2 Taiga (Yun) *49800
19:13 - Cabbage (Vip) 2-1 Tampa Bison (Dic) *54200
19:16 - [Losers] Umehara (ERy) 2-0 Alex Valle (Ryu) *61300
2-0
2-0
19:24 - Sanford (Oni) 1-2 Mago (Fei) *60900
19:33 - NGL Chris (Ken) 0-2 Xian (Gen) *60400
19:51 - Marq Teddy (Guy) 1-2 Sako (Ele) *66200 *Sako almost lost

Non-match result updates (Las Vegas local time)
7:56 - Crowd before open
8:02 - Niconico stream starts
8:02 - Venue
8:16 - Arturo "Sabin" Sanchez is both player and judge in the pool. Controversy awaits.
8:21 - Nagisa cosplaying Lilith (she prepared just for this event)
8:30 - 22,300 viewers on Twitch. 33,000 unique views on Nico.
8:31 - R eating something on Nico stream again (same as last year). Bad MC.
8:32 - Fuudo on Nico.
8:54 - James Chen in red shirt. Ultra David looks normal.
8:59 - Yossan is in Losers already.
9:00 - 29,300v
9:00 - R is eating while commentating. What a pig.... (And how does Nico allow this?)
9:02 - Company booths
9:08 - MomoChoco
9:09 - Someone in chat said Xian has world's strongest eyebrows. Agreed.
9:10 - Tokido
9:15 - Uu (pronounced Ooh, KoF player) and Umezono (3rd Strike player) on Nico.
9:21 - Tokido, Eita, Haitani went through their 2nd fight.
9:23 - R realized half way that he's supposed to commentate Cabbage match, not talking to guests.
9:50 - ASW's Mori is in LA. (presumably with Kana Ueda)
9:51 - Cabbage survived first pool.
9:57 - Eita and Xian survived first pool.
10:01 - KSK on the mic. He said GODSGARDEN channel is "currently" free. It's too late, man. Damage is done. You locked people out from the beginning, some people already paid you, and now you say it's free for now? And we know you'll charge people for a crappy "show" again soon. (Like charging people to listen to your karaoke session you did.)
10:11 - Note that KSK doesn't actively play SF4 so don't expect any real commentating.
10:14 - 70,900u
10:14 - Nagisa playing something
10:29 - ChocoBlanka survived first pool
10:33 - Hameko (writer) on the mic. He's interviewing Gen, 13 year old Japanese Tekken player sent by Twitch (coming with his father).
10:54 - Kazunoko won first fight
11:17 - No commentator on Nico at the moment because R goes to play. No complaint from us.
11:34 - Harada x Nagisa
11:42 - Nuki survived first pool. Kokujin & Nuki on Nico.
11:58 - Sentosu survived first pool.
12:04 - R is back on the mic, was eliminated in first pool.
12:09 - Kazunoko survived first pool. He said Alex Myer (Sakura player) almost got him in the Winners final.
12:21 - 99300u
12:24 - Cabbage on Nico.
12:33 - Momo Choco on Nico.
12:44 - Sentosu (MC, Poison player) and AO (Tekken player) on Nico.
12:52 - 111,800c
13:07 - Sako survived first pool.
13:17 - Mizoteru lost his passport and iPhone last night....
13:21 - First pic of Nyanshi
13:21 - Nagisa & Itabashi Zangief
13:25 - Momochi survived first pool.
13:33 - Koji KOG survived first pool.
13:43 - Fuudo survived first pool.
13:51 - R wants GamerBee match to end quick so he can eat burger. Yes, the pig is eating again. They even show him eating at the desk beside the chewing sound. Shame.
13:56 - Japanese Smash Bros. players on Nico.
14:01 - Note that Niconico does not focus on streaming every matches. They sometimes cut it to show the guests.
14:04 - KSK in Losers now.
14:08 - Up until now, R didn't really provide a professional commentary.
14:15 - Nyanshi is playing and R is still talking to Smash players. This's a nightmare.
14:20 - We reached our limit. Closing Niconico and watch official stream instead (just like what we did last year). 実況・解説 しっかりしろ.
14:28 - James Chen doesn't realize that KSK looks so happy after a win because KSK thinks he's an underdog.
14:28 - KSK survived first pool in Losers
15:18 - Itabashi Zangief survived first pool.
15:25 - ASW's Mori arrived at venue.
16:26 - Mizoteru survived first pool.
17:07 - It's a break, watch Nico in case there's Umehara interview. Square Enix producer Takamasa Shiba on Nico... for no reason. He's a fan and friend of Umehara though. He even calls Umehara "Ume-chan." Hey, how about Dissidia sequel with Umehara as battle planner?
17:09 - Mago survived first pool.
17:21 - Bon-chan survived first pool.
17:28 - Clearly Nico stream is smoother. Only we have to deal with the idiots on the mic.
17:36 - Kana Ueda arrived at the venue!
17:45 - Why are R and Shiba talking about BUKKAKE? WTF.
17:59 - Kokujin survived first pool.
18:02 - Now R is inviting Shiba to his PPV show. Great. 格げー関係ないなら消えろ....
18:05 - Nico basically put random people on stream and expect things to happen. No script, no time limit. 台本ないのはまずい
18:13 - Shiba just called Square Enix "Kuso-Enix." That's brave.
18:19 - Infiltration put in Losers by Velociraptor
18:22 - It's supposed to be a closing statement, why is Shiba is still talking?
18:28 - Shiba finally gone. Now only R is gone too.
18:30 - Umehara vs. F Champ, where's the stream!
18:34 - Umehara put in Losers by F.Champ. So it's E Ryu vs. Dhalsim, and Umehara didn't counterpick with Yun? Our worst nightmare.
18:41 - Official stream is showing trailer of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
18:44 - Skisonic & Ultra Davis on the mic.
18:50 - While KOG is playing, Nico has Harada and Tekken players talking without the match showed. gg
18:58 - Skisonic will do 15% better if he doesn't randomly raise his voice.
19:06 - Skisonic needs to realize that the hype comes from the match, not the tone of his voice or the way he talks.
19:08 - Ski and Ultra David got trolled by fake result, saying Umehara is out of tournament.
19:25 - Sentosu put in Losers by Taiga.
19:32 - Sako beat Laugh.
19:34 - Nagisa vs. Ono
19:35 - R begins actual commentating. Thank God.
19:38 - Haitani put Eita in Losers.
19:39 - Cabbage and Tokido put in Losers by Snake Eyes.
19:51 - Despite saying he's a fan, Ski still doesn't realize that Sakonoko is just online ID, not his alias. Sakonoko now means Sako's daughter.....
19:55 - Yossan eliminated Xiaohai
19:58 - Fuudo the mic. Good.
20:01 - Umehara elimitaed by John Choi.
23:28 - Umehara vs. Nagisa vs. Ono

