2nd stage: Ohio, RAJ 2019
Dec. 17th, 2019 01:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
outstretched posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
polaris_ddr
This post is mostly a recap of what it was like to experience the DDR and Jubeat tournaments at RAJ. I created separate photolog posts (images/text combo) to document my con experience more generally. If you'd like to see how it went, what the con space was like, find photos/videos of yourself, etc., check out the photologs!
On imgur: part one, part two, part three.
On twitter: photo thread, video thread, jubeat tournament photo thread.
It's weird, I guess, but the story of me getting to RAJ really starts with jubeat. (This is a long introductory section that may be boring; if you want to get to the RAJ tournament reports directly, please scroll down to "Here's the part where I talk about RAJ properly.")
Jubeat is popular at conventions and usually has a line several people deep no matter how many machines are present, but when I first tried it at Katsucon 2014 I didn't really see what all the fuss is about. The game's not really in English and it's difficult to navigate, and on top of it it seemed kind of boring. I tried it and quickly lost interest.
Then I moved to a podunk town in 2015, and there happened to be a random second-hand vintage video game store in a random mall with a jubeat machine. It was only 75 cents per play, and there were no other rhythm games within any kind of reasonable distance, so I tried it again out of desperation. I played a much harder difficulty than I had the last time (5) and I like DJ Taka, so I picked a song I hadn't heard before, Elemental Creation. And that was it, I guess. I was instantly obsessed. At the higher difficulty I understood what the game was trying to do, the sense of surprise and reward that gets built up by the flashing squares and shifting patterns. I used to drive an hour to get to this place, and since it was an extremely small shop the shop owners got to recognize me. I was devastated when they sold their cab. I went jubeatless for a year, and then moved again, and then found The Cave through zenius.
It's a common enough impulse to dump your scores on twitter, partially to track your own progress and partially to show off, but I was doing it on my personal/fandom twitter and annoying all my friends who did not really care about this game, or understand why I was so relentlessly passionate about it. So eventually I made a personal twitter, virithm, which is probably where you came from if you're reading this blog. (As to why that's the username, I love Viridian City in pokemon, so it's a combo of "viridian" and "rhythm.")
Once I had a place to dump my scores, I naturally wanted to find other people who were talking about rhythm games, and over the course of the next three or so years I ended up carefully crafting a twitter timeline that only showed me rhythm game talk, all the time. The problem, however, was that jubeat isn't very popular. Since it's hard to find people to talk about jubeat with, I gravitated back towards my first love, DDR. This was exacerbated by moving back to NYC in 2017, where the only jubeat machine was at 8otb which was like two hours away.
2017 was a hard, terrible year and going to Chinatown Fair every week basically saved my life. I really got back into DDR, making friends at CTF, taking road trips with people to Hicksville and 8 on the break, dropping by Times Square D&B in between job interviews, and pushing myself nonstop. New York rhythm gamers are the best fucking community and I miss them terribly all the time; they're positive and encouraging and clannish in a way that's probably common, but it felt like a revelation to me. The community I felt at CTF helped me become brave enough to start talking to strangers on twitter, and I made a few friends over the course of the next few years.
RAJ happens on my birthday every year (Dec. 13). My friend's birthday is the 12th, and we'd usually celebrate our birthdays together by inviting our friends from all over the country, renting hotel rooms, and singing kareoke and eating hotpot and generally having a lovely time. But this year my friend moved and we weren't sure we'd be able to pull a gathering together, so we said, "Why not go to RAJ?" I really wanted to meet all the people I'd been talking to online, and meet all those players I admire and see them play in person. At the last second my other friend couldn't go, so I went by myself (my partner came too, but he has zero interest in rhythm games).
(Here's the part where I talk about RAJ properly)
Getting to RAJ was an adventure, because we'd decided to drive, and we didn't get properly on the road until 3:30PM or so on Friday. We stopped a lot because I wanted to eat this or that for my birthday, and that combined with heavy rain through the mountains made a projected 6 hour trip take nine hours.
The very first thing that happened when we got to the hotel is that my friend JesseUno came down to the hotel lobby to say hello, even though he was exhausted from a full day of congoing. He's one of the four (?!) people attending RAJ who shared a Dec. 13 birthday, and he's also one of the people I was most looking forward to meeting. Being able to give him a big hug and share gifts and just have a really warm greeting the second I got there really set the tone for the whole event.
I upgraded our room because there was no need for a second bed if my friend wasn't coming with anymore, and it was only $20 more. I was not...prepared for the level of upgrade twenty bucks purchased:
The only downside was that it was literally next to the elevator so you could hear everyone as they passed to and fro. Still, the hotel included a white noise machine in the room, and that helped a ton.
