Carpools here.

Represent here.

From shoryuken.com:

Welcome to the first ever MICHIGAN MASTERS tournament!!!

The location has been updated. Take a look in the When and Where spot in this post. Also, check out the attached file to see the bracket for the exhibition tournament!

What
Michigan Masters is a Michigan regional tournament. As well as regular tournaments, there will also be a special single elimination exhibition tournament where the top 8 players in the state will face off against each other, winner takes all! I want this to be the best MI tournament yet, so bring all your friends, tell everyone you know about it, and get people from out of state up here!

When and Where
The tournament will take place in East Lansing, Michigan, on December 12th, 2009. It will be in Classroom 130 in North Hubbard Hall on Michigan State Campus (http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=Hu…01929&t=h&z=16) The doors will open at 11:00, and the first tournament will begin promptly at noon. If you are late, you can still be placed in an open spot in the bracket, but there will be a $3 penalty.

Games
Street Fighter 4 (360) – 12:00 noon
Street Fighter 3 (PS2 – 12:00 noon
Street Fighter 2 HD Remix (360) – 2:00
Capcom vs. SNK 2 (PS2) – 2:00
Melty Blood Actress Again (PS2) – 4:00
Tekken 6 (360) – 4:00
Guilty Gear: Accent Core (PS2) – 6:00
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (DC) – 6:00
Blazblue (360) – 6:00
Michigan Masters Exhibition starts – 6:00
Michigan Masters Finals – 8:00

Entry Fee and Prizes
There is a $5 base charge for all tournament participants. The money from the base charge will all be added to the prize pool for the Michigan Masters Exhibition. In addition to this, each game you enter will cost an additional $10. The game money will go into the prize pool for the game you entered. The prize pool is split 70% to 1st place, 20% to second place, and 10% to third place for that game. If 6 or less people enter a game 2nd place will get their money back, and 1st place will get the rest.

Rules
No button macros, no pausing, no turbo. For game specific questions, PM me.
Each tournament will be double elimination format. If 5 or less players are in a tournament it will be round robin instead.
SF4, BB and Tekken 6 will be seeded according to the Michigan Rankings. Players from the same town will be separated in all tournaments, so you won’t have to fight your friends right away.

Exhibition
The Michigan Masters Exhibition is an 8-man single elimination, winner takes all SF4 tournament. The top 6 players from the Michigan Ranking Battles will automatically be invited. The two remaining places will be filled by the best placing players in the SF4 tournament on the day of Michigan Masters. It is likely that the top players in the tournament will already be invited to participate in the exhibition. If this is the case, the top two players who aren’t already invited will be allowed to join. If a player in the top 6 can’t make it to the tournament, an additional spot will be opened up for players to qualify on the day. The first place player at the end of the Exhibition will be given all the money from the base entry fee ($5 per person), and possibly some extra money if I can find some. GET HYPE

After most everyone went home I witnessed ULX regulars Joel and Zack falling in love with Street Fighter, totally hooked so expect to see them learning fast in the near future.

In addition, many of our newer regulars made it back, becoming MORE regular (without any help from fiber), and we even played a little Smash for a change, which I love.

For me personally the highlight of the night was facing Sagat (hotsauce) while ULX staff (or was that Rock Band?) blasted “Eye of the Tiger” at full volume. That song is just so…. It should be played during every fight basically.

RanBat 1.5 results:

1st -- SmurfTac0s (8)

2nd -- Slappy (7)

3rd -- Hotsauce! (6)

4th -Mark (5)

5th -Cuban_Ace (4)

6th -Fred (3)

7th -Nora (2)

8th -- CakeFarts (1)

Rock Band Beatles was playing all night and now it’s stuck in my head…

Welcome back Dutch and Aaron who haven’t been around for a while, it was good to see you back!

Aaron was kicking ass and taking names as usual. Also was it my imagination or was OctopusOnFire really really really really on. More than usual I mean. Been training hard?

An important discovery was made today: ULX has a cappuccino machine. Nothing fancy but beats the heck out of a plain pot of coffee (and energy drinks imho). Drink up, they are just $1.00!

