Underrated Moments from the Killer Queen GDC Tournament (03-2016 repost)

Photograph (C) 2016 by Michael Dunn, license: Creative Commons Attribution

The San Francisco Killer Queen players just held their third tournament ever last Saturday (03/19), which is a big deal for any young and growing scene. But for this one, players from the "Big 3" (as in, super old) scenes Portland, Chicago, and New York were out there to play, so great matches - and a lot of hype - were basically guaranteed. Spoiler: Portland team Sorry steamrolled the competition on their way to the first prize belt and plaque as pictured above (they only dropped 3 games total during the whole thing).

Everyone's going to study all of the Sorry games and watch the finals obsessively (and you should, because they were great!), so I just wanted to recap some other great moments from last Saturday. I'll break down the plays a little bit, and include timestamps on the original Twitch stream. They're listed in no particular order.

Enjoy.

1. "OH MY GOD. WHAT HAPPENED?" - Commentator Felix Yuan

SPORTS, a team of Chicago/SF players on Gold here, took the first game of the Loser's Bracket Semifinals in style, with Aaron Goldberg on Gold Skulls kicking in the last berry for an Econ win, leaving the stunned commentator yelling into his mic.

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Nice kick, Aaron. Didn't know they named the team after you.

Ledgeguard Blue Skulls (Richard Chan of NYC) could only watch helplessly at the kick-in. He had just been trying to kill or zone out the Gold Queen, but recovered fast enough to kill Gold Abs as she went up to the hive. While it was the right move, this choice did two things. First, it forced the berry Gold Abs was just holding to fall into Aaron's waiting foot. Second, the kill also made Richard float a little too high above the berry to block its path.

While SPORTS did not end up winning the series, this moment was a moral victory for them, and their reactions on stream show it.

2. "Jeremy. Lookin' angry. Lookin' like he wants to win this for SF." -Commentator Aaron Goldberg

And win he did. Jeremy Watson, here playing Gold Queen for San Francisco team Buzzkills, had killed Queen "Hype Man" of PDX Hype Machine (from Portland) twice already in this game. He sealed the game - and the series - decisively with a final bounce battle.

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Sorry, Hype Man.

So you might be asking yourself, a queen won a bounce battle because the other queen messed up, so what?

Great question. The answer, in a word, is context. This moment is super hype because, firstly, Buzzkills is a San Francisco team. For a team of hometown heroes to win is always great, but this is even better because the SF scene made a statement with this one: that they can take on teams from the more established cities and win. Oh, and PDX Hype Machine was about to get an Econ win back at their own hive..

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So, understandably, the whole bar went nuts as soon as Buzzkills won.

3. "RICHARd YOU ARE SO SMART HOLY CRAP" -Twitch user calculushw

Richard Chan of NYC, though he let in the berry to SPORTS in the first gif on this list, is quietly one of the best all-around Warriors in the city. He plays for Chinatown team billywitchdoctor.com (please don't visit the site, it's full of malware apparently), who are sometimes called "bully witch doctor". Richard shows why here:

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Yup, that's him on Blue Skulls intentionally leaving a berry in the Gold hive so he can spawnkill Portland's entire Panic at the Frisco squad. Great player, great play.

Richard only let 3 berries get in the hive all game while he was ledgeguarding, also killing Gold Queen Cody Frederickson when he tried to clear the Gold Hive. Richard's play is a big reason why NYC team The Wild Thornberries were able to knock out Panic at the Frisco in their Loser's Bracket rematch (Panic at the Frisco had swept the New Yorkers earlier), and ultimately go to the Finals against Sorry. Shoutout to Twitch user "calculushw" (aka Brian Wong of NYC), whose exclamation "RICHARd YOU ARE SO SMART HOLY CRAP" in the chat led to me finding this moment.

4."These berry runners are professionals" -Commentator Aaron Goldberg

Here's a bonus moment from Portland superteam Sorry. I just wanted to add this in to highlight some excellent berry running by Portland's Panic at the Frisco.

This is Game 1 of the Winner's Bracket Semifinals, where Panic at the Frisco (Blue) met their fellow Portlandiers Sorry (Gold) on the Night Map. Commentator Aaron Goldberg had just talked up Blue Team's workers, and seriously, check out this berry running:

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That's Madi Taylor on Blue Waffles juking her way into the win for Panic at the Frisco, while Blue Abs and Stripes take up cool symmetrical poses at the end.

While Panic at the Frisco didn't end up winning the match, it was a great moment of them. Sorry absolutely crushed this tournament, so taking a game off them is impressive and therefore SO HYPE.