Despite arriving so late, I couldn't go to bed without playing a little jubeat to gauge my condition for the tournament I was entering the next day. It was too late for me to pick up my badge, but I got to wander around the convention area anyway, taking a few photos. It was quieter on Friday than it was on the other days, and I wish I had taken more time to play games then. I wouldn't see empty DDR machines again until very late on Saturday night.
Saturday was the longest and most fun day, of course. We started by trying to get breakfast at the hotel food court, but the food was kinda weird? Both my partner and I simultaneously felt nauseous from the food at the same time and stopped eating. Still, it managed to power me through cheering on and meeting a bunch of friends!!!! The "Are-you-someone-I-know RAJ shuffle" is kind of hilarious, and I got very well acquainted with it over the course of the weekend. I made at least one new friend by opening a conversation with "Are you [name]? Oh, you're not... Well, uh, I'm Ciry! Nice to meet you!" I'm fairly bad at remembering faces, and I'm pretty sure I said a warm goodbye to a girl I'd never talked to before on Sunday, but the magic of the rhythm game community is so strong that she took it in stride and wished me well even though I'm sure it was a very confusing interaction.
Since there were so many of us who shared a birthday, I wanted to give small gifts to my fellow birthday twins (nothing big, just little packets of saltwater taffy). It was kind of an adventure chasing them around the con to hand them off, and I felt a little bit like a stalker orz, trying to message them on twitter and ask mutual friends if they'd seen them. I'm not very close to any of them except JesseUno, so it was a little nerve-wracking for that reason also. But I got to deliver all my presents and talk to cool people! I was really happy that I pulled it off.
Speaking of presents, the Valkyries hosted a secret santa and I got to give my secret santa gift to my recipient in person! This also involved a lot of twitter and IRL hunting, but I got it done on Sunday, the day of the secret santa deadline. ♥
With JesseUno! I didn't take enough selfies.
Tonebooooooooooone!
My partner was the most interested in these very small machines. It's hard to believe, but this is Pump! Honestly, they were amazing? There were more in the FGC area, but I didn't get a chance to peek at them before their owner took them home.
I haven't been to a DDR tournament since 2005, and even that was only a small, poorly-run one at a tiny local convention. I'm not a very competitive person, and it crossed my mind to enter but I was sure that I wasn't good enough. On the one hand, I'm glad I didn't because I don't know if I would have had any fun? On the other, entering a tournament seems like a great way to really meet and get to know people, and also it seems like the only way to actually get to play DDR is to enter the tournament, because they take over the machines for literally days.
It was amazing to watch everyone play. Such high level play, gosh. It was so much fun to cheer on my friends, to experience the heart-pounding thrill of neck and neck matches first-hand, and to be swept up in the cheers of the crowd. I donated a bottle of hand sanitizer to the people running the event, because I'm a health professional to the core lol, and then for the rest of the time stood in the very back row and watched with admiration.
The video setup was awesome, and a lot of people praised the layout of the tournament itself. All the people I talked to said that the pools each felt like a tiny tournament of their own, where you got to compete against people truly of your skill level. It led to tons of close matches, but also gave me hope that maybe I could try and get meaningful data out of a tournament if I tried entering one sometime.
The Extreme Pro tournament was a lot smaller than the Ace tournament, so those cabs finally cleared out around midnight and I leaped on! IT WAS TIME TO PLAY DDR IN OHIO and check this state off the list!!!!!!
There's just no beating the nostalgia bomb of that neon green background and those flashing pink speaker lights. Playing songs I love and can't play easily anymore, and laughing at my horrible scores because my timing sucks. A guy jumped on with me for the first round and we played Rhythm and Police, which was a major goal for me coming to raj; I fucking LOVE that song. Then other cool players came and went, freestylers and doubles players, and my friend Pikaboi came to hang out with me too. It was so freeing to be able to finally play after watching so many others play all day, it made me want to dance so badly! And it was also freeing to just be able to dance, without worrying about timing, or stamina training, or anything that I normally worry about these days while playing DDR at home. I just danced. I just felt the beat and had a marvelous time. And I think everyone else did too. ♥
My partner even came downstairs around 2AM and let me show him all the different rhythm games. He was most fascinated by chuunithm and maimai, but he tolerated watching me play jubeat because he knows how important it is to me. It was just so fun to share my treasured hobby with someone I love, and not just the hobby in isolation but the larger community around it. To let him experience the bustling arcade atmosphere, the kindness and enthusiasm and jaw-dropping skill of the players, to maybe get a better idea of why rhythm games are so special to me.
