A first-hand experience from DRS Flipinoman

Last month, several members from DRS (Delta Red Squad) made the trek to the West Coast for the highly anticipated SoCal Regionals 2013 event. As many who who came out could tell you, it was an epic event. Anton aka Flipinoman) wanted to share his personal experience while he was competing with his fellow crew members. PTB thanks Anton for taking time to share his experience and we hope to feature more personal blogs like this in the near future.

Below is his full recap. For more info regarding DRS, visit their official website.

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SCR 2013 for me was an amazing experience; SCR 2011 had been the first major tournament I had ever attended and I’m glad to have made a repeat appearance the following year.

In terms of how I was feeling going into the tournament, I didn’t feel that I was prepared until the Thursday night of the tournament. Our room, Room 128 of the Atrium hotel had become the money match room of the hotel. Players for all around gathered in our room to practice and I have to say that it was an experience that I wouldn’t have ever made different for all three nights of the tournament. Thursday night was when I was kicking some butt. My teammate DRS Chris and I decided to hold the money match room in which we were simply dominating most competitors to come our way. It was Thursday night, so we further got shut down by the hotel manager! Thursday night was when I also figured out my pool was on Saturday for Street Fighter 4 and my pool was on Friday for Dead or Alive 5. I was ecstatic – Street Fighter 4 being my main game and it being on Saturday meant that I had even more time to practice!

Friday comes along. We arrive what seemed to have been fairly late at the tournament venue (9:45 AM) and we were rushing. We didn’t know that the tournament was going to start late even though most of us could have assumed so. Nonetheless, the tournament had been up and running by 11 and we walk into the room. Dead or Alive 5 is a game that I love – I love the DoA series and therefore I was definitely going to play it to my best. My first match didn’t show up and therefore I had a bye for that round.

But then I played against Nykko, a Lei Fang player that I had played in Dead or Alive 4. Needless to say, it was a mirror since I also use Lei Fang. Nykko came out on top and I of course shake his hand with an enthusiastic smile – no hard feelings there! After Nykko, I waited for a while to play my second match. In succession, I had no problems winning the next three matches – in order, they were Tina, Gen Fu, and La Mariposa. I again fight Nykko with the promise that I would overcome him. I didn’t. His Lei Fang was too fierce for me! Haha. I’m out of DoA in 7th place left only with a strive to play better in the next DoA tournament I attend. Friday Night is also when NorCal came to our room to money match. The NorCal folk and the OFC San Diego folk are such amazing people as well as amazing players; it was a pleasure playing all of you!

Saturday was the day I had been waiting for, my day of Street Fighter. I played a Blanka first and I was surprised it was a stream match. He started out well, but I felt that I just had to play my game and I felt dominant after I had done so. I then played Kai, an El Fuerte player. I feel that El Fuerte would be one of the characters that Rose could effectively backdash away from. After being caught by some demoralizing ultras, I managed to take the victory from Kai, ending the match with a perfect. Winner’s final of my pool was against Dieminion. I love playing that match because I feel it’s just a game of reads and fireballs. The first match I was his in close fashion.

I love seeing that EX Reflect in action though. And then yeah. I went for my patented set-up, however, execution errors had given me the ex soul throw. Other than that, I felt like I was pretty outplayed; I felt the mixture of that and the execution mistakes really balanced the scale on what should be a dominating match up for Rose. Good games Dieminion, and of course, I’m hungry for a rematch glad for the double perfect! I make it out of my pool by defeating Clakey D’s Ibuki and I make it into Day 3. I finish the day in depressing fashion as my DRS teammates had not been so lucky to make it out of their pools .

Sunday begins with a rise and shine fashion. I wake up early all readied but then I get to the venue. I lose to Filipino Champ in a 2-1 fashion. The tournament was done for me, but that just meant that I could enjoy the venue and the ambiance of the tournament with little thinking at that point .

And so I did. I watched the stream as the hype fat Asian in the yellow shirt screaming at the screen . Sidebets everywhere and I wish I had moneymatched more.

SCR was a great experience for me and other than everyone else getting sick, I didn’t get hit too hard with the S-C-Ars and it definitely won’t be my last major and best performance. 25th place in SF4, 7th place in Dead or Alive.