Since Umehara is out of the tournament, we end our record here as usual.

JFGC's new low: Going to Evo just to do PPV show

As expected, Kokujin and Nuki today started streaming pay-per-view show from Las Vegas, just like what GODSGARDEN is doing.

Beast Note has been following the JFGC for years now but we can say that today is its lowest point. Some people go to Evo just to do PPV show. They're now asking for money for what once was free, not to mention that they should offer it for free because the fans are what made them who they are today.

In September 2013, Kokujin and Nuki launched his own PPV show called KokuNuki. The show struggles for a relevant content because they're not a top SF4 player and the guests are mostly their friends that you'll ask who? The show then featured various cross-promotion of online games or mobile games. What they're doing now is purely business.

For what GODSGARDEN has done, better read The Fall of GODSGARDEN and article above.

The JFGC fans gave them social position, these people turn it into business opportunity, and then use the fans to fund their trip.

GODSGARDEN plans offstage PPV stream at Evo2014?

A six part (1,2,3,4,5,6) stream was planned yesterday by GODSGARDEN. The show, titled "EVO offstage stream in Las Vegas," will be streamed via GODSGARDEN's premium channel on Niconico. All of the stream pages have "Buy Ticket" button. While the button doesn't necessarily mean the shows are pay-per-view, they can kick non-ticket buyers out whenever they want to. (And we think they will.) (Update July 10: Yes, it's PPV)

We aren't sure if Evo organizer knows about this. Is this a collaboration and money will be split between GG and Evo? Or is this just a new scheme of GG's aggressive monetizing, and money is made behind Evo's back?

We wrote about GODSGARDEN's aggressive monetizing before, and this could be their new low. If it's as what we suspect, someone need to tap their shoulder and speak up.

