I must admit that the King of Dtoiders 2009 really sapped me. But I'm back on the wagon, putting in more time with KoF XII and a few other games. Here are some impressions.

A Boy and His Blob
This game is beautiful and the mechanics are quite enjoyable. It's also very old-school in difficulty and its lack of tutorial. At the beginning of the game, you're dropped in with no real clue of what to do. After some exploring and a few enemy encounters, you'll meet the boy's best friend, Blob. There are 4 worlds in the game, each with 10 levels. There are also a ton of bonus stages which are unlocked by collecting 3 treasure chests from each level. The hand-drawn graphics are amazing and the puzzles are very challenging. My problem with the game is the control set up. As a note, I'm using the Classic Controller. The d-pad is used to hug the blob, switch to the blob cam or scold the blob. The boy is moved using the analog stick. Analog control is not good for 2D platformers and aiming the jellybeans is often an exercise in frustration. I'm still debating whether I will continue playing when the controls are so unwieldy. Dear 2D develpers, use the god damned D-pad; it's your friend.

Half Minute Hero
It's a frantic RPG for the PSP built on 30 second chapters. This game is brilliant. Each stage starts with a few paragraphs of story and then you're dropped in to the scenario with 30 seconds to complete the quest. That's right, you have to grind levels, buy equipment, heal and defeat the boss in 30 seconds. The Goddess of Time works with you so you can rewind time back to 30 seconds but it's going to cost you. After all, time is money. The downside to her help is that at the beginning of each chapter, your level is reset to 1. The developers used an interesting art style. Basically, everything is an 8-bit sprite but using effects that were not possible in that time period. It's fast, frantic, brilliantly hilarious and fun. This may very well be the greatest RPG ever made.

Kidou Senshi Gundam Senki Record U.C. 0081
I love Gundam and this game is one of the best. The player chooses either Zeon or Federation and then completes squad based missions. You'll earn money, parts and more mobile suits to use as you play through the story. I'm pretty deep into the Federation side and I'm loving it. It's basically Rise from the Ashes, but with better controls and graphics, combined with the customization from the SD G Generation games. It doesn't get better than this. Pro tip: When buying import games, go for the Asian version, as it's cheaper than the Japanese version and comes with a card explaining the game basics in English. This game has online play, so if you like Gundam, get it and let's start a Dtoid group.

King of Fighters Ranbats
I am planning this for November. I'll get the word out as soon as I have the plan figured out.

Final note on King of Dtoiders
Work has been very busy so I haven't had a chance to get the certificates out yet. I have the PDFs at home but I have not been able to find a good way to send them out. If you want your certificate in PDF format, PM me with your email. Otherwise, I plan on converting these to JPEG, uploading to photobucket and sending out direct links.

Here's the list of the winners and their chosen prizes:

1st - Kirbilot; Neo SNK Pack
2nd - Zoel; Neo Geo Pocket Color and games
3rd - Senisan; Classic SNK Pack
4th - BulletTrain; CvS2 Keychains
Most Improved Player - The CleaningGuy; 6" PVC figure of Mai Shiranui

Running this contest has been very rewarding and sometimes difficult. It's hard to comprehend how much of a time commitment such an endeavor will be. I often had a hard time balancing my 3-4 times a week workout with playing KoF and completing other necessary tasks such as grocery shopping or working late. I think I was able to complete my part of the bargain fairly well.

Looking back, I wonder if the contest should have been over 2 weeks instead of 3. Many people were starting classes at the beginning and this resulted in a lower completion rate than I'd targeted. I'd bet that more games over a shorter period may have been better but I wanted to give players as much time as necessary for practice and learning the game. My own practice was the gauntlet you guys ran me through. I improved in more ways than anyone can imagine. I was forced to learn how to cope with up to 2 continuous hours of playing an intense fighter. That's a great way to improve your psychological approach to fighters. I also had to constantly learn new tricks, combos and tactics just to keep up with the players. Thanks to this, I haven't lost an online arcade match since Week 2 of our contest.

I'm quite happy I held this contest. At least a few people were turned onto the game and quite a few saw the gauntlet thrown before them and rose to the challenge. The King of Dtoiders 2009 was an enriching experience and a wonderful way to give back to this community that's so important to me.

What's next?
I really want to get into the habit of holding monthly ranking battles. I will try to start this in November, if people are excited enough about it. I am thinking about doing single elimination, Japanese style tournaments for this. Let me know if you'd participate in the comments.

The King of Dtoiders 2009 is over. Overall, I'm pleased with the results. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the whole community improved. In the first week, I had quite a few victories. That dwindled in the second week and plummeted in the third week. I'm glad that I was able to get people interested in the game and hyped up. Everyone improved, me included. Most of you guys pushed really hard throughout the competition and really made me earn the victories.

Statistics
15 players signed up for the competition. Of that 15, 7 completed all 15 games.
Games played: 153. Of those games played, I won 108.
Week 1: 44 wins, 11 losses; 55 games played
Week 2: 40 wins, 19 losses; 59 games played
Week 3: 24 wins, 15 losses; 39 games played

Final Rankings
1. Kirbilot (13 wins, 2 losses)
2. Zoel (9 wins, 6 losses)
3. Senisan (9 wins, 6 losses)
4. BulletTrain (5 wins, 3 losses)
5. Y0j1mb0, TheCleaningGuy (3 wins, 12 losses)
6. Jack of No Trades (2 wins, 12 losses)
7. decoyb, Mentok the Mindtaker (0 wins, 15 losses)

Most Improved Player
This was a tough call to make. Mentok and decoyb both put in lots of work and showed improvement by the end of the tournament. Likewise, Jack of no Trades showed up later in the contest with a killer Ralf. He really put me through my paces. In the end, after lots of discussion, TheCleaningGuy earned the MIP title. His game showed constant improvement. His character selections changed as he learned new aspects of the game and he experimented with new line-ups and tactics. Good work, TheCleaningGuy!

