The East Coast Championships, a tournament event which initially started out as a small convention of players has long since grown into a legendary event. Last week marked the biggest Street Fighter convention for the east coast, as players from throughout the country came together to compete at ECC4. The event took place on Memorial Day weekend during the dates of May 29th and 30th; hosted at The 8 on the Break in Dunellen, New Jersey. The Break is no stranger to many players as it regularly holds weekly tournaments and is still going strong! With the support of Chris Cotty, the founder who has made the entire East Coast tournament events possible at the Break. Along with the ECC staff, namely the tournament administrator Todd Dwyer, who have all worked together along with the additional staff members to organize and produce the annual events. Players would be gathering together to see new and old faces, a time for gathering and showing off new skills and to take a shot at the being the best.

Participatns such as myself got off to an early start as the door officially were not opened until 1 p.m. Players were given the opportunity to practice their strategies or find other ways to kill time until the actual fireworks began. Personally for myself, I found the experience to be very enlightening as this marked my first major national tournament. :) With camera in hand, numerous pics were snapped in addition to recorded footage of the two-day event, which will later be made available to the public in the future.

"Go for Broke...Street Fighter Alpha 3"

This year's event held tournaments for Street Fighter Alpha 3, but players could compete in Hyper Fighting, Super Turbo, Marvel v. Capcom, Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Street Fighter 3: Second Impact. The attention this year was much greater than it was projected. Street Fighter Alpha 3 attracted the largest number of players as it consisted of a pool of 115 players. Lots of potential was demonstrated among the attendees, many who held an array of characters in their arsenal. A number of excellent matches were displayed during the first tournament as I personally watched Apoc's Balrog, who was a sight to see when he battled against Eddie Lee. In addition, Chocoboat's R. Mika (a certain cross-up with a throw remains burned in thy head), John Gordon's Cammy (surprising a number of veteran Alpha 3 players); Joey "Mr. Wizard" Cuellar's annoyingly offensive Chun Li was present (waaaaay too good!!!!), and other fine players made the Alpha 3 tournament easily one of the most enjoyed sessions for the entire convention.

Some highlights consisted of the highly confident Estuardo, who feels that he not only owns all Chun players (owns for the unitiated means basically, no contest...total victory), but also feels he can beat any Gief player with Rolento. Basically, the entire match was a showcase of just how irritable and uncommon events in Alpha 3 can be the slight of luck. Estuardo started the match by choosing A-Zangief against Tom's V-Dhalsim. Tom Cannon won, not too much doubt there =) Estuardo countered his initial defeat with back with V-Rolento. This was VC city here, people. Whoever was in the corner first lost. Estuardo couldn't stop Tom's VC from doing immense block damage. And Tom couldn't figure out how to block Estuardo's confusion VC. Estuardo managed to win in the end. Strange stuff. O_O

In other news during the A3 session: Trien Ho put Jason Cole into the losers' bracket where Eddie Lee later eliminated him. According to reports, namely from Tom Cannon, he personally felt that the fact Cole plays a defensive Dhalsim cost him the match against Eddie. Lee's V-Vega was allowed to run around and build meter, which is what he does against most all Dhalsim players. (I am surprised he didnt use the gate to kill time, that is, when he had his home field advantage). The end of his reign with Vega was terminated by Thao's semi-offensive X-Dhalsim. All of Eddie's attacks or attempts to escape were cut short by the quick reflexes of Thao, who didn't allow his character to move anywhere on the field. Later during the peak of the Semi-finals, Jason Gonzalez aka APOC, put Eddie Lee away with his devastating Balrog.