GODSGARDEN founders are Hiroaki Inaba and KSK. Who's responsible to this downfall? We really hope it's not KSK.

KSK was once a homeless man in early 2011, due to the closing of Gamer's Vision–the game center (no longer sustainable then hit by earthquake) that is said to have caused him 90 million yen debt. He slept in his car that was given by someone at the hard time. He briefly worked as a bartender at a small bar where he met a rich businessman who then picked him up because of his fame. This's because he got a lot of supports from JFGC.

KSK is now living an upper middle class life. Beside GG's streams, he cohosts PPV Internet talk show "Mada Hashiritai" ("I Want to Keep Running") and sometimes game promotions. He also recently appeared on ads promoting highend PC brand as "the man who pioneered game streaming" "from the popular gaming stream on Niconico that has more than 25 million unique views."

Again, we don't want to write about this, but GG is biting the hands that feed them. They use the fame for various collaborations (which make them more famous itself), they get money from the companies, and still want fans to pay for something that should be free.

The Fall of GODSGARDEN

We wanted to write about this months ago but we didn't, because GODSGARDEN contributed so much to the Japan's fighting game community in the past. But last night was the last straw, when they streamed Koihime behind paywall.

GG announced since October 2012 that they'd offer paid subscription for some special contents on their PPV channel. It's begun October last year however. But they haven't offered anything new since then. The PPV channel has casual streaming, offers mirror of their own free stream with a different angle, occasional field trip–all free in the past. It charges 525 yen monthly. The stream isn't even daily or has any schedule (as good as it gets). (This cost also adds up to 525 yen a month for Niconico's premium membership, which is needed to even watch GG's free streams on Niconico due to its 2,000 viewers limit. It'll kick free users to make room for paid users.)

They only had BlazBlue behind the paywall at first, after getting permission from the publisher. And now they added Koihime Musou to the list.

Although there's Koihime Musou boom, but it looks like the game has sold around 5,000 copies or less. Putting it behind the paywall isn't how you support it.

GODSGARDEN these days isn't the same organization as we know from 2009-2011. They're not the hype machine anymore, especially after TOPANGA and TOPANGA League was formed. They try hard to stay relevant by not relying on SF4 series and build hype on anything else they can catch. But eventually, they lost their way, and publicity and money becomes more important than community. It's no longer "what people want to watch" but "what I can sell."

This's their crimes in recent years.

• Partnered with a small video-on-demand site to hold a pay-per-view SF4/Tekken tournament called GODSGARDEN Gate. Ticket was too expensive (2,000 yen). There weren't many stars. The live stream was down in the grand final. Buyers had to watch the archive. (June 30, 2013)
• Partnered with various companies to promote (force) things such as League of Legends and World of Tanks to the community.
• Make an unnecessary long BlazBlue tournaments that last 8 months (Dec - July). Paid subscription (GG's PPV channel, 525/mo) required to watch the qualifiers. Pay again 1,500 yen to watch all the finals. Only the grand finals in July is offline.
• Girl Gamers Club is mainly for publicity and their own good. One time, it's just amateur models playing smartphone game on the stream. Possible net cafe cross-promotion.

While GODSGARDEN still do offline fighting game events to keep the scene alive, this aggressive monetization makes us question their motivation everytime.

Anyway, one good news is GG isn't working on Evo Japan, as far as we know.

Nagisa to host Kao TV every Monday

Nagisa has agreed that she will host GODSGARDEN's Kao TV every Monday.

The agreement came after she said that she wanted to stream her gaming session during "Mada Hashiritai!" show on Tuesday in which she was a guest. KSK, who was co-hosting the show, then offered her the opportunity. (Mada Hashiritai! is a new pay-per-view talk show hosted by KSK, R (Guy player), Sentosu. Every Tuesday on Niconico.)

Nagisa is a show personality, a model, an MC, a fortuneteller, and a cosplayer. She used to co-host "Game no Jikan" with Kayo Police which ended last year. She started fighting games one year ago around P4U launch.

It's unclear whether she'll show her face on Kao TV or not. It's unlikely that her agency will allow for free.

GODSGARDEN to offer paid contents for 735 yen a month

GODSGARDEN announced on Kao TV tonight that they will soon offer monthly subscription of paid contents on their formal channel. What is the "paid contents" is still undecided, but the monthly fee is 735 yen. (Any non-paid contents including anything on casual channel is still free.)