I guess I'll also talk briefly about the jubeat tournament, even though this is a DDR blog, because jubeat is what got me to RAJ in the end.
I had previously entered a jubeat tournament at MAGFEST 2016 and was clobbered; I couldn't even pass 10s yet at the time. Even then, though, I was not last (I was 18th out of 19), so I was proud of myself. This time I wanted to do better than my previous showing, and I felt confident that I could because I can play up to 10.4s now. Still, I hadn't played jubeat in a few months because I've been focusing so much on DDR, so I was a bit nervous. But when I got to the machines and played a little bit, and saw my skill level compared to most other people, I relaxed a bit. I felt calm and good the entire tournament, and I had a ball. It taught me a lot. I need to work on streamlining my playing style, to be less rough with my movements and become more precise. I need to hit only the square I want to hit and no other squares. I was reminded of Chihayafuru, trying to aim for that kind of pinpoint accuracy. But my timing has improved a lot, so that was good.
Also, I wasn't the only girl in the tournament this time! Even better, it was actually an old friend I haven't seen in years!!!
I'm not entirely sure why I'm so eager to enter jubeat tournaments, but still feel leery of entering DDR tournaments. I think it's because I fundamentally come at each game differently. I don't know, I'm just a freestyler at heart. I know that getting better at timing, accuracy, etc., helps you get better at all aspects of the game, and I've enjoyed the path to getting better in those areas this year. Maybe I'll become brave enough over the next year though.
Anyway, RAJ was an incredible experience, and the best possible way to check Ohio off my list. Onward and upward! See you on twitter :)
--
On imgur: part one, part two, part three.
On twitter: photo thread, video thread, jubeat tournament photo thread.
It's weird, I guess, but the story of me getting to RAJ really starts with jubeat. (This is a long introductory section that may be boring; if you want to get to the RAJ tournament reports directly, please scroll down to "Here's the part where I talk about RAJ properly.")
Jubeat is popular at conventions and usually has a line several people deep no matter how many machines are present, but when I first tried it at Katsucon 2014 I didn't really see what all the fuss is about. The game's not really in English and it's difficult to navigate, and on top of it it seemed kind of boring. I tried it and quickly lost interest.
Then I moved to a podunk town in 2015, and there happened to be a random second-hand vintage video game store in a random mall with a jubeat machine. It was only 75 cents per play, and there were no other rhythm games within any kind of reasonable distance, so I tried it again out of desperation. I played a much harder difficulty than I had the last time (5) and I like DJ Taka, so I picked a song I hadn't heard before, Elemental Creation. And that was it, I guess. I was instantly obsessed. At the higher difficulty I understood what the game was trying to do, the sense of surprise and reward that gets built up by the flashing squares and shifting patterns. I used to drive an hour to get to this place, and since it was an extremely small shop the shop owners got to recognize me. I was devastated when they sold their cab. I went jubeatless for a year, and then moved again, and then found The Cave through zenius.
It's a common enough impulse to dump your scores on twitter, partially to track your own progress and partially to show off, but I was doing it on my personal/fandom twitter and annoying all my friends who did not really care about this game, or understand why I was so relentlessly passionate about it. So eventually I made a personal twitter, virithm, which is probably where you came from if you're reading this blog. (As to why that's the username, I love Viridian City in pokemon, so it's a combo of "viridian" and "rhythm.")
Once I had a place to dump my scores, I naturally wanted to find other people who were talking about rhythm games, and over the course of the next three or so years I ended up carefully crafting a twitter timeline that only showed me rhythm game talk, all the time. The problem, however, was that jubeat isn't very popular. Since it's hard to find people to talk about jubeat with, I gravitated back towards my first love, DDR. This was exacerbated by moving back to NYC in 2017, where the only jubeat machine was at 8otb which was like two hours away.
2017 was a hard, terrible year and going to Chinatown Fair every week basically saved my life. I really got back into DDR, making friends at CTF, taking road trips with people to Hicksville and 8 on the break, dropping by Times Square D&B in between job interviews, and pushing myself nonstop. New York rhythm gamers are the best fucking community and I miss them terribly all the time; they're positive and encouraging and clannish in a way that's probably common, but it felt like a revelation to me. The community I felt at CTF helped me become brave enough to start talking to strangers on twitter, and I made a few friends over the course of the next few years.
