When you're serious about fighting games, you're also serious about your controllers. And when you're so damn serious that you travel the country looking for tournaments, your arcade sticks show it. Sure, you can go out and buy a stick off the rack, but that's not enough. You need to add your own custom touches to the art and tweaks and adjustments to the controls. That may not be enough, however. You may feel the need to order your own custom stick from any one of the enterprising individuals who create these works of art. Or perhaps you're so hardcore that you just have to make a stick yourself.

This is just a taste of some of the controllers that showed up this past weekend at Seasons Beatings IV. You'll notice a lot of the new Mad Catz sticks have gone under the screwdriver this year, both on the outside and the inside. There's also the selection of hand-made sticks and kits as well. Each one is as unique as their owners. Who knows, perhaps you'll see some of these sticks yourself someday.

Yes, that is Daigo Umehara's autograph.

It happened in the middle of the day as Daigo was walking the floor, posing for photos and signing sticks and other items. I had thrown around the idea of having one of the guests autographing any one of the awful games that I had, and I decided that it was worth the chance. And so when the opportunity presented itself, I offered Daigo the cart and a borrowed marker.

As he begun to inspect the label with a confused expression, I simply stated "Kuso-ge."

He let out a short laugh and happily signed it.

With a "domo arigato" I walked off, satisfied that I just had the world champion of fighting games autograph a copy of one of the single worst titles in the genre. Amazingly, the universe did not implode.

I'm afraid I left my camera at home today, so no deluge of photos. But most of the day was dedicated to the final matches in HD Remix, BlazBlue, Marvel, and SFIV being showcased online and on the big screens at MoMo's.

The last few matches in SFIV did provide perhaps the most excitement of the entire weekend. Towards the end Daigo once again faced off against Justin Wong. Knowing that the arcade-native Daigo wasn't familiar with all the nuances of the console-exclusive characters, he chose Fei-Long. A decision that ignited the audience.

Justin quickly showed what Fei-Long can do in the hands of a skilled player. With rushdown tactics, he showed that he wasn't going to allow another shut-out like last night. Wong soon took the upper hand, and at one point stunning everyone by achieving a perfect round. And soon enough, the King of Chinatown had knocked The Beast to the loser's bracket.

The house exploded.

No one was perhaps louder then Wong's own crew, jumping and cheering before everyone. However, the tournament was not yet over, and Daigo had a chance for redemption.

And he took it. The now stone-faced Beast crushed all opposition to once again face off against his rival. Daigo showed everyone why he was the champion by quickly adapting to Fei-Long and Justin's game. With quick reflexes and quick learning, Daigo turned an unfamiliar situation completely around and took first place.

The perfect end to a fantastic weekend.

Holy Crap! Big action and name dropping abound today. The SFIV and BlazBlue tournaments raged on while a main event shook the house. Also, unexpected guests showed up as well.



Seth Killian showed up with a playable build of TvC Ultimate All-Stars. Players lined up for a chance to try out Frank West and Tekkaman Blade before anyone else in the country did. Seasoned players quickly figured out useful combos for the pair, putting them to effective use.



I also had a chance to quickly hit Seth with a few questions. First about the still hidden secret in Mega Man 9:

"I ain't telling anyone!"

And then about a possible Rival Schools revival:

"Not yet."

I pointed out that he said "yet." He noted that with an "Anything's possible."

A bit later in the day, and I noticed an unnanounced name on the premises...



None other then legendary Nintendo fan TriForce Johnson and his ever-present Power Glove.

As the day contnued, buzz started for the upcoming Daigo/Justin Wong match, as legendary smack-talker Yipes got in on the live-stream commentary.



It wasn't long before tazarthayoot along with several other D-Toiders showed up to make a mess of the place. And along for the ride was... Ron Workman!?



Will the wonders never cease?



Then at 9:00, all attention turned to the front of the house for the big main event. Daigo vs. Justin Wong in a best to ten SFIV matchup. Daigo wasn't doing his best in the SFIV games of the day so far, so there were expectations of an upset in the air. After helping a rather confused Daigo make his way to the game itself and clearing a path in the crowd, it was time to get the action started.