This is a very disappointing news. Because if GODSGARDEN really wants money, they could have uploaded anything on their streams on YouTube and started earning ad revenue long time ago. (Instead the thieves did it and take all the money.)

The 735 yen monthly fee is also too high.

For reference, look at Seiyuu Grand Prix channel on Niconico.

• Established by a big voice actors magazine
• Four-time-a-week update of exclusive video clips of popular voice actors
• Four-time-a-week update of exclusive columns of popular voice actors
• Video clips are available in 1Mbps bit rate, and on all types of cellphones
• 525 yen monthly fee

We really doubt that GODSGARDEN will top that with the regular players they have, and especially when KSK just updated his blog for the first time in 7 months...

Note that these days you also need a premium Niconico account (525 yen monthly) to watch Ura Kao TV (GODSGARDEN's casual stream) because premium accounts have higher priority than free accounts. Free users will get kicked by the system to give the spaces to premium users. Ura Kao TV can hold only 2,000 users a time. (And that means even premium users are not guaranteed their seats!)

Umehara has something to say about Arcana Heart?

The latest blog post from Examu, the developer of Arcana Heart and Aquapazza, revealed that the booklet "Examu Heart: Moonsault Press" that will be sold during Examu Cup next month will have an interview with Daigo Umehara. The topic has not been mentioned.

The contents of the book
- Arcana Heart special short story (comic)
- Arcana Heart 4 koma manga
- Arcana Heart staff interview
- Arcana Heart original short story
- Special interview: Daigo Umehara
- Ura Kao TV interview: Kamizono, Danchou, GODSGARDEN's Inaba
- Daemon Bride novel
- Illustrations from guests
- Illustrations from readers

Examu Cup: Ai no Saiten 2012 is Arcana Heart 3 online tournament that will be held between November 2-4 by GODSGARDEN.

Japan's SF 25th Anniversary tournament finals to be held in Nicofarre

It is revealed today that the finals of Japan's Street Fighter 25th Anniversary tournament on October 20 will be held in Nicofarre. This marks the first time Nicofarre is used for a fighting game tournament.

Nicofarre is Japan's most luxurious event hall exclusively for streaming. It is owned by Nico Nico itself. The hall is not big, but what important is its technology. The walls and the ceiling are LED displays which will show either images or viewer comments. (You can also pay to make your comment glow and stand out for 10 yen a time.) Viewers from home can change camera angle as they want from the selected options. The hall is also capable of making a hologram concert. It also has hot shower in performer's waiting rooms, drink counter, and locker rooms.

The usage fee including the advanced options of Nicofarre is around 2 million yen.

While this is a good news, it cannot hide the fact that the tournament stream is pay-per-view. Additionally, the hall attendants will only come from invitation.

Japan's Street Fighter 25th Anniversary National Tournaments revealed

Capcom now revealed today the details of Japan's "Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Official National Tournaments: Fighting Fall Festival."

Summary
- GODSGARDEN will manage this, Nico Nico will stream it, TOPANGA will give some help
- There will be a pay-per-view stream (TBA)
- 3 titles - SFxTK, SF4AE2012, SF3 3rd Strike
- Apply now until August 20
- Must live in Japan
- NO DETAILS ABOUT PRIZES

Qualifiers
- September 29-30 and October 6-7
- 20:00 to 23:00 (3 hours a day)
- All online matches
- 128 players will be reduced to 8* for the finals
- *For SF4AE2012, one player will come from The 2nd TOPANGA League A (special invitation)

Finals
- October 20 (Saturday)
- Double elimination
- 8 players each titles will compete
- It will be held somewhere in Tokyo area.


Capcom is notorious for not giving any prize money in Japan. It looks like the legend will continue. Note that Capcom promised $500,000 prizes for these 25th anniversary tournaments. The winners of the tournaments in Texas and New York receive $2,500. On December 8, a grand finals event will be held in San Francisco for the winners of each qualifying tournament. The winner of SFxTK or SF4AE2012 will receive $25,000.

New Tougeki scandals (2012 edition)

Tougeki 2012 is this weekend but we cannot wait to unfold these scandals. There are already 2 scams, pre-Tougeki 2012 P4U tournament and Game Summer Festival 2012.