I really want to break down why this play was so good, so here it is larger and in slow-mo:

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There's just so much deliciousness here. First, Madi sees that ledgeguard Gold Waffles' positioning gives her just the smallest bit of room to let her into the hive without dying, so without hesitation she jumps into the hive with a short hop (the ledgeguard's hovering a bit far from the Hive opening). On the way down, though, she turns away from the ledgeguard. This moves her to the left just enough to both avoid the ledgeguard's sword and hit the ground safely to jump again, which she does. This time it's a long jump which will either put her over the ledgeguard, or bump him away and keep her alive. The ledgeguard chooses to float away slightly to the right, so he can ensure a kill after the apex of her jump, which would have happened if she hadn't executed the turnaround midway through the jump before. Instead Madi hits the ground, free to make another jump, which she does to go completely over the ledgeguard's head and into the hole.

Here it is sped up again, so you can check out how quickly it happened:

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Good stuff.

Ultimately, the GDC Tournament was fantastic!! Hats off to KQSF for hosting such a successful tournament and giving us a chance to see these great plays :)

A Portrait of Andrew Quang (repost from 08-19-16)

Andrew Quang, as drawn by Richard Chan of NYC

It is July 2015. We’re in Kickstarter’s Brooklyn headquarters, the crowd of spectators dispersing after the last match of the tournament. My New York team had just lost to the Chicago team queened by Andrew Quang, and we were in shock. Hours before we had just knocked them into loser’s bracket in an epic 5-game series, only for them to come back and wipe the floor with us in Grand Finals - twice.

Our speed warrior Tiana Tan shakes me in quasi-fury. “It was because of you! You just needed to stay alive!” I can only nod. She’s right, after all.

Andrew turns to me, putting his arm around my shoulders. “Nah,” he says. “Only a queen would understand. Heavy is the crown.”

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It is nighttime, April 2016. About a dozen of us are in Chinatown Fair, NYC, scrimmaging before our big Coronation tournament. I’m playing Gold Queen, practicing my “stick” over and over. A Blue speed warrior comes out of nowhere and sticks perfectly to the ceiling, wiping me out while I try to turn and run. I was on last life - game over.

Cheers erupt from the other side of the cabinet.

“Fuck yeah!” “That’s right, fuck you!” “Fucking stiiiick!!”

It’s just practice, I think. It doesn’t matter. But I’m gritting my teeth as I start the next game.

I would not win a game again that night.

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It is around 2am, October 2015. We - Brian Wong, Andrew Quang, and me - are drunkenly stumbling from Chicago’s Logan Arcade, finally leaving after playing in the KQX tournament. Our mission is to find food and company, but the games weigh heavy in our thoughts. We walk in silence until Andrew turns to me.

“Dude, you wrecked me tonight.”

I shrug, but smile. My team had swept his out of the tournament earlier.

“No, dude,” he says. “I’m so glad that you’re the one who wrecked me tonight. ‘Cause we get it. Old queens like us? We die hard.”

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It is nighttime August 2016, the Monday before KQ15. I’m just outside Uptown Arcade, where a bunch of players are smoking after practicing for the big tournament on Saturday. One of them turns to me.

“Kang! You gave me your back in there. I killed it.”

I nod, laughing. “Yeah, you’re pretty scary. Just wanted to run away at the first sight of you.”

The smile on his face starts off slowly, accelerating into a giant grin. “Yeah, you know, Andrew and Cesar? I killed both of them my first time Queening. Blew right through ‘em.”

I can only shake my head. “You know this is, like, the third time you’ve told me.”

Michael Esparza’s grin is now massive. “Yeah. ‘Cause I want you to know it. When I’m drunk you know, I can hang with the best, man.”

“Yeah, Andrew? He’s scared of me too.”

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It is nighttime, August 13, 2016. I’m leaning against one of the pinball machines in Logan Arcade, watching the folks from Charlotte freeplay post-tournament. A few minutes before Andrew had just been hoisted up on the shoulders of the crowd as his team claimed yet another tournament win. He seemed pissed, as if affronted that it took so long for his team to win in the finals, barely feeling the handshakes and hugs that come his way. I’m still musing at that look when there’s a tap at my shoulder.

I turn to see Andrew, beer in hand, much less angry this time. The look on his face reminds me of a conversation we’d had a few days before at Logan’s League Night.

“Yeah, superteams?” he had said then. “I feel like they’re so good for the scene. Like, something for people to beat and aspire to and get better against.”

He pauses.

“Plus, the pressure, having a target on your back, that’s a great feeling.”

I shake my head. “It’s tiring, man. It’s not that way much anymore, but for a long time I was just done with that shit.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I get that, man.”

But now the pressure is gone, the tournament win is in hand, and he’s come to say something completely ridiculous.

“Hey, this win was all you, dude.”

I shake my head. How could it have been me?

“What the hell are you talking about? You won the thing.”

“No. Serious. You came here and wiped the floor with me last time. Losing to you made me focus. Made me better."

“I couldn’t have done it without you.”