RAJ happens on my birthday every year (Dec. 13). My friend's birthday is the 12th, and we'd usually celebrate our birthdays together by inviting our friends from all over the country, renting hotel rooms, and singing kareoke and eating hotpot and generally having a lovely time. But this year my friend moved and we weren't sure we'd be able to pull a gathering together, so we said, "Why not go to RAJ?" I really wanted to meet all the people I'd been talking to online, and meet all those players I admire and see them play in person. At the last second my other friend couldn't go, so I went by myself (my partner came too, but he has zero interest in rhythm games).
(Here's the part where I talk about RAJ properly)
Getting to RAJ was an adventure, because we'd decided to drive, and we didn't get properly on the road until 3:30PM or so on Friday. We stopped a lot because I wanted to eat this or that for my birthday, and that combined with heavy rain through the mountains made a projected 6 hour trip take nine hours.
— Ciry's rhythm games (virithm) December 14, 2019
This is an accurate summary of today
— Ciry's rhythm games (virithm) December 14, 2019
FINALLY MADE IT TO THE HOTEL AAAAAA pic.twitter.com/BR7UMN01MZ
The very first thing that happened when we got to the hotel is that my friend JesseUno came down to the hotel lobby to say hello, even though he was exhausted from a full day of congoing. He's one of the four (?!) people attending RAJ who shared a Dec. 13 birthday, and he's also one of the people I was most looking forward to meeting. Being able to give him a big hug and share gifts and just have a really warm greeting the second I got there really set the tone for the whole event.
I upgraded our room because there was no need for a second bed if my friend wasn't coming with anymore, and it was only $20 more. I was not...prepared for the level of upgrade twenty bucks purchased:
— Ciry's rhythm games (virithm) December 14, 2019
...holy shit this room is massive pic.twitter.com/AE2O9GOIJ2
The only downside was that it was literally next to the elevator so you could hear everyone as they passed to and fro. Still, the hotel included a white noise machine in the room, and that helped a ton.
Despite arriving so late, I couldn't go to bed without playing a little jubeat to gauge my condition for the tournament I was entering the next day. It was too late for me to pick up my badge, but I got to wander around the convention area anyway, taking a few photos. It was quieter on Friday than it was on the other days, and I wish I had taken more time to play games then. I wouldn't see empty DDR machines again until very late on Saturday night.
Ooooooo heaven is a place on earth pic.twitter.com/yh9eCkfMqg
— Ciry's rhythm games (virithm) December 14, 2019
Saturday was the longest and most fun day, of course. We started by trying to get breakfast at the hotel food court, but the food was kinda weird? Both my partner and I simultaneously felt nauseous from the food at the same time and stopped eating. Still, it managed to power me through cheering on and meeting a bunch of friends!!!! The "Are-you-someone-I-know RAJ shuffle" is kind of hilarious, and I got very well acquainted with it over the course of the weekend. I made at least one new friend by opening a conversation with "Are you [name]? Oh, you're not... Well, uh, I'm Ciry! Nice to meet you!" I'm fairly bad at remembering faces, and I'm pretty sure I said a warm goodbye to a girl I'd never talked to before on Sunday, but the magic of the rhythm game community is so strong that she took it in stride and wished me well even though I'm sure it was a very confusing interaction.
Since there were so many of us who shared a birthday, I wanted to give small gifts to my fellow birthday twins (nothing big, just little packets of saltwater taffy). It was kind of an adventure chasing them around the con to hand them off, and I felt a little bit like a stalker orz, trying to message them on twitter and ask mutual friends if they'd seen them. I'm not very close to any of them except JesseUno, so it was a little nerve-wracking for that reason also. But I got to deliver all my presents and talk to cool people! I was really happy that I pulled it off.
Speaking of presents, the Valkyries hosted a secret santa and I got to give my secret santa gift to my recipient in person! This also involved a lot of twitter and IRL hunting, but I got it done on Sunday, the day of the secret santa deadline. ♥
Got to give my valkyries secret santa gift to @kaberosi in person 🎁🎅💝 pic.twitter.com/6YPgdRz0nC— Ciry's rhythm games (@virithm) December 15, 2019
Hanging with Kitsun3ko :D pic.twitter.com/30relVVjzu
— Ciry's rhythm games (virithm) December 15, 2019
With JesseUno! I didn't take enough selfies.
Tonebooooooooooone!
My partner was the most interested in these very small machines. It's hard to believe, but this is Pump! Honestly, they were amazing? There were more in the FGC area, but I didn't get a chance to peek at them before their owner took them home.