Pre-Tougeki 2012 P4U (mini) tournament
The first scam is PPV pre-Tougeki 2012 P4U tournament. The show was 5 hour long. But there were 3 corners before that. The time table was not written beforehand, so no one expected that. They had viewers wait 1 hour 48 minutes before the actual tournament. Luckily, it is offline tournament, it would have less value otherwise.

The time table

1. Opening talk (15 minutes)
2. A sample of Cho Tougeki Exhibition match (Umehara vs. Nuki, Kazunoko vs. Fei Long) (originally 1 hour, but they cut to 30 minutes due to complaints?)
3. Tougeki Q&A talk (20 minutes)
4. P4U introduction & gameplay demonstration  (35 minutes)
5. The actual content

Why did they use PPV stream to promote Tougeki?
Why did they show SF4 on a PPV P4U stream?
Why did they show Umehara when he is not confirmed to go Tougeki 2012?
Why did they introduce something that people are paying to see?
Time table is not showed outside the show, was that on purpose?

The actual tournament started at 0:40 (JST) after midnight. And again, this is pay-per-view.


Game Summer Festival 2012
In order to make more money from Tougeki, they make Tougeki a part of a big game event. Everything outside Tougeki is a filler.

This big event is not actually big judging from the contents. The stage shows are mostly a game played by a gamer. The concerts are mostly from minor artists.

Here is the important part. If you are not already qualified for Tougeki Finals (a blue ticket holder) and wish to participate the appointed day qualifier, you are forced to buy the ticket of Game Summer Festival which will cost up to 7,500-8,500 yen for both days. Moreover, number of participants is limited even though they will accept all the applications. It will be decided by lottery. You will not get a refund if you are not chosen.

In Japan, with 8,500 yen, it is the money you pay for a concert of a top artist(s) of the country with approximate 30 songs or more.

They are unfairly making big money off players, their friends or relatives, and their fans.


The monopoly
We again have to remind you that Tougeki will always get away as long as Japan does not have a new open national fighting game tournaments event. Currently, only the game publishers have the power to do so. Arc System Works is stepping up, but publishers like Capcom only do so once in a while to promote stuff. TOPANGA and GODSGARDEN does not have the power. They can only organize a small one or invite-only.

Nico to stream GODSGARDEN's Evo 2012 public viewing event

It's revealed a couple days ago that Nico Nico will be streaming GODSGARDEN's Evolution 2012 public viewing event on Sunday night in Japan (or another 5 hours).

The Evolution public viewing event is similar to the one that GODSGARDEN used to do last year where people come to watch the last day of Evolution together. It will also be held at the same place.

We used to talk about the possibility of having Nico Nico stream Evo since last year for more exposure. Although this thing is not exactly it, it's close and good enough.

The stream is not a mirror of the Evo stream. It'll have Japanese commentators and will show only the reactions of the attendees. It'll also act as an exclusive chat room to the Japanese viewers at home.

More details of the event.
- Hosted by Kami-chan (Soulcalibur V player) and Ren (BlazBlue player) of GODSGARDEN
- Guest commentators: Frieda, Nekojita, Naruo
- Open: July 8, 23:00
- Close: July 9, 16:00
- Entrance fee: 1500 yen (1000 yen for female, free for 60 years old and over)

If you still remember, the legend of Itabashi Zangief weeping came from the event last year. (He started crying happy tears when Fuudo came back on Poongko after struggling.) ItaZan weeping (板ザン号泣) later became a JFGC Internet meme.

1st GODSGARDEN IDOLM@STER summary

The first GODSGARDEN's IDOLM@STER 2 competition was held last night on Ura Kao TV. It was a fight between Naruo (the Evil Ryu player), Goshi (GG staff), and Ren (the BlazBlue player). They were given the access to all of DLCs. All they did was choosing the girls, costume, song, and stage. The winner was decided by voting from viewers.

The voting results

1. Ren (62.3%)
2. Goshi (23.4%)
3. Naruo (14.3%)

Ren's team had better dress and coordination but he used 5 girls while Naruo and Goshi used only 3, so it was not actually fair. Naruo chose Do-Dai which is a very good song, but it does not go with the Winter theme. Goshi's coordination was almost totally off -- only dress and hat matched together.

The 2nd GG's IDOLM@STER competition should be very interesting, because KSK (who has a better sense of fashion) will participate.


