The Incessant Ramblings of a Tone-Deaf Songbird.

Pretty straight-forward. This blog is just as the title suggests. I write about things I like, and sometimes things I don't like. Those things will have to do mostly with Street Fighter. First time here? Read this.

[mvc2]

[ohnahubuggin]

Kikoken. 

[yungestfuasco]

[yungestfuasco]

Charlie Nash confirmed for Street Fighter V

[ohnahubuggin]

Good.

[nicolas-chocolat-deactivated201]

[specta-a-deactivated20180419]

[shinryuuken]

Tweet Fighter: (how I got Lupe Fiasco to block me on Twitter)

Street Fighter V is upon release with each passing minute, and in my anxiousness I feel the need to check Street Fighter’s official twitter account about as often as a pirate has to check for signs of scurvy. Taking notice to the fact that it’s 3:30 in the morning (at the time), meaning that Street Fighter V is only a short 19 days away (at the time), I decide to check Street Fighter’s twitter for anything I’ve missed since the last time I checked, which was probably two fucking minutes prior, and lo and behold, retweet after retweet of the cunting (no, cunting is not a word) Lupe Fiasco jabbering on about Street Fighter like he knows anything worth a shit.  

“But Rainey, while I do find your writing engaging and your syntax remarkable, I can’t help but ask, who is Lupe Fiasco?” That’s a great fucking question, o’ loyal one-or-two readers. The answer is 

fucking nobody. 

Okay, I lied, 

the answer is Lupe Fiasco is a musician of the rapping persuasion who hasn’t been relevant since his verse on Kanye West’s Touch the Sky, or for those that stuck around till the bitter end, his song Superstar, featuring the likes of Matthew Santos. He later went on to create mediocre, hardly memorable music (and I use the term ‘music’ lightly) that would eventually fade into irrelevance and drive him to his current psychological state. I also wouldn’t entirely disagree that it’s also what’s driven him to look like that creepy relative who’s always crashing on your couch by night, and by day, skulking about grounds of your nearest elementary school, chanting conspiracy theories and how we all need to do our part in society, but always shows up to the cookout empty-handed and somehow still has the audacity to expect people to welcome him with open arms.

Where was I going with this?

Ah, yes. So, as far as twitter is concerned, Poop-in MiAsshole has picked up a Street Fighting habit, and while I wish that were true in the literal sense, I mean it in that he has been playing Street Fighter. Or, I’m sorry, played Street Fighter on two occasions, as evidenced below. 

What’s also made apparent in these tweets is his sheer arrogance and blatant disregard for the fact that no one had a single fucking clue that he even played the game, which speaks volumes for the idea that his burn-out status in music has made him desperate for a second chance at the spotlight like a jaded chicken with a death wish. “But Rainey, his record is pretty impressive, and isn’t it in the spirit of fighting games to talk trash after a winning streak?” Yes, of course, when you hold some fucking weight, or when you’re among friends, not when you just picked up the game again after realizing that this music shit isn’t really your gig, and it’s on an outlet where people like me can take screenshots for posts like this. You don’t just go saying things like, “there were so many victims,” when you’ve only just re-immersed yourself in the franchise, and the game within that franchise that you’re bragging about is dated as fuck. It’s like being great at soccer, but only being great at the version of soccer that ancient civilizations used to play involving kicking severed heads about a stone courtyard. Soccer, in this case, is Street Fighter, and the severed heads are the archaic versions of Street Fighter that Lupe Pistachio is gloating about in the aforementioned tweets. Everyone’s playing IV now, Lupe, and no one fucking cares how good you are at II and III.

Still, this isn’t entirely why I’m upset.  THIS is:

What.

(Sidebar: There are three individual, hardly related, points I’d like to make regarding this short correspondence between Fiasco and Julio:

I am not surprised that Mad Catz would incite something like this, and it’s a brilliant marketing technique on their part, so my beef is not with Mad Catz, or Mark Julio himself for inciting this. I think it’s a classic ploy to sell more products, and build hype around the Mad Catz franchise, as well as a means to appeal to a different crowd, even if that crowd is the Wrangler jeans, DC Shoes wearing, knows-what-the-inside-of-Fort-Knox looks-like-but-never-graduated-high-school, Kryptonics skateboard pushing crowd.

I watch a lot of anime, and I know a number of Japanese people, I also know non-Japanese people who speak the language and have been to Japan, and not I, nor they, being of a different ethnic background, ever referred to anyone as San, Kun, Sama, or Chan. It’s like when non-Spanish speaking rappers try to be cute by rapping in a horrendous Spanish accent, or when you tell someone you’re English and they start saying shit like, “Pip, pip, Cheerio!” Ugh. Or like when white people call you my nig-- you understand. And finally,

I fucking hate Lupe Fiasco.)

Now, at this point, I’m trying my hardest not to Tiger Knee myself in the eyes, but to my astonishment, it happens (the match up, not me Tiger Knee’ing myself in the eyes). And I’m honestly not sure why I was expecting anything different. Usually when Mark Julio says he’s going to make something happen, it happens. And not a moment too soon, Event Hubs proudly tweets:

I know, Daigo. I know.