The end of the Alpha 3 finals was very entertaining as the remaining players 'battoned down the hatches' and went all out in order to become the champion for this year's tournament. The results: Alex Valle won 1st, Thao Doung for 2nd and Amir Amirsaleh for 3rd. Amir, a resident from Westwood, CA who currently is residing on the East Coast front showed that age is just a number when skills are involved as he brought the crowds to their feet againt Thao Doung and Alex Valle. Amir initially introduced his X-Rolento to Valle's X-Ryu, the match was taken by Valle in the end with a highly aggressive style and effective customs to take the lead: 0-1. However, Amir didn't let up as he then brought in his V-Karin and proceeded to show off some customs of his own unleashing a 100% combo juggling Valle in the corner with her Zaibatsu Punch and thus tying the bout 1-1. However, Alex countered the spirited fighter with his V-Akuma unleashing what many call the "Daigo Custom", where Akuma throws Hadokens at the opponent. To make the combo truly successful, he follows the projectiles while utilizing his Kuchu Go Hadoken or Hyakki Gosen (Air Magnificent Wave Motion Fist and Magnificent Spearhead, respectively).

The crowd was in utter frenzy as they watched both players battle it out. In the end, Valle succeeded to take First Place from Amir, who put up a valiant fight who . Thao later then battled against Eddie Lee's V-Vega with his dangerous, yet patient X-Dhalsim. He constantly countered attacks and made the matchup quite fustrating as he threw out various well timed attacks. Eddie switched to V-Sodom and Thao kept consistent with his attacks managing to gain a sweep of 3-0.

The final set for Alpha 3 brought Cali players Alex Valle and Thao Duong together. Once last battle consisted of the best 4 out of 7 matches, winner takes all. Alex selected V-Zangief and Thao chose X-Dhalsim. Valle takes the first two matches with Gief. Though the next three matches was taken by Alex, Thao surely would not allow a total sweep. Rethinking his strategy, he makes a character change and selects A-Charlie to combat against Valle's Gief...a down-to-the wire match ensues and Thao comes away victorious setting the stats to 3-1. Valle switches up and moves to V-Chun (I walked away from this point, so I am not sure what techniques he used) =( Reports concluded that Thao defeated Alex's V-Chun (methinks that Valle was playing around) and goes back to V-Gief. Thao comes away with yet another victory against Valle bringing the stats to 3-2. Alex then drops the cards in order to bring the Alpha 3 tournament to an end with V-Akuma unleashing his own style combined with the famous "Daigo" combo. Not as intense as the B3 matchup between Valle and Choi, but still entertaining none the less.

"Here comes a new challenger!"
Street Fighter 3: Second Impact

The Second Impact tournament took place on the second and final day of the ECC4 event. Sixty three players entered the tournament. Among the participants, were some of my personal friends from Chinatown, NY who were acknowledging their pact as Team CF. In addition, the widely known players: Jason Cole, David Spence, Alex Valle, and John Choi entered the competition. The heat wasn't the only thing intense as their were a number of excellent matches I personally found entertaining.

Team CF showed off their skills during the opening tournament matchups as John Pulizzi from Chinatown, NY demonstrated his unique skill of Ken Masters vs. Choi's own Denjin Ryu. John acknowledged that he doesn't play the series to often, to quote him: "Man, I suck in this game" took the first match with his solid offensive and defensive skills. Pulizzi, who initially looked a tad nervous returned for the rematch tweaking his gameplay and tieing up the series 1-1. The crowd looked on anxious to see who would win the tie-breaking match. Looking more confident, Pulizzi came away with several offensive attacks, mainly a lot of kicks and an occasional fireball or two. I think I speak for all when I say that many spectators found this be a very interesting match. I certaintly felt it was a noteworthy hightlight in my opinion. :)

Other matches,..which also consisted of Team CF (they actually held the top tier for a considerable period), Charlie Wong showed off his Elena skills against a number of opponents. While John Gordon unleashed his own style of Sean and Ryu Denjin finesse. Naturally of course, Eddie Lee showed off his Ibuki 'unlimited' combo strings. David Spence, who personally told me he wasn't too polished with the 2i series shocked me with his Necro skills. They reminded me of a psudeo-Sim style. Keep at it Dave, Third Strike can be in your threshold. ^_^