Daigo stuck with Ryu, who had once again become his main. Justin went with Rufus, whom he had been very successful with this past year. Justin showed some serious promise early on, with the whole matchup shaping up to be an intense back-and-forth showdown.



However, Daigo's strategy of keeping cool, saving his super bar, and setting up fireball traps soon paid off and was quickly ahead 4 to 2. Feeling the need to shift strategies, Justin decided to switch with Balrog in the hopes of evening things up to a thrilled crowd. But even with the smart use of combos and keeping Daigo at range, it still wasn't enough and the score shot up to 6-2.

Justin decided to go back to what worked before with Rufus, keeping clear of his fireball-to-super setups. But The Beast kept his cool and adjusted his strategies as well.

Down to 8-2, Justin went for broke with an unexpected switch to Crimson Viper. However, this proved to be a mistake as Daigo was able to make quick work, sweeping the last two matches and taking the win.

Tomorrow will feature the finals for all the major singles tournaments. Also, hopefully Fighters Bingo.

It's going to be a cold-ass weekend, perfect time to go inside and engage in reckless fighting game action.

The early afternoon was dedicated to setup and then slowly allowing pre-registered competitors in. However, anyone who wasn't working had to go back outside and wait until 5:30.

After some chaos with lifting around some huge-ass TVs, it was then time to get a fleet of PS2's ready for the weekend's first official tournament: Street Fighter III Third Strike. A few sets were taken to the bowling lanes in the corner to be used for casuals until the Smash Bros. players arrived. I took the chance to get an old-school setup going.



And a PS3 for anyone wanting to get BlazBlue practice in.



After a few alarms about transportation needs, local hero Tim Static was able to bring in his Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 cabinet for that real arcade feel.



The live broadcast feed was also ready to go. You can catch it at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/seasonsbeatings4



Daigo also got into action with the SF3TS and teams matches. The world champion may be off his game this weekend, could there be some upsets in the days ahead?



While it may just be Friday, that doesn't mean there isn't some serious action. And I mean serious. In a hyped up match, competitors Toan and Fanatiq faced off in the biggest MvC2 money match SB has ever seen.

For $13,000.



Yes, thirteen THOUSAND dollars.

Which almost went up in smoke when the tournament organizer tripped on the cables in the back of the set. Oops.

It's only going to get bigger.

With a good part of Friday set aside for setting up, only the most basic things are going on Thursday. Equipment is being dropped off, guests are being flown in, and a handful of matches are going on.

MoMo's will actually be closed to the public, save for paying spectators and competitors. No casual walk-ins this time I'm afraid. But with a packed list for pre-registered players, there will be no shortage of action.

So far there's mostly been casual matches in MvC2, later followed by SFIV and HDR. Most of the players have been the various locals that I've played with plenty of times before and Justin Wong's crew. Spirits are high so far, and so good. Tournament organizers are taking the chance to get some last-moment paperwork done, just like the Thursday night before any other convention, really.

While the crowd is small at the moment, there's no shortage of characters and hardware. Behold the local legend of the NES stick:



As I left for the evening, Daigo and his hair arrived.



By the way, anyone still bitching about the lack of a streaming broadcast of the Daigo/Justin match needs to shut the hell up. Everyone is tired of this shit. They're not even in the same damn city, and they're managing to ruin things for the organizers. Christ, they're even getting hate mail over PayPal for fuck's sake.

You aren't entitled to shit.

Okay! Have fun everyone!

I mentioned before that Capcom's Seth Killian was going to show up at Seasons Beatings IV this weekend in Columbus with a "surprise." Well, now we know what it is:

"Well your prayers may have been answered seeing how The One and Only Seth Killian will be bringing 2 kits with 2 new TVC characters that have seen no play on american soil. We will have 2 stations dedicated to it on Saturday"

There's nothing more that can be said right now, except that this weekend will be insane. See you there.