You can imagine that at this point, I’m fuming. And as if my anger wasn’t already at it’s fucking peak, to make matters worse, I see this load of horse piss:

Oh my fucking god...

Now, for anyone reading this who doesn’t play Street Fighter, this is the version he’s holding; Street Fighter IV’s 2011 updated version:

THIS is the latest, 2015 updated, current tournament version of Street Fighter IV:

AND THIS IS THE COMPLETELY NEW, UNRELEASED GAME THAT HE IS GOING TO PLAY. AGAINST. FUCKING. DAIGO. UMEHARA. 

Why am I so angry? Why does this get under my skin? Why did I start writing this at 3:45 in the morning, when the clock is now approaching 5:50? If you’ve read this far and still find it difficult to pinpoint what my problem is exactly, I’d like to remind you of the title of this blog, and that you knew what you were signing up for when you followed it, however my problem is, and I will put it for you simply: Everything about this fucking phony ass fuckboy makes me angry.

What makes me especially angry is the exploitation of an art-form for the purpose of commercial recognition. I was ecstatic when I first heard news that ESPN was getting a section dedicated to e-sports, I thought, “wow, finally, a chance at recognition in the eyes of mainstream media. An eye-opening experience for those only used to contact sport, and a way for sports to appeal to someone other than the beer guzzling cheating husbands and illiterate construction workers.” But then I came to the realization that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Maybe the exclusivity, and reclusivity (no, reclusivity is not a word) of the competitive gaming scene is what made it so wonderful. Maybe people enjoyed the amount of work and hours of tournament footage one would have to watch in order to be fairly knowledgable regarding the machinations of competitive gaming, and more specifically, Street Fighter, because it meant that anyone who was up on the Street Fighter competitive scene actually wanted to be there. I can’t help but feel that while ESPN’s decision to incorporate e-sports is amazing in it’s own sense, it’s going to be detrimental in the long run, and Lupe Fiasco’s scheduled match with Daigo is but a glimpse of the impending apocalypse that is to come, where all integrity in the Street Fighter scene will come face to face with rapture. It’s made evident in this succession of tweets below. How is it that you gleefully agree to a match with arguably the greatest Street Fighter player of all time, in a game that has yet to be released, whom people have been waiting ever so patiently for, and then have the audacity to spew this from your facehole? 

This is what I’m talking about. Before Mark Julio approached Lupe about his match with Daigo, he tweeted, in response to a follower asking if he was going to pick up Street Fighter V, “No. They lost me when SF went 3D. I’m 2D and I’m fine with that.” But then after the offer is made to have a SFV match with Daigo, he gladly agrees, saying it would “be an honor to lose to Daigo-san...” It’s also infuriating to see tweets like the latter, where he dismisses any character that isn’t of the Shotokan variety, saying they’re a bore. Any fan of the franchise would appreciate different characters and their uniqueness, and how players go about using them to their advantage. Of course, Groupe Fiasco is just that. A groupie. He picked up Street Fighter for a couple of days and thinks his ineptitude will be excused by his slew of thoughtless followers. It’s this kind of fakeness that worries me when it comes to ESPN opening the door for people like this to contaminate the Street Fighter scene because one thing I’ve always admired about it is that it’s real. There is no politicking, no fakeness, everyone brings their A-game and plays their best, all while retaining a respectable sense of sportsmanship. It’s the truest form of competition that I’ve seen in a long time. All I’m saying is that I’d like for Street Fighter to retain it’s integrity, and I hope that it remains a medium for people of all shapes, sizes, and ages, to display their prowess in an indiscriminate light, rather than turn into a corporation in the hands of ESPN and people like Lupe Fiasco. 

Also, I fucking hate Lupe Fiasco. And to make my hatred apparent, I said:

Among a slew of other things, I definitely put my best foot forward in making my disgust for this fucking guy apparent, to which he replied with blocking me. Naturally, I was overjoyed.

I got what I wanted. Fuck you, Lupe.

[videofame]

[sf3]

 character alt costumes for SFV (part ½)

[shinryuuken]

Introduction.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, let alone written anything at all, so this intro will serve as a welcome to anyone seeing this blog for the first time, and also as a segue into all the incessant ramblings to come. Every writer I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing or following has instituted the same code; Just keep writing and writing and writing until your fingertips go numb, (or until your carpal tunnel acts up (for my more traditional writers), or until your squid ink no longer retains the necessary integrity to stick to the sharp end of your quill (for me even more traditional writers)) and eventually you’ll decide whether or not this is a medium you’d like to continue to employ, or if it’s not worth the sleepless nights you’ll spend editing and refining your work. As I said, It’s been a while, so bare with me, please. I promise this blog will get increasingly engaging as I slowly rediscover myself. 

