This Weekend 6/28 Online Oratan Tournament 4am PST 7am EST

[VOTwinstick]

Japan Online Oratan Tournament!
Hosting the Tourney is @igusachan on Twitter. Aka Sakuri_193 and いぐさくり on Guess TV Tokyo- Twitch & Niconico broadcasts.
https://twitter.com/igusachan
A tweeted tourney message:
6/28 20:00からの箱タンオンライン大会が
決勝トーナメントから始まるかもしれん・・・！
きっとあしたには倍に増えてるだろうけどな

(Bing) Translated:
6/28 boxes than online games from 20:00
begins with knockout might have...!
I know I'm probably doubled in tomorrow.

I would guess this tourney will be broadcasted. If I'm right... may find here:

Broadcast channels :

http://www.twitch.tv/sakuri_193

http://www.nicovideo.jp/user/98974

Tournament website:
http://voot360.blog46.fc2.com/
(Bing) Translated
http://www.microsofttranslator.com/BV.a ... fc2.com%2F

igusachan VOOT Niconico Community Page
http://com.nicovideo.jp/community/co1146660
(Bing) Translated
http://www.microsofttranslator.com/BV.a ... Fco1146660

Let's play VOOT then watch VOOT be played! Whatcha say pilot!

wp_ss_20150626_0005.png

[MentholMoose]

Thanks for the heads up. How long do these usually last? 4AM is a little too early for me. But maybe I could tune in a little later if it is still going on.

[VOTwinstick]

Our friends in the East haven't done this in a while. But if my memory serves , I think @igusachan may use other streamers simultaneously do the first preliminary matches to speed up the process.
So if interested parties have a Twitch account, enable: email "when broadcaster goes live". Additional Twitch broadcasters to Follow that may assist tonight: http://www.twitch.tv/crazyanchang , http://www.twitch.tv/shutem , http://www.twitch.tv/silber_live , http://www.twitch.tv/hige_carbon0131 . If these or other support is used I will try to inform here. Also I will attempt to record the Tourney. If successful, it will be posted.

[VOTwinstick]

Wow... Nico broadcast for VOOT Tourney. So I am doing mirrior stream! Check it here: http://www.twitch.tv/votwinstick
And that's the best view I can get w/o screen freezing!

[Zaarock]

The tournament hosts put up videos for top 8: http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/50736103
& some of the pools can be watched here: http://www.twitch.tv/moteen/b/673390404

[VOTwinstick]

Limited time to watch. Will be deleted in three days. NOTE: Every time I enlarged the screen size the video froze. Browser or stream software issue causing the headache. http://www.twitch.tv/votwinstick/b/673394809

[Porcupine]

Something we should take away from this, and something that I've wanted to talk about for months, is that some of the players participating in this tournament are newer japanese players who got extremely powerful. I know that we are expected to be weaker as western players, but a number of japanese players used to be the same as us, and now they are far, far better than us. One of the players in the grand final is actually one such player! If they can advance to being the best in the world in just a few years, I am so ashamed at how sad and weak we are.

Also, I wonder why we have never seen seabass hunter in one of these tournaments. He would be a top-level competitor. We also need to see Katenasasosu.

[VOTwinstick]

I do have a faded memory of seabasshunter in tournament long ago. Not seen since. Katenasasosu was... selected! That may have been a running joke played on the horse's head by Igusachan. But I indisposed myself after selection so didn't see if was a true match.
It's not all good for the Great Ones (some Japanese players). I watch alot of VOOT Rank Match broadcasts on Twitch and see challenges avoided. See those sit in lobby during entire broadcasts.
In total, the Japanese player has critical advantages. All the information of game background and instruction are in their language. I have Master Guides but...
Let's talk bout creating "hype" advantage. They live in a place that supports amusement houses... still. "Meeting after school!" Never heard that here. Support for is beginning to wane there but since 95' still finds the VO enclosures.
The Twin Stick! A VO pilot's anti-tank controller! It's use severely enhances the gaming experience! None have ever sold directly here. Import only. Anyway... they obviously grow on trees in Japan.
http://buyee.jp/item/search?query=%E3%8 ... 3%E3%82%AF

[Zaarock]

The only possibly new player in top 8 was cure chiba, I do remember him being around for a while though? Katensasosu did play in the tournament (and many others), but got eliminated early on.

With players like SwordedShepherd, Aniking, katenasasosu, seabass etc. training with us and sharing/talking about techniques I really don't think we can use the excuse of being weaker because of having less knowledge about the game. Lack of competition (especially with low ping) is the thing really.

There are no 'secret' techniques or strategies that can't be figured out with some effort or asking the players themselves. If someone like Schooly played in one of these tournaments he would do fine I'd imagine.

They are allowing western players to join the online tournaments. The way the tournaments worked back when the game came out seemed lika a good idea, first have a non-jp tournament and then the winner gets to join the japanese one (so there isn't a bunch of laggy matches in jp/main tournament). Game is pretty dead though, I doubt we'll see these tourneys often anymore.

[Porcupine]

I saw a few more matches on VOTwinstick's page, but I only get 1 frame per second so I could only check stills to see who wins. It wasn't the same matches on moteen's page, they used multiple parties. Katenasasosu did fine, he lost to Tengachan0721 who was a finalist. NN2001 lost to BA20091001 who was also a finalist. They both won at least one earlier match.

Schooly, you, or me could do alright, especially if we go up against an easier opponent, or just a VR we are either more familiar with, or favored against. I only first saw cure chiba a couple years ago, and I think you were better than him at that time.

I think we do have less knowledge of obscure data. If we had actual competition I would rediscover it all myself, since that is my specialty. I have only compiled 5% of all my desired knowledge (i.e. those research threads I keep making). I don't think this matters much though. Lack of local competition is the key, as you said.

Also, we need multiple skilled players to share ideas and opinions. This is more important than factual knowledge, and is also something we cannot get playing against Japanese players. Even when we fight against each other, many Western players do not communicate their inner thoughts. We only have 2 players who regularly talk about abstract ideas, you and me.

[Porcupine]

Half a year later, we've redeemed ourselves since this 6/28 tournament, where certain players showed major improvement. We've done the same and caught back up. Turns out the 11/21 tournament we joined was in the same series as this one. It could have had less participants due to short notice, but was also affiliated with an outside general event. Can't say we won much, but we showed well and Japanese players have taken more notice of us since. When I went back to watch the previous grand finals of cure chiba vs S Zetto, it was equally lopsided as Porcupine vs S Zetto, so no shame there. He doesn't play with foreigners due to lag. My secret goal of that tournament had actually been for me to get to fight S Zetto, didn't matter when.

Several other Japanese players said that their goal was to fight torinosu banchou, one of the tournament hosts and a Temjin player. We don't know much about him, but my guess is that he was either a top player a generation ago, or is famous in Japan for something not Virtual-On related. I was the only one who fought him in the tournament hehe, but I'm sure he played casual matches afterwards. A twitter message was posted after the tournament saying that torinosu banchou thanks the foreigners for participating.

I've been playing at a higher level since then. I can't explain why, I gained no major new techniques or ideas. Probably just slow growth that is starting to come together. Recently I'd fought the newly improved players from the previous tournament, and my win/loss is back to what it originally was. And for the first time I played an extended set with cure chiba, now that I'm competitive against him. That's good since it's really hard for me to find Japanese matches these days. I seem to have the highest rejection rate of any western player now (MentholMoose said it was common when the game was new).