Thanks Glenn for the shout-out

http://www.gytnews.com/articles/commentary/the-beginning-of-memories.html

I will be posting up the articles, relevancy be damned, very very soon. I want to make sure all the articles are as close to 100 percent as possible.

James Chen Evolution 2010

Hey so I was just browsing SRK and found this joyful 2 part article regarding the rise of competitive gaming, centralized around Evolution 2010.

http://jchensor.blogspot.com/2010/09/evolution-2010-season-wrap-up.html

Great read and I hope he doesn't mind me linking it here =X

Update post

For those wondering why we're so slow right now: I'm grabbing as much content before I re-release this blog to the public eye. Until then, keep checking back for updates but until I feel we're totally competent with content and features I will have publicity flooding back to this place.


To keep a tab on myself, here's a post about progress:

Jeffrey's working with Jason "Jayce the Ace" Nghe for his piece.
My piece is finished
AndyOCR piece is finished
Glenn Cravens of GetYourTournament finished his HD Remix NCR piece.
3 down, more to go?

Stay tuned.

Last Game

Last Game *

For now, let’s take away the words “death” and “arcade” together in the same sentence. Arcades, in remembrance, are the places where games are the main feature. There is nothing to buy but two-minutes of entertainment and hours of conversations with people of similar interests. It is that secret society where reality suspends itself and the only time is the timer that ticks down on the video game screen.

The reality, unfortunately, is that the arcade scene in America is ready to die. Its final gasps exist through the communities that come to enjoy these relics of gaming. Finding these elusive businesses require someone with previous experience and knowledge of its locations. One of the more beloved arcades in the last ten years is huddled away in the corner of a plaza of tea shops, Chinese restaurants and karaoke bars. It exists for the sole reason to bring entertainment and stands as one of the most iconic buildings in the short history of arcades in America. The ushering of Arcade Infinity brings about stories spanning from massive rhythm game tournaments to large local Street Fighter events.

Even on a slow Monday night, the noise of the arcade can still be heard from the parking lot of Diamond Plaza in Rowland Heights. The vibrations of the cabinets and machines inside can be felt, shaking the ground, from the bottom of the flight of stairs leading up to the entrance. A pillar of cigarette smoke puffed from two chatting people surround the entrance of the twin glass doors of Arcade Infinity that greet each and every returning customer. Inside, the climate is warm with occasional gusts of wind, created by a combination of machines and people. Opening the doors transports the scene from the dark sky and shop windows to a room of blazing neon lights and a blend of different rock and pop songs.

Road Warriors

2009:Wednesday Night Fights

On July 21st, Alex “CaliPower” Valle had a dilemma. Since the beginning of summer, he and fellow shoryuken.com (SRK for short) member Dentron had wanted to put Southern California back on the map. In order to stay ahead of their northern counterparts and to regain their dominance that had been taken over by the East Coast, SoCal needed to start practicing. So Valle and Dentron both decided to host weekly events, gathering players from all around the region to meet together and begin, what they describe as, “leveling up”. Valle would host events, titled “Rush That Shit Down” on the weekends at varying locations while Dentron held them on Wednesday nights at his house near South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa as sort of a weekday counterpart to RTSD. Some Wednesdays, local restaurants would be greeted by the sight of the Valle and several of his buddies; an intimidating sight considering Valle looked like he might have been an ex-Marine (partially aided by his crew cut).

But on July 21st, Dentron announced to SRK that Wednesday Night Fights were “indefinitely cancelled”, and Valle’s planned resurgence of SoCal had hit a brick wall. But who were these players and what game were they playing? It was Street Fighter IV, and the players were a group of people who Valle was hoping would emerge as one of the most dominant groups of fighting game players in the world, something the former undisputed Street Fighter champion was no stranger to. SRK was the leading World Wide Web forum for fighting game enthusiasts around the world, primarily for the world’s best selling fighting game franchise, Street Fighter. RTSD was a phrase coined to describe the play style Valle developed for himself: a relentless offensive attack that did not give opponents time to think or react. But for Valle and the Southern California users of SRK, Dentron’s cancellation was a problem that must be solved. Two decades of playing the game taught Valle that in order to be at the top and stay there, one had to indulge in constant practice and play. Two days a week was a bare minimum for training (a requirement Valle implemented for participants was that they had to be playing on their own time every week as well). Valle knew he had to do something to fill the void that had been created on July 21st.

Editor's Note: This piece was completed for a college workshop just a little under a year ago. It was also my personal introduction to the community. Some information is outdated and a few parts might not even be relevant anymore. However, I believe the overall message of the story still holds strong today, and is prevalent when looking back at not only Alex's personal story, but also everything else that has made the scene into what it is today.
More after the jump but be warned: it's a long read. All comments are welcome in the comment section or e-mail at kaoticdragon@gmail.com

Introductions Part II

Hello readers,

My name is Jeffrey "KaoticDragon" Dee and I will hopefully be a frequent contributing writer for Tim's production here. I have recently dived into the fighting game community and have been entranced by it, so I am aspiring to combine mainstream media journalism with the community in order to help contribute towards you guys.

Although most writings involving video games I do are pretty casual reviews I put out to my friends to hopefully influence in their buying decision of a new release, I am very excited to be writing a much more intimate and in-depth style that Tim's and my major, Literary Journalism, provides.

Coincidentally, my first experience with the fighting game community was a profile on the one and only Alex "CaliPower" Valle. My roommate had been going to Wednesday Night Fights sessions back when they were being hosted in people's garages, and I figured what a cool story idea for one of my senior workshops. Turns out, Valle's story and his entire operation ended up influencing me a lot as well. I'll be sure to put up the piece later on, although it will have to be split into different parts since it was a 17 page story. Still, hope you guys look forward to what this site will offer in the near future and whatever may come of this, I hope you keep reading and possibly contribute as well.

Here's to the rise of a new form of gaming media,
Jeffrey Dee

Introductions

Dear Reader,
First off, I'm not a professional writer. I'm an aspiring journalist and fighting game player. On the up and coming, hopefully. I don't just dabble in both, I do both with high passion and intensity. Sports-writing is my forte but I'm confident that I can help out the fighting game scene with the writing and descriptions that it deserves. Hopefully this gains ground. I will want to get contributors who I believe are more than qualified to take on literary or hard journalism regarding this community. I think the current flow of articles (in newspapers or online periodicals), or lack of any, is discouraging. The articles and podcast that are now being launched is a step in the right direction.
As of right now, I'm limited to being in Southern California. Fortunately for this location, I am lucky to be around a solid talent pool and a plethora (by USA standards) of arcades that are available for interviews and investigations. In the next coming weeks, I will be working diligently on providing high quality long form pieces on certain aspects of the community that can help shed light on the passion that members in this scene see on a day-to-day basis.