Naruo's team
Character: Yayoi, Ami (center), Miki
Dress: School Days Blazer
Accessory Head: Star Earrings
Accessory Body: Mofumofu Muffler
Accessory Hand: None
Accessory Foot: None
Song: Do-Dai
Stage: Snowman's Land

Goshi's team
Character: Ritsuko, Iori (center), Ami
Dress: The Vest Schoolmate
Accessory Head: Beret
Accessory Body: White Cat Tail
Accessory Hand: White Cat Paws
Accessory Foot: None
Song: My Best Friend
Stage: Side Sunny

Ren's team
Character: Makoto, Iori, Haruka (center), Yayoi, Chihaya
Dress: Vital Sunflower
Accessory Head: Crescent Hairband
Accessory Body: Star Brooch
Accessory Hand: None
Accessory Foot: None
Song: The world is all one!!
Stage: Dome

KVO x GODSGARDEN summary

Info
- KVO x GODSGARDEN UMvC3 announced
- This tournament (KVO x GODSGARDEN) and KVO 2012 are different. Read the old posts for more.
- Date: May 4
- Recorded stream: Here
- They planned to invite Kusoru and Condor but only Cho accepted. So they gave those quotas to voting and qualifier.
- Frieda announced that he won't go to Evo 2012 so if he wins he won't take the ticket to Evo.
- 4Gamer.net now posted an event report.

Results

Qualifier (notable)
RF 2-0 Tonosama
fubarduck 1-2 Rei-chan
Ouma 0-2 Frieda
IKKI 0-2 Kubo
ASO 1-2 Nemo
RF (Wolf/Akuma/Task) 0-2 Emumaki
Tsujigawa 0-2 Maogami
Rei-chan 2-0 Haatia
Kaitenou 0-2 Nemo
Kubo 1-2 Frieda
Taketani 0-2 Rei-chan
Rei-chan 0-2 Frieda
Nemo 2-? Ninroku 2600
Rei-chan 2-1 Ninroku 2600

Real tournament

Invited: Cho
Voting: 1) Suna Hebi 2) OGTY 3) Abegen 4) G.X (related stream)
Appointed day qualifier: Frieda, Nemo, Rei-chan

[Winners] Suna Hebi (Sentinel/Nova/Super-Skrull) 2-0 OGTY (Nova/Dr. Doom/Super-Skrull)
[Winners] Rei-chan (Deadpool/Wesker/Doom) 2-1 G.X (Doom/Spencer/Hull)
[Winners] Abegen (She-Hulk/Tron/Thor) 0-2 Cho (Wesker/Magneto/Vergil)
[Winners] Nemo (Spencer/Strange/Wesker) 1-2 Frieda (Zero/Magneto/Dante) *Nemo almost won but he missed at the end of 2nd game
[Winners] Suna Hebi 1-2 Rei-chan *a big comeback from Sunahebi in 2nd round
[Winners] Cho 2-1 Frieda *Frieda won 1st game
[Winners Final] Rei-chan 2-0 Cho
[Losers] Nemo ?-2 Abegen *no stream
[Losers] Abegen 2-1 Frieda
[Losers] Abegen 2-0 G.X
[Losers Final] Abegen 1-2 Cho
[Grand Final 1] Rei-chan 2-3 Cho *Cho won first 2 games.
[Grand Final 2] Rei-chan 3-2 Cho *Cho won first 2 games but Rei-chan won last 3.

- Rei-chan won the trip to Evo 2012.
- Rei-chan is a pad player.

Concept Match with Kusoru
- The winner of this tournament will have to play against Kusoru.
Rei-chan 3-2 Kusoru (Viewtiful Joe/Rocket Raccoon/Frank West) *Rei-chan won first 2 and last.

Ogorare-kun
If you still don't understand why there's a maid giving people drinks and sometimes slaps in front of the camera, read this post about Ogorare-kun system. This's a similar service. Since the tournament is held in a maid cafe "CCO Cha" and some menu will be served in "Tsundere" style, the viewers can order a drink for the selected players and have them slapped at the same time. They can also instruct the maids what to write on the food with the tomato ketchup.

- Kindevu got Super Tsunderedaa. The maid said "I play SF4 and I used to wonder what Rufus player look like, you really look like Rufus! I'm impressed. Now do your best!" Then she slapped him really hard.