Prizes
- 6" Mai PVC figure
- A collection of Chibi SNK vs Capcom 2 keychains

As stated, first places chooses a prize, then second, etc. Senisan and Zoel need to play a tie breaker match to determine who is the rightful secnd place player and who is third. Once that's decided, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place winners will choose their prizes.

Kirbilot has chosen the Neo SNK pack as his prize.
Zoel has chosen the Neo Geo Pocket Color and games.
Senisan has chosen Classic Neo Geo Pack.

I will mail all prizes at the same time in order to make my life easier. Please PM your choice of prize and mailing address to me as soon as possible. I'd like to mail the prizes out this week.

Videos
Some final match videos.

My proudest moment - I OCVed someone with Kim:


Zoel kicking my ass on the last day. He scored 5 straight wins. I seriously could not stop his assault. This one's painful:


My ultimate victory against Kirbilot:


Thanks for playing!

The end is near; in fact it's less than 48 hours away. There are 5 players still in the contest who have not played their last 5 games. I may be on tonight, but I make no promises because I'll be at Zombieland and Coolgreens. If it works out, I might be on around 9:30 or so. I will also be online tomorrow during the day and at the scheduled time 7-10pm or until the games are completed. 25 games in 2 days. Let's do this.

I will post the winners either late Saturday or early Sunday. That post will also contain a few final videos and some comments on my experience with the contest. See you then.

We're at the mid-point of the final week. I've played some really good games this week and have several more games to play before the week is out. I can already tell that choosing the Most Improved Player will be tough. Everyone has improved greatly. Each week, each game has gotten more and more challenging. Good games to all involved. I've got several replays recorded but not yet uploaded so I'll save those for a later posting. I'll be on tonight for a bit so, if you're on, keep an eye out.

Now seems like a good time to re-post the prizes. Players will choose their prizes in the order in which they place. First place chooses first, second goes next, etc. I am awarding 1st - 4th places as well as a Most Improved Player. My wife will help in the judging the MIP as she's watched all of the matches thus far.

Prizes
1. Neo Geo Pocket Color with Last Blade, Metal Slug 1st Mission, Cardfighter's Clash Capcom Version, King of Fighters R2 and Sonic the Hedgehog.
2. 6" Mai PVC figure
3. Classic Neo Geo Pack (PS2 SNK Arcade Anthologies & Fatal Fury Anthology Archives 2)
4. Neo SNK Pack (PS2 NeoGeo Battle Coliseum & King of Fighters XI)
5. A collection of Chibi SNK vs Capcom 2 keychains

Everyone who completes all 15 games in the 3 week period will receive a certificate which is suitable for framing, via email.

Video
Jack of no Trades has one of the best Ralfs I've ever played. Here's part of a match we had:

Week 2 was absolutely amazing. The community has really stepped up its game and forced me to improve my game. Early in the week, I felt my Kim had improved and then everyone decided to ruthlessly stomp the champion of justice and Tae Kwon Do. This has steeled my resolve to become a better Kim player and to obtain one more OCV with him. I cannot express in words how impressed I am with the evolution of play in the last week.

Before I get to the rankings here are some statistics I worked up:
Week 1 Community Record: 11 wins, 44 losses. That's a 20% win ratio
Week 2 Community Record: 19 wins, 40 losses. That's a 32% win ratio

That's a vast improvement in one week. I expect Week 3 will not be pretty for me.

Rankings
1st: Kirbilot - 9 wins
2nd: Senisan - 6 wins
3rd: (tie)BulletTrain, Zoel - 4 wins
4th: y0jimb0 - 3wins

Match videos
My only victory in this contest against Kirbilot (Benimaru/Andy/Terry):


Kirbilot's revenge:


Zoel (Terry/Ryo/Shen) shows me what's up:


Most Improved Player of the Week
This week saw a lot of player improvement. Jack of no Trades, Y0jimb0 and casualweaponry all placed their first wins on the board. Senisan doubled his number of wins; he has 2 in Week 1 and 4 in Week 2. It was a tough call but the Most Improved Player of Week 2 is BulletTrain. BT has 1 win in Week 1 and 3 wins in Week 2. These wins brought him to 3rd place but, more importantly, his play was tighter and more brutal.

BulletTrain (Shen/Ryo/Terry):


BulletTrain (Athena/Ryo/Terry):


A few announcements
We've lost a few players. Tewdee is taking a break from fighters. This saddens me. He is one of the organizers of Shoryuken Saturdays and I've spent several Saturday nights playing him at KoF XII. I hope he's back into fighters soon. Gen Eric Gui has stepped out of the contest due to technical issues. He's using a friend's PS3 and we haven't been able to get a good connection.

Week 3 Schedule
As always, these are general times. I'll likely be online more than this but I'll put forth extra effort to be on at these times. All times are PM CST.
Sunday: 7-9
Monday: 5:15-6:15
Tuesday: 7-9
Thursday: 7-9
Saturday: 7-10

This is it. The top spots are still open. Do your best to topple those before you.