This past Saturday was Monster Island’s monthly tournament: The Abyss of Time. For those who don’t know, Monster Island is run by KN’s own Rapzilla on Long Island, NY. Blu Planet Comics and Games of Massapequa was our gracious host for this event; huge thanks to them!
Games Ran: IGAU ($150 Pot Bonus!), MK9, KI, UMK2 Balance Hack and a USF4 side tournament in which I scrubbed out to KDZ, but I want a runback!
I have to give a huge shoutout to Rapzilla, Scoot Magee, and OBS FGC Donor for the pot bonus! I know you all love money as much as I do…
To start, it was great to see my KN brethren again: Mikemetroid, Shock, Ray(that’s so Ray-ven) Riazy and of course, Rapzilla. We had changed up how we organized the venue, and it allowed for much more breathing room, and personal space overall.
(From left to right: Getting MK9 underway / Just finished setting up)
Results/Recap:
Killer Instinct was a super hype, with a super polarized showdown in grand finals between G4S KT Smith’s lame-o basic Jago and C88 Grief and his Sadira that seemed to always be in the air.
KI Results – 1st: C88 Grief (Sadira) 2nd: G4S KT Smith (Jago) 3rd: Jayslik (Fulgore)
(Killer Instinct Matches)
Congrats to Mikemetroid for winning MK9 for the first time at Monster Island Tournaments: The most exciting match of the night, in my opinion was grand finals where ClaudeVonStroke reset the bracket in grand finals with Raiden, but Mikemetroid clutched it out 3-1 in the reset bracket. Honorable mention goes to Swift Tom Hanks for placing third and helping me with some of MK’s finer points.
MK9 Results – 1st: KN Mikemetroid (Cage, Stryker) 2nd: (G4S??) ClaudeVonStroke (Cage, Raiden) 3rd: SwiftTomHanks (Sektor, Kenshi)
(Mikemetroid with his well deserved trophy and Cage shades / MK9 grand finals set)
Injustice was a great tournament, but the results were no surprise to me:
1st: EMP Dartharma (Batguy) 2nd: EMP KDZ (WOWO/Superguy) 3rd: Ray “That’s so Ray-ven” Riazy (Raven)
I really didn’t catch much of the IGAU action because I was kind of focused on learning more about MK9 while I had access to all these great players, but Ray did his thing with Raven. I did play Icyblackdeep in like 7 games of Injustice, and all I have to say is that I love playing lame, laser heavy Superdude.
(From left to right: Ray Riazy, Dartharma, Icyblackdeep, Indecisive, Mikemetroid, Shock)
Finally, MK2 Balance Hack:
It was really neat seeing new life in this game that is literally three months younger than I am. The old MK stick layout is still a huge adjustment for me to make, and Shock had to body me in a few casuals, but when we play street fighter together I’ll be sure to expose him 😉
Grand finals was a fun exhibition because it pitted tester against tester. OBS’ James MK who tested the game 21 years ago, and Mikemetroid, a tester of the new balance patch. James MK came back from losers in grand finals to defeat Mikemetroid 6-1 in impressive fashion. Shang Tsung is an incredible character in MK2 because you can transform into any character in the cast with the right input. I saw James change mostly to his beloved orthodontist’s nightmare Baraka, Scorpion, Mileena, and a few other characters, but Shang Tsung reverts back to himself after a few seconds.
MK2 – 1st: OBS James MK (Shang Tsung, Baraka) 2nd: KN Mikemetroid (Cage) EDIT 3rd: OBS EdFig (sub zero)
After the tournament I joined the Riazy brothers at Rapzilla’s house for some games, and bodied Mikemetroid in street fighter 16-0, but he bodies me that badly in MK9 and Injustice, so it’s a wash. Rapzilla has roughly 30 million dollars in collectible figures, featuring a ton of DC and Godzilla. His entire living room is like this, wall to wall, floor to ceiling.
Overall, it was great to see everyone again. I haven’t done anything fun at all this summer, and I even had to take off work to attend this event. To catch the stream archive, head over to www.twitch.tv/mikemetroid
Thanks for reading
Ed “ChiefGief” Tusk