RanBat 1.4 results:

1st -- Aaron (8)

2nd -- Slappy (7)

3rd -- Haypultone (6)

4th -- OctopusOnFire (5)

5th -- HoldySnausages (4)

6th -- Hotsauce! (3)

7th -- Dutch0 (2)

8th -- Chauncy “Tru” Talon (1)

GRAPSF ULX meetups are full of good folk, good play, and whiny emo children. Two out of three is pretty good.

GRAPSF returned to ULX after a three week sabbatical this Saturday… getting the Monty Python reference out of the way, “and there was much rejoicing”. Four new faces made their first appearance at a GRAPSF meetup: Phildo (TELEDILDONICS REPRESENT!), SwiftyMcQuik, Randall Son, and… Fred. Jolly Pirate Nickname to follow shortly. All four were great fun to have around and made excellent sports. Please make them welcome, folks.

Ranbat 1.3 was another exciting installment that had Slappy taking first with his fucking evil Zangief. There was a great match between Cuban Ace and Haypultone that came straight down to the wire, with HPT’s brutal Sagat finally grounding Cuban’s impressive Vega. Randall Son made an excellent first impression, taking fifth overall with his Chun Li, while Singe makes his first top eight appearance at number four after running through the gauntlet of Sagats with Ryu and Gouken. I suffered this week, taking second to last place: I guess I need to practice a bit!

The final results for 1.3 are as follows:

1) Slappy (8)

2) Haypultone (7)

3) SmurfTac0s (6)

4) Singe (5)

5) Randall Son (4)

6) Tru Talon (3)

7) Cuban Ace (2)

8 ) HotSauce! (1)

The exhibition match in Third Strike, featuring Singe’s Ken and MrBaggs’ (who finally returned to the fold!) deceptively evil Sean was a blast to watch, with MrBaggs’ giving Singe some trouble, though Singe finally came out on top. MrBaggs took his frustration out on ALL COMERS in Blazblue, using Ragna to great effect. My Arakune and Taokaka weren’t up to the task, which pretty much describes everyone who attempted to take him out. Singe, not to be outdone, stomped everyone is Third Strike, showing that low forward into super is still a bitch to deal with even ten years later. Tekken 6 was sampled and ultimately rejected on grounds that real games don’t have panda bears or boxing kangaroos in them. I thought I heard some people playing MvC2, but it might have been my imagination. All in all, it was a great time.

Our next meetup is next Saturday at ULX, starting at the usual time. The season is well underway, with seven more installments to go (ending on January 2nd). It’s still anyone’s game: practice your execution, drink cough syrup, jog naked late at night…whatever you have to do, because it’s only going to get crazier from here on out.

The GRAPSF Ranbat 1.2 tournament lasted three minutes short of fucking forever, because I didn’t bring my laptop and the delightful Tio Tournament organizer contained within, but we made due with primitive pen and paper. Dro616, our newest Zangief, did extremely well for himself losing only to Tru Talon and alcohol. The finals were held round robin style, with HotSauce making his first place debut. The final placement for 1.2 is as follows:

1)Hotsauce

2) Tru Talon

3) SmurfTac0s

4) G-Boobie

5) Slappy

6) Dro616

7) Holden

8 ) Octopus On Fire

See the Ranbat section on the sidebar for current overall standings.

The results for the evening are as follows:

1st)SmurfTac0s

2nd) Slappy

3rd) G-Boobie

4th) Haypultone

5th) Tru Talon

6th) Holden

7th) HotSauce

8th) Octopus On Fire

Which leaves the Ranbat points at:

Smurftac0s (8)

Slappy(7)

G-Boobie (6)

Haypultone (5)

Tru Talon (4)

Holden (3)

HotSauce (2)

Octopus On Fire (1)

The next Ranbat tourney will be the week after next: ULX will be hosting a Call of Duty tournament this upcoming Saturday, which means we’ll be playing somewhere else (to be announced soon).