- OGTY got omelette rice with the word "Homo." (it's inside joke of the Japan UMvC3 community)
- Kusoru said on the stream that he's hungry and "Please order me something." Then a Kao TV viewer ordered Super Tsuderedaa x2 (served with double slaps from 2 maids) to Kusoru. The maids said "Why did you get an order like this? You wanna fight? Get serious already!"
- Some players like Suna Hebi got a "Corpse Stomping Soda."

KVO x GODSGARDEN UMvC3 announced

It is announced today that KVO x GODSGARDEN will take place on May 4. The title is Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Details
- 1 on 1
- 3 players will be invited, 3 players will come from voting, 2 players will come from appointed day qualifier (8 total)
- Ageo Joe (Kusoru) and Cho (KUBODSGARDEN champ) will be invited. (accept or not is up to them)
- Time: May 4, 22:00 (JST) start
- Place:  CCO Cha (a maid cafe in Osaka)

It is also revealed that the winner will get a plane ticket to Evolution 2012. The prize is big, because it should be worth just under 200,000 yen.

Last year at Evolution 2011, Frieda was the only Japanese MvC3 player. He did not make it to top 32. This year is more interesting, because UMvC3 has better gameplay. Kubo, another Japanese UMvC3 player, is already confirmed to go to Evolution 2012.

KVO is actually a FG tournament in Osaka. It is organized by one of the people behind KUBODSGARDEN (UMvC3) tournament on January 21. KVO 2012 will be held between May 4-5. There is also a separated 3 on 3 UMvC3 tournament on the first day. Persona 4 Arena and the latest Power Instinct are on the second day.

Osaka is 7 hours by car from Tokyo. It seems like there are many local players who are interested in UMvC3. It is expected to have around 80-100 participants.

KSK banned from Nico Nico

If you still remember, one of Soushihan KSK's jobs is stream producer. He streams concerts of indie artists including music contests. Today, something went wrong during a big local music contest that he was streaming. KSK's Nico Nico account got suspended for 1 week because of that.

The vocalist of the first band suddenly stripped naked during their first song. Everyone was shocked because they didn't believe what they saw so it took 7-8 seconds until they cut it.

The show went on a couple hours and stopped when KSK's account got banned. The show then resumed using other person's account and channel. The organizer later came out to apologize and announced that the band was disqualified for that.

But don't worry, KSK and GODSGARDEN's Nico stream should be alright.

Capcom X GODSGARDEN: SFxTK tournament detailed

The details of the world's first Capcom official SFxTK tournament has been revealed just now. The full name is "Capcom X GODSGARDEN SFxTK Spring Start Dash Festival in Akihabara Clark Studio." It'll be held on March 30 at Akihabara Clark Studio. It's an offline open tournament for 32 players. Nuki, Kokujin, Nekojita, and Kazunoko are already confirmed to participate. You can apply now here. There'll also be streaming here starting from 8 p.m. (JST).

Prizes
1st place - PlayStation Vita, SFxTK parka, SFxTK smartphone case
2nd place - SFxTK parka
3rd place - SFxTK smartphone case
All participants - file folder, hand towel

The tournament was first mentioned on the stage in Capcom's official SSF4AE2012 national tournament.

Official BlazBlue Nationals now highest-paid tourney in Japan

The announcement on the yesterday evening revealed that Blue Revo, the BlazBlue Official National Tournament, this year on March 24 has one million yen prize money for the winner. This means Blue Revo will become the new highest-paid fighting game tournament in Japan, overthowing TOPANGA League.

Prize list
1st place - 1,000,000 yen and "Blue Revo Ruler" ingame title.
2nd place - 300,000 yen and "Blue Revo Finalist" ingame title.
3rd place - 100,000 yen and "Blue Revo Best 4" ingame title.

However, Blue Revo is a 3 on 3 tournament, the money will be split between members. The prize-winners will also have to join Arc System Works's future activities. And if you only count player-organized tournaments, TOPANGA League is still No.1.

This news is good for Japanese players, but bad for Capcom's image. Capcom is well-known for not giving any prize money. In the latest official national tournament, the best prize was certificates, trophies, ingame titles, and 17,000 yen arcade sticks.

As expected, we made a list for you to compare.