I haven't been to a DDR tournament since 2005, and even that was only a small, poorly-run one at a tiny local convention. I'm not a very competitive person, and it crossed my mind to enter but I was sure that I wasn't good enough. On the one hand, I'm glad I didn't because I don't know if I would have had any fun? On the other, entering a tournament seems like a great way to really meet and get to know people, and also it seems like the only way to actually get to play DDR is to enter the tournament, because they take over the machines for literally days.
It was amazing to watch everyone play. Such high level play, gosh. It was so much fun to cheer on my friends, to experience the heart-pounding thrill of neck and neck matches first-hand, and to be swept up in the cheers of the crowd. I donated a bottle of hand sanitizer to the people running the event, because I'm a health professional to the core lol, and then for the rest of the time stood in the very back row and watched with admiration.
The video setup was awesome, and a lot of people praised the layout of the tournament itself. All the people I talked to said that the pools each felt like a tiny tournament of their own, where you got to compete against people truly of your skill level. It led to tons of close matches, but also gave me hope that maybe I could try and get meaningful data out of a tournament if I tried entering one sometime.
The Extreme Pro tournament was a lot smaller than the Ace tournament, so those cabs finally cleared out around midnight and I leaped on! IT WAS TIME TO PLAY DDR IN OHIO and check this state off the list!!!!!!
There's just no beating the nostalgia bomb of that neon green background and those flashing pink speaker lights. Playing songs I love and can't play easily anymore, and laughing at my horrible scores because my timing sucks. A guy jumped on with me for the first round and we played Rhythm and Police, which was a major goal for me coming to raj; I fucking LOVE that song. Then other cool players came and went, freestylers and doubles players, and my friend Pikaboi came to hang out with me too. It was so freeing to be able to finally play after watching so many others play all day, it made me want to dance so badly! And it was also freeing to just be able to dance, without worrying about timing, or stamina training, or anything that I normally worry about these days while playing DDR at home. I just danced. I just felt the beat and had a marvelous time. And I think everyone else did too. ♥
My partner even came downstairs around 2AM and let me show him all the different rhythm games. He was most fascinated by chuunithm and maimai, but he tolerated watching me play jubeat because he knows how important it is to me. It was just so fun to share my treasured hobby with someone I love, and not just the hobby in isolation but the larger community around it. To let him experience the bustling arcade atmosphere, the kindness and enthusiasm and jaw-dropping skill of the players, to maybe get a better idea of why rhythm games are so special to me.
I guess I'll also talk briefly about the jubeat tournament, even though this is a DDR blog, because jubeat is what got me to RAJ in the end.
I had previously entered a jubeat tournament at MAGFEST 2016 and was clobbered; I couldn't even pass 10s yet at the time. Even then, though, I was not last (I was 18th out of 19), so I was proud of myself. This time I wanted to do better than my previous showing, and I felt confident that I could because I can play up to 10.4s now. Still, I hadn't played jubeat in a few months because I've been focusing so much on DDR, so I was a bit nervous. But when I got to the machines and played a little bit, and saw my skill level compared to most other people, I relaxed a bit. I felt calm and good the entire tournament, and I had a ball. It taught me a lot. I need to work on streamlining my playing style, to be less rough with my movements and become more precise. I need to hit only the square I want to hit and no other squares. I was reminded of Chihayafuru, trying to aim for that kind of pinpoint accuracy. But my timing has improved a lot, so that was good.
Also, I wasn't the only girl in the tournament this time! Even better, it was actually an old friend I haven't seen in years!!!
.otagi_ and I are repping the girls 💪✨ pic.twitter.com/XXKyJArojG
— Ciry's rhythm games (virithm) December 14, 2019
I'm not entirely sure why I'm so eager to enter jubeat tournaments, but still feel leery of entering DDR tournaments. I think it's because I fundamentally come at each game differently. I don't know, I'm just a freestyler at heart. I know that getting better at timing, accuracy, etc., helps you get better at all aspects of the game, and I've enjoyed the path to getting better in those areas this year. Maybe I'll become brave enough over the next year though.
Anyway, RAJ was an incredible experience, and the best possible way to check Ohio off my list. Onward and upward! See you on twitter :)
Imagine going to a convention for your favorite hobby.
Now imagine you know a ton of people there and have met them and done that hobby with them.
Now imagine you know 100 more of them online and you get to meet them.
That was RAJ, and it was amazing.
Thank you all.
— 🎅merry xophmas yall🎄 ➡️ RAJ (xopher314) December 16, 2019
no subject
Date: 2020-01-11 09:47 pm (UTC)