Highlights from this last Saturday include Slappy upping his Zangief game enough to take the semi-final win from yours truly, in a one sided match that left my Blanka wondering just what the Hell happened. Also pondered was the size of Gief’s testicles, which poor Blanka could feel crushed against his face every ten seconds or so. It’s hardly conclusive evidence, but if Blanka’s face is to be believed, a certain Russian wrestler has been on steroids for quite some time. Singe blew all our minds by parrying Remy’s multiple projectile super “Light of Justice” in third strike, not once, but twice in regular play. His Ken did terrible things to everyone, losing only to my Remy (despite the ridiculous parry crap) and Urien (Go Die, indeed). Making this even more impressive is the fact that Singe had just switched from pad warrior to using a stick THAT NIGHT.

The final match of the evening was between Slappy and Smurftac0s, who picked Sakura to play against Slappy’s Godless Red Devil. Smurf pulled it off too, defeating Slappy in a close and fun match that had the place jumping. Smurf is a beast, and remains the guy to beat at GRAPSF.com.

We had some technical difficulties with Haypultone’s HAVA recording device, so there’s no footage of this weeks’ play. We should have it figured out by our next meeting, so look forward to HD quality footage of things going forward.

Casual matches and coaching sessions went swimmingly, but the real event was the second GRAPSF community tournament. While the competition and friendly smack talk went a long way towards the tournament’s success, I think we can all agree that it was the enormous projection television (and accompanying 100 MegaShock sound system) that made it truly epic. My favorite match of the night was the grudge match between Slappy’s Cold, Inhuman Zangief and my peace loving and cuddly jungle dwelling Blanka which came right down to the last round of the last match and made the place go crazy. Cuban Ace made it out after a prolonged absence and brought a mean, mean Vega with him. HoldySnausages and Crip2nite made the rounds with their devastating shotos, and my young ward Singe came out to play for the first time since… Well, the first time. Fancy that.

SmurfTac0s took first place with his very lifelike Mike Tyson from Japan, having overcome The Artist Formerly Known As MegaTPlusStrength And Now Known As HotSauce (hereafter referred to as TAFKAMTPSANKAH) and his Godless and perverse Sagat. TAFKAMTPSNKAH has only recently switched over from padwarrior to arcade stick, and impressed everyone with his growing execution and ability. I myself took third, losing to TAFKAMTPSANKAH in a close and exciting match between his Godless and possibly fascist Sagat and my Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Blanka.

And now, some business. Meet ups are going to be weekly from here on out. Saturdays at ULX, starting at 2 PM and lasting until whenever. An all day pass is ten dollars, but if you can only make it for an hour or two, it’s two dollars an hour. I myself think that’s a steal, considering that you get to play on the BIG SCREEN, which if my calculations are correct, is only three inches smaller than God Himself.

To provide some incentive for showing up, the first GRAPSF Ranbat season will start this upcoming Saturday, and will take place every Saturday thereafter until the end of December. Check out the thread in the forums for more info, but the more events you attend, the more likely you are to win and score points. And the three overall winners at the end of the season have some excellent prizes coming their way, courtesy of Planet G-Boobie.

We will also be hosting  a monthly cash prize tournament with a ten dollar buy in. More info on that as it develops.

Thanks to everyone who showed up for a great time, and thanks again to ULX for making us feel so welcome. See everyone Saturday, and remember: bring your friends, bring your hype, and leave your eyeliner at home.

There were about 15 people by my count, and what none of us realized at the time however, was that we had just signed up for a seminar in game balance courtesy of Haypultone. Now we all feel a little bit worse about ourselves for playing such overpowered characters…

Not to be outdone, Smurf did the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in a match, and then showed some really excellent coaching skills by telling Hotsauce how to destroy my Zangief with just four words.

Lots of new people showed up, it’s nice to see the group growing and growing! Also we all got to see a catfight, which makes the party successful by most anyone’s standards.

Thanks for hosting, and I am definitely looking forward to your next one!

They taunted us by declaring it was our fault and that we should call ahead next time before assuming they still offered the use of PCs and x-boxes as advertised, then spit in our faces and charged us full price. HoldySnausages had just beaten me there and so I ordered him to take everyone hostage while I sprung into action. I roared and punched out their front window in anger as I headed to my car.

