DYNAMIC LEAGUE Arcade tournament short report

On the 15th and 16th December 2001, CASINO (next to Goodge Street station) along with Dynamic League held the last arcade tournament before the end of the year. I arrived at Casino around 4:30pm with my good mate Colin, to check out this 'gamers gathering', since the last time I attended a tourney was back when Namco Wonder park (Shaftsbury Ave) was up and around I think back in 97' Anyway after signing up for membership, I proceeded downstairs to where all the action was, namely the fighting games!!

The main games that were up for the tournament treatment were:

KOF 2000, KOF 98'
Virtual Fighter 4
Tekken Tag, Tekken 4
Marvel Vs Capcom 2
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, SF Zero 3, SF 3
Guilty Gear X
Capcom Vs SNK

Dynamic League Team:

I managed to get an Interview with Dynamic Leagues head honcho Derrick Lynch and fellow organiser Steven Tu.

Darren (D): How many tourneys have there been so far?
David Lynch (DL): 5 tourneys so far?. (looks towards Steve)
Steve (S): The 1st one was back in August?
Steve has to go off to have a word with more members.
D: What are the prizes?
DL: Sponsorship. The winner gets sponsored by top companies e.g. Logitech, therefore leading to recognition, money making and general free stuffs.
D: What are the most popular games, according to the players and your own statistics?
DL: Well it's hard to say (looks at the league tables) each person has their own preferences? (and there all evened out)..so I would say there all pretty much even. (In my view from what I saw, it's KOF2000, T4, VF4, T Tag and SFzero 3/SF3)
D: How popular are these tourneys in your opinion?
DL: (smiles) very popular since were the only tournament organisers in the area
Steve comes back
S: The Cornertrap and Namco tourneys are also very popular!!
D: What type of people do you see playing here?
DL: Very mature, friendly and focused individuals? since the tourney starts at 5 and ends late - high level adult gamers.
D: Have there been any out standing champions so far?
DL: Ryan Hart. He's an all rounder who is very versatile. He's a top player who ranks high and specialises in more than one game (KOF98, VF4, SSF 2 turbo and Tekken 4)
D: What's in store for the future?
DL: (ponders for a second) more tourneys...were trying to organise a console tournament - PS2, Dreamcast, Gamecube and Xbox - were looking into venues right now.
D: What are your favourite 3 Arcade and console games?
DL: Arcade - VF4, T4 an SF3 third strike. Console - Soul calibre, Metal Gear solid 1 and Rouge squadron (gamecube)
S: Arcade - Silent scope, V4 and police 911. Console - soul calibre, Xenogears and Burning justice.

The tournament officially started at 5pm so I settled down played a few games and sat back enjoyed the fun. The KOF 2k machine drew in my opinion very skilled fighters who in turn beat the crap out of each other!! Examples of characters used frequently were Kyo, Iori, clark, Vanessa, Jhun, Ryo, Seth, Hinako, Mary, Leona and Joe. My team consisted of Kyo, K', Terry and Seth as my striker. Many painful and quite embarrassing matches were played out and I'm surprised that Hinako was used with quite successful results. She came back to beat Iori with him having full energy!!

Kyo, Ryo and King were the popular main fighters of this tournament racking up many wins in the process. Iori coupled with Yashiro as a striker proved to be a really effective team resulting in many high hiting and damaging combos. Kyo really surprised me as he can juggle an opponent across the screen!! I managed to play some of these individuals and I surprised myself on how well I played. I won a few matches before quiting to make notes. Don't you just hate it when you miss a match winning move? ..... all it takes is one more hit....

All in all there were some awesome combos, matches and all round friendly game-players. Good show gents!

League Tables: KOF

1. Ryan Hart

2. LinJin

3. Element

4. Mo

5. Michael Li

6. Cris

7. Landlord

8. G

9. Kensou

10. Jojo

1. LinJin

2. Edwin KOF

3. CK Pang

4. Val

5. Akuma

6. KID

7. Mark Cutts

8. Wilfred

9. Cris

10. Jojo

Tekken 4 also drew large crowds and rightly so, the players here were f**king merciless!!! The machine was set for three rounds - and one hapless fellow got mauled, all three rounds within a minute!! I can't really describe these matches, you'd have to be there to appreciate them All I can say is OUCH!! Sometimes the matches got so bad I was speechless @_@
In summery I had a great time at the tournament and watched some great and very humiliating matches. I'm looking forward to the next tourney... hopefully next time i'll bring a camcorder.
Anyway it's late and I'm very tired, I'm signing off and wishing you all a good night.

Catch you later..... Darren : )