Now,

As you could’ve probably already guessed from the GIF and the Avatar I have an affinity for a certain character of the Street Fighter franchise, which I’ll explain in a later post. In fact, I have an affinity for the entirety of Street Fighter. Unlike most people who are currently fans of the franchise, I got into Street Fighter, or as a friend of mine drunkenly referred to it one night, Feet Strighter, at the tender age of 14. Meanwhile, all my friends (all three of them) had been playing since Street Fighter II was on SNES, getting their asses handed to them by their older siblings until they got good enough to stand a chance. The lessons these beatings taught them (and the time and effort put in since then) had sharpened their skills and made them the beasts they are now. I never had that. In fact, I wasn’t brought up on the video games that bring about feelings of incomparable nostalgia today. I didn’t get my first console until 2003, two years after the North American release of the Nintendo Gamecube, and It wasn’t until two years after that, with the Gamecube release of Capcom vs SNK 2 EO, that I got my first actual arcade style fighting game, but I’ll get into that particular point in my life in another post. As it happens, I grew older. My interests delved into different spectrums, and much like other 12-year-old boys I had no idea what the fuck was going on. All I knew was that I hated everything, which probably had a lot to do with the fact that I could get weirdly painful stiffies (no, ‘stiffies’ is not a word), but couldn’t cum yet. But I digress; over time I played less and less of CvSNK2 until I stopped playing it altogether. And for the next five years I almost never touched a fighting game, and when I did, it was like dangling a paraplegic over a DDR mat, flinging him about, and expecting him to do any less than hilariously deplorable. 

Fast forward to winter of early 2009, I was enjoying the company of my then girlfriend, and her adorable little sisters, and her father had just picked up a copy of Street Fighter IV for his Xbox 360 (ew). I still wasn’t as into it as I am now, but it was the first time a fighting game had peaked my interest since my days with CvSNK2, on top of it being the first time Capcom had released a numbered Street Fighter title since 1999. It was a refreshing feeling. Around the start of 2010, I had banded together with a group of guys that played semi-competitively amongst themselves, and naturally, they took turns bullying me into frustration, as matches with me lasted roughly one tenth of a second, while matches between them lasted 15 to 20 minutes a piece, at which point I gave up on trying to learn through them. The following year, I met three individuals who are still close friends of mine to this day. They were the first to educate me on the existence of Arcade Sticks, and introduced me to the Evolution Tournament and Capcom Cup, fighting game tournaments where Street Fighter is usually the main event. We spent a lot of time playing the game, studying it’s top players, and I spent even more time losing, but at this point it was something I had gotten used to. 

This point in my life was undeniably pivotal in my development as a lover and player of Street Fighter, because the more we played, the more I learned. They, unlike my former group of friends, took the time out to explain mechanics, teach me timing, normal moves, special moves, ultra combos, frame data (to an extent), the concept of priority, footsies, the Akuma vortex, Sagat’s ridiculous range, Fei Long’s chicken wing- I could go on. They, along with the professionals we watched during tournaments, taught me how to play to win, and how to have fun with the game (although no one will ever really be able to teach me how to lose). At this point, we back-tracked, because I hadn’t had any experience with the previous Street Fighter titles (Street Fighter II, Third Strike, the Alpha series) so that my knowledge would continue to expand. 

I had learned roughly 90 percent of what I know about Street Fighter from my friends, and learned the other 10 from watching tournaments, and online matches, and even watching the computer play against itself in-game, although you find out sooner rather than later that it’s about as exciting as watching two frozen squirrels slowly peel off the side of a tree in the dead of a cold, gray winter, and placing bets as to which will fall into the impending slush first. It was at that point that I got more into the story of Street Fighter, and while my friends were knowledgable, they didn’t care to spend a lot of time piecing things together from it’s less than coherent chronology. My friends were always more into the competitive and mechanical aspect of the game, because that’s just what they like in a video game, and i’ve always been a sucker for a good story. I like to think of it like a woman that I’m not attracted to in the slightest, giving me the greatest head I’ve ever gotten in my miserable life; a vice and a virtue. Meaning gameplay could be absolute balderdash, the mechanics could be bollocks, and the graphics could be polygons for all I care, but as long as there’s a story to unfold, I’m all in.

Now these three friends of mine, who molded me into the ‘eh, I guess’ player I am today, are still dear friends of mine, we play together all the time, and are anticipating the release of Street Fighter V with an unrelenting anxiety... Okay, I’m anticipating the release of Street Fighter V with an unrelenting anxiety. But I can’t help myself. Street Fighter has been there for me when I needed an escape from the real world, when I needed to take my frustrations out on something, when I’m in a good mood and want to continue to feel that way for a while before delving back into a spiraling sadness like something out of a Junji Ito manga. It’s been the one constant in my life. It will never fail me, never betray me, and never leave my side. What makes it even better is that I can betray it, very much fail it, and leave it whenever I please, but it will always graciously accept me back into it’s ever expanding circle. Now, I understand that this post may seem like I mean that in an, “I love Street Fighter so much, I want to force my dick through the hole in the middle of the disk,” kind of way, but rest easy, my loneliness has not yet peaked, and this blog is an attempt at making sure that it doesn’t.