I raced down narrow side streets in my ‘99 Mazda Protege as if the devil himself were not far behind me.  I screeched into my driveway and barely managed to place my vehicle in park before throwing the door open and sprinting to the house. Grabbing my x-box I dashed back to my car and peeled out of the driveway killing a small family of pedestrians instantly. I would mourn them later but for now there was no time.

Two cigarettes and one heart attack later and I was downtown again. My phone was ringing off the hook as confused GrapSF members arrived only to fall into GrandLan’s sinister trap. I double-parked in front of a fire hydrant while blocking in a police car and raced back to the dark heart of the cursed gaming center.

By then Dutch0, Haypultone, and newcomer Aaron were waiting along with HoldySnausages. We attached the mess of wires to the disgusting orifice on the one tiny television we were allowed to use and fired up my x-box for what may be the last time.

Casual matches began awkwardly as the staff of GrandLan decided that each member of their card game would sit in the lap of someone who was there to play Street Fighter, and that somehow a folding table belonged up my asshole. The locals (part of the conspiracy no doubt) then assigned the area between the players and the screen as the designated pathway to the back of the store, which they visited often for no reason. Somewhere in a back room, the staff set fire to a bag of popcorn in either an attempt to smoke us out, or a bizarre sacrifice.

Just then a chorus of angels could be heard and a light pierced the dark smokey room as MegaTplStrength burst through the door with Mabin, D-Money and CakeFarts not far behind. Having sensed an evil presence on this side of the city, something inside him told him to bring his PS3, a crucifix, and holy water as backup.

The staff of GrandLan recoiled and hissed at the prospect of us having another setup, but they regrouped quickly and decided we couldn’t use any more of their TVs. Defeated, MegaTplStrength declared that he would leave his old life behind and would be known as hotsauce from this day forward. When CakeFarts heard the news his fists clenched and he began to glow. Just when we thought his aura would destroy us all he flew straight up through the roof and rocketed across the sky towards the flat-screen TV back at his place.

When he returned we hardened our resolve to find some semblance of normalcy despite the dark will of GrandLan trying to destroy us. We had one x-box setup and, on the opposite side of the building (divide and conquer), a PS3 setup. It was Mabin, D-Money, hotsauce, CakeFarts, Haypultone, HoldySnausages, Dutch0 (who brought:), Aaron, and myself (am I forgetting anyone?). Two other newcomers showed up briefly but then quickly ran away, vomiting in horror at the chaos our meet-up had spiraled into.

G-Boobie, Mr. Baggs, Tru Talon, SmurfTac0s, and Cuban Ace were nowhere to be seen, I presume the staff of GrandLan had them murdered just hours before we were supposed to meet in an attempt to prevent the RanBat that G-Boobie was organizing.

The main highlight of the day, was getting to play at all considering an unknown enemy was pulling strings behind the scenes to stop us…

The second highlight of the day as I remember it, was the revelation that the new challenger Aaron had been sent by someone or something, to kill us using Abel. No one made it out unscathed. I thought I was doing well with Dhalsim for a moment but then he just switched back to using Abel and violated  me in a way that I cannot bear to talk about. He continued to pile up the bodies of anyone who approached a stick or pad.

Also newsworthy is:

• CakeFarts’ (who attended the last session but did not play) debut in the ring with Cammy.
• GrandLan’s copy of Street Fighter is hosed, so we should always provide our own from now on.
• If anyone’s curious, the new wiring setup at GrandLan consists of all the x-boxes being behind the counter, and we only have a USB port by each TV to plug controllers into (apparently latency and inconvenience = good – Keeping track of who they hand games out to in case one goes missing = bad).
• RanBats didn’t happen this time as planned, but G-Boobie will hopefully start them soon, and once they pick up steam we’ll have a backup in place for when he can’t be there.
• HoldySnausages’ huge tattoo of Ken’s Shoryuken.

Thanks to all who made the trip. It was not our best gathering but hey, it makes all the other ones seem a lot better by contrast!

I ended up staying till midnight (my hands hurt) and wondering why we don’t all  stay later. It gets a lot busier later; we could order pizza and generally draw in more casuals. It could be perhaps, that I have no life.