1. Blue Revo (team, 2012) - 1,000,000 yen
2. TOPANGA League (single, 2012) - 555,555 yen (related post)
3. GODSGARDEN Online #2 (single, 2010) - 500,000 yen
4. GODSGARDEN #4 (single, 2011) - 250,000 yen
5. GODSGARDEN #3 (single, 2011) - 200,000 yen
6. GODSGARDEN #5 (single, 2012) - 100,000 yen
7. Official Tekken 6 tournament Japan Round (single, 2010) - 100,000 yen
8. GODSGARDEN Classic (single, 2011) - 50,000 yen
9. LG Cup SF4HD Japan qualifier (single 2012) - $600 (50,000 yen)
10. Nippon e-sports Agency's Soulcalibur V tournament (single, 2012) - 50,000 yen

Tougeki did not disclose the details about prizes, but it is expected to be around the bottom of this list.

Umehara in LG Cup SF4HD Global Championship 2012 Japan's qualifier

On Saturday, Daigo Umehara appeared as a guest in talk session in LG Cup Street Fighter IV HD Global Championship 2012 Japan's qualifier. He was unusual talkative because he's between two friends who are one of the most talkative fighting game players - Kokujin and Nuki.

Nuki is Umehara's old friend and it seems like they didn't meet in a long while.

- Talking about olden days, Umehara joked that he thought Nuki's era is over when Nuki finished just 3rd place in a tournament. Because Nuki was so strong and always finished 1st place.
- They tried to find the right character for Nuki to play in SF4 Ver.2012.
- Nuki was interested in Sakura. (Nuki likes female characters.) Kazunoko made him interested a bit in Seth. Kokujin cheered on Seth, too.
- Umehara said Sakura gives Ryu more trouble than Seth.
- Umehara made fun of the fact that Nuki likes to talk about the olden days.
- Umehara mentioned that Dan is strong, mainly from shoryuken invincibility.
- Kokujin: Who's easy to play but strong? Ume: Adon.
- Umehara chose Ryu over Akuma because Akuma doesn't give him big advantage over Ryu.
- Umehara said Ryu's HP shoryuken is fun.
- Nuki is a renowned Umehara fanboy and he won't hesitate to say something awkward like "When I played SF4 slot machine, Umehara's face popped out." Viewers joked about platonic love/unfulfilled love as usual.
- Talking about the legendary parry at Evo: Ume said Raou liked to Super Art him, so it's like he practiced with Raou. Kokujin actually was there, too. He said it was so loud they couldn't hear anything else after the parry.
- Kokujin asked about how famous: Ume said sometimes he got a special treat from restaurants.
- In Zero 3 era, Nuki said there were 20,000 participants in national tournament.
- Umehara surprisingly knows a lot about smartphone version of SF4.
- Umehara playing the first Street Fighter, couldn't do shoryuken. KSK reported. [Pic]
- 4Gamer.net has a report about this event. [Link]

TOPANGA League prizes detailed

The detail of TOPANGA League's prize money was revealed last night on TOPANGA TV.

• 1st place - 555,555 yen
• 2nd place - 100,000 yen
• 3rd place - 50,000 yen
• 4th place - 25,000 yen
• 5th place - 20,000 yen
• 6th place - 15,000 yen
• 7th place - 10,000 yen
• 8th place - 5,000 yen
• 9th place - 1,000 yen
• 10th place - 500 yen
• 11th place - 100 yen
• 12th place - 5 yen

The winner will be awarded 555,555 yen, this makes TOPANGA League the highest-paid fighting game tournament in Japan. Before this, the record holder was GODSGARDEN Online #2 with 500,000 yen prize money for the winner.

In Japan, collecting entry fees from players for the prize pot is illegal, as it will be treated as unauthorized gamble. Prize money must come from sponsors, not directly from the tournament organizer. Otherwise, the organizer must give away prize money without getting entry fees. And when big companies don't lend their hands, this's the deadlock which is half of the reasons why the scene grows very slowly.

There's no doubt that TOPANGA League's prize pot will come from the pay-per-view streaming. This's the move that could change Japan's fighting game scene as we know completely. The league has players that viewers want to see, and not only one match. Viewers' money goes to their favorite players' pocket. All players are guaranteed to be paid and/or be on stream for weeks on Japan's No.1 streaming site.

Nyanshi, TOPANGA organizer, mentioned that if the first TOPANGA League becomes a success, we could see "B League" (2nd tier league) in the second season.