The matches towards the middle portion of the 2i tournament appeared to thin out, and unfortunately, so did my attention spasm as I sat in between both machines. Thanks to Todd for the beverage which kept me going. Eventually, players began to be eliminated, including Team CF. I honestly expected one player, Juan Gonzalez not to make the Semi-finals, but he pulled through. Amazingly, Juan moved to Akuma and managed to take out John Gordon knocking him out of the tournament in the chance to take one of the top 3 winning spots for the 2i tourney. By this time, Eddie, Pulizzli, Valle, and a small handful of players had remained.

I didn't return until late, when it was reported to me that Valle and Eddie were the final two players that battled it out for the Second Impact title for ECC4 99. Eddie chose Ibuki, while Valle moved from his Denjin Ryu to Akuma! A few shocked faces became perplexed as they watched Akuma take down the ninja with similar moves Juan Gonzalez pulled off in the Semi Finals. Although Eddie did manage to pull off a few Hasin supers, it wasn't enough to win the victories he needed. Valle came away with the victory, making him the 2i Champ. Eddie Lee placed 2nd place, and Juan Gonzalez took 3rd.

Notes: At this point...I took off, but it was reported to me that despite how much attention CT players brought to themselves. They certainly held their own. One noteworthy mention is the 11yr old player known as Rod showed again that age should not be compared to overall gaming potential as he kicked around a number of players during the preliminary practice matches and during the tournament itself. As for Hyper Fighting, Super Turbo, and Alpha 2...I was off covering the 2i report and was unable to cover both tournaments as they were running two tournaments at the same time. Upon receiving new updates, I'll have more details as to what actually went down in my absence. :)

"Continue?" Final Comments

For my first semi-national tournament, I came away from ECC4 quite enthusiastic and satisfied. This event showed that although competition is purely a variable in the tournament structure, it's not without a great degree of entertainment and interaction with other seasoned players (and new ones). Many surprises, and lots of significant highlights came up throughout the entire period that ECC4 went on making the entire event a memorable experience. And even though West Coast considers the East Coast to be 'owned' or 'Rocknation', we certainly can all agree that the matches were entertaining, if not intriguing. There was a considerable level of sportsmanship between all players, East and West Coast players alike. I found this to be quite respectful and honorable, since supposedly both regions are rumored to detest each other. But we all had a great time, and anxiously await a future national tournament. Here's to a new frontier at what we may be acknowledging soon as, ECC 2000.

Special thanks to those which assisted in compiling this report: Todd Dwyer, Danny Lopez, John Choi, Thao Duong, and the RC Cola that helped me get through the day. Some hightlights were excerpts from the alt.games.sf2 newsgroups. Here's to looking forward to another exciting ECC next year! ^_^ Look for more reports on ECC4 to surface on TNL, 8 on the Break and GameFan Online.

Street Fighter Alpha 3 - 115 players

• Alex Valle (Westminster, CA)
• Thao Duong (Orange County, CA)
• Amir Amirsaleh (New York, NY)

Super Street Fighter II Turbo - 78 players

• John Choi (Sunnyvale, CA)
• Gary Vialdo (Virginia Beach, VA)
• Seth Killian (Champaign, IL)

Street Fighter Alpha 2 - 78 players

• David Sirlin (Sunnyvale, CA)
• Thao Duong (Orange County, CA)
• Mike Cheng (Edison, NJ)

Street Fighter 3: Second Impact - 63 players

• Alex Valle (Westminster, CA)
• Eddie Lee (Queens, NY)
• Juan Gonzalez (Houston, TX)

Hyper Fighting - 48 players

• John Choi (Sunnyvale, CA)
• Jesse Howard (Minneapolis, MN)
• Jason Cole (Sunnyvale, CA)

Marvel VS Capcom - 78 players