[quote name='BustaUppa']Just got back from NEC yesterday! Man, that was a blast. Between the official tournaments and the casual fighting, a ridiculous amount of games were represented. Super Turbo, 3s, UMK3, MvC2 (which attracted the same wild crowds that is always does at The Break), Melty Blood, Guilty Gear Slash (I think it was Slash, they were playing it on modded PS2's), DOA 4, Tekken 5, Tekken Tag, Soul Calibur 3, SFA 3, Vampire Saviour, Eternal Fighter Zero (really weird 2-d fighter for the PC featuring a bunch of little anime girls), CvS2, King of Fighters (the one with 3-on-3 teams, I forget which one that is)... the only real notable absence from the "usual suspects" would be VF4.
I was especially amused, however, by all the oddball games that showed up. TMNT Tournament Fighters (emulated on PC) ended up drawing a large crowd and went on for a pretty long time! So I got to see some high-level TMNT action. And later on I heard the usual MvC2 crew flipping out, but when I took a look, it turns out they were going nuts for a heated Magical Drop 2 competition. A few minutes later, the same modded XBOX was hosting a feirce Tetris Attack match. OH and speaking of puzzle games, I was introduced to this awesome game on MAME called Taisen... something something (I'll have to look it up). Kind of like this awesome hypbrid of puzzle league and puyo pop, with anime characters doing... very Japanese-ish things in the background. There were also some unexpected games of Tutles In Time and Mario Kart 64!
A personal highlight was definitely that MvC 2 crowd. Extremely VOCAL during every match, cheering their people on, screaming and DANCING after a particularly stylish finish, yelling at the characters onscreen (there was this one guy who REALLY had something against Storm, it was hilarious... "KILL THAT BITCH!!! KILL THAT BITCH!! CUT THAT BITCH'S HEAD OFF!!!"). Oh man, at one point this guy just blew off the upper tier characters, and started DESTROYING people with the team of Anakris, SonSon, and Tronne Bonne. The crowd was eating that up, it was awesome. People flipped out watching SonSon destroy Sentinel, finishing off with the super where she turns the opponent into a watermlelon and eats them. Hahahaha, and then this thugged-out looking guy kept yelling "nigger ate yo FOOD!" Oh man, it was classic.[/QUOTE]
...and this is why competitive like minded guys can have such a great time. Ah, I miss my crew after reading this.